Kat Loves Books

How To: Write a query letter to a literary agent

2012-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

If you're a writer who is just starting out, or if you're a seasoned writer worried about your query letter, here's a formula for writing what, in my opinion, would be the perfect query letter. Keep in mind that every agent is different/has their own querying requirements so make sure to check the agent's profile on their website and cater each letter toward them. But for the most part, I hope that this is a helpful jumping off point. Also, I've noticed that the brief formulaic queries like this I tend to read in entirety (it's hard to skim things that are already short!), and then feel like I can spend more time reading the manuscript's sample pages (that's your goal: get them hooked). The longer the query letter, the more skimming I end up doing. Don't forget, literary agents read hundreds of query letters at a time... don't waste their tired eyeballs on your query when you could be catapulting them onto your manuscript proper!

Dear [insert literary agent's name, spelled correctly],

[TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT IN ALL CAPS] is a [specific genre like "YA paranormal" or "Elizabethan era historical fiction romance"] that is [comparable title #1] meets [comparable title #2].

3-4 sentence catchy (well written) summary of the manuscript.

3 sentences detailing how you are qualified as a writer (do you have a writing/book/publishing related blog? Do you belong to any writers groups, are you a member of any writers associations like SCBWI? Have you attended any writing conferences/workshops? MFA in Creative Writing?)

Thank you for your time!

[insert your name, spelled correctly]
[website/social media links]

Book Review: Garden Spells

2012-02-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

Sarah Addison Allen writes lovely Alice Hoffman-esque stories: the generations of women/sisters dichotomy paired with magical realism. I enjoyed Garden Spells, as I knew I would.

Claire Waverley likes to have roots and consistency. She lives in her grandmother's house and runs a catering company based on special recipes prepared using the Waverley garden, a garden that for generations the townspeople have whispered about having magical attributes. Claire plays it "safe." Claire is certainly not up for her long lost sister and her sister's daughter moving in and she's definitely not up for a blossoming romance with her new neighbor. But fate has other ideas for Claire.

This was a quick read, and definitely a light, beach read. The characters aren't quite as fleshed out as I would have liked, and this story feels very familiar and predictable, but perhaps I liked it so much simply because it was a story that I already love the idea of, and just as comforting to read as one of Claire's Rose Geranium cakes would be to eat.

Rating: *** (3)

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

2012-02-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches has been on the New York Times bestseller list and just about every other bestseller list and I've heard positive feedback from reader after reader about it. I of course was sold on it just because it's a witch book, I'm the first one in line for any witch book, but I have to say: I was a little disappointed and although the writing's good... I'm very uncertain I'll be continuing on with the sequels.

A Discovery of Witches starts with Diana Bishop, an alchemy scholar at Oxford (who keeps to her studies and is in vehement denial of her powers as a witch), when she checks out a curious alchemy tome that hums with magical potential. Along with realizing it's magic, she discovers, while leafing through its pages, that it is a palimpsest. Startled that the book might be more than just alchemical study, and wary of letting anything magical into her life, she sends the book back to the stacks. But not before attracting the attention of every magical being within a thousand mile radius, including one other scholar: handsome vampire Matthew Clairmont.

The book is basically three parts. Part one is Diana finding the book, drinking some tea, avoiding Matthew, going for a row on the lake, going to the library and avoiding magical creatures peppering her with inquisitive stares, drinking some tea, drinking wine with Matthew, drinking some tea.

Part two is Diana drinking some tea, traveling to France with Matthew, drinking some tea, going for a horseback ride, worrying about the book, sleeping, drinking some tea, being fretted over by Matthew, having romantic stirrings for Matthew (while drinking wine with Matthew), drinking some tea, sleeping, drinking some tea, being attacked by one antagonist, sleeping, drinking some tea...

Part three is... well, there's a whole lot more tea drinking. Don't get me wrong, I drink a lot of tea myself, I even enjoy reading about characters who drink tea and love tea as well. But I felt like a good 70% of this book was Diana drinking tea, drinking wine, trying to get physical exercise, and being babied by Matthew. Oh man, if you thought Edward coddled Bella... I expected Matthew to actually follow Diana into the bathroom and wipe her butt for her. Which is interesting because it felt like at times the author noticed this and tried to back peddle by making Diana insist on taking off her own bandages or some such nonsense. But it was too late, it just didn't work.

There was also a tad too much vampire-ness and not enough witch-ness for my taste, but that's just me. Another major detractor from the sequels is that it's basically set up to become more Historical Fantasy than I'm interested in pursuing. So if you're more for vampires than witches, and more for male-dominant romance, and love historical fiction as much as fantasy, this series might turn out to be for you. I didn't hate it, I definitely finished it and enjoyed parts, the writing was strong, but I was expecting a little more. When I bought it this 55 year-old man with a beard insisted that he "couldn't put it down" with such vigor... which is awkward given the er... vampire-y sex scene...

Rating: **** (4)

How To: Query mistakes writers make too often

2012-01-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

Ick. I hate that I haven't posted anything in SO long. Essentially, post-Thanksgiving there is a mad rush to get things done/responded to before Christmas. So agents are pitching to editors and editors are requesting/reading/rejecting left and right. So after I stuffed myself with turkey and took a long nap, I ended up spending most of the time leading up to the holidays keeping an eagle eye on my inbox and then once all the editors took of for their holiday break, I shut down my computer and sat down with a books, manuscripts, and tea.

So now that it's 2012 (and the world has not ended... yet), I'm catching up on things that piled up over the break, and am just about ready to get back into the rhythm of things (which hopefully means regular blog posts again after this coming weekend).

But for now, as I sift through the e-slush pile that is my inbox, I am noticing some distinct patterns. I feel like most of these I've heard other agents mention on panels at conferences, but since SO MANY of these are still cropping up, I'll list some pet peeves that, if you are a writer hoping to get an offer from an agent, you should take into consideration.

1. "This is going to be a bestseller"/
"This is the next Harry Potter or Twilight"
My interpretation: I either have wildly unrealistic expectations or those are the only two books I've ever read.

2. "This is not a vampire story"/
"This is a vampire story, but with a twist!"
My interpretation: This is a vampire story.

3. "What are your submission guidelines?"
My interpretation: I'm too lazy to research your website, I'm also probably too lazy to do re-writes.

4. "Dear Agent/Dear Sir or Madam/Dear Kathy"
My interpretation: I don't care and if you request my manuscript it's probably going to be riddled with errors.

5. "You've made a mistake in rejecting me/
you have no soul, etc. etc."
My interpretation: I'm not a writer, I'm some Joe-schmoe who has a lot of doting friends who have suggested my life's story would be so compelling that I wouldn't NEED to know how to construct a sentence.

6. "Hello. My name is so-and-so blah blah
blah blah [cont. for another 3 pages]"
My interpretation: I'm just starting out, I have no idea what I'm doing, my manuscript is probably in its infancy too. Let me go to a couple conferences and do some learning first.

7. "May I ask why you rejected?/
It would be really helpful if I could get your feedback"
My interpretation: Oh man, if one more agent rejects me I'm going to jump off a cliff.
(I try to give feedback, but I feel like 60% of what I reject is wonderful stuff, but just not my taste. When you walk into a bookstore, do you buy ALL the books? Nope, you choose some and not others. Why these in particular struck your fancy more is just a matter of preference. If I were getting queries from famous writers I'd reject Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf. Does that have anything to do with their quality? Nope. Sometimes I'm just not the right agent for you.)

8. "My daughter/granddaughter/
god-children loved my picture book"
My interpretation: My daughter/granddaughter/god-children love ME, I just don't realize that what I read to them doesn't matter so long as it's me spending time with them.

9. "I am 14 years old."
My interpretation: I am motivated, but everything I know about book publishing I learned from watching You've Got Mail. Also, driving to my book signings might be an issue...
(If you're 14 just don't bring it up at all. If your writing is awesome an agent won't care how old you are!)

10. "Good evening. I am a representative from the bank of &*)(&)*%(%(*(%$%# and we would like to wire $1,000,000,000 to your offshore account."
My interpretation: Why hello, I am a reminder that you need another cup of coffee!

Top 10: Authors I'd Love to Have at My Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-22T00:17:00.000-08:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

I am basing this list off of authors who strike me as likely to stimulate the best conversations. Therefore, we're eliminating anyone who is dead. Corpses are seldom chatty...

1. Neil Gaiman
Um, part of Neil Gaiman's popularity is that he's just as witty in person as he is in writing. Attending any sort of "In Conversation With" panel or Author Event with him is always worth it.

2. John Connolly
This guy! I love his books and when I saw him at World Fantasy Con, I hovered around for about an hour after his panel just to say hello, but he's definitely very Irish in his long-windedness... and in his conversational and warm manner. Everyone he chatted up he treated like a dear old pub buddy.

3. Dorothy Allison
She was a keynote speaker at last year's San Francisco Writers Conference and had me laughing so hard I was tearing up. She'd probably be laughing and knocking back drinks with John Connolly.

4. Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket
I feel like Snicket, Gaiman, and Palahniuk would all be engaged in deep discussion. Gaiman would keep refusing his dinner rolls and Handler would either stab a couple with forks and make them dance, or hide them covertly in his coat pockets. Palahniuk would just stare at the dinner rolls and posit ways to make something so seemingly innocent, unnecessarily disturbing.

5. Heidi Kling
Heidi Kling I follow on Twitter, and we seem to watch all the same TV shows and gush over many of the same CW characters. We would of course drag Holly Black in on these hottie analyses. We would also quiz Holly Black on where she shops for all her clothes.

6. Tamora Pierce
Pierce, Lutz, and Chelsea Handler would all be swapping snarky commentary about the rest of the table attendents. Chelsea Handler possibly instructing Lisa Lutz how best to launch string beans across the table at Neil Gamain. Tamora Pierce would be keeping track or how many Gaiman would be able to block with his napkin.

7. Lisa Lutz
see #6

8. Chelsea Handler
see #6

9. Chuck Palahniuk
see #4

10. Holly Black
see #5

Show & Tell: Horror books flowchart

2011-11-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of: http://www.reddit.com/user/happinessinmiles

Industry News: 2011 World Fantasy Convention

2011-11-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. So I just got back from the World Fantasy Convention, held in San Diego this year, and had an AMAZING experience. The convention was small and intimate with mostly book industry professionals, fantasy booksellers, fantasy authors, and fantasy editors (in a broad sense, but really it was fantasy/science-fiction/speculative fiction/horror). Everyone went out of their way to be warm, friendly, and welcoming and people gushed over their favorite fantasy books to one another. The group struck me as such a positive, close-knit community. It was really touching how passionate everyone was about the genre.

I attended several panels including: "But I'm the Hero! Justifications for Villainy," "Retelling Old Stories: The New Fairy Tales," "The Successful Misfit as a Theme in Fantasy,""Ageless Literature," "I Believe that Children Are the Future," "Founders of Steampunk," "The Year in Fantasy." I also attended a fun converstation between Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis and then a wonderful memoriam panel for Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite fantasy authors who died recently.

While there I got to meet authors Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Tamora Pierce, John Connelly, Garth Nix, Patrick Rothfuss, Nancy Holder, Charlaine Harris, and William Alexander. All of whom were incredibly kind and witty.

The awards banquet went just as well. The food was delicious and Peter S. Beagle accepted his World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Connie Willis' speech was hysterical. Oh, and also, I brought home a ton of books. No really, a TON.

Show & Tell: NaNoWriMo begins!

2011-11-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Write that 50,000 word manuscript you've been meaning to start but haven't found the motivation to do so. I love NaNoWriMo, what a wonderful oportunity to connect with other writers and offer feedback and support. The organization also offers a little more organization a push to writers who *might* be prone to procrastination.

If, at the end of it all, you truly want to get published, then at least you have a manuscript to work from. Next it's time for re-writing, again and again and again and then editing and then querying literary agents. Otherwise it's just an excellent opportunity to write for fun.

Best of luck!

Book Review: The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black

2011-10-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

I got a copy of Holly Black's short story collection, The Poison Eaters, as a giveaway at the World Fantasy Convention this past weekend and decided to read it on the way home on the plane. The only other Holly Black I've read (other than a few various stories that have appeared in collections) was her novel Tithe, which I read ages ago, but which I liked quite a lot.

I always have pretty low expectations for short story collections, unfortunately, for the most part, I find them to be weak. It takes a particularly skillful writer to pull it off, for the most part there's usually one good story amongst a sea of under-developed minimally-edited "practice-y" peaces.

However, I was pleasantly surprised with Holly Black's collection. There were a couple lovely stories ("The Night Market," "The Coat of Stars," and "Paper Cuts Scissors"), but most of them were typical YA.

On a side note, Black mentions the devil as having a walking stick made from bull penis. I can confirm that those ACTUALLY exist, my grandfather had one. He LOVED weirding out waitresses by making them guess what it was made of and then telling them loudly and in front of everyone...

But that aside, The Poison Eaters is entertaining and a quick YA read. It's certainly one of the more cohesive and fleshed out of the fantasy short story collections I've read recently.

Rating: ** (2)

Industry News: New York Comic Convention

2011-10-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

   I just got back from the New York Comic Convention at the Javits Center in New York City and man do I need a break, what a sensory overload! But still, it was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had despite not being a comic book fan at all. It may have helped that it was located in my beloved NYC, but also, all of the big six were well represented, ARCs were handed out left and right, there were author signings galore, buttons and stickers, and free books (as well as plenty of books for sale, each publisher had their booth set up like mini-bookstores!) I enjoyed feasting my eyes on all the books, chatting with authors and their publicists, and in general just soaking up the predominately Science-fiction/Fantasy/YA releases.

   I also enjoyed working at my own booth, helping with handling the sales for Peter S. Beagle books and scheduling on-site interviews while we were there. The fans were astonishing. We had a couple girls come up to Peter S. Beagle and explain that The Last Unicorn had saved their lives in one way or another, many were moved to tears. Peter S. Beagle loves hearing this from his readers and was happy to take photos with fans (oh man, pressure's on, I hope I didn't cut off anyone's heads when I took photos for them) and sign books, even if they weren't newly purchased copies. Of course we ran out of graphic novels for The Last Unicorn right away.

