Diversifying YOUR Bookshelves

This week, it's all about you.

That's right, A Reader's Respite is going to diversify your bookshelves, featuring some of the great titles you all have sent me lately.





God-Shaped Hole, by Tiffanie DeBartolo.

Jena, of Muse Books Reviews fame, actually purchased this book for the title alone. Interesting, because if the cover art is any indication, God is oval. Hmmmmm.

Jena will have to let us know if the cover art is a big ruse and God is actually more of a trapezoid.


CAUTION: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE ENJOYING A MEAL RIGHT NOW

Okay, you can't say we didn't warn you.

Natural Harvest: A collection of semen-based recipes, by Fotie Photenhauer

This little gem was brought to our attention by Caite, proprietor of A Lovely Shore Breeze. Not surprisingly, this title is not carried by Amazon.

Go figure.

But I'll double-dog-dare any one of you to try it for your local bake sale.

Introducing....

A Reader's Respite is just pleased as punch to introduce you all to Susan Petrone, author of A Body at Rest.

We're feeling magnaminous today, so we'll forgive and forget if you were just too darned busy to read yesterday's review of Susan's novel. Here's a link, if you're so inclined.

Anyhoo, A Reader's Respite is always fascinated by the actual process of writing a novel. Susan was kind enough to talk about how A Body at Rest came to be........read on:

*****

this photo, by the way, gives you a good idea of how incredibly cool Susan is!

The Evolution of A Body at Rest

I had the initial idea for A Body at Rest way back in the early 1990s. I was working as a volunteer for an international peace organization in the Netherlands, and Don Quixote—the character, not necessarily the book—just kept turning up. I was reading Don Quixote during the three-week orientation for the program. Then I spent a week in New York visiting friends and saw a revival of Man of La Mancha with the late great Raul Julia (and snuck backstage afterwards and got his autograph). After I arrived in my volunteer position, where I would be for the next two years, Don Q. just kept popping up in strange places—in a newspaper article about a Latin American protest artist who used Don Quixote’s image in a series of works on the poor, in a Dutch-subtitled episode of LA Law, in conversations with new people. And, of course, there were all those windmills. (I was in Holland, after all.) In letters back home, I kept joking that I was turning into Don Quixote.

Then I started to think about what it would be like to turn into a fictional character. I wrote a few chapters, but I couldn’t find Martha’a voice (I don’t remember what I initially called her). The whole thing was just too dark, and Nina (who was originally named Justine) came off sounding insane. It wasn’t any fun. I left it alone for years. Then in the early 2000s, long after I had left the Netherlands, moved back home, gotten married, gotten my master’s, gotten divorced, and gotten married again (to the right person this time), I went back to those original chapters. I still liked the idea of two normal people becoming fictional characters and thought it had potential. I started rewriting the opening and somehow found the right blend of sarcasm and wit for Martha’s voice. The characters started to have fun, and I did too. I don’t know that more than a few lines here and there of the original manuscript are in the completed book. What remains is the basic plot of two people stuck in dead end jobs and a rut in their lives who become, in a literal sense, their favorite fictional characters.

I entered the manuscript in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award in 2008 and was a semi-finalist. I received a lot of useful feedback on the manuscript, and discovered that Martha and Nina’s story resonated with a lot of people. I did more rewrites, cut out about 10,000 words, and started sending the manuscript to small presses. I sent it to Drinian Press, a regional publisher in Huron, Ohio, and they accepted it (much to my delight).

Being published by a small press is great because you have a lot more say and contact with the publisher. (I’m fairly certain the CEO of Penguin isn’t going to email back and forth with one of his first-time novelists on the necessity or non-necessity of a couple of exclamation points or other tweaks to the manuscript.) I like that I can have those small but important conversations with my publisher.

Small and independent presses generally have limited distribution, however, due to (among other factors) the returns policies of the big chain bookstores. This is where the Internet helps to level the playing field a bit. It’s still difficult to get the word out about one’s book, but online distribution makes it easy for anyone anywhere to buy a book. Mine is available at some small independent bookstores in the Cleveland area, via Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com, via the publisher’s website at DrinianPress.com, or via special order at your local bookstore. If you’re looking for a read that’s a bit off the beaten path and kind of funny and quirky, why celebrate National Small Press Month (did you know that March is National Small Press Month?) and a new writer by checking out A Body at Rest. (And if you want to try before you buy, you can download an excerpt for free from susanpetrone.com/clips.) Thanks for reading.

