Book: A Mankind Witch

Title: A Mankind Witch
Author: Dave Freer
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 352 pgs

Summary: Cair Aiden, one of the Redbeard Raider brothers, a pair of corsair seacaptains, has washed ashore in Norseland and made a thrall (slave) of the Telemark kingdom. This is a new phenomenon for him–Cair has always been master of his own fate, and just because he is now a thrall doesn’t make him believe differently. Studying his surroundings and the internal politics of this little kingdom of Telemark, set in the 16th Century, Cair manipulates his way into being the personal thrall of the Princess Signy, who is unknowingly at the center of an immense plot to throw the Christian oath-bearers out of the country and allow dark magics to reign supreme.

Excerpts:
pg 216 – Cair swept aimlessly. His mind was a ferment. First, relief that she was, it appeared, both alive and unhurt. Secondly, at her reaction. Seeing her, smiling down at him, it had been a holiday with his wits. Cair was finally prepared to admit to himself that he–he of all people–was hopelessly in love with the girl-child*. And to her he was a loyal thrall, to be trusted enough to carry steel. Not even quite human. To be cherished, yes, as she did her horse. And yet, when he made her laugh in that dark place–it was all right. He would be her thrall, if he could make her happy.

pg 232 – Head bowed, trying to look even smaller and more unimportant than she felt, Signy walked out of the troll queen’s throne chamber and down into the troll hill. Here she was–”Signy you can’t do anything right,” “Signy you are so clumsy you can’t be trusted with anything”–with a skeleton key. His only key. A map which she couldn’t read. Intructions she was terrified of having to follow. And it wasn’t “Signy you can’t succeed at anything.” The thrall simply assumed that she would. It was a frightening and somehow uplifting belief. The little hard core of her honor that was the essence of Signy Siglunddottir was determined to do it. She kept a wary watch while he set the trap rope. At his gesture she moved past the door toward noisome cells, and waited, willing herself to be invisible.

*Worderella note: Signy the girl-child is 24 yrs old.

Why should you read this book?
It reads very much like Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The beginning is slow, full of slight backstory so we are acquainted with the characters even while watching their present actions. There is a lot of political intrigue. Apparently, it’s also part of a three-part story, where two of the main characters are the only main characters in the other two books, or so the narrative in this book leads me to believe. I probably won’t be reading those, because I like how this one felt like a stand-alone. So, for you writers, read this book for an authentic feel for setting and history; especially in terms of all these Norse words that the characters use like it’s no big deal. It’s a big deal to me, I almost put the book down because I felt like I had to learn some other language to understand the story. Luckily, Freer told me what the words meant just as I was getting frustrated, and I read on.

Read this book for a well-planned romance that isn’t the main point of the story. Instead, I would say this story is about self-empowerment. For both men and women, really, because all the characters at one point completely believe they will fail. By the end of the book, Freer utilizes the same trick Maguire does, which is to make his chapters shorter, so you feel like you’re flying with the characters through this intense action. Overall, a good read. The characters are tangible and funny. The setting is believable and integral to the plot. The plot itself feels original to me, but that might be because I only have a moderate understanding of Norse mythology. I did recognize the villains from what I do know about Norse mythology, and yet, I was still interested. I still don’t quite know their motivation behind their actions, except that as dark creatures they want more power, but I suppose that’s just another reason to read this book and learn from Freer’s mistakes and successes. Give it a try, I’ve decided I liked this book.

Book: Once Upon a Marigold

Title: Once Upon a Marigold
Author: Jean Ferris
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 272 pgs

Summary: The hook on the front cover of this book reads Part comedy, part love story, part everything-but-the-kitchen-sink. This book is actually a young adult fantasy, and I didn’t realize that until I found the book in that section of my local library, but hey. I have loved Ferris ever since I read her Rosie & Raider trilogy (Into the Wind, Song of the Sea, and Weather the Storm). …I can’t believe I remembered the characters and titles without looking them up. Seriously, I read these books when I was thirteen. Anyway, Once Upon a Marigold is about Christian, a little boy who runs away to live with a forest troll, and spends his developmental years roaming the forest and reading every book he can “borrow.” All the while, Christian uses his foster father’s telescope to watch the goings-on in the royal castle across the river, and subsequently, falls in love with the “ugly duckling” Princess Marigold. This is a time when p-mail (aka pidgeon-mail) is modern, when Queen Mab of toothfairy fame is losing control of her business, and when a curse may not be a curse after all.