   Overall, I had a fun time at NYCC, more so than I expected. If you're not a comic book nerd you should go at least once, possibly with comic book people, at the very least you'll enjoy seeing all the crazy costumes. But there are plenty of books, jewelry, merchandise, and other fun things too!

Top 10: Books I've Judged By Their Cover

2011-10-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

1. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
This is one of my favorite books of all time. A beautiful, "timeless" story, written with equal beauty. The only thing that disappoints me about this book is its cover. For years I overlooked it because of the cover. After having read the story the cover of course makes sense, but to me, the function of the cover art and design for a book should do the text justice by drawing in new readers, not alienating them. All they had to do was put a mysterious/creepy man in a yellow suit somewhere on the cover or something more visually interesting that symbolized the "fountain of youth" myth and I'm sure it would have intrigued me more than a little tiny pastoral of a farmhouse!

2. Daphne by Justine Picardie
I saw this book's cover out of the corner of my eye at the U Bookstore in Seattle and thought it looked just beautiful, like a piece of artwork I'd want to hang on my wall. And it was a Daphne Du Maurier story. Although I was conflicted as to whether I would like it or not (hated the book Rebecca, but loved the Hitchcock film), it was by a different author altogether, so since it was De Maurier's writing style that I couldn't stand, I figured I should give it a try. Good God this book is bad. Do not waste your time. Boring and basically a knock off of Rebecca... that's right, a knock off, NOT the homage I was hoping for.

3. Thirteen Stories by Eudora Welty
This is a classic, full of beautiful literary short stories. Why the heck does it have a poorly drawn, ugly, old lady on the front?!

4. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
I actually remember when I first bought this book. My mom used to routinely take me to Barnes & Noble and let me run loose in the children's book section, letting me pick out a stack of three new books to read each week. I had gotten to the point where I'd actually read EVERY book in the Barnes & Noble kids section. Except for a new, then-little-known book The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning which my mother picked up because she thought the cover looked neat and I agreed (my mother and I very rarely agree) so I bought it, read it in a day, and waited like an addict going through withdrawals for each sequel to follow in the series. The series remains one of my favorites of all time.

5. Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum
Pretty! Except boring as heck.

6. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter
Wow this cover is weird, even weirder is this modernist (to an extreme) book.

7. 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce
My best friend Jana and I were roaming through Target and she was initially drawn to the cover of this book because it seemed like something I'd like, sure enough, the summary matched the cover's feel perfectly.

8. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
by Katherine Howe
The cover of this book is gorgeous, and the book itself was magnificent, but it too matched the tone and feel of the story.

9. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The book cover was immediately intriguing to me, the sharp contrasting black and white with pops of red, the circus tents in the palm of a gloved hand, and like the story itself, The Night Circus was all about subtlety, enigmas, and class. The summary actually conflicted with my impression from the cover, the jacket copy definitely gave me the impression that this story was more of a romance than my tastes generally lean toward. Ultimately, the cover caught my attention and the blurbers won me over.

10. The Informed Gardner
by Linda Chalker-Scott
Okay, I am not a gardener. I hate dirt, I hate nature, I'm allergic to flowers... but this book cover was just so friendly and welcoming that I found myself looking for excuses to get it, perhaps it would make a lovely gift for someone? I'm still brainstorming... Like the cover, this book's content is organized in a very inviting way.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

2011-10-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Literary Agent Laurie McLean brought back an ARC of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone from BEA this past Spring and it's been sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read this whole time. I finally had time last week on the plane ride out to New York Comic Convention to see what all the fuss has been about. In truth, it did look really good and Hachette hyped it as being their most exciting book of the year.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone was pretty entertaining, but it did have its pitfalls. I spent the first half of the book getting really into Karou's story, her mysterious missions for the a strange, demonic, monster that plays her father figure, and in general, enjoying the unique intrigue of a young adult story set in a hip and semi-goth Prague.

The downfall was definitely when the romance started. For me, what makes romance so successful in a story is the build-up, the attraction. Although the abruptness of Karou's attraction and love is later explained, by then it's a bit too late and the two characters just seem too mashed together. The ending too I felt was a little weak and like the book wanted to be longer but that the author had to hurry and wrap it up quicker and in a shorter word count.

I think if you love young adult though, it's still a strong read. Sequels, I anticipate, may be even more fleshed out, and possibly even more interesting.

Rating: *** (3)

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

2011-10-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

A signed ARC was lent to me by my boss who received it at a convention from Erin Morgenstern not too long ago. After reading my Top 10: Most Anticipated Books on my TBR list he left it on my desk one morning. Showing up to work and seeing its mysterious arrival was very much in the tradition of Le Cirque de Rêves, or, The Circus of Dreams.

Le Cirque de Rêves is a magical, enigmatic circus draped in shades of black, white, and gray. It was conceived as being more refined than most circuses and was built to be housed in many rambling tents, awaiting each attendee's personal discovery of them, instead of one large tent for everything. The circus only opens at night. It comes and goes without any announcement and travels all over the world. The performances are so magnificent that the circus develops a cult following with a group known as the rêveurs, they wear red scarves to identify one another and alert each other as to when and where the circus has appeared. At the heart of the circus are the main characters, Celia, the illusionist, and Marco, the assistant. What the attendees to the circus don't know is that beneath all the carmel apples and summersaulting panthers there is a decades-long game between the Celia and Marco, a magical duel.

I'm not sure where to begin with this book other than to say it is one of my new favorites. There truly is something mysterious about this book's allure. I've been describing its style as something of a cross between The Prestige and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. There's something about it that I just can't put my finger on! I was entranced while I was reading this book, which was interesting because much of it was description and subtleties, punctuated by moments of heart-wrenching emotions: a little girl who is raised by a father who treats her like a tool to success and routinely slices her fingers open, a couple who fall in love when they shouldn't, various characters who find their home at the circus where the rest of the world has cast them out. Beyond that, there was a lovely tarot card motif throughout, which was particularly fun if you're familiar with reading the cards, and a poignant theme concerning time, having too much of it, not enough, how time can be just a perception. This book was so rich and layered, I could go on. Oh, and it's already been optioned for a movie!

The way much of it was written was just as secretive as the circus itself and I immediately went to the author's website to read more about her. Apparently she went through copious amounts of tea which writing this... and I went through copious amounts of tea while reading it! So yes, I recommend sitting down with a strong cup of early grey and reading this book immediately. You'll want to be a rêveur too!

Rating: ***** (5)

Show & Tell: SF Signal's Flowchart of NPR's Top 100 Science-fiction & Fantasy

2011-10-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Click for larger image.

Show & Tell: Snacks of Famous Writers

2011-10-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Artist Wendy MacNaughton created this neat illustration for The New York Times .

Industry News: READ PINK

2011-09-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is the second year of Penguin Group's READ PINK promotion of breast cancer awareness through special READ PINK editions of various romance books. The company is also donating $25,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. What a fun idea, perhaps I'll dip into one of those Nora Roberts books... Here's the website to read more about it: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/readpink/index.php

Wondrous Words: from The Tower of Beowulf by Parke Godwin

2011-09-28T04:39:00.000-07:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Bermuda Onion's Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Definitions are from www.answers.com.

From Parke Godwin's The Tower of Beowulf

Scop: An Old English poet or bard.

Raiments: Clothing, garments.

Tyre: An ancient Phoenician city on the eastern Mediterranean Sea in present-day southern Lebanon. The capital of Phoenicia after the 11th century B.C., it was a flourishing commercial center noted for its purple dyestuffs and rich, silken clothing. Tyre was besieged and captured by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and was finally destroyed by Muslims in A.D. 1291.

Woad: 1 . An annual Old World plant (Isatis tinctoria) in the mustard family, formerly cultivated for its leaves that yield a blue dye. 2. The dye obtained from this plant.

Geat: A member of an ancient Germanic people of southern Sweden conquered by the Swedes in the sixth century A.D.

Skyldings: Old English Scylding (plural Scyldingas) and Old Norse Skjöldung (plural Skjöldungar), meaning in both languages "People of Scyld/Skjöld" refers to members of a legendary royal family of Danes and sometimes to their people. The name is explained in many text by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld/Skjöld. But the title is sometimes applied to rulers who purportedly reigned before Scyld/Skjöld and the supposed king Scyld/Skjöld may be an invention to explain the name.

Top 10: Books I always want to re-read

2011-09-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

This is an interesting Top 10 list for me to make this week because it's VERY rare that I re-read books. With classics, I tend to re-read certain sections to refresh my memory, or on occasion I would have repetition in my college literature classes' required reading lists and would re-read a book for multiple classes I was studying it in. Those are all exceptions to the rule though. For the most part, I love reading so much that I remember what I read from beginning to end, so after I've read it once and enjoy it, I'm on to something new, or something else by the same author. There are simply too many books I haven't read yet that I cannot resist. So, here are the very few books I DO re-read, and consistently find myself in the mood to re-read.

Looking at this list, the best pattern I can discern is that each of this books draws me back because of the language and the voice my inner-narrator takes on when I read them and/or they are stories that describe their setting so tantalizingly that I want to return there again and again. I suppose if we were talking about movies, I'd refer to this as the mise-en-scène.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

It adds something special, having already read the whole series years ago, each book devoured within three days and beginning at midnight on release days, to meet Harry again at the beginning. Here's this poor boy who lives with his awful aunt and uncle in a cupboard under the stairs. Nobody, except me the reader, cares about him. He is raised to believe he's nothing special, he is raised without a friend in the world.

And yet, one day, he discovers he's the most special, magical boy there ever was. There is something about re-reading his humble beginnings that makes you a little weepy over knowing that in a few years time, this boy will triumph against the evil odds that put him in his orphaned situation to begin with. The beginning gets me every time, Mr. Dursley sees a cat reading a street sign, or looking at a street sign... because cats can't possibly read. Don't be ridiculous. As I write this, I'm tearing up a little bit.

2. The Probable Future
by Alice Hoffman

I honestly am not sure why I re-read this book so much, I love it, but I love everything by Alice Hoffman, so I'm curious as to what in particular about this book I'm drawn to. I think perhaps it's the descriptions of the grandmother in her garden, there's just something romantic and magical about her garden. In reality, I hate gardens... bugs, dirt, UV rays beating down... bleck! But in this book, I can sit leisurely by the pond and watch the characters interact and enjoy the hum of the bees and the rustle of the grass.

3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

I've never been much of a fan of the original movie The Wizard of Oz, I enjoyed Return to Oz and Tin Man, but I've always felt the books were much better. This one is the perfect antidote for the distinct lack of whimsy I sometimes find invading my life.

4. Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë

I love dark, gothic, classics. My favorite book is The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I do love re-reading Jane Eyre because the macabre is increased ten-fold when you can relate to the protagonist, a young woman trying to attain her individuality and independence, and when you are simultaneously drawn to her enigmatic, otherworldly, fairy-like character. Plus I may have a secret crush on Mr. Rochester...

5. The Mists of Avalon

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Honestly, I just love Morgan le Fey, so I just re-read this book for Morgaine's voice. I don't agree with some of Bradley's interpretations of Morgaine, but as long as this is the only meaty Morgan le Fey-perspective book, I'll keep re-reading it.

6. A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle

This book has my favorite beginning of all time: "it was a dark and stormy night," but it's done so well, and not at all as a cliché, the way L'Engle describes the storm... it makes my toes curl just thinking about it. I want to be snuggled in that bed upstairs or down in the kitchen making hot cocoa and talking about esoteric scientific theories with Meg.

7. Thirteen Stories
by Eudora Welty

I just love the language in these stories. Her prose is just beautiful.

8. The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Speaking of beautiful prose, if ever there existed flawless prose, literary perfection, it is this book. I get lost in the beauty of it all.

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And then one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." The Great Gatsby

9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O'Brien
This was one of my favorite books when I was little, and my father used to tell me bedtime stories about little mice living in their little homes and I suppose this book is one of my favorite mouse-books.

10. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Who doesn't love to read Dr. Seuss books aloud?! It never ceases to entertain me! Re-reading this one aloud, I'm particularly fond of because of how affecting it was when Harrison Ford started reading it aloud in the film Patriot Games. Go figure.

Book Review: Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schrieber

2011-09-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Forthcoming: October 25, 2011 | Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

   Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schrieber was an ARC that Laurie McLean picked up for me at the BEA, a soon-to-be released young adult novel and although it's not the type of book I usually go for, thriller/action genre, it seemed like it might be a fun change.

   For being outside of my normal tastes, this was certainly an exciting read. Schrieber writes from the perspective of a high school senior named Perry, obsessed with his band, "Inchworm," and embarassed by his remaining virginity. Perry's parents insist he have a foreign exchange student stay with him his senior year, and while Perry dreams of a hot eastern European model ready to seduce him, he is instead met with an odd, unsavory-looking Lithuanian girl who speaks little and hides under layers of baggy clothing. Perry does his best to tolerate her, but then when his parents force him to take her to prom and he discovers she's a sort of secret-agent asassin armed with a sawed off shotgun and a killer body. Perry does his best to keep up with her, uncover what her mission is, determine whether she's a "good guy" or a "bad guy," and just in general survive being held hostage and dragged all over New York City at night.

   Schrieber writes a story similar to a Hollywood action movie, it's all high-stakes, risk-taking, over-the-top car chases and maneuvers, and punchy quips. Occasionally, the "hip-speak" Schrieber tries to integrate between Perry and his friends seems a tad cheesy, but he gets away with it solely because Perry and his friends are the types to try to be "hip," but usually end up falling just short. Overall, it's a quick and entertaining read and, if anything, I feel like it would translate really easily to the big screen if a movie producer ever picks it up.

Rating: *** (3)

Show & Tell: Banned Books Week

2011-09-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

It's banned books week! Read something scandalous! I'm re-reading Fahrenheit 451.

Top 10: Most anticipated books on my TBR list

2011-08-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

   I think I have somewhere near 80 books on my Goodreads To-Be-Read shelf actually, so this list is my most anticipated of those on my TBR list, the ones that I'm most excited about having recently been released, that I'm waiting impatiently to come out in paperback for, and/or the ones I'm dying to buy but that my budget hasn't yet allowed me to do so.
   After making this list I noticed a few trends: I seem to be attracted to books with the word "daughter" in the title, books about some type of witches, and of course: fiction.
   Below is my list with book descriptions from Goodreads (remember, I haven't yet read these so I can't give my opinion on them yet other than they LOOK GOOD). Any of these would make fabulous impromptu gifts for ME by the way... And please do comment if you've read any of these, tell me what you think!

1. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
"Sometimes scholars should be more careful: Youthful researcher Diana Bishop briefly consults an medieval alchemical manuscript; then, after jotting down a few notes, sends it back to its prison in the stacks. Unfortunately for Diana, her quick dabbling has unleashed a long suppressed curse—and now only she can break the spell. Carefully researched, this debut novel will appeal to fans of historical novel infused with strong paranormal elements." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: Well, of course, anything with witches catches my attention right away, but I'm also drawn to the idea of the main character being a researcher. This was something I liked about The Physick Book of Deliverence Dane. If a character really were to come across some magical tome it probably would be someone digging deep into some dusty archival library. Additionally, I have seen this book as a recommended read in several of my local independent bookstores.

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
   "The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
   But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
   True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
   Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: Normally I don't go for anything as romantic sounding as this, but basically every magical realist author I love has written an outstanding blurb for the back cover and I keep seeing reviews hailing it as the next big thing for starving Harry Potter fans. It certainly seems magical and mysterious.

3. The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
   "The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts. Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales.
   From the town’s founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives. At the center of everyone’s life is a garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look. The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: Oh c'mon, it's Alice Hoffman. I live for the release of each new book of hers.

4. Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Fairy Tale by Carolyn Turgeon
   "The story of two very different women, one mortal, one mermaid, and the clash between worlds best kept apart... It is a cold day at the end of the world when a young woman, a princess in hiding, looks out across a Northern sea and sees something she could not have seen. It looks...it can't be. It looks like a mermaid's tail. And, as she looks more closely, she sees that the mermaid is dragging a drowning sailor in her arms. Because, only hours before, another princess, the daughter of the sea queen, has decided to risk everything and take a look at the world above the sea: the world of mortals. And there she finds a storm, a shipwreck, a sailor, and sets in train events which will change both women's worlds forever." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: I love fairy tales, but I'm also drawn to the fact that this doesn't seem to be immediately a romance.

5. The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry
"After the unexpected death of her parents, painfully shy and sheltered 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning (“do no let her…”) before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish.
A haunted kitchen isn’t Ginny’s only challenge. Her domineering sister, Amanda, (aka “Demanda”) insists on selling their parents’ house, the only home Ginny has ever known. As she packs up her parents’ belongings, Ginny finds evidence of family secrets she isn’t sure how to unravel. She knows how to turn milk into cheese and cream into butter, but she doesn’t know why her mother hid a letter in the bedroom chimney, or the identity of the woman in her father’s photographs. The more she learns, the more she realizes the keys to these riddles lie with the dead, and there’s only one way to get answers: cook from dead people’s recipes, raise their ghosts, and ask them." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: This book seems to be pegged as magical realist fairly frequently so I'm on the alert right away. But also it just sounds delicious, don't you think? Mmmm... food descriptions...

6. The Dark Glamour by Gabriella Pierce

"Jane Boyle married her prince charming and moved into his upper east side castle—but she didn’t get her fairy-tale ending
It’s hard to live happily ever after when you discover your demanding and controlling mother-in-law is literally a witch, determined to steal the magical powers you didn’t even know you had. Jane narrowly avoided Lynne Doran’s clutches when she escaped on her wedding day, and has been hiding out in New York City. But she can’t hide forever.
When Jane learns of the one thing Lynne wants most, she sets out to provide it, hoping her good turn will persuade her mother-in-law to stop hunting her. Unfortunately, Jane’s daring plan will send her right back into the witches’ den—the Doran clan’s multistory town house on Park Avenue. But thanks to a tricky spell, blond architect Jane will be transformed into Ella, a dark beauty with a whole new look . . . and all of Jane’s budding powers. Though the stakes are life or death, nobody said “Ella” couldn’t have a little fun along the way, too." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: It's rare I read chick lit, but I do like to keep a couple chick lit authors/series in mind just in case I'm feeling girly and in need of a good beach read. The first book in this series was oodles of fun, and I was very pleased to see this forthcoming sequel.

7. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
   "A historical thriller set in Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead—marked by the same tattoo—the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos.
   Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth. With the help of his clever daughter, Magdelena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town’s physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau. But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.
   A brilliantly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller, The Hangman’s Daughter is the first novel from German television screenwriter Oliver Pötzsch, a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: This story just seems so culturally rich and unique. I feel like it might make a wonderful winter read. Something to brew a strong cup of tea with.

8. The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston
   "My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins…
    In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.
   In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself, tending her garden and selling herbs and oils at the local farmers' market. But her solitude abruptly ends when a teenage girl called Tegan starts hanging around. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth begins teaching Tegan the ways of the Hedge Witch, in the process awakening memories--and demons--long thought forgotten.
    Part historical romance, part modern fantasy, The Witch’s Daughter is a fresh, compelling take on the magical, yet dangerous world of Witches. Readers will long remember the fiercely independent heroine who survives plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality to remain true to herself, and protect the protégé she comes to love." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: Aside from the gorgeous cover (I want that skirt)? Witches of course.

9. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
   "A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.
    Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions.
   Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: I love anything Victorian era, and this seems to involve both magical elements and mystery. Very intriguing.

10. The Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
   "The three Beauchamp women--Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid--live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret--they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries. Ingrid, her bookish daughter, has the ability to predict the future and weave knots that can solve anything from infertility to infidelity. And finally, there's Freya, the wild child, who has a charm or a potion that can cure most any heartache.
   For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. They unearth their wands from the attic, dust off their broomsticks, and begin casting spells on the townspeople. It all seems like a bit of good-natured, innocent magic, but then mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town. When a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them." —From Goodreads description

Why I'm interested: I love when characters have specific powers instead of all-encompassing magical abilities. Magic used as a tool for character development is always interesting to me.

Show & Tell: Hunger Games movie teaser trailer

2011-08-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

Industry News: Charles Dickens Summer Camp

2011-08-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

   I've been aware of the Charles Dickens Universe program for some time now. But for those of you unaware, the Charles Dickens Universe is part of the University of California Santa Cruz Dickens Project which aims to spread awareness and support research of the beloved classic author Charles Dickens and his complete works.
   Today I read an article posted in GalleyCat about there now being a new venture as part of the Charles Dickens Universe (a program held every year in the beginning of August where attendees can go to lectures about the famous author and generally just expose themselves to Charles Dickens-related information).
   As part of these literary experiences is one particular event generating interest: Charles Dickens Camp. The idea behind the "camp" is to gather together literary scholars, teachers, students, and Dickens readers for non-stop discussion of one of his works in particular. This year's was centered around Great Expectations.
   I wonder what Dickens book will be featured for the group next year... The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens' last and unfinished novel, might be the most compelling for literary discussion and analysis. I'd love to hear scholarly theories about what the ending could possibly have been!

Show & Tell: The Daily Show on bookstores

2011-08-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

How To: Find the time to read

2011-08-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

   Essentially, I work four jobs, two of them are full-time. I have very, VERY little spare time. To top it off, my jobs all require a lot of reading. I have a stack of Peter S. Beagle books to read, because I'm his publicist and should of course know what I'm publicizing, and I have a stack of middle-grade/young adult books to read to keep abreast of what's popular in the market, because I'm an associate agent specializing in children's books, and I also have a pile of manuscripts/queries to read regularly, every week. Right now I just side-glanced to a stack of To-Be-Reads and gulped.

   In spite of this overwhelming stack of reading to do, I still manage to get it all done... somehow, and my friends and family ask me constantly how this is even possible when they struggle to find the time to get through one book. They think I'm a "fast reader" or that I must know how to "speed read." The answer is a very loud NO THAT IS NOT THE CASE. I'm not a particularly fast reader and I do not approve of "speed reading" at all (isn't that just "skimming" anyway?) I wouldn't be able to "speed read" if I tried, I love reading, and that includes ALL the words on the page, not just the ones down the middle or however that works.

   So how do you get lots of reading done with very little time? Well, I don't recommend schedules. I find that the best way to get a lot of reading done isn't to be constantly jumping in and out of a book. Set aside chunks of time. If you have a commute on public transportation every morning, utilize this time as reading time. I also find that since I, like most americans, spend ALL DAY staring at a computer screen at work, I get home at the end of the day exhausted but too wired to fall asleep. I close my laptop an hour before my "bedtime," brush my teeth, put my moisturizer on, and read for a good 20 minutes to an hour before switching off the light. Nothing winds my day down better and my sleeping quality is significantly improved so I know that I'm not only using this time to get some reading done, but also to improve me health.

   It also helps, if the reading you're doing isn't required for your job and is just pleasure reading, to make sure that the books you're investing your time in are going to keep you engaged enough despite your limited amount of reading time. If you have only a little time to spare for reading you don't want to waste it on something disappointing. Check Goodreads ratings before you commit to a book and be aware of the authors that consistently produce works that you love. I call them "my old standbys."

Industry News: I Hate Reading Facebook Page

2011-08-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

GalleyCat article image

Recently news has been circulating of an "I Hate Reading" Facebook page with over 440,000 people "like"-ing it. The book community has become so horrified that they have been responding like mad to this obvious offense to literature. Abe Books even posted a video response in defense of books.

It always irritates me to hear people say they don't like reading, to see them say "I hate to read" in the space provided for favorite books on Facebook. Nothing grinds my gears more. Nobody should hate to read, books are one of the most valuable products that humans produce. They are a tactile representation of the knowledge, experience, and emotional growth we have made as a society.

"When you read a book as a child it becomes part of you identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does." --You've Got Mail

I think that people who don't like to read are one of two things: these are people who simply haven't learned what their tastes are in reading, have picked up the wrong genre of book for too long because they simply don't know their personality well enough to make an enjoyable decision, or they are people that desire toiling in ignorance and have a complete disregard for intellectual growth and furthering their cultural experience. I like to believe that most of these people are in the former camp, rather than the latter, and I make it my personal goal to figure out recommendations for them that will compel them to "unlike" that awful Facebook page.

Top 10: Freebie Week

2011-08-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

Recently I participated in WriteOnCon and read a post from an author about how to write magical realism. Magical Realism is MY FAVORITE. I love magical realism, I can't get enough of it... and that's easy to say since, in my opinion, there really isn't that much of it on the market at all. But I think part of the problem (my suspicions were solidified by the comments following the post from people who'd never even heard of magical realism) is that readers simply aren't aware of it as a subgenre, have been misinformed about it, or didn't realize they were reading it when they did. So, since this is freebie week, and I get to pick whatever I want to do a Top 10 list on, I am going to do a Top 10 list of best magical realist books. First, however, I will explain magical realism.

To clear one misconception up: magical realism is really NOT fantasy, it's fiction. The best, most succinct definition of magical realism I read comes from an essay written by Lindsay Moore for Emory College, "magical realism is characterized by two conflicting perspectives, one based on a rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality." But before you get all excited: no, it's not Urban Fantasy either. Magical realism differs from Urban Fantasy because although it is rooted in the real world like Urban Fantasy, the magic that happens in magical realism is very subtle and often debatable. In essence Magical realism incorporates very, VERY subtle elements of magic, hints that are laced throughout the story. In an Urban Fantasy you could have witches and demons, in Magical realism you have an aunt who can mysteriously sense danger before it's coming or intuit your secrets without even speaking to you. There's always doubt in Magical realism, sure the reader could try to explain away the magic that occurs in it, but the way it so undetectable weaves among the real-world scenarios and people it in a way seems just a rational and acceptable. I think this is the reason I love Magical realism so much. While I do love the Fantasy genre, I still put down my book and feel a little sad that the world I'm reading about doesn't really exist. There are no dragons, nobody levitates. But with Magical realism, because the magic that occurs in it is so subtle, and seems so natural alongside the real world, I put down my book and believe.

1. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Probably one of her most well-known works because of the film adaptation starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. This magical story explores the unique relationships sisters have, the effects of intolerance on a family, and the importance of dealing with your old "demons" and putting the past behind you.

2. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Allende's debut novel tells the story of a family from one generation to the next and gives perspective on the changing social/political environment of their Latin American country.

3. The Green Mile by Stephen King
An allegory of the death of Christ where a black man is falsely accused of a horrendous crime and put on death row. Brilliant, and proof that Stephen King is one of the few great literary minds of contemporary fiction.

4. Chocolat by Joanne Harris
This was also made into a movie, the movie too is a good example of Magical realism. A mysterious woman, who can guess your favorite chocolate, and her young daughter arrive in a prude and proper French town and stir things up a bit with their chocolaterie and liberal lifestyle.

5. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
This is an intricate story with unreliable narrators and interweaving story lines and conflicting memories. It takes place in Salem, MA where the women in the Whitney family can read the future in lace. The main character Towner only ends up reading disastrous outcomes and so stops altogether until her aunt goes missing.

6. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender
Rose can taste emotions in the cake her mother bakes, the emotions are not happy ones. An examination of the feelings and emotions in all the different members of a family.

7. The Girl Who Chased the Moon
by Sarah Addison Allen
Emily returns to Mullaby, NC after her mother's death only to learn her perfect mother was not who she though she was. Julia can't wait to leave Mullaby and all the awful memories she associates with it. But Mullaby has different plans...

8. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
This book stands out from the rest of Hoffman's works in that it's much darker than what she usually writes. It is the story of how one tragic, horrific experience can cause a negative ripple effect throughout a family of three sisters, their mother, and grandmother.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
An exploration of humanity and all its flaws through the history of one family.

10. Bloodroot by Amy Greene
Told through the alternating perspectives of characters Myra, Byrdie, and John. One of the few books that so expertly weaves a story and develops characters through multiple, alternating narrators without the reader getting so attached to one character in particular that they overlook the others.

Book Review: Spindle's End by Robin McKinley

2011-08-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

   I picked up a copy of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End at a used bookstore ages ago and have had it sitting on my shelf as an In-Case-of-Emergency-Reading-Shortage standby. McKinley is one of those authors that has a reliable style, and one that I know I can enjoy. Spindle's End of course delivers on the two McKinley necessities: strong female main character and a rich re-imagining of a classic fairy tale. McKinley knows what she's doing when it comes to fairy tales. She has the style of writing that keeps the quaintness and Once-Upon-A-Time mood so effortlessly that she's able to completely re-write the story, tweak it, and flesh it out with fresh details without corrupting the fairy tale experience.

