Bookslingers Podcast

The Bookslingers Bookslinging Podcast #24: Murder, murder, murder

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:08:11 PDT

Congratulations CLA Book Award winners! (Dear CLA, your website needs some work.)

It's TD Book Week, so check out bookweek.ca for events in your community.

If you don't know about WikiWars and the way female American Authors is being divided into "American Authors" and "American Women Authors," and you really enjoy being infuriated, you might want to check that out.

Puffin is releasing new editions of four beloved Canadian children's classics! Included are Awake and Dreaming by Kit Pearson, Mama's Going To Buy You A Mockingbird by Jean Little, Run by Eric Walters (which oops, neither of us has ever read) and Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker. And none of them has an inexplicable buxom blonde on the front, so they're already a vast improvement on the last time somebody tried to revive a Canadian children's classic *coughAnneofGreenGablescough*.

This week's book is the latest and greatest (maybe? my feelings are confused) in the Flavia De Luce series by Alan Bradley: Speaking from among the Bones. If that title gives you the shivers, you're already in just the right mood for this book.

Books from this week's podcast:

Speaking from among the Bones by Alan Bradley
The Fire Chronicle by John Stephens
Grave Mercy by Robin Lefevre
Scarlet by Marisa Meyer
The Madness Underneath - Shades of London #2 by Maureen Johnson
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
The Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood
The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart

Your Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Fri, 03 May 2013 07:00:12 PDT

No doubt Miss Maiar is still recovering from the foaming-at-the-mouth bliss of watching Iron Man 3, so I am here to bring things back to the things that matter. Books.

And wait it out until I see it on Sunday.

The Edgar Award winners have been announced!

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY CAREEEEEEEER?

Congrats to all the winners and the nominees.

I suppose this is just another reason to finally read Code Name: Verity. I know that it's going to be amazing but I am convinced that I am going to cry myself into an asthma attack.

Future Slings: Doll Bones by Holly Black

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:58:40 PDT

Holly Black is cool.

She has a fantastic scary-book writer name, she wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles and YA books that I am too wimpy to read, and she sometimes wears a hat.

Black is back for middle grade audience (essentially I have created this entire blog post just to type that) on May 7th with Doll Bones.

It looks like another welcome addition to the highly specialized genre of "Creepy Ass Evil Doll Books for Children."

Because that is the look of the doll that children can't wait to bring into their bedrooms

I hated dolls.

Especially dolls with eyeballs. A well-meaning grandparent gave a three-year-old me a baby doll that had eyes that opened and closed depending on how you held it. It was a lovely present (although, as an older sister, I never saw the point of baby dolls as I could grab the real thing from the crib and roll them around in the dirt). I christened the doll as "Harry."

And then screamed that it was evil and locked it in the closet.

Needless to say, I will be reading Doll Bones in the daytime with one hand around a cricket bat. In case the dolls come for me.

Other classics of the Creepy Ass Evil Doll Genre (in no particular order of creepiness) are:

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones - Dolls are trying to kill you and all your friends

Ragweed by Garth Nix - The moral of the story is, DOLLS ARE EFFING EVIL

The Dollhouse Murders by BettyRen Wright - Dolls are not only often gender stereotypes, they are also MURDERERS

Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy - THIS BOOK HAUNTED ME AS A CHILD. IT HAUNTS ME STILL.

Labour of... Gritted Teeth

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:29:39 PDT

Happy May Day, Bookslingers!

Not only is this a day where you can unabashedly dance around a maypole (as much as such a thing can be done unabashedly) but it is also a day to celebrate that fact that children are no longer legally allowed to work in mines in the US and Canada!

Labour has penchant for toques

This is the day where we salute those who fought for the working day many of us "enjoy" today: eight hours of work, eight hours of pleasure/reading and eight hours of sleeping/reading.

And it was a fight. Peruse the Wikipedia article on History of Union Busting in the United States. And then this one.

So, having this in mind, you get a peak into the source of my ire towards Dear America: The Diary of Pringle Rose by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

Ostensibly, this is a book about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that killed hundreds of people and destroyed great swaths of the city. Unfortunately, the historical tragedy takes second billing to Pringle Rose's bizarre struggle with unions and domestic melodrama.