Excerpt:
pg 48 – And that was how their long p-mail correspondence began.

April 19. I’m 17. I’m an Aries. Why did you decide to write to me? – Marigold

You seemed so absorbed in your book. I wanted to know what you were reading. – C

For some reason, he was reluctant to tell her his name. The more anonymous he stayed, the bolder he felt–as if he were someone else, an alternate version of himself, a version who casually corresponded with a princess. A version who couldn’t tell her his own birthday because he didn’t know it.

You can see me? – Marigold
P.S. What does the C stand for?

He thought her first question sounded a bit alarmed, as most people would be if they found out they were being watched. But the fact that she’d added a P.S. meant she was curious about him, which he took as a good sign. He debated a long time about how to answer.

Sometimes I can see you. The C stands for my name.

Why should you read this book?
Because it’s actually pretty funny, and funny is hard to do in books. It starts a little slow, but the characters are vivid, and interesting, and are people I wouldn’t mind knowing in real life. And let me tell you, writing young adult fiction is hard. You have to get the exact amount of detail in there so the reader understands just what you want them to understand, without losing their interest. The plot runs really quickly as soon as Christopher starts to interact with Marigold, and you’ll find yourself skimming just to know what happens next. But don’t do it. Read it thoroughly and enjoy the pacing and narrative voice, and learn something from it. Once Upon a Marigold is great for anyone wanting to learn how to speed up their story, and to make their characters seem vivid (if a little stereotyped for some of the secondary roles).

Book: The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

Title: The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
Author: Steven Brust
Genre: Fiction/Folktale
Length: 210 pgs

Summary: This is technically two separate stories about two cocky young men who use their wits to get what they want. The thing is, one is a Hungarian folktale about Csucskari, a young gypsy who puts the sun, the moon, and the stars back where they belong. The other story is a contemporary first-person narrative about Greg, a student painter who dropped out of his junior year of college three years ago to work in a studio with four of his artist friends. There aren’t really chapters, just a series of vignettes, and the vignettes switch between the contemporary narrative and the folktale.

Excerpts:
pg 27 – I feel the same way about art. I want to do more than just paint a pretty picture; I want there to be some substance to it, something about life, about nature, about people. I want someone to be able to look at one of my paintings more than once; more than twice, even, and continue to find things in it. I want people to say, “Yeah, I’ve seen that, but I didn’t really notice it was like that before.” But you can’t just impose “meaning” and “significance” onto a paintin, like adding vodka to a punch. It’s either in you or it isn’t. The joke is, though, that you can’t know if it is or it isn’t unless you work at it.

pg 87 – The idea isn’t to show off how much detail you can capture, the idea is to use exactly the RIGHT details to express what you want to express, and no more. [...] You need to be technically skilled enough to do anything, but then you have to know when not to.

pg 106 – Whenever I get this far into a project, it always starts to drag, on matter how excited I am. The important thing is to keep going, and, no matter how much it hurts, to take care that each stroke is applied correctly. A lot of my worst work has been done during the middle stage of a project, when I feel that, if I’m sloppy here I can make up for it later — but you can only repaint something a certain number of times before you’re going to lose some of the luster, or, if you keep wiping things off with turpentine, before you hurt the canvas itself.

Why should you read this book?
Because the voice of the first-person narrator, Greg, is pretty good. I decided I didn’t like him because he was too cocky, and that’s when I took a step back and said, “Bravo, Mr Brust! You got me to hate your character!” I have to applaud anyone who makes me feel anything for their character, especially if it’s a first-person narrative. Generally, I tend to just read and wonder what really happened, but by the end of the story I was beginning to see how the folktale narrative was tying in with the first-person narrative. It’s an interesting treatment to the stories; had they been written separately, I don’t think they would have been interesting enough to carry a book. So, read this book for a different writing treatment, for the character voice, and for a little bit of Hungarian folklore.

