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Showing posts with label Discussion Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discussion Post. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Discussion: ITS THE END

Thank you Tumblr and Daryl Dixon for helping me get through this difficult time.

I'm going to talk about a very difficult subject for many readers around the world.  This is something that plagues us constantly, year after year and can't be ignored no matter how hard you ride the Denial River.

That's right I'm talking about the end of a series.

This year marks the end of quite a few series I have followed eagerly (and in some cases) for a long while. So in this year of endings let's take a look back at some of the highlights of days gone past and make some outlandish predictions for the last novels! (mind you I've read some of these already, but I won't tell you what's truth and what's not! mwahahahah)

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson
Book 3 of FIRE AND THORNS
Release Date: August 2013

The First Book: The Girl of Fire and Thorns
The Second Book: The Crown of Embers
Additional Materials: "Shadow Cats" and "The Shattered Mountains", prequels


What Kept Me Interested?: Elisa's evolution from frightened by her own shadow young girl to courageous and determined young woman seeking her destiny feels genuine and organic. These aren't changes overnight for her. She trusts the wrong people, makes the wrong choices (personally and diplomatically) and depends on people even as she grew stronger on a personal level. It takes her a long while to realize that even if someone cares about you, what they feel is in your best interests may hold you back from your true potential and you should never feel guilty about wanting to be better. This really hits home for me as I'm struggling to find that balance in my own life (though obviously not with the fate of an entire world at stake).

What Almost Lost Me?: Elisa is very hard to connect with at first. She's whiny, scared, bratty and stubborn. She's as much a product of her father and older sister underestimating her as she is from Ximena's coddling. Luckily this doesn't last long and she learns quickly that there are dangers lurking for the unwary.

Predictions: Well after the loss from Book 1, the emotional ups and downs of both books and the shocking dismissal at the end of Book 2 I think its high time that Elisa found herself some happiness. Look she found out that the mortality rate for Godstone Bearers is right up there with the mortality rate of Slayers (which is to say, don't plan a big party you won't make it to the legal drinking age). Then got some heavy emotional stuff piled up on her. Then got scared out of her sanity. Then figured out that sometimes those that love you are hurting you the worst. Plus she became an instant mother to a somewhat bratty child.  She NEEDS a bit of happiness to stay sane. I predict that Elisa will toss all her enemies off a cliff and throw a party to celebrate.

+++

Afterglow by Karsten Knight
Book 3 of WILDEFIRE
Release Date: November 2013

The First Book: Wildefire
The Second Book: Embers and Echoes
Additional Materials: None


What Kept Me Interested?: Mythology up to wazoo!  Every book had more and more mythology added on and that was pretty much enough to guarantee my love.  Also I really liked Ashline; brash, reckless and violent, plus you could say she cared too much and that blinded her on occasion.  Still she stood up for her friends, protected the weak and wanted nothing more then to grind Colt's nose into the ground.  I can't fault her for that.

What Almost Lost Me?: Colt. Seriously this guy.  Much like Ash I was taken in by his charm.  Also much like Ash I was horrified by the reveal at the end of Book 1/beginning of Book 2.  From all accounts it looks like Book 3 is going to deliver some much needed justice.  Or Knight is just really good at flimflamming us.  It could go either way.

Predictions: Everyone dies by rocks.  No seriously--look when the elements are in play you have to think its bound to happen right?  Look how often someone got smacked up side the face by a rock in Avatar: the Last Airbender or the Legend of Korra.  Playing with the elements = rock to face.  Simple science right there.  I will also accept that Saga comes Back from the Future to unload a can of CBA (Certified Bad Assery) on several characters. 

+++

With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent
Book 7 of SOUL SCREAMERS
Release Date: March 2013

The First Book: My Soul to Take
The Second Book: My Soul to Save
The Third Book: My Soul to Keep
The Fourth Book: My Soul to Steal
The Fifth Book: If I Die
The Sixth Book: Before I Wake
Additional Materials: "My Soul to Lose", "Reaper", "Never to Sleep"


What Kept Me Interested?: Tod! Admittedly I love Kaylee as well, and Sabine has grown on me.  This is another one that wove mythology throughout (though with a stronger emphasis on Celtic).  Vincent forever won my heart because she broke the mold (so to speak) of "Insta First Love" and portraying the problematic co-dependency issues so many YA paranormal series seem to find necessary therein.

What Almost Lost Me?:  Nash and/or Sabine.  Some of Kaylee's choices in Book 4 also troubled me.  I was very afraid of where Vincent was taking the series after the whole Demon's Breath thing and wasn't sure if my heart could take the fact that it might go in a direction I wouldn't enjoy.

Predictions: After once again proving that she has more sense than most teens her age, Kaylee wins the day by tricking the bad guy into selling his soul to her cousin Sophie (who then makes him her biatch).  To round out the day Kaylee makes brownies, explains some hard truths to Nash and rides off into the sunset with Tod.

+++

Daylighters by Rachel Caine
Book 15 of MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES
Release Date: November 2013

The First Book: Glass Houses
The Second Book: The Dead Girls' Dance
The Third Book: Midnight Alley
The Fourth BookFeast of Fools
The Fifth Book: Lord of Misrule
The Sixth Book: Carpe Corpus
The Seventh Book: Fade Out
The Eighth Book: Kiss of Death
The Ninth Book: Ghost Town
The Tenth Book: Bite Club
The Eleventh Book: Last Breath
The Twelfth Book: Black Dawn
The Thirteenth Book: Bitter Blood
The Fourteenth Book: Fall of Night
Additional Materials: Everything Listed in This List on GoodReads

What Kept Me Interested?: I came into this series very reluctantly.  Around book 3 I think.  And then spent an entire Saturday catching up (the first 8 or so books were fairly short by YA standards today) and eagerly awaiting the next book.  I love Claire.  And once he was introduced Myrnin (who yes I think looks just like David Tennant on a crazy day) became the love of my life.  This man can do no wrong in my book (except for that one time, but we don't talk about that one time).  Oh right.  Also I found the series vastly more interesting because it wasn't at a boarding school, but an entire town to play around in.

What Almost Lost Me?: Shane/Claire. I will never, ever in my life be a Shane/Claire fan.  I will tolerate it, because I'm not immune to some of the sweet stuff he does, but they are not my couple of choice Michael/Claire is.  Or Myrnin/Claire.  More seriously this series has never had a moment of 'I won't read the next book', much like the Soul Screamers books, despite the length I enjoy each book I'm a few behind however.

Predictions: All the vampires become humans, Myrnin proposes to Claire and they do Mad Scientific Research Together while Shane pouts in the corner.

+++

The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness Part 2 byYukako Kabei
Book 9 of KIELI
Release Date: September 2013

The First Book: The Dead Sleep in Wilderness

The Second Book: White Wake on the Sand
The Third Book: Prisoners Bound for Another Planet
The Fourth BookLong Night Beside a Deep Pool
The Fifth Book: The Sunlit Garden Where it Began Part 1
The Sixth Book: The Sunlit Garden Where it Began Part 2
The Seventh Book: As the Deep Ravine's Wind Howls
The Eighth Book: The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness Part 1 
Additional Materials: There is an artbook/short story, but I'm not sure if it will be translated into English

What Kept Me Interested?: Please excuse the japanese edition, the English edition doesn't have a cover yet.  I love Kieli.  Its this bittersweet oddly morbid, somewhat disturbing, not quite steampunk (sandpunk?) science fiction paranormal story about a girl who sees ghosts, a soldier who's basically a zombie and a radio possessed by a ghost with an attitude.  Its hardly ever a let down and several passages have given me nightmares.

