WANTED: Guest reviewers/feature writers!

I thought this might have gotten a bit lost mid-BTT, so I'm posting it again!  It's my first feature and I'd really like to get a few other bloggers involved, so every little helps...

~ A NEW-FEATURE CALL TO ARMS! ~

I'm planning a big 'page to screen' event here at Musings of a Bookshop Girl over the summer, combining my two loves, for books and for their screen adaptations.  Hopefully this will include multiple giveaways (possibly even a giveaway hop, if there's enough interest) - one of which will probably be my contribution to the UK and EU Summer Hop - reviews of books AND adaptations, and a tidy bunch of other book- and screen-related posts. 

If you might be interested in joining the (not-quite-Oscars) party, as a giveaway host, or perhaps with a guest review or feature, please get in touch!  This could be anything from a look at the books you'd love to see adapted, your favourite or least favourite adaptations, the perfect casting for your favourite novel, or a review of a favourite book and its big- or small-screen incarnation.  The books can be anything from biography to classics to YA, and your idea can be as fun 'n' frivolous or as in-depth and serious as you like.  There's no obligation to commit yet, and you've got plenty of time to think about what you might want to contribute; I'm just looking to ascertain the level of interest before I do any more planning!  You can email me at emp501@hotmail.co.uk.  Thanks!

Please feel free to blog about this feature or pass it on to other bloggers you think might be interested!

A Royal Wedding Day blogger hop!

Apologies to anyone who's sick of the Royal Wedding Day madness, but hey, this is my generation's future king getting married here!  I've been watching (and weeping) for a few hours now, and it's been absolutely wonderful!  We really know how to do national celebrations here in Britain, and I'm a sucker for a fairytale wedding anyway so I loved every minute.  Catherine looked stunning, the music in Westminster was glorious, the Lancaster flight was as impressive as ever (though where were the Red Arrows?!), the Sea King and the Aston Martin were a cute touch, and photographs of the balcony appearance will surely be everywhere in a few hours - it's been beautiful!  Not to mention the scandalous flirting between Prince Harry and the lovely Pippa Middleton, which was the rather delicious icing on the (wedding) cake... So before I get my Hop on, here we go...

~ Congratulations to William and Kate, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! ~

The newlyweds on their way back to Buckingham Palace.  Not my photo - if you know who to credit, please get in touch!

The kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony.  Source: http://www.theguardian.co.uk/

And now, to the more prosaic matters of the day - the Friday Book Blogger Hop!

Welcome, hoppers, during this amazing day in British history!  As you might have gathered from the blog name, I'm a young bookseller, and I run a second-hand bookshop in a quaint little town with my mum.  Things are looking delightful here in TouristTown, with new ducklings appearing on the river, the flowers blossoming in the gardens, and a most excellent new coffee lounge right opposite us selling the yummiest mocha I've had in ages!  As for the blog - well, it's a bit of a mixed bookish bag really - reviews, updates on my rampant book-buying addiction (which I indulged again only yesterday, hooray!), the odd meme, all mixed in with a few random titbits on life in general - food, movies, swoonworthy TV characters, our kittens... well, you get the picture!  I read a bit of everything so there should be something for everyone here - check out my 2010 and 2011 pages and review archive for a better idea... 

So, back to the Hop - don't forget to leave me a link in the comments so I can return the visit...

Here's this week's Hop question:

"Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you are most looking forward to?"

I actually had to go to Amazon's 'future releases' page to answer this question!  As I've said before, I don't always know when a book is going to be published.  If it sounds great - say, it's been released in the US already and has had fantastic reviews - I'll add it to my wishlist.  Then, when that book-buying urge strikes and I go back to the list to see what I want, a title's either available or it's not!

That said, there are three books that caught my eye this morning.  First up is Passion by Lauren Kate, the third book in her Fallen series.  Hopefully I'll be taking part in the blog tour for that one around its release in June, so I'm pretty excited about it, especially since it's a prequel and should add a whole extra layer to the story of Luce and Daniel.  Next up is Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child.  I've only read The Swimming-Pool Library so far but it was so beautifully written that I'm bound to pick this one up at some point.  And last but by no means least, Caitlan Moran's new book How To Be a Woman will be published in July.  She's such a sharp writer and her columns in The Times never fail to make me laugh, so this'll be high up my summer reading list!

What's going to be on your 'must-read' list during the sunny days to come?

NOTE:

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books

BTT: Books to movies

If you could see one book turned into the perfect movie - one that would capture everything you love, the characters, the look, the feel, the story - what book would you choose?

I think it'd have to be either The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, or The Secret History by Donna Tartt, both favourites of mine.  The Shadow of the Wind is such an all-round crowd-pleaser that I think it'd make a fantastic movie.  The characters are superb, the storyline is compelling, and it would be amazing to see Daniel's Barcelona and the intrigue around the book-burning menace brought to life on the screen.  Not to mention the fact that the Cemetery of Forgotten Books made my mouth water even on the page - how incredible would it be to see it on the big screen?! 