Review: A Body at Rest

A Body at Rest, by Susan Petrone

When the most drunken guy at the table put his hand on my rear end and made a rather ungentlemanly proposition, I didn't slap him. I quoted Shakespeare.

"Drink provokes the desire but takes away the performance," I said. The unwanted hand was still on my rear, but you could see that he was making an honest effort to understand what he'd just heard. "Macbeth. Act two, scene three," I added, although I knew the attribution wouldn't make a difference.

A Body at Rest, by Susan Petrone

Pretty darned good start to a novel, wouldn't you say? It shouldn't be a surprise, though, considering this debut novel by Susan Petrone was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finalist.

So here's the basics: best friends and roommates, Martha and Nina are twenty-something cocktail waitresses, aimlessly drifting through life. They drink too much, they smoke too much, they migrate from man to man. Well read and well educated, they just need to find direction.

And then on an impetuous road trip the unexplainable, the remarkable, the improbable happens. An impromtu visit to a mysterious tattoo parlor changes Martha and Nina forever.

Literally.

The girls begin to slowly turn into their favorite literary characters. Physically and mentally, Martha begins to morph into the imperious and proper Emma Woodhouse while Nina (the poor girl) slowly turns into the knight-errant, Don Quixote.

Ol' Don and his sidekick, Sancho

What follows is both hysterical and heart-breaking as each of the girls must now follow her new destiny.

Petrone writes sharp, literary-minded dialogue and the plot moves along at a pretty darned good clip. Once the characters (and the reader, for that matter) wrap their minds around what it really going on, the literary references take on a new importance and it becomes a fun challenge to see where Petrone is going with all this.

A Reader's Respite has always enjoyed novels invoking literary classics. For those of you who are drawn to Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, this novel will also take you on a literary romp you won't soon forget.

dear Emma Woodhouse

You'll have to suspend belief for this one, but that is half the fun. Who we are, where we're heading and how to find our destiny is the other half. Enjoy!



If you'd like to read some of Susan Petrone's short stories, visit her website!



Title: A Body at Rest
Author: Susan Petrone
ISBN-13: 978-0982060919
268 pages
Publisher: Drinian Press
Date: January 25, 2009



Some more reviews for you research-types out there:

write meg!
The Loud Librarian

Review: To Hold the Crown

To Hold the Crown, by Jean Plaidy











Regular readers will already know that A Reader's Respite has a love affair with historical fiction author Jean Plaidy.

It's Plaidy that we turn to when we crave a good comfort-read.

This novel is Plaidy's take on the story of the marriage between King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York: the marriage which effectively ended the War of the Roses by uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.

Not the most flattering portraits, are they? I'd lop off the head of the painter if it were me.

Like her other historical fiction novels, To Hold the Crown will never be compared to, say, a Sharon Kay Penman novel. Plaidy, rather, exists in a class of her own: solid writing and a good historical foundation make her stories feel comfortable.

Kind of like your favorite pair of old sneakers.

The story of Henry and Elizabeth has been written about numerous times, but I still think Plaidy does it best. You won't find any heros or villains in this story. Instead you'll find human beings who make mistakes and are trying to do the best they can with the tools they have. Plaidy is the consummate professional: she presents each character in a fair light, flaws and all, and allows the readers to draw their own conclusions, as opposed to leading you to those conclusions.

Those of you who are still tracking down the infamous Princes in the Tower will find an interesting idea as to their ultimate fate within these pages. Plaidy, as always, is plausible and sharp as a tack.


What didn't I like? The darned new cover chosen by Three Rivers Press!

The picture of a woman's bare shoulder and obscured face required a second glance every time I looked at it....like one of those "what do you see?" photos that psychologists are always foisting on us (or is it just me?):

What do you see? Old crone with a kerchief on her head or a pretty young girl looking over her shoulder?

For now, I'll forgive Three Rivers Press simply because they are reprinting so many of Plaidy's historical fiction novels.

If you haven't read one, do so soon. And if you've read Sandra Worth's recent novel, The King's Daughter, you'll recognize that the subject matter is the same. For my money, I recommend Plaidy's version for a more complete and perhaps a more realistic look at the lives of Henry and Elizabeth.





Title: To Hold the Crown
Author: Jean Plaidy
ISBN-13: 978-0307346193 (pbk.)
416 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Date: October 7, 2008
Originally Published as Uneasy Lies the Head in 1982


Looking for another opinion? Look no further, I found one for you:

Devourer of Books

Drunkeness, Ruminations, Gratitude and a Free Book

A Reader's Respite has been missing in action for a while. Why?

