BOO

A Reader's Respite set aside much of October for holiday themed reading. For some reason, Halloween is our favorite reading season. Perhaps it's the arrival of cooler weather and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Whatever it is, there are certain books that beg to be read this time of year.

Our favorites this Halloween?



Last year, around this time, A Reader's Respite was fortunate enough to win a copy of Erika Mailman's astounding historical fiction novel, The Witch's Trinity. Erika was kind enough to send an inscribed copy to us and we greedily tucked it away, waiting to savor it this October.

It was so worth the wait.

Set in a small German hamlet in the 16th century, Mailman uses sparse, beautiful language to recreate the conditions in a town that is slowly starving to death, filled with neighbors who have laughed, loved and grieved together for years,who suddenly turn against each other in their desperation.

The Catholic Church, limited understanding of the world around them, and lingering superstition of the Dark Ages come together in a perfect storm and give rise to the trails of witchcraft that swept through the continent.

Mailman has the gift of making the reader feel as if you are there, facing the same excruciating decisions. Would you do the right thing, even if it meant certain death? What lengths would you go to in order to protect your children? All this in less than 300 pages. Wow.

Can you tell how much we loved this novel?




Another book we had shelved away was Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. We told ourselves that we were waiting for Halloween to read this one, but if the absolute truth be known, A Reader's Respite was reluctant to read it because we were worried we'd be disappointed.

We weren't a huge fan of Coraline, Gaiman's other hit children's novel that was recently turned into a gorgeous visual smorgasbord on the big screen.

Perhaps that our expectations for Gaiman were simply too high.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The Graveyard Book was the perfect Halloween read. Gaiman creates a magical tale of a boy raised in a graveyard by kindly ghosts. Bod (short for Nobody) is the only survivor after his family was murdered when he was just a baby.

Taken in by a wonderful cast of spooks at the local graveyard determined to protect him, he grows up learning lessons that only the underworld can teach him, while the murderers who killed his family relentlessly pursue Bod to finish off the job.

This one was filled with uncanny observations on the human condition and characters you will fall in love with. Is anyone really surprised that this book, too, is headed for the big screen?


So if you're a list person like we are and you haven't read these fabulous novels, you might want to jot them down and put them on your Halloweenie reading list for next year.


So go forth and have a fun-filled Halloween, everyone. Stay up late, eat all the kid's candy, and curl up with a spooky book in front of the fire.

A Dubious "Winner"

A Reader's Respite isn't entirely certain that we can call Freda, of Freda's Voice fame, a "winner" in all good conscious. But Freda was randomly drawn to receive a copy of Heir Apparent and we can only hope she has a great sense of humor.

She's gonna need it.


Zap us an email with your mailing address, Freda!

Quick! Grab a pen and notepad.....

....and jot down the title of this little piece of heaven:




You wouldn't know it from first glance at the title, but this little gem is the absolute PERFECT gift for your favorite bibliophile this upcoming holiday season.

Chock full of fascinating tidbits about your favorite classics, authors and genre titles, A Reader's Respite couldn't pull our nose out of it until we finished the entire thing. In one sitting. And we still want to go back and read/reference parts of it again.

Example? Did you know that when author Dorothy Parker left her entire estate to Martin Luther King, Jr.? Playwright Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes, remember?) was Parker's executrix and had a hissy fit when she found out about this. She took the estate to court, but ultimately lost. When King was assassinated, Dorothy's estate was passed on the NAACP.

Or that Mark Twain absolutely, positively HATED Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice?


So go get a jump on your holiday shopping.

And we'll expect to receive at least 20 copies of this for Christmas (*ahem*....we're just sayin').

Warhol, anyone?

A Reader's Respite is an admitted fool when it comes to art. Despite three art history classes, we never did understand the attraction of Jackson Pollck. Random splatters....hmmmm....perhaps you had to be part of the LSD culture of the 60's?

Pollock's Untitled (Green Silver), now in the Guggenheim in New York City

Nor have we ever understood the outrageous prices some of these pieces have sold for. This is where art dealer Richard Polsky comes in. He chattily brings the intricacies (and backstabbing) of the convoluted art market down to a layperson's level with his new book, I Sold Any Warhol. (too soon).




Polsky relates the tempestuous, oft-times greedy, heady business of high-end art collection. From the artists themselves to the dealers to the famous auction houses, Polsky chronicles the premature sale of his beloved Andy Warhol painting at auction (he needed the money to fund his wife's obscene shopping habit).

Warhol's Fright Wig Self-Portrait. Yes, this was worth a lot of money.