   In Spindle's End McKinley retells the story of Sleeping Beauty. In this version, the princess is whisked away by the young fairy, Katriona, to the little village of Foggy Bottom after a curse is laid on her by the evil Pernicia. Rosie grows up with the gift of Beast Speech, communicating with the animals around her and developing a penchant for horses. She becomes a typical tom-boy and a horse leech. When she turns twenty however, an enigmatic fairy arrives to reveal the truth of her birthright and prophesied death. It is then that Rosie, her girly friend Peony, Aunt, and Katriona devise a clever plan to turn the tables on Pernicia.

   A lovely retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but then McKinley is a pro at fairy tales so everything she writes is lovely. A wonderfully detail-rich story full of heart; perfect for a rainy day and with a cup of tea.

Rating: **** (4)

Show & Tell: New Hobbit production video

2011-07-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I enjoy The Lord of the Rings just as much as the next person, but I won't profess to be a die-hard fan. Sorry, I'm in the Harry Potter camp. I'm just not as big a fan of epic fantasy. However, I am certainly excited for the Hobbit production and I am looking forward to arming myself with candy & popcorn and sitting close enough to see every drop of sweat glistening from every orc eye-socket. I will happily enjoy spending three hours in the theatre much as my back protests. So... I liked The Hobbit when I read it, I liked it much better than The Lord of the Rings books actually (I think I'm in the minority there) but I wonder if The Hobbit is successful in the box office (likely) they'll attempt to do The Silmarillion... I think it's rumored to be "in talks" but if they could actually manage to pull it off and keep audiences from getting completely lost then I take my hat off to Peter Jackson.

How To: Go literary agent hunting

2011-07-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Recently I received an e-mail from someone who had been blessed/burdened with the task of submitting a friend's manuscript to literary agents in the pursuit of getting it published. She had no idea how to go about doing this and had been referred to me by a mutual friend. The poor thing seemed completely overwhelmed, which is the sense I get from most people who have either queried me or queried other agents at a conference I was attending. Some writers are really on their game, but others are completely overwhelmed. It shouldn't be overwhelming though! So here's my advice to writers: go hunting.

1. Finish your manuscript

Don't even THINK about agents until you've finished your manuscript, edited it, joined a critique group, edited it, gotten feedback from your critique group, rewritten it, edited it, gotten more feedback, read it aloud, burned it, started it from scratch, finished a bottle of Jack Daniels, edited it, rewritten it, read it aloud, gotten feedback from your critique group, rewritten it again, edited it, and then polished it to perfection. You get the idea. If you're a writer the most important thing is to get your writing RIGHT.

2. Determine what kind of manuscript you have

Did you write a memoir? Is it a young adult fantasy? Are you writing a cook book? A children's book? Literary fiction? If your response is something as general as "fiction" then spend some time reading about different book genres on Wikipedia. Pinpoint your manuscript as best you can. Saying that your manuscript is a Steampunk Romance is a lot more illustrative to someone who hasn't yet had the chance to read it and figure it out themselves. Also, I've heard a lot of agents debate about whether being a cross-genre writer is a appealing or not... If you decide you are a cross-genre writer it shouldn't be because you think that'll get you a larger pool of interested agents and editors, it should be because you REALLY ARE cross-genre. I heard one writer argue with an agent at a conference once that his Western was ALSO a romance "because there's a woman in it," and an animal book "because in chapter three there's mention of a chicken," and that it was ALSO a memoir... even though it's fiction. Huh? That doesn't even make sense. The agent looked like she wanted to flee, and flee she did, leaving zero business cards in her wake.

3. Seek out the appropriate agents

Now that you know what kind of writer you are you need to look for an agent that matches your interest. There are sites like agentquery.com where you can find lists of agents, or you could probably try googling for agents as well. Look for agents that are seeking/representing books similar to yours. Don't try to stretch it, do not try to argue for your picture book to be represented by an agent that specifically says they only do young adult. It's not worth your time pitching to them, odds are they'll probably just toss your manuscript out as soon as they see it's not something they represent, or they may not even have enough knowledge of that particular type of book to be able to represent it well and support you to the degree you deserve. Just because you write the BEST book in the world doesn't mean they will jump at the chance to represent you, because if it's just not something they represent... then it's JUST NOT something they represent. So don't take any rejections as a reflection of the quality of your work.

Once you have a list of agents who represent work similar to yours research a couple of books each that they've represented that seem to be similar to your manuscript for some reason. This could be something to mention in your query letter to them. Also pay close attention to their submission guidelines, all agents have different preferences. It also may not hurt to read their blog/website for any tips THEY offer writers, and be mindful of any calendars they have posted. It's probably best not to send a query during a time they're making appearances in New York for a week at Book Expo of America. They'll get back dead tired and your submission will be buried under a daunting pile.

Industry News: Why I'm not crying for Borders or tweeting #ThankUBorders

2011-07-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

   I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of flak for this post, but it needs to be said. Recently there has been a tweeting-frenzy of support for all the Borders employees that lost their jobs. In general there has been a lot of upset over Borders going to the big bookshelf in the sky. I, however, do not see what the big fuss is about.

   To be clear: I feel for all those Borders employees who lost their jobs, I do. That's awful and I wish them the best. But many really wonderful, outstanding, independent bookstores have gone under in the past few years because of the economy and, before that, BECAUSE OF companies like Borders and Barnes & Noble. These were bookstores where I could walk in and ask the nearest employee what I should read if I liked X, Y, and Z-authors and they'd whip out a pile of books I'd never heard of but would almost always end up enjoying. These were people who really, truly, provided service.

   On more than one occasion, at more than one Borders location, I went to find a book, a mainstream book/bestseller that I'd seen get good ratings on Goodreads, and they'd never have it in stock. Ever. (On a side note: that never happened at Barnes & Noble). It was as if Borders had one copy of every book and then would have to wait a month to restock. I also struggled to get the same sage recommendations that I'd gotten at my beloved independent bookstores.

   Don't even get me started on their stupid membership card. I got sucked into it because of my cousin who LOVED it and because it was free and you'd get 15, 30, 40% off so it'd be worth it, right? Wrong. It was just a big fat hassle if you ask me. I'd end up getting all these mediocre coupons for books clogging up my e-mail inbox that I'd have to go through and delete all the time, and when I DID decide to go book shopping, usually on a whim, I'd of course inevitably forget to print out the dumb things and end up paying full price. At least with Barnes & Noble your membership card, although it's not free, it ends up paying for itself quickly because you just automatically get the discount taken off of your purchase. No coupon, e-mailing, or printing necessary.

   While I feel for the employees who lost their jobs, I say: GOOD RIDDANCE to Borders. That place was a thorn in my side anyway. Barnes & Noble is just as corporate and impersonal, but at least they have the dumb copy of Stranger in a Strange Land that I want THE MINUTE I WANT IT.

   I know that people are panicking because they think Borders' downfall is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the bookstores, independent bookstores included, but I think that Borders' demise had more to do with their shoddy excuse for a business model. They invested WAY too much in their music/CD section and we all saw what happened with the music industry when the iPod came out... They also took to long to jump on the eBook bandwagon, a mistake that Barnes & Noble almost made but is recovering quickly from with the Nook marketing. So the music industry loses money for them, then they're hit with money loss in the book section. It was probably too much for them to have both departments suffer. I feel like if they had just invested more in the book industry, had the foresight to dabble in eBooks when the time came, and then tightened/reevaluated their budget when the economy petered out, they might have survived.

   My hope is that now people will see the value in getting to know their local independent bookstores, participate in the author events they host, join book clubs, and read and buy books more than ever, in whichever format they prefer.

Top 10: Books that should be required reading for teens

2011-07-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

"Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers."

This was a really hard list to make. Ideally there are some books that I just love too much to take off the required reading list for teens, I was required to read The Great Gatsby in high school and a B.A. in English later I still believe it to be the closest thing to literary perfection ever written, however I think it's hard for non-book-loving teens to appreciate and in the end I think The Great Gatsby is better as a college level reading requirement where it will get the analytical attention it deserves. It's themes are a little bit more mature, its prose a little more sophisticated. What I focused on instead were books that were both complex enough to challenge teens to unpack and analyze in the classroom, engaging enough to keep the non-readers from slacking, and pose very, VERY important lessons that need to be learned at the teenage level-- and no later.

1. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield is such an important character to teenagers. He is struggling with maintaining his childlike innocence when he knows he is being forced by society to become an adult. He's jaded and angsty as a result, but he also offers very poignant critiques of the world and highlights hypocrisy whenever he sees it.

2. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
This anti-war novel disassembles all the romantic notions associated with going to war, it's both shocking and touching and a rude awakening for any teen that thinks life will be handed to them.

3. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
In an age when most teens experiment with drugs and alcohol, this book details an anonymous girl's spiral and serves as a warning against losing control.

4. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
It's so saddening to see how swiftly potential can be wiped out. Here's a young girl who wants to grow up to be a writer but, as a Jew in hiding, lives in fear of being taken to a concentration camp. Through her diary we come to know her on such a personal level that her situation becomes all the more heartbreaking.

5. Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser
This is an incredibly under-appreciated book. So often I hear people say "I'm so OCD" and it makes me cringe. Just because you keep your file folders in alphabetical order and double check that you've lowered the garage door doesn't mean you're OCD... or even close! People with OCD suffer greatly and the things they feel compelled to do are usually NOT useful or logical in anyway. An extremely superstitious person is closer to resembling OCD than someone who keeps their desk meticulously clean. This book tells the story of a young girl and her struggles with OCD.

6. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Crank shows, similarly to Go Ask Alice, how easily it is for you to lose control of your life and spiral just from making the wrong decisions.

7. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
This book was required reading for me in high school and I'm glad it was. Cat's Cradle is one of the best metaphors for "the pathway to Hell is paved with good intentions" that I have ever read. This book teaches an important lesson about the dangers of being myopic with regards to technology, science, and progress. Sometimes things that have benefits in the short-term can end up causing catastrophic damage in the long run.

8. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
This is a wonderful retelling of Cain and Abel and I've never heard anyone say they weren't in love with this book. A literary masterpiece, East of Eden explores themes of guilt, love, and the struggle with acceptance that everyone must go through as they enter their adult years.

9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
This is my favorite book, so knowing that I'm partial to it I thought a long time about whether it really should be on this list, and it should! The Picture of Dorian Gray tells a very haunting tale about paying for your consequences, karma, and maintaining the state of your soul. The decisions you make are a reflection of your character and you will live with them for the rest of your life.

10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
This is on the list for a similar reason to Johnny Got His Gun, teens need to know that the world should not be romanticized and they need to be able to critique the situations they encounter as they grow up. What is truly right and what is wrong?

Book: "The Probable Future" by Alice Hoffman

2011-07-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

   Okay, Alice Hoffman. I think we already know this is going to be a review full of praises. Alice Hoffman is my favorite, FAVORITE contemporary author. I suck up anything that woman writes. The Probable Future however, seems to be the perfect remedy to any reading lull I find myself in, and it's always my something-good-to-read standby. I've re-read it half a dozen times and I still enjoy it no matter what mood I'm in, recently I've felt a little overwhelmed with books and work, so I decided the best thing to do was whip this puppy out again and relax in the park with it.

   The Probable Future is classic Hoffman for you. Perfectly woven magical realism, a New England setting, and three generations of women who are related but have little else in common. Claire is the youngest of the Sparrow women and struggles with an unusual gift that allows her to see how people will die. Unfortunately it also lands her in a great deal of trouble, her father in jail for suspicion of murder, and her mother in a frenzy to hide her away from a murderer at large looking for his only "witness."

   The Probable Future is a lovely story, light and suspenseful enough to keep me turning the page, but also very poignant and moving, enough so that I'm able to appreciate it every time. It still succeeds even though I already know the ending, and despite being burned out in other areas of my life. A fabulous summer read.

Rating: ***** (5)

Book: "Amaryllis in Blueberry" by Christina Meldrum

2011-07-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

   It took me an alarmingly long time to get through this book. Unfortunately, for me, Amaryllis in Blueberry was just one of those books that was too easy to set aside and forget about. While the writing was fair and the concept for the story prompted me to put it on my "To Be Read" list before it was even released, it ended up disappointing me.

   Christina Meldrum's Amaryllis in Blueberry explores the lives of the four Slepy sisters (all named Mary...), their mother Seena, their father Dick, and a woman named Clara who fancies herself the mother Mary Grace (one of the four girls) never really had with Seena. Their father, upon surmising that the youngest girl, Amaryllis, is not his own and that Seena had an affair, decides to uproot the whole family from their life in Michigan to Africa to try and do some good in the world. The book begins with Seena accused of murder and then goes backward from there.

   The main problem with this book is that there are basically seven main characters, none of whom the reader really gets a chance to attach themselves to too much because each new chapter rotates to a different character, and some of the chapters repeat many of the same events over only through the eyes of someone else. There are simply too many characters for Meldrum to develop fully. I wish I could say that reading all these different perspectives was as engaging as I'd hoped, but it just ended up bogging down the pace of the story, chopping up the rhythm, and inevitably giving me reason after reason to put the book down once again. While I commend Meldrum for her writing ability outside of character development and plot, I wasn't able to truly care about any of the characters, and as a result, found it really hard to care about their journeys.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "The Dry Grass of August" by Anna Jean Mayhew

2011-05-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

   Anna Jean Mayhew's The Dry Grass of August takes place in 1954 in Charlotte, North Carolina and tells the story of young Jubie Watts and the close relationship she has with her black maid Mary, despite the blatant racism and prejudices that surround her.

   This book started out slowly, introducing Jubie's home life: an abusive alcoholic father, an apathetic and out-of-touch mother, and a black maid who serves as her primary caretaker and single resource for affection and love. Mayhew's story meanders for a while, making the reader unsure if there is really a story to be told or if the point of the book is to merely explore the Watts Family's shortcomings, however, half way through the book an unexpected loss, infidelity, corruption, and an underlying current of unease over the outcome of Brown vs. The Board of Education decision upend any sense of normalcy in Jubie's life and propel her story into more of a plot driven narrative.