Part of my issue with the book was not the writing, which is solid and engaging, but with whose story was being told. It really brought me back to Bill Campbell's critique of another book in the Dear America series which tells the story of Japanese American Internment through the eyes of a priveledged, white protagonist. Though not to the same extent, the misplaced protagonist displaced the story from where it should have been.

Pringle Rose is the daughter of a rich mine owner in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The workers in his mines are on strike for better conditions and the situation is quickly descending into violence. Pringle is a world away in Merrywood School for Girls in Philadelphia but her life is overturned when her parents are killed in a mysterious carriage accident - her brother Gideon (who has Down Syndrome) is the sole survivor.

When her uncle arrives with his inevitably cruel wife, Pringle doesn't know if she can go on. Her only bright spot in a life darkened by grief is Rabbit, the handsome miner who courts her with Alice in Wonderland quotes. But when her aunt finds the letter to her friend detailing their little romance, Pringle decides to run away with her brother to Chicago to start a new life.

Seems like a hopping place... Hop right into the river, am I right, fleeing survivors?

She finds work as a nursemaid in the home of a labour newspaper publisher. But when their young male relative comes to visit, everything changes.

Oh, and Chicago burns to the ground.

So, why so grumpy Miss Corene?

Well, maybe because:

- Does Pringle really intellectually engage with the struggle of the workers? Nope. They are just a mass of threat to her family. Pringle hears about the working conditions and the mining disasters but doesn't sympathize or seek to understand what the unions are asking for. Why add the details to the story if you aren't going to engage with them?

- Why not tell the story from the point of view from an immigrant coming to the city? Or a child from one of those mines that Pringle's father owns who decides to leave that awful life for the city? Why did this story have to be told from a place of privilege and money? Does that help the story of the Great Chicago Fire? Pringle looses very little during the fire but what about the people whose lives were destroyed? Why not a story about picking up the pieces after the fire?

- Every person involved with a union is either charmingly childlike in their understanding of how the world works in compared with Pringle or treacherous, unreliable, dangerous jerks. That is all. Gwen and Peter Pritchard open their house to Pringle and her brother. They give them both lodging and employment. But the are portrayed as simplistic.However, Gwen's brother is revealed to be HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOILERS the murdering murderer of Pringle's parents and Rabbit. Rabbit is a murderer and he is the only person in the book actually involved in strike. FOR REALZ. So when this is revealed, the Pritchards kick Pringle to the curb and she wanders into the Great Fire to work out her sadness. And the Pritchards are portrayed as the villains. Damn working people sending rich girls to fiery deaths!

Let's all read Lyddie by Katherine Patterson instead.

Fighting for your right not to die of byssinosis

And Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy.

Grumpily yours,
Miss Corene

OMG FLAVIA (Speaking from Among the Bones)

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:33:36 PDT

GUYS DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS A NEW FLAVIA DE LUCE BOOK?

I try to keep up, but as I am not, like Corene, immersed in an environment when the publication dates of all and sundry new tween and YA novels come flying constantly at my face, I often miss them entirely, even when they are awesome amazing incredible clever murder mystery books about genius chemist girl detectives like the most excellent Flavia De Lucie in Alan Bradley's new Speaking from Among the Bones.

This time, I was unaware until some weeks ago when I saw a girl on the SeaBus reading it, and immediately rushed out to buy it.

And then all the bookstores were closed, so the next day I tried to get it out of the library, but all the copies were checked out and I am too impatient for waitlists about 60% of the time.

So I bought it at a tiny local shop on Vancouver Island while visiting my mother.

BUT THE POINT IS I have read it, it's amazing, and guys, this post could be full of so many spoilers, but I'm going to restrain myself because this book is slated to be Book of the Week in our next podcast. Cut for maybe, sort of, vaguely, potentially spoilers.

It will interest you to know, however, that this story begins with grave robbing, proceeds through a fascinating tutorial-via-murder-investigation on the inner workings of church organs and ends with a twist that made me nearly fall off of a couch, shout "WHAT?" in a much louder voice than is perhaps appropriate in the work lunchroom, and then immediately email Corene ordering her to read it immediately because no one else understood my feelings.