One forgives the occasional over-the-top, Chandler-esque metaphor ("....festered like a piece of rotting fruit") because Polsky is just so damned entertainingly informative. The art world reads like a soap opera run amok. Ever wonder how a piece of art comes to sell for millions and millions of dollars? What makes it "worth" that amount? Polsky explains it all and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

For those of you who are really interested in the behind the scenes art world, this book is actually a follow up to Polsky's first expose, called I Bought Andy Warhol, offers more insider snark.



Interested in the art world? Leave us a comment and on November 15th, we'll draw one random winner to enjoy the book. International entrants welcome!

A Perfect Winner

Indigo, of Shattered Prose, you've won!

Please zap us an email with your mailing address and happy reading!

Just when we thought we'd recovered.....

A Reader's Respite has been running into a spate of bad historical fiction lately. Recently, we BookMooched (is that a real verb?) a historical fiction novel entitled Bathory: Memoir of a Countess.

hey, at least the cover is beautiful

Familiar with the story of the Countess? Allow us to present the Reader's Respite Version:

Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian Countess in the late 16th century who had a bit of a mean streak in her. Little factual information is known about her (the records are allegedly kept under lock and key by the Hungarian government), but the legends that have sprouted up about her are pretty wild.


She liked to kill young girls. Preferably via torture. One wild rumor has it that she liked to take relaxing evening baths in the blood of young virgins. Perhaps as many as 600 of them in her lifetime (although that number seems a little unreal, doesn't it?)

Despite her fantastical reputation, not too much has been written about this little vixen. A Reader's Respite had heard of Mordeaux's Bathory: Memoir of a Countess, so we thought we'd give it a read since the subject seemed a little Halloween-ish and creepy.

Holy. Mother. of . God.

This book really should have been marketed as a Pornography/BDSM book. Not that we have any problem with the pornography genre, we just appreciate it when it isn't masquerading as historical fiction.

Every wild-ass rumor about the Crazy Countess made it's way into this book, no matter how stomach-churning the detail. And trust us on this, it takes an uber-strong stomach to make it through the first chapter.

But aside from the over-the-top, going-for-shock-value details, this was just plain bad historical fiction. No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot imagine the Countess's husband telling her that she seems "stressed." Hardly the vernacular of 1600 Hungary.

Never mind that "influenza" wasn't even a term used until the 18th century or that young, unmarried, blue-blooded girls are running around unchaperoned. And with every other person killed being a servant of the Crazy Countess, how on earth did she ever fill her staff? In her case, good help was really hard to find.

Good grief, folks, this book was a mess.

When A Reader's Respite finds a good novel about this Joan-Crawford-Runs-Amok, we'll let you know. In the meantime, skip this one if you have any self-respect at all.





No. We wouldn't wish this book upon any of our loyal, fabulous readers. Instead, we're giving it to Misfit to return this favor.

Paybacks are hell.

Winner!

Sorry this is a day late, folks. A Reader's Respite found ourselves stuck in a hotel in Virginia that evidently does not believe in WIRELESS INTERNET. Can you believe such a thing still exists?

On the plus side, we managed to finish our 5th book in 5 days. Really.

Anyhoo, one random winner coming right up:

CAROL of Carol's Notebook fame!

You won! Zap us an email and we'll get this in the mail to you.....happy reading!

Historical Fiction Therapy

Let's face it, if you are unfortunate enough to fumble through a really bad work of historical fiction, you then find yourself in need of some serious Historical Fiction Therapy....something well-written, something soothing and calming in it's accurate period details, yet gripping in it's plot.



After being practically blinded by the Tudor time-traveling atrocity Heir Apparent, A Reader's Respite instinctively knew that we had to choose our next book very carefully -- we needed some Historical Fiction Therapy to get over the trauma.

Thank goodness author Susan Higginbotham swept in to the rescue with her gloriously beautiful novel, Hugh and Bess.

New cover. You know how we feel about partially-headed women on covers.

Hugh and Bess is essentially a continuation of Higginbotham's previous novel, The Traitor's Wife (which, by the way, is going to make our Top 5 Books of 2009 this year), and the tale of the infamous Hugh le Despenser the Younger and his reluctant wife Bess de Montacute.

Old cover....our favorite, hands down.

Not familiar? We'll fill you in....

Hugh the Younger was the son of Hugh (of course) the Elder. Daddy Hugh, history alleges, was the (*ahem*) "special" friend of King Edward II in 14th century England. Not only did he supposedly warm the King's bed, but Daddy Hugh was Eddie's preeminent adviser and became fabulously wealthy via the King.

The English people, understandably, took a dim view of this and the end result was that Daddy Hugh ended up drawn and quartered as a traitor and Eddie tossed off his throne.

