Links from the web jungle

WEB OF INTEREST –>

- Publishers Weekly gives us a sneak peek at upcoming Fall 2012 Children’s Books releases

- The 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists

- The mystery of J.K. Rowling‘s new book

<– AUTHOR TALK

- Daniel O’Malley on his novel, The Rook

- Elisabeth Staab writes a powerful letter to her teen self

- Justine Musk on how to be a dangerous woman (in fiction + life)

- Mary Robinette Kowal on puppetry and her upcoming novel, Glamour in Glass:

 WEB READS –>

- Check out two snippets – part 1 & part 2 – from Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews‘ upcoming novel

- Read an excerpt from Insurgent (Divergent #2)  by Veronica Roth

- Check out Mother, Crone, Maiden, a prequel short story by Cat Hellisen

- Read the first two chapters of  Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lisa Evans

Book Jacket:

After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind.

Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven’s death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg’s caste system, and the whole city along with it.

You can read an excerpt here.

Review:

When the Sea is Rising Red is one impressive debut novel.

The world of this book is lush and hypnotic in a way that’s hard to quantify – much like Robin McKinley’s Chalice or Pegasus, this book envelopes you completely, immersing you in a sea of myth and magic while all the while fully expecting you to keep up. The layers of this book are dense and manifold – Hellisen has created a world where magic goes hand in hand with drug addiction, where love resides uncomfortably amidst questionable motives, where no one is entirely blameless. There is so much woven into the social fabric of this book – race, gender, socio-economics, the politics of privilege and oppression – that the world breathes on the page. And then Hellisen, having fully created her world, immediately sets about warping and tearing the social fabric she has so painstakingly created, challenging its very design. It is just breathtaking world building.

I really don’t want to say too much about the characters, because so much of this story is about discovering the truth of the people in it – but I will say this: nothing is simple in this world of Hellisen’s. No kindness or cruelty can ever be taken at face value, and no truth is easy or comfortable. In this world of different races and strange magics, of half forgotten myths born on children’s rhythms, of people strange and oblique, there is no black and white – only shades of grey. And it is altogether wonderful to behold.

Now as you might imagine, all of the above lends a somewhat uneasy quality to this story. Also unsettling was how this book felt, for lack of a better word, blurry at times. I would find myself straining to make sense of where it was taking me, of how the plot was constructed – it was like I was a building inspector looking for girders and struts, and just not finding them. There is no question that this book is compelling, it’s just that it’s also at times, uncomfortable – you’ll have to work for it a bit.

In the end, I’m honestly not entirely sure what to think of this story. It dazzled me on several levels, no question - I loved how evocative and unique it was; how Hellisen’s vampires were not at all what you’d expect, and how her so-called love triangle was hardly recognizable enough to warrant the name – but I’m still not sure if it falls within my palette. The flavor was rich and unexpected – challenging, like a high quality wine – and I’m still mulling over the taste. There is no denying the quality of this book, or the talent of its author, but I will definitely be thinking about this one for a while.

Byrt Grade: A-

As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…

Publishers Weekly says:

Debut author Hellisen’s style features evocative descriptions and unflinching detail, drawing readers into the unusual and intriguing elements that make up Felicita’s socially complex world.

Paperback Dolls say:

This was one of the most interestingly different books I have read. It took me a really long time to get into the story but I was never bored with it, just puzzled and intrigued.  Reading this book was felt like being inside someone else’s dream.

Tamora Pierce says:

This is an amazing book about people trapped by their families and their societies, struggling to break free. The shadows are very dark, and the world building is fascinating, with no one exactly who they seem to be. I gave this one a cover quote last year, so you *know* I liked it!

It’s official – I love this movie already. I never could resist a slow-mo Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves style archery moment…

Brave hits theaters June 22, 2012.

Book Jacket:

Get steeped in suspense, romance, and high Victorian intrigue as Mary goes undercover at Buckingham Palace – and learns a startling secret at the Tower of London.

Queen Victoria has a little problem: there’s a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency puts quick witted Mary Quinn on the case, where she must pose as a domestic while fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales. But when the prince witnesses the murder of one of his friends in an opium den, the potential for scandal looms large. And Mary faces an even more unsettling possibility: the accused killer, a Chinese sailor imprisoned in the Tower of London, shares a name with her long-lost father. Meanwhile, engineer James Easton, Mary’s onetime paramour, is at work shoring up the sewers beneath the palace, where an unexpected tunnel seems to be very much in use. Can Mary and James trust each other (and put their simmering feelings aside) long enough to solve the mystery and protect the Royal Family? Hoist on your waders for Mary’s most personal case yet, where the stakes couldn’t be higher – and she has everything to lose.