Read this book immediately. But if you, like me, are prone to loud emotional outbursts when books punch you in the feelings, maybe save the last three pages until you're not in a public place.

Your Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:37:35 PDT

So, in case you weren't aware, there is a book called I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems By Cats.

Yep.

That's a thing.

In honour of this, NPR has a delectable comic tribute to cats and the poets who loved them.

No surprise, Margaret "Momma can get nasty!" Atwood makes the list with this painfully true quote: "I have a lot of cats. What else can you do with a B.A. these days?"

I think she may have a shot as a professional goalie.

Your Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:14:47 PDT

Good morning, Bookslingers!

After a brief break (mostly to recover from the new Flavia de Luce book but more on that later), we have your mid-morning peruse.

Via Flavorwire a fantastic gallery of 25 Vintage Photos of Librarians Being Awesome.

Possibly the most awesome photo of the bunch is this one:

The caption reads: "The Librarian at Tuskegee and his assistant, 1910".

SOMEONE WRITE THIS BOOK NOW.

These two look like they got up to some cracking crime-fighting adventures between shelf reading and storytime.

Your Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 09:00:01 PDT

Sebastian Faulks is writing an authorized Jeeves and Wooster sequel.

Let me express my feelings on the subject through the dramatic stylings of classical-trained actor, Alan Rickman.

Where'd You Go Bernadette?

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:25:01 PST

So, in short, Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple was not the book for me.

It was the cover for me.

Looks at those giant black sunglasses! The weird fringe! Not wild about the blow up doll mouth though.

This is the story of Bee, her Microsoft-drone father, their aspirational neighbor with a topiary fascination Audrey, and her mother, Bernadette Fox.

In the form of letters, emails, transcripts and newsletters, Bee tries to unravel the mystery of her mother and where she may have disappeared. This will not be easy.

Bernadette is a bundle of hates. She hates the gnat-like parents at the progressive Galer Street School with their classes on Expressive Movement. She hates the fact that Washington State is adjacent to Idaho. She loathes Seattle with its mountains and rain and clouds and pitching-in and yuppies and Microsoft and people. Bernadette has outsourced her entire life to Manjula in India.

To the earth-friendly hybird driving parents, she is a aberration with no sense of community. To her husband, she is not the woman he married. For Audrey, she is the owner of the blackberry bushes that are threatening her perfect Prospective Parent Lunch to attract Mercedes parents to the school.

For Bee, Bernadette is someone who always has her back. She sings to Beatles songs and is calm in a crisis and chaos in regular life. So when Bernadette disappears without saying a word to her, Bee knows that she has to track her down and bring her back home.

Like I said, this is not the book for me. The story of a girl tracking down her mother and a woman struggling against the expectations of a ridiculous, accessory-based society? Awesome.

However, that's only half the book.

The other half is a biting satire of Microsoft and the Subaru-parents of Seattle. Which pretty much sailed over my head. As someone who is at best indifferent and at worst, will walk away from any conversation that surrounds Seattle and Microsoft, this didn't connect. Satire depends on recognition - a common base upon which to launch your barbs. I didn't feel like Semple brought us into the world enough for us to laugh along with her at the ridiculousness of the Galer Street School parents and their marimba demonstrations.

Maybe because of this, the whimsy in the book felt a little forced. All the slavish TED Talk admiration and Victims Against Victimization groups and Antarctica cruises just didn't connect.

But what did connect was Bernadette. She is a tough character. Fueled by petty spite and smug superiority, she navigates her world with a mix of dismissive selfishness and all-consuming rage at small Seattle things (like her day-long rants about five-way stops). But as you read further, you beginning to understand the root of her unbalance, of her frustration about everything around her.

You might not like Bernadette but you do care where she is going.

Congrats to our Plain Scandal giveaway winners!

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:55:13 PST

Many, many thanks to everyone who entered our A Plain Scandal and beeswax candle giveaway.

Our winners, as chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, are Suzan F and PJ! Look out for our missive in your inbox.

