Book BINGE

Oh my word,  it's been a while. I can feel how long with every fiber of my being. I haven't had a book binge like this in YEARS. And, while I intend to go into it in greater detail (or rather, the books in greater detail), I am still reveling in the feel of FINALLY having gone through some books in the way that I was MEANT to. In the way some people reserve for punishment, chocolate, and bad TV, I am a glutton when it comes to books.

See, I've always been a voracious reader. Once upon a time, I would go to the library and take out as many books as they'd let me (anywhere between three and ten) and have them back in the next day or so. Limits to the books to bring home were especially cruel when I was visiting my dad because library visits were few and far between, sometimes once a summer. So, I'd read the whole stack several times before it got returned. And pretty much anything else I could find -- newspapers, medical journals, textbooks from my dad's premed years (mmm... nothing says "breakfast" like looking at abnormal spleens).

But, I haven't visited the library -- or my dad's house -- in years.

Time gets in the way for everyone, and for me, something else slipped in there. A lethargic sort of apathy, which was not helped, I'm afraid by my choice of reading. See, sometime recently, I got it into my head that I would go back and read a pile of books I didn't remember having read and couldn't remember what I wanted to do with them. Because, that's the thing. Generally, if I read a book, I remember what it was about, even vaguely. There will be a plot point or a character or a situation that stood out, even in those books I was "meh" about. If I really liked it or really hated it, I'll have even more vivid recall.

But this pile, I couldn't remember zilch. So, I've been trying to bang through them. I keep them in the bathroom, by the bed just so I have them there to work through. And for the most part, they're all pretty boring romances that are taking me FOREVER to get through. And perhaps that's part of why I don't remember. They didn't have enough connection for me between the characters, or they pushed a connection that didn't feel like it should be there (and repeated for good measure that it existed). Some have been about inappropriate relationships. But, none of this I could remember... except in a few. One of the last ones before the book binge, I'd gotten three pages in and remembered "oh yeah, the mother did it. I don't remember how the rest of it goes, but the mother was the murderer" (I generally like cross genre stuff, especially if I'm reading a romance. If you can't keep a plotline going... you lose my attention, regardless of how hot or frequent sex scenes might be. I want a story, People.). Got to the end and sure enough, Mom was the murder. Still going in the bye-bye-box, though. I just don't have enough love or enough space for it.

On the other hand, though, once through, I decided to switch gears and go with a series Genn has been trying to get me on for YEARS. Holy Moses. I have been through five books (sort of the first books) in less than five days. The series is huge. And while I haven't bought the rest of them yet, I've let the momentum carry me and I'm now half way through another book (as of last night). Completely different genre, completely different author, but I am FLYING through. And trust me, I'll write something up about these books soon. For now, I'm just reveling in it.

It feels like coming home to myself for the first time in a long time.

Hopefully, I can keep this going. And I think I'll be able to if I don't dip back in to the "should I keep these" pile....

Hopefully.

What's kicked you out of a slump?

What I've Been Reading - The Old Book Pile

I'm back into the old book pile and I'm still super surprised at how little I remember some of these books I've been rereading. I'm almost wondering if I read them at all. Which is strange because I'm usually pretty good on read-recall. I'm not going to name names, though. Mostly because the books in question of the last couple of weeks have been both out-of-print and (embarrassingly) god-awful romance novels that I've been hanging on to for I can't remember how long.

For some of these books, I don't even know why I've been holding on to them. Even though I love a well written book, several of these are not. And like an earlier complaint of mine the relationships kind of suck. I don't see the attraction between our protagonists at all and/or some of these people are just plain ridiculous.

It doesn't help that some of the plot lines seem to go along the lines of this:

Actually, that may have been why I saved them all these years. It would have been lovely, right? ;) I've had most of these for about that long. I'm still weeding through them, mostly because I figure I need to decide if I'll ever read this popcorn again. Especially since I have books that I've read both more recently and had for a really long time that inspire me to feel like this:

I suppose I just can't figure out why I can't remember these books as well as some others. (Including that high fantasy book I disliked in high school that got me banned from a friend's house because I gave it to him and warned him that there were some parts his parents wouldn't like and I wasn't particularly interested in having just lying around my house -- not that I recommended the book at all, just that if he wanted it, it was all his. I'm just glad my sisters and brother never read it -- there's just something about a woman getting flayed alive, leaving nothing but her face recognizable and vividly described that just struck me as something I didn't want my sibs to get their hands on.....)

Maybe it's because they're fast reading? I don't know. I'd get rid of the lot, except that I know there must be some reason I've been hanging on to some of them forever.

I dunno. Does anyone else have the same issue?

