Delaney Rhodes Book Signing
Yesterday, Half Price Books in Humble had the pleasure of hosting a book signing for Delaney Rhodes
About Delaney Rhodes (taken from Amazon.com): Of Irish and English descent, Romance Author Delaney Rhodes, is a native Texan from birth. She is a Graduate with Double Majors from The University of Houston; in Law and Writing. She has two teenage daughters, and is married to an entrepreneurial Husband. Three of her favorite people, are her three neurotic rescued Russian Blue cats; Sebastian, Sasha, and Sissy. Her family would not be complete without “13″, an adopted Bearded Dragon. Visit http://www.DelaneyRhodes.com.
There’s always something awesome going on at Half Price Books. Check out the location nearest you to see what’s happening: http://www.hpb.com/. Later today (June 3rd 2012) there’s a Summer Reading Kick Off Party at all HPB locations at 2:00 pm. The Humble store will have local fireman Ricky Meehan there, in his gear, to read a story to the kiddos.
A Romance to Last the Ages
Title: Dragonfly in Amber (second in The Outlander Series
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publisher: I am reading from A Dell Book, pocket papberback, published in 1992.
Length: 947 pgs
Although the book covers are a bit outdated and have been revamped and republished, The Outlander Series itself will never be outdated… will never get old. Often shelved in the romance sections for its sexual content and love story, its a little more dramatic, a little more fantasy, and has a little more historical detail than your average romance. Gabaldon has written a saga that is a “little more” no matter where you house it in your bookstore.
Where I devoured Outlander (the introductory book of the series, published in the UK as CrossStitch), Dragonfly in Amber I mosied through. I kept it on my nightstand and read 20-30 page here and there, until I finally finished it this morning over breakfast. But not because it wasn’t good.
Jamie and Claire Fraser are the kind of characters you like to let linger with you. By book two you see more of their faults and weaknesses as well as their strengths, and they are less token flat romantic leads strictly enamoured with each other. Still definitely a romance, these books are also clearly about a marriage tried by time travel, war, and witch hunts, and more. There’s a real element to them that traditional romances don’t have, the Outlander Series is all adventure but never fairy tale. Knowing there’s a whole series of nearly 1000 page books, its easy to set it down after a little bit, assured they will be there when you come back.
Of course, the moment you get to the end of one, Gabaldon has teased you with some lingering story line that makes you want to immediately start the next. I recommend having several of the series set aside before you begin so when that moment comes you aren’t left with the deep urge to leave your house and run to the nearest bookstore hoping they have the one you need in stock. Just buy them all up whenever you see them, and toss them (in order) on your TBR pile.
Like Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel, I think The Outlander Series will be a romance that lasts through the ages.
Water for Elephants: 24 Hour Fairy Tale
Title: Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: I read from the Algonquin Books, a division of Workman Publishing, movie cover edition
Length: 445 pgs.
When I first see a book, I mentally catalogue it. I see On What Grounds, Cleo Coyle, mystery by author, C’s. I see On Art and Life, John Ruskin, philosophy by philosopher, R’s. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, general fiction by author, G’s. I see Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, general fiction by author, R’s. I see Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, Amanda Foreman, History, British biographies by subject G’s.
At second glance, it becomes a more personal catalogue: bubble bath, afternoon, 24 hour, week, over time.
A bubble bath read is a Cleo Coyle Coffeehouse mystery series. Roughly 200 pages, usually purchased in paperback format, I can read it in an hour to an hour and a half. John Ruskin’s On Art and Life is part of my Penguin Great Ideas books collection, they are small, but involve a little more brain power than a fun, cozy mystery, I will spend an afternoon on one of these books. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen? I saw ladies pick this up for their book clubs, I weighed it in my hands, and thought: I’ll read that… looks like a romantic 24 hour fairy tale. You see the pattern.
Yet I waited. I impulsively buy many things when it comes to books… bubble bath reads because I read them often; Great Ideas books because I collect them; week longs because work like Carlos Ruiz Zafon is heaven to me; history and science books because I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. But 24 hour reads get brushed under the rug fairly often. They are often times catalogued as fluff I don’t have time for.
