Miracle on Regent Street is what would happen if Shop Around
the Corner took Love, Actually on a date.
Evie is a sweetly good-natured stock-girl at the mythically
nostalgic department store Hardy’s.
Hardy’s is her beloved: her parents met and wooed each other there, all
good memories of childhood Christmases are confined in its spacious walls and
its very essence reminds Evie of the eras by-gone she loves to recreate in
decoration and wardrobe. Though
over-looked by the staff at the department store and known only incorrectly as
Sarah the Stock Girl, Evie has formed a delicious type of family including the
maven of the tea room and the delivery guy, Sam ( who has dimples --- you KNOW that's important to me ;) ).
When Evie learns, just before Christmas, that her beloved
store may not make it through the holidays due to dwindling customers, she
decides it needs a major revamp and makeover: one that will spirit it back into
the past she loves. Using the glamour of Old Hollywood and her reverence for
War Time fashion, Evie is like a little elf who sneaks in at night and
revitalizes the department store from its minimalist and modern look to days of
yore. In turn, and largely without
credit, Evie has overhauled the entire business and Hardy’s may make it after
all….Evie’s love life, however, and her choice between a sweetly adorable teddy
bear of a guy ( with a secret) and a dashing American who thinks she’s someone
she’s not… may not be wrapped up with such a picture-perfect bow.
This is an adorable book, everyone. A co-worker snapped it
up from a trip to the UK and brought it back to Canada before its anticipated
release over our way. It’s a broad and breezy read tapered with an
exceptionally acute sense of nostalgic fashion. It made me want to run out and
buy a gold powder compact and brighten my lips a pearly, glistening red. All of the ingredients you love in chicklit
are right here --- including the fact that it is set in dazzling London weeks
before Christmas --- but the department store family and scenario are what lend
it a unique and colourful edge.
I quite enjoyed spending some time with these characters-- so
choose a chilled March night, brew some tea, slink into an over-sized sweater
and watch Evie come into her own.
I know I never reviewed The Hunger Games on the bloggie here. I read the first book about 4 years ago and the subsequent two; but by then everyone was talking about them and I didn't feel I had anything to add to the pot....
This past week, I re-read the first book ( again I say, four years since I read it ) so that I could refresh my memory before I saw the film with friends yesterday. It is a good book. It is VERY fast-paced. It is a grade 8 teacher's dream-book for thematic enterprise.... characterization is great, even in minor characters. DYSTOPIA FOR THE WIN.
The film: The film PROVES how strong an adaptation can be when the author of the novels works on the screenplay and consults on the script. Although this world was slightly different than the one I had in my head ( this is what happens with fantasy, n'est pas?) this is an EXCEPTIONAL adaptation. Friends who had not read the books, missed some of the major romantic elements and a lot of Katniss' motivations, as we are bereft of her dialogue in the novels and the inner workings of her strategic mind.... I, however, thought it was strong.
Also, because, as mentioned, I have never jumped on the "let's all blog about the Hunger Games" ship, I am Team Peeta.
And with that..... go forth and film watch.
[I'm not even linking to the books or imdb. You all know what this is. You are inundated with it. I don't need to give you background information]
oh also..... Gale is ridiculously miscast in my opinion. But, I am not on his team, so who cares?
Cowboy Christian Chicklit? Does the genre even exist? Well, it does
now thanks to Denise Hunter’s Accidental Bride: a whip-smart and sassy tale of Shay
Brandenberger, a Montana rancher who is raising her daughter alone and Travis
McCoy who left her high-and-dry at the altar when she was barely more than a
teenager to earn fame and fortune on the Texan rodeo circuit.
In dire straits and threatened with the impending loss of
her farm, Shay begs God for a miracle---
what she didn’t bank on is Travis, a would-be guardian angel who steps in to
ranch alongside her in the nick-of-time.
Hunter’s an extremely fresh and confident voice in the
Christian contemporary romance genre. She has a knack for describing every day
ranch life: from founder’s picnics to bull-wrangling and square dancing to
little wood churches with age-old hymns drifting to the rafters. Into this alluring canvas, she peppers her
plot with two independently strong and striking people who are bound to be
together; but just need a shove in the right direction.
When Travis and Shay learn that they are, indeed, and quite
ironically ( and more than a little accidentally) legally married, they try to
live in the same house without acting on their growing rekindled
attraction. But, soon, this marriage of
convenience leads the way for accidental midnight-run-ins, sweet faithful
gestures, stolen kisses and a whole lot of spice.
If you are looking for a summery light fiction read then I
definitely recommend this thoroughly unique addition to the genre. I especially
liked any scene where Shay’s delightfully brash friend Abigail showed up with her knowing sarcasm and winsome words: some in good advice, some
just in healthy attraction for Shay’s new helpmate.
This is the last in the Matchmaker’s series by Kaye Dacus. The first two novels focused on friends Zarah and Caylor: single, professional and intelligent women in their 30s who navigate the Christian Singles Scene and dating world while hoping to bump into true love. The third, features plucky editor Flannery McNeill: who wants nothing to do with handsome charming men and, to put it bluntly, is waiting for the perfect dork.
As is the over-arching premise in the series, a set of feisty grandparents intends to pair up their grandchildren in order to ensure that they are marrying amongst each other and into comfortable stock. Sports marketer Jamie O’Conner and Flannery are the latest to be eyed by the wily elder generation as the perfect match. But, when Flannery and Jamie notice a spark between their grandparents, the matchmaking tables are turned.
Dacus knows the editing and publishing world very well as is quite evident in the novel. As this is the world I work in I was immediately familiar with the space and meetings and obligations of Flannery’s everyday life. Dacus also, as often mentioned, has a wonderful grasp on the experience of single women in their 30s in faith-based communities. Not just average women; but thinking career women with wonderful jobs, a lot of backbone and a reluctance to settle for anything less than perfect.
