Category Archives: The Book on The Nightstand

Karl May’s Winnetou was a book I loved as a teenager. It was probably the first book about the Wild West that I read and it was followed by The Inca Treasure by the same author and The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. So when I was asked to review Cherokee Talisman I was really looking forward to reading it.

A struggle for land – the Native Americans who tried to keep it and the white men who tried to take it away – this is the idea that forms the base of the story. An important figure among the former, Totsuhwa, the great shaman of the Cherokee, was raised by the famous chief Tsi’yugunsini. He grew up a witness to his adoptive father’s efforts to keep the Cherokee tribes united while at the same time trying to navigate the slippery path of the negotiations with the white invaders. Negotiations that always ended up with the Cherokee losing land in exchange for horses and silver.

The story incorporates well-known elements about the life of Native Americans – a reverence for the land and the food it gives, never taking more than was necessary, the lessons they tried to teach their young, fasting and visions, their weakness for whiskey and of course taking trophies in battle the scalps of enemies. Short anecdotes about the origins of plants and a unique way of seeing things give this book a depth that the characters lack. At times I felt like the story was not going anywhere, that not much was happening. It was only in the last quarter of the book that things started to pick up and something really did happen which propelled things forward at a fast pace. From that point I liked the book better. The end left me somewhat intrigued – picture the hero riding out into the sunset – and considering this is the first book in a series, it is a rather fitting way to leave the reader hungry for more.

My major issue was with the characters – I couldn’t really connect with any of them, it felt like not enough details were given in order to get to know them better. Or better said, some of them died too soon. Or if they didn’t die, they did something that made me dislike them – one of those moments was when a young Cherokee avenged the death of a loved one by sneaking out in the middle of the night and cutting the throat of the murderer while the said murderer was bound and tied to a tree. While I had not issues with why, I did have some with how.
It is safe to say this book was a mixed bag for me – from the very clear Native Americans= good, white men = bad distinction which made the story a little too clear cut for my taste, to the unexpectedly funny scene where things get lost in translation at the negotiations table, there were things I liked and some that I liked less. It took me a while to finish the novel – that was due partly to the formatting of the text (I read it in E-book format), and to the fact that I’m still getting used to reading from a screen.
I got a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.

It is a little bit disconcerting to read a book in which social media platforms play such a major role. It almost feels like they are characters themselves, keeping the humans hooked with the invisible threads of addiction, playing on their insecurities.

The story is broken down in chapters, each told from the first person perspective, with each character giving voice to their own perception on things. The virtual world is their playground – a façade where they can be and do anything they want. There’s Jeff Brennan, who assumes the identity of a famous blogger with the same name, then there’s his friend Marcus who plays an important role in the outcome of things, and Marie, a beautiful lonely girl whose romantic failures ultimately lead her to the biggest failure of all.
They belong to the new generation, that of people addicted to the instant gratification of online socializing, whose success is measured in how many Facebook friends requests they manage to gather, or how many comments they get on their profiles.
Making a rather interesting contrast is Jeff’s grandfather, an old man who spends his days caring for his invalid wife, and who eagerly awaits each Sunday visit of his grandson. He belongs to the generation of rituals and handwritten notes, of conversations at tea time, of gardens and sunshine and of enjoying the small pleasures of life. He loves his grandson, but their inability to connect was quite painful to see – they belong to different worlds, and as each tries to give the other a glimpse of their own space, they fail, making each new attempt more difficult than the last. There is however, a brief moment when they almost meet, a crucial point where there seemed to be some hope for their troubled relationship. The worlds collide but the inhabitants retreat, having failed to establish any meaningful connection. The moment is lost, and it can’t be brought back again. But the old man hasn’t lost hope. He spends his days creating something he hopes to leave his grandson, something that maybe will help mend the breach between them, or at least give the young man another perspective on life, one that is stripped of the falseness of what he has become. What he couldn’t accomplish in real-life conversation, he hopes to achieve with the help of written words.

The end was quite different from what I expected – that’s always a good thing but in this case it also made me feel sad. The web of lies that each character spins, their inability to say what they really feel make them inhabitants of an imaginary world they can’t seem to be able to leave, trapped in their own fantasies.
My favorite chapters were the ones narrated by the grandfather. He lives in a real world, a tangible one, where time is measured by the rhythmic sounds of the old clock, where routine is welcome and where the love he shows his wife is enough to occupy his days. He is content. He is happy. He is real. He is the reason I would like to re-read this book again someday.