The Secret History actually went into pre-production a few years back but has never been seen or heard from again, so I'm assuming the project fell through.  Which is a shame, because I'm a sucker for an atmospheric tale involving books and academia, which is (hopefully) exactly what it would have offered up.  I'd have loved to have seen the strange, privileged bunch of Classics scholars brought to life, like a more sinister version of Brideshead.  Oh well, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope that someone steps up and gets an adaptation underway soon!

Anyway, this week's topic leads very nicely onto something I wanted to mention now, early and well ahead of time...

A NEW-FEATURE CALL TO ARMS!

At some point in the not-too-distant future, I'm planning a big 'page to screen' event here at Musings of a Bookshop Girl to combine my two loves, for books and for their screen adaptations.  Hopefully this will include multiple giveaways (possibly even a giveaway hop, if there's enough interest), reviews of books AND adaptations, and a tidy bunch of other book- and screen-related posts.  If you might be interested in joining the (not-quite-Oscars) party, as a giveaway host, or perhaps with a guest review or feature, please get in touch!  This could be anything from a look at the books you'd love to see adapted, your favourite or least favourite adaptations, the perfect casting for your favourite novel, or a review of a favourite book and its big- or small-screen incarnation.  The books can be anything from biography to science to YA.  There's no obligation to commit yet, I'm just looking to ascertain the level of interest before I do any more planning!  You can email me at emp501@hotmail.co.uk.  Thanks!

UK and EU Giveaway Hop

~ CALLING ALL EURO-BLOGGERS! ~

This is just a quick post to try to drum up some extra participants for the inspired UK/Europe Summer Hop being organised for August!  We Brit and EU bloggers tend to draw the short straw a bit when it comes to bookish giveaway hops, so here's one dreamed up just for us!

The giveaways will be for the UK and Europe ONLY (definitely easier on your bank balance if you're giving away hard copies), and all you need to do is pick your genre now and you're away!  For more details about how to join up, deadlines for submitting book titles and all the rest of it, head over to the new website and take a look around.  The more the merrier!

Happy Easter!

Wishing all my readers a very Happy Easter!

Whether you're working like me (booo!), spending time with the family, or sitting at home with a book and a pile of Easter eggs (yay!), have a wonderful Bank Holiday...

A Good Friday hop

Welcome, hoppers, this sunny Bank Holiday weekend!  As you might have gathered from the blog name, I'm a young bookseller, and I run a second-hand bookshop in a quaint little town with my mum.  Things are looking delightful here in TouristTown, with new ducklings appearing on the river, the trees in full blossom and a most excellent new coffee lounge right opposite us selling the yummiest mocha I've had in ages!  As for the blog - well, it's a bit of a mixed bookish bag really - reviews, updates on my rampant book-buying addiction (which I indulged again this morning, ooops), the odd meme, all mixed in with a few random titbits on life in general - food, movies, swoonworthy TV characters, owls, our kittens... well, you get the picture!  I read a bit of everything so there should be something for everyone here - check out my 2010 and 2011 pages and review archive for a better idea... 

So, back to the Hop - don't forget to leave me a link in the comments so I can return the visit...

Here's this week's Hop question:

"If you find a book you love, do you hunt down other books by the same author?"

Generally speaking, yes, I do.  Though I don't necessarily just rush out and buy them all on the spot, if you see what I mean.  When I fell in love with Gold by Dan Rhodes, I didn't rush out to buy more, but when a copy of Anthropology came into the shop I spotted it and took it straight home.  I was blown away by Alice Hoffman's The Ice Queen, so now if I see one of her books in a charity shop I always pick it up to add to my stash.  The only time I do go out and unashamedly buy, buy, buy, is with books in a series.  If I like the first book enough, I'll order at least two or three more straight away, so I can get stuck in whenever I feel like it, then buy up the rest when I get the chance.  Hence me having read up to #4 of the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris but owning up to #10; I've read the first two Morganville Vampires books but have up to #8 still on the shelves, and so on.  There's nothing worse than getting hooked on a series and not having the next book ready and waiting!

NOTE:

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books

Julian Smith is Reading a Book

And you thought contemporary music was all about bitches, hoes, and a whole bucketload of bling...

Haha, brilliant!  I've got a whole delicious day off tomorrow so I'm hoping to get in a good chunk of bookish indulgence.  I've been creeping through my reading at a snail-esque pace of late, thanks to the Easter holidays and the resulting influx of madness here in TouristTown, so a whole day of sunning myself in the garden with a book should be just what the doctor ordered...

Chekhov for Infants

Yesterday a tiny girl, perhaps five or six, came into the shop with her mum and dad.  When they first arrived I was in the office making a cuppa, but Mum said the man turned to the little girl and said, "Right, now, you're not allowed to talk in this shop, or they'll pick you off with an air rifle."  "We're not that bad!" Mum replied.  "Well, I told her it was electric shocks in the last shop!" he laughed, before escorting the poor kid off down to the children's corner.

Back out on the counter, I was ready and waiting when they returned with two children's books.  The dad sighed and shook his head."I don't know why I bother," he said sadly as his wife handed over a note.  "Last week I bought her the complete works of Anton Chekhov and what did she do?  Scribbled all over The Cherry Orchard, made crayon marks right through A Marriage Proposal...  Evidently she's destined to grow up illiterate and never go to a good school."

