Challenge Complete: Book Blogger Recommendations

For 2015 Kristin at the Geeky Zoo Girl took over The Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge, which was hosted by Reading with Tequila but seems to have since disappeared. She put out a call for book recommendations, and then gave us at least 100 titles to choose from.

The rules are crazy simple:

1. The challenge runs from January 1st 2014 to December 31st 2015
2. There are five levels to choose from. You can increase your goal as many times as you want, or (because we all know real life happens!) you can decrease your goal once at any point throughout the year.
3. The full list of books to choose from will go up on New Year’s Eve: Click HERE
4. You don’t have to commit in advance to your choices, though of course you can plan them if you want to.

The Levels

Bronze – 3 books
Silver – 5 books
Gold – 10 books
Platinum – 25 books
Diamond – 50 books +

I signed up for the Bronze level. I thought I might do more depending on the list--but there just weren't that many on the list that I wanted to try (there were a bunch that I had already read...) I have now completed my three and fulfilled my commitment.

My books:

1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (9/19/15)

2. The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum (3/22/15)

3. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (9/28/15)

Crocodile on the Sandbank: Review

Amelia Peabody is a force of nature--a Victorian spinster armed with a more than sufficient independent income to complement her unshakable self-confidence and independent nature. Her late father (from whence comes the income) was a scholar and antiquarian who sparked an interest in Egypt in his only daughter and companion of his waning years. Amelia's brothers pretty much abandoned them, so it was only natural for Father Peabody to leave his surprisingly large estate to her. After suffering foolish suitors (with the gleam of golden riches in their eyes) less than gladly, she decides to venture to the land of the Pharaohs on her own--well, on her own with a maid and a companion. When her companion falls ill and must be shuttled back to England in the company of a handy clergyman and his wife, Amelia most fortuitously manages to rescue young Evelyn Barton-Forbes who has been seduce by an Italian rogue who abandoned her on the streets of Rome as soon as he found out her wealthy grandfather had disowned and disinherited her when she allowed herself to be "ruined."

Of course, Amelia is not put off at all by Evelyn's past--in fact her most pressing question is fairly naughty for a Victorian lady: "Tell me, Evelyn--what is it like? Is it pleasant?" Yes, our Victorian-age heroine wants to know about s-e-x. After sorting all this out*, Amelia takes Evelyn on a s companion and they head off up the Nile to visit various archaeological wonders. They make every effort to elude Alberto--the Italian lover who has mysteriously reappeared, swearing undying love and wanting her back--as well as her cousin Lord Ellesmere (who has gained the title upon their grandfather's death) who also wants to marry Evelyn.

When they reach an archaeological site at El-Armanah, they find the Emerson brothers--grumpy but dashing Radcliffe and amiable Walter--whom they had briefly met in Alexandria. Amelia becomes entranced with the dig and Evelyn and Walter become entranced with each other--but their digging expedition is interrupted by the nightly ramblings of mummy, the refusal of the locals to work on the site because of said mummy's cures, suspicious accidents, a botched kidnapping, and the disappearance of Amelia's faithful Egyptian servant. And the appearance of Lord Ellesmere only serves to confuse the issue more.  Radcliffe and Amelia become convinced that there is a plot afoot to harm Evelyn. It will take all their ingenuity to outwit the villain or villains behind the mummy's curse.

Miss Amelia Peabody's debut in Crocodile on the Sandbanks (1975) by Elizabeth Peters is delightful. She springs forth in the first chapter, fully formed and, as mentioned above, a force of nature. A force that not even the irascible Radcliffe can resist for long. She is gruff but lovable and a character that I enjoyed very much. Peters writes a very witty and easy reading mystery. It is, admittedly, much more fun than it is mystifying--how Amelia as intelligent as she is could have been hoodwinked by that...oops, that would be telling...is a bit baffling. Maybe she was distracted by her verbal sparring with Radcliffe.  Readers looking for an intricate puzzle to unravel should look elsewhere. But if you want interesting characters, a bit of Egyptian mystical mummy adventures, witty dialogue, and a great deal of fun then grab a copy and settle in for a fun read. ★★★★


*Oh...and Evelyn does answer Amelia's question: "Oh, Amelia, under the right circumstances, it is--in a word--perfectly splendid!"

