At Day's Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch

Apparently I care about how our ancestors spent their time after dusk.

Wow, that sounded dirty. I didn’t mean it to be. Well, I suppose I did because did you know that they use to hang cowdung at the foot of their beds to detract fleas? That everyone washed only their feet before bed and everything was disgusting? That clean linen (and remember people gave birth and died on beds ) was almost unheard of in the lower classes? That spacial constraints forced entire families to sleep in one or two beds, that any visiting parties became a bedfellow and ALSO shared a bed?

It goes on and on.  People had a better sense of using their other senses to wade through the dark: especially merchants returning home by horse after a long market day. In the same vein, however, and so unfortunately, our forebears were prone to any and all kind of accidents: falling in ditches, losing their footing and ending up in a well.  Thank the lord for flashlights.

Night was  a time of superstition, of theft and murder, of a world unhindered by social obligations for the most part ( those crept in in the upper classes during the 18^th Century and the Industrial Revolution changed it all ) where sleep and rest was a God-given gift after the toil of the day.

The book speaks to everything about night. Everything that kept our forebears ticking after the clock settled beyond the dusk hours.

The most interesting bit of the extensive research? The fact that we used to sleep in bi-modal and segmented patterns.  Get this, blog readers, research (which cites greats works of literature, primary sources and numerous first hand accounts from Barnaby Rudge to  Jane Eyre and Chaucer) proves that our ancestors went to be at 9 or so and woke up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT for a few hours thus concluding what they called “First Sleep.”  While awake, they would smoke tobacco, talk to their bedfellows, engage in “other” night-time activities (wink-wink, nudge), even visit neighbours, say their prayers (special matins created for early morning that fit so tightly into the research here) before settling into SECOND SLEEP.

With the Industrial Revolution, gas-lamps and electricity, with the rise of coffee houses and the ability for those who were respectable to embark on social escapades outside of the region of the local pub or tavern (where hooligans and ladies of the night reigned supreme), people began going to bed later and sleeping through the night. No First Sleep and Second Sleep with a couple of interesting hours of waking interval betwixt. No. Just sleeping straight through.

We’ve changed a lot and this book gave me the best sort of glance into the secrets of yesteryear.  There is fascinating research in here; but a lot of it and a lot of citations. So if you are willing to spend some time meandering through extensive musings on night in centuries of yore, then this is your book.

Because I can never talk about 'Great Expectations' enough

...on Dickensblog again today talking about Pip and Soulpepper's recent adaptation


Visit HERE 

"The Single Woman" by Mandy Hale

 [ Rachel's Note from 2 Hours After Publication of Post ---: first off, the lovely Lori Smith was kind enough to remind me what I had set out to say but had forgotten to:   authors have little say in their covers and I should have stressed that the cover itself is not the author's responsibility.

Secondly, this is a gift book.  I was not under that impression when I encountered it on amazon nor when I conversed with the author on twitter yesterday.  Nonetheless, the content itself and the words are what are post potent with me as a reader ---regardless of its packaging and my thoughts on some of the quotes and ideas have not changed having learned that this is a giftbook.  But, there you go! if you want a giftbook, there's another upsell ;) ]


When I first saw  The Single Woman on amazon the across-the-board  five star reviews made me wary. You see, five stars for a Christian-published book is not unheard of. We love writing positive book reviews and yet the topic is so sensitive ---- anything less than five stars might have indicated that it strayed from other books of its ilk: might have reflected a kind of dissonance indicative of a wander from the norm....   Might have made it jump out as a book to end the string of books written by Single Christian women that didn't seem to resonate with me at all. Negative reviews can often mean that someone who didn't like the book was passionate enough about their dislike to log in and outline how it chafed with them.

I even used it to spark a discussion on Facebook and on twitter in which the author immediately and passionately engaged.  That intrigued me even more so I bought it.   The chapters are so flittingly short I didn't find it hard to breeze through.  There are quotes from  Hale's twitter account and guides and tabbed lists ornamented with heart bullets. It is not so much an exploration of the fabulousness of single life as a good reminder guide on how to enjoy life.  It does marginalize itself in ways by painting women of a certain ilk into a corner.  If this scenario is one that tickles you: "...not having to shave my legs if I don't want to and blasting Girl Power tunes and singing into the broom handle while I'm cleaning my house" then you are in good company.   I always felt like a bit of an outsider on the Christian singles front and, unfortunately, this book made me feel even more so because, personally, I had trouble relating to Hale's experience at all.

Let me begin by pointing out some strengths to the book.  First, Hale is right in her belief that single women (and men), heck! people in general--- need to be told that they have value beyond their marital status, social status or appearance.  Let this ring again and again.

Secondly, I do not doubt the sincerity of the author's intentions to fill a gap she expresses she found missing in modern culture ( unfortunately, she falls into the trap of aligning acutely with it; but more on that later ); but her sincerity and her platform prove that this is a message that has been well-received.

Finally, you cannot go wrong with owning your independence. Lines like this "The real fairytale is designing a life so amazing that you don't want to be rescued from it" really resonated with me. 

