some fun posts around the book blog world: cover art, libraries, mysteries and stealing the TARDIS

Memory at Stella Matutina has a fabulous post - Bibliophiles Steal a TARDIS.  She asks if you could travel through Time and Space to an author in the past, what would you tell them?  She has made it more interesting by imagining you give them a suggestion that leads to their greatest works.  I picked Shakespeare and imagined I would go back in time and encourage a poetless playwright to try his hand at the sonnet......Memory did pick Jane Austen, so I joined her on that one, since I could never resist getting a chance to meet one of my very favourite authors.  Who would you go to?  Let Memory know!  PS I would have to bring my daughter along, you will have to read my comment at Memory's post to find out why......

Ana at things mean alot has a thoughtful post on libraries:  Books Are So Cheap!  Who needs Libraries?.  Because a couple of you, my Gentle readers, left comments on my recent book library post about the fees different libraries are charging just to request a book, I have been thinking about the differences in library systems (having lived in England for a year), and why libraries are important.  Ana's post is interesting. Do you use the library?  Do you buy books second-hand?  Weigh in on the debate at Ana's post. Let her know what you think.  I left a lengthy comment and still didn't run out of things to say.  I think libraries are so important to the health of a community as well as a city and a country.  It's a place for people of any background to gather to learn, to share, to explore all the sum of knowledge their library contains, and has access to.  They frequently offer classes to help the disadvantaged learn how to write resumes, job-seek, type, use computers, and in our case here in Ottawa, the Ottawa Public Library also has frequent guest writers speaking out on various topics, from investing money to bird-watching, depending on how local/Canadian the writer is, and their recent book topic.  And it's free.  So anyone can attend.  It's that freedom that I think is so very important, and I don't like that libraries are so often the target of budget-conscious city councils.  Most especially (and this comes up over and over from Ana's commenters as well) the library is a place for children to explore the world of books and read far more widely than their parents, no matter how much money they make, can give them.  I certainly used the library from a young age, and read so many books that we didn't have at home.  I read the ones at home too.  The library offered so much choice and variety, I could try anything I wanted and learn whatever I wanted.  It's like a tiny slice of heaven for book-lovers, and I don't think of it as a pleasure or frivolous.  It is far more important than that.  What do you think?  Let her know.

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise ( I love this blog name!) has a fun post: When did you begin reading Crime fiction?.  You will have to go there to see what my answer is, and please let her know.  I will say that I began early, and it was among the very first kind of books I read, and I have never really looked back, although fantasy is my next favourite genre. I thought I read them equally until I began keeping a books read journal in the 1990s, and realized that I read more mystery than fantasy at about a 2:1 ratio.  That was quite shocking at first, since I was spending my time at the local fantasy store, going to science fiction conventions, and immersing myself in fantasy reading.  To know that I naturally read mystery more than anything else - once I got over that surprise, I began, in the past several years, letting myself read and discover all the mysteries out there that I didn't know about before.  It wasn't that I wasn't reading mysteries during my fantasy years, it was that I wasn't thinking about how much I enjoyed them consciously.  Once I understood my reading history and how far back it stretched, I realized I had my home in mysteries early on.  I also let myself read as many mysteries as I want to, instead of thinking I should be reading more classics, or biographies, or whatever.  I am of course free to read what I want to!  but sometimes we put barriers on ourselves about what we can read, for various reasons, and I always thought I should be a widely-read reader, rather than reading for love. I'm not sure if it's time, or my health concerns, but something changed in my late 30's, and I decided to read what I loved, and much more of it.  No one is judging me for what I read, except me!

The funny thing is, now that I'm reading for love, I've discovered other books in other genres that I do love - Mary Oliver, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Jasper Fforde,  as well as many, many wonderful mysteries........so what do you love to read?  And if you do read mysteries, let Kerrie know when you began.

