a few treasures

6 Apr

I work in an antiquarian book collector’s dream library. Some of the oldest books in our collection date back to the late 1800s. I’m almost certain some are first editions of classics. Problem is… our library is small and we have an equally small staff, so many of these treasures are moldy and ill-treated. Ideally, most of these books would be housed in a special collections department with all manner of temperature controlled settings, but unfortunately we haven’t the resources to manage such a project. If I’m lucky, my suggestion to try to get into the Google Books library project will be taken seriously, but I doubt such an endeavor can take place for a while yet.

In the meantime, I can continue to have little moments of heart-stopping bibliophilia when I come across some magical tome. Like the time I came across a set of works by Charlotte Brontë, illustrated by Edmund Dulac (!!!), or like today, when I suddenly found myself cataloging a 3 volume set of Queen Victoria’s letters and another set of English belles-lettres, both filled with hand-colored illustrations. Gorgeous books that make me wonder why we no longer have such lavishly illustrated works outside of the children’s section.

For your visual pleasure… apologies for the quality, all except the last were shot with a phonecam.

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Black Unicorn/Gold Unicorn

15 Mar

I started reading Tanith Lee’s Black Unicorn a few weeks before I graduated from high school, so I was forced to return the book before I was done reading it. The title and author of the book slipped my mind, but Lee’s description of the crystalized unicorn skeleton hanging from a red-headed princess’s bedroom did not. I searched and searched for this book, but it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I decided to try an image search for the book’s cover and… Voila!

There it was! The marbled cover that caught my eye so many years ago. I snagged a used copy around January, but decided to include it as part of my YA review project. It was well worth the wait, and so much better now than the first time I read it.

The image of the crystal unicorn skeleton was as strong as ever, but I found it easier to let myself be drawn into Lee’s sparse style now that I’ve become such a fan of feminist fantasy. I really loved that; the experience of reading something that I didn’t quite get when I was a teen, but made so much sense now.

The story is simple enough… Tanaquil is the somewhat neglected daughter of a sorceress who lives in a fortress. The sorceress’ magic has leaked into the desert that surrounds the fortress, enchanting the area and the peeves (dog-like desert-dwelling creatures) that live there with the power to talk. When one of the peeves shows Tanaquil a crystal bone that it dug up, Tanaquil decides to go after the peeve and help it dig up the rest. Putting the pieces together, Tanaquil soon finds herself drawn to the skeletal thing, unaware of the power that she is about to unleash and the adventure this will set in motion.

The sequel, Gold Unicorn, recounts Tanaquil’s further adventures with her sidekick the peeve as she travels the world and meets the power-hungry Empress Veriam, who wants Tanaquil to use her ability to mend things to assist her in her plan to conquer the world.

Like many fantasy novels, this series features magic, other worlds, quests, and battles between good and evil. The narrative is descriptive and filled with dry humor reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley. Both books were a treat to read after wrapping up my course reading project.

There is a third book in the series, Red Unicorn, that I have yet to read.

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counting down…

5 Mar

Am 2 books away from completing my course reading project. Along the way, I have discovered a few things about myself:

  1. Like a good wine, some books improve with time… sort of. I just finished Tanith Lee’s The Black Unicorn, about 10 years after I unsuccessfully tried to read it in high school. I found it wonderfully enchanting; just the right kind of strong girl fantasy for me.
  2. Some YA books just do not appeal to me anymore. I fell in love with some of the works (The Truth About Forever, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, Ironman), but others just did not capture my interest. I think I just lost something along the way.
  3. Going outside of my comfort zone (genre-wise) is a good thing (re: Ironman).
  4. I need to read more smart, quirky bios and other non-fiction books.
  5. I still hate reading goals. I like to read at my pace and will be happy to resume it.

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a new resolution

23 Feb

My reading project is well under way, but it’s made me realize something about my reading selections… I read very few biographies/autobiographies, though I always enjoy the ones that I do read. Therefore, I’m resolving to add more biographical works to my leisure reading. My selection for this project is Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, and I’ve already spied a few more that I’m interested in reading once this term is done.

I’ll gladly take recommendations. I especially love bios on female historical figures.

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A new term…

11 Jan

A new reading list.

I’m taking the general YA lit class this term, so my bloggings mat be few and far between while I marathon read my way through my 24 selections, assigned readings, texts, and prepare reviews/possible lesson plans for use in libraries. It’ll be intense now that I’m working full time.

First up on my list: Nothing but the truth by Avi

ttfn

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Heart’s Blood

6 Jan

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Set during the time of the Norman invasion of Ireland, Heart’s Blood is an intricate blend of historical fantasy and ghost story. Trained as a scribe, Caitrin is a skilled and learned woman, but all this changes when she is subjected to the cruelty of her distant relatives after her father’s death. On the brink of losing all sense of self, Caitrin realizes that she must escape or forever become a victim. Running as far as she can, Caitrin is ill-prepared for the demands of traveling across Ireland on her own, but is spurred by her desire to find herself once again overrules any fear she might feel in doing so.