This counts for the "Animal in the Title" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo Card

The Name of the Wind: Review

In which I once again thoroughly dislike a book that my bestest friend in the whole world loved and sent me as a present. I'm sorry to have to let the team down, Paula...and Ryan and Carrie and Michelle (and all my other friends who read and loved this book), but I'm just not feeling it. I wanted to. I really did. It sounded like a spectacular premise. Y'all seem to think The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss was amazing (and so did a bazillion folks on Goodreads). But...

Who doesn't give a flying fig about Kvothe, who is perfect at everything? Um...that would be me.

I spent nearly 800 pages waiting for Kvothe the Wonder Kid to impress me as much as he's impressed with himself and searched in vain for any real plot structure. Yes, I realize that this is the first book in a trilogy. But there really ought to be a sense of a story arc within this book. Here's what happened: Kvothe (pronounced like Quoth) has been living incognito as an innkeeper for the last so many years with his bestie Bast. Along comes a storyteller called Chronicler (aka Devan Lochees) who recognizes the humble innkeeper as the Awesome. Legendary. Perfectly Heroic. Kvothe. Kvothe, after a bit of wrangling, agrees to tell his story. 

So...Kvothe grows up with a troupe of performers--not just any performers: THE Greyfallow Players. Where he learns ALL the things about performing. He's the best singer and the best actor and the best...well, you get the idea. They hook up with a man Kvothe calls Ben who teaches the young man about magic and science and all things. And Kvothe learns ALL the things much faster and more perfectly than anybody else has ever done before. Until Ben falls in love and leaves the troupe. Then along come some bad guys (Chandrians, we think) and they kill everybody in Kvothe's troupe, including his parents, and almost kill Kvothe, but he's spared. 'Cause he's the hero. He goes off and lives in the woods for a while and survives because once upon a time a man traveled with them who taught the boy (he's not even 15 yet at this point in the story) ALL the things about living in a forest--how to trap and dress animals, what plants to eat, what's good for boo-boos, how to move soundlessly, blah, blah, blah.Then he moves on to a town where he has to live off the streets and he teaches himself how to beg most effectively and how to pickpocket without getting caught and how to pick locks and blah, blah blah. And he's the BEST at ALL the street-smart things. Because he is. And then...he goes off to "Magic University" (where Ben always knew he'd go and be awesome) and even though he hasn't enough money to get in and is still only about 15 he takes the entrance exam and answers ALL the things in the most perfect way possible. And they let him in as the only student ever on fellowship. Because he is AWESOME (in case you haven't been paying attention). And he learns ALL the things better than anybody else has ever learned them because...(you know, AWESOME). And--sure, he has people beat him up and he runs into a dragon-like thing and he has to rescue a girl (Because that's what the women-folk are for in this story--to have babies (specifically Kvothe's mom to have Kvothe) OR to be rescued and/or drool over Kvothe)....but he always triumphs. Why? Because he's AWESOME. There is that pesky Ambrose at the university who takes a huge dislike to our wonder boy and plots revenge--but we won't find out about that until the next 800-page book (maybe--I don't know. I haven't read it and don't plan to). And by the end of this book the plot (if you want to call it that) has gotten us exactly to this point. Wonder boy is still at university and there are hints of Ambrose's revenge to come. Ta Da!

