The Classics Spin #3

Another Classics Club spin I hear you say? Well, why ever not?! I loved the first one and completely adored the second so I am inevitably cheered by the prospect of a third. Let's be havin' ya.


The idea is to pick twenty books from your classics club list. On the 19th August a number between 1 and 20 will be announced and you have to read the book corresponding to that number in your list and read it before the deadline (October 1st). Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

The List:

Please, please, oh pretty please!
1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2. No Name by Wilkie Collins
3. Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
4. A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway
5. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

No. Just no.
6. What Maisie Knew by Henry James
7. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
8. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
9. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
10. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert

Well, if I must.
11. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
12. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
13. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
14. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
15. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Oh, go on then.
16. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
17. Razor's Edge by W Somerset Maugham
18. Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
19. The Stranger by Albert Camus
20. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Well I certainly know which one I want and which one I definitely don't but I will not tempt fate by speaking of it...Bring on Monday, I can't to find out the number.

The suspense gets me every time. I love it.

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Top Ten Tuesday: War Books

The Broke and Bookish

This week's topic is top ten books with 'X' setting and the idea is to choose your own setting. I've not talked about war books too much yet on this blog even though they are my absolute favourite (hands down winner type thing). I find it really hard to explain what it is about novels written during a war or about a war I find so intriguing. Whilst the majority of war novels grab me, it is WW1 novels that I really cannot resist. I find WW1 so unbelievably addictive. It feels weird and slightly inappropriate to call it an addiction but that is what it can feel like. And I don't think I'm the only one. Pat Barker has written some of the most exceptional historical fiction about the First World War and I know she has described it in a similar way and Susan Hill described it as being haunted. But, someone stop me before I get way too involved...I'm trying to save the gritty enthusiasm for a separate post (yes, you should be excited).

So, my top ten books set in World War 1:

Regeneration by Pat Barker
This is the first of the triology and my favourite of the three because it is set in Craiglockhart Hospital and I have a little literary obsession with Craglockhart (I blame uni). I would highly recommend all of Pat Barker's war novels, each one is amazing and heartbreaking.

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young
Heart pulled out, sown back in again, pulled back out...and on it goes. So good. And such an interesting subject.

Not So Quiet...Stepdaughters of War by Helena Zenna Smith
Written in the 30's, this is one of my favourite female war novels. It is not strictly accurate but the emotions are there. Plus it is a very clever response to All Quiet on the Western Front.


Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
I have no words. THE FEELS. I was inconsolable for days.

The Forbidden Zone by Mary Borden
Not for the faint-hearted. This collection of stories still gets to me and I've not read them for over a year. They come right from the front line and Borden does not hold back.

Strange Meeting by Susan Hill
This had me in tears on the tube. Need I say more?!

Half of the Human Race by Anthony Quinn
A delightful mix of war and suffrage. All of his novels are wonderful.

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
Favourite novel ever. The writing, the story, the characters, the ending...oh my days, it's just too much.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
It's a classic for good reason. Everyone should read it and if you don't cry at THAT horse bit there is something wrong with you.

Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff
This is a play rather than a novel but it just has to be listed here. When I saw this performed I was overcome with convulsive sobs. Then I had to pull myself together to interview the actors...Read it, then see it, then read it again.

I realise my description of most of these books involves some form of sobbing or heart-wrenching emotion but WW1 has that effect on me every time. But that does not make my obsession falter for even a second. I don't think I'll ever get over it.

Has anyone read any of these? Or have any to recommend? I am always on the lookout for books to quench my WW1 thirst.

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Non-Fiction Review: Craving

Craving
Omar Manejwala
2013

I'm going to put my hands up right now and admit that I am an eater. There, I said it. I love food. I love eating. And eating is something I do a lot of. Probably more than I should (I love how running ALMOST manages to give me an excuse to eat - I have to store energy for a race, surely?!). Sometimes I merely crave food just for the hell of it or for unknown reasons. Mostly I crave chocolate or liquorice all sorts. Occasionally I crave things like avocado or tomatoes. In general I tend to give in to these cravings but Craving by Omar Manejwala has actually given me another way to approach this annoying habit.