Because, as it turns out, schlepping drunken teenagers the length and breadth of three countries while they drink, pass out, drink some more and film themselves for the next Girls Gone Wild video extravaganza is exhausting work.

Yes, guys and gals....the melee known as Spring Break sucks the very life out of airline employees. Bad things happen during this time. Airplanes break down, weather forces cancellations, planes have to divert when teenagers pass out from all the booze, police have to meet the flight when those same teenagers regain consciousness and decide to join the Mile-High Club in that nasty coach lavatory.








And the worst thing that happens? Your pilot ends up spending her daughter's very first birthday stuck in Toronto.

Spring Break sucks.

But all is not lost. After a short three days spent in the mental ward regaining our sanity (also known as a trip to The Quiet Room), A Reader's Respite was sufficiently recuperated to check our e-mail. Patiently waiting in our e-mail inbox were some awards sent this way.

Perhaps it was the emotional exhaustion, but these awards brought on an overwhelming sense of gratitude for not only those who sent the awards, but also for each and every one of you who stopped by and took the time to comment while A Reader's Respite was on her way to The Quiet Room.


So without further ado.....


The Friend's Award was thoughtfully presented by:



Wendi's Book Corner

Passages to the Past

Jo-Jo Loves to Read!!!




The Primio Dardos Award was sent our way from:



Betty Jo over at Movie Addict Headquarters

Alyce from At Home With Books





The Your Blog is Fabulous Award winged it's way to us from:


Jo-Jo Loves to Read!!!











Where Life Hands You Lemons Award comes from:

Misfit from At home with a good book and the cat....









The Sisterhood Award was bestowed on us by:



Mss Joss at Reviews of Young Adult Literature

Sandy from You've GOTTA Read This!

Amy at Passages to the Past (back at ya, babe!)





So I guess what we're trying to say here is THANK YOU, from the icy depths of our cold, black heart.

You all may have saved me from another trip to The Quiet Room.





Oh, and we were supposed to announce a winner for The Lost City of Z, by David Grann on Friday. We're only 3 days late this time, so progress is being made in that department!






Our randomly-drawn winner?


It's all yours, Julie at Outlandish Dreaming! Zap me your mailing address and I'll flag down the next Pony Express!

Calling All Historical Fiction Fanatics!

If you love historical fiction, A Reader's Respite has a gift for you.

The woman who is personally responsible for introducing A Reader's Respite to great historical fiction is now blogging.

Gosh, I think I need a gown for this announcement:

dang, I look gooooooood here

What was I saying? Oh yes, the blog. You're waiting for the link, aren't you?

At home with a good book and the cat...is the only place I want to be

Bookmark it. You'll love it.

It's a Live Journal blog, so you'll need to create a log-in if you'd like to comment. But this takes very little effort, as evidenced by the fact that A Reader's Respite, who is essentially the laziest person on the planet, did it in about 30 seconds.

Our favorite feature? Wall-banger Wednesdays, of course.

You're welcome.

Review: The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann

A Reader's Respite loves adventure books. We figured out a long time ago that reading about nasty bugs and deadly reptiles in exotic locales is far, far preferable to an actual encounter.


Yes, A Reader's Respite is a coward.

But that's why authors like David Grann write books like the recently released The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

No, not that Amazon (although it certainly can be applicable, in our opinion)...this Amazon:

nasty, mean critters live here

This is the story of Percy Fawcett, the man who spent most of his life exploring the Amazon for the Royal Geographic Socity in the early 1900's.


Over time, Fawcett became convinced that the Lost City of Gold, frequently referred to as El Dorado, did indeed exist deep in the Amazon. In fact, he felt that he had pinpointed the exact location of what he called the City of Z.

So in 1925, worn out from a lifetime of exploration and desperately lacking funds and personnel, Fawcett, his son Jack and Jack's best friend set off on their own to finally reach the City of Z.

They were never seen again.

the man himself

Using the previously unavailable private papers of Fawcett himself made available by the family, David Grann traces this last fatal expedition and finally provides some answers.

And while A Reader's Respite isn't giving anything away here, we will say that Fawcett's ultimate fate isn't the point of this grand adventure. Rather, the point of the adventure is the adventure itself.

Fawcett's entire life is laid out in this book: the explorations, the hardships, the incredibly deadly conditions in the Amazon and the toll all of this took on the man himself, as well as his family.

awwww, isn't he cute? yea, well, he can kill you instantly in the Amazon.