Book: Green Rider

Title: Green Rider
Author: Kristen Britain
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 480 pgs

Summary: Karigan G’ladheon has been unfairly kicked from school because she, the daughter of a mere (if rich) merchan, insulted a spoiled heir in a sword fight. Instead of facing the suspension board, Karigan decides to run away from school and make her way home. Seems like a good plan, until a rider dressed in green with two black arrows in his back blocks her path and asks that she finish his mission by sending an important message to the king. Being the spontaneous girl she is, Karigan accepts, and thus begins the typical fantasy story about the journey from being an innocent, ignorant, yet fiesty, schoolgirl to an experienced warrior who may not know what her future holds, but at least knows she has the strength to withstand just about anything.

Why should you read this book?
Ok, I admit it, I picked this book up because it had the word “green” in the title and I basically love all things green. I was actually searching for a different book, one that was actually on my reading list, when I stumbled upon this one. All in all, a good read. Nothing spectacularly interesting, Britain tends to rely on a lot of fantasy cliches. The redeeming factor, thankfully, is the main character. Karigan is a strong female lead in a predominantly male-led genre, and is easy to relate to despite her dangerous path.

I will say, however, that this book felt long. It was interesting, but I put it down a couple times because Karigan’s “wild ride” lasted almost half the length of the book. By the time Karigan reaches her destination, there’s a lot left to happen and I inwardly groaned at where my bookmark sat in the pages. Read this if you’re looking for a strong female lead who has more on her mind than the usual stereotypic schoolgirl, and be as confused as I am that a “mere schoolgirl” still apparently attracts kings and lords and dark elves. How old is Karigan, anyway? And why can’t we have stand-alone fantasies anymore? I hear the sequel is even longer than this was, which has me thinking twice about reading it. A respectable read, but nothing to inspire the writing muse, in my mind.

Book: The Slightest Provocation

Title: The Slightest Provocation
Author: Pam Rosenthal
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: 352 pgs

Summary: In the tradition of Romeo and Juliet, Mary Penley and Kit Stansell of the Regency feuding Penley and Stansell families elope, after nourishing a secret friendship from their early teens. Their first year of marriage is one long honeymoon night, if you get my drift, but when Kit is teased by his club friends for only lusting after his wife (how provincial!!), he dallies with an actress and catches a disease such that he can’t go to bed with Mary for a year. This doesn’t stop him from going to other actresses, however, and to get back at him, Mary allows Kit’s best friend to seduce her. Of course, Kit walks in on them, and that’s just the backstory.

When the book actually starts, Kit and Mary have been separated for nine years, during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon is finally defeated, and Kit and Mary are returning to England, worried by rumors that there is an insurgency threatening their homeland.

Why should you read this book?
I can see what Rosenthal was trying to do with this book, partially because I read her group blog, History Hoydens. She took an actual event from history, threw in her own fictional characters who would have access to the people involved, and went from there. Rosenthal is completely correct in the debauchery of married Regency couples, so I guess I can’t complain on that aspect, except that, in reading this book, I kind of felt like the plot was completely secondary to Kit and Mary’s lust for one another, which apparently never died even after nine years of separation. Sure, we’re reading about English countryside intrigue, and we’re also learning about Kit and Mary through their memories of one another. Their realization that they got married much too young is apparent, and that they’re trying to work through their history is admirable. I don’t know. I have mixed feelings, but I’m primarily disappointed. The cover is just so pretty, I hoped to read something that would both impress and touch me, but instead, I found myself just making sure I was reading it alone because it felt… naughty haha.

The novel is well-written, but I didn’t read anything that particularly spoke to me, or made me want to write it down as a quote, which is why there aren’t any excerpts with this book. So, I would say this book left me with an “eh” sort of feeling once I finished. Also, why were we paying attention to the lovelife of Mary’s servant? It didn’t really add anything to the story except that it made the character a little more 3D. Take it or leave it, this book probably isn’t meant for my demographic.

