Sealey Head
When I posted about Maren’s librarything for robinmckinleysblog I told you how, when I started the blog*, and viewed the glass mountain of blogging stretching up before me into the clouds, I thought wistfully that something I would really like, that might making climbing a glass mountain worthwhile**, is some kind of Book Thing. About other people’s books, I mean, about what people liked, and what they were reading, and why they liked it. I’ve always been a sucker for a good recommendation and even when my taste diverges from the recommender I will enjoy the enthusiasm.***
But I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Because there are so many conversations about books on the web already.
Except that it did.
So as Pollyanna’s booklist got longer and longer, and especially since Maren took on the monumental task of wrestling it all into organised and findable form on librarything, I’ve further been thinking that it’s ridiculous to be a writer with a blog and not talk about books that I like and recommend. I keep telling you I’m a very harsh reader, and I am, but there are still an awful lot of books on my shelves that I’ve loved or been blown away by, or wallowed in, or disappeared into, or all of the above. And there are a lot more out there that I would–or, in some fortunate cases, will–love, waiting for me. And here I am with a blog.
The real problem is that I get weirdly inarticulate–that’s i n a r t i c u l a t e–when I try to talk about why I’ve liked something I’ve read. Any of you who were reading this blog at its beginning may remember my just dumping Michael Chabon’s THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION and Markus Zuzak’s THE BOOK THIEF on you: here, I said, read these, they’re wonderful. And ran away.
Oh the shame.
So I’m going to try to do better. I’ve been telling myself, while Maren struggled and strove, that once the librarything list went public, I would start blogging occasionally about the books I’m reading.† Thumbs, left feet, and total desertion of vocabulary optional.
And so where better to begin than with Patricia A. McKillip’s THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD which the kind and thoughtful editor we share recently sent me in galleys.††
I’ve been reading Pat’s books from the beginning–THE HOUSE ON PARCHMENT STREET, THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD–and I know BEASTS won the World Fantasy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_McKillip , but the way I remember it is that it was THE RIDDLEMASTER OF HED that suddenly put her out there and made her a name to conjure with.
I’ve always loved her work for the obvious things, the things that everybody else who writes about her loves her books for too: her sense of style, her deep understanding of the ancient story-myths that all of us story-tellers build on, the humanity, which is also to say the unpredictability, of her (human!) characters, who are and are not what they appear to be, and who often surprise us for both good and ill–just the way people out here in the real world do. Her characters have substance, which means that when she writes about characters who do not have substance, you the reader pick it up at once: uh oh. Something wrong here. . . .
Sealey Head is a small town on the shore of an unnamed ocean, where nothing much happens, except for the invisible bell that dongs every night at sunset. No one knows where or what the bell is, or why or how it sounds. Those who live there are accustomed to it. Judd Cauley, who runs the Inn at Sealey Head, for example, is surprised, one evening, by the arrival of an eccentric new lodger, very well laden with books, who, in answer to Judd’s puzzled question, answers: ‘ “There is magic in this place. I want to find it.”
‘ “I’ve never recognized anything magic around here.”
‘ “You live in it.”
‘ “People say the bell’s just an echo of something that happened a long time ago. Live here long enough, you don’t hear it anymore.”
‘ “Did you? Stop hearing it?”
‘ “No. I always wondered . . . It’s just a sound, though. . . . It comes out of nowhere. How do you go about finding nowhere?” ‘
But there is more magic in Sealey Head than Judd–who is in fact far more imaginative than a good innkeeper needs to be–knows. Up at the local big house, Aislinn House, where Lady Eglantyne is dying, her young maidservant Emma sometimes opens the door to the linen cupboard, or possibly the stillroom, or even Lady Eglantyne’s bedroom, and finds a castle instead, a castle where the princess Ysabo, who has become Emma’s friend, is trapped by a ritual magic she does not understand, but increasingly fears.
