Reading Roundup!

Clearly I have fallen behind on updating! Having recently gotten 2 adorable kittens, I have found myself very easily distracted!

Here is the rundown on recent reads:

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak
The first in a trilogy about Catherine the Great, this novel covers Catherine's arrival in Russia and her eventual taking of the throne.  Really well written novel about a very interesting period of time and a fascinating woman!  I really liked how Stachniak told the story form the perspective of Varvara, a maid turned spy in the palace.  A really excellent read!

Maus I + II by Art Spiegelman
Moving, funny, shocking, wonderful....just a few words to describe Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece. The graphic novel style is perfect in telling us the two joining stories of Spiegelman's relationship with his father in recent times and his father's story as a Jew during the Holocaust.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
My second novel by Willis and her second in her Oxford Time Travel novels.  This one took me a little longer to get into (I found that it started much slower than The Doomsday Book) but I also really liked this book.  Set in Victoria England and involving the misadventures of two time traveling historians, a mischievous cat, and a whole slew of well written character.  I'm excited to read more by her!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I have heard lots about Green and what an amazing author he is so I decided to read is latest novel.  Wow, this guy is good! I don't think I have ever read teen based dialogue that I actually find believable and not just annoying!  This book was an emotional roller coaster! I laughed, I cried, I felt it all!  Definitely worth a read and this has convinced me to pick up his earlier novels.

“I gasp, and I'm Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he's the serpent, and I cannot resist.”

After hearing so much buzz about Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, the erotic ebook phenomenon that seems to be taking the world by storm, I felt that I had to join the party and get the 411 on this.  Let me just say....oh my....I had a friend as me what I thought of the book / was it as scandalous as all the press was saying and my answer was yes, yes it is.  The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to another literary phenomenon, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  Now if you have read that series, thing about what it is about, the general storyline, characters, etc...Now take out all the supernatural elements....and in place of all the longing, sexually charged looks between Bella and Edward add a whole lotta kinky sex (and I do mean kinky!).  While the writing is not stellar and the story is somewhat predictable (except the ending which I didn't see coming, especially since there are two more books in the series) it was an enjoyable read and I can see why women everywhere are getting all hot and bothered across the globe.  I will read the next two books because at this point I really need to see what other shocking things Ana and Christian get into.  Curiosity has definitely gotten the best of me.

Vacation Reads

I was recently on my Honeymoon and spent two and a half glorious weeks traveling around Paris, Venice, and Florence.  Besides seeing epic works of art, drinking delicious wine, and basking in the sun, I also did a lot of reading!

 Here was my favourite place to read: (can you blame me for wanting to spend lots of time here?!)

Here is the lineup that I got through during my vacation:

Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward
Not my favourtie in the series but I did like seeing a female vampire and a human male as the main characters since most of the series has been the other way around.  As per usual, lots of sexy time which equals a perfect plane read!

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
I had never heard of Connie Willis until I picked up one of her books on a whim at work...and discovered that she won both the Hugo and the Nebula for this book...WHAT?! How did I not know about her!  I had this on my Kobo for awhile and this trip seemed like the perfect time to read it.  WOW!  I loved this book.  While classified as Science Fiction (what with all the time traveling going on) it also is very much a historical novel (what with a historian from the mid 21st century being sent to the Medieval Ages).  It was moving, humourous, informative, and very believable.  This is the first novel Willis wrote about time travelers from Oxford and I will definetly be picking up the other three that she has written about this topic (note these are not sequels but books that take place in the same universe).

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I had read The House at Riverton sometime ago and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this novel of Mortons (especially since many people called this one her better book!).  What a brilliant novel!  Beautifully written, emotionally stirring, and wonderfully imagined, I was gripped from page one (ask my husband, I quite literally wouldn't leave the rooftop garden until I was done reading it the next day).  I love how Morton weaves mystery into her novels and keeps me guessing right up to the big reveal.  I was thinking about the story days after finishing which I find is always the sign of a good read.  I'm looking forward to reading her latest novel!

The Orchid Affair / The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig
I had been saving Willig's newest novel for this trip, as well as rereading the one before to do a quick catchup on the integral plot points.  The Orchid Affair was once again excellent and The Garden Intrigue didn't disappoint either.  I liked the pairing of Augustus and Emma for most of the story though I did start to waver near the end...the eventual 'hook-up' wasn't quite what I was hoping for but oh well!  I'm also really looking forward to wear Willig will take the Eloise / Colin plot line which gets better and better with each book!