What I'm Reading: Heart-Shaped Bruise

Remember when I was all like, 'Hey, I'm totally going to read these 8 books before the 1st September!". You know, like two weeks ago. Well, here is your first (of many, I hope) progress reports.

I finally finished A Feast for Crows on Monday. After a frantic tweeting session with one of my friends, I've decided to have a break from Westeros for a little while. Actually, I didn't so much decide it, as I opened up the fifth book and as the prologue starts with a new character set the book down. If ever there was a sign to take a break, that was it.

So, what to read next?

I quickly grabbed my copy of Heart-Shaped Bruise and settled in for a fantastic, if frantic, page-turning read. Heart-Shaped Bruise is the story of Emily Koll, an inmate at Archway Young Offenders Institution who has been put away for a heinous crime. A crime so terrible that she's been dubbed 'evil' by the press. But, its also a crime that the reader doesn't know about. I'm 50 pages from the end and the big 'henious crime' reveal hasn't happened yet. I have to keep myself from flipping ahead to find out what it is. The tension in the book is great. You spend most of your time almost siding with Emily and then remembering she's an unreliable narrator.

Who is Emily Koll? Is she a monster? It's difficult to say (and I'm nearly finished!). Emily's beloved father is sent to prison for murdering a police officer (in his own home). He was only caught because Juliet Shaw, the police officer's daughter heard the commotion and stabbed him. Emily wants revenge. But not just any kind of revenge. She had no idea her father was a mobster. Juliet didn't just take her father away from her, she took away the carefully crafted lie of a life Emily had been leading.

Now, armed with a fake ID, Emily is determined to snake her way into Juliet's new life. The life Juliet has been forced to rebuild in the witness protection programme. What follows is a tense story told in diary entries that look at Emily today (locked away) and the girl Emily became (Rose Glass) in order to exact her revenge.

I can't recommend this book highly enough! I've not been able to put it down. Part fantastic thriller and part psychological study, this is a book about broken people and the terrible things they do to try to become whole again. It reminds me a lot of the fantastic Ketchup Clouds and I'm not just saying that because I worked on it in my day job! (Ketchup Clouds won the Waterstones Children's Book of the Year this Year!) Both books are told in a series of diary entries and are compelling, tense and brilliant. Both narrators are keeping dark secrets about the horrible crimes they committed and confessing to the reader the only way they can, with words on paper. Both are stories not to be missed. They will break your heart. Trust me.

Right, now to finish Heart-Shaped Bruise so that I can start another book from the pile.

Happy Reading!

What I'm Reading: A Feast for Crows

First, let's just start with the obvious. Here at Cupcakes and Karma we've got new avatars which will be accompanying all our posts. We might change these up from time to time, but the idea is to help make it a bit easier for you to see our posts and interact with us on the blog, on Twitter and on Tumblr. My avatar has a tiara. Not sure why, I was just told: 'the tiara suits you' so I've gone with that.  I'd like to say this is because I'm a benevolent princess, but it's probably because I'm high maintenance  My star earrings say I'm funky though. My hair is actually that colour red. Now, back to your regularly scheduled posts. 

Much as it pains me to admit this I was super late to the Game of Thrones book party. The thing is, my invite was't lost in the mail. Jenny has been raving about the Game of Thrones books for years. One Christmas she even gave me a copy of the book with a plea for me to start reading it as soon as I'd pulled off the wrapping paper.

But the book was so so so BIG. I know how stupid that sounds. But the book is big. My time is limited. Reading a book like A Game of Thrones could take me a month or more. I wasn't ready to give up that much time. I know how stupid that sounds. Trust me.

I packed A Game of Thrones away in my suitcase. I was determined to read it on the 8 hour flight back home to London. I never did.

Then came the HBO teaser trailer for the first season. ZOMG! I knew that I needed to read the book that had been languishing on my TBR pile for about a year (maybe more). 

I started reading it and then promptly put it down. I just couldn't get into the narrative. 

((Warning here be spoilers. Turn back now. You have been warned!!))

Then there was the first episode of the TV series. That episode! Zombies, kids going out windows, intrigue  . . . . I was hooked! I zipped through the first book in a month and carried on to read A Clash of Kings. 

Then came A Storm of Swords. I read that book in a week. I barely stopped to sleep I was so engrossed. My husband came home from work on a Friday evening to find me sobbing over my copy of A Storm of Swords. If you've read the books or seen the most recent TV series you'll know exactly what part of the book I was reading (hint: Red Wedding). He took the book away, put a bookmark in it and gently closed the cover. 'I think you need a little break from Westeros.' 