"That's a bit harsh," I said.  "Perhaps she just doesn't like the Russians - have you tried her on Dickens?"

As they left the shop, I heard a dull thwack as he swiped her over the head with his tourist map, and his voice drifting back from outside, "I'm going to beat literature into you!  Just see if I don't!"

Random Acts of Bookish Kindness

I haven't got a post planned for today so I thought I'd do a quick note about the amazing Random Acts of Kindness book gifting project hosted by Book Soulmates.  It's an inspired addition to the already-thriving RAK movement, which advocates doing just what the name says - indulging in random acts of kindness!  Whether it's leaving 50p in a vending machine for the next person to use or sending a bunch of flowers to a friend, it's all about those little things in life that can make someone's day or help someone in need.

Anyway, this particular project involves signing up on a given month, linking to your wishlist, on Amazon or elsewhere, then heading off and choosing one of the other participants - or two, or three - and picking something from their wishlist to send to them.  There were well over 250 participants on the April list when I last checked.  You don't have to participate every month, and you might not actually receive anything even if you do - but the joy (and the whole point) is in the giving, after all!  I saw it on yesterday's IMM post by the lovely Jess over at Jess Hearts Books, signed up last night and celebrated by sending out two gifts right there and then. 

Sooooo, if you fancy signing up, doing a little book-gifting and making a book lover's day, head on over and have a look!

~ IN OTHER NEWS... ~

The first 2011 clutch of baby duckies has appeared on the river by the shop!  Hooray!  According to James (the Owl Man) he saw a small clutch of five or six on Saturday after we'd already gone home, but this morning there was a clutch of TWELVE teeny tiny newly-hatched ducklings swimming past like tiny bumblebees.  I've got my camera stashed under the counter so next time they appear I'll try and get a picture!  Oh, and a new modern coffee shop has opened opposite us this morning (a first for this 'Ye Olde Tea Rooms'-esque town) and I can safely say that their hot chocolate shot thingy is going to be a new favourite of mine.  It's thick, intense chocolatey goodness that is so decadent I'm having to eat it with a spoon, like a runny chocolate yoghurt!  The world is a nice place today...  :-) 

More new books.... oooooooops

Another batch of new books!  No, please, don't look so surprised...  *puts on best 'virtuous' face*

Mondays are just such a huge sticking point for me when it comes to buying books!  It's market day here in TouristTown, so I can go out and get anything I need from the little supermarket and from Boots, pop onto the market for a browse and a few goodies, and then... good heavens, look, a book stall!  And what's right around the corner from it?  A charity shop.  And around the corner from THAT?  Another charity shop.  It's just too darn easy...

So, first up was Horatio Clare's A Single Swallow: Following An Epic Journey From South Africa To South Wales, which came into the shop in a bag of ex-charity shop books and looked so wonderful I had to have it!  And one of my Monday buys, from the Mind charity shop, was a Barnes and Noble hardback copy of Howards End by E.M. Forster.  A bit far from home - and hopefully that horrible sticker will come off the front - but it's a nice copy...

And here's the rest of Monday's haul!  I spotted the ninth of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris, Dead and Gone, on my favourite market stall and leapt on it.  Of course, I then had to order books seven and ten to fill in the gaps on my shelves, but that's a story for next week...  And since it was part of a '2 for £5' deal I had a quick scout round and picked up Marina Lewycka's We Are All Made Of Glue as well.  The other books leapt into my bag with the Howards End hardback at Mind.  I've been after a copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy for a while, since I've read one of the later books and have the Richard E. Grant television series on DVD, but have never actually acquired the first one...  I hate the cover, but hey, I can deal with that later!  I started watching America Unchained at one point I think, but I reckoned Dave Gorman's accompanying book might be worth a read.  Cutting for Stone has had rave reviews everywhere I've seen it, from LibraryThing to the TV Book Club, and I've never actually seen a copy second-hand, so I pounced on that one.  And finally, and rather sadly, there were two of the special World Book Night books in there already, unread and unloved.  I already have Stuart: A Life Backwards, but I bought the other one, Ben MacIntyre's Agent Zigzag.  I figured that although it's not a book I'd usually pick up, I'd give it a good try, in the spirit of WBN, and when I'm done I'll pass it on to someone else or use it in a giveaway instead of selling it on through the bookshop.

Now, that's all the actual photos I have, but I do have a couple more acquisitions to 'fess up to while I'm at it.  First up, have you heard of Nina Sankovitch?  If not, go check out her website at Read All Day.  She read a book a day for a whole year in her attempt to come to terms with the tragic death of her sister, reviewing each book the next morning on the website.  This struck a real chord with me, being a firm believer as I am in the incredible power of reading to help us cope with distress and get through the darkest hours of our lives.  So when I saw that Ms Sankovitch's book about her experience, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, was all set for release, I sent her a tentative email asking for a review copy so that I could help stir a little interest over here in the UK.  To my delight, I got a sweet reply about the blog and our kittens, and a day or two later a galley arrived from New York by courier!  I can't wait to read this one...

