A Reader's Respite: December 2009

The Happiness Project: 2010

Like many of you, A Reader's Respite has been considering our same ol', same ol' New Year's Resolutions. We made a tentative list, but then lost it after using it as a bookmark for a week or so.

Then we mulled over the idea of chucking resolutions out the window. After all, what are resolutions but yet another way to experience dismal failure come summer time and who needs that damper on life?

After just about giving up on the entire concept, we picked up Gretchen Rubin's new book, The Happiness Project. Actually, the full title is

The Happiness Project
Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Catchy, huh?

Rubin's concept may well just be the answer to our resolution woes. We were smitten with her ideas....after all, what are New Year's resolutions but a list of items that we are pretty sure would make us happy if we could accomplish them?

Thus, The Happiness Project.

Rubin uses her wit and insight to guide the reader through a series of steps that can - allegedly - lead to new habits and......happiness. Real happiness, which as we all know, can only come from within you.

Her technique starts with identifying what it is in this world that makes you happy. What makes you feel good (and no, a daiquiri doesn't count here)? What makes us feel bad? Because if we feel good on the inside, the outward result is a happy person.

Rubin's next step is to identify the concrete actions that will increase your happiness. Healthy meal plans? An organized desk? A calm reaction to your child's tantrum? Whatever those actions might be, they get thrown on the list.

Then comes implementation. We like Rubin's approach here: any new habit (good or bad) takes at least a month to take root. So Rubin divides up her list into twelve parts: one month for each item.

Think of it: devoting all of January to making exercise and healthy eating a habit. Just that one thing. February dedicated to devising a system of organization that by February 28 will have become habit for you. Each month builds on the last until, with a lot of dedication on your part, by the end of 2010 you are a HAPPIER you.

This is probably the most valuable book A Reader's Respite has read all year and if only one or two of our "resolutions" stick, we'll still be a happier person. Once a month, throughout 2010, we'll give you all a report as to how our Happiness Project is progressing. If we can do this, anyone can do this.

And when Mama's happy, everyone is happy.

Interested in learning more about Rubin's Happiness Project, or even starting one of your own? Visit The Happiness Project Website!

Rompin' with the Tudors.....

Every so often a little tremor of book buzz flows through blogland and catches our attention over here at A Reader's Respite. Such was the case recently when all of a sudden it seemed as if everywhere we turned peeps were talking about a upcoming historical fiction release entitled The Boleyn Wife by an author named Emily Purdy.

"Purdy.....Purdy....," we mused silently to ourselves, wracking our overtaxed, holiday-stressed brain, "...that name is familiar."

Of course, as it turns out, Emily Purdy is the new pen name (in the UK, at least) of one Brandy Purdy, a writer down in Beaumont, Texas who has penned a notorious little novel about Edward II and Piers Gaveston and another about Anne Boleyn and her arch-enemy and sister-in-law, Lady Jane Rochford called Vengeance is Mine.

The publisher Kensington has evidently picked up Purdy's novel Vengeance is Mine (originally self-published via iUniverse), retitled it The Boleyn Wife and given Purdy are more British-sounding pen name to go with it.

the original novel, self published by iUniverse

Intrigued, we set about finding ourselves a copy of Purdy's original version, Vengeance is Mine (not the easiest task in the world given that copies of the original novel are disappearing quick) and within a few days had a copy in our hot little hands.

the new and improved version, published by Kensington

A Reader's Respite was fully prepared to not like this book.....we had heard about some, *ahem*, creative love scenes involving two of ol' Henry VIII's wives and a rather large jar of honey. Let's just say we were dubious at best.

To our surprise, the novel isn't terrible. Really, it isn't.

Most of the story revolves around Anne Boleyn, second and soon to be headless wife to Henry VIII, as told by her notorious sister-in-law, Lady Jane Rochford. Towards the end of the novel, after Anne goes to meet her maker, Lady Jane relates the shorter reigns of Henry's subsequent wives, Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, finally ending the story with the beheading of fifth wife, Katherine Howard - a time when Lady Jane meets her own untimely end on the chopping block as well.

Ms. Purdy, it should be noted, is a mighty fine writer.....the words flow easily across the page and the narrative is, for the most part, quite sensible. In short, she shows enormous promise as a historical fiction author.

Of course, we did have a few quibbles. Jane Rochford was a tad one-dimensional and singular in her hatred and desire to give her sister-in-law her comeuppance. And although Jane was indeed a lady-in-waiting for many of Henry's wives, one wonders how the woman managed to witness so many private conversations and sexual couplings throughout her royal stay.

