City of Glass
It seems even though this is my second time reading this book (my second time through the series as I prep to read the final volume!), I didn’t write proper reviews for each one.
I addressed the series, made references to Cassandra Clare’s work in many of my reviews, but City of Glass never got a review all it’s own.
So here it goes:
Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: Young Adult/ Teen/ Fantasy
Length: 541 pages
The book cover finally features a boy *with* his shirt on. However, the cover still annoys me. I suppose I’ll never get over how embarrassing they are. I’ve never preferred having actual people on the front covers of the books I read, unless of course they’re in some sort of Victorian garb. For some reason a person on the cover never truly embodies the mood of a story the way I want it to. I prefer buildings, scenery, landscapes, or the hint of a person.
For instance…
That’s a cover I don’t mind flashing the masses, a train full of people, other moms at a public park, or I don’t know – MY KID.
Who am I kidding? In the U.S. the cover up top is the only one that is going to move copies of the book. I’m an odd duck. I know that.
Regardless of all that – I still adore these books. Brain candy, teen flick, romance nonsense and all. I just love them.
I love the book references, the intelligent quotes, the very teen appropriate quips. I love that Jace (Jonathan) Wayland/Morgenstern/Herondale/whoever reminds me so very much of my own Jonathan at that age. Clare has cocky teenage boy dialog down to an art. Jace’s cockiness rings true and familiar, the knowledge that he is attractive and desired, edged with angst anyway.
I remember those conversations. I remember the beautiful, desired boy flirting with me – the short, somewhat tomboyish and frumpy nerd who was always a little out of place. Granted, I never got Luke & Leia -ed like Clary and Jace did. But I think what makes these books so marvelous is despite the fantasy, despite the action and apocalyptic level of drama, despite the paranormal parts that drip into every aspect of the story – there’s something familiar for everyone in these stories. Especially City of Glass, and the ever burning question so many romances have: If it’s not forbidden will he/she still want me?
This time around I re-read the first book, City of Bones, after seeing the movie. The library didn’t have the second book, City of Ashes, on hand so I just skipped it and went onto City of Glass. By doing this, I was brought to a whole new level of appreciation for the series, Cassandra Clare, and each book individually.
Even though I jumped in having skipped the second book – I wasn’t lost. Although the second book is pivotal to an epic saga of the Nephilim, I didn’t feel out of sorts by not having read it. Clare does such an excellent job of having each book stand on it’s own even though it’s merely a puzzle piece in a giant story. I love that.
I know it’s the thousandth time I’ve said this, and I shall say it a thousand times more – Well done, Cassandra Clare, Well done.
Do I feel bad about re-reading young adult titles over and over again and the age of thirty? No, not anymore.
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”- C.S. Lewis
Love Letter to Literature
Title:The Book of Secrets
Author:Elizabeth Joy Arnold
Publisher: Bantam Books
Genre: Fiction/ Literature/ Books About Books
Length: 450 pages
I checked this book out from the library, but this is not a library book. This is a book you need three copies of – a hardback first edition signed by the author, a copy for reading and scribbling notes in the margins, and a copy to loan to your friends. I’m devastated that I’ll be shoving it through a book drop later this afternoon, it will leave my hands and slide down a shoot to be re-cataloged and re-shelved. When all I really want to do is sleep with it under my pillow.
I was up all night reading. Not all night, but well passed my thirty year old motherhood appropriate bedtime.
Part One was titled Chronicles of Narnia, Part Two: Where the Wild Things Are, and so on – each section of the book titled and designed to reflect story that tied ever so gracefully into a famous book title. The whole book is not just a riveting story, it is a love letter to literature.
If you are a Kate Morton fan, the architecture of this book will be right up your alley. It’s beautifully done, marvelously written, and simultaneously raw and eloquent. It may even be better than anything Kate Morton wrote, and saying that feels like blasphemy because I adore her and own all her books.
There were so many gorgeous quotes I wanted to underline, and now I don’t know where they were in the book, because it was a library copy so I couldn’t. I should have jotted them down, but I was too eager to read what would come next. The whole reading experience was captivating and surreal.