All of this is covered in Higginbotham's The Traitor's Wife.

So skip ahead a few years. Edward III is now on the throne and Hugh the Younger is desperately trying to live down his very, very bad last name. Eddie 3 decides to marry Hugh to Bess de Montacute, who understandably would rather retain her maiden name after the ceremony.

Edward III. Or, Eddie 3 as we like to call him.

Needless to say, Hugh has a tough row to hoe. But history records that he manages to turn things around and work his way back into the royal good graces.

And Hugh and Bess is the vivid, encompassing tale of how they managed to accomplish this. Is it a love story? Well, yes, in a way. More than that, this is a story of human resilience and a triumph of spirit.

Higginbotham is a master at creating a world so real that the reader loses themselves within history itself. Her books are simply not to be missed.



Aren't you lucky? A Reader's Respite just happens to have one extra copy of Hugh and Bess. Interested? Just leave us a comment saying so. That's it. No twittering, no friending, no following. Just leave a comment. All comers welcome (including international) and we'll draw a random winner on November 1st, so check back then to see if you won!

We do have one condition for this offer: the winner must agree to get your hands on a copy of The Traitor's Wife and read that novel first in order to enjoy the full effect of Hugh and Bess. A Reader's Respite wouldn't want you to miss out by reading these books out of order!

AN UPDATE:

Author Susan Higginbotham has generously offered to send the winner of Hugh and Bess a complimentary copy of The Traitor's Wife......now how nice is that???
Go here for details.

Oh, and by the way, if you head over to Susan''s fabulous BLOG, you'll see that she's hosting a separate contest in which you can win another copy of The Traitor's Wife!!! Go enter now, before she changes her mind!

Witchy Woman

Witches. Salem. It all just is so Halloween-ish, we can hardly stand it.

Back at the beginning of June this year, the publisher Voice released this Katherine Howe book called The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, a competent novel about a New England graduate student in history who stumbles upon a reference to a heretofore unknown book of spells from the era of the Salem witch trials.

The novel fluctuates between the present-day digging of Connie, the likable graduate student in question and flashbacks to Deliverance Dane, the colonial author of this book of spells.

Now we've read some "meh" reviews of this one, but to tell the truth, A Reader's Respite really enjoyed the novel. We recognize that it won't be winning the Booker Prize, but the story was engaging and plausible. We especially enjoyed Howe's treatment of the Salem "witches."

The paperback version of this book is due to be released on April 5th. In our opinion, if the publisher had any sense at all, they'd wait until October 1 of next year for that release. But what do we know?

Anyway, if you're in the mood for a non-gory, Halloween-ish, witchy, American historical fiction read this holiday, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane might just fit the bill. Keep it in mind.

A Winner!

Our random winner for Sally Beauman's Rebecca's Tale - prequel to the classic Rebecca - is Michelle, whose lovely blog The True Book Addict is always a winner in our book!

Zap us an email, Michelle, and we'll get this one out to you in time for Halloween!

Vamp it Up

Just so you know, A Reader's Respite has been faithfully chipping away at the charming Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris.

Truly we love, love, love these books.


And we don't normally go for that vampire stuff. But it occurred to us that these books make terribly fun Halloween reads and a great gift for yourself or your best friend who reads as much as you do.



Now if you've caught the HBO series that is based on these books, True Blood, don't be fooled into thinking that the television show is anything at all like the books. Where HBO's version can be more than a little gruesome and bloody, the books are anything but.

Witty and smart, the Sookie Stackhouse books are just plain fun.

Even if you don't normally go for the vamps.



We'll even provide you with a shopping list (tip: you can usually find the paperbacks at Target for $5 or so):

Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
Altogether Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone


Happy Reading!

WTF Wednesday

Okay.

Starting the timer.....NOW.








....22 minutes have passed. *Checking behind for firmness*

I got nuthin'. About as firm as a bowl of tapioca.


*Off to call the FCC to complain about false advertising*







WTF Wednesdays are brought to you by The Book Resort!

Friends Don't Let Friends Read Bad Historical Fiction

Or do they?

Not so very long ago, A Reader's Respite found ourselves at home with a few hours of spare time on our hands. Feeling industrious, we drove into town to meet a Bloggy Friend for lunch. After a wonderful greasy feast (the Bleu Baron: a marvelous concoction of roast beef on sourdough with a bleu cheese dressing), our Bloggy Friend surreptitiously slid a novel across the table towards us.



Now to be fair, she did give us fair warning. But did we heed that warning?



Oh nooooooooooooooooooo. We did not.