Ummmm, what else?  Oh yes, yesterday I *accidentally* fell into Age UK and the local hospice shop on my way to pick up a couple of things from the Co-op...  Well, it was a lovely day, and the sun was shining, and it just made me feel so happy I wanted to buy a book as the icing on the cake!  Hehe, always an excuse.  Anyway, I was pretty chuffed to find a big Vintage paperback copy of Don Quixote for under £2, as well as a copy of Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, which sounded quite amusing.  It doesn't have this awesome neon-esque cover, sadly, but I can't find a picture of the one I bought so what the heck.  Oh, and also If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor, which has been on the radar for a while and was impossible to resist since it was an absolutely pristine copy for a fabulous £1.  Hooray!

Okay I think that's it... until next week, when my orders from THIS week arrive!  Haha, on that note - what's arrived on YOUR shelves of late?

LA meets Regency England in a literary culture clash!

REVIEW: CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT (3*)

by Laurie Viera Rigler (Bloomsbury, 2010)

I was very interested in reading this after enjoying Lost in Austen on television a few years ago. The idea really appealed to me – we may romanticise the England of Jane Austen’s novels, but how would a 21st-century woman REALLY fare if she was faced with the realities of Regency life? In that sense, Rigler’s novel definitely hit the spot. It tells the fantastical tale of one Courtney Stone, a feisty LA Austenophile who has just lost her fiancé Frank and her best friend Wes in one catastrophic betrayal – then to top it all off, wakes up one morning in the body of Jane Mansfield, a Regency girl with quite enough troubles of her own…

There were definitely good points and bad points about the book, which is why it landed itself with a solid three-star rating. The good? Well, it’s great fun! It has all the treasured Austen elements – a young woman searching for love, a dashing but suspiciously charming hero, a ridiculous mother, a kindly father - yet it throws a whole new slant on Austen’s world, allowing the reader to see the social conventions and home life of a Regency family in all their less-than-romantic glory. This was a world where a bath took hours to prepare, bloodletting was a favoured medical treatment, the toilet was a chamber-pot, people brushed their teeth with gritty tooth powder, and corsets were the way to go. Oh, and after the scene in the ‘healing’ waters of Bath, you’ll never see the phrase ‘taking the waters’ in quite the same way again…

Where Rigler really excels is in exploring the role of women in Regency society. Despite her own evident love of Austen’s novels, she doesn’t mince her words when it comes to the way women were treated in England in Austen’s time. The way women are seen as property to be ‘married off’ comes across very clearly, and although Courtney/Jane appreciates the quiet, technology-free way of life (and the excellent food!) she really struggles with the lack of freedom. Everywhere she goes she must be chaperoned; if she so much as looks at a man the wrong way her entire future could be in tatters; when she voices a strong opinion she is considered, at best, scandalous, at worst, insane. It’s pretty sobering stuff.

So what did I NOT like about the book? It was a bit bland for me, to be honest. It had some very funny moments, but not enough to make it a really humorous novel. The reason for the Jane-Courtney body swap was muddled and confusing, and considering Courtney’s obsession with Austen’s novels she made some pretty glaring gaffes on several occasions. Her feelings for Edgeworth (the hero) and her reflections on her friend Wes in LA seemed to change every chapter, without any real driving force. And the ending was atrocious. It comes upon the reader so suddenly, without any real conclusion or explanation, that it weakened the whole thing for me. My verdict? Well, it may not have blown me away, may not have turned my life upside down, may not have completely captured my heart – but it was a fun little girlie read, perfect for a lazy day in the sunshine this summer. And I’ve already ordered the sequel, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, about Jane’s experience in Courtney’s body, which sounds equally intriguing!

BTT: How books show our personality

I was reading the other day a quote from JFK Jr. who said, on the death of his mother, that she died surrounded by family, friends, and her books.  Apparently, Jackie’s books were very much a part of HER, her personality, her sense of self.

Up until recently, people could browse your bookshelves and learn a lot about you – what your interests are, your range of topics, favorite authors, how much you read (or at least buy books).

More and more, though, this is changing. People aren’t buying books so much as borrowing them from the library.  Or reading them on their e-readers or computers.  There’s nothing PHYSICAL on the shelves to tell strangers in your home, for better or worse, who you ARE.

Do you think this is a good thing?  Bad?  Discuss!

Ha!  I think that most of my friends and regular readers could tell you my answer to this question!  First up, let me say that libraries are wonderful things.  And I use my local library a fair bit, despite having shelves groaning with unread books at home.  BUT, for me, it's just not the same as picking up a copy of a book for myself, whether new or second-hand, and having it there on my shelves.  I tend to use the library for books I'm really not sure about, books I'm taking a chance on without knowing if I'll love them or hate them, and non-fiction giants that would cost me a fortune to buy, even used.

I'm not a fan of the e-reader, or reading on a computer or laptop.  I've read too many things about the brain-altering distractions that manifest themselves in all those 'skip to definition' links, hyperlinks, adverts and all the rest of it.  Plus, it makes my eyes feel sleepy and sore in about half the time it would if I was reading a paper-and-print book.  If you travel a lot, or prefer a minimalist lifestyle, or spend your money on other delicious vices, or just plain ol' want to read that way, fine, but it's not for me.