I first saw this book over on Should Be Reading and thought it looked very interesting (and pretty much what I need) so I could hardly refuse when I was asked to review the book.

I was slightly apprehensive when I first sat down to read the book that it would veer way too much toward the science of craving. Whilst it does do that, it is written in such a way that makes it accessible. 

It is a very overview-y kind of book. It covers all manner of cravings from food to alcohol to the internet to cigarettes. This is both a strength and a (very slight) weakness. I was very interested by the general sections of the book and the sections that relate to my own craving bugbear but I did skip through sections which focused on other cravings which are irrelevant to me. Still, I think the way this book caters to so many groups of people whilst still maintaining a good level of general information, is very clever.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is thoroughly affected by a craving of any sort (though if you have one which is covered in the book, I would recommend it even more). It is sciencey and sometimes quite dry but there are some very useful tips in there and some very enlightening little tidbits. It certainly opened my eyes to cravings and why people have them and how to overcome them.

Thank you to the author for sending me a copy to review (and helping me with my own craving in the process).

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The Wild Girl Blog Tour: Interview

I've got a little treat for you today! I was given the opportunity to ask Kate Forsyth, author of The Wild Girl (see my review here), a few questions and I'm going to share her answers with you. If you're a fan of fairy tales, be prepared to want to devour a few right now. If you're not a fan, be prepared to become one. 

1. This is your second novel centered on fairy tales and you are doing a doctorate about the re-telling of fairy tales - just what is it about fairy tales?
Fairy tales are stories of triumph, transformation and true love, and so they speak to the most basic human longings and desires. We all want to win against all the odds, we all want to believe it is possible to change our world for the better, and we all wish to be loved. Nothing is easy in fairy tales, though. That’s important too. The heroes and heroines have to deal with sometimes unimaginable impediments to their happiness (their hands being cut off, being turned into frogs or beasts, having to climb mountains of glass) and so that helps us to feel that, perhaps, our own obstacles can be overcome too.

2. What inspired you to tell the mostly unheard of Dortchen's story?
As soon as I read about Dortchen, I knew I had to write a novel about her. I was utterly electrified by her story. She’s nothing but a footnote in the occasional musty old academic journal – and yet her life was full of everything I love in a story. Romance, passion, drama, heartbreak, struggle, and, finally, triumph. Plus, of course, the fairy tales! I never knew that so many of my favourite fairy tales had been told to the Grimm brothers by the one young woman, yet her name was unknown. I feel very strongly about the power of stories to shape and change our lives, and Dortchen’s life was such an extraordinary example of that.

3. Which female fairy tale character do you find the most intriguing?
I find many of the heroines of fairy tales of fairy tales intriguing … and also, I must admit, many of the villains. My novel BITTER GREENS is a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale (interwoven with the true life story of the fascinating woman who first told the tale). I was inspired to write that book because I felt so many emotional and psychological resonances with Rapunzel, having spent much of my childhood locked up in a lonely hospital ward, with only one narrow window to look upon the world. I was, however, also very troubled by the witch and her motives, which were never explained in the tale, and so BITTER GREENS is told partly from the point of view of the witch as well as Rapunzel and Charlotte-Rose de la Force, the 17th French writer who first wrote the story. I’m deeply intrigued by tales such as ‘Síx Swans’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’, any tale that mingles joy and terror, brightness and shadows, beauty and strangeness.

4. Do you have a favourite fairy tale?
I have a few. ‘Rapunzel’, ‘Six Swans’, ‘Beauty & the Beast’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’, ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, plus many lesser known ones. I love Romany tales, and wove quite a few into THE GYPSY CROWN, and I love Scottish fairy tales as well, and drew upon Scottish folklore in THE PUZZLE RING. Both of these are children’s books, and entwine history, mystery, and magic together in the way that I love to do.