Flannery and Jamie’s story played out in a lighter, bouncier fashion than the first two love stories in the series. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek here as well as some great epistolary moments featuring emails between the four main players in the book. It was bubbly and light and kept the pace flying. I appreciated the extra characters, like Jack Colby, Flannery’s boss ( who seemed gay to me--- an interesting portrayal in modern religious fiction) and Danny, Jamie’s longtime friend.
What really stole my heart and kept it the contradiction between Jamie’s killer good looks and polished demeanor and his passion for Arthurian legends, gaming and online fanfiction. Jamie is hilarious in his pursuit of all things pertaining to the legendary Sir Gawain. In fact, we learn that he and Danny would dress up to appear at blockbuster film openings of King Arthur movies (not unlike those Lord of The Rings fans we all know and…erm… love(?) )
This book was snappy and sweet and I like when a geek in chic clothing sets out to find a girl and gets one who, in turn, is just as hopelessly geeky as he is.
Cute book! Fun time! Back to finish theRansomeseries and you will all have some more Kaye Dacus on the blog
Remember how the best part of the Nero Wolfe series is
Archie Goodwin--- well, actually Archie’s amazingly sarcastic lines?---- get ready to
love Elvis Cole ( if you don’t already love Elvis Cole)
I have read Robert Crais sporadically; but had never gone to
the beginning of the series and this is a strong debut and so edgy; even for
its initial publication...And while Elvis Cole isn’t EXACTLY like Archie Goodwin, it’s
that sparkly sarcastic quipping and delineating observation of character that
drives the book at breakneck speed.
Elvis has a Jiminy Cricket collection and wants to be Peter
Pan. He’s funny. So funny. So fresh. I immediately thought of Spenser; but
found Joe Pike to be more appealing (if as reserved on the talking front) as
Hawk.
There are a couple of things I especially like about Robert
Crais. First, his background is in screenwriting so there is a palpably
tangible tension to his action that plays very much like a film rolling in your
mind’s eye. Secondly, and somewhat famously, though often offered, Crais has
refused to sell the rights to the Pike/Cole novels as he continues to write
them---preferring his readers to have their own imaginative conceptualization
of his characters. While this is somewhat
contradictory of one who has worked so steadily in the television market, it
just shows that he recognizes the dichotomy between imagination and adaptation
and further proves that he is not willing to sell out. For me, this shows a lot
of authorial integrity.
I am just about finished Taken: which is night and day from
Monkey’s Raincoat: and the most recently released Pike/Cole novel. It burns rubber
this book flies by so fast; but Crais whittles down prose with intention, he
knows what descriptors to leave in and where the mind can easily paint a canvas
he refuses to fill in.
Now, for a couple of quotes from Monkey's Raincoat I laughed at and loved:
"It's easy to sound good. All you have to do is leave in the parts where you act tough and forget the parts where you get shoved around."
“I took a deep breath and smiled sweetly. “I’m going to
check around outside,” I said. It was either that, or hit them with a chair”
“The rich black of the canyon was dotted with jack-o’-lantern
lit houses, orange and white and yellow and red in the night. Where the canyon
flattened out into Hollywood and the basin beyond, the lights concentrated into
thousands of blue-white diamonds spilled over the earth.”
“I woke up just before nine the next morning and caught the
tail end of Sesame Street. Today’s episodes was brought to us by the letter D.
For Depressed Detective”
Happy International Women's Day ---to celebrate, I thought I would feature a woman who inspires me daily: my sister Leah.
Leah making some new friends
Leah is a professor at Tyndale University with a phd in Global Governance. She has dedicated much of her adult life to campaigning for education as a universal right. She is so well-beloved in Africa, a continent she has traversed across doing research, working for CIDA and infiltrating with her passion for its culture and people, she has been affectionately known as Mama Africa. Leah speaks Swahili and makes friends everywhere---with everyone. I have never met anyone with such a genuine love and zest for humanitarianism than Leah. She evokes Gandhi's immortal statement that we must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Recently, Leah was in Senegal under a taut political climate and there she was able to meet and befriend a Sengalese boy. She articulately recounted this experience. Why Leah's experiences always stand out is that she goes expecting to be changed and allows it to happen. She does not approach a culture believing that she will be the change or inference it needs; rather, she becomes a vessel ready to be filled by the experience. If you go somewhere expecting to leave and indelible print, the result can be forced and can contradict the purest forms of International Relationships in a developing world. If instead, you approach the situation as a blank, open page hoping to be intercepted by life-altering moments, then both parties will be positively effected by the ramification.
AMADOU printed with permission by Leah McMillan Yesterday I met Morninga on the street - a Senegalese man about my age who makes
a living selling paintings, wood carvings, and various other artifacts. His
shop is directly across from the guesthouse where I'm staying, meaning that I
was able to hang out in his shop for quite a while last night knowing that I
could simply run back to my room when manifestations broke out (yes, it's more
'when' rather than 'if' right now).
Yes, he wants a white wife, but beyond that little barrier to our friendship,
I really learned a lot from our chat. Like all Senegalese at the moment, his shop was tuned into the radio. It was
blasting in Wolof (interspersed with the soundtrack from Chariots of Fire - no
joke!) and he was able to translate for me the current tensions in the
country.
In Senegalese culture, if you're talking with someone or a group of people
for a while, you must take 'taya', small little cups of traditional tea. So, as
we were chatting away, his brother, about 12 years of age, came into the shop
and offered me and Morninga the taya. His brother, Amadou, only speaks Wolof,
but I was able to say the few small words I now know. He laughed at my butchering of his language, we became friends, and he left
Morninga and I to continue our chatting.
This morning, Amadou was on the street and again I chatted with him - small
greetings ('salaams') to start the day.