***

This is the first book I’ve read in electronic format. While I still prefer the paper copy, I admit this experience was better than I expected. There was that one brief moment when my reader froze (and I with it!) but thankfully a quick restart solved the problem.
Many thanks to author Andrew Blackman and his publisher Legend Press for providing me with a copy.

*Read in March 2013

While writing my previous post, I realized that I had forgotten about a review of one of the best books of 2012. How that happened, I have no idea. I wrote it after finishing the book in November, and just forgot to post the review here. So here it is, before I forget again.

I have started this book twice. The first time I didn’t have the patience for it. I wasn’t prepared for the slow pace, the amount of detail, the careful crafting of the story, each word placed at the perfect spot. The second time, however, I tried to take the story as it was, step by step, to let it flow, to curb my impatience. And it worked. A few years after reading The World According to Garp, I let myself enter John Irving’s fantasy world once again.
The novel tells the story of the Cole family – even if by reading the blurb I was fooled thinking the story was about Ruth Cole, the daughter of Marion and Ted Cole, as the story went on it didn’t feel like that anymore. The story revolves around the Coles, but there are other characters whose lives are linked with this family. There is Eddie, an adolescent who dreams of becoming a writer and whose job as Ted’s assistant will open the door to a lifelong obsession with an older woman. There is Ruth Cole, whom Eddie sees as a 4 year old child and whom he meets decades later. There’s Marion Cole, Ruth’s mother, whose grief over the death of her teenage sons and her husband’s infidelities were things she could not endure. There is also a prostitute living in Amsterdam, a lonely cop, and Ruth’s best friend – all of them with their own tragedies and regrets, all of them with a key role to play in the story.

What I liked about this book was how the author told the story of each of the characters with such depth that each one of them stands apart as a fully formed protagonist. Because of this, the idea of one main character didn’t really apply, or at least that’s how it felt to me.
In spite of the slow pace of the story, there was not a moment of boredom. Irving’s characters are flawed, all of them, but that’s what makes them interesting and realistic. Their sorrows and regrets, their tragedies and joys, are played out one by one, and their live stories add a bitter sweet richness to the narrative.

This is probably the only book I’ve read in which four of the characters are writers. For some of them writing is a form of catharsis, and it is through this form of release that they are able to go on, to heal. There are stories within the story, and one of the perks of reading a book about writers is getting a glimpse into their writing habits and sources of inspiration. That was one of my favorite parts of the novel. If there’s something that felt a bit redundant was how many times the photos of Ruth’s dead brothers were mentioned. Perhaps it was necessary to mention them again and again, perhaps not. Nevertheless this is but a minor thing in an otherwise great narrative.

At times it felt like watching a battle, and the end felt like seeing the survivors. Not the winners necessarily, but those characters whose strength and will to go on made it to the final act. Violence, sex, murder and suicide walk side by side with grief, infidelity and a deep longing for love. Not everybody gets their happily ever after – but by the end of the book I wished they all did. A deeply moving narrative that managed to insinuate itself under my skin, where each character is made up of good and bad, and whose stories I was sad to leave behind.

*Read in November, 2012

It’s safe to say that 2011 has been my best reading year so far. By comparison, 2012 has been well toned down. I’ve read around 40 books (probably closer to 43) quite a step down from 2011 when I managed around 60 books. Not one to set a fixed number for a challenge, because I’d rather read when and what I like instead of trying to meet a quota, I won’t be challenging myself this year either. Reading is a pleasure and I don’t want it to change into a must. That being said, there are a few books I am excited to share with the world.

Favorite classic

This was a difficult one to choose. I’ve enjoyed She, A History of Adventure, by H. Rider Haggard, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon as well as The Yellow Wallpaper and selected writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. All great books who kept me well anchored in the story and in whose company I spent many entertaining hours. However, if I must choose one, it’s going to be The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV. This book has the right amount of creepiness, an old castle, a love story and lots of secrets. Not to mention poems sprinkled here and there throughout the book.

Best short story collection

I had no trouble picking this one – The Vampire Archives is number one on my list. There were other worthy competitors in this category, like Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, and Songs of Love & Death, but this collection of vampire short stories starting from the 1800’s and going well into the 1900’s is one I would recommend to any fan of the genre.

