Nook Read

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I took a few days off to spend time with my husband who is traveling almost non-stop in July.  I think he’ll actually spend more time out of town and on planes than he will at our house this month.  I thought I’d spend the couple days he was in town with him which is was why things were quiet here.

Getting back into things, I’m sharing a few lines from The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell this week.

“When the rehearsal was done, Nell sat still for a few moments, not wanting to let go of what she had experienced. She felt drained and yet exhilarated, and as if she was changed in some way.” (page 55 of 329 on Nook)

Short Story Review – The Abandoned

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The Abandoned

By Amanda Stevens

Mira

EAN: 9781426888861

3.75 stars

Ree Hutchins is on-duty at the mental hospital when her favorite patient passes away.  Never a believer in the supernatural, and certainly not ghosts, Ree can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right; especially after overhearing a conversation involving a doctor she admires greatly.  Ree spends her days trying to understand what she overhead at the hospital and hoping the creepy feeling she’s experiencing will fade.  Finding herself in a cemetery late one night with no recollection of how she got there, Hayden Priest, an amateur ghost hunter, comes to her rescue in more than one way.

This is a prequel to The Restorer which I really enjoyed.  (My review is here if you’re interested.)  It’s a short story but because I’d read The Restorer first, I had very high expectations.  I tamped the expectations down and enjoyed the story more at the end than at the beginning.  In ways, it felt as though I was waiting for more and that was because I knew the other later story that came from this one.  Stevens was definitely honing her story idea here.

As part of my 2011 reading, I’ve been trying to read more short stories, something I don’t often do because in certain ways I feel cheated.  I get attached to a story or a character and then it ends quickly.  I’m slowly learning to overcome this so even though my review seems only lukewarm, it’s not intended that way.  That has more to do with my non-ability to read a short story without being picky.  If you’re looking for a quick little ghost story, give this a try but do it before The Restorer if you have that on your list.  It’s an enjoyable story.

Review – Northanger Abbey

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Northanger Abbey from The Complete Works of Jane Austen

By Jane Austen

Douglas Editions

BN ID: 2940000816981

4.5 stars

On a quest to finish reading all of Austen’s works this year, I bring you my Northanger Abbey thoughts.

Seventeen year-old Catherine Morland is excited to be on holiday with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Allen.  Her first visit to the resort town of Bath, she befriends Isabella Thorpe, a young woman much like herself with many of the same interests and the two becomes quite close in a very short time, attending balls and gossiping about the town’s visitors.  While waiting for her love interest, Henry Tilney, to return, Isabella’s brother John Thorpe begins to pursue Catherine.  She manages to keep him at bay and at the same time make friends with Henry’s sister, Eleanor, who invites her back to their estate — Northanger Abbey — for an extended visit.  Catherine, a reader and enthusiast of gothic novels, lets her imagination run wild envisioning the Abbey to be more thrilling than the tranquility it exudes and she starts looking for exotic explanations for simple human reactions to tragedy.

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s take on a gothic novel.  Each time I pick up one of her books I have a certain expectation —- there will be a heroine, a love interest, a blossoming love story, a love-laced blunder, and true love found at last.  All of that happened but there was a little more to this one; the gothic tale.  I’m not familiar with the novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliff which the main character Catherine adores, however, since reading this book I have downloaded it to my Nook and plan to take a look soon.  It’s really a wicked little jab at these horror stories and Catherine’s love of these types of books and her insistence on how well-written there are goes against the proclamations of others and is obviously Austen’s opinion of this genre made very clear.

As for characters, she once again delivers.  Catherine — a naïve, very likable person unwilling to believe a friend could do her wrong or that a dark side of life can exist.  She’s really lovely if somewhat absorbed in a world of fantasy.  I also very much enjoyed John Thorpe.  He’s brash, annoying, disagreeable, unlikeable, and spot on.  In no way do you want Catherine to acknowledge him let alone fall in love with him.  Henry, for me, was slightly boring (he’s no Mr. Darcy but who is?) but I found him endearing and a good fit for Catherine.

I waited a long time for the story to move to Northanger Abbey and was slightly disappointed with it, much like Catherine herself, but I loved her enthusiasm in uncovering what she believes to be the truth about the old Abbey.  It did follow a regular arc I’ve come to expect and love from Austen and I found Northanger Abbey to be a worthwhile addition to her collection and one I think I might read again.

Mansfield Park is next in my Austen reading but I probably won’t slip into it until later this year but I’m looking forward to it.

Today’s Book – The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

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I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy lately, not unusual for me but since I downloaded a bunch of classics to my Nook over the past few weeks, I thought it might be time to take a look at one.  The Woman in White won out, mostly because 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea popped up as 1,098 pages on my Nook and I didn’t want a book that long right now.  I have George RR Martin’s A Storm of Swords waiting for me and though I love a good chunkster, I wanted something slightly more manageable.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to spend much time with this tome but I am enjoying what I have been able to read.  It’s got a dark, gothic feel to it which is good since I’m sure to come off the fantasy high someday soon.

Having skipped over Collins many times even though people have said good things about his books, and especially this one, I’m somewhat surprised to find myself liking it.  Collins’s association with Charles Dickens, an author I have yet to appreciate, kept me away in fear that I would be stuck in Dickensonia.  Thankfully, that’s not the case.

I searched for a video to share but didn’t come up with anything interesting but I did find this excerpt from an audiobook produced by the BBC.

Review – Dawn of Avalon (short story)

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Dawn of Avalon: Morgan and Merlin — The Beginning

By Anna Elliott

Smashwords Edition downloaded to Nook

3.75 stars

Oh, my soft spot for all things King Arthur.  After having finished a rather long book, I thought it would be a good idea to read a few short stories to get myself back into a reading groove.  And of course, I also thought I’d return to a love of mine — Arthurian stories.