About an hour and a half ago, I was coming home when I ran into Morninga and
Amadou again. I entered Morninga's shop and again we began to chat, as I
learned more about the political tensions in the country. So, again, Amadou left and came back with the taya.
As I was getting ready to leave, Amadou began to say something to his brother
in Wolof. Morninga immediately began taking a painting off display and rolling
it. "Amadou wants to give this to you as a gift." I quickly replied, " No, no, it's too much." This painting was a fairly
large size and could honestly get him quite a profit, especially living across
from a guesthouse with so many tourists.
Morninga quickly interjected that this was a very special moment because it
was the first painting Amadou had ever made.
In Senegalese culture it is rude to refuse a gift, but I felt very
embarrassed, so I inquired further. Why was he giving me such an honour with this special gift?!
Amadou, through Morninga's translation, began to explain that
normally tourists simply walk by without greeting or stopping. Amadou liked
that I was kind to him, that I took time for the taya, and that I remembered him
even the next day in the morning. He saw me on the street playing soccer
with other kids and talking to everyone and he could tell I had a kind heart
that didn't care about the difference between black and white people. I was so
kind he wanted to do something special for me. All this out of the mouth of a
12 year-old!
Obviously I began to tear in the shop. Then Amadou, a Muslim boy who has never in his life touched a woman outside
his immediate family gave me another special honour - I got a hug :) It was a
VERY awkward hug...but a hug nonetheless. I told Amadou that I will hang his painting in a special place in my home so
I remember to pray for him everyday.
I'm not writing this story to brag about myself. There are so many times
when I rush through life too quickly, when I don't take time to greet people, to
smile, to really get to know every person I meet. But I do write this story to share with you about a little boy named
Amadou. A little boy who was wearing the same ratty t-shirt (labelled 'Burberry') two
days in a row. A little boy who probably owns nothing else to wear.
A little boy who found it in his heart to give me one of his most precious
possessions - the very first painting he ever made. Coming from an artisan family, this is probably his life's profession,
especially given that he speaks only Wolof and no French (an indication that he
doesn't go to school). And I have the privilege of hanging his first painting
in my home.
And you know what he wanted in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He didn't ask for money. He didn't as for "un petit cadeau". He didn't ask
for a visa. He didn't even ask for me to marry his brother.
I dropped down on this country for merely a week, taking away so much, and
giving back so little. If you read the media out of Senegal right now, you'd think that this was a
chaotic country, with thousands of angry, conflict-causing, rioters.
Boistrous. Hateful. Violent.
But in the short time I've been here, the Senegal I know is the one displayed
by Amadou. Caring. Generous. Thoughtful. As I hear of teargas and grenades, as I hold onto the backseat while my car
departs from the burning wreckage of protester barricades, as I run from stones
thrown by protesters...
As the media makes sure that all of the above is the only story out of
Africa...
I clutch my painting, I tear over dinner, and I remember... Africa is not just politics, war, famine or hardship. Africa, in its purest form, at its very heart, is Amadou.
So, I think you all remember I bought a 3-1 Brides of Bonneterre set at a Christian
bookstore about a month ago and I read Stand-in Groom right away.
Well, I just finished Menu for Romanceand A Case for Love:
featuring friends and family to the Guidry family: a prominent aspect of the
mythical town of Bonneterre, Louisiana. Indeed, Bonneterre becomes a character
of its own: a Cajun-laced spicy sphere of historic buildings, Southern charm,
delectable dishes, sticky heat, sprawling plantations and a plentitude of
events and weddings to be planned, by Anne Laurence nee Hawthorne (of Stand-in
Groom) and Meredith Guidry and Major O’Hara, planner and chef alike.
I really enjoyed spending time in the world of these
characters. The plots of each novel in the trilogy were easily usurped by the
friendly nature of the characters. At more than one point in each tale, I was
surprised not to look up and find myself sitting across from one of them over a
glass of sweet tea.
A Menu for Romance
softly etches the slow-blooming love story between Chef Major O’Hara and event
planner Meredith Guidry. Unbeknownst to both of them, they have each harboured
a mutual flame for 8 years; however Major’s complicated family life and
Meredith’s certainty that Major is attracted to the beautiful news reporter,
Alaine Delacroix, keep their paths from crossing until much, much later in the
story. Like all good romances, you know
before the characters do what will bring their eventual happiness and you wait,
on baited hook, for them to catch up. Elements I appreciated about this story
include the amount of knowledge Dacus displays about culinary arts and cooking
shows. I found all of these scenes in
Major’s world to be authentic. Further, Major’s mother suffers from
Schizophrenia and the compassionate scenes involving her care at a supervised
facility, Major’s terms with his mother and their mutual love of John Wayne
movies was a treat to read.
A Case for Love finds beautiful Alaine Delacroix at odds
with charming lawyer Forbes Guidry when she understands that the Guidry
enterprise might be over-taking her family business, she tries desperately to
quell her developing interest in the charming lawyer in order to secure her
family business and name. Several misguided turns, misunderstandings and a few
ballroom dancing lessons help pave the way to eventual happiness. The strongest
element of this novel is the characterization of Forbes. I must confess when I
first “met” him in Stand-in Groom, he rubbed me the wrong way. I think this was
intentional on Dacus’ part and she carefully fleshed him out into a
fully-realized sympathetic character in the third novel. While he didn’t
capture my heart to the extent Major O’Hara and George Laurence did (perhaps,
like his romantic counterpart Alaine, because they both seem to physically represent
the “traditional” movie-star couple), I did enjoy reading his ups and downs in
the dating world. In fact, the dating world is explored more closely here than
in the previous two novels due to one of Forbes’ successful enterprises: an
online dating site called Let’s Do Coffee.
I really enjoyed the ballroom dancing sequences and the
careful way Dacus coupled dance skills with the talkative and sometimes
clashing relationship of Forbes and Alaine.
I am now working through the last two novels in the Ransomeseries: so Dacus will pop up on this blog again soon!