My biggest complaint is that there is nothing in it that differs from the other Christian books I have read targeted at single women. The publisher, Thomas Nelson, is one I respect in the faith based community. Hale's Christian worldview is minimally present, couched in a few paraphrases of 1 Corinthians in one chapter and random mentions of God and scripture; but fails to speak at all to the sometimes-felt and experienced constrictions of the Church culture for a single person. Certainly she mentions the stigma against singleness equaling depravity; but I was so hoping that her voice would speak out  from experience.  To add, and no fault of her own, Hale speaks for women who have had several serious relationships and dates -- an experience that  several  Christian woman of my acquaintance will not find easy to relate to. Speaking to the difference between "Mr. Now" and " Mr. Right Now" will, again, be foreign to several women who subscribe to Evangelical beliefs of courting and staying equally yoked. The Christian worldview, here, seems drenched in the Worldy worldview ( the capital W as pronounced as it is in one of my dad's emphatic Sunday sermons)


Hale is full of good-sense tidbits which speak more to being happy as a person than to being a single woman. To add, these tidbits were solidly entrenched into a narrative I just didn't relate to.  "Sassy stilettos"?  Oreo binge fests while watching "Friends re-runs"? It is  safe to say that although I am the demographic for this book it is not marketed to me. 

 I feel this book will cater to the woman who enjoys a good Chickflick montage of pink-trussled memories fading mutely in cascading pensive melody. But.... I  realized, yet again, how few relatable books there are out there for strong-minded, independent and intellectual Christian women who want someone who champions equality, who understands the confusion of having relationships of this matter evade them, who digs deeper into the manifestation of the Single Stigma within the context of the Church and who uses the Christian worldview to prod more deeply into scripture and experience.

While she encourages us to laugh "in the  face of the stigmas and stereotypes", they are, unfortunately, alive and well here. How can one celebrate singlehood as an independent and inspired female if one is presented with a  book with a packaging that caters to societal  standards of womanhood: a stiletto heel, pink, sparkles, hearts, manicures, frilly phrases and gorging on ice cream? While Hale excels at reiterating the brilliance of independence; she rescinds this forward thinking with quotes like this which, to me, were a disturbing balance: "We pay our own bills, file our own taxes, change our own oil  (or cruise on down  to Jiffy Lube on Ladies' Day for a half-price oil change" This chaffing of independence and equality coupled with a "Ladies' day" immediately segregating the sexes and conjuring images of sexualized and objectified women showing up for a discount based on gender alone was an odd juxtaposition for me.

To add, she advocates gender stereotypes and labels by straddling the domestic and a single woman's lack thereof....  "She’s not afraid to change her mind…but petrified to change a tire. She makes her own decisions…but can’t make toast without burning it. Her idea of a three course meal is a Lean Cuisine. There are shoes in her cupboard where flour and sugar are supposed to be. She is the Single Woman. She's me and she's you"
I cannot change a tire and I do burn toast; but I think this has little to with the gender or marital status. A friend aptly pointed out that this is in the same camp as those books which speak to the limitations of men when it comes to parenthood. The Single experience is not universal.

At the core, I came away realizing that her point is that women are fabulous:  but this book is not necessarily targeted FOR single women as her title and promotion suggests.  Instead, it is a good reminder for anyone who needs a boost. Most unfortunately, the book falls into the traps of branding and stereotypes: perpetuating the "chick" mentality we see in shows like Sex and the City ( oddly enough, a cultural phenomenon ostracizing much of a Christian audience who are uncomfortable with its subject matter). All of the branding in the book---she mentions retailers by name---Nordstrom and Target, for example--- heightened my opinion that this book, again, establishes further our societal tendency to label.  Labels are not what we need. 

 There is always a need for women to hear they are fabulous: but an authorial voice resplendent with tales of James Dean look-a-like boyfriends, splurges on frappucinos and great almost-engagements in jewelry stores will not strike a chord with several of the  Single Christian women who read this blog.  Be  fabulous because God loves you, Be fabulous because Jesus has got your back, Be fabulous because you are living for an ordained purpose whether or not you said the included affirmations or have the "sassy stilettos" Hale refers to.  It's okay not to align with this archetypes painted in this book;  this modern conceptualization of fabulous canvassed on this book's cover in the airy pink font and heel. The modern conceptualization of fabulous and single is mirrored here contains a few price tags, brand names, and some wisdom.


I read this book under the impression ( however wrong I might have been ) that due to its publication by Thomas Nelson and from its back cover copy, that it was written specifically toward the Christian single woman experience.  As such, my review of the book is greatly informed by that. There are several optimistic life-lessons for all of us here: single or non. Male or Female.   As always, what I found to be lacking in the book might be what you are LOOKING for in a book so check it out for yourself. 


                                                               * * * 

So what would I like to see in a book on single women published for the Christian marketplace?  I told @hopefulleigh and Kaye Dacus the following in conversations this morning

1.) A book ensconced in a Christian worldview 
2.) Exploring how purity and abstinence inform the dating scene
3.) The differentiators ( which are many) between being a single Christian woman and being a single woman
4.) Biblical backup


Please check out Kaye's series on Being Single in the Church  -- like me, you will applaud the candor.  I also appreciate Leigh Kramer's blog which touches on the same subject and Lori Smith has done magnificent work culminating in a rumination of her single experience in The Single Truth and   A Walk with Austen

Random Things

First, I went to my gorgeous friend’s gorgeous wedding on Vancouver Island which is a gorgeous place and led me to ponder what books I have read set in British Columbia. And with the exception of Susan Juby I think I am blanking.  But, at the very least, the Alice, I Think  series

                                                                * * *

I was greatly saddened to hear about the passing of Elizabeth Peters who has the best quotes in the history of the world ---

“No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.” 

“I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! "

“When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing. ”

I love Amelia Peabody and I LOVE Elizabeth Peters

                                                                * * *

Secondly, here is an interview with the lovely mystery maven and all-time favourite of mine, Martha Grimes --- a nice prelude to the newJURY NOVEL WE GET NEXT YEAR!