What Almost Lost Me?: Honestly speaking I have never NOT wanted to continue this series. I love it so much.  And Yen Press does an outstanding job with translation and presentation.

Predictions: nothing good I'll say that much.  Kabei has basically been spending the last couple of books trying to tell Kieli "Look, this love you feel is utterly doomed and fraught with danger and horrifying death, and no it won't change" by basically showing her that it ended badly for her mother, several of Harvey's friends and oh look she's almost been killed at least once a book.  Pretty much if she survives I'll be shocked.

Why yes there's an overabundance of YA...mostly because my non-YA series keep getting renewed for more books...or are extremely long-lived (looking at you Stormlight Archive).  Even my historical romances, which I can always sort of count on to end, just keep going!  Its throwing my poor bookshelves into crazy disarray (and the least said about stand alones the better).

Anyone else have a book series ending this year?


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Discussion: My Problem With Genre TV

It would not be an exaggeration to say this man is the reason I watch. (c) Nyhms @DA


This was originally a post about The Walking Dead and the main problem(s) I've been having with the show since the beginning of Season 2.  This isn't to say I'm not enjoying the show, its a Cenni family tradition to watch it together and root for someone to die (usually Lori, or Andrea, a lot of times Rick) each week, but it was a nagging problem.

Then I realized its a problem I have with a lot of genre shows.  Walking Dead just gets the cake because of The Talking Dead afterwards (more on this later).

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Historical Has It (the sequel)

What do you mean this has little to do with this post. You don't get more historical then Mr. Darcy!
Last year, on this day, I wrote a post called "The Historical Hast It" in which I enumerated the various books, authors and series that influenced my love of historical fiction.  Or well my love of a certain section of historical fiction.

I thought to return to that topic today, but discuss the shows, movies and serials that influence my taste.

United States History


"Little House on the Prairie" (late 19th century)
Granted I was bound to be interested in this show since a) I love the books and b) I grew up watching Michael Landon on such shows as Bonanza and Stairway to Heaven, but there is something very comforting about watching this show.  Family goes through some terrible hardships, but they pull through it every single time.  It of course ended before I was even born, but re-runs have been constant (even now).

There has also been a number of versions, but I'll take the Michael Landon one over any of the new movies any day of the week. 

Canadian History


"Road to Avonlea" (1903-1912 or so)
I enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables series as well, but while I have fond memories of Anne Shirley I have fonder memories of Sara Stanley (aka The Story Girl) and the King family.  I'm currently in the middle of a rewatch of this complete series (which aired on the Disney Channel for a time and has not been re-run since, to my knowledge at least, domestically).  As a child I identified with Sara quite a bit, but now as an adult I find myself identifying with Felicity in her search for self and growing pains.

This is also one of those 'omg fandom!' shows as so many big names stars guest starred at various points throughout its run.



"Love Comes Softly" and "Love's Enduring Promise"  (19th Century)
While I'm not terribly fond of the books these are based on, nor of the movies after Enduring Promise (Love's Long Journey, the 3rd movie, is tolerable mostly), I enjoy these two for Katherine Hiegl.  At this point in time I only really knew her from Roswell, so it was a change of pace to see her in this setting.  These are also an interesting contrast to my favorite series of hers, the Canadian West books, as they depict a more pioneer experience.

This is however the preachiest movie on this list - but then that's to be expected.

British History


"Blackadder" (multiple time periods)
While this is a comedy series and primarily pokes fun at everything British, the important thing to remember here is that because of this series I became interest in Elizabeth I (season 2, pictured above).  Also its important to remember this is where I first met Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.  This is hilarious even now a couple decades later and oddly accurate at times.


"The Onedin Line" (1860 onwards)
This is the odd duck in the list, though considering my strange fascination with Maritime English (thanks to Road to Avonlea) and crabbing (thank you Elizabeth Ogilvie) I guess this would wind up here.  My dad watched this show that was meant to span generations of the shipping family Onedin, led by the crabby, autocratic James Onedin.  There are few likeable characters, even less likeable secondary characters, but there's a certain intriguing aspect of watching the decline, rise, worse decline and faster rise of this family through about 2 decades.

European History


"Hercules: the Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess"
Before you argue these are about as historically accurate as a goldfish's memory, pray remember this is what influenced my interest in history.  These two shows alone proved a way for me to become intrigued by events in Greece, Rome, Syria, Egypt and countless other places.  I know these shows mess with history but they made history interesting enough for me to look further into.

Also I'm possibly the biggest Iolaus fangirl you will ever find.  Seriously.

Current State of Interest

I would like to say that Jane Austen movies/serials influenced my interest...but that's just not really the case.  I tend to enjoy those movies for the actors moreso then the setting.  Now of course Downton Abbey is a huge historical draw for me, as is shows like "Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End".  "Rome" on HBO was a show both I and my dad enjoyed (though me after it ran its course).

And thanks to dramas like "Jade Palace Lockheart", "Startling With Each Step", "Mystery in the Palace" and "Empresses in the Palace" I'm really interested in the Qing Dynasty just before Yongzheng (5th Qing Emperor) takes power.  (sideline this guide to the Princes of Startling With Each Step, which chronicles the events leading up to Yongzheng usurping taking the throne is hilarious and informative)  They all pretty much are about the same time period, but approach it in different ways (well technically Jade Palace and Startling are the exact same story but I'll talk about that in a separate post).

Monday, January 28, 2013

Serialized Stories I'm Reading

I'm an impatient reader.  Wait times between books irritate me honestly.  It was more of a problem when I was younger and wasn't able to scour the bookstore or Amazon for a new series or author to tide me over, but its still something I get tetchy over.

So the idea of a serialized novel or story, for whatever reason, shouldn't appeal to me right*?  Instead of a whole NOVEL to satisfy me, there's a chapter or two an update.  Instead of being able to devote hours to a story, its at most a hour. 

Yet I find myself following serialized books(**). 

CLEAN SWEEP by Ilona Andrews (linkage)
This is a side project for them that has nothing to do with any of their current worlds.  Its updated regularly, though sometimes not quite in chronological order...

VELVETEEN VS ... by Seanan McGuire (linkage)
Another side project, these started some years ago and were just kind of 'Hey look how cool!' sorts of stories posted on her LJ.  Now there's a book for it and there's plans for a second book for the stories.

THE BOSS by Abigail Barnette (linkage)
Barnette is a pseudonym for Jenny Trout (which is, in and of itself a pseudonym), y'all may remember she does the 50 Shades trilogy recaps?  Well she decided to put her talent where her snark is and try her hand at writing a 50 Shades-esque erotica. 