Best novels

There are two, and I like them both for very different reasons: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, for its elegant prose and the twist at the end, and A Widow for One Year by John Irving, for its meticulously crafted storyline, great characters and for teaching me patience. Some books just can’t be rushed. I just realized I forgot to post a review for it, but hopefully it will be done by the end of the week.

Best horror book

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova was one book I was really anxious to read but in spite of its being a great story (and one involving the most famous of vampires, nonetheless), The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert was my favorite. In the pretty tight battle between vampires and ghosts, the latter prevailed this time.

Best non-fiction

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction by William Zinsser is a book that was recommended to me by a friend, and one that was well worth reading. I love books about writing ever since I read Stephen King’s On Writing. Now that was a perfect little gem.

Favorite best-seller

Despite trying not to get too caught up in the best-selling whirlwind, I did want to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and ended up enjoying it very much.

Other books I liked

11.22.63 – Stephen King
Prodigal Summer (a read-along) – Barbara Kingsolver, Part I, Part II, Part III
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

The disappointing

When I saw the first two books in a new series by Anne Rice, I was very excited to read them. After all, The Lives of the Mayfair Witches was better than I had ever imagined, so I hoped of nothing less this time. The new series is called The Songs of the Seraphim, and the first two books are Angel Time and Of Love and Evil. Unfortunately, the heavy religious component was too much for me and it overshadowed everything else. The idea is interesting – giving up a life of crime in order to serve God by doing good things, and a fair amount of time travel – but this is done in such an overpowering and almost preachy sort of way that it put me off. A part of me understands the fervor behind it, and I think it’s so great when a writer’s passion drives them to pour their heart into their work – that is why I feel bad for not liking the books (I made it only halfway through the second one before abandoning it), but the way in which it was put across just did not click with me. Nevertheless, I look forward to reading Interview with a Vampire.

A friend of mine was really excited about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and so I gave it a try. Not an easy or pleasant task, and not because of the bleak story or the violence but mostly because of the language and the way in which it was written. The macho attitude of the storyteller, and the combination between Spanish and English just ruined the book for me. And that’s not because my Spanish is lacking. The only thing that saved the book from being a total loss was the multitude of references to The Lord of the Rings. Those were like a tiny glimmer of light in an otherwise disappointing book.

The shortest/longest book.

The Sense of an Ending – 163 pages
The Vampire Archives – 1034 pages

Last year I also participated in some challenges and read-alongs:

The Stephen King Project, with Bag of Bones (the 2011 TV mini-series) and 11.22.63, the novel.

Once Upon a Time VI, with Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon and Songs of Love & Death (short stories by various authors).

R.I.P. VII, with The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

Three read-alongs (see one below, under “Dickens in December”) Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, Part I, Part II, Part III and one for The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

Dickens in December , with a couple of movies The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001) and The Old Curiosity Shop (2007), A Christmas Carol readalong and three short stories.

For this year, I plan to join Fanda @ http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/ for “Celebrating Dickens” an event that will take place in February. More details here. There will probably be more events and I will add them later on. For now I’ll just start small.

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a boring job and a beautiful fiancée who bosses him around. I didn’t even like him at the beginning of the story, but when he stopped one night to help a bleeding girl who collapsed on the pavement, and chose to help her instead of going to dinner with his fiancée and her boss, I began to change my mind.

The girl’s name is Door, and if at first this seemed like a very strange appellative, it is actually fitting as she can open any door she touches. Door is on the run and on the night Richard finds her, he saves her life. Hunted by Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, and helped by the marquis de Carabas, Door tries to find out who murdered her family and why. But that’s no easy task, as Richard will find out soon enough when he follows the girl into London Below, a place beneath the city of London. In the tunnels and sewers Richard discovers another world, dark and secretive and magic – not to mention more than a little absurd. There are creatures there that should be feared, and various shady characters with their own agenda. Among them there’s an angel named Islington, a life sucking creature called (what else?) Lamia, a king whose court – complete with a jester – is held in an underground train carriage, and a bodyguard named Hunter who would do anything to fulfill her dream of killing the legendary beast that roams the labyrinthine paths of London Below.