“I thought it was a dream,” Thomas said. We were sitting in the library…
A Tea Shop Mystery
Title: Death by Darjeeling
Author: Laura Childs
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery (Penguin)
Length: 242 pages
The best thing about cozy mysteries is generally not the mystery, but the cozy. The whole point of reading them is to sink luxuriously into a world of soothing smells and comforting sensations.
I find myself completely suckered by any paperback with the familiar palm labeled “Berkley Prime Crime Mystery,” knowing full well I’ll be in for a delightful dive into a two hundred page world. Usually part of fun serials, Berkley corners the market on the cozy mystery genre with this logo.
Laura Childs pulls the cozy serial off beautifully with her Indigo Tea Shop run by one Theodosia Browning. Such a delightful name! When I read or hear it I immediately think of Theodosia Burr Alston. Childs doesn’t stop there, though, the Indigo Tea Shop also features a dog named Earl Grey!
Tea preparation tips, recipes, and delightful garden descriptions will have you wishing you lived in South Carolina amidst a caddy historical society sampling tea blends.
For a more thorough review and a Darjeeling Cashew Cream Cheese recipe, click the photo I borrowed from the Kahakai Kitchen. It will take you to their blog.
The Keeping Quilt
Little girl got soap in her eye in the bath tub tonight. It was awful. There was banshee-like screaming, bright red faces from all involved, and a lot of tears. Her daddy, the man with the magic hands, was able to pat her back long enough to soothe her into a half slumber after we got the eye rinsed out and pajamas donned. Just as we headed out of the room, though, a little voice piped up from beyond the darkness, “But you didn’t read me my bedtime story.”
So snuggled under her own quilt, I whispered to her the story of Patricia Polacco’s family –
Title: The Keeping Quilt
Author: Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
The Keeping Quilt is a beautifully illustrated family history that spans six generations. From the first immigrants of a family coming to America, through the making of a family quilt from the few cherished possessions they have from the mother country, through weddings, births, and old age, The Keeping Quilt tells a story of many lives united by love and history.
This book doesn’t just belong in every child’s library, but every quilt lover’s library as well. As we were reading, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Rich Fabric edited by Melinda McGuire and all the beautiful family histories captured in that volume as well.
I’m so glad I stumbled across this book today at the bookstore, honored to have been given the opportunity to step into Polacco’s family for the evening, and amazed at how perfectly soothing it was for a child who was emotionally and physically exhausted after a battle with a bar of soap.
Jane Austen Themes Soothe My Heart
Title: Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
Author: Beth Pattillo
Genre: Fiction/ Chick-Lit
Publisher: Guideposts
Length: 268 pages
This book is adorable. There’s a lot of reviews on Amazon regarding it that I don’t understand because it seems people went into it expecting far more quality literature references and less cheesy romance – but I specifically picked it up because my brain hurt and I wanted to not think. If you want to shut yourself off from life for two or three hours, this book is perfect.
Claire is invited to read her sister’s paper at a Austen fan club in Oxford. Once she gets there, however, she finds herself infatuated with a fellow seminar member like a silly school girl. Claire embraces a teen girl mentality for a brief few days away from home – appropriate for her character since she never really got to be a silly teen because her parents died in an accident and she had to raise her kid sister.
If you were a silly teen once, however, the idea that a grown woman would be so ridiculous is a little irritating. Of course, there’s plenty of Jane Austen interludes to distract you from that irritation, and Pattillo’s version of what First Impressions might have been is fun.
This is not the best Jane Austen spin off or tie in. Follies Past by far takes the cake on the genre. But it’s good fun, light-hearted, and makes for a great right before bed or bubble bath read.
Meet Tom Sechrist
1. Describe your book and its inception. What made you decide to write this?
“The Stones of Andarus” is the first book in The Devenshire Chronicles series. It introduces us to the main characters and sets up the premise for the rest of the series. A demented Master Mage named Xavier annihilates a village in order to obtain the Stones of Andarus, which legends claim contain a fragment of the power of creation mixed with the twisted essence of a crazed sorcerer named Andarus. Daimion Devenshire realizes what is at stake and sets off on a desperate quest to stop Xavier from unleashing the unholy power of these three ancient artifacts. Joining him on this adventure are a group of unlikely heroes including The Lady Brianna Standish, governing lord of Prothtow Province, Shantira Dubris, sole survivor of Xavier’s attack on her village, Raven Darkseed, rouge adept of the Mystical Arts and Zandorth Krahl, Warrior of the Ancient Class.