For those of you who do read mysteries, Peter over at Detectives Beyond Borders has a fun post:  The BBC Gets It Wrong on Hard-Boiled Fiction.  Did Hemingway publish the first hard-boiled detective story, or was it Hammett?  The critic at the BBC asserted it was Hemingway.  I would have said Dashiell Hammett, myself.  I did a History of Mystery Novels in university (now long ago!) and I am sitting here trying to remember:  we covered Philip Marlowe and Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, but I don't believe Ernest Hemingway even came up in this course.  We were studying who was important in the development of the mystery novel, not just big names who wrote mystery fiction.  I think that might be where the BBC critic got mixed up.  It also depends on your definition of hard-boiled fiction - hard-boiled I think of as pertaining to detectives and a certain world-weary way of looking at the world and crime.  Hemingway certainly wrote in this manner - world-weariness -  for much of his fiction, but not in crime terms.  It's interesting that I can read hard-boiled detective fiction, but I can't read Hemingway with much enjoyment.  What do you think?  Let Peter know, they have a very interesting debate going in the comments on this post.

Amy at My Friend Amy has a very fun post in "A Cover Trend I Enjoy.'  Now, I don't read many romances unless there is a mystery or fantasy element to it, but I do admit that I like looking at the covers of historical romances. I like the pretty gowns too, dresses that only socialites and princesses wear today.  However, this post title got me to thinking about trends in book covers.  I have to admit I am a sucker for photographed covers - I almost always pick the book up to admire! like this one purchased last month:
as well as artistic rendered covers, such as this one on the latest book by Rosy Thornton:
Looking closely at them, I can see right away that as is usual for me now, there are no people.  Isn't this interesting?  I don't like people in my photographs, only in art.  I really like both of these covers, too.  I am thrilled to finally have a copy of The Tapestry of Love - the author asked if I would like a copy to review, and I said yes because I've seen her book around on the blogs and I fell in love with both the story idea as well as the cover (and haven't seen a copy in paperback over here yet).  **I generally don't accept copies to review from anyone. I'm not interested in arcs since I worked in bookstores before, and I'm not interested in being the first to read a book.  It's just how I am, these days.  So I did caution the author that I have to be in the mood for a romance, but this cover is so irresistible and the premise - a middle-aged woman  after a divorce begins life anew  in France, opening her own business, and well frankly, most of my daydreams are about escaping (with my family!) to anywhere that isn't in a city these days, so I'm finding I want to read the book now. So I said yes.  It arrived today and I opened it up, all excited.  This lovely cover is now mine!!!!  and as soon as I read the story I will let you know how it is. Stay tuned. 
*****Edited to add later same night:  OMG!  Look at these book covers that I found over at Jane's blog, Reading, Writing, Working, Playing, in her post: My Penguin Classics.....All Mine!  These are beautiful, gorgeous, fabulous, wonderful covers.  I want these books!  So I went to Penguin Books.com to check them out, at the Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions, which these editions turn out to be part of.  I love the covers by Ruben Toledo.  So I went to Penguin Canada, where our Classic Deluxe Editions are listed here.  I am so happy they are available here!  Sometimes there is a problem with the Penguin copyright, so I have some books to look for now.   I did find something else totally new:  the Penguin Classics RED editions, which are the same price as other Penguin editions, but 50% of the cost goes directly to fund Aids recovery.  Not research, but medicine for a person.  The art is very different, but it's also very cool (except for Dracula, I'm still figuring that one out.)  Did I say I am lured by cover art?  Hmmm, I think I have to admit that yes, it does it's job very well (when it's well done).  And I don't mind! 

And that's what got me thinking from the book blog world today.  Have any posts inspired you?

Guardian of the Dead - Karen Healey - the most amazing myth journey

Well, I have Chris from Stuff As Dreams are Made Of to thank for his comment he left on my previous post.  He'd been looking to read Guardian of the Dead, so I pulled it from my towering " it's not so big if you put it into smaller piles" stack of library books today.  It's seven hours later, and in between making meals and doing  the housework, I read this book today.  Trust me, you won't want to put it down.  It's unbelievably fantastic and good.  I love this book.  I think it's safe to say it's one of my books of the year.

The book is about Ellie Spencer, a 17 year old girl attending boarding school on the South Island of New Zealand while her parents go around the world on a cruise.  It's not what you think, because her mother has just survived her treatment for breast cancer, and they are doing this in celebration.  Ellie has to finish school, and she chose Mansfield because it is on South Island, far from her home on the North Island; she couldn't go live with her sister in Sydney because her sister is gay and her parents don't want her lifestyle to rub off on Ellie.  Very normal, nothing unusual in that.  She thinks she is a normal 17 year old girl, and that is part of the delight of this novel:  all her reactions are, from her dislike of her body to her crush on the loner Mark, to her best friend Kevin who is hiding a secret, to the descriptions of the world around her, are satisfyingly real and prosaic.  And then she bumps into Mark by accident, and everything changes.  It's not what you think, though it is that too:  Mark is not what he seems to be, and in touching her, he awakens a latent talent in her for seeing the magic things around her.  She discovers she can use magical items, too. 