I realize that epic heroes are a thing in fantasy. I'm good with that. BUT I might have swallowed Kvothe's awesomeness a lot easier if A. His best pal Bast had told the story and it didn't come off as Kvothe's ego trip. "I'm awesome. I've always been awesome. My whole family and the troupe and the instructors at university and just about everybody (except Ambrose) thought I was awesome."  and B. The backstory had been condensed WAY down. Give us a condensed version of Wonder Boy's history and get on with the really interesting bits that are hinted at: Who or what are the Chandrians? Why--really (I know why Kvothe decides)--did they kill Kvothe's whole troupe? What are those evil spider-like critters that are introduced at the beginning of the story and what happens NOW with Kvothe and those things? Why does the book open with Kvothe waiting to die? He seems to be only in his twenties--why not send him off on a current adventure and show us right now why he's so awesome. SHOW--don't tell us "once upon a time when he was 15" stories. 

I'm sorry. But I was completely underwhelmed by this "epic" fantasy story. Bast and the Chronicler and their interactions were WAY more interesting than Kvothe. When Kvothe first started telling his story, the actual storytelling was pretty good. I was ready to settle down and be entertained. But then when the story seemed to consist of him telling how perfect he was at learning everything--he always learned whatever it was much quicker than anybody else--and very little real action took place, Rothfuss lost me. When I finished and still didn't feel like I had even the first hints of why this character becomes SO legendary, I felt let down. I wish I had spent 700+ pages reading something else. ★★ for the hints of a good story, the occasional bursts of good prose and fair storytelling, and the few quotes that I gleaned.

Quotes
A poet is a musician who can't sing. Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart, and some men's minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens (p. 113)

My parents danced together, her head on his chest. Both had their eyes closed. They seemed so perfectly content. If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world, then you're lucky. Even if it only lasts a minute or a day. (p. 120)

There's no good story that doesn't touch the truth. (p. 202)

I made my choice and I regret it to this day. Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.

Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.

The Poisoner's Handbook

Contrary to expectations from the title, this is not a how-to book on the disposal of all those extra, annoying, moneyed people (who have willed you their goodies) in your life. The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder & the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum is a detailed examination of the development of forensic science and the growing importance of the chief medical examiner in the early twentieth century. Until Charles Norris took over the position, corruption ran rampant in the coroner's offices--obvious violent deaths were often written up as "heart failure" or "natural causes" or even multiple choice causes of death such as death due to "either assault or diabetes" or "diabetes, tuberculosis or nervous indigestion." Norris, with the help of toxicologist Alexander Gettler, set about cleaning up New York's forensic examination system as well as making trailblazing discoveries within the science itself--from the development of a new scale to determine alcoholic intoxication (based on brain saturation) to more and more precise tests for various poisons in the body. Gettler very often had to create a test where none existed before.

The basic premise is a very interesting one. The book is divided up into chapters based on various poisons with each poison characterized through a newsworthy event featuring the potent substance. Not limited to murders--though there are plenty of those here--we also have the systemic poisoning of the drinking crowd of the Roaring Twenties (and 30s) by none other than the government Prohibition enforcers. Prohibition did nothing to make "moral" men and women out of persistent tipplers. Those who craved the buzz of alcohol were willing to drink absolutely anything--no matter what toxic substance the regulators insisted be added to any liquid containing alcohol. Bootleggers made their money out of people who were quite literally dying for drinks. Also included is the famous case of the "Radium Girls"--women who earned their living painting watch dials with luminous paint containing radium. Women who began dying because they sharpened the points of their brushes with their tongues.

The stories of murder and other deaths by poison were intriguing. My main complaint about the book is that there are only so many times I needed to be told how Gettler ran his tests. Once you've read about how he gathered up all the major organs in the body, pulverized bits of them in various substances, and distilled the resulting ooze in order to measure the amount of thallium, arsenic, cyanide, [insert your favorite poison here], you really don't need to be told the process again. Honest, I'm not the most scientific person in the world, but I got it the first time. It would have been far more interesting to have had greater detail on each of the cases and about the relationship between Norris and Gettler...and they with with their forensic team than to have spent so much of the book on chemistry lectures. At ★★★ and a half, it is still a fascinating book. It revealed a lot of details about the effects of Prohibition that I had not previously heard.