Brandon Sanderson's Annotations of his Books (linkage)
Okay this isn't REALLY a novel, just his little extras and commentary (the director's commentary track if you would) for all his (solo) books.  Right now he's on the Alcatraz books, but I can't wait for the 'Way of Kings' annotations. 


(*) I want to point out that for much of my teen years, since I had exhausted my library's reading material and was not at that point going to the bookstore every other day to replenish my personal stash of books, I read fanfiction quite extensively.  Mainly Sailor Moon, Teen Titans and Inu-Yasha. And some of those fanfics got looooong (looking at you Guardians of the Millennium).

As any reader of fanfic knows sometimes authors will update regularly and frequently, sometimes they'll go eons between chapters and sometimes they are abandoned completely because the 'muse' has left themor they left the fandom, so that was a built in expectation.  Less so with books, since these folks are being paid to entertain me so why aren't they entertaining me quicker? (I can be very selfish at times)

How about everyone else?  Do you guys read serialized novels?  I know Shannon Delany's 13 to Life series began in a similar fashion (text novels are basically this after all).  Anything else good?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Discussion: Bring Out Your Anger, tracking the Victoria Foyt Debacle

Anybody who's been on twitter, goodreads, author blogs or saw , which incidentally is always fabulously informative, would have read about the Victoria Foyt Debacle.  Long story short: traditionally published author (through HarperTeen in 2007) decided to self-pub a 'dystopian YA fantasy romance' about a minority seeking to overturn societal beliefs about her race.

Not so bad right?

The minority being 'oppressed' are Caucasians ('Pearls'), the oppressors are African-Americans ('Coals') and the author manages to pack almost every single Race Trope (listed here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RaceTropes) into the novel and abuse them until the reader feels sick to their stomach.

From the AICL (American Indians in Children’s Literature) article from August 5th, an explanation of the races in Saving the Pearls:
“Midnight Luster" allows Pearls to pass as Coals. Lowest in class are "Cottons" (Albinos). Between the Coals and the Pearls are the Ambers (Asians) and just above them are the Latinos who I think are "Tigers Eye.”
Even if there wasn't a controversy attached to it, Foyt's marketing materials are offensive, her very public decrying of her critics has been shameful and the very few defenders she has include the 'Stop the GR Bullies' folks and (until his post was taken down) Marvin Kaye (who's been known to support bigoted works before).

Not what you would call upstanding character references right there.

Background:

Marvin Kaye defended the fact Weird Tales (which he and John Harlacher bought several months ago) was publishing the first chapter in an upcoming issue and claimed its use of racism was ironic:
“Racism is an atrocity, and that is the backbone of this book. That is very clear to anyone with an appreciation for irony who reads it.”
The post has since been taken down, but hey it’s the internet so there's a cache of it (linkage)

John then defended Marvin (and his own involvement) by kind of sort of tossing Marvin under the bus, while making it clear he was an innocent party.  THEN in the comments section, when folks were making some pretty poignant remarks, he made an ass of himself by making jokes (that no one found funny or smart thinking).  John also said Marvin agreed with him and would be making his own comments shortly (that was 8/20*).

At some point as early as June, Ann VanderMeer, the former editor in chief of Weird Tales (who by all accounts is fabulous), told John and Marvin to back that train up and not have anything to do with Foyt’s book:
“But ever since a meeting with Kaye and Harlacher in New York in June, it had become obvious that she would be extremely uncomfortable working with them. … they did mention during that encounter that they planned to publish an excerpt from a YA novel written by the wife of a film director about “the last white person on the planet trying to survive in a world of black people.” This seemed deeply problematic on the face of it, and Ann was kind—perhaps too kind—but adamant and firm in saying that they shouldn’t do this. Ever.” (from her husband Jeff’s blog here)
The book itself was published back in January 2012, and looking at Goodreads seems to be from November 2011 (full disclosure, the review in question gave this a 4 star rating and doesn't mention racism as a primary offensive problem...it also doesn't mention the huge editing gaffes either so take it as you like) and a lot of the early reviews don't mention it either (except in context of 'reverse racism!'). 

The biggest negatives cite the main characters (especially Eden) as being the main dragging point, the romance being icky or the confusing not quite science the author employs to justify some contextual things (like people being inject with animal DNA).  I should point out that a lot of the 1-3 stars mentioned the fact the main character, Eden, has a borderline bestiality romance with the love interest Bramford after he becomes a jaguar man. 

Another full disclaimer--an author who's book I liked (Trisha Wolfe) gave this a 5 star rating and also doesn't mention the racism.

The first instance of someone mentioning the racism (or racefail, I do hail from the Avatar fandom after all) was a 2-star review from Jan 18th, 2012 and the reviewer clearly says that she expected it given the premise...however other problems simply overtook her problems with the racefail.  That's the first instance I can find, please correct me if I'm wrong.

The next instance came in February and the reviewer elaborated upon it a bit more.

For a rather well thought and well-written 1-star review I suggest reading Jenny Wren's here.

Foyt meanwhile discussed the matter of interracial relationships in her novel via her HuffPost Blogger status back on Leap Day of this year.

And I think the first non-review blog post about the racism issue was posted at The Frisky (as part of their "Today in Racism" posts) back on July 27th.

This article at XO Jane breaks it down much more elaborately, also from July http://www.xojane.com/issues/save-the-pearls-revealing-eden-ya-novel-racist

And then this article from Legendary Women  discusses the racist issues and links to some more fun articles

Originally Foyt's original mistakes and racefail seemed to stem from her misunderstanding of the people she was trying to 'help' not from some deep-rooted racism.  And we all make mistakes, especially when we don’t do our research or ask the right questions and make assumptions (recently I made the mistake of believing somebody was Iraqi when they were in fact Pakistani.  I didn’t do it maliciously; I did it out of ignorance of their respective language and customs). 

If instead of continually hammering home ‘MY BOOK IS NOT RACIST’ or ‘’ Foyt could have taken the time to say ‘Yes I didn’t do my research properly, I’m sorry if I offended anyone I will correct this’ and then taken down the book in question, this would have been dusted off to a mild problem and an author who listened.  She probably would have gained readers, as once the revised edition came out those who didn’t read the original would read it to see how it fared.

But we’ll labor under the belief that for whatever reason Foyt truly believes that she wrote a book with no imperfections (at least not of that nature, I haven’t seen her speak out about the quasi-bestiality, editing problems or consistently tstl main character).

I then urge you to check out these two blog posts in which the authors took the time to quote sections that are problematic:  Inverarity (a blog that often shares my opinions about some of the more popular books) and Requires Only That You Hate (a blog dedicated to racism of any nature in popular media)

And because Foz always has awesome coverage, check out her blog post about the Stop the GR Bullies entry (from early August).

I'm of the opinion that its one thing to attack a book--with evidence to support why you are attacking something so majorly.  Its something else to attack the author--good or bad, again support your argument.  And then there's ATTACKING an author.  The lady isn't Hitler or Stalin incarnate--she's an idiot who doesn't know when to stop. Much like folks were back in the day during slavery who honestly didn't see a problem with having slaves as long as they treated them nicely.