One of the things I feel Pat hasn’t received enough attention for is her wonderfully low key humour. How can you resist a book that contains a line like this: “Fitch was writing a list, and Mrs Haw, involved in a seemingly endless comment about life that was interspersed with items to be purchased, broke off mid-mutton at the sight of Emma.” Or a scene like this:
‘. . . “Come, child. We’ll go and teach the parrot some new words.”
‘Phoebe opened her mouth, closed it, watching their slow amble down the hall toward the parlour . . . “Toland.”
‘ “Yes, Phoebe.”
‘ “The parrot is stuffed.”
‘ “Fortunately, don’t you think, knowing the twins?” ‘
And I mentioned that Pat does three-dimensional human characters so well that you notice at once when someone is two-dimensional. You’re already wondering what is up with Ysabo’s castle when she receives a proposal of marriage from one of the knights, whose name, she realises, she does not know: and she dares to ask him Why? Why should they marry? And he strikes her across the face. He has done so, her mother tells her, because there is no place in the ritual for her question. At which point you begin to see the enchantment Ysabo’s castle lies under, and perhaps you even begin to suspect what the bell is saying.
* * *
* Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away
** Fortunately Converse All Stars have rubber soles
*** Rather depressedly I suppose I should post something about caveats: enthusiasm is not an excuse for, for example, cruelty, big or little, to the planet or anything that lives on her. And I personally am not a big fan of a subgenre of SF&F that sets up a really horrible world or society chiefly in order to talk extensively about how horrible it is.
† Including rereading. If I’m going to do this at all, I’m certainly going to haul a few old favourites on stage.
†† Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, and you who were jealous that I was reading Neil Gaiman’s THE GRAVEYARD BOOK in galleys? You were right to be jealous. Maybe I’ll blog about that too.
comments
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You are a cruel person with your ARCs and Sooper Sekrit Publishing Rituals. You tease! You you you!
I keep meaning to get more McKillip books. I read the Riddle-Master trilogy and yeah, that’s some amazing style. Really beautiful words. *dreamy sigh*
I do like hearing about the books you read! Please tell us more!
It’s on the list. But articulate (what?) about books is weirdly HARD. I write fiction! I don’t use my brain like that! :)
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Oh, I know what you mean. But I critique a lot of books so it’s not toooo hard for me to pick out stuff…as long as it’s something I think should be fixed. Praising things is much harder. Explain WHY I love something? I just do, okay! I love it! It’s pretty!
Yes, well, this is Pollyanna’s Book Reports as well as Pollyanna’s List. I’m not too interested in critiqueing–for one thing it feels like such bloody arrogance–I KNOW how hard it is to write a book, and how you ALWAYS fail–and for the blog’s purposes I’m only interested in *making public* books I’ve LIKED. (I don’t absolutely ban a rant some day about something I think is really really REALLY wrong.) I don’t mean that your critiques or anybody’s critiques or that woman who runs the NYTBR is *wrong*, merely that that’s not a direction I’m choosing to go in. But:
WHY I love something? I just do, okay! I love it! It’s pretty!
********* Yes, exactly! ‘Never mind why! Just read the book, okay?’ So it’s true, I’m MAKING it hard for myself. :)
I would agree. It makes one appreciate what an undervalued skill writing good book reviews is.
One of the best is the Changeling Sea. I have nearly all of her books – all that I can get – and re-read them all at leats once a year. Very, very good with the using under-myths we all know, and then showing you something new about them – which reminds me, how are our children to know the under-myths sufficiently well that they can understand all the excellent books based upon them? Since they don’t read all the old fairytales. Or does it still work for literary appreciation (no, not English 101 and tedious dissection of “what does the author mean when X did Y”, I mean curled-up-on the couch, oh, yum, yum, this is really great! appreciation) …. resume thread…. does it still work if the archetypal hero you grte up on was called Luke Skywalker/ Buffy/ whatever?
