A shout-out to all the people I'd been trying (by leaving mysterious hints about female friendship, female pilot in WWII and lots of tissues needed) to convince to eventually read Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity - on a thread of Rachel Manija's, I remember, and wherever else...
Don't worry - I'll only be doing this until February 10th (when the blog tour ends)
CODE NAME VERITY is released today in the UK (and if USians don't want to import the pretty UK edition via bookdepository.com, they can wait until May this year - as can the Canadians - and buy it then)!
E.Wein is doing a blog tour (her publisher has a new line called Electric Monkey and CNV is a launch title) this week and just today spoke on BBC Scotland about the book - there's a
podcast to download for non-UK people. Her part starts around 25 minutes (ends at 35 minutes) and apart from having a nice speaking voice I'm very thankful that she's talking a bit slower than the interviewer - I realise how rarely I hear real English spoken in a dialect at normal speed these days, heh.
Links & Reviews as I come across them:
- http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/book-review-code-name-verity-by-elizabeth-wein.html - Perfect 10, Best Book of the Year so far ^^ according to Booksmuggler Ana NEW
- http://www.feelingfictional.com/2012/02/review-code-name-verity-elizabeth-wein.html - this is a review from after the blog tour; I love how everyone, and I mean everyone, recommends tissues. That's just how it is. NEW
- http://bysinginglight.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/code-name-verity-elizabeth-wein/ this review is very much my reaction about the story (only much more eloquently put) - which is why I keep telling people to bring tissues!
Although Wein looks unflinchingly at the real evils of the Nazi regime-not only for Jewish or other obviously persecuted groups, but for everyone involved-her German characters are never stereotypes. At the very beginning of the book, they might seem to be, but over the course of the story they prove to be real people. They are complex and contradictory, always on the verge of being sympathetic, but never smoothed over. And it strikes me that this is exactly how they should be, and how they so seldom are portrayed in fiction.
- http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/guest-author-elizabeth-wein-on-inspirations-influences.html - Elizabeth Wein on literary Inspirations & Influences for CNV NEW!
- http://daisychainbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-tour-author-elizabeth-wein-on-real.html - about the real people who inspired the book, lots of links to follow if you're interested
- http://chachic.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/code-name-verity-by-elizabeth-wein/
- http://writingya.blogspot.com/2012/02/turning-pages-code-name-verity-by.html - there are some other interesting riffs about historical fiction here
- http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/02/q-a-with-elizabeth-wein-author-of-code-name-verity/ - gives first hints of the NEXT book in detail! (more than I'd heard so far anyway). No, this isn't a series with the same people as far as I know.
- http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/02/guest-post-from-elizabeth-wein-author-of-code-name-verity/ - about the evolution of the novel and the differences to her previous work
- http://www.iwanttoreadthat.com/2012/02/encounters-with-wartime-aircraft-by.html - what it says in the description ^^
- http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/teenagers/blog/308 - on Friendship in Code Name Verity
- http://escapeinabook.blogspot.com/2012/02/waiting-on-wednesday-code-name-verity.html
There's even a pretty nifty book trailer (although I wish they had chosen a British song..)
Click to view