What made me decide to write this was a desire to write in a genre I had never tried before. Prior to “The Stones of Andarus”, I had writt
en manuscripts in multiple genres including westerns, science fiction, and detective/thrillers. I had always enjoyed a good Fantasy story and one day in 1998 I decided to try my hand at it. Little did I know that I was setting out on a story that would dominate and consume me for over a decade.
2. What were your influences? Is there anyone from your genre you especially admire?
My biggest influence when it comes to writing is Ms. Joynelle Pearson. When I was 13 I had a very explosive temper. One day that temper led me to punch a brick column in my schools court yard. Needless to say I wound up in the nurses station with an ice pack on my very swollen hand (thank goodness nothing was broken). Ms. Pearson happened to walk by and saw me sitting there. She lifted the towel over the ice pack and shook her head. She looked up at me and said, “You really should get a handle on that temper of yours. Have you ever tried writing a short story about whatever it was that angered you?” That piece of advice started me down the path of becoming a writer. At first they were just really bloody and violent short stories. As time went on I found that it really did help ease my temper and I really enjoyed the writing process. Those initial short stories started being expanded with actual plot lines, character development and so forth.
My other writing influences include Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz, Louis L’Amor and, of course, Tolkien. In the Fantasy genre I really enjoy C. S. Friedman, P. N. Elrod, and George R. R. Martin.
3. Many authors are heavily influenced by their environment when they write. Where is your safe space? Do you have mood music?
I don’t really have a designated place to write. Sometimes I write at my desk, sometimes I write in my backyard, and sometimes I write in my bedroom. I would have to say that my muse decides the environment I’m going to write in.
I absolutely have to have music blaring through my headphone when I’m writing. I have a very long playlist of all types of music on my computer. Everything from rock to rap to instrumental to big band to jazz, the list is practically endless. Sometimes I’ll pull up an Epic Music track on YouTube and write to that. Like my writing environment, it seems my muse picks the music as well.
4. What do you find to be the easiest of the writing and editing process? What is the hardest for you?
The easiest is the writing of the first draft. I don’t worry about the mechanics of writing, I just write, let the ideas flow and hope my fingers can get the ideas out as fast as my mind is producing them.
Editing gets tedious after the fifth or sixth time through the manuscript, but I enjoy the process of seeing where I’ve made mistakes and how to keep myself from repeating them. I also have a very talented editor (Rogena Mitchell-Jones) who has been a tremendous help in improving my editing skills.
The hardest part of the writing process has to be starting a new book. The excitement and urge to write are so strong and yet, getting that first sentence out has always been the hardest part for me. I’ve spent hour upon hour staring at that blank screen and blinking cursor and… nothing. I have lost count of how many millions of first sentences/paragraphs that I’ve deleted trying to get that new story started.
5. Many authors participate in book signings and conventions. Artistic authors like yourself who write and create for this genre do especially well at ComicCon and Comicpalooza. Are you interested in branching out into the event world? What would your ideal celebration of The Devenshire Chronicles look like?
I would love to branch out into the event world. I think book signings, conventions and other events where I can introduce readers to the world of The Devenshire Chronicles would be ideal. The perfect celebration of The Devenshire Chronicles would feature a booth with copies of all my books for sale, all sorts of book swag, portraits I’ve created of all the characters and a monitor set up playing the book trailers and other videos I’ve created for the series. I would be there signing copies of the books and talking with people about the books, writing and other creative processes. It would be great.
6. Did you learn anything about yourself or the world you live in by writing this book (that isn’t included in the book itself)?