No, being the historical fiction fanatic we are, A Reader's Respite dove headfirst into this novel of Tudor England. Admit it, you'd do the same.

Now there are plenty of book reviewers out there who go out of their way to find some good in even the worst book.

A Reader's Respite is not one of those reviewers.

This was a bad, bad book and we aren't afraid to say so. This book was so horrible that we're not sure how to convey this level of bad-ness. Allow us to offer a synopsis:

Heir Apparent, despite being an attempt at historical fiction, is actually set in the future. We begin the story sometime in the latter half of this century in London. Kaitlyn and Colin, museum curators of the future, time-travel back to the court of King Henry VIII in order to....well, we're still not precisely sure what they were doing there, but it had something to do with preserving the Tudor bloodline and securing an heir for the throne in 21st century.

Life in the future, as presented in this novel, is painfully conveyed via dialogue throughout the story...

"I got home late last night and forgot to zap the battery-plate with the ultra-violet recharge light."
Heir Apparent, p. 42

or

"...unless you want to use the safe-solar chamber to dry, tan, and moisturize. It only takes a couple of seconds."
Heir Apparent, p. 59

How do they manage the time travel to Tudor England? We're so glad you asked....

"This is what I call my B.T.E. Remote, which is short for Bending Time Electrically. Basically, this 'television remote' if you will...can bend time with you in it, and send you to and from different places in time."
Heir Apparent, p. 8-9

Okay, perhaps we're being a bit picky in the science department. After all, this is a work of fiction.

But when the characterizations, plot and dialogue are just as awful, the entire novel becomes a train wreck that you just cannot turn away from.

Once our erstwhile heroes actually arrive in Tudor England, they immediately run into Henry VIII and the evil Queen Anne. Henry, the randy royal, wants nothing more than to screw every female in his direct line of sight, while Anne engages in hair-pulling, bitch-slapping, knockdown, dragout catfights with her 21st century rival Caitlyn.

The rest of the story pretty much encapsulates Caitlyn and Colin's attempts to get back to their own time with their heads intact. We have no idea whether or not they actually achieved their initial objective. Things were fuzzy by the time we reached the end of this 350-page disaster.

The moral of this review?

A. You can be traumatized by bad historical fiction, and
B. Never, ever borrow a book from Misfit. :p




A Reader's Respite and At Home With a Good Book and the Cat suffer from Sour Milk Syndrome. You know, that's when you open up a bad carton of milk, smell it, and immediately tell the person closest to you, "Ewwwww, smell this."

In that grand tradition, we are offering this book up to you. If you want to see for yourself (and you know you do) how bad historical fiction can be, tell us so and on October 30th, we'll draw one random winner.

C'mon, it'll be fun!

Historical Fiction Winner

Alyce, of At Home With Books fame, is our random winner this week!

Zap an email, Alyce, and we'll get this shipped out to you ASAP. Happy reading and thanks for helping me clean off these bookshelves!

A Novel With Layers

A Reader's Respite fully admits that we started off on the wrong foot with Laura Kasischke's new novel, In a Perfect World.

After twenty years spent in the commercial aviation industry, we were initially intrigued when we read the novel's synopsis on the back cover. We'll share a portion with you:

It was a fairy tale come true when Mark Dorn - handsome pilot, widower,
tragic father of three - chose Jiselle to be his wife. The other flight
attendants were jealous: She could quit now, leaving behind the million
daily irritations of the job. She could move into Mark Dorn's precious log
cabin and help him raise his three beautiful children.

But fairy tales aren't like marriage.

So when we dove into this novel, we weren't too happy to see the jobs of airline pilots and flight attendants so grossly misrepresented. (No, flight attendants and pilots do not, for the record, ever sit around in a bar drinking in uniform. EVER.) It made us grumpy.

A few chapters later and we changed our tune a bit, thinking that no, this novel must be about step-mothers and their complicated relationship with unwilling and unhappy stepchildren.

But no. A few chapters beyond that and we were thinking this novel was really a commentary about our society's tendency to over-react to health scares (think Swine Flu hysteria).

Wrong again.

As it turns out, in the end, this novel was beautifully layered with depth and poignancy and a discovery of the human spirit and the choices we're faced with. Kasischke sucks you in and builds the tension steadily, almost imperceptibly, until you find yourself reluctant to set the book down.

Layers. This novel has some serious layers, folks.

Kasischke won us over and although we're pretty sure ending will leave each reader with a different impression, it will indeed leave you thinking about it long after you've turned the last page.

It's not often a novel can redeem itself as well as In a Perfect World. Highly recommended.