He was right, you know. I finished the book over the weekend and picked up a copy of A Feast for Crows. I got through the first 100 pages and just . . .  I was going through post Red Wedding withdrawals. My heart was a bit broken. It just wasn't in Westeros anymore.

So, I let the book fall back onto the TBR pile. Another book came along and another and another. Soon my little break was turning into two years away from Westeros. 

But every time I looked at A Feast for Crows, my heart gave a little stutter. I wasn't ready. 

On Monday morning just as I was setting out for my weekly commute I picked up my copy of A Feast for Crows. It had been a while since I'd read something solely for pleasure and that's what this was. Reading for  pleasure. I was hooked immediately and immersed back in the world of Westeros. Yeah, there are a ton of new characters. Yes, some of my favourite characters are gone. Where the hell is Tyrion and why do I have to wait an entire 800 page book to see him again? And Dany? And Jon Snow!! But those gripes aside, A Feast for Crows is fantastic, gripping and a perfect book vacation. Which is good because I seriously need a vacation and an actual holiday isn't in the cards for a while.

I fully expect to finish A Feast for Crows in the next week or two. I can't tell you how excited I am to be really immersed in the book I'm reading. It's been a while since I've read something that makes me feel like a true reader. Not a writer, not a fan, not a professional in the publishing industry, but a reader. Someone who reads books for the sheer joy of consuming a well-told story. 

I suspect I'll be onto A Dance with Dragons in the near future. I'm hoping my husband doesn't have to take the books away from me again. (No spoilers please). But, I'm certainly enjoying my time in Westeros. 

Are you reading (or watching) Game of Thrones? I'd love to know what you think. Either Tweet me @gennmcmenemy or leave a comment here on the blog. 

What I'm Reading: Um . . . . I can't really talk about it . . .

Lately, I've been catching up on my work related reading. I've been reading lots of stuff that doesn't come out yet for a while and friends' manuscripts. Because my focus has pretty much been exactly like this . . .

. .  . when not reading things for work or friends. . . I've kind of been doing what this puppy is doing. I mean, harassing your image in a mirror is kind of underrated, right? So, I'm afraid my reading post is going to be on the short side.

I can tell you about the next book I'm going to pick up as soon as I clear my reading decks. Are you ready? It's been siren calling my name for about a month now . . . In The Shadow of Blackbirds. This book looks AMAZING! And yes, I used caps, but I'm telling you I think this book deserves those caps.

In the Shadow of  Blackbirds is set in America during World War I. The Spanish Flu Epidemic is sweeping the world, causing everyone to go out in public wearing masks for fear of contracting the flu. Men are being sent to die on the front lines in Europe. Neighbors fear each other and accuse each other of being German spies. The world is ravaged by death and seances, spirit photos and other ways of contacting or understanding the great beyond become crucial for mourners seeking solace. Mary Shelly Black, our narrator, is an orphan who doesn't believe in the great beyond, seances, etc. That is until her childhood sweetheart, killed on the front lines in Europe, returns to her as a ghost.

(Seriously, do you have shivers yet?? I do!)

The feel of this book is so modern and so post-apocalyptic it's hard to believe it's historical at times. I mean that in the best possible way.  I've read the first few chapters and I was gutted to have to put this book down to pick up some other projects. But I know it's waiting for me. Taunting me. Just out of reach.

I can't wait.

What about you? Are any books siren calling your names? Let us know in the comments!

What I'm Reading: The Waste Lands (Book 3 of The Dark Tower Series) By Stephen King

So I was browsing a used bookstore’s shelves the other day, when I stumbled on a copy of The Waste Lands, which is Book 3 in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I picked it up and read it again, for the first time in years.

And I remembered. 

I remembered what it was like to be a kid under the covers, reading with a flashlight until four in the morning. I remembered what it was like to hide my book in my lap or behind a textbook so my teachers wouldn’t see I was reading in class. I remembered sitting on a busy schoolbus, completely oblivious to the chaos around me because I was engrossed in my book. The sheer joy of being completely immersed in a world that’s terrible and beautiful and that I don’t want to leave. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten. I couldn’t believe how long it had taken to find my way back.

I also remembered that I am totally in love with Roland of Gilead. You know how I was totally fascinated with JZB and all things dark-hero? Yeah…scratch that. Roland isn’t a deliberately sexy character—The Dark Tower steadfastly refused to be a romance no matter how much I wanted it to be. But Roland was sexy to me before I knew what that was. Roland is vulnerable and romantic and practical and deeply dangerous all at the same time. Roland is the kind of guy who’s a little old fashioned, but who can still roll into any situation and have everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. (Or spilling their intestines onto the floor, depending on what kind of situation it is). 