   I liked this The Dry Grass of August, I teared up a little at one part in particular, and felt for Jubie. However, some of the opinions expressed by the characters seemed a little too forced, as if Mayhew was simply using them as a venue to express her own opinions. The characters also continually contradicted themselves, Mrs. Watts occasionally sounded self-absorbed and stuck up, then at times defensive of Mary and noble. Jubie's father was abusive, terrifying, and guilty of several other less-than-reputable acts and yet Jubie still seems to vie for his attention... that is when she's not trying to escape his wrath. While I appreciate that Mayhew was likely trying to flesh-out her characters as realistic people who would not be categorized easily as Good or Evil, the personality changes seemed just too drastic for any normal person to go through without a lobotomy.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "What I Saw and How I Lied" by Judy Blundell

2011-05-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

   A copy of Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied was given to me along with a stack of other Young Adult genre fiction and although I liked it-- the writing was decent, the pace was quick, and the story flowed and moved along well enough for me to easily sit down and read in an afternoon-- there was nothing really spectacular about it that would ever make me remember it or recommend it to anyone.

   What I Saw and How I Lied tells the story of fifteen-year-old plain-jane Evie, her stunningly beautiful (and young) mother, and her beloved step-father Joe who has recently returned from the war safely. The year is 1947, the setting New York, and, jaded with his businessman-work life and still burned out from the war, Joe decides to uproot the family for an extended vacation in Florida. Everything seems wonderful at first until Evie begins to fall in love with a boy of mysterious background named Peter who seems to know a secret about Joe, a couple who her parents become friends with seem to be hiding a secret of their own, and Evie's mother incessantly worries about Evie looking more like a woman and less a little girl. Then a tragedy occurs that forces Evie to re-evaluate her loyalties.

   It got a tad old listening to Evie complain about how plain-looking she is in comparison to her mother and how much she wants to grow up et cetera. Also, the "secrets" don't strike me as shocking enough for the whole plot of a book to be centered around, additionally the tragedy that occurs is hinted at, rather obviously, early on... so no big surprise there either. I will say that there is a rather poignant side-message about residual prejudices against judaism post-World War II, but that issue wasn't addressed enough through the main current of the story for it to be considered a fully fleshed "theme" for analysis.

   In short I will say this was a decent book, an okay story, so if you've already purchased it, checked it out, or are really set on reading it: go ahead an do so, it's not bad. But at the same time I'd say there are more life-altering or riveting reads to be had.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "Shooting Kabul" by N.H. Senzai

2011-05-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

   I first heard about this book from the author herself during a discussion of writing techniques at the 2011 San Francisco Writers Conference, and although I was not immediately interested in reading it, once it raked in a couple notable awards and secured a four-star rating on Goodreads I figured I'd better at least familiarize myself with what all the fuss was about. That said, I would classify this book as suitable middle-grade reading level. I finished it in three hours easily. It was a quick read primarily because the author kept a steady, organized pace that allowed the reader to flow from chapter to chapter.

   I think the first few chapters of this book are what make the reader so emotionally tied to the story as to read through the rest of the narrative. Shooting Kabul is told through the perspective of middle school age Fadi and details his and his family's harried escape from the Taliban in Afghanistan to the soon-to-be-terrorist-attacked United States back in the late summer/early autumn of 2001. In essence, much of this story is Fadi complaining about how his sister's accidently being left behind is all his fault. Which is pretty irritating because it's obviously all his dumb father's fault for dragging his family back to Afghanistan after getting his PhD in Wisconsin because he thinks he can magically "change" things in Afghanistan by talking to a few farmers about uprooting some poppies... That aside, Fadi gets it into his head that if he wins a photo competition that grants a plane tickets to India he'll be close enough to find his sister.

   While this story and the characters are not my cup of tea at all and I found the description of Sept. 11th a little unrealistic: the book describes the scene using phrases akin to "hushed whispers" and "tension in the air" with Fadi never really finding out why everyone is acting so looney until he gets home, (when Sept. 11th happened I was in 6th grade and every teacher had a TV dragged into their classroom and was glued to the news, a couple intermittently stepping out into the hallway to make phone calls to check on loved ones back east, and all of them openly telling us what was going on and allowing us to wander free in the halls like dazed and confused sheep. The principal announced on the loudspeaker during first period to the entire school the events that had occurred and asked for a moment of silence). I also found the dialogue to be a little too Bumper-Sticker-sounding from the Fadi and his peers, "yeah man" and "cool" being used along with a few too many mentions of high-fives. In contrast, some of the adult conversations patterned the stilted dialogue of infomercials.

   All complaints aside, I can see why this is an valuable addition to the children's literature canon. Shooting Kabul deals with the very real effects of the political unrest in Afghanistan not only for the country itself but for the Afghan families impacted by the violence surrounding them as well as the ripple effect of prejudice and racism among the different Afghan peoples and the outsiders judging them out of fear instead of making efforts toward understanding. This is an important book for the culturally inquisitive child and for every 5th grade school reading list.

Rating: *** (3)

Book: "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by: Katherine Howe

2011-05-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

   I'm not sure where to begin my praise of Katherine Howe's The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I will say that this book has been on my "To-read" list since it first came out but unfortunately I always have to wait an eternity until the book comes out in paperback (financial limitations, sigh) before I can get my hands on it. I should also clarify that I am a Salem Witch trials junkie and read everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) published on it that I can ferret out, historical fiction and academic books alike, took a class on the European Witch Trials that also touched on the Salem Witch Trials, and even went on my own pilgrimage to Salem, MA a couple summers ago, eagerly drinking in the history of the town and funding the over-priced New England touring industry to within an inch of my life.

   That said, most historical fiction books surrounding the Salem Witch trials follow a heroine whose mother (or the heroine herself) is accused, and details the harrowing and brutal treatment of the innocents involved, Howe's book departs from this tradition. Perhaps what draws so many to this dark, and thankfully brief, time in American history is the unresolved question still lingering as to why these women were hanged back in 1692, their reputations sullied, and the debate as to which conspiracy theory fits best to answer said question. When I first heard of The Phsyick Book of Deliverance Dane I was worried by Howe's decision to make magic real and suggest that perhaps a real witch was among those hanged, but Howe's story is so well executed and so weighted with respect for historical details and reverence for the mentioned victims of the hangings, that any worry I had before reading it quickly dissolved as the plot progressed.

   The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane tells the story of a young Harvard PhD student named Connie who, working on her dissertation on the history of New England, discovers a clue in her newly inherited grandmother's old, dilapidated house that might suggest the existence of a physick book, a book of spells/herbal remedies passed down through the generations from an undocumented accused witch of the Salem Witch trials. Connie, on her quest to find the book, and use it as a primary source that would surely bolster her future career, must juggle her research with cleaning out the old house in preparation for resale, phoning her eccentric mother, wooing a newfound love interest, and evading her over-zealous advisor, all in the typical Massachusetts summer humidity.

   The pace of the book, the wonderfully constructed prose and vocabulary, and the layered plot that crosses genres from historical fiction to romance to fantasy to mystery all while keeping the reader engaged and on baited breath, all make it very difficult to believe this book to be Howe's debut novel. Rarely do I comment on the design of a book but even the covers of both the hardback and the paperback editions are beautiful! Everything about this book delighted me and not only because I have an obsession with the subject matter. Connie's narrative, as well as the narratives of the Dane women peppered throughout, bring richness and context to a period in history in need a of a fresh perspective and makes this wonderful book accessible to anyone who has ever wondered about connections with their ancestral past.

Rating: ***** (5)

Book: "Incarceron" by Catherine Fisher

2011-04-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

I had heard such positive things about Incarceron, a young adult science-fiction/fantasy novel about a world where the progression of time has been stopped so that people are expected to live perpetually in the 18th century while criminals are kept within the living walls of a prison. The idea is to maintain a Utopian society free of crime and the anxieties/upheaval of social/economic/industrial progress. The concept and the underlying questions surrounding whether control and tradition are to the benefit or detriment of humanity are certainly worth exploring and would make for a very intriguing science-fiction novel, but alas, I was very disappointed.

The main problem I had with this book is that I was 250 pages in and still felt very little for either of the main characters. For a time their stories, one taking place within the prison, and the other taking place outside (but with just as many restrictions to her lifestyle as if she'd been locked up too) ran parallel so that the two narratives would flip-flop every chapter or so.

My qualm with this writing style is that very few authors are able to flesh out each character's story-line well enough for the reader to not relate to one and disregard the others as less interesting. In Fisher's case, neither character was fleshed out enough for me. This is a young adult novel, it should be punchy and edgy and worthy of keeping a teen's attention over hanging out with friends, playing sports, going to the movies, or becoming engrossed in a video game... and yet here I am: a girl who spends all her time reading regardless and I'm 250 pages into this book and still don't have any reason to care what happens to anyone. I also had a really hard time acclimating myself to the idea of an 18th century environment that was set in the future, I found it more disorienting and distracting than anything else.

While the writing itself was not bad, the concept as mentioned was interesting and certainly pertinent given the current global political climate, I just didn't feel invested enough to care based on the characters and their personal histories.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" by Sarah Addison Allen

2011-04-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

   I am a huge, HUGE Alice Hoffman fan and when I first read the description of Sarah Addison Allen's southern magical realism book The Girl Who Chased the Moon I immediately thought of Hoffman and hoped that finally I had found a book that would tide me over until The Red Garden comes out in paperback. My instincts were correct.

   The Girl Who Chased the Moon is the story of a young girl named Emily who goes to live with her grandfather, after her mother's death, in a small North Carolina town called Mullaby. Her mother had always been philanthropy obsessed but when Emily arrives at the town she is surprised by the reputation her mother left behind as a girl. Meanwhile, Julia is a woman determined to get out of Mullaby and back to her life in Baltimore, she bakes the best cakes in the town and works at her late father's barbecue restaurant. She too has secrets from her past and takes Emily under her wing.

   The Girl Who Chased the Moon explores how the past and the future can loop and how each new generation has the opportunity to fix old wrongs. Allen does this with elegant magical realism touches: faded wallpaper that reflects mood, freshly baked cakes that lure loved ones home, and the mysterious Mullaby lights that watch over the town. I cannot wait until The Peach Keeper hits the shelves in paperback.

Rating: **** (4)

Book: "666 Park Avenue" by Gabriella Pierce

2011-04-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

   My best friend and I were perusing Target one day with only a few weeks to go before my birthday and stumbled upon this book (which she ended up buying me as a present). I hadn't heard of Gabriella Pierce's first novel 666 Park Avenue and was immediately interested when I saw that it was described as paranormal chick lit.

   In the past couple years there has been an odd influx of chick lit and most of it has been very "chick" oriented, there hasn't been much in the way of originality, nothing about the stories diverge from women dealing with typical girl-problems, graphically describing hot men they have affairs with, and dropping fashion labels when describing attire. Most of this is really boring to me, I'm sorry Lauren Weisberger but I'm not interested in reading 200+ pages of your protagonist bitching about her boss. And Jodi Piccoult: is it possible for you to write a book that doesn't read like a made-for-television Lifetime movie?

   I have digressed.

   I read 666 Park Avenue in two days and loved it. This is certainly chick lit, there's nothing really heavy or "deep" about this book, it's fun, it's light, and it will please the average chick lit fan. However, I enjoyed it because while it's still about a young woman coming into her own, having a romance, dealing with girl-y problems, and mentioning brand labels, it is also is unique in that the protagonist's soon-to-be mother-in-law is a conniving evil witch with magical powers and murderous temper tantrums to be reckoned with. See chick lit authors? All you have to do is add one unique twist, and there hasn't been anything paranormal about chick lit in a long time... I look forward to reading more of Pierce as she continues Jane Boyle's magical adventures.

Rating: *** (3)

Book: "The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman

2011-03-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

I picked up The Imperfectionists due to my interest in/support of print newspaper journalism about which this book is based (remember print journalists? You can probably still find a few huddling together for warmth: reminiscing about the good ol' days and still wearing 1970s attire out of tribute to their idolized Woodward-Bernstein duo) and the several rave reviews I've seen on Goodreads... and conveniently the cover of the book itself... Yet this is a story not so much about a single newspaper, but about the quirky individuals to which the title refers.

The writing is fabulous and the over-arching message poignant: most people can see each other every day at work, talk over coffee or on the way to the water cooler, even meet for lunch or date for years, and never really get to "know" one another. The Imperfectionists points to people and their tendency to make judgments about one another's characters without really spending the time to learn about their lives. This book explores the lives of very different, very flawed, individuals who talk about one another from time to time but are more fixated on their own problems and personal vendettas than they are on achieving a level of compassion for their peers. Rachman's interpretation of this environment reads less like a narrative and more like a series of short stories, all of which are touching, sad, and rather realistic.

Rating: **** (4)

Book: "What-the-Dickens" by Gregory Maguire

2011-02-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

   What-the-Dickens starts off similarly to the children's classic A Wrinkle in Time in that the scene is set during a dark and stormy night, but that is where the similarities end. From there we learn of two children and an infant listening to their chaperoning cousin Gage tell a story about skibbereen, better known as tooth fairies, and one in particular named What-the-Dickens.

   I was interested in reading this book because the idea of colonies of tooth fairies seemed unique and its contrast with the children's real world predicament: being stuck in their house during a storm with dwindling food supply, seemed like a recipe for a good urban fantasy. Additionally, I appreciated Maguire's excellent integration of political metaphor and civil rights allegory in Wicked and was hoping for the same sort of insinuations peppered throughout this book's plot.

   Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with What-the-Dickens, the writing, although not bad, was really nothing special and seemed two-dimensional enough that even I could have written it. There were also obvious incongruencies with the main tooth fairy's knowledge of the world. Maguire tried to describe him as so naive as to make certain blatantly thick assumptions, but at other times What-the-Dickens would make reference to concepts that it wouldn't make sense for him to know about or have had exposure to yet. These can all be ignored if you tell yourself that this is a story about a tooth fairy being told to children by a sleepy twenty-something cousin... but to have to do that as a reader when the "story" is the bulk of the narrative and the children's real world circumstances are never really fully fleshed out either... seems a tad lazy to me.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "Bloodroot" by Amy Greene

2011-02-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

   It took me a while to get into Bloodroot when I first started reading it. Amy Greene, like Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath, has no problem butchering the English language in the name of convincing hick-dialogue. My personal issue with this is that although it makes each character's narrative "realistic" it is so distracting trying to suppress my internal corrections to everything they're saying it's often hard for me to appreciate the story at all. If this is not a problem for you as a reader then read on.