If the book just contained that story, it would be a good solid fantasy novel.  It contains much more though, and this is where it hums and sings like the best novels do.  Healey has woven New Zealand's myths into this story, so we meet some gods and goddesses, and other spirits, the guardians of places, hence the name of the book.  What is even more wonderful than having Maori myths brought to life, is that New Zealand, like any continent settled first by the First People (Aboriginals, we white people name them), and then by white settlers, so there is a mixing of peoples, languages and myths now.  Guardian of the Dead is about the ancient New Zealand myths stirring, but it's seen through the eyes of a non-aboriginal girl who loves the Classics.  So we get a fabulous mix of Classical mythology with Maori mythology.  It's magic.  Every magical form we meet, every old creature, the Guardian of the Dead herself - are believable and true and awesome. 

This is a story about discovery:  Ellie discovers who she is and what she can do.  She discovers love, she discovers friends and friendship.  She is betrayed, over and over, and stumbles along with only her determination and faithfulness to guide her.  I liked Ellie, and I wanted to be Ellie.  I liked her that much.  She discovers magic.  She discovers that the world isn't about her.  She discovers how to control people, and how it makes her feel.  She discovers myths are real. Her friends are interesting, and she is practical, down to earth, partly because her mother did have cancer, and Ellie spent a lot of her time helping her mother when she could.  She makes the story work because she is just a 17 year old girl who mostly wants to be loved.

The journey in to myth is fraught with peril, and it is dangerous to meet myths themselves;  humans are never the same afterward.  So it is for Ellie, and Mark, as they learn the surviving putapaiarehe are trying to regain the immortality they once had long ago, and join in the attempt to stop them, for it means the destruction of the North Island all together if the ancient creatures succeed. 

This is one of my favourite moments in the book, when Ellie is in danger from Mark's mother, Reka, who is a Maori fairy, or patupaiarehe, but really she is a species that is not human:

I wasn't moving. My feet were rooted as Reka's song rose.  Numbed, I heard my fate in her voice - not death, but the long, wooden life of tree and bush, sleeping away winters and rising in the spring to thrust mindless to the sun.  I might live a century or more until the rot claimed me, and never remember that I had once been a girl, with limbs instead of branches, who had fought, and run, and kissed.
   Anger faded into placid acceptance as her voice sang out the final phrase and hung, questioning, on the last word. 
    I began to sigh my consent.

One of the myths I like is the story of Daphne and Apollo, which this little scene reminded me of very much.  How did Daphne feel, when she turned from Apollo's advances, and her father rescues her by turning her into a tree?  Much like how Ellie feels as Reska enchants her, I imagine.  However Ellie is not fleeing from a boy, and she chooses to stay alive as a girl, before she is saved.  This book is about empowerment too, for women, with several very strong female characters like Ellie, to Iris her new friend who is running the school play, to Ellie's teacher Miss Lagribaldi, to the Guardian of the Dead, to Mark's mother who is a dark enchantress.  They are all powerful in their way, and for me, I found fascinating and energizing. It's not myths for women, it's women who happen to be powerful encountering and working with or within myths, becoming guardians of secrets.  It's a fascinating glimpse into myths that are real because we believe.  It really is an extraordinary novel.

  The Guardian of the Dead is a marvelous journey to a mythic world.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.  5/5.

Library haul *Or, the madness of wanting to read everything

I was busy in January, reading 10 books.  10!!!  I am so proud.  A lot of my tv viewing has gone down, and I've been enjoying reading more.  This is not say I'm not watching my favourites, I could never miss Fringe!    Mostly, I am enjoying reading,  and making time to read more  That is really what my resolution is about, making more time for books.  I know I can't read everything out there, though I really want to.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! 

It seems I am finding almost every book interesting and irresistible.  Actually, I think I always have, but between all the books I bought in January (that's the next planned post) and the 20 + books out from my library, I'm pretty well feeling like the next six months of reading is covered!. Ok, I can hear you all wondering, what books did I haul from the library?