Here have a musical number about it from one of my favorite musicals (that I have yet to see):




Casual Racism is a large part of any society, but its amplified today because the world is so connected.  How many of us grew up with the saying "Indian-Giver" and didn't think any of it?  Hell my brother called me it the other day and he is by far the most un-racist person I know (he'll be friends with just about anyone as long as they aren't murderers, rapists or child molesters). Its not a great thing, but its something that everyone has to work on.

So chillax folks (especially you Foyt).

(*) According to this blog the blogger wrote to WT and got a response from Marvin Kaye (8-22) that was counter to what John was claiming.  Won-de-ful.


Thursday, August 9, 2012

Heroes, Villains and what we do for love

Book 1
Book 2

In particular I want to discuss Tristan d'Arcenne, the narrator of The Bandit King and the heroine's love interest in The Hedgewitch Queen.

This post is full of spoilers for both books, so I suggest you skip it if you have any wish to read them.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Discussion: The Lost Valentine


Having just stayed up well past what I consider my bedtime (5am) to watch a movie I should have seen weeks ago, I'm feeling a tad emotional, so let's vent them the best way I know how--through blogging!

As a fan of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White I knew about the movie The Lost Valentine for a few months.  Had no idea it was based on a book (didn't do that deep of research), but I knew when it would be on.  Except my family decided it would be funny to not tape the movie so I missed it.  There was much hell-raising let me tell you.  A kindly friend had taped it and then burnt me a copy and it had recently arrived.


The premise is this:  For the last 65 years Caroline Thomas (Betty White) has gone to Union Station to wait for her navy pilot husband Neil to come home.  Neil had been considered MIA (Missing in Action) at the tail end of World War II and ever since Caroline has kept the dream alive that he would come home.

Susan Allison (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a reporter for a Human Interest show called 'American Diary', is given the assignment to profile Caroline.  At first reluctant, she soon comes to care for Caroline and her story deeply.

Several salient points are brought up about love; that love isn't about just feeling 'okay' with a person, that love means being excited to see that person, about having faith for however long it takes.  As Caroline's story unfolds Susan takes a look at her life and realizes that the safe bet isn't what she really wanted.

There was a lot of crying while I watched this movie.  Almost sobbing at one point when Susan begins to dig into what happened to Neil.  As this is based on a book (by James Michael Pratt, who apparently writes such sweet heartening stories just like Nicholas Sparks and James Patterson) things have been changed.  In the book its Caroline's son, Neil Jr. who approaches Susan.  And Caroline is younger as well.  I haven't read the book but I'm going to (soon as I get a copy).

I don't usually fall in for such sappy movies--I like my romantic comedies moreso honestly, though sometimes teen romance is fun--but like I said I love Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White.  The added eyecandy of Sean Faris (playing Caroline's grandson Lucas) certainly didn't hurt either!  I haven't seen him on TV since...Reunion stopped airing (though a look at his webpage and imdb profile shows he has been acting).

So tell me--have you guys seen the movie?  Read the book?  What did you think?  How about differences between the two (other than what I mentioned)?  Do you think that Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White did justice?  What's your favorite feature of Sean Faris? (for me its everything)



ps: totally tried to find a picture of Sean that was...recent and appropriate to post. Sadly he seems to like doing a lot of shirtless photoshoots.  Which isn't really sad, but it does make it hard to find a picture.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

August Discussion Post: How do you review?

This is actually spurred on by a from a new twitter friend (mjmbecky) during a #bblog session hosted by Nicole Bo about Time Management and Blogging.

I had mentioned that I have notebooks filled with notes about books I am reading, or have read, post-it notes and an inch thick of lists for my blog.  Well Becky suggested I share this with y'all XD  I wish I could offer pictures, but sadly my camera is still broke.

Lists
I like making lists.  I have made lists of everything under the sun since I was old enough to hold a pencil.  This comes in handy when I'm moving, needing to go shopping, compare things or see the progress on what I should be doing.  Blogging isn't any different in that regard.  I have 3 Main Lists, 12 supplemental lists, 15 minor lists and another 5 'misc' lists.

Books to Review
  • Bought/Traded Books
  • RR@H Books
  • NOR Books
  • BSCReview Books
  • Sent by Publisher/Author/Publicist
  • Book Tours
  • ebooks
Arcs to Review
  • Won from Contests
  • For Author Interviews
  • By Pub Date
Special Posts to Schedule
  • Author Interviews/Guest Posts
  • Coming Attraction Posts, Weekly Meme's, Monthly Posts
Minor Lists include--authors to contact, wishlist books, books to request, ebooks to request, giveaways, books to trade with friends, books to mention to friends, books to snark about, Sarcastic Sunday books to choose, Books with movies based upon, Graphic Novels, Comics, books reviewed, books to buy (that I own ARC's for) and books my sister wants to review/read.

Misc Lists are just the five major genres I separate my books I own but are older than a year to review into--Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical and Everything Else.  Each has a whole slew of sub-genres, but really that's how I basically divide my books up when listing them out.

I have specific forms for each list, that I print and fill out.  I update each monthly, but I only print new forms every three months (January, April, July, October) and I recycle bundles of forms each April and October.  Though I print off the forms for uniformity's sake, I prefer to write everything in long-hand.  If anyone cares to see the forms I can e-mail you the files for the forms.

I do all of that just for blogging

I list my books I own (read and unread a like) in the much simpler to use Books Database shareware from Hal SpaceJock Software.  I used to keep a banker book of all the books I own/read but because of trade-ins, donations, multiples, books lost and bought...it became too messy.  This is easier. 

My sister, who has far less books (she shares most of mine with me) of her own to organize and keep track of, I keep in a handwritten notepad.  She rarely trades in books or donates them, but then she only really collects 4 series--the Roswell books (yes the Roswell High and the ones based on the show), House of Night, Vampire Academy and the Gossip Girl books.  She has various others she buys, but often she'll grow bored and trade them within a week before I have a chance to update.  Though she wants to keep track of all the ones she has read, so I may just open her a Goodreads account and manage it for her.

I'm also in charge of my dad's collection of books, but that's on hold until he finishes his office.  Unrelated I keep track of the family DVD's, my brother's DVD's, my own and my dad's.  Collectively we own over 1000 DVD movies, shows and sets.

Reviewing

As I mentioned in the #bblog chat, I taught myself to really only need 4 hours of sleep a night (though I'll take more if I can afford more).  Often this means I am up to the wee hours of the morning reading. But I don't want to write the review just then, or I want to move onto the next book quickly.  In HS, since we often read books I detested and couldn't be bothered to remember anything about, I started keeping notes to help me remember important details for essays/tests/etc. 

I reclaimed this habit once I began blogging more seriously since I often had issue finding random moments I remembered I wanted to complain about or praise, or how to spell a name or some such thing.  Its all hand written.  This has resulted in a few banker boxes full of old notebooks--half used from classes mostly--getting a new lease on life.  I've reviewed over 400 books since August 2008--I've probably read at least 100 more that I didn't review for one reason or another, but they still got notes taken down just in case. 