   Bloodroot tells the story of one Myra Lamb and her life in relation to Bloodroot mountain where she grew up, and in relation to the two generations before her and the generation following her. The story is divided up between the separate life stories of her children, her parents, and her grandmother in the first part of the book and her account of her life in the second part of the book to put into context the lives of her offspring.

   The way the book is constructed is compelling in that each narrative is developed enough to keep the reader invested in each character's life as it unfolds in alternating parts, it's rare that an author is able to do this without losing the reader's interest or without the reader attaching themselves to one character in particular and simply wading through the rest of the characters until they get back to the one of actual interest.

   Also impressive is the story that Greene weaves and the tragedies that each member of the family must endure in their lifetime. By the end of the book you feel like you have a rare but very complete picture of what the family has gone through and why each has reacted as differently as they have to adversity. As much as I struggled with accepting the Appalachian slang, I couldn't help but appreciate how well it was constructed: the flow, the story, the character development. What a striking find.

Rating: ***** (5)

Film: "The King's Speech"

2011-02-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

YouTube: The King's Speech TRAILER

   After much hullaballoo over The King's Speech and an affinity for Helena Bonham Carter I decided to see the movie I thought looked good, even before all the Oscar buzz, but hadn't had the chance to see yet.

   I'm always amused by movies like this. It's as if there are five British actors in the world and every time an English-setting movie is required of the Universe the studios have these five actors on speed dial. Colin Firth is at the top of that list. Just look at Firth's list of movies in the past, do you see a trend in them at all other than "Insert Brit Here"? Unfortunately that doesn't always set these actors up for Oscar-paths but this movie certainly seems to have done it for Firth.

   The story is simple, The King's Speech is about King George VI of Britain overcoming a speech impediment in order to bolster his country's patriotism at a time when Hitler was gaining power and followers. Audiences learn how stuttering is more than just shyness, and leadership is more than just a title and a crown.

   Firth makes a convincing stutterer, Bonham Carter furrows her brow worriedly well, and Geoffrey Rush carries off the bohemian teacher easily. There was really nothing wrong with this film, but to me, there wasn't a whole lot memorable about it either. Firth handles the stutter so well that he certainly deserves an Oscar nod for Best Actor, but the film as a whole, although good and definitely worth seeing, wasn't really anything revolutionary enough for Best Motion Picture of the Year.

Rating: **** (4)

Book: "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly

2011-02-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

   Finally, a fairy tale in the true fairy tale tradition! I watched an interview author John Connolly did with Poison Pen Press a while back where he mentions how fairy tales were really about "being clever." In the true Grimm's Fairy Tale tradition, Connolly is absolutely right. I think this point has long since been lost in the media and fairy tales have been turned into these machines for trumpeting morals and "good" conquering evil, as a result these fairy tales and children's stories get ridiculed for being "idealistic" and giving children false expectations for happily ever after, et cetera. It's unfortunate because if you go back to the way fairy tales were before Walt Disney got a hold of them, they really were about being clever and how cleverness and quick-thinking can get you out of some pretty nasty situations. Isn't this a more practical use of story time? Teaching children to outsmart their enemies instead of out-love them may be cynical parenting, but it's probably more pragmatic. In my opinion, the world really is more similar to the dark and twisted Grimms tradition, there are a lot of awful, ugly situations people are confronted with and really the only way to self-preservation is using your brain and being proactive. It is in this way that young David in The Book of Lost Things finds his way after being trapped in a world of dastardly fairy tales.

   David grieves the loss of his mother and struggles with life at a new house, with a newly formed family, obsessive compulsive ticks, and the whispering lure of books. He resents his little brother and step-mother and longs for the days when his mother was still alive, it is by the sound of her voice that he is lured into a land where wolves are taking over and a Fisher King-esque ruler sits on his throne with a book of knowledge but no other evident usefulness for his kingdom. David sets out on a journey to the king for knowledge from the book on how to get home all the while building courage by outsmarting the trickster and other cruel fairy tale traps along the way.

   The Book of Lost Things was incredibly well-written, the story of David and his interactions with other sub-stories within the text was so poignant in contrast with the glimpses of the war stricken real-world, that I feel this book would do well in the hands of young readers, but resonate most with adult readers all-too-familiar with the unfairness life can throw at an individual in their quest for happiness.

Rating: ***** (5)

Book: "Soulless" by Gail Carriger

2011-02-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

   Soulless is the first book in The Parasol Protectorate, a steampunk fantasy/mystery series and was an enjoyable light-hearted amalgam of Victorian era British stereotypes (there are more "tea times" and treacle pudding mentions in this book than you could shake a stick at), Miss Marple-esque plots, and feminist tones.

   The narrative follows Miss Alexia Tarabotti, a young british woman, although not very young anymore by British marital standards, who has resigned herself to spinsterhood due to her strong Italian nose and even stronger-willed temperament. She also is without a soul, which doesn't mean very much because she still has feelings, emotions, and morals (although at times flexible morals where proper-ladies are concerned, she doesn't mind reading even the most graphic of her father's library collection), but as one of the rare "soulless" she is known as a "preternatual," a person whose lack of soul neutralizes supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves. Trouble starts when she is confronted by a vampire unaware of her preternaturalness which causes her to stake him in a hurry and send the vampire community into a tizzy over who the rogue vampire might have been and why he was not informed of her nature before going out to feed.

   This book is a quick and entertaining read and something I would classify as a good "beach read" or "summer read," as much of it consists of Alexia acting agitated and flouting societal expectations for her own amusement.

Rating: *** (3)

Film: "No Strings Attached"

2011-02-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

YouTube: No Strings Attached TRAILER In the wake of Black Swan's recent success Natalie Portman stars alongside Ashton Kutcher in this contemporary-themed romantic comedy that explores the "friends with benefits" relationship idea between one quirky but career-minded Emma who doesn't have time or energy to maintain a lovey-dovey relationship in conjunction with a demanding job as a doctor, and Adam, a recently dumped aspiring television series writer in need of a little female attention. The two have bumped into each other at odd times in their lives and share mutual college friends, so they've made small talk and exchanged numbers but they've never bonded so much as to introduce emotional complications if they were to "use each other for sex."

I was extremely excited for this movie, I enjoy a good rom-com especially when it promises to be more realistic and witty and less sappy and over-idealized. Being a loyal Portman fan and harboring a secret crush on Kutcher helped bolster my enthusiasm after viewing the well-edited trailer. Unfortunately, there were a few aspects about this movie that did end up disappointing me, namely the trailer, which gave away almost every single comedic line and every memorable moment. Sadly, the marketing campaign for this movie didn't stop with just the one trailer but released two or three more, including an R rated version, so that I'm willing to bet if you took all the released trailers, cut them to pieces and re-edited them together you would have the entire movie right there for viewing pleasure. It is for that reason that I cannot tell you that my feeling that the film was "choppy" in flow is a legitimate critique or whether I was simply waiting anticipating the next trailer-used scene to pop up immediately without having to wait through the odd minute-and-a-half lag for one of the characters to tie their shoe first.

That said, I think what ended up carrying this film for me was the chemistry between the lead characters. The Kutcher/Portman match-up is believable and the way they interact with one another on screen is so endearing it's hard to really say anything too awful about this film other than to suggest renting it instead of seeing it in theatre or if you must see it in theatre try to avoid watching any of the trailers circulating the web prior to show-time.

Rating: *** (3)

Film: "The Fighter"

2011-01-13T00:08:00.000-08:00

YouTube: The Fighter TRAILER

   David O. Russell's The Fighter explores the careful balance individuals must keep in order to succeed in life and the obstacles they have to fight through in order to reach their potential. Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) is a dedicated boxer who was first inspired as a young child by his brother Dicky (Christian Bale) who fought Sugar Ray Leonard and became known as the "Pride of Lowell," their home town in Massachussetts.

   The movie begins with Dicky and Micky hopping around Lowell practicing jabs and pumping up the neighbors about Micky's upcoming fight, but there is much to be noticed about Micky's already defeated look, after being called by boxing fans a "stepping stone" because he always loses and allows other fighters to progress on to more prestigious opponents. In contrast, Dicky is alarmingly hyper, his eyes crazed, his cheeks hollow and body emaciated, a patch of hair is missing in the back of his head. While Micky fights with his over-bearing family over the most strategic way to book fights and handle his career, his brother Dicky shows up late to train him and repeatedly disappears into a crack house to get high and reflect sadly on his long depleted career as a boxer. Charlene (Amy Adams), a bartender who Micky begins to date, sees his potential and serves as a catalyst for both change and contention among the family members.

   The acting in the movie is so superb between the three main characters, the writing so well-done, and the Bostonian accents so convincing, it almost feels more like a documentary than anything else. Everything is very stripped down and raw and the actors look like they wear little, if any, makeup. This film could have been successful just as an "underdog story" but took the genre much further by realistically portraying the everyday pressures that come with a career that puts you in a very unforgiving limelight, and can cause a person to fall from grace with a single right hook.

Rating: ***** (5)

Film: "Little Fockers"

2011-01-12T23:42:00.000-08:00

YouTube: Little Fockers TRAILER

   This movie is the third film in a group of three. The first movie to come out was Meet the Parents, followed by Meet the Fockers. Both films were slapstick comedies about the catch-22 pandaemonium that can befall any seemingly normal couple once they're trapped in a house with their in-laws. While this particular genre of comedies is far from my taste, they were none-the-less very well executed within their genre, making audience members cringe in fear as to what would go wrong next, and laugh themselves to tears once it finally did.

   Little Fockers, it was obvious however, was a movie that was mostly done "for the fans" of the first two movies. Audiences wondering what would befall Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo), once they were married and settled down, dutifully purchased tickets and filled theatre seats.

   The film itself picks up after Greg and Pam have had children and are struggling to keep their marriage "romantic" despite two obnoxious elementary school kids running around the house. Pam's sister has recently gone through a divorce with perfect-Dr. Bob (Thomas McCarthy) who had an affair, causing Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) to scrutinize Greg's devotion to Pam.

   While there are a few of the usual "misunderstandings" between Greg and Jack, as the women characters in this movie float around pointlessly and the children pull a few antics, the film is much, much milder than the first two movies on the laughs level and really only stands as a companion to the first two, but not as an individual movie in and of itself.

Rating: ** (2)

Film: "How Do You Know"

2011-01-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

YouTube: How Do You Know TRAILER

   Paul Rudd was the only reason I decided to see the obviously cliche romantic comedy How Do You Know, but unfortunately even Paul Rudd's endearing awkwardness with women and witty facial expressions couldn't hold this poorly mashed together 121 minutes of horrendously bad acting, nonsensical plots, and awful writing. There are times when I see movies and deem them not very good, but it's rare that a movie can fail so miserably in every aspect to rival the offensive quality of Gigli.

   How Do You Know begins as a story about Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a young woman who plays women's softball competitively, mentors the younger players, and reads optimistic inspirational platitudes scrawled on brightly colored sticky notes plastered all over her bathroom mirror as she brushes her teeth each morning. Lisa of course gets cut from the team due to a managerial change and a decision made by someone smart enough to realize that 'ol Lisa's getting a little long in the tooth to be bouncing around in Sofie short-shorts and sliding into home. Thus begins the existential crisis that consists of Lisa simply deciding to enroll in some masters classes and shack up with an airhead baseball player named Matty (Owen Wilson). Meanwhile, we meet George (Paul Rudd) who shows up to work and realizes he is in the middle of a large corporate scam largely due to his boss/father's own negligence. Enter Lisa and the Bermuda triangle of romance ensues.

   This film simply had too much going on, too many separate character stories that didn't intersect very well, and too many awkward silences where the actors visibly racked their brains trying to remember their lines. Where was the editing? Perhaps the most shocking is that it was edited by the seemingly capable hands of Tracy Wadmore-Smith, whose work includes American Beauty, and Richard Marks who worked on The Godfather II, You've Got Mail, and a series of other fabulous cinematic pieces. My guess is that Wadmore-Smith had more of a hand in throwing this waste of time together, American Beauty aside, she was also responsible for editing Fool's Gold... Please, please, PLEASE do not waste your time or money sitting through this movie, in the theatre or at home.

Rating: * (1)

Film: "Black Swan"

2010-12-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

YouTube: Black Swan TRAILER

   The new Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan and its lead actress Natalie Portman have been generating Oscar buzz since its premier at the Cannes Film Festival, and not without reason. This film hosts perhaps one of the more intricately woven psychological thrillers I've seen hit the big screen in the past years and is very Polanski-esque circa Repulsion as it explores the mental deterioration of a young woman, Nina, wrestling with deep sexual repression and guilt due to an overbearing mother and an inability to explore life outside of her strict ballet schedule.

   Throughout the film we see Nina's struggle with keeping her mental-emotional stability in check as she nervously bites her nails, scratches her shoulders, practices her dances until exhaustion, and deals with the constant pressure of having "perfection" be her life's goal. It isn't enough that she devotes herself completely to precision, the director of the play demands passion as well, he challenges Nina to "let herself go" but in doing so, the control that Nina has clung to so long begins to slip and delusions and paranoia begin to consume her.

   Aronofsky cleverly focuses on Nina's unraveling but also reveals the seedy underbelly of an art form long stereotyped as "graceful and feminine" when constant injuries, peer pressure, bulimia, and anorexia are often overlooked as much of it occurs behind the curtain outside of the audience's perception of the lifestyle. Black Swan is rich with dualism, psychological intrigue, and Oscar-worthy acting.

Rating: ***** (5)

Film: "The Tourist"

2010-12-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

YouTube: The Tourist TRAILER

   I wont lie and say I haven't been looking forward to seeing two of my favorite actors share the big screen for some time now, but unfortunately no matter how talented these two are, no matter how impressive their acting careers have been individually, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp make for a pretty odd on-screen couple.

   In The Tourist a seemingly innocent and feeble American math teacher named Frank finds himself mistaken for the lovely Elise's grifter boyfriend who is wanted in several countries, being tracked by the Scotland Yard for tax evasion, and tailed by mafiosos looking for the money stolen from them. Aside from the awkwardness of the Jolie/Depp chemistry, the movie itself felt so two dimensional it seeming more like a made-for-TV film than anything else.