Here is a photo of my Library loot:

The Library Loot (with Blogger responsible beside it)
The pile on the left:
-Spellbent - Lucy A Snyder
- Death at Wentwater Court - Carola Dunn (Cath at Read Warbler, her post here)
- Sweater Quest - Adrienne Martini (Terri Windling, post here,  Delia Sherman, post here)
- Life and Fate - Vassily Grossman
- Sepulchre - Kate Moss (because of Bride's review of The Winter Ghosts, over at Bride of the Book God), and this one features a tarot deck. 
- The Westminster Poisoner - Susanna Gregory
- Guardian of the Dead - Karen Healey (a blogger somewhere)....
- Well-Witched - Frances Hardinge (Locus magazine review)
- Visitation - Jenny Erpenbeck
- Juliet, Naked - *Nick Hornby*
- How To Make Friends with Demons - Graham Joyce (Locus magazine - see my sidebar)

The pile on the right:
- Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell - BBC production,  dvd. (score!!)
 - The Cold Light of Mourning - Elizabeth J. Duncan (Mystery Scene Magazine review)
 - The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Detectives Beyond Borders blog, post here)
- Dangerous Angels - Francesca Block (Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of, post here)
- Murder on the Rocks - Karen MacInerney (Mystery Scene Magazine review)
- Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
- Silent in the Grave - Deanna Raybourne (Bride at Bride of the Book God, post here)
- Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading - Maureen Corrigan (Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, post here)
- The Burning Land - Bernard Cornwell (Mariel at Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops, post here - it led me to all her reviews of The Arthurian Cycle by Cornwell)
- The Limits of Enchantment - Graham Joyce
- A Chance Meeting - Rachel Cohen (Nymeth at Things Means Alot, post here; it's actually Litlove's comment to Nymeth that caught my eye, but the entire post made me add 4 books to my reading list!)
 - The Outlander - Gil Adamson

I forgot to put in the picture the library book I'm currently reading:
- Valley of the Lost - Vicki Delany (Kathleen at Boarding in My Forties recommended this author to me, how I missed a new Canadian mystery series I have no idea, but I am very much enjoying her.  Lesa at Lesa's Book Critiques has reviews of all the books in the series, beginning here.)

I can hear you all laughing.  I know I won't read all of these, though I'm going to try!  It's so much fun to click that button online and request a book from our library.  If only we could click a button and order more time just for reading, too!!

I'd say there are a lot of very bad Bloggers out there too, though really I thank you from the bottom of my heart for pointing me towards some excellent books to read.

Happy reading, happy library loot!

Complete and Utter Book Lust

All about Book Lust: 

Ever since Jane  posted about this over at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing, I've wanted this:
Pride and Prejudice, the Annotated version. 

 I want this so much!!!  Annotated Jane Austen!  One of my favourite books!  I didn't even know she came annotated.  Oh priceless treasure!  It's on the books I'm about to order.  O sweet joy!!  This is complete and utter book lust, my Gentle Readers. Oh my. 

I also have to advise you that Edward Gorey's The Unstrung Harp, which I reviewed here, is available in Amphigorey.


Can you feel the longing?

 I confess, I really want to read this:  The Passage by Justin Cronin.
I hope it lives up to the buzz.  It comes out in paperback right before my birthday, so that's lovely timing!  My only question is,  can I  wait that long?  I can't carry hardcovers so I try to not buy them too often.

I have Margaret at Of Books and Bicycles to blame be thankful for this:  ever since she reviewed The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery, I've wanted it.

I finally have tracked it down at Amazon.ca, and it's on the books I'm about to order.  I'm so excited!!  Women's life in 18th century England!  It's like reading what the world was like when Jane Austen wrote, when the Bronte sisters were getting ready to write.

Bride of the Book God talked about Leviathan,  which is being released over here as The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare.

A year and a half  now since her post, and  I've been watching for this book all this time! It's coming in soft cover in two weeks, since I somehow missed the release in Hardcover over here (I still can't believe this).  I have loved whales, since I was a child.  Does this book qualify as a need then, instead of a  want? how about Jane Austen then? 

And as soon as I can find a copy, Patricia Brigg's Silver Borne is finally out in paperback.