Sooooooo, I guess that tells you fairly definitively that I prefer the books-on-shelves approach.  I love seeing books on shelves!  I like combing friends' libraries on LibraryThing (not quite the same thing, I know, but it's still great fun!).  I like photos of people's shelves and book piles and new acquisitions on their blogs.  If I'm reading an article in a weekend supplement about some famous designer's house, I'll turn the page on its side and delight in going through THEIR bookshelves trying to pick out books I know, books I've read, books I have on my shelves.  I like spotting someone reading a book and thinking, 'Aaah, that's such a brilliant novel!' or 'Oh yes, I remember hearing good things about that one!' or 'Oooooh, that sounds intriguing - must make a mental note...'  One of the joys of visiting someone's house for the first time is that sneaky (or not-so-sneaky) exploration of their shelves, going into raptures over shared favourites, asking their opinion of books I haven't read yet, or picking up things that sound interesting to read the back. 

I also like seeing my OWN books on their shelves, in their piles, stacked on the coffee table and on the floor.  If I'm feeling a little uninspired, I can sit down and drink in all those titles waiting to be read, or maybe pick up an old favourite to flick through, and I feel better.  Even with all the unread books on the shelves, they show my interests, the covers and titles that caught my eye in the shop or in a sale, the subjects I'm looking forward to learning about, the novels that have captured my imagination...  Although I'm making a real effort to let go of books I've read and no longer want or need (free stock for the bookshop, after all!), I feel proud of the library I've amassed.  I have a deep fondness for the books I HAVE kept, because they mean something to me.  I know where each of them was bought, or who gave it to me; I remember the feel and the smell of the cover and the pages; I remember how I felt when I read it; I remember if I was sitting outside in the garden one sunny summer day, or on holiday, or at university, or on a train - I wouldn't ever want to give up that complete bookish experience in favour of a downloaded file or a return stamp!

What about you?  Are you a bookshelf fan, a library junkie, or an e-book convert?  What does your library say about you - and do you like exploring others' shelves in return?

Kitten update!

Remember our beautiful babies, Millie and Domino?  When we first got them they were teeny tiny kitties with a SERIOUS awwww factor.  By Christmas, at about six months old, they were looking a bit more grown up and developing their own very distinct personalities.

Now it's another few months down the line - and here they are!  They're both spayed now and finally allowed to roam around outside by day, though we keep them safely in at night and we're not keen on them being 'on the loose' when there's no one home.  They're not quite up to speed yet when it comes to what's fun and what's probably not such a good idea!

This is baby Millie now!  She still looks so much like a kitten, tiny and lithe and as light as a feather.  Now that she's allowed outside she's taken to climbing trees, wobbling along the thinnest little twigletty branches and getting stuck.  She spent the whole of yesterday evening bouncing around in my garden chasing a honeybee, and she's got a new favourite post on the top of my rockery, looking through to the end of next door's garden.  She is VERY good at helping Mum with her makeup, and likes chasing the cards across the screen during a game of Spider Solitaire.  Ummm, what else?  Ooooh, yes, she likes pot pourri!  She steals it from the bowl in the spare bedroom and runs round the house with it, miaowing and giving pieces as gifts to everyone she comes across!  Tres cute...

And this is Domino, aka 'Pudding'!  Picking her up after Millie is like picking up a four year-old child after a baby!  She's stocky and well-muscled and about five times heavier...  Still, at least it stops her running up trees after Millie, though she tries often enough!  Her hobbies include racing round like a nutcase, sitting outside my bathroom window staring in with her huge luminous eyes and miaowing, and batting at passing humans from her perch on the stairs.  Her current favourite delicacy may or may not be butterflies, sadly...  She's a cutie though, so I'll almost forgive her! 

Now, do I have anything else to tell you? 

Hmmmm.  I bought a bunch of books this morning, two from the Monday market stall in town and about five from the Mind charity shop a little further along the road (it was almost seven or eight but I reined it in a tad before I hit the till!), so I'll have to do a post on those in the next few days.  I spent a good hour last night plying my newly-back-from-uni sister with suitable light reading for her Easter break.  She's trying to fit in a bunch of uni work AND a decent 'vegging in the garden devouring novels' spell every day while the weather's good, so I ended up sending her back down to the house with a handful of paranormal romance and YA books to try. 

As for me, I'm steadily reading the very interesting social science-cum-neurobiology-cum-parenting book The Wonder of Girls: Understanding the Hidden Nature of Our Daughters, by Michael Gurian, and racing through the rather lighter Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.  With two days off ahead of me, I'm hoping to have finished at least one of these by the time we're back here for the Easter duration from Thursday, and maybe another book to boot - reviews coming soon!

BTT: Out 'n' Proud!

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks:

So … the books that you own (however many there may be) … do you display them proudly right there in plain sight for all the world to see? (At least the world that comes into your living room.)

Or do you keep them tucked away in your office or bedroom or library or closet or someplace less “public?”