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
Lancaster's first memoir and the only one I hadn't read! It was interesting reading this one after having read all her other memoirs because it introduced 'rich, VP Jen' which is someone I had only had glimpses of.  I found this one much more moving, reading about her and husband Fletch's fall from the top after the economic crisis from the early 2000's and all the troubles they went through.  Lancaster biting wit and honest voice is as present here as in her other memoirs and I loved reading her story.  She is fast becoming my favourite non-fiction author.  Many rereads of all her wonderful memoirs are in my future.

“Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.”

I don't know how many times I have picked up Kathyrn Stockett's debut novel, The Help, at bookstores.  I read the back, flip through the pages and thought....ehh, maybe another time.  I just couldn't seem to get excited about reading it for some reason.  Maybe because every other person I talked to (especially when I was at work at the bookstore) was telling me I HAD to read it! It would change my life! Maybe it was just to popular for me to get excited about since everyone else was excited about it.  While the topic peaked my interest, I just kept thinking it was going to be a downer read and that I didn't wanna go there. 
The other day I was having a really hard time trying to pick a book to read, nothing peaked my interested!  I was at work and I picked up The Help and thought to myself, 'oh what the hell, I might as well give it a go.'  I think that this quote by YA author Margaret Stohl (co-author of Beautiful Creatures) on her reading experience with The Help sums it up best: "It's really almost horrible when those books everyone loves turn out to be worthy of all the adoration. But it does."
 This book was amazing and I quite literally didn't put it down until I finished it (took me from one evening to the next). So moving and emotional, the stories of Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter tell the reader of these three amazing women and how they take a chance and take a stance; they tell the truth.  This was such a pleasure to read and I'm so glad I finally got around to it!  I will have to rent the Oscar nominated film and see how it compares!

Long Live the Queen!

I have always been interested in the royal family, especially the Queen (how can one not love her snappy outfits with her excellent hats and handbags!) so when I saw that a new biography on the life of Elizabeth the second came out this year (in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee coming up!) I immediately got a copy from my local library.  Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith is a wonderful read about a woman who has lived a very long and unique life. Starting with her childhood and going right up to the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the life of the Queen is fully covered and ranges from topics such as politics, family, friendships, and her long time relationship with Prince Phillip.  I really enjoyed the fact that despite it's size (600 pages!) and topic, this biography was very easy to read.  It is written in a style that not only gives us lots of information but also feels personal (Smith adds lots of of entertaining anecdotes which really liven up the story and make the Queen a much more relate able figure).  An added bonus is the number of photographs that are included.  Elizabeth II is amazing; mother, grandmother, wife, woman and monarch are just a few of her titles.  If you are interested in learning more about her and the royal family in general then I really recommend reading this!

“You've won the evolutionary lottery: You're a vampire. Let's go to Disneyland!”

I recently discovered the delightful paranormal romance writer J.R. Ward and I have been working my way through her Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  The series focuses on six vampire brothers and warriors who live together and defend their race against Lessers, de-souled humans who threaten their kind.  Each book is centered around one of the vampire warriors, starting with the leader of the Brotherhood, Wrath, in the first book Dark Lover.  Such a entertaining, funny, and sexy as hell series!  Ward creates an interesting and engaging vampire culture and characters.  A great series to curl up with on a rainy day....or whenever!

Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward

1. Dark Lover (Wrath's Story)
2. Lover Eternal (Rhage's Story)
3. Lover Awakened (Zsadist's Story)
4. Lover Revealed (Butch's Story)
5. Lover Unbound (Vishous' Story)
6. Lover Enshrined (Phury's Story)
7. Lover Avenged (Rhevenge's Story)
8. Lover Mine (John Matthew's Story)
9. Lover Unleashed (Payne's Story)

"Why do the people I love always leave me?"