Over a year ago, I was thrilled to read and review The Healer's Apprenticeby what I found to be an essential voice for the Christian teen market. I will be the first to say that the Christian market is decidedly lacking in strong fiction for teenagers; but Dickerson is changing that and she is a welcome voice. Like The Healer's Apprentice and its soft re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty tale, The Merchant's Daughter re-positions the Beauty and the Beast story in feudal England. The titular merchant's daughter, Annabel, becomes conscripted servant to Lord Ranulf le Wyse, a harsh, enigmatic master to whom she is indentured to serve to pay a family debt.
Ranulf le Wyse is a very Byronic figure who immediately put me in mind of Edward Rochester. Due to an accident years earlier, his hand is disfigured, his face blighted with a scar and his blinded eye hidden behind a patch. Ranulf is the beast figure in the story: a worthy and brash counterpart to the beautifully-spirited Annabel.
This is a delicious love story; but not only because it believably metes out the growing attraction between the lord of the manor and his fair servant. Dickerson does well at infusing the novel with the Christianity which would have been prevalent to residents of this era and sphere. For example, the Holy Writ is available only through the Latin Vulgate. The denomination is completely Catholic and women are scorned for reading: especiall scripture. Annabel, having been once a wealthy merchant's daughter speaks and reads numerous languages and, as part of her servitude to Lord le Wyse, reads daily to him from his own treasured copy of the Bible.
Often characterized in several of the re-tellings of this tale, is the role of an enchantress or seductress who serves at the initial fall of the Beast figure. Here, we learn that Ranulf is a widower once seduced by the beauty of one who did not love him; rather his station and monetary value. To further emphasize the temptress motif, Dickerson does well at reminding the reader of the garish view of women during these primitive times. Women, as preached by the priest at the pulpit, were seen to be the fall of man, seen to be deceptive forces, even more so if blessed with the beauty of one such as Annabel. Ranulf muses: "Beautiful women weren't to be trusted or allowed into a man's heart when that man was less than perfect. He'd learned that lesson well." At one point the priest explains how dangerous reading is to a woman: "I am not sure your motives are pure. A woman reading the Word of God? Are you able to interpret the Scriptures? You aren't even dedicated to God. Never said your vows. Nay. You are to rely upon your priest to give you the interpretation of God's Word. I will tell you what you need to know." As you can see, Annabel is victim of a patriarchal word where men were not only to be the studious conveyers of the scripture, they were in charge of interpreting it for women and the common public. This is years before Luther and years before the veil was torn to allow for a public personification of the Holy Word. Annabel's desire to draw closer to the faith that has been represented to her in her minimal encounters with the Bible is often thwarted by the separation marring her to her position and her sex.
Indeed, the greatest beauty found in the story is the pure-hearted nature of Annabel and it is this, rather than the physical grace of her movement and countenance that ultimately wins the hand of the Lord. Their relationship becomes further secured when they share the Holy Word together: Annabel thirsty to learn more about Christ in writing (so much so that she considers entering a nunnery just to be near it).
The research in this writing is wonderful and you really do feel like you peel back centuries to step into Annabel and Lord Le Wyse's time. I also found the descriptive writing and imagery to be a beautifully-woven tapestry; an apt canvas for Dickerson's renewal of a fairy tale.... like this sentence: "...she once again caught sight of the sky, which had bruised blue and purple with clouds and threatened rain" or "...his shoulders swayed, like a hewn tree just before it collapses."
The faith in this book is well met with the time period, as mentioned. But, is rather inspiring as well. "How wonderful to know that Jesus didn't condemn women like the priest did. Even with a sinful woman, He didn't rant about how evil she was." Nearing the end of the novel, Ranulf and Annabel discuss my favourite portion of the Bible, found in Romans 8:1 and the the theme of condemnation and Christ's atoning grace intercepts again.
For those who are familiar with the Disneyfied portrayal of the story: there is a rose, there is the sacrifice of Ranulf to put his love for Annabel before his own desire to keep her.... it goes on and on in a colourful carousel and the pages will rapidly slip between your fingers.
I found this to be even stronger than The Healer's Apprentice and I cannot WAIT until Dickerson's next tale.
While I have lived in Toronto for over a decade, my hometown is Orillia, ON. where my parents still live.
Excitingly, a young up-and-coming author with Harper Collins Canada is also from Orillia. I remember meeting Matt in passing and I wish him all of the greatest success on his new book.
I plan to read The Carpenter when my review schedule dies down a little bit and will let you all know if, indeed, it elicits the comparison to Mystic River, so boasted by the enthusiastic editor.
GO ORILLIA! ...and fiction that shows apt shadier sides of Leacock's Sunshine City.
Sometimes I spend my off-time reading clever books and watching clever films and filling my brain with all sorts of deep goodies which I then impart on you, fair public....
Other times, I just watch a heck of a lot of White Collar because USA Network has the best American television there is .... most of it doesn't air in my country; but, we do what we can (and purchase a lot of dvds)
So, season three came to an end and, as per their usual DELIGHTFULLY AWESOME CLIFFHANGER season finales, I was left going....asdjfkla;d fjkald jakl;dj kl;a jdskfl; jaklsd; jfl;ajdsk fajsdklf jaskdl; jkasd jifaioe ui ahui gfiuasd!!!!!!! ( or something like that.... with more question marks)
When I received Chasing Mona Lisafrom Graf Martin
Communications (on behalf of Revell), I was inspired to immediately purchase
its predecessor The Swiss Courier by the same authors, Tricia Goyer and Mike
Yorkey.
The strongest element of both books is their fast-paced
timelines, deft characterization, skill for WWII-era history and aura of
suspense and espionage. Indeed, readers of Bodie and Brock Thoene’sThe Zion Covenant Series will feel strongly about the depth and competence of the
research and fans of Sarah Sundin and the Allie Fortune Series will immediately
feel at home with the time period.