I'm definitely a 'displaying proudly' kinda girl when it comes to my books.  Not that many people venture into my flat on a regular basis anyway, but I get my own little kick out of seeing my books lined up tantalisingly on the shelves, so it's the same thing really.  My problem is that I don't have ENOUGH bookshelves!  In my flat I have two new floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the living room, a smaller one, double-stacked, by the side of them, and a heaving large bookcase in the kitchen.  I don't think I could fit any more in that one if I tried!  Then, moving down to the main family house, I have four or five shelves of the floor-to-ceiling double bookcase in my sister's room (which used to be mine - and since she's away at uni is open to all and sundry and is currently used for ironing!)... and I think that's it for relatively 'public' space.  I need more!

As well as those, I have two deep shelves in my sister's wardrobe, a row of classics on a little shelf in my bedroom, books on chairs, climbing up walls, under the coffee table, in boxes in the kitchen, stacked on the kitchen table...   The only ones I really hide away are any I've recently bought/misappropriated from our bookshop, just because Mum's love of books doesn't extend to condoning my rampant addiction and she usually tries to remove them again because I have more than enough already...  But come on, we all know that we can never have enough, especially when something irresistable is wafted in front of us, too enticing to resist...  :-)

Two of the bookcases in my living room

Soooo, what about you?  Are you a secret stasher or do you prefer to be able to see your books on display?

Perfume, by Patrick Süskind

REVIEW: PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER (4*)

by Patrick Süskind (Penguin, 2006)

This book had what I call the 'Madame Bovary effect' on me. That is, while I appreciated the plot, the prose and the social history, I wasn't that bothered about the characters and got to the end of the novel thinking, 'Actually, I didn't really like it that much...' I found myself comparing it to Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, with its slightly blunt, spare translation, its intense sensory descriptions and its surreal exaggeration of reality - except that I was blown away by Like Water for Chocolate and wasn't by Perfume.

That said, I can't deny that this is a very accomplished novel. It tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a young man with an incredible nose who can tease apart the threads of scent in even the most hectic of city streets, differentiate between tiny gradients of fragrance, and discern odours that other people can't sense at all. The most elusive and desirable fragrance he encounters is the scent of a young virgin, and his obsessive pursuit of this ideal, his single-minded determination to create the ultimate perfume distilled from unblemished young women at the height of their perfection, leads him on an sinister quest to find the means to that exquisite end. He’s a hideous character, twisted and frightening in his genuine belief in his own crusade, but at the same time you can’t help admiring his genius and feeling some empathy for him despite his own complete lack of it.

The overwhelming level of olfactory description is definitely the main thing that stays with you as you close the book. Every scent, from flowers to humans to mountain air, is described in a flamboyant and exuberant swell of language. Unlike similar descriptions of taste, for example, or sound, I found it harder to ‘experience’ them as I read, and found that those passages veered from being sublime to, well... a bit much. In fact, that pretty much sums up my feelings about the book as a whole. Sometimes the description was divine, sometimes it was too much. Sometimes the process of perfume distillation and creation was fascinating, sometimes it was too much. Sometimes the more far-fetched or surreal aspects of the plot were deliciously compelling, sometimes they were... yep, you guessed it, too much. This is a novel of excess, of ambition, of genius, with threads of theatricality and black humour running through its pages – and I think every reader will respond differently to the sensory tidal wave. There’s only one way to find out for yourself – strap on your armbands and get swimming!

'Beach Babylon': Holidaying with the rich and famous!

REVIEW: BEACH BABYLON (4*)

by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous (Bantam Press, 2007)

This book was such great fun! I read Hotel Babylon on holiday years ago, but I think this one was even better. In this exposé the anonymous whistle-blower is once again a manager in the hotel industry, but this time of a luxury island resort rather than a London establishment - and it takes things to a whole new level! As in the other Babylon books, all the people, places and madcap events that appear in the book are real, but names and locations have been changed (obviously!) and the bizarre situations the manager finds himself having to cope with have been condensed into one crazy 'week in the life'.

The reader is swept into a world of incredible luxury and privilege. This is a resort where the villas can cost up to $6000 a night, and the guests are so wealthy that they can afford to blow $20,000 on a afternoon's entertainment or $1,500 on a bottle of champagne without batting an eyelid. Not only does our intrepid manager have to cosy up to each and every one of his guests and bend over backwards to keep them happy, but he must also deal with their more outrageous requests, make sure the isolated island has everything it needs on a daily basis, and try to keep his staff functioning and content in the face of daily difficulties.

This is a wonderful piece of escapism, managing to capture both the little bubble of island life, with its daily champagne parties and beach barbeques and celebrity guests, and the all-consuming nightmare of trying to keep such a large resort in the impossibly perfect condition expected by the demanding clientele. Despite the 'world apart' nature of the island, the characters will be painfully familiar to anyone who's ever been on holiday! It's funny, it's dry, it's cringeworthy - and it's brilliant!

Some recent batches of bookish goodness!