Again, thank you to everyone who entered the contest and I hope that you all pick up Amanda Flower's book from your local bookstore or library. It's a perfect anecdote for the February blues.

Your Morning PSA: Comics for the Great Good from Miss Maiar

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:34:41 PDT

And now, a public service announcement.

There's this amazing comic out right now. It's called Captain Marvel, and it features hotshot pilot and Avenger Colonel Carol Danvers, who used to be Ms. Marvel and recently got a promotion! (Captain. Not Ms. Captain.) It's written by the magnificent Kelly Sue DeConnick and it's clever and inspiring and the art in the first several issues is beautiful and has an amazing fan community. It is about 50% responsible for getting me back into comics after more than a decade away, and I wish that it had been around when I was a kid buying comics the first time around, because I probably never would have stopped. I wish I knew people with little girls because I would buy fifteen copies and shove them into their hands. I would do this standing on a street corner, handing it to total strangers, if I didn't think it would get me arrested.

Look at that cover. HOW COOL IS THAT.

Here's where the public service part comes in: if you have ever felt the slightest inclination to read about a brave, sassy, brilliant lady superhero who gets to wear a uniform that actually covers her body, mentor adorable children, be best bros with Captain America, and be the titular Mightiest Hero of the planet Earth, you should buy this comic.

And not just buy it: pre-order. That means: subscribe. Put it on a pull list at your local comic book store. Get it digitally via Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited or comiXology. Even if you've never walked into one before and find comic shops intimidating and weird (which is totally valid and I understand), I promise, this book is worth it.

The pre-order part is important, because sales from pre-orders (subscriptions and pull lists) are how big publishers (in this case Marvel) decide whether or not to keep producing a book, which is, yes, pretty archaic! And changing, slowly, but it is, currently, the way comics work. And the pre-sales matter because, well, this comic doesn't do as well as some other big Marvel titles, because it is a comic about a woman written by a woman and not all about explosions (which are great! I am not hating on explosions) and manpain (which also has its merits!) and is apparently largely being bought by women and girls and not quite as popular with certain dude-types (still the key demographic of comics), because... reasons. Some of the reasons as stated are frankly stupid and make me ragey so I'm not going to quote them here.

This book is important, because it's been a big part of getting more girls and women into comics recently, which is something we need! And is about a lady superhero who is super because she is awesome, not because she's somebody's girlfriend or sidekick. Comics can be amazing. They're about the vastness of human potential and imagination and finding strength in yourself and helping others for the sake of helping others and standing against evil, whether that evil is a robotic alien army bent on the domination of the Earth or some disrespectful jerk on the playground.

But even with all that going for them, the genre is historically not especially inclusive or welcoming of the female-identifying among us, (*coughDCComicscough*) which is something slowly changing, and most effectively changed by spending our money on stuff that is about and for women.

So buy this comic! It's amazing! I promise!

Future Slings

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:30:00 PST

This is going to be a sweet couple of months.

Release date: May 7th

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is a collaboration between Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks. Both of whom are awesome. It is currently being serialized here and both Bookslingers give it two enthusiastic slings. There are killer robots. Go now. We can wait.

March 5th

Linda Urban, one of Miss Corene's favourite authors because she writes quiet kids like no one else, is coming out with The Center of Everything.

April 2nd

The second Fair Assassin book by Robin LaFevers (sequel to Grave Mercy) is looking pretty fierce.

April 2nd

Lucy Knisley, possibly the most talented graphic artist/cartoonist/drawing person out there, details her culinary exploits. Guaranteed to make you hungry.

April 2nd

Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis is the third book in the ridiculously charming Incorrigible Series. So charming, people. So charming.

March 5

Miss Corene's favourite cozy mystery series (it's about tea! And tea!) has a new offering: Sweet Tea Revenge. SPOILERS: Tea will be served.

March 26th

Words that Miss Corene's credit card fears more than any other: NEW MAISIE DOBBS MYSTERY! Pre-ordering so fast. So fast.

The Bookslingers Bookslinging Podcast #23: Dragony intrigue and another in the long list of authors that make us feel inadequate

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:43:01 PST

Aaaaaaaaaand we're back! Our first podcast of 2013! Wooooo!

