The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Don't you love historical fiction?  I do.

I just finished Laura Moriary's The Chaperone -- a story based around the legendary Louise Brooks (silent film star not our cousin) and her arrival in New York to attend the Denishawn Ballet school as a fifteen-year old.  She is acompanied by Cora Carlisle, a housewife from Louise's hometown of Wichita Kansas.  While the real story is Cora's journey and awakening during the upheaval of the 1920s, the historical perspective of the period interwoven with the factual details of Louise's life round out the book to be an excellent read rich in both plot and character development. 

It was a good listen, too, except that the book was narrated by Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) and her accent (lack of accent?)  was a little odd.  Elizabeth McGovern is an excellent Cora, Countess of Grantham, but maybe not the very best choice for Cora of Wichita, KS. 

Casual Vacancy

Has anyone read J. K. Rowling's new book?  I'm intrigued. 


Also....Hilarious.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Well, as it turns out I have been reading books lately and the last one I read ... actually 2 books ago now (I'm reading more than I think I am)... was also quite thrilling.  Though in another sense of the word, I'm sure.  I'm about to start Gone Girl so I'll let you know.

Brain on Fire is a book that one of the imprints I work for (full disclosure) is publishing in November and it was really, really good.  Amazing even?  I was pretty interested in reading it since it took us a while to come up with a cover so I heard lots of details to describe it and woah.  Girl catches rare disease, goes crazy, symptoms don't match any specific medical case, doctors are confused, parents are confused,  girl is dying...  magical doctor finds a cure.  I think you'll want to pick it up.  Actually, if you are Mere and you are reading this you can pick it up because I left it at your house.  Remember?

So it's a memoir of sorts, although she readily admits to not remembering a lot of her "month of madness" and had to rely on her father's journal entries and footage from the cameras in her hospital room.  Are you intrigued?   Check it out!

I wonder if it will be an audiobook.

Gone Girl

I can't stop listening to this...

Gwenda Williamson Mathews...3 days after...



I've stopped listening to it now because it's over.  It was absolutely gripping.  That's right -- gripping!  Honestly, how often do you use that word in real life about a book.  I even planned my last few days around doing mindless tasks that wouldn't interrupt my listening. 

I bought this a couple of months ago because I read a review in our local paper that made it sound so intriguing but I put off reading it because

a.  I had to finish A Clash of Kings

b.  Then I read the Persimmon Tree (loved it and forgot to mention it in my list of the last post)

c.  I had to listen to Echo in the Bone because we were driving through New England and I wanted a Colonial America reading fix at the same time and, well, those Outlander books take a while to finish

And finally, post-Echo in the Bone, I just couldn't wait anymore and I wanted to read it because it's the Number 1 NY Times best selling book but I have yet to hear anybody talk about this book yet.  Maybe, like me everybody read an early review from its release, bought the book, but then didn't have time to read it.  Clearly that must be the case because I haven't heard anybody talking about it and they should be!  It's fantastic.  The audio book is superbly done.

So quick run-down.  Amy Elliott Dunne is gone.  And, in a ripped from the headlines fashion, her husband Nick is naturally the number one suspect. The story told in first person excerpts by Amy and Nick who may or may not be reliable narrators.  I can't tell you anymore because I don't want to ruin any surprises but in the midst of the suspense and mystery be prepared for dark, twisted and interesting commentary on modern life in America. Brilliant.  

     

 

Halloooooo????

Heavens to Betsy!  Has no one read a book since March?  I simply can't believe that's true.  It was summer!  Surely there was much summer reading.  Dancealot read a bunch of books for school including The Omnivore's Dilemma, How to Read Like a Writer, The Great Gatsby (for fun) and The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (sequel to Alan Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie).  I'm going to read that last one myself as soon as I finish A Discovery of Witches which was supposed to be my summer read-by-the-pool book.  For some reason I only had 50 pages worth of by-the-pool reading so now it's my read on the stationary bike book.

As to me, I finished off the second Game of Thrones Book (audio), The Family Fang (audio), The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (audio),  The Rules of Civility (audio), I am the Messenger (again) and I'm just finishing up the very last Outlander Book -- An Echo in the Bone.  As soon as that's over, I'm going to listen to Gone Girl. 