Challenge Complete: Book Blogger Recommendation

Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge
Hosted by Reading with Tequila 
January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013

My Commitment:

Level I - Read 5 books

I joined up last fall when Reading with Tequila posted the sign up and the list of books to choose from.  Unfortunately, it looks like Reading with Tequila has abandoned ship on the challenge--at least I can't find it anymore.  BUT that did not prevent me from completing my commitment.  Luckily, I chose my books ahead of time so I had five books to work with.  Since I managed to finish, I'm claiming the challenge--even if it's defunct.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7/16/13)
2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2/24/13)
3. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff (3/20/13)
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (7/10/13)
5. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (6/4/13)

Complete! 7/16/13

The Night Circus: Review

Short version of my review of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Cotton candy for the mind.  Tastes good at the time, but no lasting substance.  I am quite sure that if, as in the years before I began blogging, I did not take the time to record my thoughts on this novel then I would not remember a thing about it before very little time had passed.  Except that it's about a circus.  But that's obvious.

Longer version: So, the hype on the book is that Morgenstern has written this awesome, magical, "spell-casting novel [that] is a feast for the senses and the heart." We have a circus that arrives without warning in towns and cities all around the world.  No notices, no advertisements.  Just one day you have an empty field and the next there are black and white striped circus tents all over.  And, supposedly, lurking behind all this is an ultra-fierce, deadly competition between two uber-magicians.   For high stakes--only one can win and the only way that person can win is for the other to give up....permanently.

But the two older magicians who set the competition in motion, don't take into account one tiny, little fact.  That two magicians so closely tied, so evenly matched, so absolutely complementary in every way might fall in love.  But will their love destroy everything--the game, the circus performers, the patrons....and even themselves?

Yeah, so okay.  This was a particularly intriguing premises.  An honest-to-goodness great idea.  With marvelous descriptions of the circus and scenery.  The writing managed to keep me riveted every time I sat down with the book.  It was like eating cotton candy at the circus--it read so yummy when I was scarfing it down, and yet I didn't feel like I had much to show for it afterward.  The story seemed good at the time, but there were all these niggling points.  Like....

Why the heck did we bounce all over the place time-wise?  That made no sense whatsoever.  This wasn't a time-travel book.  The plot would have flowed much better if we could have followed the story straight.  

And why the heck is it told in the present tense?  Why are so many recent books I've picked up written in the present tense?  It doesn't go down quite as well (threw the flavor of the cotton candy off just a tad).  And why did Morgenstern tell more than she showed?  That's a big rule in writing--show, don't tell.  There were lots of sentences that read, "And then [fill in character's name] told [other character] all about it [whatever we're talking about]" And we, the readers, get to take it as gospel truth.  We don't actually see a lot of it happen.  When Morgenstern actually does allow the characters to interact and show us things, the story is beautiful--it's just not sustained.

I cared more about Bailey...one of the minor characters throughout most of the book...than I did about either Celia or Marco, our two dueling magicians.  The most feeling I had about either one of them was over the unfairness of these two old magicians using anyone they could to play out their own personal duel--without getting directly involved themselves and without caring who gets hurt along the way.  I was much more interested in Bailey and his friendship with Poppet and Widget than I was on the "a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands" that's supposedly going on between Celia and Marco. 

I also cared more about Friedick Thiessen and was pretty angry about what happens with his character.

There is very little explanation of anything for 99% of the book.  Why we're battling, how long it's gone on, what exactly will satisfy the old guys ('cause it sure isn't the demise of one of their players--that's happened before and we just start a new competition), how exactly Bailey with NO experience is able to suddenly take up the reins when needed (when you consider that Celia and Marco had years of training.....).  I could go on.
 

And yet....there is something about the book.  Something addictive that made me keep reading and made it hard to put down when I needed to.  Which would be why I'm giving it three stars instead of less (which I keep feeling an urge to do--must be the magic overpowering me).


