Book: The Extra-Large Medium
Author: Helen Slavin
Genre: Paranormal Women's Fiction
Length: 288 pgs
Summary: Annie always thought chocolate brown was the new black, because everyone was wearing it. It didn't take long for her to realize that no one else saw these people wearing all-brown outfits, and that these people happened to be dead. As a grown-up, Annie begins to treat her habit of finishing the ghostly "unfinished business" as a job; it is when her husband disappears and doesn't return to her, wearing brown, telling her his unfinished business, that things become seriously wrong.
Excerpts:
pg 1 - In Hell they all wear evening gowns. Heavily boned bodices. Dress-shirt collars just that bit too tight. Your forehead just that bit too sweaty and the perspiration running like an itching, infuriating river down from your armpit into the elastic of your knickers. The point where it pinches your waistband.
pg 36 - Funny how the words for the male member all smack of stupidity. 'Member' for a start off, some idiot politician. John Thomas, who no doubt plays a banjo in Tennessee. Todger, the thick dog who can never find where you've thrown the stick. Dick, the man who wears the most hideous golf sweaters at the local links. Cock, a strutting brainless bird puffed up with his own importance and getting around ALL the birds. Donger, a dwarf breed of conger eel. Prick, so quick you hardly notice and before you turn your head it's all over.
pg 46 - Most of the young men, and a couple of the older ones I picked out, seemed only interested in one thing. They made small talk, ate dinner or pretended to listen to your boring recollections from your day at work because they felt that this would work some miracle on the elastic of your knickers. They didn't want you. They wanted sex. Conversation was just some boring form-filling requirement that had to be gone through to get to the sex. No one seemed any good at it either.
pg 47 - For a brief time at the university I was known as the Ice Maiden because I was notoriously hard work on a date. Then I discovered the Ice Maiden Sweepstake. The bet was on as to who could crack the Ice Maiden. 'Crack'. It was their word. I would have preferred 'thaw': you melt the ice with the heat of your passion. But no. They would have a 'crack' at it.
Why should you read this book?
If you think perhaps this book has a theme similar to The Sixth Sense, that's what I thought too. Except instead of being a thriller of sorts, this book is insightful and humorous, with a succinct tone that doesn't forgive any character and yet makes you feel for them nonetheless. At its heart, this book is about a woman who loses her husband and waits, against her will, for the day she has to legally declare him dead.
For you writers, read this book to learn how to write about a topic (like death) without depressing the reader. Every character is flush and real, people we can relate to or have had a conversation with. Annie is a great anti-hero, as well; she is flawed, can't seem to hold on to material objects or the people around her, and yet is crying out for someone to ground her from her ethereal calling. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it in one evening, I couldn't put it down.
Book: The Wayward Muse
Author: Elizabeth Hickey
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 293 pgs
Summary: It is the beginning of the Victorian era, and Jane is a very ugly girl. On an outing with her sister, Jane is spotted by two artists that consider her the most beautiful woman in the world, thus changing her life forever.
pg 1 - Jane Burden was considered the plainest girl on Holywell Street, and that Oxford slum was home to many worthy candidates for the title. Mary Porter, who was afflicted with a lazy eye and copious freckles, lived there, just across the street from Alice Cunningham, who had crooked, discolored teeth and thinning hair. Number 142 was the residence of Catherine Blair, whose neck and ear had been horribly burned when she was a baby, and whose left leg was somewhat shorter than the right. But even she was considered marginally better looking than Jane.
pg 2 - But it was her expression that truly made Jane Burden plain. For she seldom smiled, and her green eyes, which might have been considered striking on another girl, were empty. They weren't sad; sadness could be fetching. They were not grave and serious or soft and pleading or tearful and melancholy. They were blank. Jane's eyes told everyone who met her of her misery and her despair. They told of a girl who had ceased to hope for anything, who had gone deep inside herself to withstand her lot. It made the others uneasy.
pg 53 - Jane only laughed. Rosetti knew something that the people of Holywell street did not. He knew she was a fairy queen. [...] Her silence was now called dignity. Her height and her skinniness were regal rather than ugly.
pg 286 - "What is my mind made of?" asked Jane.
"Oh, I think it's a willow basket," said Morris. He put down his pipe and stood up. "Soft and pliable but incredibly resistant. The only way to unravel it would be with great violence and a pair of very sharp scissors."
Why should you read this book?
Excellent writing, as you'll find in the excerpts I've posted. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite Jane's character, which makes me respect Hickey even more. Once I realized the plot, I almost put the book away, except Hickey's writing and depiction of the characters stayed my hand. This book is one of the best fiction depictions of a real Victorian marriage that I have read yet; the main characters are real people, and while the story may not be entirely factual, the plot seems to follow the real time-line faithfully. The writing style is simple yet lush, the scenery vivid, the characters organic and sympathetic. Anyone working on making their characters flawed, especially the main character, should read this book as an example of how to maintain your reader's interest.