In both novels, intrepid Swiss OSS agents Gabi Mueller and
Eric Hofstadler race against time from their neutral Switzerland to perform
daring operations which could turn the tide of the Allies’ integration in the
war. The Swiss Courier finds Gabi
charged with rescuing a German physicist working on the deadly atomic bomb. Chasing Mona Lisa sees Eric and Gabi
attempting to keep Da Vinci’s masterpiece from falling into enemy hands.
The former begins with the events dramatized in the movie Valkyrie and makes careful note of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his
careful spiritual work to undermine and overthrow Hitler. In both books, the research is well-plotted
out and Yorkey and Goyer’s grasp of the German language and Swiss-German
dialect is plausible. I mentioned to a friend how much I appreciated their
infusion of German terms and phraseology without immediate translation. It
feels like Yorkey and Goyer have eluded the tendency in the Christian market
for talking down to the readers: their plots are swift and complicated, there
are a myriad of characters to keep pace with in both offerings and there is a
saturation of interesting and noteworthy information we are expected to take in
stride. While some readers may initially find the twists and skips from one
plot setting to another to be convoluted, you soon fall into ease and become
accustomed to how fast the pages turn and how you are spirited from one
scenario to the next. While Chasing Mona
Lisa did not keep my attention to the same degree as The Swiss Courier, I very
much enjoyed meeting Gabi and Eric and look forward to more of their adventures
in the future.
I received Chasing Mona Lisa for review from Graf-Martin Communications on behalf of Revell, a division of Baker Publishing. I purchased The Swiss Courier in conjunction
Words Spoken True is a well-researched look into the world of newspaper reporting in mid-19th Century Louisville, Kentucky. Tensions in American politics are high: especially when it comes to the ever-present recognition of a growing immigrant populous. Adriane Darcy, raised in her father's newspaper offices, is determined to find a story no matter the cost. Her fierce competitor, Blake Garrett, has a controversial new style of reporting which requires him to work in and amongst those most dangerous in order to excavate a scoop. From high social parties to trailing a Jack-the-Ripper like murderer, Gabhart keeps the tension taut and strong as she peppers her well-developed world with information about this mounting medium.
Adriane Darcy is exactly the type of heroine I seek in my historical Christian fiction: somewhat bound by the norms of proper society ( and in Adriane's case even bound to a loveless engagement) who breaks free from the structure of her time to pursue her heart's desire and calling. I was quite fond of Adriane who read like a flesh-and-blood heroine and not remotely like a cardboard cut-out or usual archetype of this ilk of fiction. I especially loved her interactions with Beck, her father's pressman. Their mutual care and banter kept the pages turning. Moreover, I enjoyed Adriane's dedication to thwarting the suit of the boring, but proper Stanley Jimson.
Blake Garrett is a dashing, be-moustached 19th Century hero and in the few encounters that Blake and Adriane experience with each other early on, the chemistry is palpable and the sparks fly. Indeed, it is interesting to pit these two against each other because regardless of their differences and well-balanced competitive nature, their similarities include a passion for reporting and exposing stories.
This is a prime bit of Americana with enough carefully plotted historical and political research to entice those who are looking for a story in the genre that relays a slightly less-explored area of US history with mounting regional and national tensions.
While this is a galloping romance with some heart-wrenching scenes of distant and formative love, it is also a well-knitted suspense and most atmospheric when our intrepid reporters are in the face of danger while pursuing this faceless killer.
My friend Ruth also reviewed this book last week and I invite you to visit her blog and read what she thought!
This book was received from Graf-Martin Communications for review and I thank them for the opportunity to explore this exciting new Revell title
Chateau of Echoes is my first “keeper” book of 2012. The first book that makes me want to leaf through it again in search of all of the treasures and snippets and revelatory moments which may have evaded me during my inaugural reading. Siri Mitchell, alongside Lynn Austin and Dale Cramer, is my favourite Christian novelist.I have adored her previous work and her strong literary elements and thematic devices. In fact, I was thrilled to be an INSPYs judge when She Walks in Beauty received the well-deserved award for Best Historical Novel of the year.
Chateau of Echoes is a thesis on passion: passion for stories, passion for legend, passion for research and passion for history--- social history----food, wine, dancing, exploration, myths and stories. In fact, excavation runs as an apt undercurrent throughout the text. Widowed Freddie owns a chateau in Brittany, France. Here, she is pursued by the many readers and lovers of the history of a young medieval diarist named Alix: whose grasp of English and languages is remarkable and rare considering the station of women in her age.
The writing is beyond what is usually housed in the Christian fiction genre. If you are an avid Christian fiction reader like myself, who also has a penchant for sleek literary merit then this is a book you can unashamedly thrust at your non-Christian friends. The themes of God and acceptance are grappled with in a natural and stormy way. Indeed, like so many of Mitchell’s heroines, Freddie’s coming-to-terms with Faith and Grace is a tumultuous journey which requires some semblance of self-sacrifice and the giving of one’s way to a Higher Power. We learn that Freddie’s deceased husband was an atheist and the guilt that has accrued from his passing keeps Freddie at a distance from her Creator. One Christmas returning to church after a long drought, she explains: “Looking back on those years, I realized I had missed the wonder of Christmas and the contemplation of the divine. I missed meditating on the sacred moment when God reached down and touched the earth. Peter viewed Christmas as an opportunity to ease the collective guilt our culture had accumulated throughout the year.” And further: “Neither of us understood a word; but the liturgy was so familiar it seemed as if no one was there to actually hear it, but to experience it. To enter a stone country church lit by candlelight on the holiest evening of the year.” The mystery and mystic nuances of the celebrated Season help broaden the theme of legend and spun tale. For example, the teenage diarist Alix, so followed in the tale and such an object of affection for a visiting phd student and the brash Robert Cranwell: author of numerous celebrated novels now only coming to terms with his desire to write something of greater substance, spends the ilk of a season penning a great mystery play.