Yes, our iTunes feed still appears to be broken. No, we don't know why. Yes, we are working on it. Sorry!

While we were away, the 2012 Cybils were awarded. The Early Chapter Book winner, Sadie and Ratz by Sonya Hartnett (illustrated by Ann James), includes the scariest shadow puppets in living memory.

Are you reading Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong? Because you should be. Written by Prudence Shen and drawn by Faith Erin Hicks! Politics! Chainsaws! Killer robots! Nothing can possibly go wrong!

The first Bookslingers contest is on now: enter to win a copy of A Plain Scandal by Amanda Flower! Find out more in the blog post.

Neil Gaiman's Chu's Day, the thoroughly adorable picture-book story of Chu, a little panda with a big sneeze, came out in January (illustrated by Adam Rex). His new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, comes out in June.

Like totally excellent radio plays filled with equally fabulous British actors like James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Anthony Head (and that's just the top of the list!)? The new BBC radio play adaptation of Neverwhere debuts on March 16th. It will be available on iPlayer, which means that we non-Brits will even be able to listen to it!

Our book of the week is Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. Dragons! A totally new take on dragons! No really! Also beautiful, beautiful worldbuilding and tension and politics and did I mention the dragons? And did I mention this is her debut novel? Welcome to the list of authors who make us feel inadequate, Rachel Hartman! I'm sure you, Kristin Cashore and Megan Whalen Turner will get along famously.

Books from this week's podcast:

The Fire Chronicles by John Stephens
The Gates by John Connoly
Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen
The Seeker by Isobelle Carmody
Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
Swim the Fly by Don Calame
Beat the Band by Don Calame
The Appleseed Creek Mysteries by Amanda Flower
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Crown Jewel by Sherwood Smith
Grave Mercy by Robin Lefevre
A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson LeVine

Download the Bookslingers Podcast #23! (Right-click and Save As...)

Bookslingers in Brief #2

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:00:04 PST

If Gordon Korman's Bruno and Boots grew up and started making masturbation jokes.

(A looooot of masturbation jokes. Many of them hilarious because I have the same sense of humour as a 16 year-old high school boy).

If you like your books raunchy, rockin' and strangely sweet, this is your weekend assignment.

Your Afternoon Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:42:30 PST

Looking to boost your book count for the year? If quitting your job and moving to a private library island is not an option, Retreat by Random House has tips on How to Read More Books.

Bookslingers Interview and Giveaway: Amanda Flower

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:20:17 PST

As a library aficionado/professional and a full-time bibliophile, I love it when these two worlds collide. So I was extra thrilled about the chance to interview Agatha Award nominee, Amanda Flower. Not only is she an academic librarian by day but by evening/weekends she is also a cozy mystery author with several sleuths on the go.

It's kind of like interviewing Batman and Agatha Christie at the same time (Although, come to think of it, did we ever see Batman and Agatha Christie in the same room at the same time?).

Amanda kindly answered a few questions for us about her Appleseed Creek Mystery series:

So pleased to see another librarian turned writer! What drew you towards writing mysteries?

I’ve always wanted to be an author and mysteries were my first choice. My mother is an avid mystery fan, and we always had stack of mysteries from the library sitting around the house. I loved the whodunit aspect. My favorite mysteries are those that I feel like I have it all figured out and find out at the end I was completely wrong. I love a surprise ending.

Do you have a personal connection to the Amish community? Why did you decide to set the Appleseed Creek Mystery series in an Amish community?

I’ve lived in Ohio my entire life, so I can’t even tell you when I saw my first Amish person. It’s always been normal to me to have Amish living nearby. However, I grew up in the city, so I didn’t see them on a daily basis. That changed when I finished my master’s in library science. After I graduated, I applied for librarian jobs all over the country. The only offer I received was to be a librarian at a small college in the middle of Ohio’s Amish Country. I lived near the Amish for three years. I was twenty-four at the time, which is the same age of Chloe, my protagonist. She moved to a small town in Ohio’s Amish Country to take a job at a small college too. That’s one piece of the story taken from my own life. When I lived in Amish Country, it was common to shop with Amish at the local grocery store or to pass an Amish buggy on the road. I didn’t think much of it at the time. It wasn’t until I moved back to the city that I realized what a unique experience I’d had and how that could be made into a mystery.