Now, I know not all of these came into my life this week, but things have been a little hectic around here (my stepbrother is now home down south recovering from double pneumonia, my stepdad is recovering from swine flu, one of the kittens got stuck up very large fir tree yesterday, there have been multiple family celebrations of late...) so what the heck!  I'm doing a 'recent arrivals' post today in celebration of lovely cheerful bookiness!

First up, I have to do a big shout-out to Chanou/Gnoe over at Graasland, who was a part of the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop back in February (I think!).  I won her competition!  In return for a list of some of my favourite 80s songs, including such gems as Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer and the awesome The Breakfast Club's theme Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds, I won a copy of Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.  Included in the parcel was a groovy 'Black Swan Green Disco Party' compilation CD including music by Duran Duran, Kate Bush, Adam and the Ants and A-Ha, and a bright, chatty postcard.  I was so chuffed - thanks Chanou!  

Next up, a very kind gentleman offered us a collection of 300 books last week, absolutely free, provided we could pick them up.  They were a bit dusty, but there were all sorts of treasures in there, from travel writing to fiction to biography to military history.  In fact, there were some really smart military history paperbacks that I might get round to reading at some point!  Anyways, these being freebies, we usually allow ourselves to misappropriate a few to read before they hit the shelves - perks of the job! - so this is the little pile I picked out to try...  There's a bit of everything in there - fiction, military history, exploration, natural history and that massive Hemingway bio!

The Pyrates - George MacDonald Fraser

Frontiers of Heaven - Stanley Stewart

Stand Before Your God - Paul Watkins

Rifles: Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters - Mark Urban

Gulag: A History - Anne Applebaum

The Orchid Thief - Susan Orlean

South - Ernest Shackleton

Hemingway: A Biography - Jeffrey Meyers

And finally, to my most recent arrivals!  The MacFarlane title was 50p from a charity stall on the market on Monday; the rest were from Play, which was having a fairly impressive sale, with a lot of books for a miniscule £2.99.  It was a good excuse to splurge on a couple of less obvious titles, and fill in a few gaps in a paranormal series or two to boot!

The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld 5) - Gena Showalter

The Darkest Lie (Lords of the Underworld 6) - Gena Showalter

Alpha (Werecats 6) - Rachel Vincent

Mr Nice - Howard Marks

The World of Karl Pilkington - Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and the little round-headed buffoon that is Karl Pilkington (hehe, I love The Ricky Gervais Show!)

Holiday SOS: The Life-Saving Adventures of a Travelling Doctor - Ben MacFarlane

Methinks that's probably enough for the time being, don't you?!  So, which books have been sneaking into your house of late?  ;-)

A little good cheer for the weekend!

I found this over at Caroline Bookbinder and loved it, so I thought I'd post it on!  No one seems to know where it came from - it's not my genius, sadly! - but if you know who wrote it then please do let me know so I can give credit where it's due!

A New Invention: The Book™

Introducing a new idea in compact information transportation: the Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, trade-marked, BOOK™. BOOK™ is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on.

It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by a fire. Yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works: BOOK™ is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of (recyclable) paper, each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder, which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOK™'s registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

BOOK™ may be used at any time merely by opening it. There is no lengthy "boot up." BOOK™ never crashes or requires rebooting, though, like other devices, it may be damaged if coffee is spilled on it, but it remains usable even if dropped on a hard surface. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "BOOKMARK™" accessory allows you to open your BOOK™ to the exact place you left it in a previous session, even if the BOOK™ has been closed. BOOKMARKS™ fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKMARK™ can be used in many different BOOK™s, even if made by different manufacturers! Conversely, numerous BOOKMARK™s can be used in a single BOOK™ if the user wants to store multiple access points. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK™.

You can even make personal notes next to BOOK™ text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Styli (PENCILS.)

Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK™ is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK™'s appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to invest. Watch for a flood of new titles soon!

Daniel Grigori's Journal - Lauren Kate fans, read on!

As you'll all be well aware, Passion, the third book in Lauren Kate's Fallen series, is being published in June.  As part of the build-up to its release, Random House has sent out a tantalising extract from Daniel Grigori's diary for bloggers to share with their readers, so here we are!

 ~ Daniel’s Journal ~

Golden, British Columbia

March 21, 1992

Next time, I will have to give her up.

In this life we’re already too far along. Our course is set. Our old disaster looms ahead. My pen quakes as I write these words:
I can’t save her.

It has been one month since she found me at the bookstore. One month since she introduced herself—this time she goes by Lucy, which is so quaint it is beyond sweet—blushing as she tucked her hair behind her ear before she shook my hand. One month of taking that hand in mine each afternoon when she returns home from school.

I have cherished every inch of her. I have savored every pore of her soft skin and filled up too many sketchbooks with her hypnotizing eyes. Nothing is more bittersweet than this month of euphoria. It’s the same with each life’s love.

I’m a fool to savor it. Especially with the end so near.

Ages ago, Gabbe told me not to write this book. And there’s a long list of reasons why she’s right. I’ve been hunted for the things I wrote. Tried for heresy. I’ve gone mortal generations with a price on my head. Of course, right now the only reason that matters to me is this:

If I had never written The Watchers: Myth in Medieval Europe, Lucinda wouldn’t have stumbled across me restocking the shelves at the university library where her sister attends college. She never would have invited me to walk across the campus to meet Vera after class, never worked up the courage in those ten minutes to give me her phone number on the back of a drugstore receipt. We never would have ended up at her parents’ house later that night. Never walked through the drifts of snow on the path behind their cabin, talking for hours, laughing as if we’d known each other for centuries.