The movie came and went, the movie edition came by the hundreds. Still, I passed it up.
Finally, my best friend bought a copy during a Valentine’s Event hosted at the Half Price Books in Humble (Buy your favorite love story, get a chance to win a dinner for two at Italiano’s). Now, for a book reviewer, blogger, and aspiring novel writer, you’d think I had a best friend who reads with me. You probably envision a girl that goes and gets coffee and pours over reading material only to gab about it later with her bestie. Well, I have very close friends that I do that with, but Danielle isn’t one of them. My best friend absorbs books on her own, stews over them in her mind, and then cherishes them and tries to not breathe a word of them with another soul lest she ruin the magic of the experience. Point? She wont read with me. But I found out what book she bought at that event, and I picked up a copy of my own on clearance.
24 hours of entertainment for 25 cents – heck yeah!
Now, granted, I wasn’t reading Water for Elephants for 24 hours straight. Just between baby, husband, event planning, house cleaning, playdates, meals, emails, pampering, and dog walking, it took me 24 hours to finish it. If however, you are going on a vacation and have a chance to read it all in one sitting… I HIGHLY recommend doing so.
The New York Times Book Review calls Water for Elephants “An enchanting escapist fairy tale” and despite the sociopathic husband of the love interest who gets off on beating animals and people and lording over a small community of travelling circus hooligans, it really is a bit of a fairy tale, and its definitely an escape from your own reality.
Water for Elephants reads a bit like a Kate Morton novel, but at a quicker pace, with lots of layers, old age, storytelling, and flashbacks. Unlike Kate Morton, this first person narrative is written from the perspective of the man in the saga – rather than aged ladies. Where Kate Morton’s fabulous books strike me as having a very female target audience, I feel that marketed a bit differently, Sara Gruen has the potential to engross a population of male readers who have missed out under the impression that this fairy tale is a romance novel.
Gruen has done extensive research into depression era, of circuses, and of elephants, and it shows. Although Water for Elephants is about two people finding their fairy tale life in the midst of harsh circumstances, its ultimately the greatest coming of age story I’ve read in a long time. You’ve got a virginal college boy experiencing the death of his parents and loss of all his future plans, running away to join the circus, telling you the story of his life, all his trials and tribulations, from a nursing home at age ninety – or ninety three. From becoming room mates with a dwarf, losing his virginity, learning the fine art of train hopping, planning a murder, witnessing a murder, and falling in love, and becoming an unsung hero, Gruen leads you effortlessly through the life of an ex-circus vet, and its wonderful.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but when I do, I’ll tell you all what I think.
Inhale (And be ready to hold your breath, a lot) – A Review
Title: Inhale
Author: Kendall Grey
Publisher: Howling Mad Press, LLC
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance
Length: 453 pages
Buy: http://justbreathenovels.com
I happened across Kendall Grey on Twitter (kendallgrey1) not too long ago, an exciting day for me because shortly after I was being sent a review copy of her book Inhale. It came with many warnings: could be too graphic for you, rated R, etc. I promised I’d give it a try, and frankly, despite the fact that she was correct on most counts (the girl knows her work, knows what it is) I still enjoyed it.
Grey laments in her blog post titled Bless My Heart:
Not everyone is going to like my book. Some people won’t get it. They won’t like my style or my voice. Others will say the language is too rough. There’s too much graphic sex. Not enough graphic sex. Too much back story, yet they don’t understand the world building. Too many stereotypes. Predictable. The plot has holes big enough to fly a space shuttle through.
Worse, some readers will say, “It was okay.” Or they won’t be able to finish it. *GULP* Twist the knife in a little harder, why don’t ya?
And what I’d like to tell her: “Who cares?!” I’m a reviewer who doesn’t like peoples’ books sometimes, I wrote a whole post about not liking Kostova’s ‘voice,’ I often get irritated at novels with too much graphic sex (The Outlander series, prior to this book, my one exception). I admit that back story has a time and place, even though I’m a sucker for it. Plot holes big enough to fly a space shuttle through are more my husband’s issue with life, not mine… But using stereotypes with purpose rather than laziness and character development are highly important to me.