Mercy Thompson #5. How does she settle into the pack? Does Adam try to cramp her mechanic don't fence me in lifestyle?  Her nose for danger?

And finally, because it's the second half of one book, and because it's Connie Willis:  All Clear.

 This will count for Carl's Sci Fi Challenge, as well as the British Challenge.  And she is one of my favourite writers. It's in hard cover, but I can't wait until next winter some time. I have to find out what happens.

Of course, this is just the temporary I Need to get as Soon as Possible List, not to be confused with I Always Buy The Latest Book By This Author List (which is permanent book lust), or  the Show Me A Good Mystery and You Know I'll Want to Try it List.  Or the Still Missing a Few Titles in this Series List.  Or the Brand New To Me Because Of Bad Bloggers Reading Lists, list........

In other words, you really can't ever have enough books, my Gentle Readers!

Is there a particular book you are anticipating this year, Gentle Reader?

The Unseen - Alexandra Sokoloff - Very Frightening Haunted House novel

So, you know I am a sucker for horror stories.  I love being scared - in the good way, safely, through a book.  Not in the bad way, which is in real life. I've found that the very best frightening books spill over into my life so that I become unable to read them at night.  I become too nervous, too jumpy.  Now, I like this feeling or I wouldn't read scary novels.  The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff  is one of those novels. It is so good and so frightening that I had to stop reading it last night and wait for the safety of daylight to read it.  So imagine this:  sitting at the kitchen table, cup of tea at hand, children on Wii, sun streaming in the window, and I am still scared.  That's how good and scary this book is.

The premise:
Dr Laurel MacDonald flees from the West coast and ends up in North Carolina at Duke University, desperately searching for a proposal for a book so she can keep her job as associate professor and tenure.  She discovers that the University used to have a psychic research facility on campus, that suddenly shut down in 1965, the year her mother left Durham for the west coast.  Laurel knows she has family back east, but it's only after she buys her house and tells her mother what she's done that her mother reminds her that she has relatives there: her aunt and her uncle.  From the time she discovers that the 700 boxes from the old psychic research faculty have been released a(from where they were hidden in storage), to when she makes the link to her uncle's mysterious mental disability which came from the same psychic research program, I found a real sense of unease growing.  We follow the set-up that leads to her and her associate professor Brendan Cody to Folger House, where an experiment to see if a reported poltergeist experience could be uncovered to be true, first done in 1965 and that led to the mysterious shut down of the department.  They discover the house, and this leads to them deciding to recreate the experiment again using psychological and personality profiles like Myers-Briggs, combining them with tested psychic ability  to see if there is a link between personality profiles, psychic ability and expectation of psychic phenomena (which I think would be an interesting subject to study, by the way).   There is a palpable sense of unease that grows into real terror as Laurel,  Brandon and their two test students enter the supposed haunted house.

There is a little similarity with Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House:  two observers, and two test subjects who test high on evaluation tests for psychic abilities; an experiment at a haunted house, where they stay for a period of time to record what happens.  These are the only similarities, but I did want to point out they were there.  The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favourite and all-time frightening ghost stories, and it is to Ms Sokoloff's credit that the similarities are only in the set-up, not in the execution at all.  The Unseen stands on its own, and is in its own right it's very own ghost story.  And it as unsettling and frightening as The Haunting of Hill House is.

It is terrifying in places, and I am very glad I read most of it during the daylight, and with people around me.  I'm really glad I'm not alone tonight!  That's how scary I found some of this book.   I think it's one of the best horror novels I have read in years.  So if you are looking for something to scare you, if you want that delicious frisson of fear running up your spine and tingling in your scalp, making the hair stand up on your arms just in reading about ghosts, then pick this one up.

5/5 and most highly recommended.

I could only find this in hardcover at my library.  Even now, Amazon.ca says the paperback isn't available in Canada at all. I also discovered at her website that she has a new book just being released: The Book of Shadows.  It combines a detective with a witch as a team.  Sounds good!!!  I'll be looking for this one now.

******Edited to add:  I forgot to add that I have been aware of this writer ever since I reviewed Ms Sokoloff's first novel, The Harrowing, here two years ago.  I am thrilled that The Unseen is better than The Harrowing (at least in my opinion it is) - because as frightening as The Harrowing was, I thought it could be more, and The Unseen does that.  This is a horror writer to watch, and I hope that The Book of Shadows is as good as either of these two.