Along the same vein, the novel was just a tad disjointed with over two-thirds being devoted to Anne Boleyn's rise and fall, with only two short parts towards the end devoted to Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. Although Lady Jane wasn't at court during Seymour's short stint as queen, she was present for Anne and Katherine's reign and though their queenly time was comparatively short, it left the reader feeling rushed, as if there could have been more to the story.

There were also constant references to these women's historical nicknames....if Anne Boleyn was referred to as the "Goggle-eyed whore" once, she must have been referenced so at least fifty times. Ditto for Katherine Howard, the "rose without a thorn." Throw in a few references to the "Flander's mare" (Anne of Cleves), and you have yourself a veritable festival of royal nicknames.

You're wondering about the kinky sex scenes, aren't you? Yes, for the record, there is a interlude between Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and a jar of honey. Thankfully, most of the scene occurs behind the curtains of a royal bed and most is left to our imagination. A Reader's Respite, for the record, thought the scene was cute and silently applauded Purdy for throwing in a little fun conjecture.

Presumably, now that Kensington has picked up the book (to be released January 26, by the way), a new editor will have had their way with the novel, so the criticisms you read here may well not apply to this new version.

All in all, the book is publisher-worthy, no doubt about it. Don't expect a Sharon Kay Penman or a Higginbotham novel here, rather think Philippa Gregory. But as we said, this writer shows promise and may well develop into a mighty fine historical fiction author. Time will certainly tell.

In the meantime, A Reader's Respite simply must get our hands on her other novel about Edward II's lover and favorite, Piers Gaveston entitled, aptly enough, The Confession of Piers Gaveston. It's time to go a-book-huntin'!

Required FTC (TSA, DOD, USDA, whatever) Notice: We purchased this novel for a whopping $8. It wasn't given to us, wasn't stolen, and no animals were harmed during the reading of this novel. We bought it, fair and square, and we'd do it again with no regrets. So there.

A Reader's Respite wishes each and every one of you the happiest of holidays this year. We wish you peace, happiness and love that will continue throughout the new year.

Now, whatdidyaget? What's the best book you received this year?!? Inquiring minds want to know....

A Holiday WTF Wednesday

We hear you can get a killer deal on Christmas lights after the holiday is over......

WTF Wednesdays are the brainchild of The Book Resort!

Christmas Chaos

Have the holidays been encroaching on your blogging? You're not alone, A Reader's Respite is right there with you. Between reading, shopping, working and all the Christmas chaos, we have hardly found time to blog.

This year, we've decided to give hand-made gifts for all of our loved ones. And of course we found the perfect instructional book:

Now if we only had a dog.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Short Story Winner

Our winner this week?

Ellen!

Please email us a mailing address so we can get this out in the Christmas rush to you! Hope you enjoy this fabulous little collection!

The Classics Circuit: A Dark Night's Work

In a dogged effort to better ourselves with more refined reading, A Reader's Respite bravely signed up for The Classics Circuit's tour of author Elizabeth Gaskell. If you're anything like us, about the only work we could name by this well-regarded author was the novel Cranford, which the BBC boldly turned into a mini-series starring Judi Dench earlier this year. (A review of Cranford, by the way, will be featured over at Notes From the North this coming Friday!)

A Reader's Respite, however, wasn't quite brave enough to tackle one of Gaskell's novels and instead we opted to read one of her lesser known novellas, this one entitled A Dark Night's Work.

Published in 1863, A Dark Night's Work is the story of Ellinor Wilkins, daughter to a well-to-do country lawyer in rural England. Having lost her mother and sister at a very young age, Ellinor develops an intense bond with her father and enjoys all of his attention and financial comforts throughout her childhood.

Her bond with Mr. Wilkins is so strong that, as is wont to happen in these circumstances, Ellinor is also blind to his faults, not the least of which are an over-reaching pride and drunkenness. As Ellinor grows into adulthood, she will eventually meet and become engaged to a young man of a noble family.

Just as she is about to float blindly from one comfortable life with her father into another with a husband, tragedy strikes.

Mr. Wilkins, in a fit of drunken rage, commits murder. Desperate to avoid the disgrace, Ellinor, her father and a family servant hide the body.

From here on out, the story is chiefly concerned with the effects of a guilty conscious. Each person concerned deals with the guilt in devastating ways and the effects are far-reaching into the future.

Gaskell's forte with this novella is her examination of character and tragedy. She foreshadows early in the story,

...it is approaching all of us at this very time; you, reader, I, writer, have each our great sorrow bearing down on us. It may be yet beyond the dimmest point of our horizon, but in the stillness of the night our hearts shrink at the sound of its coming footstep. Well is it for those who fall into the hands of the Lord rather than into the hands of men; but worst of all is it for him who has hereafter to mingle the gall of remorse with the cup held out to him by his doom.
A Dark Night's Work, Elizabeth Gaskell

Very gothic, no?