Photograph by Jemma Milanovic used in the cover of “Exhale” to portray Gavin Cassidy
Grey, you stayed true to your vision, and that, I appreciate. Your characters are believable, and your story engrossing and imaginative. I’m not hooked on the genre, but I’ll definitely be reading more of your work.
After years of working in a bookstore and running the literature section, I see/hear the words “urban fantasy” or “romance” and I expect cheesy, terrible writing. It’s snobbish, I know, but I just assume it will be L.J. Smith with more adult content. I agreed to review this book, however, after perusing Grey’s blog (kendallgrey.com) and discovering that she uses a lot of ‘colorful language’ in the realm of ‘pardon my French’, but her writing is quite good. Plus, I’m a sucker for people willing to use the word “wafted,” it’s one of my favorites.
Reading Grey’s work reminded me exactly of how I felt when I read Twilight. It’s not to my particular taste, I prefer my love stories of the Jane Austen variety and my fantasies J.R.R. Tolkien or Robin McKinley style. It’s not something I want my daughter reading, but I read the thing in nearly one sitting and was captivated by the adventure and Grey’s multi-leveled worlds. Just as I understood why the masses were maintaining an unhealthy obsession with Twilight, I’m actually shocked that Grey hasn’t got a larger cult following. I’m surprised that the next installment in the Just Breathe series isn’t the most anticipated release since Eclipse hit the shelves in August of 2007. I can think of about fifty regulars at my store that would be all over it if they knew about it. (And yes, I plan to share that information with them.)
That being said: it’s far more adult than Twilight. So, don’t go passing this around to twelve year old girls to devour; but if you’re an adult who likes to read paranormal romance, who reads purely to escape real life for two hundred pages (or for 453 pages in this case), Inhale is right up your alley. Just like Grey knows what she writes, you know who you are… it’s worth it to you to go buy yourself a copy.
Right Whale original 5×7 mixed media illustration by Bryan Collins
Now, just because I’m not that person and I speed read through parts that seem like they are getting too hot and heavy (I’m a fan of my fast forward button in movies too), and maybe you’re not that person either, don’t be completely opposed to checking out Grey’s work. Grey has thrown in some awesome stuff that steps outside the urban fantasy stereotype and gives us something to latch onto: Whales. Grey’s love for whales has overpowered all the stuff that I don’t necessarily care for in these books and become something beautiful. Referred to as a “word diddler and whale champion” in the author biographical blurb in the back of the book, the coolest thing about her and this new series is that All profits from sales of the JUST BREATHE Trilogy will be donated to whale education programs. Not something I expected to read at the opening of an urban fantasy novel. That in itself is worth tossing some money Grey’s way and picking up her book the first chance you get, even if you only intend to donate it to your local library for someone else to enjoy.
Visit JustBreatheNovels.com and browse through the series playlist, a little mood music while you read is always lovely. Also check out: www.cetaceanresearchnetwork.com and www.facebook.com/KendallGreyAuthor.
A Lovely Event
Typically, I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Its a day that is seemingly invented for sheer consumerism. Many people find this ironic, because I am very happily married to my soul mate and love. The thing is, though, usually I’d rather curl up with a good book as I snuggle my honey, and not worry about what’s going on in the outside world as everyone else worries about things like “Is she going to like this gift?” or “What can I do for him that wont say too much and scare him off?”
You're Invited!
But this year, its been put in perspective of things I love and things I can do to make it more fun. This year, I’m an Event Coordinator for a bookstore I love and I get to make it what I want. This year, its about celebrating some of my favorite stories of all time (books like The Scarlet Pimpernel and Time Traveler’s Wife will absolutely be featured, as well as biographies on people like Nicholas and Alexandra and so on) and celebrating a fabulous little Italian restaraunt in Humble that I’ve grown to love. This year, you can come to the Humble Half Price Bookstore, buy your favorite love story and upon purchase be entered to win a dinner for two to Italiano’s in Humble. How much fun is that?