Book: The Glass Harmonica
Author: Louise Marley
Genre: Paranormal Historical Fiction
Length: 369 pgs
Summary: The year is 2018 and Erin is the premiere virtuosa on the glass harmonica, an instrument that, over the centuries, has been known to make its player and select members of the audience go mad. Though she publicly denies these rumors, secretly she is terrified they are true once she starts to see visions of a girl who does not exist.
The year is 1761 and Eilish Eam, an Irish orphan, has been plucked from her unlucky existence to play Benjamin Franklin's new invention: the glass armonica.
Excerpts:
pg 116 - It was the terror that lurked in [Erin's] nightmares, that stalked her when she was weakest, most vulnerably. It was the fear that made her snap answers to stupid questions, made her impatient and angry at the probing and pushing of interviewers and reporters and historians. She was afraid. She wasn't afraid of her wraith, of ghosts or visions or manifestations. What she feared was that, like her predecessors, like the ancestral virtuosi who had first played her precious and mystical instrument, her nerves were breaking down. She was afraid she was going mad.
Why should you read this book?
This book is well-written: all the characters have backstories and motivations, and the setting is fully realized. Despite this, I felt no connection with the characters. I read the entire book, but I never felt drawn to the story, wondering what would happen next. And I should have, because this was an interesting idea. As a musician, I loved the history of the glass harmonica; as a historian, I thought Marley's depiction of Benjamin Franklin was great; as a scientist, I loved the idea of applying music to neuro-therapy. As a writer, I thought something was lacking, which may be because the back cover copy made the story seem more action-oriented, a time-travel similar to The Lake House (which defies so many laws of physics and time-travel, even).
A pleasant read, the one thing that really annoyed me was Marley's use of "'twas" and "'tis," beyond the 1761 dialogue. For example: Eilish pushed the basket again, trying to make her two seed coins clink together. Talk brought no food. 'Twas money she needed. In my opinion, Marley should have stuck with a first-person narrative for the 1761 story, and third-person for the 2018, if she wanted to write like that. But then, another reader will find it charming, and think I'm crazy for not liking it. Such a subjective profession this is...
Book: Liszt’s Kiss
Author: Susanne Dunlap
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 330 pgs
Summary: Anne, a young pianist about to enter Parisian society during the height of the Musical Romantic Era (1830s, 1840s), has just lost her mother to the cholera epidemic. Her father forbids her from playing the piano. As an outlet, her mother's friend, Marie d'Agoult, invites her to a piano concert where she sees Liszt for the first time. Anne's life is forever changed from the moment she matches eyes with Liszt...
Excerpts:
pg 111 - The more she watched, the more she was persuaded that although Liszt leaned in close to Anne and touched her hands to show her how to achieve certain improvements in her technique, everything he did was not really for the benefit of his pupil but was in some fashion on display for Marie herself: the way he moved, the incline of his head, the frequency with which he smiled or cast a soulful glance at the high ceiling, never turning to look in Marie's direction, yet ensuring that every gesture, every comment, reflected off Anne and she its light over her.
Why should you read this book?
This book is a good example of a story that chose third person omniscient, but might have been better with first-person multiple point-of-view. Dunlap wrote her third-person narrative from the views of her characters anyway, so I'm confused why she didn't write it in first-person. I felt completely detached from the entire story. I read it because I liked the young doctor Pierre...he was the only character I liked. (Which means Vonnegut was right: always write at least one character for the reader to like.)
The insipid way Anne reacts to things, the two-dimensional father with a mea culpa reason for his coldness, the way the ending felt thrown together...I admit, I'm disappointed in this book. The last two paragraphs, however, were amazing. And yes, I do read the last page first to decide if I'll like a book. Sometimes it doesn't work out.
Book: Stardust
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 235 pgs
Summary: In the town of Wall there is a young man named Tristran Thorn, and he is in love with a young woman named Victoria Forester. Victoria, young, beautiful, and completely aware of the fact, sends Tristran on a fool's errand: to fetch the fallen star on the horizon. And so, Tristran steps across the border from the everyday to the mystical.
pg 23 - He entertained these thoughts awkwardly, as a man entertains unexpected guests. Then, as he reached his objective, he pushed these thoughts away, as a man apologizes to his guests, and leaves them, muttering something abuot a prior engagement.
pg 36 - "Anyway," said Cecilia Hempstock, Louisa's cousin, "he has already been married. I would not wish to marry someone who has already been married. It would be," she opined, "like having someone else break in one's own pony."