You can read an excerpt here.

Review:

The Traitor in the Tunnel makes three for Y.S. Lee’s The Agency series, and I have to say, this latest installment is my favorite so far.

There has always been a lot to like about Mary Quinn – with her checkered past, spy training, and close-held secret of Asian ancestry, she makes for a fun bundle of competence and pluck. Mary is always very, very aware of how close she is to the edge – how close she came to dying on the other side of the poverty line, and how quickly she would be drummed out of polite society if the secret of her ancestry came out – and it adds a lovely, personal layer of tension to her investigating, as she has so much more to lose than most. Mary is also blessedly real in that she is far from perfect – she makes mistakes, and she definitely has a temper – and she is just all around a wonderful leading lady.

Now this series is always sumptuous in historic detail but here Lee has once again outdone herself. This story takes us inside Buckingham Palace, where Mary goes undercover as a maid, and it quickly and fascinatingly delves into the upstairs/downstairs realities of power and privilege. I utterly loved how this story took on the idea of the power of a woman’s reputation – and then demonstrated how dangerously easy it was to lose – but far and away my favorite part of this book was the inclusion of Queen Victoria herself. Lee really had fun bringing the Queen to life, shading her with liveliness and gumption, and the Queen downright steals every scene she’s in – as she should, being the Queen and all. Altogether it makes for just delicious historic fun.

As for the plot, the mysteries were engaging overall, but I have to admit I did have trouble with the utter convenience of Mary’s father’s appearance. The fact that her father just happened to appear at that particular place and time, and happened to get wrangled into a royal scandal at the very moment his daughter happened to be undercover in the palace – I had to work a bit to quash my incredulity. And though I did very much like what her father’s sudden reappearance did to Mary emotionally, and how it led her to reconsider her entire life, the fact that he appears pretty much with a bow tied around his neck at an opportune time was just a bit hard for me to swallow.

And now we have come to my greatest reservation about this series as a whole – to put it bluntly, the dynamic between Mary and James has always irritated me. I know, James is supposed to be lovably infuriating, a la Mr. Rochester, but for me, James is just infuriating. The way he constantly shakes Mary drives me nuts – yes, I know it’s supposed to be a lovable quirk, but I wanted nothing more than for Mary to slap him rather firmly upside the head every time he did it, which is just about every time they are together. And maybe I’m just ridiculously sensitive to condescension, but everything about the way James treats Mary felt high-handed to me, and it rubbed me the wrong way time and again – right up until this book, that is. This time around, happily, Lee firmly takes the couple a few steps in a new direction, and the shift in their dynamic was a blessed relief. At long last, James became someone I could root for Mary to be with – and yes, Shippers, you will be very happy with this book.

So in the end, The Traitor in the Tunnel is everything you could want from an Agency book – sneaking and sleuthing and romance, oh my – but it also takes a lovely step forward in terms of character, particularly in how Mary finally has to confront her own identity and chose who she wants to be. Easily my favorite book of the three – and here’s looking forward to the next!

Byrt Grade: A-

As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…

Brown Paper says:

The latest novel replicates the successful formula of its predecessors - Mary is assigned a minor case, which turns out to harbor myriad complications that involve her family secrets, and a run-in with the “better than handsome” James Easton. What’s not to like?

Is it March yet? Holy smokes I am ridiculously excited for this movie. I feel a re-read coming on…

The Hunger Games hits theaters March 23.

I seriously hope the production designer wins an award or five – these sets are unbelievably gorgous…

Game of Thrones returns April 1 on HBO.