The relationships between men and women past and present is not easily dissolved when taken in great, galloping gulps as this novel affords. In the past we have Alix and her relationship, as of yet unconsummated by her husband, Awen. Her struggle to come to grips with the man who approaches her bedchamber only to weave a tapestry of narrative ( not unlike a Scheherazadean tale) each night echoes the modern day presence of Cranwell, the competent writer who invades Freddie’s life and chateau for months. Yet, to mull on the idea of male and female voice one must also consider the great pains given to make each voice heard across the ages: sure, Awen spins the nightly tales (painstakingly researched legends and fables collected by Mitchell); but it is Alix who is modern in her ability to read and write many languages and script a Mystery play that her husband will ultimately take credit for. In present, it is Robert Cranwell who will pen Alix’s story for the world to hear; but the narrative voice belongs to Freddie.
The presence of Guinevere, of the story of the Holy Grail, of King Arthur and his Knights and of Joseph of Arimathea and the history of the grail are all prominent here and so well infused you feel as if they are sparking off the page and you are a guest at the Chateau in a similar manner to Cranwell.
Mitchell is an ardent traveler and her details as to French culture and food ( even on a sojourn Freddie takes to Italy) are so well-penned you are gifted a sort of travelogue within in a novel. I know for certain that I want to hunt out all of the magical portions of France painted in this tale. Her passion becomes even more acute when paired with the amount of detail provided at the end of the novel: recipes, Breton History, even a Medieval calendar to guide readers through the inserted passages of Alix’s diary.
The balance between the past and the present and the seamless weaving of their thoughts on love, doubt, faith and redemption are so well-balanced: like a carefully-tipped literary see-saw.
I was remarkably impressed by Mitchell’s fresh narrative style in A Constant Heart and more still when she penned Love’s Pursuit: what is destined to be a modern Christian classic. Chateau of Echoes should NOT be limited just to the faith-reader public. It is far too exceptional and far too beautifully written. Yes, there are elements of faith; but they are sprinkled to highlight constant doubt in the presence and the structure of history.
If you are in a book club you NEED to pick this book as a future read. There are some thought-provoking discussion questions included ( and not the usual range of “what colour of heroine’s hair would you most like to have” and trash like that)
I cannot believe this book has not found a larger publishing house or bigger reading base.
While reading the Rose of Winslow Street I was
reminded of Dickens’ Bleak House and of The Apothecary’s Daughter by Julie
Klassen.
Stay with me here: the former because it involves a piece of
property that two parties desperately want and lay claim to and a strong-willed
legal battle: the latter because Liberty Sawyer’s investment and knowledge of
botany rivals The Apothecary’s Daughter regency-infused methods of
pharmaceuticals. A stronger offering than Camden’s inaugural novel, TheLady of Bolton Hill, Camden has applied her penchant for strong research and
bold, non-flowery writing to write of the struggles and triumphs of a young
Romanian immigrant and his two sons and a young woman whose lifelong shame of
illiteracy has forced her to build an invisible wall. It will take a crisis of
faith and the unravelling of years of secrets to bring these two together and
sever the barrier between them.
I was impressed by this novel on two fronts: the
first in Camden’s natural flow and ease of storytelling and her insertion of
knowledge without infusing a sense of overladen fact-dropping; secondly by the
slow and easy and quite believable depth of characterization: from initial
remonstrance through kind and gentle understanding. Camden paints quite a
different portrait in the trials and travails of Michael Dobrescu, the swarthy strapping
ex-soldier, his two sons and his compatriots. Moreover, she dallies with the
fragments that will sew together the larger revelation, pulling the reader
along with finesse. She is a fine storyteller and her strong talent and
ease of verisimilitude helps stretch a bright canvas of late 19th
Century New England life.
I really enjoyed her attention to historical detail: from
the flow with which she expels descriptions of botany and the perfumes and
illustrations of soaps of the day, to a monumental eclipse, through the
prejudicial slighting of Michael and his family and more still to the
over-arching legal battle over ownership of the house on Winslow Street. There
is also dichotomy to the eponymous rose and readers will soon grasp the many
symbolic inferences of the flower to the characters and their growth.
This book was provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group
and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Also known as: The best time that Mel Ferrer played a brooding, drunken ex-dancer/soldier-turned-puppeteer-with-a-self-pity-problem-to-rival-Sydney-Carton
You may think I am making this up; but I'm not. A trailer to prove it:
Guys, have you seen Lili?Oh well, you have to.It’s a 1953 Leslie Caron vehicle (before Gigi) and works toward securing her as the best waif-elvin-french-girl-to-star-as-titular-heroines-with-cute-two-syllable-diminuitives.
Lili’s dad is dead and so she wanders the provincial French streets hoping to find a job.But, she doesn’t.The baker she was going to work for (an old friend of her father’s) is dead. She heads next door to see if she can help a tailor; but he is a douche... Such a douche that she is happy to be interrupted by a hot Carnival performer who is obviously the world’s slimiest guy. But, he has curly hair and an accent. Le voila!
And there be DANCING
So, she follows him around and meets up with his other two circus friends: one is pudgy, the other is Mel Ferrer(who is tortured and brooding and angry).
Lili tries her hand at waitressing for the carnival;but keeps getting distracted by the hot slimy carnival magician.Even though he’s a douche and obviously in a steamy relationship with Zsa Zsa Gabor.So, she does what any self-respecting French teenager stuck at the Carnival with No Money would do: she decides to commit suicide. She starts climbing up, up, up, up this tall pole-thing when a voice beckons her calling her name and calling her back.