                                                                * * *

Over the weekend, I watched 4.5 seasons of Doc Martin  ( which I discovered care of Tessa Afshar's blog ) which is just delicious and wonderful and tickles my funny bone and makes me ache with its adorably gruff, rough-around-the-edges romance.   To add, the series is set in gorgeous Cornwall with a sea-side view to die for.

I love the slow-burning romance between Doc Martin and Louisa, the local primary school teacher who steals his heart at first sight. Not unlike House ( but with more heart, indubitably), Martin struggles with social proprieties and etiquette. His bedside manner is appalling and his treatment of his neighbours and friends leaves a lot to be desire. But, oh! How he loves Louisa.  If you watch, you will hear that he says her name in a softer cadence than any other name---or line ---for that matter. And his odd, crinkly and harsh physiognomy lightens when she is nearby .

It is really quite endearing and but one circle of many, many outlining rings which take us through perplexity, surges of eccentricity, medical cases and the lovely, lofty little wonders of small village life.

I take to writing again --- this time --- I can write about what I know: My CITY

As an aspiring writer, I realize that I need to keep my fingers tapping and my creative juices flowing.

There is a lot about writing that involves silence and waiting.  Rather than think and muse upon the finished book, I am encouraged to keep moving onward and upward producing more and keeping my little brain-wheels turning.

I wrote my first novel in a very intensive spurt and was very exhausted after it.   The querying and landing a place with an agency, the proposal and submission guidelines, the last-minute edits and suggestions--- all of it was scrunched together in the beginning part of this year and I needed a breather---which I happily took. To read, to recharge. To socialize with the people that I ignored while I was Boo Radley-ed up in my apartment and to watch baseball.

But  my fingers have started tapping again for a fresh new series idea: something that ( and this is the amazing thing about literary agents, they have brilliant ideas strewn from their close attention to market needs and trends) without a planted suggestion I never would’ve thought of trailing.

So now I am off and down the rabbit hole, hoppity hop, and giggling like a mad-woman because it is so silly and yet. so. Me.

As much as I enjoy the idea of my imagination planting a kernel which sprouts into a story of my own mental fruition; so I enjoy picking up a bread crumb and following a trail.

While my previous books (some in embryo ) take place in Eastern Canada, the new series idea is here. At home. In Victorian Toronto.

This locale is in and of itself, an exhale of relief for me.  While I am familiar with Nova Scotia from several trips and visits and musings and research, Toronto is my home.  Not my hometown. But, my home.    Weaving through the Old Town Toronto---through  the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, down Jarvis and the beginnings of the City of York. I love Victorian Toronto.  I love Toronto in general. I am in love with my city and setting a book here just sends little shivers down my spine because my city is so ingrained in my consciousness and so accessible.  When I write of Halifax I still  rely on a map. I don’t need a map of Toronto, I can walk its circumference with my eyes closed: looping down alleys, taking lesser known paths, following the peal of the St. James Church bells.  I know the smell of the harbour and the slip slope of the skyline as it would have looked before we planted skyscrapers. I know Toronto.

So I am kind of in love with this new book idea because I am kind of in love with where I live.

And while I am in love I giggle at the prospect and where my funny little brain comes up with this stuff.  Like, really giggle.

Giggle like this, giggle.

BreakPoint: Modern Standards are oppressive as the old in "Much Ado about Nothing"

Check out my piece on Joss Whedon's most recent adaptation of the Shakespearian classic at Breakpoint today

Harvest of Gold by Tessa Afshar

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Harvest of Gold

River North; New Edition edition (July 1, 2013)


by

Tessa Afshar


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TESSA AFSHAR was voted "New Author of the Year" by the Family Fiction sponsored Reader's Choice Award 2011 for her novel Pearl in the Sand. She was born in Iran, and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life.  She moved to England where she survived boarding school for girls and fell in love with Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, before moving to the United States permanently.  Her conversion to Christianity in her twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDiv from Yale University where she served as co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School.  She has spent the last thirteen years in full-time Christian work.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The scribe Sarah married Darius, and at times she feels as if she has married the Persian aristocracy, too. There is another point she did not count on in her marriage-Sarah has grown to love her husband. Sarah has wealth, property, honor, and power, but her husband's love still seems unattainable.

Although his mother was an Israelite, Darius remains skeptical that his Jewish wife is the right choice for him, particularly when she conspires with her cousin Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ordered to assist in the effort, the couple begins a journey to the homeland of his mother's people. Will the road filled with danger, conflict, and surprising memories, help Darius to see the hand of God at work in his life-and even in his marriage?

A hidden message, treachery, opposition, and a God-given success, will lead to an unlikely bounty.


If you'd like to read the first chapter of Harvest of Gold, go HERE.

Theatrical Adventures: 'Anything Goes' and 'Great Expectations'

Anything Goes contains a slipshod plot (plot is a strong word) to which P.G. Wodehouse was contributor about the crazy happenings, disguises and mistaken identities aboard a cruise ship. I won’t go into the plot, or lack thereof, because, like most screwball comedies of the 1930s, it really doesn't matter. It is the antics, the characters and the chemistry and…here… the singing and the dancing that make this a visual and musical treat.

What we have here, splayed like a deck of shiny playing cards, is the best of the crème de la crème Cole Porter.  More than any other musical featuring his prolific work ( I think, first, of Kiss Me , Kate ) Anything Goes has a songlist that shines with De Lovely, the titular song, Blow, Gabriel, Blow and the eerie discordance of Easy to Love.

His lyrics, easy to trip over the tongue and far deeper and list-like ( think You’re the Top, I Get a Kick Outta You) than meets the ear, add a deft layer to an otherwise frivolous story about a rag tag crew at sea.