To illustrate how in depth my notes are here's a few examples:
--Shadowed Summer, a book only 183 pages long I took 9 pages worth of notes
--The Iron Daughter, a book only 360 pages long I took 20 pages worth of notes

--The Way of Kings, a book 1008 pages long I took nearly fifty pages worth of notes

Some books I take much less notes on--usually straight romances will only garner 5 pages no matter the length, because they don't involve me remembering smaller details.  For series romances, like 'The Bridgertons' (8 books) or 'School for Heiresses' (6 books, 1 anthology, 1 short story) I had about 50 pages for the entire series length.  Mainly because I had to remember details of each couple and see how they related to each subsequent book.

Occasionally, if I am in a rush and need the book done now I won't take any notes.  Actually for e-books I very rarely take notes because I have such a hard time concentrating on the books to begin with (the exception being Christy Trujillo's two e-books Emmy's Heart and Emmy's Song, I kept notes on them both because I needed to remember details).

This is also why, in a lot of series' cases, I get annoyed when authors rehash every single event from the preceding novels.  Having just re-read my notes its annoying to then re-read it in book and have to leave the notation in my pad that says 'see notebook xx page xxx' or re-write it all again.

As you can imagine I have a lot of notebooks laying around, but in truth if I get rid of the book I toss out the notes.  If I trade the book I toss out the notes.  If its a solo novel and I wrote the review already, I toss out the notes.  I really only keep series notes and then when the series is completed I toss out the notes.  I will sometimes take specific quotes from those notes, transfer them to a different binder of notes, but I don't often keep the notes.

So I told you mine, you tell me yours.  How do you review your books?  Organize your blogging needs?  Are you a lister?  Do you just post whatever?  My blog doesn't have an exact structure, but I'm working on that so that going in my third year (my 2nd blog-o-versary is in October!) I can make this a more professional looking blog.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Murder on the Orient Express Discussion Post


Murder on the Orient Express
Starring: David Suchet, Brian J. Smith, David Morissey, Eileen Atkins, Barbara Hershey and more
Airing: Masterpiece Mystery July 11th 2010 9pmEST

All right folks so here's the big day!  And guess what?  My family won't let me watch it!  ::sigh:: I have to wait until later tonight.

Prelims:
Are you following the twitter hashtag ?
Did you see my ?
My review of ?

I finally got to watch it uninterrupted, without any sort of glitching, skipping, pixelating picture!  FIVE DAYS LATER THAN IT WAS BROADCAST--but whatever I'm just happy to have finally seen it.

Hercule Poirot:

Suchet's Poirot Mysteries are rather (in)famous for changing around not only the ending, but also certain character points of Poirot's.  His reactions, mainly.  I have yet to see this addressed by Suchet or the production staff for Agatha Christie's Poirot, but I suspect that someone wants to show that Poirot is more human then he appears in the books.  Let's face it Poirot is one cold customer--he has no family to speak of, his friends generally consist of Hastings and a few other souls (mostly Hastings though), he spends much of his time traveling from country to country and coolly relates what happened during each investigation.

He is a student of human behaviors, but more importantly he is a detached observer of humanity.

Before the Murder:

In Murder on the Orient Express we see Poirot become vehement on several occasions, plus display downright callous disregard on at least two occasions.  The movie begins with Poirot coldly condemning a young lieutenant for his actions.  The lieutenant looks uncomfortable, nervous and scared quite frankly while Poirot rages about justice.  At the end of his speech, to which many of the other officers looked uneasy, the lieutenant shoots himself in the head (point blank, ignore how badly done that make up job was).  The officer in charge stiffly thanks Poirot for cleaning up a potentially bad scandal.

Later Poirot observes several of the would be passengers on the Orient Express, taking note as he always does of their unique behavior patterns, trying ti assemble why they are acting thusly.  While transversing the streets he happens to witness a woman being hounded by a mob.  The woman is being accused of infidelity, but also of carrying that man's child.  Her punishment, according to the laws of her people, is to be stoned to death.  Miss Debenham and Colonel Arbuthnot have also viewed the spectacle, with Miss Debenham being restrained by Arbuthnot so as not to interfere.  Poirot views all this with barely a glimmer of interest before walking away.

These would be the first of several changes from the book to the movie.  The scene with the Lieutenant is recounted in the book, but we don't see it (plus its the French Army, not a British matter).  We aren't given any facts on the case beyond that it involved the death of a officer and resignation of another--the reasoning, the particulars of the case aren't discussed.  The woman being stoned to death is entirely new and is basically a plot point contrivance for later in the movie.

The particulars of how Poirot meets and greets the passengers are of little consequence quite frankly.  Nothing really changes about that except perhaps the circumstances, but that isn't very important.  How Poirot is originally approached by Ratchett is certainly different--mostly in his manner and address.  The Ratchett of this movie is less of a bully and blowhard and more fearful.  He is very religious (or at least he is seeking redemption quite assiduously), though this is the first time I can remember seeing Poirot pray as well.  This may have been to show that his views justice as a matter of moral authority, but also to contrast against Ratchett's deathbed repent.  There is also no mention of Ratchett being ill (as in the book or the 1974 version).

Our Suspects:
They seemed to have made many of the suspects younger.  With the exception of Schmidt and Princess Dragomiroff, everyone seems to have been de-aged to roughly their mid-20's to mid-40's.  Well I suppose this is the proper age for Debenham and MacQueen, but I distinctly remember Ohlsson being a much older woman then she who portrays her in the movie.


Also Foscarelli is made to be Italian-American, not purely Italian.  The relationship between Arbuthnot and Debenham is also downplayed in the book, whereas in the movie  (maybe because I think David Morrissey, who plays Arbuthnot in the movie, is a romantic figure, thank you Sense and Sensibility) you can feel the tension between them more keenly.

It felt as if Dr. Constantine seemed more of a busybody than in the book, though I'm not sure how much of that was because Poirot seemed less involved in this mystery than usual. 

The Murder:

This takes place in more or less the same fashion.  We do not see a lady in a red kimono walking down the hallway, various motivations are slightly changed so as to explain changes in character (such as Ohlsson's job, or Schmidt's seemingly super-lady in waiting abilities) and Ratchett still dies as he does in the book.  And the truth as to why he died is still the same.

Poirot's investigation is less...exciting than usual.  I want to lay the blame on the fact that I know the outcome and so its not as interesting to see all the alibis and loopholes, but really its because self-righteous Poirot from the beginning is the one we're stuck with throughout the entire movie.  Poirot in the books always seemed interested in first the truth and second justice--the two always went hand in hand for him.  For Murder on the Orient Express however Poirot has come to a moral crossroads.  Which is more important in the end?  The truth or true justice?  The murderer killed Ratchett because of a horrific crime he helped to commit--and got away with!--years before.  For that murderer 'justice' had not been done and had to be avenged.  But if Poirot reveals the truth of the matter to the cops, is he really helping justice?

This is really something of a philosophical question, one I get into every time with my Uncle.  My Uncle is a stout believer that religious moral authority (of which Poirot is saturated in for this movie) comes first above all else--so even though Ratchett committed a horrible crime, he should not have been killed.  The murderer of Ratchett should be held responsible all the same.  I'm more in line with the murderer's viewpoints; Ratchett (in the book at least, less so in the movie, I'll get to this in a second) is a cruel, bully of a man who made off with the money, left his cohorts to hang in the wind and destroyed the lives of at least a dozen people with one thoughtless act.  He deserved to die for that.