This is my second Neil Gaiman novel. I gave American Gods, which was my first, a higher rating because the action in that was more complex, even if a bit murky. What I liked about Neverwhere was the dark humor (I still think about that passage about a half eaten kitten), and my reaction to it was a combination between a giggle and disgust. In fact, this seemed to be the undercurrent running through the whole novel, especially when Croup and Vandemar come into focus – two of the characters that I found the most entertaining. Just when you read about some maiming that’s about to take place or some bloody scene, there’s always some detail that veers off into something funny.

One of the reviewers on the back cover compares Neverwhere to Alice in Wonderland and it makes perfect sense. I wasn’t a big fan of that book, but I remember enjoying reading the poem The Walrus and The Carpenter (what sick, sick creatures, I thought at the time) and Croup and Vandemar are their matching counterparts, so there’s no surprise I liked them the best, evil and funny and all.

Gaiman brings cultural references into Neverwhere, from names of famous people to department stores to everyday life routine, but after reading two of his novels and one book of his short stories it’s obvious that reading his work requires certain knowledge from the reader. You’ll get a deeper understanding of his stories if you’re familiar with legends and fairytales and even Alice in Wonderland. Even the names – one that felt a little odd while I was reading Neverwhere, was “marquis de Carabas”, and a simple Google search shed light on the mystery and I said to myself, yes, I knew that name but it was so long ago that I read about it that only a faint trace of a memory remained. Reading Gaiman’s books feels like going on a treasure hunt. He hides little gems between the pages of the story and if the reader discovers them, it enhances the story – if not, something is lost and the story feels a little off balance, like a feeling of déjà-vu that can’t be traced.

An enjoyable read but if I have to choose between his short stories and his novels, I’ll go with the former. Who knows, maybe novel number three will change my mind.

Here are some paragraphs I liked:

“The marquis spared him a glance, and then returned his gaze to the action in front of them. “You”, he said, “are out of your league, in deep shit, and, I would imagine, a few hours away from an untimely and undoubtedly messy end. We, on the other hand, are auditioning bodyguards.” Varney connected his crowbar with the dwarf, who instantly stopped bouncing and darting, and instantly began lying unconscious.”

“Richard wrote a diary entry in his head.

Dear Diary, he began. On Friday I had a job, a fiancée, a home, and a life that made sense. (Well, as much as any life makes sense.) Then I found an injured girl bleeding on the pavement, and I tried to be a Good Samaritan. Now I’ve got no fiancée, no home, no job, and I’m walking around a couple of hundred feet under the streets of London with the projected life expectancy of a suicidal fruitfly.”

“Should have followed my idea,” said Mr. Vandemar. “Would have scared her lots more if I’d pulled his head off while she wasn’t looking, then put my hand up through his throat and wiggled my fingers about. They always scream,” he confided, “when the eyeballs fall out.” He demonstrated with his right hand.”

*Read in October & November, 2012

Tick Tock – Dean Koontz

There was a time, years ago, when I went through a Dean Koontz phase and read a bunch of his books and enjoyed most of them. Then I moved on to other writers. And not long ago I found this book at a clearance sale and thought, hey, it’s been a while, let’s see what this one is about.
Tommy Phan is an American of Vietnamese origin. He finally has the job of his dreams and has bought a car to celebrate. That night he finds a doll on his doorstep, a cotton doll with stitches for eyes and mouth – and he brings it inside the house. Big mistake. The doll has a plan and that’s not good news for Tommy who finds himself running to stay alive. The deadline is dawn and in that one crazy night he meets a woman who will help him, learns new things about his family and gets the shock of his life when he finds out who made the doll and why.
I was surprised as well, which was great. The book however falls into the “light read” category, and because of its silly action and dialogue, I was relieved to find out from the note to the reader at the back, that it was meant to be like that, just a bit of fun after writing another one of his books which the author describes as “one of the most intense and arguably most complex books I had ever done”. Ok then, that makes sense.

Tales of the Otherworld – Kelley Armstrong

Just reading the blurb on the back of this one made my fingers ache to start turning the pages. And because it was a short story collection I decided to start in the middle, with a story called Beginnings, in which Clayton, a young professor, falls in love with Elena, one of his students. The real trouble begins when he finds himself caught between the desire to tell her who he really is, and trying to lead a normal life under the pretense of being a normal person. But that’s difficult because he’s a werewolf and she’s a normal human girl. I liked how the story unfolded and how “normal” it seemed. I was sorry to reach the end but then, big surprise, I found out this is just a part of a bigger story, a series to be more exact. Ah, I hate it when that happens…. This story took about one third of the book.
Rebirth is about Aaron, a young farmer who gets stabbed one night and wakes up to discover he’s a vampire, not because he was attacked by one, but because it was a trait passed down from generations on his mother’s side. What I liked about the story was the different take on the vampire myth and how it was seen as a blessing rather than a curse. In a way, the whole story made sense.