The Roundabout Theatre production starring Rachel York ( who is a goddess. I first saw her on stage in Kiss Me, Kate  in London's West End  and have worshipped her voice forever ) features a brilliant orchestra, expert direction and staging, succinct choreography, energy and flair which garnered one of the most enthusiastic audience responses I have ever seen in a theatre.

I was boggled by the immense talent of everyone on stage: no one hit a wrong note, the voices were high and belty and, in York’s case, brandished with the salty cadence of a brash, golden-tongued dame of the age, the tapping was fleet and fast and the comedic timing was to die for.

This is a musical throwback to a golden époque.  For those who are tiring of the technical spectacles that Broadway has become ( don’t get me wrong, I love me some special effects; but we don’t always need flashes and bangs) then what you have here is a stage set for the showcase of supreme talent: led mostly by York who is so riveting, dashing and jaw-droppingly gorgeous and brassy that you might not be able to take your eyes off of her throughout the production.

                                                                         * * * 

In stark contrast, I had the opportunity to see Soulpepper’s intelligent remount of Great Expectations last night, adapted and directed by Michael Shamata.  who, for the Soulpepper lot,  is no stranger to Dickens having his thumbprint on the renowned version of a Christmas Carol they stage every other year.

First and foremost, I was entranced by how much of the original text he used ---- wavering from some of the usual nuances of adaptation and including more of the story than I thought was possible.  Having seen and studied adaptations of this novel for decades, I know the usual ways that directors decide to cut and paste the story and bring it to light due to restraints of time and audience limitation.   Shamata’s version doesn't talk down to us. But, I do wonder if some of the off-hand way the guiding information that sews up this complex plot is soliloquized quickly and not without confusion to the audience.  I was with a friend who had no previous knowledge of the source material and could completely understand what facets of the tale threw her off when presented in a quick and somewhat hurried manner.

The language transposed with Dickensian flair and uttered with such supreme confidence by Jeff Lillico’s Pip was a bit of genius. He opens the play as a retrospective Pip, immediately uttering some of the most famous lines of the book as he looks back on his childhood. There, the sparse staging ( theatre in the round, a handful of chairs, a bricked beam that acts as chimney and building side and forge alike ) gives way to the imaginative marshes: the lighting at times eerie, exuberant and, when Pip finally reaches London to experience his eponymous expectations, muddled and bright.

The action on the stage melded well with the space and I was caught immediately in imaginative flux: my brain sinking into the depth of the story and the fascinating aura of each and every character.   Lillico is a strong, if dour, Pip who tends to forget the moments of lightness.  He whines a lot about his past decisions

 ( well-wrought considering what an insufferable and ignorant snob he becomes in Act II ) ; but we rarely see that counterbalance—something I love about Pip--- he has a tough circumstance, sure , but he meets it with gumption. 

Kate Trotter’s Miss Havisham, doesn’t possess the psychological complexities of the character: rather features a prominently bitter old lady who is a hybrid of depression and anger.  At times, I found her grating. She could have been softer. She needn’t have raised the  timbre of her interestingly squeaky voice or flourished large movements in order to convey the heartbreak of her past. 

Herbert Pocket was a delight. There, nothing more to say on that. DELIGHT.

Uncle Pumblechook and Magwitch were passable ---both made more so by some of the great lines given both.   A side note: Pip, as narrator, often intercepts the fastly spinning action with beats of lines quick and succinct that help the flow of the story while reiterating his importance as the center of it. It is his biased perspective and he has every right to break the action and swiftly speak to the audience. 

The strongest cast member was Oliver Dennis who may actually be my favourite actor in the Soulpepper Company so wide and competent is his range. The play does extremely well at diving deep into the Pip and Joe relationship and its fundamental crux in Pip’s development.  Their friendship is early established as his Joe’s innate greatness.  Having already taken liberties of some plot points ( due to time constraints, I am sure),  Joe’s payment of Pip’s debts at the end ( in my estimation the most poignant and important part of the story ---symbolically and figuratively) sinks somewhat into the general act of Pip falling on the recently wedded Joe and Biddy’s kindness and their giving their forgiveness freely.

Double casting is not a favourite device of mine; but here, is quite wonderful:  Wemmick/Joe, Estella/Biddy, Mrs. Joe/ Molly.  Each actor is so confident and so changed that you do not think at all of their pairings, rather lose yourself in each individual scene.

The ending is not as stark a contrast as Pip has fed us his self-awareness of his ingratitude throughout.  These narrative breaks are not unlike the same disposition of the novel and show that Schamata is confident with his source material.

It isn’t without flaws; but those flaws are borne of adapting a perfect work of literature and its transposition to another, shorter medium.  The careful attention to detail as well as the obvious love the director and I share for the story set it with the best of literary stagings I have seen.  I often think that the best adaptations are not those without liberties; but those which capture the essence of the novel. This captures the essence of the novel. 

Summer Update

muskoka is gorgeous

I  have been abandoning this blog for the beautiful weather, films, friends, food, social events, sunshine and baseball ---for that, I apologize; but such is summer in my gorgeous city

First off,  I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to Bala, Ontario --- it was during Vacation here that LM Montgomery was inspired to write The Blue Castle.  Deerwood, Valancy’s residence, is based on Bala and Barney’s Island on Lake Mistawis ( actually Lake Muskoka) is right nearby.  It is a gorgeous part of Muskoka, Ontario and just breathes Blue Castle: the penultimate moment at the train tracks? Yep, you can often hear a train speed through Bala.

bala has a waterfall :-)

I am a huge fan of literary (fictional) pilgrimages and a huge fan of the locales in which I grew up: in little northern Orillia, summers spent at the cottage in Muskoka, so if you are ever in this area, please go. 