The problem in the movie is that Ratchett is shown to be a bully of a man, but he's also shown to be quite desperate to find redemption for what he did.  He prays, he is giving the money back (supposedly), he is truly sorry for what he did.  Poirot is on his side for much of the movie, feeling he is the victim.  I think they did this so as to give the audience more credible evidence as to why Poirot would so obviously take the side of a bad man; if things had remained so, then the audience would hate Poirot and feel he's going against his own integrity too obviously. 

After the Murder/Investigation:

As I said earlier this was one of the least exciting cases ever, made more so by the fact that Poirot was so self-righteous and wasn't open to the possibility that Ratchett was killed for a good reason.  After finding out who he truly was, he still defended him as the victim.  The Poirot of the book is more unbiased.  He finds out that Ratchett is indeed a bad man and he than turns his head to figuring out the true motivations of the murderer.  He doesn't condemn the murderer, he insteads reserves judgment until he has all the facts. 

The earlier scene with the woman being stoned to death (a 'justice' under her people's law) is brought up again by Miss Debenham.  He says that it was justice, that the woman understood the law and still chose to break those laws.  Miss Debenham argues that for one mistake the woman should be killed?  That maybe there were other circumstances involved that should have played a part in the judgment.  Poirot is quite insistent that justice is justice, there is no 'out' if you break the law.

During his recounting of what happened Poirot becomes positively livid as the suspects defend themselves.  He bellows that what happened to Ratchett was not justice it was murder and that is wrong.  This is completely different from the book; in the book Poirot deduces what has happened, gathers everyone to hear his deductions (with the actual murderer implicated) and then calmly puts forth another proposal (that of a mysterious man who came aboard, killed Ratchett and than left). He then left the final word to the conductor, Mr. Bouc, to decide which seemed more likely.

In the movie Poirot alone is given the job of deciding as he sets off to talk to the police about what transpired.  There is a tense moment when all the suspects watch him nervously, and Miss Debenham gives him the Look of Meaning, and finally Poirot tells forth the second accounting of events.  Foresensics being what they were back in the 30's, well no one questioned the great Poirot!

Overall Impression:

I was let down.  Quite simply.  I had great expectations, being a diehard lover of Suchet at Poirot, but I felt they took this in the wrong direction.  Making Poirot and Ratchett both so religious, and making Poirot so self-righteous turned me off and made me wonder if this was really Poirot.  He does not get so impassioned, he deduces things rationally and logically.  He does not let his 'moral authority' interfere.

In the Special aired, with Suchet on the Orient Express (giving us a tour of the actual train, the stops it would have made and the journey it would take along with the history of the Orient Express), Suchet makes a point to say that this is an important moment in Poirot's life.  A huge moment when he has to change his thinking.  To a certain degree I agree.  In the movie it certainly makes it out to be a big moment for Poirot--a huge change in his thinking and rationale.  In the book not so much, its downplayed and while important I don't think its quite the shake-up to his character the movie would have us believe.

So thoughts?

Friday, June 4, 2010

Discussion Post (June): Fan Behavior

Outside of the book blogging world I have other interests (I know shock!).  Most of those interests revolve around either manga, anime or my multitude of television shows I enjoy.  Sometimes even the video games I play.

The only real connection between all my interests is my 'fan' behavior within 'fandom'.  At the recent Book Blogger Convention, during a panel the topic of 'fandom' was brought up and it had to be explained at one point to the audience members and panelists who had no idea what fandom is.  I've grown up in fandom; Star Trek as a child and later, when I learned the word for my obsessive behavior, the anime/manga community.

Don't think you know a fandom?  A few of the more recognizable fandoms in mainstream are Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Twilight--these are the ones you always hear about whose fans are dressed as Storm Troopers or running around AK'ing folks left and right.

They also tend to be the ones who people label as the 'misfits', 'outcasts' and 'nerdy'.  In the young adult anthology more than a dozen authors came out and wrote stories about 'geeks', illustrating that geeks are really no different then anyone else.  Not that anyone should need that to be clarified, but still.

I grew up as one of those geeks.  Second to my (very small) school's knowledge of what a bookworm I am, was the knowledge that I was also the girl who used Star Trek references during history.  The girl who could name all 28 chinese constellations because of Fushigi Yugi, but couldn't remember the basic components in a simple chemistry equation.  I was pretty much alone in my actions however.  I would occasionally find someone else who was interested, but often our tastes would be so divergent it was almost as if we didn't share any interests at all.  Most of my fandom friends were online in fact, hundreds of miles away.

Years went by and guess what?  College changed things.  I met people who shared my passions, who were even more passionate then me and became more deeply involved in fandom.  I began cosplaying ('costume playing', dressing as a character from a series), writing fan fiction, joining RPG's (role-playing games) and spending hours in chat rooms discussing the smallest details of a new episode or chapter.  However my bookish fan self was still very timid, very withdrawn and uncertain.  I didn't meet my first author until 2005 (Maria V. Snyder had the honor).  The first year I attended Book Expo was 2007 and I spent most of it scared witless and certain someone would say 'You!  Yes you! Begone!' crying foul at me because I was an impostor.  I didn't begin reviewing books until late 2008.

But you know what?  Book fans are no different then any other fan base in the world.  Sure only certain books get costumed fellows (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter...) but have you ever seen a book fan in the throes of a passionate debate?  Or one who has met their favorite author?  I know how I feel--as if I'm meeting a celebrity because that's how I view authors.  I'd take lunch with my top 5 favorite authors over almost any Hollywood hunk you can mention.  Why?  Because books are my passion and when you have a passion for them...well you want to be around others who share that passion.

Questions:
  1. Have you ever fangirl'ed over an author?
  2. Do you believe in 'fandom'?  Are you an active participant in a bookish fandom?
  3. If you could cosplay as one character from any book--who would it be?  Why?
And if there's any authors who read this:
  1. Are there authors you still fangirl (or fanboy) over?
  2. Best fan reaction you've ever received?

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Discussion Post: Domestic Releases

In the past ten years I can name, on one hand, the authors/books I've been waiting to be published domestically (that did not have to be translated).  Somehow they're all Australian.

1) Isobelle Carmody 
Back in 2000 I found Carmody's first three"Obernewtyn" novels that had been published in America from Tor Books (Obernewtyn, The Farseekers and Ashling).  At the time I thought that was all there was to the series, since brick and mortar booksellers had no idea what I was talking about.  Somewhere in 2002 I discovered a fourth book, called The Seeking Place had been published, but to my dismay it was very, very expensive online.  It would be another two years before I realized it wasn't a domestic release, that it was being imported and the publisher told me that soon the sequels would be released in America.

Sometime in 2007 I learned of the re-release of the previous 3 books and the release dates for books 4-6 (The Keeping Place, Wavesong and The Stone Key) and sometime in 2009 I found out the release dates for the finale two books, 7-8 (The Sending and The Red Queen).  Far as I know the series (which is only 6 books long in Australia, the American Publisher having decided to break up two of the books into shorter novels) is complete there for at least a year.