The stories in the book are connected through different characters. I just wish I knew that this was a series, because apart from the Beginnings and Rebirth, the other stories didn’t really click with me. Witches working as detectives in the real world did not appeal to me as much as werewolves and vampires, but most likely it’s just a question of preference rather than a fault of the stories.

She, A History of Adventure – H. Rider Haggard

After reading King Solomon’s Mines years ago and enjoying it very much I was curious to see if this book was just as good.
A family story that descends to the times of pharaohs, a love story that spans centuries and a terrible act that changes the fate of a family and its descendants, Haggard’s book was a delight to read. Holly and Leo embark on the adventure of their lives when they decide to solve the mystery that’s always been in Leo’s family. Holly is his guardian and friend, and on their journey to the heart of Africa they survive a storm, travel along a mosquito infested river, live among the Amahagger and at last meet She-who-must-be-obeyed who holds the key to the mystery. She had been alive for centuries, waiting for the rebirth of the man she had killed in a fit of jealousy, and she believes Leo is that man, the reincarnation of her beloved Kallikrates. History and philosophy, religion, the quest for immortality and above all this, love and obsession, make this classic story one of a kind. Written in 1887, the author says about the book:

“The fact is that it was written at a white heat, almost without rest…I remember that when I sat down to the task, my ideas as to its development were of the vaguest. The only clear notion that I had in my head was that of an immortal woman inspired by an immortal love. All the rest shaped itself round this figure.”

One of my favorite passages:

“But so it has always been; man can never be content with that which his hand may pluck. If a lamp shines for him to light him through the darkness, straightaway he casts it down because it is no star. Happiness dances ever a pace before his feet, like the marsh-fire in the swamps, and he must catch the fire, and he must win the star! Beauty is naught to him, because there are lips more honey-sweet; and wealth is poverty, because others can weigh him down with heavier shekels; and fame is emptiness, because there have been greater men than he. Well, thou dreamiest that thou shall clasp the star. I believe it not, and I name thee fool, my Holly, to throw away the lamp.”

A Season of Unlikely Happiness – Laura Munson

I’m beginning to like memoirs more and more – the idea of reading about someone’s true experience makes the whole story very appealing and this book was no exception. Laura Munson has one great quality I admire: she never gave up. She never gave up when her marriage started to crumble, and never gave up on her dream of publishing a book, even if that meant to keep writing a good number of novels that met with rejection. Just reading about how many she actually wrote made me admire her even more. Maybe it’s no surprise that the book that got published was one based on her experience. In this memoir she writes about her marriage and love and kids and how difficult it was sometimes to balance all of them. I’m glad I read it and even though her writing doesn’t have that polished quality that makes you think of words flowing effortlessly on the page, she makes up for it with her own style which rings true and very life-like.

Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery

This book was given to me by one of my friends, and because she has never recommended a book I didn’t like, I was curious to read it.
Anne is an orphan girl sent to live with Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew. She is eleven years old, with red hair and a lot of energy, and also with a penchant to speak up her mind about everything. The tranquil life at Green Gables, the small farm owned by the Cuthberts, is turned upside down by her arrival, as Anne’s vivacity and rich imagination get her into trouble frequently.
This is a book I loved – I was afraid that the story of an American childhood would feel alien to me but it wasn’t. It reminded me of holidays spent in the countryside when I was the same age as Anne, it made me feel nostalgic and also grateful for having had the chance to experience that. As for Anne, she was an interesting character whose adventures kept the story alive to the last page. Even though she talked too much – a trait I’m fine with in books but which I find annoying in real life – there was an innocence to her words and a heartwarming sincerity which I found endearing. I would like to re-read this book one day, and also the other books in the series (there are eight of them, including this one).