Quotes:
Tara and Lainie do a little bit of everything. Sometimes dancers, sometimes actresses. Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will discuss only if heavily intoxicated. [p. 58]

Follow your dreams, Bailey. Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he may say it. He forgets  that he was someone's dream once, himself. ~Bailey's grandmother [p. 87]
 
"So you see every thing before it happens?" Bailey asks. He is not sure Poppet's answer is entirely what he expected, if he expected anything at all.
Poppet shakes her head.
"No, not everything. Sometimes just bits of things like words and pictures in a book, but the book has lots of pages missing and it's been dropped in a pond and some parts are blurry but other parts aren't"
[p.196]

I am tired of everyone keeping their secrets so well that they get other people killed. We are all involved in your game, and it seems we are not as easily repaired as teacups. ~Lainie [p. 256]

P: I tried to explain as much as I could. I think I made an analogy about cake.
W: Well that must have worked.  Who doesn't like a good cake analogy?
~Poppet; Widget [p. 276]

You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough. ~Celia Bowen [p. 360]

There are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need of rescue.  Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case. ~Alexander (the man in the grey suit) [p. 377]

Someone needs to tell those tales.  When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. ~Alexander [p. 381]

The Time Traveler's Wife: Review

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a beautiful, science fictional love story that pretty well knocked my socks off.  A complex work--told from alternating first person points of view with constantly intersecting and overlapping time lines--that, at its heart, is about relationships and the price (emotionally) one is willing to pay for them.

Henry DeTamble suffers from a genetic disorder (related to the genes that give us our sense of time, circadian rhythms, whatnot) that will eventually become known as Chrono-Impairment. From the time he's very young he finds himself traveling through time without warning to places and times within his own life or that of his wife (sometimes to-be) Clare Abshire.  He has no control over when it happens or when/where he goes....and he can't take anything with him, so he appears naked--sometimes in the most inconvenient places.  This is not only disturbing for him emotionally and temporally, but physically as well since it sometimes places him in dangerous situations.

For Henry, the first time he meets Clare is in "real time"--he is 28 and she is 20 and they meet at the Newberry in Chicago where Henry is a librarian.  Clare has been waiting 14 years....because the first time she meets Henry is when she is six and Henry's 36 year old self magically appears in The Meadow out near her house in Michigan.  From that point on, their lives intersect off and on until Henry is 43...living a "real time" life together, using their real time to develop a relationship, marry, and after much trauma and several miscarriages having a daughter together.  They both know through the interactions with the various "editions" of Henry's time-displaced self that their relationship is limited by this chrono-disorder and that sometime in the future Henry will face a danger he may not be able to overcome.  It is up to them to determine that their love....their connection through time has no limit.  

As Clare says: “I won't ever leave you, even though you're always leaving me.”

As I mentioned, this book is about relationships and the price one is willing to pay for them.  Henry must go into the relationship knowing that he must leave the woman he loves unexpectedly...and, depending on how dangerous the time leap, possibly forever.  Most of the time he also has knowledge of the future that he can't share with Clare. Clare must play the waiting game....waiting to meet Henry in real time, wanting him long before she can have him, and waiting for him when he makes his time leaps.  

This book also take a look at the nature of time itself along with cause and effect and whether we have free will or everything is predetermined.  Henry spends most of the book telling Clare that what will happen has already happened and that they can't change anything.  Even when they decide to deliberately do so.  The story causes the reader to consider whether Henry and Clare have a choice at the moment of choosing or if they are compelled to make the choice simply because it is the choice they will have made.  Some rather deep philosophical waters.

Niffenegger handles this with great aplomb.  I thoroughly enjoyed the story and my interest and emotions were completely engaged.  I became invested in the characters and had to know what came next.  I'm glad I finished the book at home because I was a bit weepy at the end.  This is a book of over 500 pages that I simply whizzed through.  My only complaint is that Clare's character isn't quite as fully realized as Henry's--and even a few of the supporting cast are fleshed out a bit more than Clare....which gives us a rating just verging on four and a half stars.