   While Jolie does her best to show her vulnerability to match up with Depp's obvious quirkiness, the two remain leagues apart, I didn't have trouble imagining Depp's electric cigarette, spy novel-toting math teacher character having the hots for Jolie's sensual and classy femme fatale character, but trying to buy her attraction to him was a stretch to say the least. I had an easier time imagining him as her pet than her lover.

   Perhaps I've been languishing in the raunchiness of R rated films for too long, but this movie is PG 13 rated and it honestly felt G rated. I'm fairly sure more sex appeal and cussing occurred in Pixar's UP than in this movie, and while that doesn't have to be a detractor for a film by any means it's just another item on a long list of odd little fails that resulted in this movie. I would recommend this movie as a family or grandmother-friendly film that is only really worth renting.

Rating: ** (2)

Book: "The Gates" by John Connolly

2010-12-02T20:11:00.000-08:00

   I picked up a copy of The Gates while getting lost in the new layout of the Barnes & Noble section and finding myself in the mystery section. It seems I wasn't the only person to get lost... The Gates is not in any way, shape, or form a mystery. The Gates is a lighthearted Fantasy story about an eleven-year-old named Samuel who likes to challenge adults' expectations of children by bringing up philosophical arguments during show-and-tell time and trying to apply carelessly prescribed advice like "show initiative" to Trick-or-Treating by arriving at neighbors' houses in costume looking for sweets days early. It is during one of these unsuccessful Trick-or-Treating escapades that Samuel spies his neighbors and their friends circled up in dark robes in their basement and (out of boredom) accidentally opening the gates of Hell. I pictured the scene from Polanski's Rosemary's Baby where all the elderly otherwise harmless-seeming folks gather to summon Satan.

   Samuel spends much of the book trying to find an adult, or anyone for that matter, to help him avoid the evil creatures escaping from the portal all while evading the demons out to get him and befriending one kind demon who takes a hankering to driving fast cars and munching on jelly beans.

   I've never read anything by Connolly before so I don't know that all of his writing is this way, but at least with this book, think Terry Pratchett meets Lemony Snicket. If you're familiar with either of those authors you've probably already guessed what I'm referring to: witty footnotes. With these authors you can almost hear their under-the-breath chuckles as they type out little jokes and witty commentary on their own writing, smiling to themselves with how clever they are and lovingly slipping the pages of their manuscript into a mailbox to be shipped to their editors. Yet they are witty, and they make the reader chuckle too, so we can excuse them for their moments of self-indulgence and happily enjoy their humorous musings while their plots progress.

Rating: **** (4)

Book: "Full Dark House" by Christopher Fowler

2010-11-29T16:18:00.000-08:00

   John May upon discovering Arthur Bryant, his long-time partner in solving crimes, has met his demise in an explosion that demolishes their offices at the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London, sets off to uncover evidence of fowl play linked to the very first case they solved together, a string of Greek myth themed theatre murders that took place during the Blitz of World War II.

   Much of the book's story is based in May's memories of their first case which begins with May and Bryant meeting in their early 20s and arguing over how best to solve the case of the murdered ballerina with missing feet and hemlock poisoning. Bryant prefers far-fetched hypothesis formulated through the help of clairvoyants and academia while May constantly champions the merits of logical thinking and evidence-based reasoning.

   While I am by no means an avid mystery genre reader, I stumbled upon this book and was immediately drawn to it, not because of the story (which was okay but at times unrealistic) and not because of character development (we find out very little about the characters other than their basic personality types and vices) but because of how well it is written, in comparison to most mystery novels I have read, which tend to rely too heavily on cliche expressions.

   Full Dark House is a deftly written mystery that keeps its audience intrigued primarily in how each chapter is constructed. The chapters are short, witty, and succinct but also end on cliff hangers, teasers, and ominous foreshadowing statements. For this reason alone I enjoyed reading the story and feel I can rely on the author's abilities to keep my interest in the next novel in the series.

Rating: **** (4)

Film: "Morning Glory"

2010-11-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

YouTube: Morning Glory TRAILER

   I went to the cinema expecting Morning Glory to be exactly what it seemed: a version of The Devil Wears Prada at best or at worst a version of Post Grad. What I ended up getting was a very intelligent and largely hysterical movie that incorporates some amazing acting and a very relevant story that spans the age groups of 20-somethings struggling to make a career for themselves and 50-somethings trying to forge new meanings for their lives.

   Rachel McAdams does some of her best acting. While I have loved her effervescent persona since The Notebook's success, I hadn't really seen much in the way of creative acting from her aside from playing the bitchy queen bee in Mean Girls. For the most part she's been playing the normal love-interest woman in films. She has done it well, but that was about as much as I expected her to do with this role as well. I was pleasantly surprised.

   For the first time in a while I finally saw a "workaholic" character played realistically. Good job McAdams. She plays the main character, Becky, who is a high strung current events junkie who spends every ounce of her energy on her dream career of being a morning show TV producer. And as an audience we believe it. Becky doesn't just walk around with a suffering love life and circles under her eyes, she spastically walks into doors and bumps her head on lamps when in social situations, gushes to potential employers about how much she believes in her job, sprints like a maniac and jumps up and down when she has an idea, and flips through news channels on several different television monitors while keeping one eye on her Blackberry's update feed. We see her shoveling health foods in her mouth while reading a newspaper and pouring packet after packet of Emergen-C vitamin immunity supplement in glasses of water and chugging it, at one point she straight up pours the vitamin powder in her mouth like a pixi stick, and we know that it's not so much about wanting to be healthy as never wanting to take a sick day from work.

   In an effort to save an ailing morning show's ratings Becky casts broadcast news legend Mike Pomeroy as the new co-host. As crazily gung-ho as Becky is, Mike Pomeroy is the exact opposite. He is bitter, rude, condescending, and spends much of his time discrediting the show's seriousness, talking about the historical stories he has covered in the past and the pulitzers he will line his coffin with, and glaring hostilely into the camera. While the two characters butt heads and contrast in almost every way, they also create a very poignant and symbiotic working relationship.

   While I anticipated this film to be good, I did not anticipate laughing to the point of oxygen deprivation each time Becky would toss the poor meteorologist into a life-threatening situation in order to improve ratings, or to be overcome by the emotional bond between two people that a frittata can illustrate.

Rating: ***** (5)

Book: "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley

2010-11-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

   I have been a Robin McKinley fan since sixth grade when I read her Newbery award winning The Hero and the Crown while on a particularly lengthy road trip to Oregon with my parents. McKinley has a very traditional fantasy-writing style. I can best describe her writing as akin to a medieval tapestry with layers of detailed attention paid to all the furry woodland creatures hiding among the scenery and all the individual leaves on the trees represented. McKinley spends much of the time building up the environments in her books, much of what she writes she does so as side notes about some long forgotten political unrest the kingdom had overcome in such-and-such era and the gossip that once surrounded so-and-so-tertiary character. None of it is really significant to the plot and most of it is never even mentioned again for the rest of the book, but these details and back-stories effectively root the reader in the fantasy world. Sunshine follows this same pattern.

   This book was actually recommended to me by well-known librarian Nancy Pearl. From what else I had heard of it, Sunshine was to be a vampire book for non-vampire literature fantasy readers. It is the only vampire book that McKinley has written, in fact McKinley typically sticks to fairy tale-esque novels, so I was interested to read her take on the sub-genre.

   Sunshine tells the story of a young baker named Rae who is abducted by vampires one night and must fight for her life and draw upon long-forgotten magical powers in order to do so. Her character is interesting in that she is the anti-vampire. She draws her powers from the sunlight, something that makes her an interesting contrast when interacting with the vampires themselves.

   This novel proved itself a page-turner for the escapist fantasy reader, as many of McKinley's other books were for me, and I found Rae's character and the story itself to be a refreshingly original one. McKinley avoided the typical cliches of vulnerable love-stuck females and spunky vampire hunters and instead focused on a woman who is as unique as she is average. My only critique of Sunshine would be that not much occurs as far as plot, in fact only three real events occur in the 405 pages, much of the rest written is discussion of said events, details about Rae and her thoughts, or back-story on the world in which she lives. By no means is any of this detrimental to the success of the book however, and I highly recommend Sunshine to anyone looking for something between Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire.

Rating: **** (4)

Event: San Francisco Trolley Dances Tour

2010-11-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

I decided last minute to attend the San Francisco Trolley Dances after it was mentioned to me by a friend. I had never heard of this production and thought it seemed too odd to miss. The performances themselves covered a wide range of styles from trendy musical numbers, interpretive modern dances, to ethereal contact juggling to very traditional asian cultural dances. In short there was a little bit of something for everyone.

I will say that I am NOT an interpretive dance person. I can't help but think of the interpretive dance scene in She's All That and chuckle to myself. But that's most likely because I am too culturally ignorant to enjoy interpretive dancing. However, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the contact juggling dancer and the Joe Goode Performance Group with their very moving and well-executed dance number illustrating gay struggle for acceptance within a heterosexual society. Overall, considering the fact that admission was free, I found the Trolley Dances to be a lovely event to be shared with friends on a beautiful day in the city.

This was a nice activity that I recommend to anyone in the bay area, or perhaps tourists, looking for a some good free entertainment. For more information you can visit Kim Epifano's website.

Rating: *** (3)

Book: "The Story Sisters" by Alice Hoffman

2010-11-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

   Alice Hoffman is one of those wonderful authors that I trust completely with my reading time. I have read several books and never get tired of her beautiful prose, her well-constructed characters and their interactions, or her subtle magical realism undercurrents that add to each story she weaves without distracting from the relationships being explored.

   As with most Alice Hoffman novels traditional female mother/daughter/sister relationships are unpacked in this tale about three sisters and their mother and how their family changes based on a single traumatic event kept secret. The Story Sisters is much darker than Hoffman's usual novels but the tragedies that unfold for the four women all connect with each other in a tapestry of realistic life-struggles without losing the overall Hoffman feel in their undertaking.

   While the story is dark, and at times weighs on the heart of the reader, the characters are so well defined in themselves that their narratives continue to engage the reader. The Story Sisters is rich with imagination and at times reminded me of Guillermo del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth in that the stark contrasts drawn between a fairy tale world and the cold, harsh reality of the real world, illustrate perfectly the mental/emotional unrest felt when growing up and finding one's place in society.

Rating: ***** (5)

Film: "Inception"

2010-07-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

YouTube: Inception TRAILER

   Leonardo DiCaprio. That's all you really need to know about Inception. Even watching the trailer for this movie I felt like I was watching Leonardo DiCaprio run across the screen shouting "Out of my way I'm Leonardo DiCaprio and I'm acting here!" The film Inception is perfect for DiCaprio's expansive screen presence in that its story-line is almost entirely focused on his character, Cobb, and his illegal mind-spelunking of individuals and inner-wrestling match with a guilty subconscious.

   Inception also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer and 10 Things I Hate About You) as Cobb's partner/side-kick, Arthur, and Ellen Page (Whip It and Juno) as Ariadne, a college Architecture student who gets roped into Cobb's project and seems a little too enthusiastic for someone who just found out she is to be part of a criminal brain commandeering. But really, who cares? All the actors and their characters are replaceable, like I picked up from the trailer, the movie was all about Cobb.

   Nonetheless, the film keeps your mind sharp, I couldn't help but feel like I was doing push-ups with my brain while singing the alphabet backwards as I watched Cobb explain how in the science fiction world the movie takes place in, people have learned to enter other people's dreams and manipulate their subconscious.

   Meanwhile we try to figure out why Cobb is estranged from his children (who stay with their grandfather: oh hey there Michael Caine... did you wander onto this movie set by accident? Here, have a couple lines and play the disapproving grandfather). Did I mention Cobb's wife is dead but is very much alive in his dreams? We bump into her a lot as the plot progresses.

   Inception culminates when Cobb accepts a job in trying to plant an idea in a business man's brain in order to compel him to make a decision to sell his multi-billion dollar corporation and thus cause Cobb's employer to pick up on a nice chunk of change. Cobb of course ropes all his associates into doing the job without telling them that his own dreams might jeopardize their lives in the process. Pandaemonium ensues as the troupe of dream-jumpers dive deeper into the businessman's brain. With each layer of subconsciousness they penetrate, the audience's eyes cross more and more. Many of the "twists," and especially the ending, are the same canned "twists" we've seen used all too frequently, but the film itself I would not say is a waste of money.

   Inception will keep your mind engaged, your eyes entertained, and your summer movie expectations intact.

Rating: *** (3)

COM 360 Video Project

2010-03-12T10:28:00.001-08:00

Film: "Shutter Island"

2010-03-03T00:25:00.000-08:00

YouTube: Shutter Island TRAILER

A huge fan of The Departed and The Aviator, I eagerly attended the University of Washington campus’ premier of Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese’s newest film Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. I entered after an intriguing trailer promised a psychological thriller well worth my two hours and 18 minutes.

My expectations were far from met.

While I would not classify Shutter Island as a bad film, the directing, mise-en-scene, and acting were all well done as per usual for Hollywood’s award winning director/actor-duo Scorsese & DiCaprio, however the plot and ending left much to be desired.

Shutter Island begins with a scene of Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed, Revolutionary Road) vomiting, presumably from seasickness, while on a ferry headed for the infamous “Shutter Island,” where some of the most deranged mental patients are kept under lock and key in multiple brick building asylums. Daniels is joined by his newly assigned investigation partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo, Blindness, Zodiac).

The two arrive at Shutter Island to investigate an escaped/missing patient, a young woman who lived in her own fantasy world in which she had not murdered her own children and been institutionalized.

Daniels begins having migraines and flashbacks to his time as a soldier in World War II when he and his men had uncovered a concentration camp and shot the remaining Nazis out of revenge for all the innocent murdered. While Daniels has these flashbacks the suspicious psych-ward director pops him pills to clear his headaches but refuses to cooperate in most of the questioning about the missing woman and many of the faculty hide smug grins and chuckle at all his questioning. Daniels smells a cover-up.