Vampire Amish Werewolf Romance. Mind. Blown.

It seems like there's been an explosion of books about or featuring the Amish - there's even an Amish vampire romance. What do you think has caused the sudden increase in interest in the Amish?

I think Amish fiction exploded because in a crazy busy world, we tend to wish for a simpler life. A lot of Amish fiction portrays that beautifully. I include that in my series, but I show the uncomfortable parts of Amish life too, such as why someone may to choose to leave Amish life to live as an English, non-Amish, person. Two of my central characters, Timothy Troyer and his sister Becky Troyer, have left their Amish communities to live as Englischers. An overarching theme of the series is how they deal with their Amish family and friends. Many times the relationships are strained.

Do you think you'd ever be involved in a spot of amateur detecting if the opportunity crossed your path?

I am inquisitive, so I tend to question something someone tells me. I think that may be more related to being a librarian than to a potential amateur sleuth. I always want to know the source of someone’s information before I believe it. If you can provide me a citation, all the better.

Would I get involved with a police investigation? Probably not, unless someone I loved dearly was at risk. The need to protect the ones we love is universal. That’s one reason cozies are so popular. Typically when the series begins, the protagonist gets involved because someone he or she cares about is either the victim or the suspect. That’s a reason why we, the readers, would meddle with the police. We can understand the need to protect those closest to us.

Who are your five favorite detectives?

My five favorite detectives? That’s a tough one! Here they are in no particular order and this list changes constantly because there are so many great mysteries authors in the market right now.
Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone
Earlene Fowler’s Beni Harper
Heather Webber’s Lucy Valentine
Elizabeth Peters’s Vicky Bliss
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum

Many thanks to Amanda for the interview! If you want to connect with Amanda, you can reach her on her Twitter, Facebook, website and blog.

We have two copies of the newest book in the Appleseed Creek Mystery series to give away from Amanda's publicists! You can enter to win one of two copies of A Plain Scandal and a handmade beeswax candle:

For a chance to win, you can:

Leave a Comment (for +5 entries)
Like Bookslingers on Facebook (+5 entries)
Follow Bookslingers on Twitter (+5 entries)
Tweet about the Giveway (+10 entries)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Home on the Range: Little Century by Anna Keesey

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:31:51 PST

You know, for someone who doesn't eat meat, I've been reading an awful lot of books about cows.

It's been one of those weird canoe trips through Bookland. One errant paddle stroke in the library bookshelves and all of a sudden you're in a cowboy tributary.

I currently reside in the prairies. If you stand on a pile of dirt, you can see the Rocky Mountains on a clear day. On a windy day, you can smell the cows and the feedlots. Despite or because of this, I've never had a jot of interest in western fiction. It's always been uncomfortably linked with the "cowboy and indians" variety of racism and seemed chockablock full of stereotypes.

So, imagine my surprise when I realized that I was reading on a theme:

It would see that this is the week of the cowboy.

One of the most pleasant surprises on this detour has been the cracking morality fable Little Country by debut author, Anna Keesey. Set against a deadly turf way between sheep and cattle ranchers in the barrens of 1900 Oregon, it tells the story of one community's greed for land and possession that will destroy them.

Esther Chambers is an orphan. Eighteen years old, alone and with only enough money to last the month, she writes a desperate letter to her only living relative in Century, Oregon. And receives a reply.

She sets out on a four-day journey west from Chicago and arrives in a new world. Far from the civilized world of road and brick buildings, Century is a boom town dependent on the farmers and ranchers etching out a living in the dry deserts of Oregon. Cattle is king and it's local lord is her cousin, Ferris Pickett. Calculating and complicated, Pick is the owner of the Two Forks ranch and uses Esther as a pawn in the chessboard of land that he is fighting over with the sheep herders.

Esther's new claim on Half-A-Mind take will be the community's battleground. What starts as tit-for-tat juvenile sabotage between the camps will erupt into violence between the wild ranching buckaroos and fierce shepherds. One girl's heart hangs in the balance. Century will end in fire and blood.