The voice comes from a puppet.It’s Carrot Top, a rascally little red-head of the era of Howdy Doody. It’s a scary little thing.Then all the other puppets at the puppet stand burst through the curtain and talk to her: Reynardo the Fox, Golo the goofy giant, Marguerite the vain and pretty woman.
Lili is enchanted and interacts with the puppets genuinely.She doesn’t seem to recognize that they are actually controlled by Mel Ferrer’s Paul the Puppeteer. Soon, they inadvertently draw a crowd and Lili sings a cute song with the puppets and the whole world is beguiled.I mean, come on! Leslie Caron dancing with a puppet!
So, you see, I am actually ALL THE PUPPETS!
Cool.
So, we learn that Mel Ferrer’s puppeteer--- all war-ravaged and injured and broken from being reduced to puppetry after having been a promising dancer--- is all googly-eyed for Lili. Big time. Sydney Carton. But, he drinks too much wine and his way too gruff and doesn’t know how to explain that I HATE WHEN YOU TALK TO THAT DOUCHEBAG MAGICIAN---- not because I hate you; but because I WORRY for your VIRTUE, you pristine little pure-as-a-bell wait elf!
Lili is hired to perform with the puppets every night.It is LE CHARMING!She doesn’t ever seem to recognize that they are puppets and, as it is the one time that Mel Ferrer can be gentle with her, he asks her her private thoughts and uses the puppets to woo her in the way he wishes he could in “real” life.As soon as you can say Cyranode Bergerac, Mel Ferrer is following Lili around with eyes so enraptured with love and devotion that your heart will break.
And yet, fair readers, he is of the TORTURED, BROODING sort.But, heck! He can do a voice….
So the puppet thing goes on and these big wigs offer Mel Ferrer a puppet job away from the Carnival because he is so good and the Douchebag Magician is leaving the Carnival and Lili learns that Zsa Zsa is actuellement his wife! Zut alors!
So Mel Ferrer sees Lili talking to DBM and misinterprets it as VIRTUE HAVING BEEN COMPROMISED so SLAPS HER (!!!?????!) and she decides to leave the carnival and the puppet team.But, before she does: Carrot Top and Marguerite and all of her puppet friends beseech her to stay. She has a tearful farewell with them and just as she hugs them, she notices that they are trembling: well, the hands holding them and propelling them are trembling and then LILI finally realizes that MEL FERRER is the guy she has been talking to all along. … telling her deepest secrets and desires through the PUPPETS actually controlled by him! And she is conflicted and he is all, like, I AM THE PUPPETS: I, like every man, embody their perplexing personalities and characteristics and the viewer is all, like: DUDE! That’s some sort of metaphor!
But, Lili still leaves the Carnival…. And she walks down a warm, musty grey road ONLY to dream a puppet dance sequence (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)Every time she dances with one of the puppets (now life-sized) they imaginatively fade into their creator…. And Lili is like DUDE! MEL FERRER is ACTUALLY HOT and he ACTUALLY LOVES ME!
So…. She runs back to the carnival and THEY MAKE OUT and have one of those awkward 1950s-era neck-tilt kisses and the PUPPETS clap from the puppet stand ( although who is making the puppets move is beyond me because Mel “puppetmaster” Ferrer is getting busy with Lili….
WHO IS MANNING THE PUPPETS?
But, ANYWAYS… it is the best movie ever. Also, Mel Ferrer was something else because, for a time, he was AUDREY HEPBURN'S HUSBAND! Also, Mel is short for Melchor. True Story.
Lauren Willig’s enchanting Pink Carnation series is
basically Georgette Heyer meets The Scarlet Pimpernel with a bit of Bridget
Jones. If ever I were to paste the term “something for everyone”, I would
use it as a label for this fresh series. Fresh, still, and uncannily, seeing as it is on its 9th
book!
But the plot-within-a-plot structure, coupled with Willig’s
devotion to the time period and her fervor for splendid and sparkly research
provide readers with another glimpse into the world of romance, danger and
espionage: this time, featuring the newest in the network of the Pink
Carnation, the beautifully named Augustus Whittlesby and the New York
born Emma Morris Delagardie.
Sparks fly, intrigue ensues and it is up to the American
student Eloise and her erstwhile love interest Colin Selwick to excavate once
more some of the most endearing, endangering, sexy and suave history of the
British Empire.I especially enjoyed Augustus Whittlesby’s penchant for bad
poetry. Of all of Willig’s incredible captivating regency heroes, this one proved
to be the closest descendant of Sir Percy Blakeney, that indomitable and
elusive Pimpernel.
I realize that my thoughts here are rather over-arching and
not as specific to this particular novel and that is because, after looking
through my blog, I don’t think that I have ever written about this series
previously and I want readers to pursue the entire series. ALL OF IT! I have
enjoyed all 9 books immensely and crave many, many more and I would heartily
recommend starting at the very beginning ( especially for the well-worthwhile
introduction to the Pink Carnation ring and to Eloise and Colin and their
charming exploits around a beautiful old English manor: said to house the
greatest secrets of the scheming carnation and her floral-power counterparts …)
I mostly enjoy Willig’s work because her passion for the
period and for romance and for the tongue-in-cheek reverence that follows is so
deftly acute. It infuses every one of her books and makes for rip-roaring fun.
Even though her research loans pitch-perfect verisimilitude
to each of her endeavours, it is her sparkly wit and the devilish fun that hops
off of every page. Willig is more than a competent writer: her pen was
MADE for this era. She will throw in enough laughs, enough tawdry villainry, enough
steamy romance and enough wit and sparkle and denouement to thaw even the most
reluctant of historical readers.
I heartily recommend The Garden Intrigue, yes; but strongly
advise the entire series for optimal enjoyment.
Just see if you don’t fall for dashing Augustus and his
dastardly couplets, verses and rhymes
I read a ton of books and due to having a real job and time constraints and a social life, I cannot possible devote the time that is necessary to give them each a well-deserving (or perhaps not-so-well-deserving ) blog post. So, instead, I shall just note them here and you guys can go and read them ....