Sunday Salon: Where around the world do you read?

So Memory over at Stella Matutina has a post today about books she's read by authors from different countries. That got me thinking.  How widely do I read?  Is as widely as I hoped?  What do I want to read, and from where?  So today I'd like to take a little trip around my bookshelves and the world, to talk about:

THE WORLD OF BOOKS


You and I know, Gentle Reader, that there is a whole wide wonderful world of books out there.  Published in almost every language (because some are only spoken languages, they can't be written in words and therefore no books exist in that language), books come from every corner of the lovely planet.  They cover every genre, every possible idea that has flitted across man's mind.  What I'm interested in talking about is fiction, and because I'm me, particularly mystery, and fantasy/science fiction, my two main interests in fiction.


Last year this is where I read from:
Canada (my home country and nationality):  14
USA:  26
Britain: 24
Scandinavia (including Iceland): 7
Russia: 2
New Zealand: 2
Ireland: 2


Well, not nearly as world covering as I would like!  I am thrilled that I have read so many from Canada, which is one of my personal challenges every year any way.  I am delighted that I am expanding my reading to Ireland, to New Zealand, to Russia.  There are so many other countries to try.  I usually have Fred Vargas for France, but I haven't seen her new book yet.  One country in particular I do want to read more from is Australia, which hasn't made it on my list yet for several years now. 


I want to explain here that I do sometimes base my reading on where books come from.  I have a finite amount of time, so I do look for books from other countries, authors who write mysteries that sound interesting.  I like to read good books. I guess I'd say that I don't care where a book comes from, so long as it is good, but that makes it sound like I'm in search of the book, without the flavour that a different perspective and setting gives.  I am interested in the differences in viewpoints, in how we see the world, and what living somewhere else means when we tell stories.  I want to read more fiction set (or from) Central and South America, as well as Africa.  I do have on my to-read shelves books by Deon Meyer (South Africa), Andrea Camilleri (Italy), Alexander McCall Smith (Zimbabwe), Karen Healey (New Zealand), Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany; the last two are library books), Tolstoy (Russia), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Argentina)......As our world grows closer in ability to communicate, I'd like to know what mysteries, what poetry and literature is like in other countries.  I think how we tell stories is one of the best ways into a different culture.  It's like where we stand in the world does affect how we perceive the world, our relationship to it.  So a writer in Canada has a different perspective than a writer from The Netherlands, or China, or New Zealand.  I like that. There is always room to read more from other places, so my question to you is:

Do you,  my Gentle Readers,  read around the world?  Do you have any favourite authors that are from another country?  Who are they?  What do you look for?  Tell me who you recommend - from your country, or who you love from another one. 

Here is my list - because fair is fair, and these are writers that I've come to love and seek out, whose books are imprinted on me and inform me about the world and the times they were written in - it is only a partial list, representative only for the UK and the US, where I read most widely from:

Artur Indridason - Iceland
Fred Vargas - France
Isaac Babel - Russia
Henryk Sienkiewicz - Poland
Henning Mankell - Sweden
Jo Nesbo - Norway
Peter Hoeg - Smilla's Sense of Snow - Denmark
Kerry Greenwood - New Zealand
Ian Rankin - Scotland
Phil Rickman - England
Jane Austen -   "
Charles de Lint - Canada
Robin Hobb - USA
Giles Blunt - Canada


Poets
Mary Oliver - US
Nikki Giovanni - "
Evgeny Yevtuschenko - Russia
Wendy Cope - England
Carol Ann Duffy - "


Books I have to take with me wherever I go

I also asked Memory if she had taken any particular books with her when she moved to New Zealand - books that she had to have with her, that she had to know were safe, and were with her to read, while she waits for the rest of her books to arrive.  I asked her because when I moved to England 10 years ago, I sent most of the books I couldn't replace ahead of me by boat (after dispersing much of the rest of  my library), and I kept a few special books with me to bring in my luggage on the airplane.  At that time, they were:
 The 2000 move -  Books I Brought in my Luggage
*If  You Want to Write - Brenda Euland
In the Garden of Iden - Kage Baker
*Bellwether - Connie Willis
*Black and Blue - Ian Rankin
Immortal Poems - Oscar Williams
Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg
*The Encyclopedia of Dreams - Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
*Smilla's Sense of  Snow - Peter Hoeg
*Persuasion  - Jane Austen
*Pride and Prejudice - "
*Dreams Underfoot - Charles De Lint
Tea With The Black Dragon - R.A. MacAvoy
*The Language of the Night - Ursula K. LeGuin
*The 20th Century North American Ephemeris
Secrets from a Star-Gazer's Notebook - Debbi Kempton Smith
The Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb

I know, that was a lot to pack into two suitcases!  In 2000, of course, pre Sept 11, we could have two heavy suitcases.