Now, on to what I have been reading/ viewing

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion: quirky, fresh, reminded me of As Good As it Gets. Cinematic

The Kingmaker’sDaughter by Philippa Gregory: lush, expected, soapy, visceral, regal, Richard III, malevolent

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell: heartbreaking, earnest, nostalgic, sparse, bubblegum narrative that pops, sweet, salty language, bitter, cold, warmed by music

Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson: reminded of TheodoraGoes Wild; sweet, British, a touch of Cold Comfort Farm, anecdotal, hopeful, rural, whimsy

Mistaken by Karen Barnett ( head over to Novel Crossing to read my review)

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty: straight cut, evocative, 19

20s, flapper, exquisite, tortured, convoluted

Viewing:

Despicable Me 2  See here

The Lone Ranger: go for the scenery. Amusing. Plotless. Pretty

The Way, Way Back: nostalgic, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash should write everything, sweet, bond, funny, throwback, John Hughes, awkward, coming-of-age, stirring

Frances Ha: black and white, modern dancer, displaced, New York, camera angles slitting through fractioned action

Monsters University: colourful, friendship, bright, silly, gooey joy

Despicable Me 2: The best RomCom of the year and the utmost champion of the Alternative Family

When we last left Gru and his lovely little minions, they were dancing after an impromptu recital staged by Gru’s adopted orphans, Margo, Edith and Agnes because he missed the first one while charging to the moon in a pink space suit blotted by the fact that his washing machine is now shared with three precocious girls.

Now, he is very much the family man: having traded villainy for jams and jellies and the minions, rather than being wily and helping him execute disastrous and dastardly capers, keep house and run around and test jam and are just kinda what they always were: little yellow bouncy jellybeans of incomprehensible fun.

When Lucy Wilde and Silas Ramsbottom from the Anti-Villain League convince Gru to get back in the game to bring down a sleezy villain named El Macho, Gru is wary about how the strain of his old life will affect his new-found family bliss. But, old super villain habits die hard and with several nifty gadgets, Gru and Lucy go undercover at a mall cupcakery and all is spiffy…. Well… kinda spiffy… it inevitably  has to go to hades with explosives and squirt guns and dynamite-strapped sharks plummeted into volcanoes first.

The plot to Despicable Me  and its sequel is really quite a moot point.  Like most lovely, deliciously giggly things, it is the characters and the greater premises that entice us.   In the first, it was the blatant softening of Gru’s heart when his mischievous plan is foiled by the doting of doe-eyed orphans who worm their way into his affections and even coax him to go to the carnival.  In the second,  it is the established unit of alternative family that the curtain opens on: championing single-parent families, adoption, quirkiness,  and alternative families with its conjoining of Gru who is from God-knows-where (Transylvania? ) and  the delightful little girls who were left holed up in the worst establishment since Miss Hannigan took her turn at bathtub gin-making in Annie.

Gru has happily traded his lifestyle and the alternative family is sewn so tightly together  no one can doubt the sincerity of the paternal figure ( dude! He dresses up as a fairy princess ---albeit an ugly one –for Agnes’ birthday) despite the girls’ desire for a mother brandished through their encouragement of Gru to online date.

The result is possibly the best romantic comedy I have seen all year.   Dating is a huge motif.  The eldest girl, Margo, falls immediately Capulet-Montague in love with a sweltering, floppy-haired and be-accented boy she meets at the mall while Gru fights off his crazy neighbour’s best attempts at setting him up while confronting his puzzling attraction to his friendly new partner, Lucy Wilde.     All of the tropes and conventions: from a long love montage featuring Gru’s rose-coloured morning in flourishes of music, spunk, spark and bright as he realizes his love for Lucy to his battle with the telephone receiver he is afraid to pick up.  There are clips (cute clips ) of champagne shared and walks on beach as Gru falls for Lucy at the same time as warily keeping Margo from pursuing her affections.   The chip hat of despair ( if there can be such a thing ) at a Cinqo de Mayo party is just another RomCom emblem for mistaken moments and transitory passions, misunderstood subliminal messages and ….well…the pivotal climactic transposition between like and the pursuit of love.  A  flashback to Gru’s childhood and his hopeless pursuit of his class crush squelched by her belief that he has cooties ( he’s an odd looking thing ) falls, again, into romcom territory.

It’s very strange that in a sea of really horrible romcoms ( seriously. Name a good, smart 2013 romcom ), an animated movie emerges as front runner --- but it excels because at its core it has always had heart, has always been vulnerable, has always nudged the audience with possibility.   Take a moment in the first when a bunch of mothers benched with Gru watching their little girls at ballet practice, lean in and admire him as a single father.  In the same vein, the sequel finds Lucy Wilde glistening-eyed when she witnesses a lovely encounter between Gru and the girls at the mall.

He might have a pointy beak-nose and be a super villain with a strange accent, undertowed by even stranger cadences of speech; but darnit! If those girls adore him there must be SOMETHING there .

I don’t want to get into the denouement of the silly movie or how Gru and Lucy secure their romance; but I do want to commend the film on FIRST establishing the legitimate quality of the alternative family before establishing a potential mother figure.

The family unit is not lacking because of a mother figure, there is no cavity or hole and the viewer recognizes that if their world will just consist of Gru, the girls and that strange little beast-dog Kevin and a billion minion cousins and Dr. Nefario as a sinister elderly grandparent then that is a fine, fine world indeed.   