Book: St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb

Title: St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb
Author: Valerie Hurley
Genre: Fiction
Length: 252 pgs

Summary: So. This book is interesting. St Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb by Valerie Hurley is about Raine Rassaby, a free-spirited high school girl who is determined to be a heroine and save the world from nuclear missiles and other dangerous horrible things like the military. Her mother is a concert violinist and her father is a famous astrologist; her late grandmother converted to Judaism so she thinks she’s Jewish even though both of her parents are Catholic. She’s in love with the Slovakian Jewish gardener, and her Catholic school guidance teacher, who has his own problems, lives next door. The book starts crazy, and it doesn’t seem to come to any sort of real resolution, in the way that a typical romance would, which is why I’ve labeled this book as simply fiction, it almost asks to be literary fiction.

Excerpts:
pg 44 – When Raine told her about her fears, Vikey said, “Fear isn’t something to be gotten rid of. It’s something real and human, something to pay attention to. Drunks are fearless but that doesn’t make them courageous. Fear is a signal, to be honored and listened to. It was proper for us to be afraid of the Nazis and the Hlinka Guard and not berate ourselves for our fears.”

pg 46 – “Raine, please–you’re working yourself into a froth. Can you think a calming thought?”
“I can try. But there might be a mushroom cloud in it.”

pg 63 – “Adults always act like they’re Gepetto, and they’re afraid someone else is going to breathe life into Pinocchio.”

pg 69 – After lunch, he wanted to smooth his hands down over Frieda’s sun-warmed hair. He longed to put his arm around her and lead her into their bedroom and share everything he was thinking with her and ask her a lot of questions and make love to her. Instead, he sat gazing out the window, listening to Mrs. Rassaby running through the scales on her violin. He watched a flock of grosbeaks fly into the garden and peck at the withered sunflowers. Robins mated for life. But he was sure they did not return to the nest every night with tales to tell their mate of a dazzling peacock.

pg 76 – “There’s a part of me that’s very weak and doesn’t know much and is scared of everything,” she said. “But under it is something else, this strong person who believes in the power of love and thinks human beings can squirm out of their predicaments. One layer is full of fear and one layer is full of belief. Do you ever feel like that?”
“Of course. It’s the human condition.”
“It is?”

pg 103 – “Eventually, I got kind of fixated on Patty, and I loved Michael’s white shirts and his turquoise eyes, but then something sad happened. One day I was sitting on a bench on Broadway feeding chocolate-covered raisins to the pigeons, and I saw Michael and Patty walking together up Broadway. I stood up and stared at them. They weren’t holding hands, but everyone once in a while, they’d bump shoulders. They didn’t see me or anyone else–they only saw each other–and it was their obliviousness that was so painful to watch because I wanted so much to have that kind of obliviousness with somebody. I walked home like I was sleep-walking and went up the stairs to my bedroom and climbed into bed and felt how completely separate I was from everyone and everything.”
“So were you in love with this girl?”
“I guess I was doing what all girls do–shopping for a woman to become.”

pg 141 – I have never been able to figure out if America is a bunch of promises we don’t intend to keep, or if it is sometihng astonishingly beautiful that we have carried in our hearts from another land. Justice, Liberty, Freedom, Equality, Opportunity, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These are dreams. They’re ideas. [...] I feel it is up to my generation to read Common Sense and go Whoa, Tonto! Since when has America been about making bombs and making money?
Why should you read this book?
For the pure eccentricity of the characters. Raine is so eccentric she almost seems unbelievable, except that I’ve met people like her before. Al, her guidance counselor, provides a complement because he seems so normal it almost hurts to read about him. The book was well-written, the characters were faithfully executed, and, I’m sad to say, I forgot all of their names except for Raine as soon as I closed the book. So, if you’re planning on reading this book, take heart in Raine and her eccentricities; learn from her implementation if you have a similar character and aren’t sure how to write about him/her. Just be careful, because when I finished this book, I felt no different from when I first picked it up. I believe there isn’t anything more dangerous to a writer than to have a reader feel apathetic toward your work.