"Personally, I would imagine that to be the sole advantage of marrying a widdower," said Amelia Robinson. "That someone else would have removed the rough edges; broken him in, if you will. Also, I would imagine that by that age his lusts would long since have been sated, and abated, which would free one from a number of indignities."
pg 131 - "A nymph. I was a wood-nymph. But I got pursued by a prince, not a nice prince, the other kind, and, well, you'd think a prince, even the wrong kind, would understand about boundaries, wouldn't you?"
"You would?"
"Exactly what I think. But he didn't, so I did a bit of invoking while I was running, and--ba-boom!--tree. What do you think?"
"Well," said Tristran. "I do not know what you were like as a wood-nymph, madam, but you are a magnificent tree.
"I was pretty cute as a nymph, too."
pg 224 - He wondered how it could have taken him so long to realize how much he cared for her, and he told her so, and she called him an idiot, and he decalred that it was the finest thing that ever a man had been called.
Why should you read this book?
Because it's Neil Gaiman, and everyone should read one Gaiman book at some point. This book begged to be read aloud, and I almost wish (now this is a shocker) that I had the audio version. The narration is simple yet intriguing and complex; I want to read it again just to figure out how he was able to convey so much with so little. Which is exactly why you should read this book. Long sentences and over-the-top vocabulary are gimicks easily pointed out...they hide bad plots and expose worse execution. Gaiman's simple narration is a quick read, yet, there are important themes discussed.
Plus, the movie comes out on my birthday. So, read the book before you watch the movie, as the movie is almost never as good as the original.
Book: Poison Study
Author: Maria V Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 361 pgs
Summary: Yelena has murdered a man. And the punishment for death, for any unnatural death, even accidental, is execution. Luckily, the Commander's food-taster has just died, and Yelena, being the next up for execution, is offered the job by the Commander's right-hand man, Valek. As her tasting and smelling skills improve, Yelena's survival instinct (a droning sound emitting from her mouth) turns out to be a sort of raw magic. And in a land where magic is outlawed, punishable by death, Yelena finds herself facing death from all angles.
Excerpt:
pg 104 - "You remind me of a pretty bird, willing to sit on the windowsill as long as nobody comes too close, but prepared to fly away if somebody does."
Why should you read this book?
It's an entertaining read. I was most intrigued by Valek, who surprises Yelena with the facets of his personality, and therefore the reader. The political intrigue wasn't the most groundbreaking, but then, the story was more a fantasy coming-of-age than anything else, so I can forgive that. I liked it enough to look for the next book, Magic Study, but I have to admit that Yelena's horrible past just didn't really come across with fervency. But once again, that may not have been the point.
Book: A Poisoned Season
Author: Tasha Alexander
Genre: Historical Mystery
Length: 306 pgs
Summary: It is the start of the summer Season in London, and everyone worth speaking to is whispering about Mr Charles Berry, an alcohol-and-woman-happy man claiming to be the lost descendant of the dauphin (that is, heir to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette). Lady Emily Ashton, our heroine, becomes suspicious of Mr Berry as items once belonging to his "beloved grande-mere" are stolen from unsuspecting peerage about town. As deaths occur and the thief begins to stalk Emily, rather than running away or hiding behind her dear friend Colin Hargreaves, Emily uses her cleverness and curiosity to solve the mysteries plaguing London.
Excerpts:
pg 5 - "Surely you've put aside all thoughts of studying during the Season?" he asked.
"Studying Greek, Mr Berry, is what will get me through the Season."
pg 132 - His lips brushed my hand. "How do you like the room? I finally realized that if I'm to have any hope of marrying you, I'd have to show you my library first."
pg 134 - I think had he the presence of mind to propose at that moment, I would have accepted. The combination of hearing him speak in such an enlightened manner and the perfect setting of his library would have been too much to resist.
pg 296 - Added to this angst was Colin's absence. His actions during the past months had surprised me at every turn. He had not tried to keep me from pursuing my investigations and had offered assistance without taking charge on his own. And now, in the aftermath of it all, I wanted nothing more than to sit with him, in quiet triumph, discussing what had transpired.
I loved to flirt with him, tease him, to discuss Greek with him. But I had not expected to find that, as a partner, he could offer more than that. He challenged me, stimulated my thinking, and offered both comfort and support when I succumbed to frustration. Was it possible that, as his wife, I might grow more than if I remained alone?
Why should you read this book?
This was just the sort of book I needed to read. The voice (written in first person) is amusing, conversational, yet intelligent. We are given detail about the London Season and high society, without it dragging the story. Motives were plausible, and everyone had a story to tell. Even the bit players. And they were interesting stories. Alexander didn't sugar-coat her description of life back then, especially in terms of relations between men and women, married and single; yet, everything was written tastefully. Read this book for an engaging heroine, a cozy mystery, and a fun read. Fun, I think, because of the pacing and the lively characters. This is the second in what I assume will be a popular series, and I'm thinking of going back to read the first book, which I have yet to do. Give it a try, I think you might like it!
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