Even as Agnes wistfully ( okay, so she sounds more like an automaton zombie ) plods out the Mother’s Day poem for a school pageant wondering what a mother would be like, we know that if the mother never arrives from her cotton- candied- cloud dreams then she will still be just fine.   Observe the cute moment when she brings Gru, sitting melancholy on the front step as rain blasts him, an umbrella and keeps him company. This odd little unit has a good thing going .

When the girls are given a chance of a mother and Gru a chance at finding romantic happiness, we know it is not a necessity rather than a pleasantly unexpected addition.--- Something that online dating and a mapped out guide-to-love would never have wrought.

The alternative family is all and well and happy; but every once and awhile something else  can show up to cut and paste into the already well-carved life and that, too, can be dandy.

Also,  minions. 

In which I talk about why Honest Reviews Matter in the CBA

I am over at Married...with Fiction today  (a singleton like me ! ) talking about why Honest Reviews in the CBA matter---can give you street cred--- are to be taken far more seriously than a string of 5-stars

Author Interview: The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah Ladd

1.)   The Regency voice in The Heiress of Winterwood is so impressive and consistent---not only in the dialogue---but the narrative voice as well. Was this something that came easily to you (you cite a love of classics such as Austen and Wordsworth on your website) or were you conscious of this and was it difficult to iron out any modern day manners of speech?  I have read literature from the Romantic and Victorian periods my entire life (both poetry and prose), and so the rhythm of the voice came pretty naturally. In fact, I had to go back and tone it down a bit!  I tend to lean toward “purple prose” and go over the top, and so I would write the scene as it came to me, and then I would go back and rein it in. That is not to say that I did not have to go back through it when I was done and look specifically for modern words, because of course, they did slip in!  There were also several times I had to stop and check the dates of when certain words were first used. For example, do you know that they did not say “hello” during the Regency? 

2.) Winterwood—like Pemberley or Thornfield Hall—is so well-drawn I felt ensconced in its grand halls and ramblings its extensive grounds with Amelia and Graham. Is Winterwood inspired by a specific estate? What tactics did you use to “get” there mentally so that, in turn, your readers could explore? As far as the exterior of Winterwood, I modeled it loosely after Wilton House in Salisbury, England. To get the feel of the location, I pinned pictures to my inspiration board. Pictures of the buildings, the moors, the countryside, the gowns, the ships … anything that I thought would visually help me recreate the ideas in my mind. I also listened to a lot of music from the Regency Era while I was writing. 
3.) As a nautical history buff (I re-read Patrick O’Brian all the time), I was enamoured by Graham’s reminiscences of the sea and the calling and pull he had to his ship –even while on land. What sorts of nautical research went into the tale?  I did a lot of reading. One book I found particularly interesting was Jane Austen and the Navy. I also researched the types of ships, nautical information, and battle information about the War of 1812. I spread this research out over the entire span of time I was writing the book, so as I learned new tidbits of information I went back through the book and peppered them in where appropriate. If you are interested in learning more about the Navy during the Regency, one fun place to go is The Jane Austen’s Center’s page on military historyor their page on Officer’s Uniforms in the British Navy. 

4. ) Many readers, like myself, idealize historical periods such as the Regency. What’s one fact about the Regency period that might prove living then is best kept to daydreams? I touched on one of these facts in The Heiress of Winterwood, and that was the mortality rate of mothers in childbirth. One article I read on the Jane Austen Centre’s website said the following: “To be sure pregnancy during the Regency was a risky business with a nearly 20% mortality rate for the mother”, and I have seen this percentage much higher in other sources. The infant mortality rate was also shockingly high. The same article says “Two-thirds of the children born in the Metropolitan Area of London in the eighteenth century died before they were five years old and three out of four of these poor little victims failed to reach even their second birthdays.”  These are sad, sobering numbers. Very tragic. 

5. Heiress of Winterwood is, fortunately, the first of a series. Were you cognizant of the fact that there would be more to tell while you were plotting the first book? I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but … no!  Not when I started the book, at least! But as I got further along into the writing process, I did start to think of what would be the next step in the series. My idea for The Heiress of Winterwood started with a single question:  What was the one thing that a well-bred lady in the Regency period would NOT do? The first answer that popped into my head was “propose to a man”… and the idea for The Heiress of Winterwood was born! The ideas for the other two books in the series came shortly thereafter. 

6.) Jane Orcutt, Julie Klassen, Ruth Axtell and Jane Austen are the delight of several women of faith. Why do you think that the mannerisms and traditions of the Regency period find such a home with Christian women?  The church was central to Regency life, and so much of the mannerisms characteristic to the Regency period are about restraint. Self-control. The idea of good overcoming evil. I find it very interesting that a woman’s reputation was her prized possession during the Regency, and a reputation could be soiled over the slightest mishap, so a woman during the Regency was always aware of what was “right,” but that does not mean she did not encounter temptation. This goes away from your question a bit, but many people did not know that Jane Austen also wrote a few prayers. I think these prayers give a really interesting insight to a Regency woman’s views on God and religion. If you are interested, you can read these prayers here. They are as beautiful as they are thought-provoking and stirring.

and in real life...

So, yah, I like books. We all know this.

But, I also REALLY like baseball.

Our amazing Toronto Blue Jays just completed the most recent game in an 11- win streak sweeping the Orioles. I was at the ballpark TWICE this weekend catching  the live action ...and enjoying the antics of one of my FAVOURITE of our current line-up, the adorable Munenori Kawasaki.

Our short stop steals EVERYONE'S heart, is a club and fan favourite and I was amazed to watch him hit the first homer of his MLB career on Friday evening....

A little Kawasaki treat for you:


Listen to him singing O Canada as he signs baseballs.  Love this guy

Films! I saw some!

