First post for the year! (1-4)
Again, this year, I am being bad about posting books as I read them and am starting off the year with a batch-post of books 1-4. Sadly, my webkinz addiction and knitting have cut into my reading and caused me to be woefully behind.
These books were: The Eyre Affair (A Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde, What's Your Poo Telling You? by Josh Richman and M.D., Anish Sheth, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry, and Maybe I'll Call Anna by William Browning Spencer.
The Eyre Affair makes me want to track down ALL of these book and read them all. This was hilarious, well written, and thought provoking. It's basically an alternate history where in England, fiction is taking deadly seriously, time travel is something that happens, Russia and England are STILL fighting over the Crimea, and there's a special task force of people dedicated to ensuring the safety and sanctity of literature. Thursday Next is such a person (her father, by the by, is a renegade former chronoguard trying to...I think ensure history goes correctly. They don't quite get into that in this book. In any event, Thursday must stop a devious, dastardly criminal who first kills a character from one book and then enters the Jane Eyre in an attempt to kill the heroine herself. Thursday must stop her, after having traveled through a large time bubble AND while attempting to come to terms with the man she was once engaged to and then left after an unpleasant incident in the Crimea. (There is a happy ending for Thursday, however, which involves a few characters from Jane Eyre doing a few favors for her). All in all, brilliant. I'd recommend this to anyone that loves British literature. While I loved the book and got a lot of the allusions, I'm left with the feeling that if I'd read more Bronte and Wolfe and Austen that I'd have picked up on even more.
What's your Poo Telling You? is a short little book that was in my boyfriend's stocking this year for Christmas. It's short, informative, and amusing. And is pretty much what it sounds like. A book about the kinds of poo you have, their causes, and possible health indications. Nothing special, but definitely interesting, if a little gross.
The Lace Reader was fabulous. I was hooked in the beginning when Towner Whitney compares the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in a way that drew me in. It doesn't help that I moved to California last year after spending every summer of my childhood on the Atlantic Ocean in the Outer Banks. This book was a Christmas present from my Aunt and I'm SO glad I got it. It's essentially a very convulted, strange tale of Towner healing from all the forgotten wounds of her childhood that she's woven strange psychological coping mechanisms over and around to protect herself. She's drawn back to Salem after her Great Aunt Eva goes missing and is forced to deal with long dead memories. The best part? You don't realize the level of healing that is going on inside of Towner until the very end of the book when "what has actually, honestly happened" is essentially revealed. I'd recommend this to anyone who has every felt any sort of psychological or physical pain.
And of course, William Browing Spencer's book. This man has an amazingly conversational way of telling a story that sucks you straight in and holds you there until the end. This book is less strange than the other two books of his I've read (Zod Wallop and Irrational Fears) but no less compelling. Anna is a tragically damaged, dangerously beautiful young woman who entangles herself mercilessly in the lives of those people she meets. This book follows the strange right angles of the lives that cross hers, starting and finishing with David Livingston, who falls in love with her after her first suicide attempt. While the book is very dark, I highly recommend.
And finally: The List
1.The Eyre Affair (A Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde
2What's Your Poo Telling You? by Josh Richman and M.D., Anish Sheth
3.The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
4. Maybe I'll Call Anna by William Browning Spencer.
These books were: The Eyre Affair (A Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde, What's Your Poo Telling You? by Josh Richman and M.D., Anish Sheth, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry, and Maybe I'll Call Anna by William Browning Spencer.
The Eyre Affair makes me want to track down ALL of these book and read them all. This was hilarious, well written, and thought provoking. It's basically an alternate history where in England, fiction is taking deadly seriously, time travel is something that happens, Russia and England are STILL fighting over the Crimea, and there's a special task force of people dedicated to ensuring the safety and sanctity of literature. Thursday Next is such a person (her father, by the by, is a renegade former chronoguard trying to...I think ensure history goes correctly. They don't quite get into that in this book. In any event, Thursday must stop a devious, dastardly criminal who first kills a character from one book and then enters the Jane Eyre in an attempt to kill the heroine herself. Thursday must stop her, after having traveled through a large time bubble AND while attempting to come to terms with the man she was once engaged to and then left after an unpleasant incident in the Crimea. (There is a happy ending for Thursday, however, which involves a few characters from Jane Eyre doing a few favors for her). All in all, brilliant. I'd recommend this to anyone that loves British literature. While I loved the book and got a lot of the allusions, I'm left with the feeling that if I'd read more Bronte and Wolfe and Austen that I'd have picked up on even more.
What's your Poo Telling You? is a short little book that was in my boyfriend's stocking this year for Christmas. It's short, informative, and amusing. And is pretty much what it sounds like. A book about the kinds of poo you have, their causes, and possible health indications. Nothing special, but definitely interesting, if a little gross.
The Lace Reader was fabulous. I was hooked in the beginning when Towner Whitney compares the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in a way that drew me in. It doesn't help that I moved to California last year after spending every summer of my childhood on the Atlantic Ocean in the Outer Banks. This book was a Christmas present from my Aunt and I'm SO glad I got it. It's essentially a very convulted, strange tale of Towner healing from all the forgotten wounds of her childhood that she's woven strange psychological coping mechanisms over and around to protect herself. She's drawn back to Salem after her Great Aunt Eva goes missing and is forced to deal with long dead memories. The best part? You don't realize the level of healing that is going on inside of Towner until the very end of the book when "what has actually, honestly happened" is essentially revealed. I'd recommend this to anyone who has every felt any sort of psychological or physical pain.
And of course, William Browing Spencer's book. This man has an amazingly conversational way of telling a story that sucks you straight in and holds you there until the end. This book is less strange than the other two books of his I've read (Zod Wallop and Irrational Fears) but no less compelling. Anna is a tragically damaged, dangerously beautiful young woman who entangles herself mercilessly in the lives of those people she meets. This book follows the strange right angles of the lives that cross hers, starting and finishing with David Livingston, who falls in love with her after her first suicide attempt. While the book is very dark, I highly recommend.
And finally: The List
1.The Eyre Affair (A Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde
2What's Your Poo Telling You? by Josh Richman and M.D., Anish Sheth
3.The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
4. Maybe I'll Call Anna by William Browning Spencer.