5.  Whenever I think of retold fairy tales Angela Carter springs to my mind (and no doubt everyone else's). Was she an influence on you? Did you have any other influences?
BITTER GREENS has been called ‘the best fairy tale retelling since Angela Carter’ which pleased me enormously, as I’m sure you can imagine. She was not really an influence on me, however, although I have read and studied her work. I think I was more influenced by fairy tale retellers such as Robin McKinley and Juliet Marillier, and historical fiction writers such as Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Dunant and Joanna Harris. They all bring the worlds of their novels vividly to life, which is something that’s very important to me, and they all explore the forgotten lives of women. Their books are page-turners, and yet serious in intent and tone, and they are not afraid to shine light into some dark corners of the soul.

6. Did you find telling a story about arguably the 'ultimate' storytellers a daunting task?
Oh yes! In so many ways. People revere the Grimm brothers, and so much is known about them – and so little about the woman who told them their tales. The research was enormous, the problems at times insurmountable. And the emotional cost of the book was soul-shaking. I spent so long inside Dortchen’s skin, it was difficult at times to pull myself out. I began to dream I was her …

7.  What's next? Do you have anything in the pipeline?
At the moment I’m having enormous fun writing a five-book fantasy adventure series for kids (I tend to alternate between adult and children’s books). Then I plan to rewrite one of Dortchen’s tales, ‘The Singing, Springing Lark’ (a Beauty and the Beast-variant), setting the novel in Nazi Germany. That will be another intense, dark, soul-shaking book, but extraordinary to research and write.

8.  On a slightly more general note - what has been your favourite read so far this year?
I could not possibly choose only one! I read so much and so widely. So I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve picked my 12 favourite novels for adults for the year so far. They’re all wonderful! PS: I put them in order of reading, not in order of preference.

The Falcons of Fire & Ice - Karen Maitland
Chasing the Light – Jesse Blackadder
The Lavender Keeper - Fiona McIntosh
The Venetian Contract – Marina Fiorato
Nine Days – Toni Jordan
The Darling Strumpet – Gillian Bagwell
The Perfume Garden - Kate Lord Brown
The Shadow Year – Hannah Richell
The Ashford Affair – Lauren Willlig
Keeping the Castle – Patrice Kindl
A Spear of Summer Grass – Deanna Raybourn
Longbourne – Jo Baker

Oh look, another load of books to add to my wishlist!

Thank you so much to Kate for such a wonderful interview and brilliant answers. And obviously, thank you for introducing me to Dortchen Wild...time to dig out my Grimm collection.

Thanks Kate!

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Blog Tour Review: The Wild Girl

The Wild Girl

Kate Forsyth

2013

'Do you not know that story? It's about a little brother and sister who get lost in the forest, and find a witch's cottage made all of gingerbread. I'll tell it to you, if you like.'

I love fairy tales. Like, proper love them. Reading The Wild Girl, a book about fairy tales and written through fairy tales, was pretty much a totally joyful experience. The writing, the story, the woman question, the fairy tales - so, so good. It was heartbreaking, uplifting and brilliantly informative.

Once there were six sisters.

The pretty one, the musical one,

the clever one, the helpful one, the young one...

And then there was the wild one.

Dortchen is the wild one. Under the shadow of her ruthless father (a nasty piece of work if there ever was one), and against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Dortchen and Wilhelm Grimm fall in love and begin piecing together a pretty special collection of stories and tales.

This book is written so brilliantly. The fairy tales are woven with such artistic precision into perfect points throughout the story. Some of the tales are familiar, others are not at all and some are remnants of the stories they have become. Although we all know the famous fairy tales so well, the way they are merged into this novel makes them seem really quite new. They become part of Dortchen's story not just some independent collection of stories that just turned up somewhere one day. Dortchen's story is an interesting one and I would love to find out more about it. You've gotta love the female underdog who secretly has power over all the men but hides it so well until BOOM she kicks out and shows them all how awesome she is. I love those women.