Hi all,

I am a lazy little book blogger and don't really have the time to write these up with the credit they deserve; but BOTH get the Rachel Stamp of approval....

I saw two films over the past week.


1.) Before Midnight 

Love this trilogy and this, to me, was the strongest yet

Just go and sink in and revel in the conversation

2.) Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing

I think Nathan Fillion was miscast as Dogberry; but he is the only weak link in a super strong cast.  I could watch Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof spar forever .....

Author Interview Meg Moseley 'Gone South'

Hi everyone !  I recently read ---and loved---- Gone South! You can read my review at Novel Crossing 

My new friend Meg ( because I seriously hunted her down on facebook immediately after turning the last page-- such a kindred spirit she is ) was kind enough to answer a few questions:

1.)Your book is expertly executed. The scenes (from the earliest in Michigan to Tish’s settling into Noble) transition so seamlessly. Do you write an outline? What does your process look like?

Thanks! If there’s anything “expert” about it, I owe it to my critique partners and my editors, who do their valiant best to rescue me from plot problems. Yes, I write an outline but it defeats me every time. I always get sidetracked by unrelated ideas that don’t even belong in that particular story, or by basic questions like “What the heck is this story about, anyway?” Finally I wind up with a solid premise, but the midpoint of my process looks like what would happen if you turned a toddler loose with scissors, paper, hot dogs, glue, paints, used tea bags, and glitter. It gets ugly.

2.)I was very, very impressed by the point of view characters: George, Tish and Mel. Did they instantly start speaking to you and hinting for their voices to be heard? If you were to choose another character to give more “page time”, as it were, who would you choose?

Thanks, Rachel. Tish’s voice came easily, maybe because it was fun to revisit living in Michigan and the differences between Northerners and Southerners. I really enjoyed getting into George’s head too, especially with anything related to his love for old cars or to his love-hate relationship with his mother’s Maltese. But Mel’s voice came most naturally, and I wish I’d had more “page time” for her. On the other hand, I’m glad that her part in the ending of the story comes as a jolt, because that’s how grace often works—suddenly, from an unexpected direction—and you know everything is about to change even if it can’t all change overnight.

3.)I was enamoured by Tish’s immediate connection to the McComb ancestral house—especially as a reader and lover of LM Montgomery’s work. Montgomery so believed in attachment to place and how it nurtures one’s soul and creativity and how it springs into a life of its own. Is Tish’s new house in Noble inspired by a house from your past or present?

It’s not inspired by a particular house, but I love old houses in general. My favorites are from the Craftsman era, maybe because I grew up in a little California bungalow that was built around 1920. I can’t look at an old house without wondering who lived there through the years, its successive residents looking out the same windows on an ever-changing world. It’s easy to forget that the world was “modern” to our ancestors, and that our descendants will one day think how quaint and old-fashioned we were. But no matter how much life changes, people will always need a place to call home.


4.)You kind of take the idea of the Prodigal Son story from the Bible and turn it on its ear---meaning that while Mel is indeed a prodigal --- the home she returns to is not her original home, the fatted calf slaughtered is not done so by her family, rather her new family of George, Calv and Tish. Did you always know that Mel’s path would take a slightly different turn?

As soon as Mel showed up in my head, I knew she didn’t belong in a cliché-ridden prodigal story. I studied the parable’s concrete details (garments, sandals, jewelry, a hated job) and I tried to flip everything in new directions. Most of all, I wanted to show the sad reality that many prodigals can’t relate to the lucky boy in the parable because they don’t have a good father-figure to come home to. For instance, Mel’s father doesn’t give her a robe and a ring; he orders her to return the items she “borrowed” from him. She won’t find a welcome under his roof, but that’s where grace comes into the picture.



5.)Mel, Tish and George are so different in many ways; but so similar in others. Each has such an attachment to the past: Mel to her family (and even to GWTW!), George to the Antiques, Tish to the story of her ancestors and their beautiful letters. Why do you think the past ---the exploration of the past--- and the excavation of its wrongs and rights—so greatly informs who we are.

The more we know about the past, the more we know about the present and about ourselves. Recently someone asked me why someone would bother to film a documentary about a little-known episode of strange times within a particular church, and my answer was that the filmmaker is a historian who wants to know not just what happened but alsowhy it happened so we can learn from it. I think we’re all amateur historians when we delve into our family histories. If we can understand how and why the choices of previous generations still affect us today, we just might make better choices in our own lives.

6.) Who are some of your favourite authors? Books?

Prepare to be yanked around through a bunch of different genres. Frederick Buechner’s Godric is one of my all-time favorite novels, and his nonfiction is wonderful too. I also love Catherine Marshall’s Christy and Siri Mitchell’s Kissing Adrien, two of the best clean romances ever. I love James Lee Burke, Dorothy L. Sayers, and P.G. Wodehouse. To Kill a Mockingbird is also on my keeper shelf. So is I Conquer the Castle by Dodie Smith. If these books have anything in common, it might be that their writers have distinctive and authentic voices that draw me into their worlds and make me want to stay.

Meg, I don’t think I will be able to get the lovely after-taste of this book out of my mouth for a long time. I will keep wanting to sink back into the pages again and again. Please tell me what is next. And please, please, PLEASE confirm that you will sprinkle a gentle amount of romance in the same way you did in Gone South

Thank you! A Stillness of Chimes is coming out in February. It will include a fair sprinkling of romance, plus some family drama, music, and a mystery, all against the backdrop of the Southern Appalachians.

see guys? Meg's a kindred spirit! just look at that reading list :-)

This has NOTHING to do with books---- random random random White Collar moment

So, sometimes as an avid facebooker with a lot of American facebook friends, I like to send them little presents when they are feeling blue. Today, a good friend of mine was having a bad day and so I thought to myself....self! you need to find her a cute video or something to make her smile.