The Secret History: Review

Synopsis: Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning...

I would have finished Donna Tartt's near-600 pager, The Secret History, much sooner if my dad's medical emergency hadn't eaten up most of my reading time last week.  That's a round-about way of telling you that this is a pretty impressive page-turner for a book about a bunch of (mostly) upper-class privileged college kids who know Greek like the back of their hands and use their studies and knowledge to reenact an ancient Greek Bacchanalia.  It's quite interesting to see scholarship-dependent Richard with all the insecurities of a West Coast middle to lower-middle class student try to fit in with the "cool kids." 

The Bacchanalia is what leads to all their troubles....the "secret" of the Secret History--they push beyond the limits of morality in a way that most college students would never dream.  And I find this story to be more of an intricate examination of how various personalities handle the pressures brought on by what the group has done than a regular whodunnit kind of mystery.  Tartt handles the psychological reactions very well and it is very interesting to see who falls apart, who remains stoic, and what Richard makes of it all.  The reader also has to wonder at the motivations behind the apparent easy acceptance of Richard into the highly secretive, exclusive Greek studies group.  

Kudos to Tartt for making such an appalling story--I mean, really...what these college kids get up to and how they treat those who are their friends--into such an appealing and absorbing read.  Four stars.


Quotes:
Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

I suppose the shock of recognition is one of the nastiest shocks of all.

For if the modern mind is whimsical and discursive, the classical mind is narrow, unhesitating, relentless. It is not a quality of intelligence that one encounters frequently these days. But though I can digress with the best of them, I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.

One likes to think there's something in it, that old platitude amor vincit omnia. But if I've learned one thing in my short sad life, it is that that particular platitude is a lie. Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.

It is easy to see things in retrospect. But I was ignorant then of everything but my own happiness, and I don’t know what else to say except that life itself seemed very magical in those days: a web of symbol, coincidence, premonition, omen. Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees and I felt myself trembling on the brink of a fabulous discovery, as though any morning it was all going to come together–my future, my past, the whole of my life–and I was going to sit up in bed like a thunderbolt and say oh! oh! oh!

It's funny, but thinking back on it now, I realize that this particular point in time, as I stood there blinking in the deserted hall, was the one point at which I might have chosen to do something very much different from what I actually did. But of course I didn't see this crucial moment for what it actually was; I suppose we never do. Instead, I only yawned, and shook myself from the momentary daze that had come upon me, and went on my way down the stairs.

“But how,” said Charles, who was close to tears, “how can you possibly justify cold-blooded murder?’
Henry lit a cigarette. “I prefer to think of it,” he had said, “as redistribution of matter.”  

Not quite what one expected, but once it happened one realized it couldn't be any other way.

Anything is grand if it's done on a large enough scale.

They understand not only evil, it seemed, but the extravagance of tricks with which evil presents itself as good.

And it made me feel better in some obscure way: imagining myself a hero, rushing fearlessly for the gun, instead of merely loitering in the bullet's path like the bystander which I so essentially am. (p. 544)

"Are you happy here?" I said at last.
He considered for a moment. "Not particularly," he said. "But you're not very happy where you are either." (p.559)

84, Charing Cross Road: Review

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff is an absolutely delightful book.  It is one of those rare things--a book that is not a vintage mystery that, having now read it from the library, I simply MUST get my hands on and own as soon as possible.  Yes, it's that good. It speaks directly to the soul of every book lover.

It begins in October of 1949 when Hanff, a poor proofreader and budding scriptwriter, first writes a letter to Marks & Company in London.  She is in search of inexpensive antiquarian books of good quality--something she can't find in her native New York. What begins as a search to quench her literary thirst turns into a twenty-year correspondence with Frank Doel (and other staff members at the British bookshop).  Although Helene writes often about her dream of visiting London one day, the two never meet and their correspondence becomes a lovely friendship based on their common love for the written word.  