The history aspect of the novel I found very interesting. I know nothing about the Napoleonic Wars and this actual makes me not want to because they sound brutal. I've only got room the brutality of WW1 in my head right now. Still, I think Kate Forsyth paints a really good picture of the struggles of the period and life in Germany under French rule. I would not want to live there. But I do love how the stories then become like lights in the darkness. Not only for the reader but for the characters themselves - the process of storytelling becomes a little escape from Herr Wild, from poverty, from the wars and momentarily from reality. Because of this historical background The Wild Girl is occasionally very violent, almost uncomfortably so but not in a way that made me not want to read it. More in a way that made me hope for a good resolution and that made me even more invested in the characters. Seriously, it's been a while since I have cared about characters as much as I cared about Dortchen and her sisters.

I was really interested in storytelling at uni so I love the emphasis on storytelling in the oral forms and how the novel explores how stories change and develop through the generations. The stories are even adjusted through each volume of the tales to either appease society, make the stories more child friendly or for more personal reasons relating to Wilhelm and Dortchen (I really love Kate's afterword and her interpretation/explanation of these changes). I think considering the significant role of storytelling in the novel, the traditional happy ending could not be avoided. It is what you expect, what you hope for and it is exactly what the book needs. I have never wanted a happy ending more and neither have I been more satisfied by a happy ending.

I know at it's core the book is about significant romance in the history of storytelling but I was very pleased that the romance does not overwhelm the story. By which I mean it is not overwritten to the point that I (as a person without much romantic feeling) am forced to gag. The balance between the love bits and the life bits is just rather perfect. Plus there is just such an awesome undercurrent of women's rights that I was, more often than not, properly fist pumping the air in agreement with whichever girl was kicking metaphorical ass at that point in time. Usually Hanne. Hanne is awesome. 

The Wild Girl is a brilliant piece of historical fiction. It is a wonderfully written novel with an engaging (and emotional) story. It is a book to be devoured in very few sittings, with a box of tissues on hand and no one around to judge you for sobbing your heart out.

And finally, how beautiful is that cover?!

Interested in which fairy tale is Kate Forsyth's favourite or which female character she finds the most intriguing? Or even her top reads this year? Yes? Check back on Thursday to read my interview with Kate.

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Austen in August

It's August 3rd which means Roof Beam Reader's Austen in August event is well and truly underway. I'm pretty excited right now. It has been a while since I last read an Austen (Persuasion at uni, I think) so I am really looking forward to getting stuck in. 

No doubt along with many other readers, Austen (and Daphne du Maurier if you're interested) was kind of my first foray into the classics. I read my Mum's copy of Pride and Prejudice when I was in school and basically adored it. Considering good old Jane did provide me with a way in to the classics, I did not go around madly consuming all her novels. I have only read P&P, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and some of her shorter fiction/juvenilia. It is almost an embarrassment to admit to my lack of Austen knowledge. Something needs to be done about this, like, NOW. 

Enter Austen in August. For this event I am going to be reading Sense and Sensibility. I have only planned the one read because I only have one Austen on my Classics Club list. But I am not precluding the possibility of maybe just having a sneaky re-read of Persuasion if S&S makes me feel so inclined.

Since their releases I have also been very interested in reading Paula Byrne's The Real Jane Austen and John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen? I have just filled out the application to join my local library so I think, if either are available at the library, I may read some Austen related non-fiction too. August is after all quite a long month.

We all know I love to tweet (sometimes excessively, I'll grant you), so I will be tweeting away using the official event hashtag #AusteninAugustRBR

Who else is joining in with this event? Are you as excited as I am?

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It's happening...Bout of Books 8.0

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

So. Damn. Excited.

May. Need. Calming. Down. With. Physical. Force.

BOOKS.

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