Merlin reading surrounded by lovely BOOKS
A Vision of Lucy by Margaret Brownley: sweet, spicy and competent voice in Christian historical fiction
The Heroine's Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore: a list that is slightly cliche, luckily refers to the Colour Purple, author obviously smitten with books
Irish Lady by Jeanette Baker: windswept, Romantic, the scope of Susanna Kearsley [please note that Irish Lady was received gratis c/o Sourcebooks for review
I happen to really like Arthur Slade. He's a swell guy. He keeps releasing ( and tracking ) e-book sales with, like, scientifically coloured graphs and stuff. So, you should, like, see what he's been up to: READ THIS
Also, according to this blog post, Buy a Book and Save a Butterfly ( true story)
This past weekend I re-visited two BBC miniseries from the Golden Age of adaptation: the mid-1990s
The first,Martin Chuzzlewit, was in honour of Dickens’ bi-centenary. The second, Middlemarch, was a borne of an impulse to revisit the complicated whir of industrial events spinning the cogs in the lives of Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate.
Martin Chuzzlewit has never been a favourite Dickens novel of mine. I do appreciate its thesis on avarice, selfishness and the slow, tormented descent into sheer villainess; but its peripheral characters far outshine the main characters and the love story of the younger Martin Chuzzlewit and the almost possibly good Mary Graham pale when I compare them to, say, Lucie and Sydney Carton or Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam. Nevertheless, the secondary characters are divinely, colourfully Dickensian: including the stalwart Tom Pinch, the greedy and horrifyingly abusive and murderous Jonas Chuzzlewit and the dastardly Pecksniff.
Montague Tig and Mrs. Gamp as well as the refined old gent Chuffey help round out a myriad of some of Dickens’ most eccentric oddities. Merry and Cherry Pecksniff are deliciously silly and frivolous and the adorable Mark Tapley revives some of the dragging scenes with his fresh zest and optimism.
Martin Chuzzlewit is known for painting a primitively dirty America to instill a sense of new world dread in its English readers. Certainly the scenes in the series which find Mark and Martin in supposed Eden (rather a malaria-ridden swamp) are as well-painted here as in the novel. The moments where the lovely and good-hearted and golden Tom Pinch looks up from the organ where he practices at the cathedral to feast on the angelic countenance of Mary Graham captures you with the same sense of devotedly unrequited romance as bespeaks Tom’s journey in between the pages of the novel.
The casting of the series is excellent. Paul Scofield provides a WONDERFUL Martin Chuzzlewit, Tom Wilkinson and Keith Allen (Sheriff of Nottingham in ROBIN HOOD!!!) are both equally horrifying villains as Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit respectively, Pete Postlethwaite is inspired as Montague Tigue …and John Mills makes a sweet Chuffey. I cannot recommend the casting highly enough. The character depth and realization is multi-dimensional here and no one is static: each revolves, evolves and changes due to circumstance and plot developments and it really is a wonderful to behold how they have transferred something so intuitively Dickens and painted it on screen.
Middlemarch remains one of my all-time favourite BBC series because it does well at capturing the essence of a remarkably complicated and twirling novel. Whenever I have talked to readers intimidated by beginning what has been called the definitive and finest Victorian novel, I tell them just to think of it as three different strands braided together: Dorothea Brooke and her untimely and loveless marriage to the wretchedly possessive scholar Edward Casaubon and later love of the romantic artist Will Ladislaw. Idealistic doctor Tertius Lydgate and his passion for research and reform: squelched by the vanity and social-assumption and spoiled nature of his beautiful wife, Rosamund Vincy.The good-hearted; but unlucky and wayward Fred Vincy and his pursuit for Mary Garth. Inasmuch as these three stories propel the themes of social reform, industrial change and growth in a small, middling community, all action revolves around/or is witnessed by these three sets.
Andrew Davies (one of the finest screenwriters and adaptors of all time) does well in focusing his attention to great detail when it comes to painting the definition of each of these three threaded storylines. Equal weight is given and enough backstory and character development ensues. Viewing Middlemarch is, at base, an enriching experience: the frosting is the eccentric population supporting these three sects: the wonderfully noble yet prone to gambling chaplain Mr. Farebrother, the tediously loquacious Arthur Brooke, the conniving Mr. Bulstrode who cannot leave his past behind him…. Plate this against the Great Reform Bill and the expansion of the railroad, and you have a wonderfully historical portrayal of life in a provincial community.
Like Les Miserables by Hugo and Hard Times by Dickens ( well, a lot of Dickens, at that); Middlemarch was written under the grain of social activism and the detailing of Brooke’s life in politics, Will Ladislaw’s dappling in the newspaper and Dorothea’s passion for her cottages and benevolently providing a better way of life for her land tenants give us a superb snapshot of the issues of the day. The casting is, as always, perfect and Dorothea is the perfect angel imprisoned by her ill-fated marriage, Tertius Lydgate is heart-wrenching as the doctor doomed to a life of remonstrance at the ill-advised expenditures of his clueless wife.
If you are a fan of BBC period pieces and you have not seen either of these, I heartily recommend them. Moreover, seek out their source material and bask in the multi-layered, heavily caricatured tapestry of Victorian Literature’s greatest.
Evie is a sweetly good-natured stock-girl at the mythically
nostalgic department store Hardy’s.
Hardy’s is her beloved: her parents met and wooed each other there, all
good memories of childhood Christmases are confined in its spacious walls and
its very essence reminds Evie of the eras by-gone she loves to recreate in
decoration and wardrobe. Though
over-looked by the staff at the department store and known only incorrectly as
Sarah the Stock Girl, Evie has formed a delicious type of family including the
maven of the tea room and the delivery guy, Sam ( who has dimples --- you KNOW that's important to me ;) ).