My Week With Marilyn is a wonderfully comical, touching, and informative story of author Colin Clark's time spent working on the movie The Prince and the Showgirl in the 1950's.  The majority of the book is Clark's account of the goings on (both on and off camera) while the movie is being filmed.  This section provides a really interesting view of the world of film making, especially in his accounts of the major problems created by the film's two big stars, Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier.  The second part of the book was published at a later date and is where a lot of the interest in the book lies.  In the original publication of this memoir, Clark writes a journal entry almost every day, with the notable exception of one missing week in September during the filming.  This missing week is what is covered in the last section of the book and where the memoir got the title, My Week With Marilyn.  Without giving anything away, the descriptions of Monroe are really quite heartbreaking.  Clark show her as a very fragile and somewhat emotionally unstable woman.  She had just entered into her third marriage with play write, Arthur Miller, and was outside the USA filming the movie that she thought would finally paint her as a serious actress.  A very well written memoir and one that provides an interesting insight into the famous blonde bombshell.

My Week With Marilyn has been turned into a film starting Michelle Williams as Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Olivier.  I haven't seen it yet but I think they did a wonderful job casting and look forward to seeing it in the future!  Here is the trailer for the film:

"Pound for pound, Warwick Davis is one of the funniest men I know" - Ricky Gervais

I found out that Warwick Davis had put out a biography completely by accident.  I was surfing around Amazon and it was recommended as something I would enjoy.  At its discovery I got so excited I immediately went to the library and had it specially ordered in (Such an amazing library feature!) so I could read it.  For those of you that are wearing confused faces wondering who on earth is Warwick Davis, I will tell you! Or better yet, I will show you:

Ohhh that guy!! Yes, Warwick Davis has been in A LOT of movies (this is just an assortment!)!  Since he has been in several of my favourite movies (Star Wars, Willow, Harry Potter) I have always been a fan of his and was very excited to find out more about his career.
Davis' book is a great read for not only fans of his work but also for fans of movies and the process of making them.  He recalls many anecdotes from his times on and off the set, from the trecerous slide down a snowy hill will Val Kilmer during Willow, to visiting George Lucas during the last day of filming of the third Indiana Jones film (the infamous rats scene!), and to Mark Hamill graciously giving an 11 year old Davis the entire Star Wars toy collection.
Not only is Warwick Davis an excellent story teller but you can also tell that he really loves what he does for a living and is very proud of all the films he has worked on.

Literary Sidenotes

I meant to post this awhile ago when it was first released by AbeBooks.  It gives a really nice and comprehensive summary of a number of literary based news throughtout 2011.  A fun way to look back on the past year!
A Literary Review of 2011

And on the other side of the spectrum, I recently discovered that the British literary magazine, Literary Review, gives an annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award! This yearly tradition started in 1993 and is presented to the author who produces the worst description of a sex scene in a novel.  The rationale for such an award is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it"  I find this absolutly delightful! Check out the link below to find a list of all the past winners:
Bad Sex in Fiction Award Winners 1993-2011

And Now For Something Completly Different!

I have been reading a lot of non-fiction lately (well, a lot for me!) and have had the opportunity to read some really fantastic books.  First up was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I had seen this book everywhere and the concept for the book was one that really interested me.  Rubin tells the reader upfront that while she is considers herself to be a fairly happy person she felt that she wasn't meeting her full potential and that there were simple things she could do in her day to day life that would increase her happiness; as she puts it so perfectly, in order to change her life she doesn't have to change her life.  She manages to do this by making changes that are actually attainable and almost seem like not very life changing things at all.  Like smiling more, singing in the morning, being silly, and remembering birthdays.  So many time while reading this book, I found myself pausing and going 'huh...that doesn't sound so hard.  I bet I could do that'.  I almost found myself becoming happier the more I read; I was inspired by how an everyday person can do things that seem so small yet make such a big impact on your wellbeing.  I have taken many of Gretchen's tips and put them to good use, one in particular is the One Minute Rule (if it can be accomplished in under a minute they just do it now, don't put it off!).  A wonderfully inspiring book.