The final two books were moved from mid-2010 releases (April I think) to November 2011 release dates in America.

2) Glenda Larke
I read Glenda's previous trilogy, "The Isles of Glory" (The Aware, Gilfeather and The Tainted) about three years ago and enjoyed the books immensely (well technically I need to re-read The Tainted.  Long story).  Eagerly I went searching for more books, but turned up none (for some reason her second trilogy, "The Mirage Makers" did not turn up).  However I did turn up a snippet of a post about her new trilogy, "Stormlord".  I filed the information away for later, routinely making searches online about it.  At some point I stumbled on her blog (Tropic Temper) and began to shamelessly stalk that.

In August of 2009 she posted about reading the first book, The Last Stormlord, for free online () and impatiently I waited for its release in America come March 2010 (from one of my favorite pubs Orbit).  Book 2, Stormlord Rising, is out in Aussieland already, but isn't due out until August in America.  It was not released on line for me to devour sadly.

3) John Marsden
This is actually a weirder instance.  I only recently found out about this books (early 2009), by accident while searching for something about another author (who's name I now forget).  The series I like, "Tomorrow, When the War Came" is available in America fully as is its sequel companion series "The Ellie Chronicles".  Actually I think most of, if not all, his books are available except the one I really, really want:  Marsden on Marsden: The stories behind John Marsden's bestselling books.  I don't remember how I learned of it, but it became my obsession for weeks.  


You have to understand, Marsden on Marsden is my idea of *fun* reading, I love it when authors analyze and discuss their works at signings and events.  And since I would never make it to Aussieland this was the next best thing.  I needed to have it.  Point in fact I imported the book (cost $22) since I knew it would never be published in America.

4) Kylie Chan 
Kylie is especially hard for me.  I found out about her from a blog friend's post (Tez Says) in late 2008 and wanted to have her like bad (the author's books that is).  Despite weeks of fruitless searching I couldn't find anywhere to buy the books at a not going to kill my budget, so I dejectedly decided to stalk the author's blog, Tez's blog (not that I wasn't already...) and put out a google alert for any mention at all.  I'm kind of patient, so I was hoping for good news.  November 6th 2009 produced good news!

An imprint of HarperCollins, Angry Robot, would be publishing the books for the US/UK markets!  First in the UK, then in the US, but that's okay.  I would get to read them without losing a kidney!!  Excitedly I waited, and waited and waited.  I made a special countdown calendar for the US release and a mini one for the UK release.  I received the arc for the first book (after months of campaigning, politely), White Tiger, read it in under half a day and .  I had all 3 books on order from Amazon, with back-up orders on Book Depository.  There was no way my plan could fail!

Except at some point my pre-orders were canceled (Amazon has a nasty habit of canceling my pre-orders without telling me.) and I was left without a clue.  Until an e-mail from Angry Robot a few days ago detailed their leave-taking from HarperCollins to move to Osprey House (read press release here).  Oh but they weren't taking Kylie with them.  But there was slight hope!   back that Voyager UK was getting the rights.  And then sadly my lovely friend Tez ruined all my hopes with a tweet to the blog link from Kylie about the fact there was no current plans for US release.  Well they will hopefully be published by Voyager UK, though if they are like their cousins in the AUS branch, I shan't be disappointed.

On the bright side this means if they are published in the UK I can then order them from Book Depository.  Which I'm forever grateful for towards.  On the darker side, Kylie's fourth book about Emma and Co. was recently released in Aussieland--with book 5 well on its way to publication and book 6 being there as well.  I really want these books.  Yes, its partly obsession at this point, but I want to know what happens to Emma. I want to know what happens with Mr. Chen.  And Bai Hui.  And everything else.  I am usually such a patient person, but I was so excited...

Do you have any books like that?  Foreign books you have waited and waited to be published in America, or if you're not from America, books from America you wish were published locally for your benefit?  Books that you wish were translated?

Monday, April 19, 2010

Discussion Post: Strange Fate (L.J. Smith)


The Strange Publication Journey 
of Night World's 
Final Book Strange Fate

Back in the mid to late 90's a book series called "Night World" was released by young adult paranormal author L.J. Smith.  The basic premise of the books was this: a separate supernatural society exists beside our own mundane one called Night World.  They're governed by fairly strict laws, populated by every supernatural creature you can think (shapeshifters, werewolves, vampires, witches...) and have some strict rules about letting humans know about the Night World.  Or falling in love with one.  Especially being soul mates with one.

A recurring theme throughout the 9 published novels is a Nightworlder falling in love with a human.  The only exception I can think of, would be the last published book Witchlight when its two Nightworlders falling in love, but by doing so its breaking a potentially strong alliance.  The other central arc was that a huge Apocalyptic battle was on its way at the turn of the new century (2000) and the fact so many Nightworlders were finding human soul mates was kind of a precursor to that event.  Check out the Wikipedia Article for some detailed breakdowns of the books (its actually a fairly decent resource).

This big climatic battle is foreshadowed, discussed, and prepared for all throughout the series as the 'Four Wild Powers' (of the Blind Maiden's vision...) are sought out and recruited by one side or the other.  Fans of the series eagerly await the last book, Strange Fate, which is due out in 1998.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And then we took to the internets.  Though not updated since 2002 here's a brief publication journey of the book from Nightworld.net.

Fans of the series eagerly anticipated the publication of this book.  We encouraged people to buy the out of print books and then get more attention to the series.  We understood and were sympathetic when L.J. told us about the death in her family and her own illness.  When the re-prints of the novels (as 3 book omnibuses) began coming out, and the Ultimate Fan Guide was announced we got very very encouraged.  Then a release date, coverart and a trailer were put out for Strange Fate and we excitedly pre-ordered the book, began feverish discussions with new fans of the series and talked endlessly about what we hoped would be in this anticipated final book of a beloved series.  With an excerpt in the back of the reprint omnibuses, hopes only soared higher.

And then the unthinkable happens.  Many of us went to Amazon to check on when Strange Fate would be shipped (or whatever reason) and found it no longer able to purchase.  The page had a 'sign up to be notified' button and it was virtually impossible to find it unless you had a direct link (this is still more or less true).  Speculation began again.  Worried murmurs sprang up as we tried to find info of some sort.  Nothing from Simon and Schuster (the publisher) and then a short blurb on LJ's blog on April 5th popped up:
"This is just a test of my blog, which I've never been able to get to so easily before...an obvious herald of disaster. If anyone wants to know what I've been doing I'll put it in a new blog posting . . . if this works . . . if I can get back. In case not: Forbidden Game comes out in June. After that, a new Vampire Diaries trilogy . . . And finally, finally then Strange Fate. I'm doing triffic, except that I have to write too much every day. A little less would be perfect. But who has perfect?"

Fans....recoiled.  Strongly.  Check out the ongoing .  The Twilight Tales article here.  The Goodreads Discussion Here.  Thread from 2005 to now on SFFWorld.  Some discussions on S&S's official page for Night World  or here in the Forums proper. Some fun over at LJ Smith's . Even more fun is the official Status thread on the LJSmith forum site Devil's Playground.  I'd actually suggested checking out the entire forum for fun.