If you enjoyed Little Country or want cowboy/prairie angst/heart-stopping stories of revenge, try:

The past of this Oregon - settlers duped, children abandoned, Indians deported and murdered - this past guaranteed that someday this band of sheep would be destroyed. Dominion begets domination. How can it end? Only justice can pacify history. And justice is hard to come by.

From Little Country by Anna Keesey

Your Morning Rage

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:00:05 PST

I HAVE NO WORDS. ONLY RAGE:

Anne of Green Gables: The sexy blonde farm girl edition that you didn't need! Or want!

Via damnafricawhathappened

Hypothetical Situation

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:18:43 PST

Today, I want to talk about those books. Let's say that it's third and last in a series that you've been looking forward to for ages. The first two books were great. They spoke directly to your heart and it almost feels like the author wrote them just for you.

The reviews for the new book look fantastic. The professional review journals, Goodreads and your favourite book bloggers all rave.

And it finally comes in from the library for you and you cozy up in your softest reading chair with the largest cup of tea you can support with one hand and comfy slippers. You settle in to read...

Except the couch is a book

... And it's terrible.

Sooooo terrible.

And long. Ever so long. All of a sudden, it is the longest book ever. Like when you weren't looking, the write wrote 100 more pages to stick in the back so that you have to keep reading. This is going to be the last book that you'll ever read because you will be reading it until you die. Years late.

Where is the sparkle of the last books? Where are the charming characters that are as real to you as real people? Where was the sense of history and beautiful prose? What are these people with the same names as the characters in previous books making the most BONEHEAD decisions?

And do you write about it?

In the case of you vs the world, do you back the world on this one?

Your Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:00:10 PST

We've all been there.

I can confess that Fahrenheit 451 lad to a very public breakdown on the Strathcona Country Transit System. There was some sniveling on the 99 through Vancouver after finished Briar Rose.

Via Hicockalorum

For those of us who suffer, Book Riot has the answers: What to Do When Books Make You Cry on Public Transportation.

What Miss Corene Is Reading This Week

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:25:06 PST

Your Tuesday Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:40:57 PST

This day calls for a shocked Oprah face.

THEY PAVED RICHARD III'S GRAVE AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT.

(oooooooooh whop whop)

Mary Ingalls Didn’t Go Blind From Scarlet Fever. Apparently Scarlet Fever was just in vogue?

I Do Not Like Bronson Alcott: An Understatement

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:42:25 PST

Pretty sure that if affordable time travel tourism is ever invented, my first visit will be to Concord, Massachusetts to punch Bronson Alcott in the face.

I can appreciate his abolitionist beliefs, his dedication to educational reform and his ability to surround himself with generous friends (seriously Emerson. You are too kind).

However, he was a crap dad.

Watch yourself, Bronson.

The lives of lady writers in the 19th century often feel dominated by deadbeat dads. Christina Rossetti's political exile of a father's bad health forced the women of the family into governess-hood. Elizabeth Gaskell's father sort of forgot about her. Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord "Try to Find a Place Where I Haven't Put My Penis" Byron.

The prototype of bad Victorian daddies has to be Reverend Patrick Brontë. There are many delightfully apocryphal and deliciously untrue stories about much-maligned Patrick, including one where he threw the children's new shoes into the fire because they were too fancy.

Good thing he died before RuPaul's Drag Race

After finishing Heather Frederick Vogel's The Mother-Daughter Book Club, I decided to pick up Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever to delve a little deeper in the writer's life.

Boy, that was a frustrating read. For many reasons.

It was an exercise in rage to watch Bronson Alcott almost deliberately throwing away the happiness and health of his family to pursue some ridiculous agricultural fancy. But it was doubly so to have his story, his frustrations and triumphs, eclipse the story of one inspiring woman.

Susan Cheever is right on the nose when she discusses what readers want from Louisa's life. They visit Orchard House (one of their many family dwellings - although you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere in Concord or Boston where the family didn't live) and read biographies to discover what parts of Little Women are true. We want to know how much of the March family's lives can be found in the pages of Little Women. How much of Louisa was in Jo March? Was there really a Laurie? Did she live happily ever after?