This is a charming book that immediately won over this long-time bibliophile.  I can certainly understand Helene's raptures over receiving a perfect copy of a book long sought after.  I share her horror at finding that Marks & Co. wraps its shipments in pages from dismantled books (although I am dismayed to discover she had no problem tossing some of her lesser valued books in the trash to make room for more beloved books).  At just 100 pages, it seems hard to believe that two personalities could take such a firm hold on the imagination.  It is wonderful to read these letters from an era when one could get three antiquarian volumes (yes, THREE) for about $5.00 (and it doesn't make me too envious....).  Once I get my hands on my very own copy I will most definitely be rereading to discover any gems that were overlooked on this go-round.  Five stars--absolutely.  Filmed version is next on the docket.  Review to be added soon.

3/21/13: The film

Oh my.  How often does a film version of a book live up to expectations?  Not very.  But, oh my goodness, this does. Anne Bancroft is marvelous as the brash American looking for rare books in all the wrong places....until she discovers that ad for Marks & Co in London.  And Anthony Hopkins is perfect as the reserved British bookman who can't help smiling over the outrageous notes he receives from overseas.  The movie perfectly captures the time period as well as the camaraderie that develops between the two book lovers who never have the chance to meet.  I don't tear up often over movies, but I did when Helene had to cancel her plans for a trip to London in favor of necessary dental work and then again when she finally makes it "across the pond" after Marks & Co is closed and Frank Doel has passed away.  A touching, charming, delightful movie that breathes life into the letters that passed between these two.  A five-star movie as well as a five-star book.

Quotes:
I don't add too well in plain American. I haven't a prayer of ever mastering bilingual arithmetic. (p. 3)

Savage Landor arrived safely and promptly opened to a Roman dialogue where two cities had just been destroyed by war and everybody was being crucified and begging passing Roman soldiers to run them through and the agony. It'll be a relief to turn to Aesop and Rhodope where all you have to worry about is famine. (p. 7)

I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to "I hate to read new books," and I hollered, "Comrade!" to whoever owned it before me. (p. 7)

I require a book of love poems with spring coming on. No Keats or Shelley, send me poets who can make love without slobbering-- (p. 10)

WELL!!! All I have to say to YOU, Frank Doel, is we live in depraved, destructive and degenerate times when a bookshop--a BOOKSHOP--starts tearing up beautiful old books to use as wrapping paper. (p. 17)

WHAT KIND OF PEPYS' DIARY DO YOU CALL THIS?  this is not pepys' diary, this is some busybody editor's miserable collection of EXCERPTS from pepys' diary may he rot...i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing until you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT. (p. 31)

you better watch out. i'm coming over there in 53 if ellery is renewed. i'm gonna climb up that victorian book-ladder and disturb the dust on the top shelves and everybody's decorum. Or didn't I ever tell you that I write arty murders for Ellery Queen on television? All my scripts have artistic backgrounds--ballet, concert hall, opera--and all the suspects and corpses are cultured. Maybe I'll do one about the rare book business in your honor, you want to be the murderer or the corpse? (p. 47)

First, enclosed find $3, P-and-P [Pride & Prejudice] arrived looking exactly as Jane ought to look, soft leather, slim and impeccable. (p. 58)

Don't remember which restoration playwright called everyone a Varlet, i always wanted to use it in a sentence. (p. 61)

Why is it that people who wouldn't dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly all right to steal books? (p. 61)

I'd love to have the Macdonald edition--or any nice edition. If it's Reasonable, of course. Nothing's cheap any more, it's "reasonable." Or "sensibly priced." There's a building going up across the street, the sign over it says:
     "One & Two Bedroom Apartments
     At Rents That Make Sense"
Rents do NOT make sense. And prices do not sit around being reasonable about anything, no matter what it ways in the ad--which isn't an ad anymore, it's a Commercial. (p. 69)