Far from pefect, Fawcett emerges as man who was addicted to the thrill of the hunt. The cost of this obsession was paid in his physcial and mental health, his dignitity, his legacy, and ultimately his life.

This is a grand tale, folks.


Who should read this? Anyone who has a taste for armchair adventures. Personally, I'm thinking Father's Day gift for this one.



Oh, and for what it's worth, the book rights here have been sold off and a movie is currently in production, due out in 2010 and starring (who else?) but:








Want to give it a try or know someone who would? A Reader's Respite just happens to have an extra copy and would love to give it away. Leave us a comment and our blog secretary will draw a random winner on Friday, March 20th. He's good like that.







Title: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Author: David Grann
ISBN-13: 978-0385513531
352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Date: February 24, 2009



Okay, we get it: you're thorough, you want another opinion. Here you go:

At Home With Books
Bookmarks Literary Blog
Vagablogging
A Bookworm's World
My Life in Books
Fresh Ink Books
Bookgasm
The Book Catapult
Fasionista Piranha
Books by TJBaff
A Writer's Pen

Diversifying My Bookshelves

Evil Penguins: When Cute Penguins Go Bad, by Elia Anio

Those damned penguins.

Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

A Reader's Respite is abandoning our normal review format for this book.

Why?

Because if you haven't read this soon-to-be classic yet, you're missing out. Really missing out.

Originally published in 2006, it has been said that Irish author John Boyne wrote the entire first draft of this stunner in only two and a half days.

Two and a half days. Wow.

Now if you haven't even heard of this book, a full plot synopisis would spoil the story. Suffice it to say that story is set during WWII and is told from the viewpoint of a nine-year-old boy.

Oh, and the ending?

The ending is one of those jaw-dropping, never-saw-it-coming endings. A Reader's Respite turned the last page, rested the book on our lap and simply sat there in awe and wonder for a full fifteen minutes....the ending is that amazing.

Just read it.


Now.


Then come back here and share your thoughts with A Reader's Respite.





Title: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Author: John Boyne
ISBN-13: 978-0198326762
224 pages
Publisher: OUP DUMP LIST
Date: May 31, 2007 (pbk.)


Different strokes for different folks: some more reviews

Blue Archipelago
Out of the Blue
Jo-Jo loves to read!
Melody's Reading Corner
The Sleepy Reader
Book Obsession
Reading Adventures
Wondrous Reads
Maw Books Blog

Help Wanted

A Reader's Respite is in dire need of a Blog Secretary.

Why, you ask?

A Reader's Respite is extraordinarily forgetful. This may be due to age or a lack of oxygen resulting from so much time spent in pressurized aircraft at 35,000. We're not sure.

The fabulous commentators who brighten our day for some reason refuse to hold A Reader's Respite's feet to the fire.

As a result, things like book giveaway announcements get left in some forgotten blog corner, gathering cyberspace dust and leaving said commentators wondering, "WHO WON THE DAMNED BOOK?"

A blog secretary could remedy all of this.

Job requirements:

• Male
• Previous experience working in films, preferably films that involved hobbits and wizards
• Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Must have a finely honed memory (finely honed abs are a plus, too)

Oh yeah, and you must look like this:

Compensation?

A Reader's Respite's everlasting adoration and the undying gratitude of those waiting to see WHO WON THE DAMNED BOOK.

If you fit the bill, please contact us immediately.

Oh, and Booking Mama? You won Bound South! Shoot me an email with your address so I can send it out on the next Pony Express.

Once Again, A Reader's Respite Has Been Kidnapped...

Every once in a while, a real author (by which we mean someone with actual writing talent) comes along, locks A Reader's Respite in the closet for the day and brings you a real blog post.

Today, it is Helen Hollick, author of the superb series, The Pendragon's Banner Trilogy (you can read a review of the first book of the series, The Kingmaking, here).

The traditional Arthurian stories have never appealed to me. Maybe this is because they are Medieval Norman stories and I am very pro Saxon - see my novel Harold the King about the Battle of Hastings from the English point of view for the proof of that!

For me, British history stopped at 1066. Also, I could never believe in them. Arthur, if he had existed, would have lived in the fifth and sixth Centuries between the going of the Romans and the coming of the Anglo Saxons, when government and administration had collapsed and the seizing of overall power was up for grabs.