Somehow, don't ask me how I did it, I stumbled upon this.


And it isn't right to confine it to facebook.  White Collar-ites of the world, it would be EVIL of me to keep this from you




...don't think.... just enjoy

Carol Cox and the Great Mercantile Mystery Sweepstakes

Summary:

In TROUBLE IN STORE, author Carol Cox’s latest novel, out-of-work governess Melanie Ross is forced to pursue her last resort: a dusty Arizona mercantile she inherited from her cousin. But local shopkeeper Caleb Nelson is positive he inherited the mercantile, and he’s not about to let some obstinate woman with newfangled ideas take over. His solution? Marry her off–to someone else–as soon as possible! Then a sinister force brings mystery and murder to their doorstep, and this unlikely pair must band together to survive the trouble in store.

To celebrate the story, author Carol Cox and Bethany House Publishers are pleased to announce the MERCANTILE MYSTERY SWEEPSTAKES, and your chance to win one of three marvelous prizes!

Timeframe & Notifications: 

This giveaway starts June 3, 2013 and ends June 20, 2013 @ 11:59 pm (PST).  Winners will be selected Friday, June 21, 2013, and announced right here on the site.

GRAND PRIZE:

BLUSH & ROSES CHINA SET

Melanie causes all kinds of trouble in Caleb’s rough-edged mercantile, especially when she stocks the shelves with expensive, blush-colored china, rather than the usual tools and farm supplies!

Our Grand Prize winner will receive their very own set of Melanie’s fancy china: a vintage, Royal Standard cup and saucer set, service for four.

SECOND PRIZE:

MUSIC & MYSTERY PRIZE BOX

In Trouble in Store, the mystery of a beautiful music box causes sparks to fly between Caleb and Melanie.

Our Second Prize winner will have the chance to win an elegant music box, just like the one in the story. This hand-made Italian music box is made of inlaid layers of walnut and rosewood, and plays Melanie’s favorite tune, “Liebestraum”.

THIRD PRIZE:

COFFEE WITH CALEB GIFT PACK

The townspeople of Cedar Ridge come to Ross-Nelson mercantile for supplies, advice, news, and best of all, fresh-ground coffee! Caleb grinds Arbuckles coffee beans as a service for his regular customers.

Our Third Prize winner can enjoy their very own, 1880′s hand-ground coffee, with this antique grinder, Arbuckles coffee, and a pair of Cowboy and Cowgirl mugs.

How to Enter:
Go to http://authorcarolcox.com/giveaways/ and complete the entry box, anytime between June 3 and June 20.

Random Musings on 'Hello, Dolly!'

I love Barbra Streisand in her belle époque ( hello! Funny Girl )

I could seriously watch her forever. She is so strikingly alive. She owns the space she inhabits. She flounces and flairs and flings her arms wide and she invites you in: to every harsh and adorably edged quip laced with her New York vernacular, to everyone wide, dewy-eyed glance and profile shot, to her triumphs, insecurities and sheer, strong femininity.

Hello, Dolly! has some pretty terrible musical numbers; but upon recent re-viewing I didn’t pay attention to that. This, friends, is spectacle. This is the type of musical that was meant for the screen: broad sweeping canvases: from Yonkers to nameless parks and avenue parades in New York city in the late 1800’s. This is the type of musical that is best viewed as a lavish, too-much, too-often, over-hyped, over-sung, over-repetitive sweep of musical goodness. This is “Glee” – on speed…. As directed by Gene Kelly: a veteran of movie-musicals with the same timbre.

'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' goes on illogically forever. Random characters show up and dance across train tracks: it is the epitome of delicious musical frounce and frou-frou. The poorly-lyrical “Dancing” number spills from Irene Molloy’s hatshop ( and the misdaventures therein with Cornelius and Mr. Vandergelder ) and out into the street, magnetically picking up other couples like lint to Velcro. 'Before the Parade Passes By' starts in one of the movie’s soft and wistfully reflective moments: urging us to spare a moment for Dolly the vulnerable widow---not Dolly the control freak. Her lavish exterior winnows away and we are given a glimpse of lost hope and utter humanity; before she is swept into the whirlwind of coloured kaleidoscope noise once more; parading with hat and feathers aplomb, over-taking the streets and forcing the attention on her. Craving from a nameless, faceless crowd what she had just mused on losing beneath a tree but minutes before.



filminc.com

"Hello, Dolly!' itself is a wonderful song. Seriously. Louie Armstrong, people, and good old Satchmo shows up, too! But it goes ON FOREVER and EVER! Two reprises. Bridges galore …. The denouement gets you revved up just as the central chorus whirs in again.

This is movie musical whipped cream. This is the feeling after you eat turkey dinner. This is cake.

What interests me most about this entire mélange of strange and wonderful sparkles and tomfoolery is that it is a marriage bred of Thornton Wilder whose silent escapades epitomized communal American life: Our Town, for example, revels in the quiet, the normal, the quilted pattern of community, home, hearth. 'Hello,Dolly!' , based on his play the Matchmaker marries Yonkers with the big broad city; the small Hayfeed clerk with the brokerage of matrimony in the high town. The high city life spilling back into Yonkers at the end of the film ( with Cornelius and Irene ready to flee away with money from the safe and Dolly willing and ready to be tamed) and the eruption of whirl and business descending upon a rural and very 19th century setting.

'Hello, Dolly!', for all its frills and flounces and terrible lyrics makes a bolder statement, thus, it’s about change, disenchantment and …dare I say it…. urban expansion.