It's a James Cain Festival....

Well, at least it is for A Reader's Respite ever since we discovered this founder of the American hard-boiled detective novel. We were smitten with Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice (if you missed our musings about that novel, check here) and curiosity led us to find out what else the man had written.



Imagine our surprise when we discovered Cain had quite an impressive bibliography to his name, including the novel Mildred Pierce.

Yes, for all of our fellow vintage film buffs, that Mildred Pierce. Turns out, Cain's novel was the basis for the Oscar-winning film starring Joan Crawford in 1945. (Is there anyone out there who hasn't seen this movie?) So A Reader's Respite set out on a mission: to get our grubby hands on this book.

Did you know that the studio wanted Bette Davis for the role? Davis turned it down because she didn't want to portray a character that had a 17 year old daughter.

Once we accomplished that task, we couldn't pull our nose out of the book. Like Postman, the movie had the inevitable deviations from the novel, probably because the book has deeper, darker psychological undercurrents.

Cain's characterization of Mildred herself is nothing short of genius...the reader understands her faults with sympathy and cheers her gumption even when it is misguided.

And Veda? We know you're all waiting to hear about Veda....the girl is just as much of a snotty little b*tch as Ann Blyth presented on the Silver Screen. Honestly, has there ever been a more evil daughter to ever grace the pages of a novel? Cain was a master, truly.

You can print this photo out and aim darts at Veda. But leave Crawford alone...we love her, wire hangars and all.

Michael Curtiz directed the 1945 film version that saved Joan Crawford's career. It was nominated for six Oscars that year, winning for Best Actress. Crawford's career was in the proverbial toilet at the time and Curtiz actually made her audition with a screen test (big slap in the face) before awarding her the role.


Next stop on our Cain adventure? Double Indemnity.

Kickin' off December with a winner....

The best way to kick off the last month of 2009 is with a winner.....

Diane, of The Book Resort fame, you're up!

Zap us a mailing address, Diane, and thanks to all who entered!

Fellow bloggers, we NEED YOUR HELP!

One of the toughest things to find time for in our insanely busy world (aside from actually reading, we mean) is keeping up with all of the wonderful blogs out there. And if you have kidlets running around like we do, you know it can be impossible to actually sit down at the computer and catch up on all the goings-on in blogland.

Apple has just made it easier via the iPhone. Yep, you guessed it....there's an app for that.


And so, A Reader's Respite needs your help! If you have a blog, please copy your blog's RSS feed either here on this post or via email. Importing our feeds would be the easiest solution, we know, but this is also an opportunity for everyone to use this post to get caught up on their feeds (or maybe even discover new ones!).

So don't be shy! Post your feeds for us!

War is hell.....

Despite all of our protests last year, A Reader's Respite caved and signed up for too many reading challenges. We can't think why we do this, unless it's to satisfy our unreasonable desire for lists. We're inexplicably drawn to any type of list, especially a list that is vaguely related to books.

So this being November, it is now the inevitable time of year where we start realizing how many reading challenges we are clearly NOT going to finish this year. We then kick ourselves, promise not to join any further reading challenges and then - and you saw this coming - sign up for a half dozen more come January 1st.

It is indeed a vicious cycle.

One of the worthy challenges that we are just not going to complete this year is the fabulous War Through the Generations Challenge, hosted by Anna and Serena. The challenge required participants to read a set number of books with a WWII theme in 2009. A Reader's Respite fell short of our goal of eight books, ultimately ending up with only five books read with this theme.


We're not sure how that happened, unless it was because we got slightly sidetracked this past year by some fabulous Arthurian fiction and became smitten with novels set during WWI. Either way, you might consider our failure a tad shameful, but A Reader's Respite is holding our head high because our five WWII-themed books this year were, on the whole, excellent reads.

Our last one this year was a novel written by Betsy Carter, called The Puzzle King. The novel falls slightly short of being a true family saga, but it does encompass the life of one man from birth to death.


Simon Phelps was sent to America in 1892 at the tender age of nine. Alone and homesick, Simon pulls himself up by his bootstraps, acquires an education, marries Flora and becomes a millionaire businessman in his lifetime. But he never stops searching for the family he left behind.

As Europe is swept up in the tide of Hitler and his Nazis, Simon and Flora are desperate to save their families from the impending war and atrocities.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction and although this is a novel, it is indeed rooted in fact. The lengths to which Simon and Flora went to rescue Jews from Hitler's Germany make for a compelling read and a important history lesson. Add this book to your list of WWII reading material....you won't be disappointed.



Oh....to Anna and Serena....we're hoping you'll run the challenge again in 2010. Despite our "challenge bitching" we'll be back for more!






Sound interesting? Leave us a comment saying so and you'll be entered to win a copy of Carter's The Puzzle King. International entrants are always welcome. Be sure you check back on December 10th to see if you won!