The book contains 27 new stories by authors like Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Alice Hoffman, Dave Eggers, Harlan Ellison, Margaret Atwood, Jacquelin Mitchard and many others. After each story there’s a short explanation of how the writers came up with the ideas. Some have met Bradbury, even got writing advice from him, or grew up reading his stories, and those stories had shaped their lives as authors. All the stories in the book are connected in some way to Bradbury’s work – be it characters or themes or just concepts that were inspired from his stories; dystopian worlds, monsters, mysterious strangers, these are just some of the ideas the stories are based on. I did not read anything Bradbury until last year, when Fahrenheit 451 had such an impact on me I don’t think I’ll ever forget that first sentence, so when I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. Like with any short story collection, some of the stories were quite enjoyable, others less so. A few words on my favorites:

The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury, by Neil Gaiman.
This story has the feeling of a soliloquy on the subject of Ray Bradbury’s work as a writer. It’s also about forgetting things, particularly names and about the stories that stay with you even though you forgot who wrote them or their complete name. From all the stories in the book, this is the one that feels more like a farewell tribute than a story in itself.

Headlife, by Margaret Atwood
A very apt title, meant to be taken ad literam. Everything happens in the future, where technology is so advanced that heads can be severed from the body and still live to talk. Memories and fantasies can be projected on screens for others to watch and buy. A scary look into what happens when you lose the right to your own privacy.

The Girl in the Funeral Parlor, by Sam Weller.
What happens when you meet your soul mate but she’s already dead? This is a twisted tale of a young man who falls in love with a dead girl and tries to find out more about her and how she died. What he finds out only strengthens his conviction that they would have been perfect for each other but the timing was wrong. A beautiful story.

The Companions, by David Morrell
Death comes at the right time. A couple go out to for a night at the opera where they meet two men who later they find out were dead. The mystery gets deeper as they meet them again a year later and then again, a few years after that. The sightings are not random and the last time the couple sees them, the mystery is revealed and everything comes together. Sad and moving.

Children of the Bedtime Machine, by Robert McCammon
This was a story I particularly liked; maybe it was the loneliness of the old woman living in a world on the brink of extinction, or perhaps the sense of joy and fulfillment she found in reading stories to children. It just goes to show that no matter where you live of how your life turns out, there’s always new territory to discover between the pages of a book.

Who Knocks, by Dave Eggers
A girl takes a boat out on a lake in the middle of the night and is never seen again. All that remains is her journal which is found in the boat – and a few lines that provide a glimpse into the mystery of the disappearance. Scary and entertaining.

Because I’ve only read one book by Bradbury, in a way I feel like I missed out on some of the stories in this collection. Some of them were great as standalone stories but with others I felt like maybe I would have liked them better had I read the original first. Most of the stories were good, some were great (like the ones I mentioned above) and some just didn’t do much for me, but in the end it was worth the read.

*Read in August, 2012

What do you do when you find out about a major book sale? You take advantage of it. On my first trip to that book shop I came away with a bunch of books. The second time I got a smaller bunch but even then, I found some titles that made me happy; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is one book I look forward to reading, and I’ve already started on the new Anne Rice’s series, The Songs of The Seraphim – sadly, 57 pages into Angel Time, the first book, and my mind already wanders to other novels. Have I been spoiled by my recent Victorian read where drama lurks in every corner and mysteries abound? I find my patience is running out and long conversations stretching over a seemingly interminable number of pages make me want to speed read. That being said, I’m not giving up.

Yesterday was our monthly bookcrossing get-together and I came away with two books. One was I Am The Messenger, by Markus Zusak , a novel I was reading about only a few days ago on Jen’s blog and even though she didn’t seem to like it all that much, I was curious to see what it was all about; the other is called The Best American Travel Writing 2000 which is a collection of short stories from various corners of the world, from Russia and China to France and Uganda, to name just a few.

There are also these two (big!) books I keep telling myself I should read because I need to return them to a friend. I actually started on The Widow for One Year but it just didn’t click with my mood so I put it aside and went on to read something else. Maybe I’ll give the other one a go first. The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao sounds more interesting.

Right now I’m working on a review for Shadow Show, a collection of short stories inspired by Ray Bradbury, which should be up sometimes this week (I hope).

What are your reading plans for this week and do you have any books you can’t wait to read? Or maybe you’re familiar with some of the titles you see here…opinions and recommendations are always welcome.

A read-along. Part IV/Volume IV

This is the fourth week of the read read-along I am doing with Vishy in which we discuss the last part of The Mysteries of Udolpho.