Gaskell doesn't attempt to develop much sympathy for Ellinor's plight. Rather, she simply states facts without sentiment and allows the reader's to draw their own conclusions. You may, as you read her story, determine that Ellinor gets everything she had coming to her. Or you may decide the consequences are rather too harsh.

Either way, the novella is a story with dark undertones of family dynamics and social mores, rather impressive for the time frame and rather reminds us of Edith Wharton's darker works which weren't to come along for another fifty years.

If you're interested in Gaskell's work, most of her writings are available on Google Books or Project Gutenberg, free of charge.

FDC Disclaimer: This book came to us via a free download on to our Amazonian Devil Device (aka, the Kindle) from Amazon.com. No Kindles were harmed in the making of this review.

Audiobook Redemption

After our last audiobook disaster, we were a tad leery of starting another one. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....well, you get the drift.

So for a change of pace A Reader's Respite went a-huntin' for a good piece of fiction on audio. With only a slight hesitation (picture our finger hovering uncertainly over the "click to purchase" button on Audible), we bravely downloaded The Book of Unholy Mischief, by Elle Newmark, narrated by Raul Esparza.

We've had our eye on this one for quite some time. Not sure if any of you out there remember this, but Newmark's book, after failing to find an interested publisher, was originally self-published in 2007 under the title of Bones of the Dead.

Now if you review books on a regular basis, A Reader's Respite is pretty confident that you've read your fair share of self-published novels. 99% of the time there is *ahem* a reason they are self-published and not put forth by a publishing house. Suffice it to say that those publishers know their stuff and if they don't think a book will find an audience, they are usually right.

Every once in a while, however, one slips through the cracks and Newmark's novel was the exception to the rule. Through sheer tenacity, talent and audacity, she managed to get the attention this novel so richly deserved.....and a seven-figure deal from Atria in the process.

Suffice it to say, this book is FABULOUS! How on earth did it get ignored by publishers the first time around?

The year is 1498 and the place is Venice. The Renaissance is about to dawn and a young street urchin named Luciano is taken in as an apprentice to a master chef. The chef, however, is not what he seems. Outwardly an esteemed employee of the doge of Venice (think: governor), the chef eventually reveals himself to be one of the Guardians, a keeper of ancient wisdom passed down secretly through the ages. Wisdom, it should be noted, that the powerful Pope in Rome -- Rodrigo Borgia, aka Pope Alexander VI -- would rather keep hidden from the masses.

Borgia perfecting his evil little look of corruption

The mere possession of this knowledge is a very dangerous preposition indeed. Especially once the doge and the Pope become aware of it's existence and begin the deadly hunt for it's acquisition.

Narrator Raul Esparza (you sexy thing, Raul!) more than does this riveting story justice....his accents and voices are absolutely spellbinding. Truly, A Reader's Respite would have been very happy indeed had the story gone on forever.

Now if you want to get technical about the historical aspects of the novel, you'll find a few tidbits out of historical place and time. Easily forgiven, in our opinion.

So if you haven't taken a gander at this novel, consider the audio format. You won't be disappointed!

Obligatory FCC Disclosure: this audiobook was bought and paid for with our very own blood, sweat, and tears. Okay, so maybe not our blood. But definitely sweat and the occassional tears. Hey, who said earning a paycheck was easy?

The Puzzle King Winner

Our winner this week will receive a copy of Betsy Carter's fabulous novel, The Puzzle King. Congrats to.....

BookDragon of Book Dragon's Lair!

Zap us your mailing address, BookDragon, and we'll get this one out to you ASAP....and thanks to everyone who entered!

Short stories for a short memory....

A Reader's Respite has probably mentioned our increasing enjoyment of the short story format. We're pretty convinced that this is directly related to our decreasing attention span these days.

When the opportunity arose for us to take a gander at local author Midge Raymond's collection of short stories entitled Forgetting English, we jumped on it. After all, anyone who resides in Seattle with a big fat orange cat (oh, and her husband, but it was the cat that made us smile) and writes stories is a woman after our own heart.

Each of Raymond's eight stories involve a North American woman searching for a part of herself in a foreign land. Character-centric in the extreme, the various locales (Africa, Antarctica, Tonga, etc) serve as a catalyst for these women in their time of uncertainty. The writing is beautiful.

The short story format fascinates A Reader's Respite because of it's tendency to invite serious thought. Unlike a full-length novel which draws us inside of another world and makes us a part of that world, the short story is a small bite of another life that provokes lingering thought long after the last page is turned.