Book: A Hole in the Earth

Title: A Hole in the Earth
Author: Robert Bausch
Genre: Narrative Fiction
Length: 368 pgs

A Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch is a first-person narrative about “the summer” as described by Henry Porter, the narrator and main character. A middle school history teacher with a penchant for gambling, Porter is a divorce who has not seen his daughter Nicole in five years, which makes her about seventeen. The school year has just ended, and Porter is on his way out the door to the race track to make a couple bucks when Nicole shows up at his door with her friend, Sam. That same day, Porter’s girlfriend of three years Elizabeth begins to act strangely, and she soon reveals that she is pregnant. What starts out as a series of unexpected events leads to the inner-workings of a quiet man; Porter’s narrative tells us everything he cannot or does not say, and how that can make or break his relationships with the people around him.

Excerpts:
pg 31 – I think women are more conscious of what their faces are doing than men are. I think they know when they are smiling, and they use expressions of wonder and awe on purpose. I tihnk women bestow smiles when they want to give a person something of value. And finally, I think most men don’t know this. So millions of smiles go to waste, and women spend a lot of time talking to themselves about how unobservant men are.

pg 35 – What truly troubled me, though, was being awake. Having to pile up the hours each day, worrying about money, hoping Elizabeth would call, and praying she would not, feeling alone even when I was with her, because there was never anything to say.

pg 36 – I didn’t know if I loved her. Since Catherine left me, I hadn’t thought about love at all. I hate to say the word, and I tihnk people overuse it so much that it has lost its radiance. It’s now a very ordinary, common thing. Like lint. Or paper clips. Nevertheless, some days were awful because I realized I might not see Elizabeth.
And then again, sometimes I was terrified I would see her.

pg 124 – [Love] may be the most transient thing on earth. More transient than hate — which requires so much energy it eventually wears out and turns to a kind of burned-out forgiveness. Most people feel more charitable toward a person they used to hate than one they used to love.

pg 131 – Now I’m at the age where [my father] thinks he has the answer to that question. According to my father, our generation gave the world: Ronald Reagan, the National Organization for Women, political correctness, a significant and intractable drug problem that won’t go away, video games, music TV, game shows, Prince, Madonna, porn video, action movies, sports celebrities, miniseries, the sound bite, computer-generated mail, toxic waste, Geraldo Rivera, and AIDS.
That’s it.

Why should you read this book?
I liked this book. This is actually the first book in a long time where I stayed up until 4 am because I wanted to finish reading it, which was both pleasing and exhausting. Being a female, reading about a man’s mind is of course intriguing, but the way Bausch writes Henry Porter, I feel like I know the man, or that I have known him, or that I might know him. Bausch makes his characters seem real, human, tragic. And that’s why I suggest you might want to read this book. When reading this book, you feel as though you’re part of a conversation, and that each chapter is merely another session of sitting with Henry at your local coffee shop as you talk about what happened this past summer.

For the writers, you should read this book if you are looking for examples of throwing a lot of craziness at your character, and how to make his or her reaction plausible. Every once in a while, I think Bausch gets a little too wrapped up in Porter’s thoughts, but then again, I was reading with the rest of my family in the room so they were distracting me a bit. Once alone, I thought the pacing was perfect for the story. To be succint, read this book for an example of good pacing, an interesting story, and well-crafted prose. All around, a great read.

Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Genre: Psychological/Classic Fiction
Length: 288 pgs

Well. I finally completed reading this book. This isn’t to say that reading Dorian Gray was tedious, it’s just that with school and life getting in the way, I only had time to read during the twenty minutes I had between leaving my apartment and waiting for my folklore class to begin. Anyway, there is a reason that The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a classic. Wilde’s turn of phrase about society and many of society’s hypocritical rules/behaviors often caught me laughing in surprise and recognition. He tends to be a little verbose in terms of description, but he is a contemporary of Victorian literature, so I forgive him that. And then, Wilde is the only playwright yet who made me laugh out loud when reading his play (excusing bonny Shakespeare, of course), so he deserves snaps and props.