In this last volume, all mysteries are being revealed and everything comes together, explanations are given and a happy end ensues. Between the drama played by Valancourt and Emily – who was still caught between what was “proper” and what her heart really wanted (a timeless dilemma, isn’t it) the story of the strange goings on at the castle of the count de Villefort, and the nun with a terrible secret at the monastery of Saint Claire, there are banditi attacks, a shocking disappearance and of course, a double wedding. The bad guys get their just punishment, a dark family history is revealed and everything ends on a happy note.

I enjoyed the book – in spite of its happily-ever-after ending and a few high drama moments that had me roll my eyes, there was still enough tension, unpredictability and plenty of mystery to keep me engaged until the end. I liked it better than “A Sicilian Romance” (by the same author) – it was darker, scarier and more mysterious, not to mention much longer and with a more intricate plot. Reading this book only confirmed my preference for Gothic novels which combine romance with mysteries and of course, if there’s a haunted castle and a few ghosts, real or not, even better.

Published in 1794 and the fourth of Ann Radcliffe’s six published novels, The Mysteries of Udolpho was considered the archetypal Gothic novel; while at first sight it appears to be just a novel where romance and elements of the supernatural are combined, the author later provides an explanation for those “supernatural” elements – I’m not sure if that’s good or if an unsolved mystery would have been better but I liked it nevertheless. Sometimes it’s good to have closure.
The book is also mentioned in Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey”, which is the reason why I now have this book on my to-be-read pile. Would I recommend The Mysteries of Udolpho? With all my heart, but then it depends on what you want to take away from it – if you’re looking for some deeper meaning, this is not the book you want, but if you’d like something entertaining, with poetry scattered here and there and a wonderfully old language, this is just perfect. Enjoy.

You can find Vishy’s review here.

*Read in August, 2012

A read-along. Part III/Volume III

This is the third week of the read-along I am doing with Vishy and we discuss the third volume in this four volume book.

Some of the mysteries that were building up in the previous volumes have been revealed and new mysteries have been introduced. After finding out who the voice singing in the night belonged to – it was Monsieur Du Pont, an ardent admirer of Emily, who was Montoni’s prisoner – and after the death of her aunt, Emily escapes from the castle of Udolpho and manages to embark on a ship and return to France. Du Pont, and servants Annette and Ludovico go with her and the gloomy castle is left behind.

In a separate story, we get to find out more about another castle, one which Emily and her father passed by on their travels. This castle was now inhabited by the Count of Villefort and his family, after his cousin, the Marquis de Villeroi had died. There’s talk of ghosts (again) that haunt the rooms the Marchioness died in, and the old housekeeper, Dorothee, hasn’t set foot in there since the death of her mistress, many years ago.

The two stories come together when the count and his men save Emily and her companions from a terrible storm which destroyed the ship they were traveling on. There’s a monastery close to the castle and that’s where Emily goes from time to time, coming back to visit the count’s family.
It seems the mention of a ghost and strange music in the middle of the night are two recurrent ideas that seem to follow Emily to this new castle. She finds out who the woman in the miniature portrait is (the one she saw her father weep over at the beginning of the book) but she’s not aware of the connection to her own family yet.

Valancourt finally appears in this part of the story. The count mentions to Emily the rumours he has heard from Paris, that her beloved has been in prison over debts unpaid and his character has changed since she’s last seen him, all for the worst. This is made even worse by Du Pont’s insisting that Emily accept his love – something she cannot do. The separated lovers do meet, eventually, but with typical attention to “proper etiquette”, Emily is not ready to accept Valancourt’s apologies and being the good girl that she is, prefers to suffer in silence and go live in the nearby convent of St. Clair instead of trying to find out exactly what he had done so terrible during her absence. Volume III ends with plans for a new meeting between the two, there’s much anguish, indecision and dread as to the outcome. Will they be together in the end, will Emily forgive Valancourt for whatever wrong he had done?

This part of the book has lost much of that gloomy atmosphere that was so dominant in the previous volume. There is a new castle with its own set of mysteries but there is no threat here – the conflict is more emotional and more connected to Emily rather than an outside threat. The story had shifted into a new direction, focusing now on the romance between Emily and Valancourt and the obstacles dividing them, as well as on the mystery surrounding the death of the Marchioness. Volume IV, the last, will bring about closure, but that’s to be discussed next weekend, as all the mysteries come together and old secrets are finally revealed.

You can find Vishy’s review here