The Facts, as far as I can tell are these:
  • The book was originally pushed back due to her mother's death (causing writer's block and emotional pain) and LJ's own illness.
  • A dispute occurred either between Smith and her editor, or Smith and her publisher, or some weird triangle of the three, pre-empting the book from being published even longer.
  • Until as late as early March a pre-order link was avail on Amazon (as well as other online sites) indicating you could still pre-order the book (for release April 26th, 2010).  It disappeared somewhere in Mid-March, but the audiobook link remained.  A new release date was discussed (winter 2010) briefly, before it was put out there (also on Amazon) the book wouldn't be released until April 2011.
  • Smith is producing a new prequel trilogy for The Vampire Diaries called 'Stefan's Diaries' before focusing on Strange Fate.  Also a new reprint of the (almost 2 decades old) Forbidden Game books is being released.
  • Fans have been waiting over a decade now for this book.
Rumors, I can't substantiate yet:
  • An amazon poster went to ALA last year and approached S&S about Strange Fate and was told that Smith hadn't turned in the manuscript.  This would correspond with other accountings that Smith hasn't finished the book (or possibly even started it?) and keeps pushing it farther and farther back.
  • Smith wants more money
  • Smith won't make changes to the book her (maybe new) editor is requesting
  • Smith is being pressured by Harper (the published of the Vampire Diaries books) to produce more VD books, so she wants to focus on that cashcow stream of thought while its still popular
I e-mailed S&S myself, but haven't heard back yet.  If nothing comes of it, I plan on asking during BookExpo.

Anyone have any other insights I might have missed?  I haven't seen any blog posts about the topic, so I'm honestly not sure how big a deal this is...

((all cover images taken from The LJ Smith Cover Resource.  Copyright belongs to the publishers))

Monday, March 1, 2010

Discussion Post: Jane Austen

Partially this topic came to mind because of the recent Masterpiece Classic airing of Emma, the newly produced version not written by the master of period pieces Andrew Davies.  That's right, the newest version of Emma was not written by him.  And did well.

There was a time when that thought never would have passed my lips (I'm a total Davies fangirl).

Regardless my favorite Jane Austen book has always been Northanger Abbey with Mansfield Park coming in a close second.  Indeed they are the only two Austen books I own as individual volumes separate from the large tome of all her works.  I haven't always been an Austen fan, I'm really a recent convert only going on my 3rd year of interest.

Unlike most schools Austen was not a required reading, at any level, in English class.  Somehow or other the teachers always found an excuse not to make us read it, and not being big on 'old stuff' I didn't look them up on my own.  Then I was introduced to the lovely, gorgeous and otherwise devastatingly handsome man named J.J. Feild and I had to see all his works.  Oddly you can thank Agatha Christie and David Suchet for that little bit--I saw Death on the Nile starring J.J. and fell head over heels.

So when Masterpiece began putting out the 'new' versions of practically all of her works (except Pride and Prejudice and Emma) I eagerly watched them.  Northanger Abbey was my favorite while Billie Piper's Mansfield Park horrified me to a lowering degree.  I like Frances O'Connor's version (with Johnny Lee Miller).  I liked that version of Fanny (since its a universally acknowledged truth that a screenwriter in want of making a profit off of Mansfield Park has to liven up Fanny Price's character).  I did not like Billie Piper's.  Actually I didn't like any of the cast.  Plus the O'Connor version had James Purefoy in it--you can't go wrong with him in period garb. 

The new versions were of Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey.  There were no plans for Pride and Prejudice since let's face it you can't do better then either the Colin Firth or Keira Knightley versions and for some reason Emma was not made either.  Having not enjoyed the Paltrow version of Emma I wasn't inclined to being upset by this omission honestly.

Then of course we have all the sequels, prequels, re-imaginings, paranormal shadowed books.  From the atrocious Pemberly by Emma Tennant to the new Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford there are dozens upon dozens of 'new material' for the diehard fans.  The Republic of Pemberly has a lovely collection, with reviews and links, as does Pemberly.com(this has a lot of out-of-print, really old ones with discussion groups of high activity as well).

This isn't even getting into the discussion books, scholarly works, essays, tributes and songs...

So there's definitely something about this lady that has her as adapted in form as Shakespeare by society.

My questions to you:

  1. Which of her works have you read?  Which did you enjoy the most/least?
  2. Are you a sequels fan? Or a fan of these new paranormal Austen re-writes?
  3. Tell the truth--Colin Firth in a wet shirt=hot right?  Were you one of the fans who thought it was unnecessary and out of character for the mini-series?
  4. Who would you choose as your Austen hero?  Austen heroine?  Austen enemy?
  5. Do you enjoy any of the movie/mini-series/drama versions?
Please be aware--there may be spoilers in the comments!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Discussion Post: And Then There Were None

As part of the I'm re-reading several books that I read while I was in school.  Typically I didn't enjoy the books chosen for Summer Reading for my English classes.  I can think of many I read because I had to and never want to go near again (The Scarlet Letter or The Pigman for instance).  The handful that I enjoyed I enjoyed a lot.

Of that handful And Then There Were None was probably the very favorite.  I grew up with Agatha Christie--my paternal Grandmother adored her mysteries, my father loved a bunch of the films and my Uncle loved Hercule Poirot.  Despite this I had never read a Christie before 11th grade.  The task seemed slightly daunting in fact.

Then my 11th Grade English teacher (Mr. Bunce), who I adored as a teacher, assigned that book and I was left kind wondering if I dared to go near it.  Mr. Bunce did things differently, he told us flat out that we could watch the movie version (or versions) instead of reading the book, but on the first day of English class we would get a pop quiz.  If those of us who watched the movie instead of reading the book got a perfect 100--everybody got A's.  If not, we had to read the book.

I read the book, because I couldn't not after being told I didn't have to, but my dad said we should see the movies too.  We saw 3 different versions: the 1945 version, the 1965 version and the 1989 version.  You know what all three had in common--aside from the story and various character traits?  The ending.  Ever since the 1943 stage production of the novel (published in 1939 originally) every single movie has followed the same ending.  Except its completely opposite of the book ending!

My father, who had never read the book only seen the movies, didn't even know this. So when the movie ending played I turned to him and asked "But that's not how the book goes!" and my dad said "Artistic license is sometimes used..." to which I added, "But the ending is completely, 100% DIFFERENT."  We didn't know back then that Christie had changed the ending int he stage production, or that all the movies followed that ending, not the book ending, because it made for better relating with the audience.

So here comes the first day of English class and Mr. Bunce hands us the Quiz.  The only question on it is: Who lived at the end of the story?  As you can guess those who watched the movies said one thing, those who read the book said another.  The numbers were evenly split also, but Mr. Bunce told those who watched the movie to read the book and find out the truth. 

So here are my questions to you:

  1. Have you read the book?
  2. Seen any version of the novel (movie, tv theatre)?
  3. Which ending do you prefer?
  4. What do you think of the various titles? ( And Then There Were None, Ten Little Indians and the original title: Ten Little Niggers)
  5. If you are a Christie fan--does it stand up next to Hercule Poirot and Marple?  

Please be aware that spoilers may be in comments!
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