Links from the web jungle

WEB OF INTEREST –>

- The movie adaptation of Mary Norton‘s The Borrowers is garnering rave reviews

- Ten myths about book editors

<– AUTHOR TALK

- Mike Mullin, on why he’s proud to write “dirty” books

- Pub Crawl interviews A.C. Gaughen, author of Scarlet

- Karen Mahoney on her turning point as a writer

- Diane Renn interviews Kim Harrington

WEB READS –>

- Read the first chapter of Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal

- Check out an excerpt from Timeless (The Parasol Protectorate #5) by Gail Carriger

- Read the first 50 pages of Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon

- Check out the first chapter of Shadow Bound by Rachel Vincent

Book Jacket:

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw’s special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment’s notice. When her parents are murdered, it’s her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn’t believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle’s assistants, Roo discovers the house’s hidden room–a garden with a tragic secret.

Inspired by The Secret Garden, this tale full of unusual characters and mysterious secrets is a story that only Ellen Potter could write.

Review:

The Humming Room is to The Secret Garden what the BBC’s Sherlock is to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. This modern retelling is just brilliant, and – like Sherlock - clearly built on love of the original.

Both in its bones and at its heart, this book is a true retelling of The Secret Garden. The big moves, the character dynamics, the quiet nature of the story, all will ring true to any die-hard fan of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Potter has included every hallmark – the unwanted child sent away to live with an Uncle she’s never met, the mysterious house full of secrets, the friendship that remakes a family – but while all are recognizable, Potter has brilliantly laid claim to each and every one in her own way. Roo’s parents aren’t wealthy Brits, they’re drug dealers – she grew up in a trailer, not as a spoiled brat in India. The house Roo is sent to isn’t on a lonely moor, it’s on a remote island. The mysterious manner itself isn’t just a house of Victorian proportions, it’s a former sanitarium with a history of its own. Potter is truly original within the framework we all know so well, and she has made this story entirely her own.

The largest departure from the original story – and the true alchemy behind why this book is so very, very wonderful – lies with Roo, our leading lady. Roo is so very much more likable than The Secret Garden‘s Mary, who, let’s face it, is downright unpleasant at first. Roo is not an easy child, by any means, but she is difficult in an entirely different and entirely sympathetic way – she just wants to be left alone. Roo is both close to the world and far from it; her way is to hide and to observe. From all her watching, she knows things – about who people are and what they’re like – but she never lets them get too close. And so Roo lives in a world of her own, and she is indomitable in resisting those who try to drag her from it. Roo’s careful exploration of her new life, and the gradual way in which she warms up to the people she meets along the way, make for a beautiful portrait of a snail-like character easing her way out of her protective shell. Roo is strange and wonderful, and it is breathtaking to see this classic story through her eyes.

As for everything else about this book, it is exactly as it should be. The people are dodgy and mysterious in all the right ways; the setting hauntingly atmospheric, the friendships heartwarming, and the garden gorgeously detailed. Like its predecessor, this is not a book built on action or suspense – there is nothing loud or flashy to be found here. This is a story about family and love, and it is a beautiful one.

I really can’t say it enough – this is just a lovely, lovely book.

Byrt Grade: A+

As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…

Kirkus Reviews says:

The characters and events are nearly exact counterparts to those found in the classic The Secret Garden. Potter intentionally evokes the earlier work, capturing its bittersweet emotions and fey qualities. But it is not a clone in modern dress. The author has created a fresh tale with a strong-willed heroine.

Novel Thoughts says:

The Humming Room reminded me of all the things I loved to do as a kid. Explore new places, talk to animals, hide in the smallest of spaces. It was like a glimpse of the past and it made me miss those simple childhood pleasures.

Publishers Weekly (starred review) says:

In a resonant novel inspired by The Secret Garden, Potter (The Kneebone Boy) pays graceful tribute to the spirit of that classic. The author borrows plot elements effectively, yet her strong characterizations, fluid dialogue, and evocative descriptions give the novel a vibrant life of its own.

Most of this footage was in the last trailer, but this one does have some new bits and pieces. Slowly but surely, this movie is winning me over…

The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters July 3.

From Variety – Hollywood just can’t seem to get enough of Beauty and the Beast. Not only do we have two TV pilots based on the classic tale in contention, at ABC and the CW respectively, but now Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) has committed to direct a feature based on, you guessed it, that very same fairy tale.

The wonderful Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones’ Diary, Bleak House) is on board to pen the adaptation, which will be based on a treatment written by Guillermo himself. del Toro is also producing the project, along with Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan – and none other than Emma Watson is in final negotiations to star as Belle.

As tired as I’m getting of the Hollywood fairy tale deluge – I’m looking at you, Snow White – I have to say I am loving the pedigree of this one…