Over the 16 years that I’ve been involved in The Devenshire Chronicles, namely The Stones of Andarus, I’ve watched myself grow as a writer and a person. I go back to the original first draft of Book 1 and I almost cringe at how bad the writing was. At the time I thought it was the best piece of literature ever produced, but looking back on it now, I can see how much I’ve grown. My wife has read both versions and she has made the observation that I’ve seasoned as a writer and a person since I began this story. As I have grown, I can see how the main characters of the story have grown as well. I have learned that while my skill as a writer has improved tremendously over the past decade, I still have much more to learn and that there is always room for improvement.
7. How have your friends and family reacted to your content?
My friends and family have been tremendously supportive of my writing. I have to temper their praise with the fact that they are my friends and family, but it’s good to have that kind of support.
One of my friends is hooked on the series and is always asking me when the next book is coming out and that I need to hurry up. She says she actually misses the main characters in between books and can’t wait for the next one.
My wife, Renee, is, without a doubt, my staunchest supporter and the primary reason Book 1 was ever published. When I met her three years ago I had given up on ever publishing The Devenshire Chronicles. She read part of “The Stones of Andarus” and encouraged me to keep writing. She has become my sounding board for story ideas and keeps me on track when I get discouraged or distracted.
8. What are your future writing plans? Do you have other books in the works?
I am currently working on Book 3 of The Devenshire Chronicles entitled, “The Amulet of Talmara”. I’m hoping to have it released later this year. I also have ideas for a pirate novel, a science fiction novel, a western, a post-apocalyptic novel and another Fantasy novel as well.
9. Tell me about your art ventures.
After I had released “The Stones of Andarus” I wanted a book trailer to go along with it. I had watched several book trailers and started playing around with a movie making program. I produced a crude trailer but I was never completely satisfied with it. I needed/wanted characterizations of the characters in the book and I didn’t want to use someone else’s artwork or photographs. I saw the trailer for “Sanctum of Souls”, a work in progress by Bex Pavia who is a friend of mine. She had 3D representations of her characters and I was blown away by that. I asked her how she made the characters and she introduced me to a 3D graphics program.
Over the next couple of months I played with the program, watched tutorials and experimented until I was finally able to produce the first 3D rendering of Daimion Devenshire. That was a very powerful moment for me. I had always pictured Daimion in my mind, but to actually “see” him was incredible. Once I had 3D portraits of all the main characters I started revamping my book trailer and found that I absolutely love doing that sort of creative work, almost as much as I love writing.
Since then I have gone on to produce a book trailer for Book 2 “Predator & Prey” and have gone back and replaced the text-on-screen in both trailers with my own voice over work.
I have also produced a video which is a remake of the original “Hawaii 5-0” intro. In the remake I call it “Prothtow 5-0” (Prothtow is a province in the books) and I use the characters from the book as its “stars”. I did it for pure entertainment value and the fact that I so enjoy making these videos.
I have found it’s a good outlet for me when I have a particularly bad case of writers’ block.
10. If there was one thing you’d want fans to know about you, what would it be?
I don’t write these books to become rich and famous (though I won’t deny the more pleasant aspects of that thought). I write these books because I want to touch people the way I’ve been touched through someone’s writing. I pour everything I have into these stories so that maybe, just maybe, someone will read them and feel like we have some sort of connection. I want people to read my work and feel like we had one hell of a good time together and it leaves them with some very warm and fond memories.
The Stones of Andarus (Kindle/ paperback)
The Stones of Andarus on Smashwords
The Stones of Andarus book trailer
Predator & Prey book trailer
Hello GGP and the Zombie Apocalypse
Title:The Dying of the Light: End
Author: Jason Kristopher
Publisher: Grey Gecko Press
Genre: Thriller
Length: 417 pages
Last year I worked the Half Price Books booth at Comicpalooza. It was amazing and fun and I met some of the best people in the world – geeks like me who had gathered from all over the world to bask in their geeky-ness.
I’m in a little bummed out that I am not there this year, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t be back in the future. What it does mean, however, is that I am spending my weekend re-creating at home what I am missing at the G.R. Brown Convention center right now.
Last year, I was so lucky to come across Grey Gecko Press, a local publishing company who had pulled out all the stops for their authors. The booth was gorgeous, had professional banners for all the authors, hardback and paperback books on display. It didn’t look indie at all. Penguin and Tor would have been impressed, I think.