Roland is also a little bit touched in the head. He is a supremely capable character with an enormous blind spot—his obsession with the Dark Tower. It leads him to forsake his friends, his life, his kingdom—everything. But there’s something undeniably attractive about obsession (at least among fictional characters), and even that draws us in. 

Stephen King is a hit-or-miss author for me in a huge way. His misses are big. But his hits are EPIC, and this is the greatest of all of them. (At least the first three books. The last four—well, I’ll let you judge for yourself. But I have strong opinions.)

And as for me? I’m swearing off the dark-and-dangerous heroes. They’re too contrived, too caught up in their own masculinity. Instead, I’m holding out for a guy with faded blue bombardier’s eyes and a talent for the quick draw.

What I’m Reading: Dreams and Shadows

I just got back from the Old Settler’s Music Festival in Austin. And with that, I thought it would be appropriate to return to a book I read a little while ago but which is Austin-based as well: Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill.

I have to say, I love a good gritty fairy tale—where innocent childhood stories are lifted up and twisted around until you see the dark uncanny underbelly lurking underneath. And Dreams and Shadows doesn’t disappoint. We start off with what seems like a sweet love-at-first-sight story, with two kids named Jared and Tiffany who fall in love in high school, get married and have a baby named Ewan. But things go sour when Ewan gets switched at birth for a changeling named Knocks. Pretty soon both Tiffany and Jared come to unpleasant ends—and Knocks is a bitter creature, nursing a grudge against the boy whose life he stole, Ewan, who now lives as a human among fae.

There’s another young boy living a parallel life—Colby, who meets a djinn named Yashar. He wishes for Yashar to give him the ability to see all the paranormal things—and after he does this, he can never go back home. Yashar takes him on a journey, where he sees many wonderful and terrible things—and becomes something he never intended to be.

Colby, Ewan, and Knocks meet up again as young adults—on the streets of Austin and in the surrounding countryside. My favorite storyline was Colby’s; I loved his complicated relationship with Yashar, his djinn benefactor with mysterious ulterior motives.

This wasn’t a perfect book, however. To be honest, I found the storyline of Ewan and Knocks less compelling—especially after they grew to be adults. As an antagonist, I found Knocks’s motivations to be a bit baffling at times—and he felt a bit too uninterruptedly bad and angry to be compelling, with a background that was just too uniformly terrible. I felt the sense of place was a bit thin as well; there wasn’t much in Cargill’s Austin that didn’t feel interchangeable with, say, Williamsburg. At least not to me.  

Even so, I’m still fascinated by Colby’s story—and I hope I see more books that deal more with him specifically. The way the ending is set up, I felt there was plenty of room for more books featuring him—and I’ll definitely pick those up if I see them.

What I'm reading: Magical Russian Saints!

Okay, so it’s not actually about magical Russian saints, but I’m currently re-reading Shadow and Bone and am looking forward to reading the second book Siege and Storm, both by the incomparable Leigh Bardugo.

 

Shadow and Bone follows a heroine that doesn’t believe she has much heroic in her in the beginning. She knows she’s different and she doesn’t want it. Alina is madly in love with her long-time friend Mal. Both were raised as orphans and both joined the military in order to be useful to the world. But where Mal turns heads and makes her jealous (even inadvertently) through the looks he gets from the fairer sex, Alina herself hasn’t made many waves. She’s always been seen as sickly and frail. There were really only a few things that seemed to make her stand out -- her love of maps, Mal’s inexplicable attention to her, and this secret. And once the secret is out, the biggest powers in the world want her -- or want her dead.

 

She’s the Sun Summoner. The contrast to the Darkling. The one who is meant to free her people from the shadow they’ve lived under for so long. And quite possibly the most powerful magic user -- called Grisha in her world -- alive. Possibly even more than the Darkling himself.

 

It’s a great book and really well written. The world is rich and detailed, like a jeweled box or a faberge egg. The character, while potentially powerful, has been her own block for so long that between being a fish out of water, you also feel her powerlessness in a situation that she is new to. I love Alina. She dragged me along her story the first time -- and again now. She has her flaws, but I can only imagine she’ll get better with time. And the fact that the setting feels very “Russian fairytale” to me is very awesome.

 

I recommend this book with a white russian or a straight-up vodka, because the winters are long and cold in the north. It’s always good to have something to keep you warm. And if neither of those is your taste, a cup of tea. Russian Caravan, of course.

What I'm Reading - Bad Bad Romance

So, yeah, I've been working through a whole bunch of old books hoping to figure out what to keep and what to throw and I've realised that the 80s and 90s were pretty terrible for romance.