In other words, a good short story gives us something to chew on for a while.

Besides brownies.

In our case, that's a good thing.

A Reader's Respite's compliance with new FDC Regulation:

This wonderful short story collection was sent to us by a publicist, free of charge. That's right...not a penny came out of our own pocket. Gratis or not, this book was subject to the same snarkiness that all books we read are subjected to. If you don't believe us, flip through some past reviews.

Sound like something you'd be interested in? If so, just leave us a comment saying so and on December 15th, we'll draw one random winner to receive this little collection of stories. Just be sure to check back here to see if you won, please, since A Reader's Respite just doesn't have the time to track you down this holiday season!

WTF Wednesday

Only in New York, people, only in New York.

*WTF Wednesdays are the brain-child of The Book Resort!

You know you're reading too much historical fiction when...

A Reader's Respite was perusing one of our favorite blogs this morning and saw a review for a historical fiction novel entitled "Her Mother's Daughter."

Funny, without even looking at the review (and we'd never heard of this book before), we immediately knew based on the title alone that this book had to be about Mary Tudor, daughter of King Henry VIII.

Upon closer inspection, sure enough, we were right.

Does this mean we are reading too much historical fiction when we can figure out the subject just by an elusive title?

Decide for yourself....how many can you guess based on the following titles? (No fair Googling!)

The Fifth Queen
The Last Queen
The Conqueror
The Last Empress
Devil's Brood
The Sixth Wife
The Heretic Queen
Royal Road to Fotheringhay
Young Bess
The Heart of a Queen

If you can guess the subject of these novels based on the title alone, you are a world-class historical fiction junkie.

If you know the subject of these novels because you've already read the book, well then, it might be time to do some branching out with new genres. :)

This Time We're Diversifying Our Children's Bookshelves

Really?

Who's A Winner?

Why, it's Miss Moppet!

Zap us a mailing address, Miss Moppet!

As if we need an excuse....

If you're anything like us, you probably have a series of books that you've been working your way through, but honestly, who has the time? It's hard to fit in time to read a great series, so we sneak in a book here and a book there.

But Michelle over at Galleysmith, God bless her cotton socks, is giving us all the best holiday gift ever: Seriespalooza, an entire week to devote to reading nothing but a series! Any series....an old favorite, one new to you, or in our case, one we've been pecking our way through for the past year.

Us? We're going to catch up on Sookie and finish off The Southern Vampire Series!

Go Team!

(Mis)Adventures in Audiobooks

A Reader's Respite is a big fan of Audible.com. We subscribe, so we get to download an audiobook once each month (which, coincidentally, is about how long it takes us to get through one unabridged book).

We try to switch it up a little and alternate fiction with non-fiction and last month, it was time for a non-fiction book. So after browsing the Audible site for at least an hour (who said decisions like this were easy?), we settled on Alison Weir's Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England. We thought it might be interesting to delve into some non-fiction about England's King Edward II and his French wife Isabella, who along with her lover Roger Mortimer, wrested the throne of England away from Edward in 1327.

Oy vey.

About the only good thing we have to report is that the narrator, Lisette Lecat, has a pleasant voice.

The problem was Weir. In all honesty, A Reader's Respite has never come across a work of historical non-fiction so biased, so slanted as to be almost untenable.

Here are Weir's salient points:

Edward II was evil.
Isabella was a saint.

Really, those are the points made over and over and over and over. Now we're no expert, but we're pretty certain that any historical portrait should be a tad more balanced to be taken seriously.

Unless it's about Hitler.

That's pretty much our only exception.

A Reader's Respite Complies with New FCC Ruling:

We did not receive this awful book in audio format for free. We paid damn good money for it and probably would have gotten more pleasure from flushing the cash down the toilet instead where it could join the 3 Matchbook cars and 1 Christmas ornament my kids have already flushed down there.

Blog Plagerism Day

In the spirit of bloggery-plagerism (a subtle swipe at the tempest in a teapot elsewhere in blogland today), A Reader's Respite felt the following was too good to pass up...

the.effing.librarian clued us into Gucci's campaign with UNICEF to offer the following book:

It's only $25 and every last cent of the proceeds goes to UNICEF, how cool is that? We want one. And if you happen to wrap the book in a Gucci bag for us, we'll just love you that much more.

Winner of a Series!

Are you all just dying to know who gets the three Luxe books??? Our random winner this week is:

CELTIC LADY!

Zap us an email with your mailing address so that A Reader's Respite can get these travesties off of our bookshelf, lol.

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!