Of course, I asked them to come be a part of Half Price Books events in the Humble area. My floor space is your floor space, I basically said, and I have not regretted it one bit.
It is because of them that I have had the pleasure of reading Spindown by George Wright Padgett, a book that I thought was pretty brilliant. So brilliant, I connected him with the artist of the art company I work with, Gershom Reese Wetzel, when he said he was ready to publish his own science fiction title. We got a review copy to Padgett, and the rest is history. Padgett was the perfect person to write an editorial review for us. It’s a fascinating sub-genre they share.
Now, finally, one year later, I’m digging my teeth into Jason Kristopher’s work – The Dying of the Light series.
I don’t generally read or watch a lot of zombie material. When everyone was on that craze, I was not. But I do love a good zombie story. Usually when in the mood I go on a Resident Evil binge. One of my all time favorite movies (top twenty anyway) is 28 Days Later, the first time I saw it I was impressed by the cinematography and the choice in music made me cry it was so lovely.
I chuckled and snickered all the way through reading Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and just recently I was introduced to the movie Warm Bodies and absolutely loved it.
So even though the zombie craze isn’t entirely my thing – I’m not ignorant of the genre and I do enjoy it. I existed in the house when my husband was watching The Walking Dead, he watched too many episodes without me to follow the whole show, but now reading The Dying of the Light I feel like I got the better end of the stick.
Kristopher’s work is both an easy breezy read as well as an involved and intricate apocalypse novel. Current events are tied into the possibilities – which is always the best way to build a dystopian or apocalyptic world, in my opinion. The characters are real, the main one appropriately both strong and sappy. (Without a little bit of nostalgia and romance, what in God’s name would anyone want to save?)
Of course, that’s always the best part of an end of the world story – it’s why millions have fallen in love with Doctor Who. Any fight to the death for a whole world must involve a story of humanity and what it means to be human. Jason Kristopher pulls this off well, without overwhelming the casual reader with too much intensity.
After reading several books lately that involve a lot of plodding and lengthy prologues (from biographies to novels), Jason Kristopher’s opening sentence “I didn’t see Rebecca die the second time” was just the clincher I needed to jump into a refreshingly fast paced story.
I’m looking forward to Interval, the next book in the series.
Also Known As The Sechrist Chronicles
Title: The Devenshire Chronicles: The Stones of Andarus
Author:Tom Sechrist
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
I’ve been reading this book for some time now – The Devenshire Chronicles by Tom Sechrist. Book One: The Stones of Andarus to be precise. I’ve been reading it 5 pages at a time or so for weeks.
Pick it up here and pick my way through some bits of story, pick it up there and hide away in another world from my own life. My own life hasn’t been going exactly as planned and sometimes I need a break from watching plans go sideways.
Every time I bury my head in his fiction, I dive in knowing a review awaits me at the other end and I’ve been trying to decide what to say about it – how to say what I’m thinking.
I’m thinking it would make the most fascinating meta-fiction television mini-series. One in which we are introduced to our characters and the story by Tom Sechrist himself. And during that introduction we flash back and forth between the story Sechrist is telling and the story he is living. Remember The Princess Bride?
Yes, like that, except Sechrist isn’t that kind of funny.
Instead, Sechrist writes a rich high fantasy tale somewhere between Tolkien and Rothfuss. He’s old timey language and lengthy descriptions. He’s lords and ladies, warriors and… vampires.
And in it all, there’s a note from the author at the end about important dates in his life. This note reminds you of what you already know when you’re reading about Daimion Devenshire’s adventures: The Devenshire Chronicles are Sechrist’s magnum opus. He has poured his heart and soul into every word… and just as every quest has many footsteps, the telling has as many words.
The Crows of Pearblossom
A Weekly Low Down on Kids Books
Title: The Crows of Pearblossom
Author: Aldous Huxley
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
I first bought this picture book simply because I wanted to raise my child to be literary and it was written by ALdous Huxley. Naturally, a literary child should be raised on the works of Huxley, naturally.