Now though, I look at that list, and I wonder, would I take the same books with me if  I had to move to another country?  Some I would, and some I wouldn't.  I marked the ones I think I would take with me still, on the plane, with at asterisk *.  The rest on the list would be shipped instead!  I still love them all......The astericks ones are mostly because I know it would be cheaper to bring them with me than to replace them, and these are ones I would replace, absolutely.  This post is so long now that I will save the other books I would bring with me now, for another post. Because of course in the interim, I have new books and authors that I've discovered and love (Jo Nesbo, Phil Rickman, Gile Blunt, Louise Penny, Mary Oliver....the list goes on!) that I would have to take my favourites with me on the plane, to keep them safe with me.



Carl's Sci-Fi Experience

In one of those amazing coincidences that fill our lives, I just finished re-reading In the Garden of Iden by Kadge Baker, this morning.  I read it for Carl's Sci-Fi Challenge, and now realize it also falls in the Historical Challenge since most of it is set in 16th Century England, in 1555 as Mary takes to the throne. I read this also  to honor Kadge, who passed away last year.  She is one of my favourite female SF writers, and I wanted to see if I loved her first book as much as when I first read it.  Well, while I was upstairs looking at my books to see what I had brought with me 10 years ago, I came across some old journals that held, of all things, lists of books I'd read, going back to 1993!! So that's where they are! I said to myself, and then started flipping through, to see if any titles jumped out at me for what I'd bring over.  I found that it in 1998 I read In the Garden of Iden for the very first time, and this is what I wrote:
  "1st novel, very good! Wonderful SF, interesting characters, great history.  Solidly good!"
So I'm going to let that be my review today, because the book is just as good today for me as it was then.  Highly recommended.

The Year of the Ian Rankin re-read
So, this is by no means an exhaustive or even complete list of books that I love from around the world.  I keep wanting to put Alexander Pushkin on, but I haven't read him in years.  This just reminds me that the more I read, the more I find to love, but also that there are old favourites wanting to be reread, and I have decided that this will be the year I revisit my favourite Scottish writer, Ian Rankin, and his detective John Rebus.  I miss reading new Rebus!  I know he's retired (and personally I am glad Rankin left him alive), but I had years and years of reading him, and I miss him under my tree.  There is only one John Rebus, and so this year I am rereading him in order.  I have no set date for starting, and it's very loose - no schedule.  I'm not sure if I will get done reading the 16 books in the series, this year.  If you are interested, drop me a line or let me know in the comments, and we can read the books together and talk about them here whenever we are ready. 
** I have just discovered I am missing the first 4 books in the series, so I have to go buy them and then I can start.

Happy reading wherever you are in the world, Gentle Reader!

The Sunday Salon - Dissolution by C.J. Sansom, the Tudor historical mystery that brings 1537 to life

There is one more book from last year that I haven't mentioned yet, but that really made a lasting impression on me.  It's Dissolution by C.J. Sansom.  It is set in Tudor England during the time of Henry the 8th, and as the title suggests, it was during the period of dissolution of the Catholic Churches as Henry set himself up as the head of the Church of England.  All of this is 'dry' history, in that it's done and dusted long ago.  Why this book made such an impression on me is because we are at an abbey - Scarnsea in Sussex -  where a murder of the king's commissioner has occurred, and the chief suspect is related to the king's new wife Jane.  Matthew Shardlake is a trusted lawyer and works for Thomas Cromwell, who is responsible for ensuring the surrender of all the monasteries to the king.  Cromwell assigns him to go sort out the case and clear the kinsman's name. 