Intrigued? Interested? Leave us a comment saying so and you'll be entered in a random drawing to receive your own copy. Simple, right? Just check back here on October 27th to see if you won!

A Little Bit Twisted

A Reader's Respite has often pondered our perceptions of reality. Mostly, we admit, this kind of pondering often follows a day that we're convinced was some sort of bad dream. But nevertheless, we do occasionally wonder.

So does author Commander Pants (ha!). At least he does in his a-little-bit-twisted novel, Whom God Would Destroy, the quirky story of several mental patients (actually, out-patients, but we're splitting hairs here) and their individual realities. What if they are right?

Who's to say there aren't space aliens obsessed with Big Macs controlling our thoughts and deeds? And why should any of us have to settle for only one personality? In this novel, having multiple personalities is much more fun.



But funny hi-jinks aside, we found a rather poignant message embedded in the story: Happiness may well be found in making other people happy. Simple. Easy. Okay, okay...so that particular message was imparted by a returned-to-Earth-Jesus who is having fun manipulating us sheep-like mortals. But we liked it nonetheless.



Baaaaaaa.



Okay, think you're twisted enough for this book? If so, leave us a comment and on October 25th we'll announce one random winner! That's all there is to it.

Whatcha readin' for Halloween?

A Reader's Respite just loves Halloween. Not just because we're kinda witchy (broomstick, jet aircraft....tomayto, tomahto), but because we can indulge in theme reading.

This year, thanks to Sandy over at You've Gotta Read This!, we started the month off right with a re-read of Daphne Du Maurier's classic Rebecca. This is a perfect Halloween read in our opinion, just creepy enough to set the mood, but no blood and gore (we're working our way up to that by the end of the month).



In the past, A Reader's Respite has mused about re-reads and changes in perception. Now we've read this novel perhaps a dozen times over the years and seen the film countless times. Sure enough, we found that our reaction to the novel this time was indeed markedly different from previous reads.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with the storyline, allow us to give you the Reader's Respite version:

Mousy young girl meets rich, handsome widower. Girl marries widower and returns with him to his fabulous country manor. You want to root for her....really, you do. But it doesn't take long before she realizes that the previous dead wife still rules the roost. Secrets, lies and deceit abound in this subtle psycho-thriller. No wonder Hitchcock loved it.



So what changed for us this time? Instead of feeling sorry for our erstwhile heroine, we found ourselves wanting to buy the girl a spine. We wanted her to stand up and shout, "The woman is dead, get over it people!"

Our patience was just in short supply. We're pretty sure this is because our last read of this classic was B.K.

Before Kids.

Yep, our kids have used up all of our patience and now we're taking it out on timeless heroines.

*Sigh*

On another note, however, did you know that author Sally Beauman wrote a prequel to Rebecca? It's true. Rebecca's Tale is the story told from the dead's wife's point of view. A little on the salacious side, it's a fun read for anyone who enjoyed Rebecca.


And A Reader's Respite just happens to have a copy up for grabs.

If you're interested, leave us a comment and on October 22nd we'll draw a random winner, just in time for Halloween. As always, no Following, Twittering, Facebooking, Whatever-ing is necessary to enter. Just check back on the 22nd to see if you've won!

And we have a winner!

Amanda, of A Bookshelf Monstrosity, has won a copy of Twenty Boy Summer!

Zap us your mailing address, Amanda, and we'll ship this one out to you ASAP. Thanks to all who entered!

WTF Wednesday

This week's WTF Wednesday is all about duplications. Book duplications. You see, upon our recent Big Move into our new abode, we discovered book title duplications. Many book title duplications.

WTF? Are we the only ones who have this problem?



As it turns out, our ineptitude is your gain.

Over the next few weeks, A Reader's Respite will be offering up some of our duplicate titles for you to read and enjoy.

Now anyone who is a serious Historical Fiction connoisseur has devoured Sharon Kay Penman's novels. Falls the Shadow is one of her best, in our considered opinion.



Falls the Shadow is the story of Simon de Montfort, 13th century Earl of Leicester who was the champion of the common people during the inept reign of King Henry III.

Penman is known for her impeccable research that she turns into riveting stories. Once you've read a Penman novel, you will immediately want to read all of them. Really, she's that good.

So good, as a matter of fact, that A Reader's Respite has managed to mysteriously acquire two copies of this particular novel and wants one of you, dear readers, to have one.

So how does this work? Just leave us a comment telling us you'd like to enter.

That's it. So simple. You don't have Twitter this, you don't have to become a follower or subscribe to the blog. Just leave a comment and you're entered. International peeps are always welcome to enter, too.

Just remember to check back here on October 20th to see if you've won!