Just how awful do you ask?

Well, I'm starting to take notes on just how often in these books the following occurs:

1) How often does the hero "take charge" and "show her who's the boss" by randomly kissing her, despite the fact that they're supposed to be discussing business, whether as adversaries or as boss/employee?

1.1) How often do the hero and heroine have an unequal and therefore unhealthy dynamic between them? (I consider this a subheading because of this often being a boss/employee relationship. This is not to say that this can't work out, but when someone uses their position of power to force or coerce an awkward relationship of some kind to happen, this definitely is a doesn't work in my book.)

2) How often does the heroine "melt" or "swoon" for no apparent reason, other than his manliness? (and this doesn't necessarily include strictly bodice rippers, either.)

3) Is this about a big city ___ and a country ___?

4) How many times is __ iterated as being a "man's" or a "woman's" job?

4.1) How many times is a man called misogynist or a woman a feminist? Does one of these two not actually fit the definition, leaving you to wonder if the writer knows themselves what the word means (usually the woman)?

5) How often is lust turned into "love" by the end of the book (inexplicably)?

Oh, I'm still working up my metrics, but holy heck, I'd forgotten just how bad some of these are. And you might ask how I'd gotten so many bad romances if I'm tearing them apart now. Well, many I inherited over the years from other people, left at my house, borrowed, a few bought for a quarter at garage sales. Some bought at the used bookstore while I was still forming my understanding of male-female relationships. Some, I apparently read without getting the "romantic" element. I was HUGELY surprised recently by a reread book that I remembered some big plot points -- there was an immortal rape-y/incest-y father-cult-leader guy, reincarnation, this scarf that was supposed to bind people together -- but apparently entirely missed or forgot just how completely.... anti- each other the protagonists were. To the point that I don't understand AT ALL how the two of them ended up "falling in love." Seriously. They're not nice to each other. She suspects him of being this other person. (Someone who, by the way, neither takes no for an answer nor understands the meaning of "bad touch.") Meanwhile, he's angry at the world for an accident that had left him unable to do many of the things he used to enjoy -- like non-pity sex and sailing. And oh yeah, not constantly bleeding from a psychic curse.

I have --seriously, now -- read better fanfic. I do not remember AT ALL why I liked this book.

At this point I'm not sure what I'll do with the books when I'm done, but probably get rid of them unless they give me a huge laugh. If anyone is interested... just let me know....

What I'm Reading: Wolf Hall

I’m used to thinking of Thomas Cromwell as a villain.

Thomas Cromwell was a minister of Henry VIII’s—the one who engineered his infamous divorce with Catherine of Aragon. In that time, divorce was almost never done—and getting a divorce could get you excommunicated, putting your immortal soul in peril. Henry VIII did that and more to marry Anne Boleyn—wresting religious control away from the Pope and putting himself at the head of his own Church of England (today’s Anglican Church), all for love. Of course, we all know how that love story ends.

Anyway, what Henry did was revolutionary in the extreme for his time—a time when the threat of hellfire was very real to many people. And Cromwell was its architect—a secular advisor and lawyer who was, as Henry tells him at one point in this book, “cunning as a bag of vipers.” This is usually how Cromwell is portrayed in literature and art—as a ruthless man who didn’t care who he had to impoverish or see executed in his relentless pursuit of the King’s will. Mantel, however, sees him quite differently. And I love her for it.

Note: Spoilers be below.

Mantel’s Cromwell is a tough, ruthless man—but he is also deeply human. He tries to protect the people he loves. He works to persuade Thomas More—a prominent cardinal and important advisor of Henry’s who refused to go along with his divorce, in fear for his soul; for which he is ultimately executed—to come around to the King’s point of view in order to save his life. He has two daughters who die of the plague—a disease that in this world recurs with the regularity of Flu Season in ours—as well as a wife, whom he loves and mourns throughout the book. Even after the deaths of his daughters, his house is loud and merry with children—nieces, nephews, and people he takes in.

The language in the book is deeply poetic. Coming from the generation before Shakespeare’s time, it should be at least as dense as that—if we’re going for verisimilitude. Hilary Mantel’s solution is a seamless language that perfectly evokes the spirit of the time without being too dense or difficult to parse through—and the book is brilliant just for that.

But for me, the brilliance goes farther. I have deep respect for a writer who can look at a painting like the one in this post (come on! That guy is a villain! How can he not be a villain?)—and see someone underneath that readers deeply sympathize with, even at his most unsympathetic.

As for what I’m drinking here: brandy. It’s not easy to drink—at least not for me. But the warm, heady glow it gives is worth the burn on the way down.