Almost the entirety of the novel is set at Scarnsea Abbey.  It's a very good mystery, the characters are well-drawn, and the remote setting at the abbey in the middle of a long winter adds to an element of isolation and fear.  It's 1537, and the surrender of the abbeys and monasteries to the king has begun.  Everything revolves around politics, even there far from the center of London, because  Matthew is also sent as a replacement commissioner for the dead man, to continue to examine any sign that there is heresy (adhering to the old ways) at the church, which would mean surrender of the abbey to the king and dissolution.  It is a fascinating way to explore religion and the meaning of a life dedicated to God, and what the monasteries were really like, how wealthy and how they justified it.  Matthew supports the Reformation, as anyone who survived had to. So he is looking in on the abbey and asking how the monks got so far away from the edicts of Benedict.  It's sounds boring, but it's not, because it's set under the 'wish' that Henry the 8th wanted it solved quickly, so Matthew must solve it, and fast, and because there is death and fear all around the monastery.

What so affected me about this mystery wasn't something I paid attention to at first, because I was busy watching (catching up) on the final series of The Tudors, which ended on CBC in November here.  I was thinking of King Henry one day on the bus, and what an enormous change he created by breaking with the Roman Church in order to divorce Catherine of Aragorn.  So I saw the political reasons and games and all the fascinating power from The Tudor court perspective.  Then I thought of the Abbey in Dissolution, and even though it was fiction, I thought, that's what it would have been like back then.  The monks would suddenly have had their world turned upside down.  Whether or not they were too wealthy, too far from their origins of serving God by being away from the world, what the real result of Henry's decision to leave the Church, was that hundreds and thousands of men and women who served God in their way, could suddenly not do it any more.  The churches were dismantled of all their wealth, taken for Henry himself and the Treasury of the kingdom.  The monks, Dissolution makes clear, were dependent on charity then, either family or a charitable stipend from Henry.  Matthew tries to find out what will happen to the monks at this abbey and discovers there is little he can do.  And so a whole way of life is dispersed, not because God ceased to exist, but because one man wanted to do things his way.  I"m not going to get into a political debate about the wrongs of the Church, the rise of Protestantism, Martin Luther, any of that.  What interests me is that Dissolution was able to bring home in an immediate way to me what happened in the abbeys and churches as they were dissolved.

From a historical perspective of course, many of the greater abbeys still stand whole and complete in England, and some became mansions and great houses, some disappeared as their stones were used in the neighborhood for repairs and building, and some stand as haunted ruins.  The landscape of Britain is littered with empty churches and abbeys, the wind blowing through stone, all that is left of once superb craftsmen.

One of my favourite abbeys is Whitby Abbey.  My husband and I have visited it often on our trips to Whitby, and it is still a presence overlooking the bay and town.  Once, long ago, an old religious house stood here that was the scene of the synod that  decided to bring  Christianity to England, the Synod of Whitby in 664 (destroyed by Vikings later).  The Abbey  is the remains of an 11th century Benedictine Monastery, just like in Dissolution. Already in ruins a little over a 100 years ago, Bram Stoker wandered around it and thought up the vampire story that began a whole new literature: Dracula.

I was privileged to also get to Lindisfarne in Northumberland and walk among the old castle ruins and monastery  at Holy Island, which at high tide is cut off from the mainland.  The monastery was one of Christianity's first monasteries in England, built in 635 Ad. A priory was built in 1070 but 'abandoned' in 1541.  Then a castle was built in 1543 with stones from the priory,  to protect the harbour,  and  was destroyed in the civil war, and eventually the remaining parts of the castle became a home in the early 1900s. It is one of the most remote and fascinating locations in England for me.  I thought what a wonderful place it would be to be close to the land and the sky, to be close to the sacred of the world, and how restful the location was.  There is something about how Dissolution was written, now, that when I think of Lindisfarne, and Whitby Abbey, I add the laments of the monks now as their way of life dissolved right before them.  How frightening and unknowable it all must have been for them. Dissolution makes that change real, in a powerful and sad way. 

It's also a very good mystery, and I like the main character  Matthew Shardlake very much. He is intelligent, and a good judge of character, and not always a nice person although he tries very hard, as a lawyer, to be fair.  This book would have to counted among my notable mysteries for 2010.  I have already Book 2, Dark Fire,  on my shelf to be read. 


Have you read Dissolution?  What did you think of it?  Have you read a mystery, or a novel recently, that made you understand something in our world a little more?