I also recently picked up Amy Chua's biography Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and got so hooked that I finished it within 24 hours.  This is the story of Chua and her decision to raise her daughters in the Chinese Way, something that is totally at odds with the Western parental style.  Here is a snipet from the book:

"A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such sterotypically successful kids.  They wonder what these parent do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and wheter they could do it too.  Well, I can tell them, because I've done it.  Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Lousia, were never allowed to do:
* attend a sleepover
*have a playdate
*be in a school play
*complain about not being in a school play
*watch tv or play computer games
*choose their own extracurricualar activities
*get any grade less than an A
*not be the #1 student in any subject except gym and drama
*play any instrument other than the pizno or violin
*not play the piazno or violin
Chinese parenting is one of the most difficult things I can think of.  You have to be hated sometimes by someone you love and who hopefully loves you, and there's just no letting up, no point at which it suddently becomes easy.  Just the opposite, Chinese parenting - at least if your'e trying to do it in America, where all odds are against you - is a never-ending uphill battle, requiring at 24-7 time commitment, resilence, and guile."

I was so fasinated by this book because it is something that I have never experienced and really did not know a lot about.  It was sometimes hard to keep an open mind about Chua's parenting style and I was often wondering if she had gone to far (for example, when she threatens to burn all her daughters stuffed animals if she doesn't go practice the piano), but all in all I feel like I learned a lot about a culture that I was unfamilar with.  A really interesting, humourous, and heartrbreaking read and one that I would definetly recommend.

Two great non-fictions books in a row! We will have to see if I can go for three!

My Best Reads of 2011

Due to moving and not having Internet, it has been quite awhile since my last post!  This is really late coming but I wanted to talk about the best books I read in 2011.  While I read so many great books last year (according to goodreads, 136) some stood out from the bunch.  Here they are, in no particular order:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
I have read so many teen books in the last few years that if often seems that I keep rereading the exact same plot with only some minor difference.  Revis' debut novel really impressed me for a number of reason, for one, that it took place in space! How cool is that?  She presented strong characters, an interesting setting, and just the right amount of mystery and potential romance.  The sequel, A Million Suns, has just hit stores and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Delerium by Lauren Oliver
I loved Oliver's book Before I Fall so I picked this one up with high expectations and wasn't disappointed.  She has created a really interesting society and one that I haven't actually seen before (which is hard to do since the dystopian theme is huge in teen fiction right now); a society that literally removes the ability to love and feel any similar emotions.  Really interesting and well written, the sequel comes out soon.

Bossypants by Tina Fey
I love Fey on 30 Rock and when she was on SNL so when I heard she had written a memoir I knew it would be delightful and lo and behold, it was.  Very funny and clever, Fey manages to pull off writing a memoir that uses its humour in a way that doesn't make every line feel like a punchline to some joke.  Loved it!

Cotillion / The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
This was the year I discovered the amazing Georgette Heyer and that alone was very very exciting.  I can't believe I hadn't read her stuff up until now and I have been doing my best to rectify this.  Cotillion was the first novel of hers I read and it definitely solidified me as a Heyer fan.  The Grand Sophy was the best Heyer I have read to date.  Both novels contain sassy, non-conformist heroines, dashing and rakish young men, balls and carriages, and meddling families and I loved every minute of it. Think of Heyer as a slightly more scandelous version of Jane Austen.  You are going to love her.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
I have read every novel that Bray has put out and have thoroughly enjoyed them all.  Beauty Queens is a stroke of genius with its satirical, and very very funny, look at the subjects of beauty pageants, reality TV, women's roles, and The Lord of the Flies.   Bray really can do no wrong with her books.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
2011 also marks the year that I discovered Deanna Raybourn which was a very very good thing.  Recommended to me by fans of Lauren Willig, Raybourn writes smart novels with fun and believable main characters (a sassy leading female and a dashing hero), great elements of mystery, interesting settings, and excellent writing.  I really recommend reading anything written by Raybourn, I have read them all now and they are all excellent.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
My only epic read of the year and it was well worth the time and energy spent with this very large novel.  I picked it up at random at the library, thinking, 'hmmm, I should probably read this'.  What a wonderful, heartbreaking, epic, tragic, and lots and lots of other wonderful adjectives, read!  I can't recommend it enough.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
I have already written about how much I loved this book so I won't go into it again.  Lets just say that I continually prowl her blog to see when her next novel comes out.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
This one was on many 'Best Reads' lists this year and it definitely deserves all the praise it got.  A wonderfully unique, engaging, and different story; I quite literally couldn't put it down until it was done.  This books stood out for me because it is so different then anything I have read and I loved it for that.  Really well written, Taylor is definitely an author I'm going to be watching from now on.