There were no knights in armour, turreted castles, chivalric deeds or round tables in these Dark Ages. Lancelot. Merlin, and the Holy Grail were all part of the invented fairy tale which was used as propaganda to promote the rising domination of the Church, and to persuade young men to go on Crusade.

The Medieval stories disappointed me. They were not real. They were not what might have happened.

Mary Stewart’s novel the Crystal Cave and the Hollow Hills put me on the right track as they contained an author’s note about the possibilities of the history behind the real Arthur. I started researching and discovered the early Welsh legends of Arthur – which turned out to be far more interesting and exciting!

This Arthur was a war lord who had to fight hard for his Kingdom – and even harder to keep it. He was not a chivalric King – in fact he was the opposite, a pagan who stole cattle from a monastery, who kicks a woman; a Romano British nobleman who lived and fought for what he considered his by right.

These early tales also tell of his three sons – and Gwenhwyfar as his loyal wife. I despised the Guinevere of those Norman stories. Where was her honour? Her loyalty – and what on earth had Lancelot got that Arthur had not? Could the silly woman not see that Arthur was by far the better man?

So I set out to write the story of what might have really happened. There is no magic, no supernatural. No Lancelot, no Merlin, no Holy Grail. Instead, Arthur is a rough, tough, soldier. He does not cut corners, he believes in what he is doing – and he loves Gwenhwyfar from the first moment he saw her when she was still a lanky, leggy girl.

He is a rogue and a man who likes his women and his drink – but he is also loyal to his men and his Country and he would die for the woman he loves – even though their relationship is often extremely turbulent. With two such hot tempered, passionate people, what else would you expect?

My story of Arthur is about what were, possibly, real events – and are about people who laughed and cried, hated and loved just as we do.

When you have the excitement, passion and intrigue of all that – who needs Norman fairy tales?

Helen Hollick

Review: The Kingmaking

The Kingmaking, by Helen Hollick











The Down & Dirty


The Kingmaking is Book One of The Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, by Helen Hollick, re-released by Sourcebooks on March 1. An epic undertaking, The Kingmaking is the tale of the mythical King Arthur and his queen Gwynefar, stripped of wizards, magic swords, and mythical ladies rising from lakes. It is the tale of Arthur as he may have been.





The Lit Crit



Many talented writers have spun the tale of Arthur and his knights of the Round Table (Mary Stewart notably comes to mind here), but it took author Helen Hollick to strip away the trappings of myth and magic and write what possibly might be the most compelling account of all.

Little is known of England during that murky time period between the abandonment of Rome and the invasion of the Normans in 1066. Hollick takes advantage of this and drawing from what little is known about the Angle, Jute and Saxon warlords that vied for control of England, she paints a vivid portrait of a divided land populated by a widely diverse population caught between their pagan past and the introduction of Christianity .

Here we are presented with an Arthur who is a product of these dark times, a complex man who is, in turn, both a brilliant strategist with touching compassion for his people and a

Hollick acknowledges the guidance of renowned historical fiction author Sharon Kay Penman in her forward - indeed the book is dedicated to her - and the influence shows. A comprehensive afterword to the novel reveals her meticulous attention to historical detail and provides a most satisfying end to this first novel of the trilogy.

But perhaps her most impressive strength as an author lies in her development of character, specifically the Pendragon himself. If you are looking for a saint-like Arthur, hoodwinked by his golden Guinivere (Gwenhwyfar), you won't find that here. Arthur is a red-blooded man of his times who takes women at his pleasure, lies and cheats as necessary to take what he feels rightfully belongs to him, yet still manages to remain - by and large - a sympathetic character you will cheer for.




Our Recommendation



Fans of Sharon Kay Penman will appreciate Hollick's complex character development, plot pacing, and attention to historical details while any afficianado of Athurian legend should appreciate this original vision of the myth. This is first-rate writing, indeed.

Historical fiction lovers, meet Helen Hollick. Enjoy!







Title: The Kingmaking, Book One of the Pendragon's Banner Trilogy
Author: Helen Hollick
ISBN-13: 978-1402218880
592 pages:
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date: March 1, 2009


Other blog-stops on the tour:

Harriet Devine's Blog
Lazy Habit's of Thinking
carp(e) libris reviews
Historical Novels.Info
Musings of a Bibliophile
Reading Extravaganza
Medieval Bookworm
Books are my only friends
Peeking Between the Pages
we be reading
A Hoyden's Look at Literature
Books Ahoy!
Passages to the Past
The Tome Traveller
S. Krishna's Books
Jennifer's Random Musings
RhiReading