**SPOILER ALERT**
Oh, if only it was a cover-up. Just when Shutter Island starts to get interesting: Daniels runs into a former professor that confirms his cover-up theory, he bumps into an inmate who was once a source as to all the torture Shutter Island facilities were responsible for, and his partner goes missing, Shutter Island pulls the rug out from under the audience members by revealing that Daniels himself has been a patient at Shutter Island and that all the conspiracy theories that viewers spent the last two hours and some-odd minutes piecing together and becoming attached to were nothing more than his crazy musings. They were just defense mechanisms to repress his memories of killing his wife after she drowned their children.

Because “is it better to live like a monster, or die a good man?” he rationalizes as he is hauled off to the lobotomizing chair after he regresses back into his fairy-tale world of conspiracies, rejecting the truth of his circumstances.

While I am a fan of the whole “gotcha! Our protagonist was the nutcase after all!” twist, it only works in some circumstances. It only works if it is the tied up end to a woven sequence of events, not if it’s a cop-out for a conclusion. Nothing in Shutter Island that the audience was put through ended up being relevant. Some of Daniels’ actions made a little more sense, sure, his dislike of “all this water” for instance when he was vomiting on the ferry—he was having a physical reaction to the emotional trauma of seeing his children drowned. However most of the other events in the movie, the Rachel Solando meeting and conspiracy theory show-and-tell pow-wow in the cave, the random creepy woman who shushed him upon his arrival, his seemingly pointless assertion that his wife died of “the smoke” not “the fire” when she didn’t actually die of either because he shot her in the stomach… all of these events were the most promising and intriguing and yet none of them existed for any other reason than as filler for a faltering mind.

Yet people went wild for this movie. Why?!

Does anyone remember the same plot twist in predecessor to the silver screen, Secret Window? In that instance every single event that seemingly occurred for one reason was connected more tautly by the realization that the main character was insane. What about Memento? It all twists back onto the main character again. Same again with The I Inside. Same again with Franklyn. Except these are all examples of films that used the twist effectively, making the shocking moment when the audience discovers the truth about their main character the moment when they realize how everything in the movie has been leading them to that conclusion.

In Shutter Island’s case it was the moment I realized I had just wasted two hours to discover something that was ultimately summed up and supported in the last 18 minutes using very few of the scenes we had spent so long being exposed to.

Shutter Island is no psychological thriller.

Rating: *** (3)

Book: "The Spellman Files" by Lisa Lutz

2010-02-01T00:31:00.000-08:00

   I'll preface this by saying that traditionally I do not like mysteries. I like to be able to enjoy the story I am reading without being preoccupied by what the ending could possibly be. As a result, I read a lot of fantasy (good concurs evil, happily ever after, all very straightforward stuff here) or humor (who cares what the ending is? I'm cracking up over here!) so when I was recommended The Spellman Files I was a bit apprehensive that it was a mystery, but from what I could tell it was a more lighthearted one.

   This book (and its sequels) are mysteries yes, but there are no dead bodies, ritual murders, blackmail, or opium dens here, these are more realistic curiosity-based mysteries and they take a back-burner to what the story is really about: a hilariously paranoid and dysfunctional Private Investigator family, with focus on the protagonist and oldest daughter Isabel, aka. Izzy, former rebel turned Private Investigator. Izzy takes the reader through a hilarious run through of her family, from her nosey parents, her perfect lawyer brother, her argumentative and extreme sister, and her happily alcoholic uncle as they all try to undermine each others efforts at privacy and as Izzy tries to date as though she were a normal girl with a normal job and normal hobbies that did not involve breaking tail lights, going through FBI records, and climbing out of windows.

   When Izzy's romantic life goes awry at the hands of her meddling mother, she resolves to quit the business and move out. Her parents however, are not eager to let her escape the family business, and knowing her mystery-solving-mind wont be able to resist, they throw one last case at her. Reluctantly accepting it in order to move on with her life, Izzy finds herself investigating one last case. Meanwhile her young sister goes missing and the family panics.

   Lisa Lutz's writing style is succinct and well-timed and each chapter, sometimes flashing forward to the future after the mystery had been solved, and sometimes represented in the form of a "Case File" detailing an incident deemed revealing by Izzy as to what the outcome would end up as, The Spellman Files is an enjoyable page-turner as are its sequels, the fourth of which will be available in March 2010.

Rating: **** (4)

Film: "Sherlock Holmes"

2010-01-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

YouTube: Sherlock Holmes TRAILER

   Okay, so everyone has that select list of actors that they keep filed away in the back of their mind. The list to which I am referring is comprised of actors whose movies you will always want to see, if only for the benefit of seeing them act on screen. One of those actors on my list is Robert Downey Jr. So when I saw the trailer for Sherlock Holmes I automatically marked the movie's premier off on my calendar.

   That said, there are very few movies that surprise me. I have a very well-defined sense of what I like and discerning the merits of a film through its trailer is a talent I have long perfected. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man) was better than I expected. From the trailer I sense a story that would be full of illogical explosions, running and jumping, hokey quips from the main character, and blunders on the part of Watson (Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus). While the movie is still and action movie and still has clever lines exchanged and explosions left and right, the clever lines are nudges at both Holmes and Watson and the friendship/brotherly rivalry between the two makes it all the more entertaining. Enter Holmes' love interest Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams, The Notebook, The Time Traveler's Wife) and together the three make a dynamic group of unlikely friends verbally cutting at each other while saving each other from harms way in the process of trying to solve and incredibly convoluted mystery that only Holmes' explanations is able to clear up.

   The adventure begins with Holmes and Watson preventing the ritualistic murder of a young girl at the hands of the sinister Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong, Syriana, Young Victoria). Blackwood is arrested and months later Watson and Holmes attend his execution, Watson to proclaim him dead after the hanging, Holmes to see the Lord as per his dying request. Blackwood whispers ominously that three more will die after he dies. Watson later proclaims Blackwood dead after the audience sees his foot finally cease twitching and the body cold and limp. Holmes is then surprised by Irene Adler, a woman who it is hinted he shares much history, and who is the only person truly able to outsmart him. Adler bequeaths to him a case of a missing red-headed midget whose body later turns up in the empty grave where Blackwood has just recently been laid to rest. Curious as to her employer, Holmes is only able to glimpse a man in the carriage with a shrouded figure, likely a professor from the looks of his chalk-smudged garment. The plot gets thicker as Holmes, Watson, and Adler team up to uncover the truth behind, murders, midgets, and a Mr. Moriarty.

   Perhaps the best part of this movie is that some mysteries are left to be solved in the sequal.

Rating: **** (4)

Book: "Smoke and Mirrors, Short Fictions and Illusions" by Neil Gaiman

2009-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

   I have a very conflicted relationship with Neil Gaiman's writing. I cannot possibly tell you how many people have gotten to know me, and my preference toward dark fantasies and dry British witicisms when looking for a new book to read, and shrieked, "Oh! You'd love anything by Neil Gaiman." I was first told this a couple of years ago by a then co-worker who was one of those chatty-Kathys that even the iciest glare wont deter. Convinced that I would love Neil Gaiman she took an early lunch break and ran out to buy a copy of Neverwhere and Stardust for me to read, fall in love with, thank her for profusely, and possibly become inspired to name a future offspring after her in gratitude. Things did not exactly work out as planned. I started Neverwhere that night, excited after having read the blurb on the back and intrigued by the story idea immediately. The book proved very hard to get into. While the story idea was good and made me want to enjoy the book so earnestly that I kept reading 'til the end I just could not get invested and found various elements underdeveloped and his writing clunky, at times overly melodramatic, and awkward in the same manner I find many of the short stories I wrote in middle school to be. You can tell the writer thinks he's being foreboding and ominous but instead all he is doing is provoking an eye roll.

   After the Neverwhere fiasco I avoided his books like the plague until one rainy day at college in Seattle, after my roommates had left for the weekend and our godforsaken TV had gone on the fritz once more, I picked up Stardust in bored desperation. Stardust proved to be one of the best fantasies/fairy tales I have ever read (and believe you me: I have read many). I zipped through the book in an afternoon and sat staring at the cover and the hardly-cracked spine wishing there were more fantasies out there like it. If I had to liken Stardust to anything I would say the writing and the plot fall within the same vein as William Goldman's The Princess Bride and Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain.

  Excited by the promise of Neil Gaiman once more I picked up a copy of American Gods, liking again the concept of the story from what I read on the jacket summary. Sadly, I once more found the same problem with his writing as I had found in Neverwhere and decided that perhaps Stardust had been a lucky fluke. I gave up on him again for a while.

   About a week ago stopping in at the University Bookstore to peruse the Bargain Bins while the storm let up a little I came upon Smoke and Mirrors. "Okay" I thought, "It's an anthology, which means each lousy story is likely only two or three pages so I can probably get through it quickly, it's only five bucks, and I need something to read anyway..." I bought the book with low expectations and heading back to my apartment it occurred to me that at the very least I could write my next blog review on it and in that respect have motivation to get through it if it proved awful.

   There are a few unique aspects of this anthology. One is that its Introduction is actually something that you need to read as it has one of his stories hidden within it and it also gives a little blurb about what inspired him to write each of the subsequent stories in the book and the other is that the book was not written as an anthology, so the stories are all written at different times in his life, about different topics and were only thrown together for the purpose of publishing this book. Most of the stories have the same poor-writing problem and a few are so close to good it's irritating "Would it have killed the guy to re-write this story at least one more time? It would have been good if he'd cleaned up some of these sentences which are glaringly distracting me from the plot development!" However as I was reading I'd come across the rare gem that made the whole experience somewhat redeemable. In case you plan on reading this book, pay particular attention to the stories, "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories," "Changes,""Shoggoth's Old Peculiar," "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale," "Foreign Parts,""Mouse," "Babycakes,""Murder Mysteries," and "Snow, Glass, Apples."

   I'm feeling positive tonight, so let's focus on the best part of this book, the very last story: "Snow, Glass, Apples." Up until this story I was planning on giving the book a very luke warm rating because although the other redeemable stories I mentioned were good, they weren't good enough in my opinion to carry the whole book, "Snow, Glass, Apples" was. The story, as you probably guessed just from the title, as I did before reading it, is a re-telling of "Snow White." You'll probably also guess, as I did, that it's from the evil witch's point of view, recognizing that Gaiman typically has a soft spot for the macabre tale. The story was much more unique than I anticipated however. Let's think about it for a moment, who does the character of Snow White remind us of in description? Pale white skin, black as ebony hair, blood coloured lips... If you were thinking 'vampire' then you're absolutely right. And that's all I'm going to tell you as to the details. That said, if, somewhere out there, Neil Gaiman gets wind of this blog and reads this entry here is my pearl of wisdom to him: Neil, I read in the interview at the end of the book that some time ago you flirted with the idea of making "Snow, Glass, Apples" into a movie but that it would prove far too costly. Well, the time has come Neil to make the splurge and turn "Snow, Glass, Apples" into a dark fairy tale vampire flick that will thrive in the current vampire-frenzied climate of today's Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, The Vampire's Assistant, Underworld, Cirque du Freak and 30 Days of Night. Run, don't walk Neil, to your nearest phone and give Guillermo Del Toro a ring.

Rating: *** (3)

Film: "New York, I Love You"

2009-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

YouTube: New York, I Love You TRAILER

   Recently I have been low on money due to increased tuition and rent and have been unable to go to the cinema as often as I would like. However, after stumbling upon the trailer for New York, I Love You, I couldn't help but clear my weekend schedule and scrape together some ticket money. One of the major draws for this movie was its cast, can't-go-wrong-actors like Natalie Portman (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Professional), Ethan Hawke (Fast Food Nation, Great Expectations), Julie Christie (Finding Neverland, Doctor Zhivago), guilty-pleasure-actors like Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Carribean, The Lord of the Rings), Christina Ricci (Speed Racer, The Addams Family), and Hayden Christiensen (Jumper, Life as a House), alongside a slew of other well-knowns like Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Holes), Chris Cooper (Syriana, October Sky), and Robin Wright Penn (Beowulf, The Princess Bride). Usually an A/B-list-heavy cast for a film does not bode well to me, too many cooks in the kitchen is what I always find, however I saw the potential New York had in its decidedly Love, Actually-esque-multiple-romances-somewhat-indie-feeling trailer and resolved to give it a chance.

   I should have done a little research before going to this movie, usually I do, but in my defense: I had not been to a movie in a WHILE and I was a tad over-eager. Later, I learned that New York, I Love You is part of a sequence of movies about love-related stories contributed by multiple writers & directors with a common environment (the other movie before this one was Paris, Je t'aime).

   New York, I Love You was an interesting surprise from what I expected based on the trailer, the film was formatted like a J.D. Salinger anthology to be honest: multiple characters, all very layered, appearing in very short, very different stories often incorporating some sort of jarring/unanticipated occurrence. Sometimes the stories had obvious cultural-societal critiques stirring beneath the surface while others were harder to place. Some of the characters reappeared in various stories, but not always. Overall, the movie gave the audience the feeling that one has if they were to peek through a peep hole into someone's life, only for a moment, with no contextual knowledge of the situation they are witnessing. Some people have trouble with stories like this, Salinger-esque stories that seem "pointless" but are really so telling once you sit down and absorb them and analyze what sort of things must have happened, before you glimpsed a snippet of this character's life, in order for them to escalate to this scene. For a while I left the theatre scratching my head over what a couple of the stories were really about, wondering whether I even liked the format of the film at all, and then finally admitting that I might buy it on DVD in the future. While some of the dialogue was a little clunky in a couple of the stories, the film as a whole made an impression on me, the stories and the images they instilled resonating with me days later.

Rating: **** (4)

Welcome!

2009-10-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hello there, I'm Kat! As this is my first-ever blog post I just thought I would let you know what "The Monthly Kat Scan" is all about. I have created this blog as an outlet for the many opinions (positive and negative alike) that bubble up every time I experience a new book, film, play, or TV show. I find myself constantly badgering my friends about what book they should read, what movie isn't worth the inflated ticket prices, or what new shampoo makes my hair the shiniest. I shall badger no more! From now on I will try to limit nagging by simply posting reviews on this blog. If you find you agree with some of my assessments I encourage you to keep returning to this page to see what new things I've tried out that you might enjoy! Also note that I have written many a review for newspapers and online webzines in the past so I will try to reproduce the quality of prose that I put forth in those efforts in order for this medium to some day boast the same level of legitimacy. Thanks for clicking by!