I suppose some mythis stuff is very robust; that’s why it gets mythic, but I do worry about nobody being able to understand the Terry Pratchett jokes about the king’s/miller’s/cobbler’s.. third son being inescapably doomed to success, since the readers will not have read enough fairy-stories involving thaose poor doomed older brothers and that pesky third son…
Borrowing trouble. Oh, well. Enjoy McKillip since you have the background to get all of what she’s saying……
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–How are our children to know the under-myths sufficiently well that they can understand all the excellent books based upon them? Since they don’t read all the old fairytales.–
I’m a great believer in Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious–I really believe some of these myths are hard-wired into us. I also remember something that Peter Dickinson said at the conference I attended this summer. He was talking to a woman who had found meaning for a part of one of his books from cultures he hadn’t really been alluding to in the book. He said something about (and I can’t phrase it nearly as well as he did) how the imagination is a big place and we often find intersections between ideas that we didn’t know (or didn’t know we knew) existed. I wish I could remember just how he said it at the time, but I remember thinking at the time, “Hmmm, Jung seems right again.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”
~Albert Einstein~
Scientist
(1879-1955)
Oh, and you who were jealous that I was reading Neil Gaiman’s THE GRAVEYARD BOOK in galleys? You were right to be jealous. Maybe I’ll blog about that too.
You’re sick, you know that? All that high-minded talk about no cruelty, and now this…. :)
You’re sick, you know that?
******** Thank you. Yes. Hey, pub date on Sealey Head is only 3 September. I can’t help it if GRAVEYARD isn’t till Halloween.
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“ONLY”?! From where I’m sitting 2 September (that’s the date Amazon has) looks like forever. You are the cruelest cruel ever to cruel a cruel, woman.
I *love* Patricia McKillip’s work. L o v e, seriously. I think we own everything she’s ever written except for a couple of the non-fantasy YA ones. There’s a very short list of writers whose work I will automatically buy in hardback: you, McKillip, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and Emma Bull. So knowing we have books coming–and all in September! That’s going to be expensive–from everyone on my list (except Emma *sads*) is lovely, but painful because “coming” isn’t “here.” :)
Ooohh! you’re more articulate in your inarticulacy than most people at their most articulate could aspire to be – so come on blog away about those books (rubbing hands in glee)
******** Oh, and you who were jealous that I was reading Neil Gaiman’s THE GRAVEYARD BOOK in galleys? You were right to be jealous. Maybe I’ll blog about that too.
Tormentor! I was just thinking of those galleys when you opened the blog, and then you had to rub it in. You HAVE to blog about it now!!
you’re more articulate in your inarticulacy than most people at their most articulate could aspire to be
******** Yes, and I’m EXHAUSTED.
– so come on blog away about those books (rubbing hands in glee)
******* Working on it. :)
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There’s the sunny side – Robin of the Roses, the Lady of ye Graceful Hounds, and then there’s The Dark Side – McKinley the Mental Torturer, Inciter to Riot and Mistress of Mayhem.
Explains where parts of Sunshine came from then, lol
Hmm. Slightly too much truth to that last I’m afraid. As per news of the world. *This* world.
I’m sort of ambivalent about reading Gaiman… he’s amazing, but *deeply* disturbing sometimes. I couldn’t get past the first chapter of ‘American Gods’, but I owned almost the complete set of Sandman comics as a teenager ;p
On a scale of 1-10 how disturbing is the latest? (Just so I know whether or not to buy it or get on the list at the library)…
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I adored AMERICAN GODS so I’m the wrong one to ask. GRAVEYARD has a very disturbing, but *completely* ungraphic, beginning scene, but it has to have it. Just get through it and keep reading.
Have you tried listening to Gaiman’s stuff on audio? I admit to having been a little ambivalent about AMERICAN GODS when I first read it, but listening to it was marvelous–his phrasing & humor comes out more. (I also liked ANANSI BOYS better on CD.)
I do agree, the first few chapters do get dark pretty fast. It lightens up, at least in places.
My favorites are when Gaiman himself reads aloud. I’ve got some of his short stories on CD, and get completely caught up in them.