What’s even better? We’re doing it on the 10th, not the 14th, so people who already have big plans, or have to work because they are in the retail or service industry, or just don’t want to fight Valentine’s Day traffic can have a low-key but intimate date night with us. On top of that, some lucky couple will get to do Valentine’s Day, or some other special day they choose, practically for free!
My hope is that if we get a lot of people in the door, next year more businesses will donate gift cards and the year after that even more people! We could maybe one day build Valentine’s Day up to a bookstore extravaganza so that even the most non-Valentine-date night people ever, like me, will look forward to the month of February.
So, if you’re in the Houston area, come celebrate Valentine’s on February 10th with me as we bask in the loveliness of books – our mutual true love.
House of Mirth a House of Love, Scruples, or Selfishness?
Title: The House of Mirth
Gillian Anderson in the 2000 Major Motion Picture of The House of Mirth
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Genre: Classic Literature
Length: 277 pages
My all time favorite questions when reading literature are: What is this character’s perception of love? What is the author telling us their own view of love is? And after reading this how do you view love? To quote Moulin Rouge: “Always this ridiculous obsession with love!” But it drives so much, and please forgive the pun, it is truly at the heart of every matter. So in reading The House of Mirth, my driving questions throughout the book have been: What is Lily Bart’s perception of love? What is Wharton trying to tell me about her own worldview concerning love?
Truth be told, I’m not sure what the answer is. She and Selden seem to have this constrained but meant-to-be-doomed-so-impossible love affair. “Ah, love me, love me—but don’t tell me so “? she tells him. She refuses Rosedale and all his money because she doesn’t love him. A lesson in morality from the beautiful Lily Bart? I’d say yes, except that she doesn’t run into the sunset with Selden when offered because he can’t support her lifestyle and she also seems to enjoy stringing Rosedale along, “the first sincere words she had ever spoken to him” not being voiced until very near the end of the book. So what is it Miss Bart? Money or love?
In the end, I have to say I think Lily is truly attempting to stand her moral ground but endlessly falls short via her own selfishness. Wharton would have you believe that this is an early stage of love, as she described Selden’s “impassioned self-absorption that the first surrender to love produces.” However, by the definition taught to me, selfishness is the direct opposite of love. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 tells us,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Neither Lily nor Selden seem to manage to maintain, much less attempt, these characteristics.
The dichotomy of Lily Bart is a fascinating one, probably one of the many reasons this book has been deemed a classic. One essayist wrote: “Lily’s distinction lies precisely in her ability to transcend such crude ambitions” as using her beauty to marry for money (Lahoucine Ouzgane). Wharton herself writes,
And was it her fault that the purely decorative mission is less easily and harmoniously fulfilled among social beings than in the world of nature? That it is apt to be hampered by material necessities or complicated by moral scruples?
Many believe this to be a tragic love triangle between Selden, Lily, and the nature of capitalism. Some people believe the work is Wharton making a statement about love, the nature of her own marriage, and the internal struggles she herself felt during the age. But what is The House of Mirth to you? Read it and find out. No matter what you discover of Lily, you won’t regret the experience, Wharton’s prose is lovely.
How to Buy a Love of Reading… Just buy Gibson’s book
Title: How to Buy a Love of Reading
Author: Tanya Egan Gibson
Publisher: Dutton, a member of Penguin group
Genre: Fiction
Length: 389 pages
I cannot begin to count, honestly, the number of times I was brought to tears by this book. Something that was supposed to be light and fun proved to be something beautiful and amazing, something that moved me more than words can express.
I cannot begin to count, honestly, the number I times I fell in love with Hunter. Over and over again, reminding me of boys I fell in love with in real life. Stranger still, reminding me of myself.
I found Carly amazing, and brave, and beautiful, a character who reminded me of people I both love and hate.
I found Gibson reminding me why I fell in love with Fitzgerald in high school and how I cherish every blessed word of Gatsby and every word written about it.