Reaching the fortified settlement of Whistling Tor, Caitrin is stunned to find herself an object of curiosity–no one ever goes to the Tor; it’s cursed. Uncertain what to believe when told tales of uncanny folk in the forest surrounding the chieftain’s keep, Caitrin is nevertheless drawn to the Tor and seeks a position translating and transcribing Latin for the chieftain of the Tor, Anluan, who never leaves his keep and is said to be monstrously disfigured.

When Caitrin reaches the keep, she finds that all is not quite as it seems, but neither is the Tor the place of horrors that she was warned against. Suddenly, Caitrin finds herself enmeshed in battle to save the heart of Whistling Tor and restore it to the holding it once was, if only she can get its chieftain to see things in a different light…

—

I will start by saying that I LOVED this book. I’ve read a few books that I’ve enjoyed recently, but I have not been truly engrossed by any of them (a few I went so far as to give up on after a few chapters). This is part of the reason my posts have been so short…

Heart’s Blood grabbed me from the very first. Not only was I intrigued by the mystery, I was drawn in by Marillier’s prose and ability to give me a bit of the chills when describing the circumstances surrounding the inhabitants of Whistling Tor. Caitrin is a real and believable heroine and Anluan a troubled but worthy hero. I don’t want too much away about the curse, but the ghostly, uncanny folk that live at Whistling Tor are just as intriguing as the heroes. This novel is rich with characterization and that is one of the elements that I most crave when I read fiction, something that I haven’t quite gotten recently. Reading this book felt like becoming part of something strange but wonderful.

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2010 in review

2 Jan

Thought this was pretty neat :)

 

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,800 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 100 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 178 posts. There were 67 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 5mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 7th with 132 views. The most popular post that day was What I’m Reading.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were Google Reader, zenleaf.blogspot.com, bookblogs.ning.com, zenleaf.amandagignac.com, and j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for 15 authors, things to read, jessie bollier, the slave dancer, and cupid and psyche.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

What I’m Reading December 2009
5 comments

2

43rd Bookworms Carnival: Cupid & Psyche December 2009

3

“We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat.” April 2008
1 comment

4

15 authors October 2010
4 comments

5

The Slave Dancer May 2010
1 comment

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Last post of 2010

31 Dec

Goddess of the Rose by PC Cast

Mikado “Mikki” Empousai has always had a special affinity with roses, as did her mother and grandmother. When she starts to have tantalizing dreams about a mystery lover, she starts to wonder if it’s the result of loneliness and an overactive imagination, or something more.  It doesn’t help that her dream man bears a striking resemblance to the mythical beast statue that guards the local rose garden. Little does Mikki realize that it’s a sign of a change to come, an awakening that brings her close to her true destiny and challenges her concept of dreams and reality.

—

I picked this book up on a whim at the used paperback store by my old job. The cover was a bit more sensual than the kind of covers that usually pique my interest, but I was intrigued when I read the blurb and realized that it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling.

I have mixed feeling about the novel itself… I found the concept original. The plot draws on Greek mythology and casts the Beast as the misunderstood Minotaur who guards Hecate’s Realm of the Rose, the place where the mundane world’s dreams are made. Mikki is portrayed as a strong, determined woman willing to chase her dreams, while the Beast is presented as a creature who is well aware of his position as a man-beast. The magickal elements also seemed a natural part of the world created by Cast. However, I had some trouble with the prose. I’m very particular about my idea of romance, dialog, and description when it comes to sex in literature, and the language just fell short in my opinion.

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Green Rider

26 Dec

Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Expelled from school after getting into a fight with a noble lord’s son, Karigan G’ladheon decides it’s time to leave the famed Selium academy and return home. Too bad fate has something else in store for her… Making her way home on foot, Karigan encounters a wounded Green Rider, a member of the King’s messenger service, sworn to deliver messages of import no matter the challenge. Finding that the Greenie is mortally wounded, Karigan agrees to complete the messenger’s final task, to deliver a message that others would kill to intercept. Facing dangerous creatures, magical foes, and countless dangers, Karigan fights her way to King Zachary’s castle, accepting the call of the Rider.

—
Green Rider was an interesting read with just the right amount of fantasy and adventure to keep me engaged and up into the night despite a head cold. It was a completely serendipitous find, just a cover that attracted my attention on PaperBackSwap. It has the feel of a Tamora Pierce novel, as if Karigan belonged among the sheroes of Tortall. I find this is quite a good thing :) . Unfortunately, I did not realize that it is part of a series, so now I’ve sucked myself into another series… I keep telling myself to stop doing that.

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Secret Santa Surprise

23 Dec

My Secret Santa package arrived in the mail today! My Santa sent me a copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel and North & South, and a bunch of festive sticky notepads :)

Thank you!

Can’t wait to read The Scarlet Pimpernel, it’s been on my mental to read list for a while…

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