We would never have fallen in love.

And she wouldn’t be living her last days.

No. Even here, in these private pages, why do I continue to delude myself?

The truth?

Lucinda would have found me regardless of my stupid book. Just like she always does. She would have tracked me down and followed me and lowered her defenses with a rapidity she never understands. She would still have fallen in love. For the thousandth and the first time in her life.

And why not? It’s not torture for her . . . until the end.

It means it’s up to me to make the change.

Because, as Heaven is my witness, I can’t go on like this. The agony of one more loss will overwhelm me. Drive me mad. Having to watch her walk once more into the blaze of knowing—

I can’t.

Let these pages serve as a record: If it takes seventeen years to purge her from my soul—and I know it will—I’ll do it. The addiction will fade away. The pain of withdrawal has to ease.

Is it even possible? That someday love will loosen its grip on me? Until she’s only a memory, not a drug I have to have? It’s too hard to imagine, and it’s the only option I have left.

If I can do that for her, Lucinda will live a long and healthy life. She’ll do something she’s never done before: She’ll die old. She will love and blossom and find happiness. All these things she’s never known before. All without me.

It’s too late now, but it won’t always be. I have already begun the preparations for our next encounter seventeen years down the road.

How to save her. How to pull away.

Yesterday, I went to a meeting.

There was a flyer on the bus stop at the corner of Grand and Calgary: Twelve Steps to Overcoming Your Addiction. I was strung out and jittery after five hours of not seeing her. Five hours. It was all I could do to wait for her to get home from school so I could take her in my arms and—

Hold back. Because I always have to hold myself back. The moments when I haven’t have been the moments when she died. As soon as I kissed her, as soon as I did what I felt I was made to do, she was taken away from me.

Love. Vanishing. Into thin air.

I know all of this so well, but it has never gotten easier to control.

So I memorized the address on the flyer. I got on the bus and I traveled some distance and I got off. I walked into the dim, low-ceilinged room in the annex of a church. I sat on a hard folding chair in a small circle of grim-faced strangers. When it was my turn, I stood up. I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the burning itch of my wings when I said, Hello, my name is Daniel, and I am an addict.

They nodded and recognized me. They said: Tell us about your greatest high.

The other day. For example. I went further than usual with my drug of choice. A walk in the woods, that’s all. Snow falling, sun burning through the trees, and her. I’ll wager no one has ever felt more alive. It was like I couldn’t get enough. I knew that it could have turned ugly—I knew I was dancing with an overdose. But one tempting kiss was just so beautiful. The truth is, every time is exactly as intoxicating. Every moment surpasses metaphor.

They said: Now describe rock bottom.

Emptiness. Raw and consuming. From the first instant I run out until the instant I get my hands on more. An absolute vacuum ripping through my body, pulling out anything vital I contained. Weight where there should be weightlessness. A withdrawal worse than Hell.

Then they said: So is it worth it?

And I fell silent because it is all there is and no, it isn’t worth it.

And those bastards looked at me as if they got it.

It’s said in some circles that I have delusions of grandeur, but that is not the case. I recognized myself in all those sad souls around me at the meeting. My lost, forlorn expression mirrored each of theirs. Their skin was yellow and they smelled like Hell and their eyes were sunken with a kind of weak surrender. And every one of them was telling me it gets easier.

Easier.

Not for me.

It wasn’t going to work. They spoke of romance with nostalgia, and in a way, I envy that. But the thing about these meetings is that their motto—their whole one day at a time approach—does not apply to me.

One day at a time for sixty more years is a drop in the bucket compared to what I’m looking at. An eternity of days without the one thing that completes me. A gaping emptiness without compare.

There was also the problem of God.

They said: Let Him restore you to sanity. Turn yourself over to Him.

And their faces—all that blatant disappointment—when I told them, frankly, that this is one trial God just isn’t going to help me through. I knew what they were thinking: In time, with a few more meetings and some straight, sober perspective, I’d surely come around. I wish I could.

On the bright side, I walked out of the meeting understanding one thing more clearly than I ever had before:
My addiction is not killing me. I’m the toxic thing that’s killing her.

I stepped into the shadows behind the church, let my wings slip forth, and opened them wide.

I had never felt so powerless. Even as I flew away, into the snow-white sky, above the blizzard they’d been expecting for days. My wings can’t save me. My nature can’t save me. It’s my soul that has work to do. I must close its heavy door on her.

Next life.

This life, I’ve already gone too far. There’ll be no stopping it now.

It’s beginning to snow again and I must sign off. There’s a skating party at Lucy’s house tonight. Vera invited all her friends, and I promised I would go.

This is it.

I’ll show up. I’ll know what’s coming. And I’ll love her right up until the very last moment. This will be the last Lucinda who ever dies at my hands.

Next time, I will give her up.

Excited?  I know I am!