I found myself wanting to share this jewel with a dear friend who has already left this world and lonely because of all the disappointment in his missing it.
I sit here writing the most incoherent review in the immediate moment of completion because I’m blown away, dazed, and I don’t want it to end, even though the ending is so perfectly final.
Story of High Adventure
Kidnappings, betrayal, damsels in distress, and rogues to make you swoon fill this high adventure tale of intrigue as we are unwittingly introduced to the ancestors of the illusive scarlet pimpernel.
In Baroness Orczy’s old familiar style of classic romantic suspense, The Laughing Cavalier follows a Pride and Prejudice sort of story as the Holland native Gilda is kidnapped by a man she initially loathes named Diogenes. In that regards, the book is as lovely as expected, its only downfall coming towards the end of the book when Orczy awkwardly and only momentarily switches tenses for a few chapters.
After reading this, one cannot wait to read the next installment of the Pimpernel series: The First Sir Percy.
Love in the Time of Cholera, an essay of love
(written based on notes from a book club meeting with Lauren Davis of http://lollygabber.wordpress.com/)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Much like Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Florentino Ariza is in love with soap operas and romance novels, so much so all his letters to Daza when they are young read just like one. He is so involved with the idea of romance after Fermina’s rejection of him he makes a pass time writing love letters for other couples. Ariza is all youthful passion and intensity saying, “Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself.” Needless to say, he’s all swoon and flowery words as he makes his way into the bed of over six hundred women in the course of his life while pretending to be faithful to only Fermina. None of the women know about the others and each is told that she is his first and only, perpetuating Ariza’s illusion of himself that he is a heart sick and loyal love puppy in need of nurturing.
In the mean time, Fermina Daza has married a very clinical man, its no mistake that Garcia has written this character to be a doctor by profession, who is overly concerned with appearances. Dr. Juvenal Urbino loves classic literature, does not listen to “popular” music like Ariza, but music he imagines gives him the right to look condescendingly on other’s tastes. Fermina takes part in this illusion of high society that her husband has chosen, most likely having married him for it in the first place as they have very little in common. She prefers all the opposite things, helping the reader understand why she was captivated by Ariza in the first place – he wrote to her beautiful letters, like the love stories she was enraptured by. Ariza learned to play the violin when they were young and played her beautiful music, “popular” quixotic pieces from the street.
Garret Wilson writes in his review: “[…]Fermina was trying to fool the world, Florentino was consumed with fooling himself. Fermina Daza’s claim that Florentino Ariza was not in love with her, that he was merely infatuated with some ethereal concept of the woman perfect for him, is certainly not baseless.” (http://www.garretwilson.com/books/lovetimecholera.html)
However, I also believe that the idea that the Urbino’s fifty one year long marriage not having a true element of love to it is also not unfounded. Their relationship was based purely on an act of will, as if willing themselves to love would be enough, as though creating an illusion of a happy marriage would trick not just the world but themselves that their marriage was a happy one. It becomes all too obvious that their relationship could not stand on its own two feet when after his death Fermina’s idea of his character is blown totally out of the water and she believes him to have had an affair with their family friend just because someone insinuates it. A woman with a true and solid relationship based in honest love could not go fifty one years and still not know if her husband ever loved her. Dr. Joyce Brothers says, “The best proof of love is trust.” Clearly, neither of them really loved the other.
Love is a choice, but it is also a passionate driving force. This book makes it quite obvious that two people must have more than just passion and more than an act of will, there must be balance. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it states, “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy. It does not boast and it is not proud; it’s not rude or self seeking. Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrong, it does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” Needless to say, sometimes it takes a lot of work and a lot of persistence to love someone and in this both Urbino and Ariza had it half right. But there is also something to be said for the poetry of love, and in this Ariza went so far it seemed insincere, and Urbino neglected it altogether. When it came to having the whole package, all three of these characters seemed to have gotten it so wrong, treating love like the plague that swept through the nation: either something of great force that snuck up on them, or an ailment that they’d have to spend a long time living with.
Anakalian Whims 