I've also read almost the entire Sookie Stackhouse series over the summer.  Do I really want to admit that publicly?  I'm not ever planning to run be President of the either the US or a college so I guess you can't hold it against me.  They're quite addictive plus I can get them all on my iPad from the library (for free!!) which I can read in the dark, in bed, as I am falling asleep. 

Miss you all!!

Game of Thrones (or... Song of Ice and Fire?)

So... good job Mathewses... I am addicted. I even started doing some art (real art... with paint and stuff!) late at night so that I could keep listening to this book. I can't believe I balked at the Outlanderish length, when I'm already on the second of four downloaded parts. Oh Audiobooks. 

I also broke down and watched the first... one and a half episodes of the show (I stopped to cook dinner in the middle of the second, and then decided I'd rather listen than watch). I think it does not do a terrible job, but there are certain things I would do differently... like make John Snow not have such a wuss face all the time. I'll retain my other critiques for the comments if anybody actually wants to hear them.

sure bout that eyebrow tilt choice? Maaaybe? Maybe not?

I do, of course, love Tyrian Lannister... everybody's favorite dwarf actor ever... of whom my favorite roll that he may have ever acted was "Lemon" from "Penelope"... with his little pirate notepad... he is, however, also not how I pictured Tyrian. I may keep watching the show for him though. and did this narrator do voices in "Skippy Dies?"

Jane Rollins

I think this would be perfect for my Auntie Austen... if she were little (thus making me nonexistent for then, but we're speaking theoretically, yes?)

Parody: The Hunger Pains

I have a confession.  I'm currently reading The Hunger Pains by the Harvard Lampoon (they also wrote Nightlight and Bored of the Rings) and I can't stop laughing.  This wasn't really on my top list of books to read, but it's small so I decided to read it on my way into work and...

BAD IDEA.

I was laughing so much and so loudly that I had to put it away.  I really don't like any form of attention on the subway (like most NYers) but I was sad to put it down.

So what's it about?  It's a parody of the Hunger Games (if you hadn't figured that out) featuring Kantkiss Neverclean, Prin (for Princsess), Buterball (the cat/dog), Pita Malarkey and Carol Handsomestein.  I was going to copy some of my favorite parts so far, but I started laughing too much.. so read them for yourself!

If the news is depressing you and you need a good laugh.  I actually recommended this one.  

Want to read a few pages?  Click here!  And enjoy the trailer:

Review

"The Hunger Pains really struck a chord with me." —Kantkiss, protagonist of The Hunger Pains

"Instead of the Bible, rooms should come with a copy of The Hunger Pains."  —Sheraton Hotel Memo

"This book makes me wish I'd never been shot."  —Abraham Lincoln

"The book always falls through my hands, but in an undeniably funny way." —A Ghost

The Woman in White and my iPad

The version I read on my
iPad looks so different!

Good golly! We haven't had a book review on here in months. For shame...I know Isabug and I have had a few posts on our regular blogs but really, has no one read a book worth mentioning?

I confess that I spent about a month listening to A Breath of Snow and Ashes (unabridged 50!! hours) by Diana Gabaldon in the crazy Outlander series. Get a life I say to myself but it was great and had a super surprise ending that I'd love to talk about with someone. Is anyone that far yet? Grandpa? I'm going to take a short break before I start in on the seventh and final (so far) book of the series.

I also have started reading real, electronic books on my Christmas iPad. I just finished The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins that I cannot say enough good stuff about. I loved it. I loved it so much that I might have to go to the effort to update my Facebook "favorite books" in appreciation only Wilkie Collins is long dead so I don't know how much he'll appreciate. He is, in fact, so long dead that his books are free in public domain. I loved this book so much that I wish I had read it and written a paper on it in my college 19th century British novels class. Instead, I will merely write this love post to it which will not be graded.

In addition, to loving The Woman in White, I love my new iPad. I really didn't think that I would like reading books on it but lying in bed at night with the lights out reading under the covers, I have found myself trying to turn non-existent pages on my iPad because it feels so real, and so book-like. And, yet, I don't have to have a flashlight/booklight to read my book. So far I have finished, the aforementioned Women in White, Mini-Shopaholic (from the library) and am almost through My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum (also from the library and hilarious). There are times when I wish I could fold the corner of a page down and underline something wonderful that I just read but I'm getting over it because I couldn't/shouldn't do that in a library book anyway --although, I must admit a fondness for a gently underlined by someone else book. It always makes me feel a connection to this anonymous person and wonder why they found those words so special.