The first time I read it to kiddo, I remember being a little creeped out. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I had mommy hormones and it took the mother crow at least 297 missing eggs before she got upset about her lost babies. Maybe because father crow didn’t swoop down and kill the rattlesnake right away. To be honest, I have no idea, but I do know my kid must have picked up on whatever I was feeling and furrowed her little brow.
Nevertheless, we read it all the time now. It makes its emergence in the spring and summer and gets tucked back into the shelf during the fall and winter unless we’re on a bird or snake kick. It’s not that the book itself is set in any particular season, the illustrations are just sort of sunny and Owl doesn’t wear shirts, so of course it must be somewhat warm out.
I adore Sophie Blackall. I know I say this about a lot of authors and artists and people and things in general – but there just is no limit to how much a person can love and adore things. That’s the marvelous thing about love and adoration, it is limitless and unending.
Obviously, her artwork is fantastic. In addition to that, I think her ‘about the illustrator’ blurb in the dust jacket of the picture book is too adorable:
Sophie Blackall is the illustrator of Ruby’s Wish, the Ivy & Bean series, and many other picture books. Her father once arrived at a party as Aldous Huxley was leaving. They may or may not have crossed paths in the vestibule. She lives with her delightful children, an ambivalent cat, and several presumptuous squirrels in Brookly, New York.
Can someone please write something equally adorable for my author blurbs? I never seem to know what to say for them. Me – who writes endlessly and speaks just as often – has nothing to say. Not in any concise and witty manner, anyway.
Back to Huxley, he apparently wrote The Crows of Pearblossom for his niece in 1944. It wasn’t published until 1967 with Barbara Cooney as illustrator.
That edition looked like this and is now out of print:
Which means, if you see it laying around somewhere in a clearance rack or heap bin – snatch it up! It should not be cast aside. It isn’t necessarily worth a whole lot, you can find copies on abebooks.com for $2 – $10, but out of print is out of print and you never know when you might be holding the last clean copy. I like Sophie Blackall’s illustrations better, but the original work should be salvaged.
Have Child, Plant a Tree, Write a Book
“Then it came to me: Zola had said: ‘To have a child, to plant a tree, to write a book.’ That, he said, was a full life!” – Betty Smith
What I love about being a book reviewer is the constant discovery of new things. Picking up books I may have never had the opportunity to read, and learning from those books – not how to write better necessarily, but – what kind of writer I want to be.
Book reviewing has also required me to read things more closely, not just the way I would for school, but in a more personal way as well. It’s not just about finding the literary value, it’s not just about liking or not liking, it becomes more and more important to be able to people and my readers why I loved a book. What moved me to passion? What is so relevant about this story to my own life? In doing that, it makes me dig deeper into myself, deeper into my library, and deeper into the art of research.
I’ve slacked off the last few weeks about publishing a literary journal post, but I haven’t stopped reading the literary journals. I meant to write this yesterday, it’s been dancing around in my head the last few weeks as I’ve alternated between picking my way through McSweeney’s issue 18 and researching to see if anything was written about Betty Smith. I’ve been scouring the internet for evidence of things written about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, or perhaps a long buried article or story she may have had published before infamy. I didn’t know a lot about her, so it’s been an educational endeavor.
I started with what was available in the back of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition that I read the book from. The little extras this edition provides are wonderful, including the first piece Smith ever published: a bit of prose called “Winter” when she was 8 years old and still in grade school, under the name Elizabeth Wehner.
I enjoyed reading the article from This Week that she wrote called “Fall in Love With Life.” It’s a beautiful glimpse into her mind and life and what led her to know that she had had a full and marvelous life. It was refreshing to read, after feeling like a failure on most days, knowing I’ve had a child, planted a tree, and written book, changed my outlook on my life at 30.
Of course, the research continued and in my searching I found this: http://web.njit.edu/~cjohnson/tree/context/context.htm
I also found this and am pretty disappointed that I can’t find a copy of “On Discovering Thomas Hardy” anywhere: http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Smith,Betty.html
If anyone knows of any publications or articles written on or by Betty Smith, please share. I’d like to discover them too.
Anakalian Whims 