Morgan Pendragon has disguised herself as a boy and offered her services to King Vortigern.  She ends up working as a healer in his dungeon to get close to a certain prisoner; a man who can tell no one who he is, where he comes from, or which side he’s fighting for.  When Vortigern gets nothing from him after days of torture, he decides to sacrifice the man to appease the gods in an attempt to hold off Uther Pendragon’s impending invasion.  Morgan, not willing to watch him die, helps him to escape and finds out he’s more than just a soldier.  He’s a man with magical abilities — a man named Merlin.

Morgan and Merlin are some of my favorite characters from Arthurian stories.  Morgan was slightly different; softer, less hostile, less magical, and for me not nearly as interesting.  It’s not a bad thing, I just have a general standard in my head for the character of Morgan and she’s a meaner and harder figure but this Morgan did fit this particular story better.  As for Merlin, I usually think of him as very self-assured and able to make decisions supernaturally so his being helpless again took me out of my comfort zone.  He needed Morgan to survive both physically and emotionally, but again, it fit with the story being told.  All in all it, was good and I might look up a few more things by Anna Elliott particularly Twilight of Avalon.  Dawn of Avalon is the short story that serves as the prequel to that book.

Teaser Tuesdays – The Woman in White

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Teaser so I thought I’d play this week.  I started The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins last night.  Interesting, and not at all what I expected.

“The very night before I arrived at this house, I met with an adventure; and the wonder and excitement of, I can assure you, Miss Halcombe, will last me for the whole term of my stay at Cumberland, if not for a much longer period.”

“You don’t say so, Mr. Hartright! May I hear it?” (page 70 of 590 on Nook)

Review – Heat Wave

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Heat Wave

By Richard Castle

Hyperion

EAN: 9781401394769

3.5 stars

Nikki Heat is one of New York’s finest with a new case on her hands — a millionaire real estate developer found dead on the sidewalk in front of his exclusive Manhattan apartment.  Saddled with Jameson Rook, a celebrity journalist who somehow managed to get himself on a ride along, she begins her investigation at the same time a heat wave hits the city.

Sometimes all I want is a good old fashioned crime novel full of clichés, bad dialogue, and a criminal that sticks out from the first time you meet him/her on the page.  I got what I wanted out of this one.  It was all the above and more.  Parts of it made me laugh, cringe, and not once did any of it make me want to stop reading.  I know these books are the basis for the TV show Castle (or the other way around, I don’t know) which I’ve never seen, but now I may watch an episode just to see what it’s like.  It probably would have been helpful to have seen the show before reading this book too but I looked past a few things and went with it when I came to something that a person who watches the show probably would have known.

At its heart, Heat Wave, is a cop book.  It moved fast and entertained and that was what I needed at the time.  I have a soft spot for Lee Child novels but I think I may add a few Castle books to my crime thriller list for when the need strikes.

Review – Un Lun Dun

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Un Lun Dun

By China Miéville

Del Rey Books

E-ISBN: 978-0-345-49723-9

4.5 stars

Cute — describing Un Lun Dun in one word.  Cute would fit but it probably wouldn’t suffice. While there were so many things in this book that I loved (Curdle the milk carton for instance) there was even so much more to sink into that I feel I’m almost at a loss to write this review because I want to share absolutely everything which would ruin it so I will try for some restraint but I won’t promise it completely.

Deeba is the best friend of Zanna and as it turns out Zanna is supposed to save UnLondon but she doesn’t know it yet.  You see, Zanna is the Schwazzy, the savior of UnLondon and when strange things begin to happen to her, she investigates and her curiosity leads her to, you guessed it, UnLondon with Deeba tagging along.  Deeba, well, all she wants to do is get home and when she and Zanna are finally returned to their London, all she can do is think of UnLondon and how she can get back there.  Determined to help now that Zanna “the Schwazzy” can’t, she finds a way to not only find UnLondon, but also to save it — or at least she hopes to.

Miéville has an acute refined ability to take something so simple, the world we live in for example, and turn it around so it becomes something almost unrecognizable.  I say almost because he lets us glimpse the unusual but then pulls it back just far enough so we start to wonder what he’s really after.  Is that another world I just saw, or I am dreaming, fallen into a mental state, or maybe, just maybe that world is out there, waiting…waiting for the right time and place to show itself.  In Un Lun Dun, he does that along with taking the everyday mundane (umbrellas and milk cartons) and making them the most spectacular of characters.  Yes, characters.  He takes a milk carton living in UnLondon and gives it the personality of a lap dog that only wants to be loved and trot around about your heels.  He elevates umbrellas from simple rain protection to ultimate smog repellant then transforms them into a rebrella that will help to defeat evil.  It’s this ability to take the everyday and take it to the unbelievable that keeps me reading and coming back for more.

The City and the City was my first Miéville book and I was hooked from page one.  Kraken was an absolute treat and I couldn’t wait to find out what treasure was hidden in Un Lun Dun.  I can say it was absolutely full of gems and I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on more of his writing.  For the curious, he has a new book out, Embassytown, which takes place on an alien planet.  Ask me if I’m buying that one.  Yes, the answer is yes.

If you haven’t read any Miéville, one, start, and two, start with Un Lun Dun.  It’s fun, cute if you’ll indulge me, but also a way to meet a writer that will take you places you never imagined possible within the confines of the page.  It may be considered young adult, and completely different than his other books but that’s something to love about his writing — incredible diversity.