For this reason, it is baffling as a reader that Cheever answers none of these questions. The focus of over half of the book is Bronson's transition from toasted educational reformer and patriarch to the bumbling dependent of his work-horse daughter. I came away from the book with an understanding of his life and the lives of the great men he surrounded himself with.

But I didn't have any sense of the woman. Cheever is informative and runs through the fact of her life with clarity but it lacks any psychological insight. There are some inborn difficulties with writing an Alcott biography as she was a woman who wrote and rewrote and edited her life. Not only fictionally but she was also fond of annual letter and journal burnings. Cheever rightly insists that this close-knit family created and clung to their own family mythology.

Two Characters In Search of Some Psychological Insight

The most insightful were the summary of other biographers' attempts to break through this carefully crafted legend. One theory mentions the possibility that Bronson Alcott sexually abused his daughters. Another that Louisa was a repressed lesbian. Instead of investigating, Cheever merely mentions and dismisses these theories in favour of more facts.

What was mystifying and deeply disappointing was that Cheever never turners her investigative eye on the family's relationships with each other. At the heart of Little Women and what keeps readers coming back year after year, is the warmth and love between the sisters and their mother. In A Personal Biography, there was no sense of the character or lives of the sisters or of the deep relationship the parents had with their children. Anna, Elizabeth and May are merely side characters and more mouths for Louisa to feed.

Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography does a fine job of relating the facts of her life but it does not illuminate her life. However, it was worth the read for this startling insight:

As a daughter, she never spoke a word against her father, against his irresponsibility or his bullying or his prejudice against her. As a writer, she expressed her feelings in a far more effective and literary way. She left him out of her masterpiece.

Shivers.

Your Monday Morning Peruse

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:00:02 PST

How gorgeous is this Little Women art?

The Korean artist Hanuol whose website is here but unfortunately all in Korean. Wish I read Korena so I could track down where I could find this art to hang on ALL THE WALLS.

Just finished reading The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Frederick Vogel and love how both Frederick and Hanuol capture Alcott's atmosphere of sisterly warmth and love of the natural world.

Selective Amnesia: Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am

contact@bookslingers.com (Corene Brown and Arien Crossby) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 22:10:34 PST

Straight up: This is not my kind of book.

I am not an avid reader of contemporary/war/army/issues teen fiction. But Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis won the Schneider Family Book Award in the Young Adult category. And being the good little librarian that I am, I thought I should probably take a look.

And it was super short so I figured it couldn't be too bad.

This is the book laughing at my expectations

It's the last day of high school for Ben Bright. Charming, smart, well-liked Ben Bright who is destined for great things. He's staring in the school production of The West Wide Story with his best girl, Ariela, and his best friend, Niko. His whole life seems perfect.

Then Ben drops a bombshell: Instead of going to college, he's going to boot camp. He's enlisted with the reservists.

And then the worst happens (because it is that sort of book). Ben is shipped out to Iraq and caught in insurgent explosion that results in brain damage. And everyone else has to pick of the pieces of their lives and figure out who they are with the new Ben.

I can appreciate that this book wasn't written for me. It takes a very pro-military stance to start. Ben's sacrifice is ultimately seen as noble although I was at no point convinced as to why he was making this choice. There is little to no real discussion or push back from the people in Ben's life. There's mention of "scripted-sounding antiwar screeds" but everyone seemingly accepts this remarkable choice with little fuss.

The other issue I took with Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am was the roving third person POV. You didn't really spend enough time with any character to get to know them on anything but a superficial level. Character felt like a description in a dramatis personae instead of people. Ariela was the Tragic Girlfriend Fiance on the Home Front. Niko was the Supportive BFF. Chris was the Brother With Autism. And everyone behaved perfectly. No one found it too much to deal with - not to say that there wasn't angst. But everything on the page didn't accurately reflect the change that their lives went through because of Ben's brain injury.

The subject is well worth reading more about. What happens when the soldier comes home? And considering how young many of these returning soldiers may be, it is a topic for YA lit to grapple with for years to come. But perhaps in the hands of writers with more depth and skills.