Challenges: 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Outdo Yourself, Library Books Challenge, Book to Movie Challenge, Book Bingo, A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Blogger Recommendation, 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Monthly Mix-Up Mania

Ready Player One: Review

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is the ultimate 70s/80s pop culture, video-game-loving, geek overload of a book.  There are references to everything from Pac Man to Max Headroom, from Star Trek to Star Wars, from War Games to School House Rock. If it doesn't make your nerdy self explode in a Dungeon & Dragons frenzy, then I don't know what will. Oh....and it works for those of us who aren't quite so into video games and pop culture too.

The story takes place in a rather bleak future. Fossil fuels have finally run out and the entire world is in a pretty depressed state economically speaking. There are few jobs and little hope and most people spend as much of their time as possible in the virtual world...a place called OASIS.  The OASIS was developed by super-geek James Halliday and his partner Ogden Morrow.  This virtual world/gaming paradise places all sorts of worlds at the player's fingertips.  Via one's avatar, Vulcan and Endor and probably even Arrakis of Dune are all possible destinations.  And every game a gamer can imagine is ready for playing. And access to the OASIS world is free--well, virtually.  A one-time fee of twenty-five cents gets you in.

But Halliday's passion was the 80s (and 70s)--he was obsessed with the decade and when he died he left behind a will that said that whoever could find the easter egg hidden in the OASIS would be his heir--an heir to all of the OASIS stock and billions of dollars. The easter egg could only be found by playing "Halliday's Game"--the ultimate treasure hunt with an initial clue given in the will. Every gamer out there has been working for years to try and figure out what that original clue meant--there are Halliday scholars and books and online resources detailing every moment of Halliday's life.  Notebooks and journals that tell about all of his obsessions--from early video games to his favorite 80s movies and TV shows to the science fiction novels he loved. No self-respecting gamer (or "gunter" as they're known in the book) would dare enter the game without being able to recite whole movies from Halliday's list of must-see films.

Our hero is Wade Watts--a teenager who is on the low-end of the social strata.  He has spent his life in the "stacks"--trailer parks where (since real estate is such a premium) the trailers are stacked on top of one another like apartment complexes.  He is the first to break the code in the first clue and soon he and the High Five (four other individuals) are off and running on the treasure hunt of their lives.  And it just might cost them their lives--because individual gamers aren't the only ones with their eye on the prize.  Also in the mix is the Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a mega-corporation that intends to win the game, take over OASIS, and start charging regular fees and cluttering up the virtual world with advertising. To this end, IOI has hired gunters to work for them--regular paychecks, benefits, gaming supplies all provided and all you have to do is sign away your right to the prize. Wade and the rest of High Five become the target of the Sixers (those in IOI's employ) and it becomes a race to claim the final prize before the Sixers can eliminate the competition--permanently.

This was a very fun book. I'm grateful to all the fellow bloggers who have read this over the last two years and put it on my radar.  With so many folks mentioning it, I figured the book would qualify for the "Everybody But Me" category in Book Blogger Bingo.  Lots of action and great ride all along the way.  I am deducting one star, however, for the rather tedious game explanations (info dumps) that occur periodically along the way.  I finally started skimming and can't see that my lack of knowledge about how some of the old video games worked really hurt my understanding of the novel.  I also really enjoyed the characters and the way the High Five group interacted.  There was just the right mix of friendship and friendly competition.  Four stars for a really good read.

Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge

Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge
Hosted by Reading with Tequila 
January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013

Click the links for more info and to join up!

My Commitment:

Level I - Read 5 books

Here is my plan (subject to change, based on availability of books from library when I'm ready for them). My books have been selected from the entire 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation list.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7/16/13)
2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2/24/13)
3. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff (3/20/13)
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (7/10/13)
5. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (6/4/13)

Complete! 7/16/13