Excerpts:
pg 73 – It often happens that the real tragedies in life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude biolence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style. They affect us as vulgarity affects us. They give us an impression of sheer brute force, and we revolt against that.

pg 104 – Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.

pg 118 – Youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.

pg 131 – When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

pg 135 – the moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull.

pg 139 – Each man lived his own life, and paid his own price for living it. The only pity was one had to pay so often for a single fault. One had to pay over and over again, indeed. In her dealings with men Destiny never closed her accounts.

pg 154 – There are only two ways by which man can reach [civilization]. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.

pg 156 – But then one regrets the loss even of one’s worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one’s personality.

Why should you read this book?
Well, if you ever want to sound knowledgeable and moderately well-read, you can quote the many little satirical comments characters such as Lord Henry and Dorian Gray say throughout the book. Haha no, in terms of writing, Dorian Gray is an excellent example of getting into a character’s head and keeping it interesting. Watching a character fall from good graces and living with the consequences. Dorian Gray is slightly similar to The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, in that respect. (The Count of Monte Cristo is also an excellent book and one you must read. If at all possible, find the unabridged copy…I’m still a little bitter that I didn’t realize I’d bought the abridged version.)

Good book to read on an overcast day when one wants to be pensive yet entertained, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a quick read as long as you have the time to devote to reading. I also suggest you check out the 1940′s movie version with a young Angela Lansbury (not only is she gorgeous, but she sings–now you have an inkling that she did much more than the voice for Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast.)

Book: Firebird by Mercedes Lackey

Title: Firebird
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 384 pgs

Summary: Mercedes Lackey is one of the best fantasy writers out there. Her Elemental Masters quartet is one of MANY reasons to read her. This book, Firebird, is a departure from her usual fantasy series, though. It is a stand-alone novel set in Old Russia, and heavily draws on Russian fairytales and magic. If you’ve read Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, you will feel right at home with this book.

Why should you read this book?
I almost suggest reading Enchantment before Firebird, however, because in my opinion, Enchantment just seems more…earthy? Compelling? Ilya, the main character in Firebird, tends to think a lot. There is a lot of family description at the beginning of this book that isn’t entirely needed. For instance, Lackey likes to tell us that Ilya’s father, Ivan, is a mean man. His actions alone tell us that, so why be so blatant? I also thought the ending was slightly rushed. But that’s just me.

Read this book for clear description, interesting characters, and a well-written retelling of the generic fairy-tale about heroes who magically learn to speak to animals and save beautiful women from scary sorcerers.

Why Historical Fiction?

In this session, Whitbread award-winning novelist Rose Tremain looks at the issues around writing and publishing historical fiction. (From BBC – Get Writing [here ]).

Why Historical Fiction?
I believe that the ultimate goal of historical fiction is to evoke the past and its characters within that past in such a way as to create a ‘universal story’, one with which the readers of today (no less than the readers of tomorrow) can identify. The prime reason for setting a novel in history is to escape the confines and dictates of a narrow contemporary realism in order to explore the big themes of existence, such as love and betrayal, poverty and riches, success and failure, youth and age, war and peace, truth and lies, honour, friendship and death. Many great writers, including Dickens, Shakespeare and Tolstoy understood that novels or dramas set in past time can be every bit as powerful and ‘relevant’ to contemporary readers as those exploring a familiar quotidian scene.

We live in an age where the diversity and absolute strangeness of human life are more accessible to us than in any previous era, through television and the internet.

Our world vision is immense. That which is ‘strange but true’ – the thing which has actually been lived or done – amazes us because we then go on to ask ourselves whether we could have lived through it or done it or been as this or that person has been. That which is invented – though it may make us understand our lives better or differently, move us, terrify us or make us angry or make us laugh – doesn’t invite or challenge us to attempt identification of this particular kind.