No–I seem to be too twitchy for audio. Can’t sit still to listen and once I’m up I’m doing something else. But hearing him do his own stuff, I might tie myself to a chair for that. Has he read his phoenix story aloud? The one that he wrote for this daughter?
Ooooo… authors reading their own stuff. Right. I’m all about that. Sitting, knitting, a mug of tea, and a perfectly marvelous storyteller in your own living room. Yep. (dry-washes her hands in anticipation) Best way to spend a long, dark winter evening.
The phoenix story is in the Fragile Things collection, which is on audio. The whole thing’s done by Gaiman. There’s also a Shadow (from AMERICAN GODS) story.
I listen to the audio when my hands & eyes are busy–crafts, computer work. The last temp job I had was four months of transfering hardcopy to digital & IDing the pictures. I went through a lot of audio books, which made the job a lot more fun than it could have been. (I also had a *window*).
Why do you torture us. Why. Why, I ask you . . .
Well I for one agree with the above accusers concerning the tormenting, but also agree with you about the difficulty of explaining why you love this book rather than that book. (Beyond the really obvious: that book has no plot, the author can’t write etc.). Even books you dislike you can’t always explain why. Part of it is taste. Part of it is also, I believe, that you are afraid, or rather I am afraid that if I overanalyse it, the magic will go away, and the magic of a book you love is so rare, and so wonderful that you just don’t want it to go away EVER. Why you preserve it so that you can revisit it. Why after reading Sunshine twelve times in a row (who me obsessive?) I packed it away in a box, because I didn’t want it to go stale on me.
I think I need to take it out of the box now.
LOL!
There is something for me–something I’ve groped toward saying above–about having EXPERIENCED a book I like, it’s difficult to WITHDRAW again and put it into mere words. It’s somehow totally different from the gruelling ‘translation’ process of writing my own story, where writing it down is what I’m FOR. Writing *about* a book feels all wrong somehow. Don’t write about my own too well either, which is why this is Days in the Life.
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Question:
Would it be better to send you an email with the beehive links, or simply to post it as a comment here and hope that the filter or whatever it is doesn’t mistake it for spam?
BEcause I just realized that I didn’t send them to you yet.
I think.
Just the first few.
I know– I’ll finish this comment and post another with a few links, and then tomorrow when you see this and reply, I’ll do whichever/whatever you prefer.
So more in a moment, then!
–Julia
Don’t care. Whatever suits you. :)
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Okay then!
Here comes a bunch– some are better than others, but here they are!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/40-a-day/beehive-cake-recipe/index.html
http://www.cakes-you-can-bake.com/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Country-Poppy-Seed-Cake/MoreRecipesLikeThis.aspx
http://thimbleanna.com/?p=225
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080427113144AAgOTQZ
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/caramel-walnut-upside-down-banana-cake/
http://www.easy-birthday-cakes.com/bee-hive-cake.html
http://www.cadbury.co.uk/EN/CTB2003/kitchen_lifestyle/recipes/chocolate_cakes/beehive_cake.htm
http://moderndomestic.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/the-secret-life-of-beehive-cakes/
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50524
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_18533_PRINT-RECIPE-4X6-CARD,00.html
http://lick-the-spoon.blogspot.com/2005/09/general-custard_112698443287569405.html
http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m011403.htm
http://www.recipezaar.com/112213
http://www.kcra.com/foodarchive/9711673/detail.html
http://www.easy-dessertrecipes.com/html/chocolate_beehive_cake_recipe.html
http://zuula.com/SearchResult.jsp?st=beehive+cake+recipe&numres=10&ec=0&yaps=0&msps=0&ggps=0&exps=0&axps=0&maps=0&wips=0&vips=0&mjps=0&bst=1&sson=on&opnn=off&gops=20
http://thebeehive.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/i-cant-say-coco.html
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,158184-232205,00.html
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1810,146171-248192,00.html
http://www.cheftalk.com/content/display.cfm?bookid=147&type=book
http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7B2CDE76-8BAF-4F60-8F7C-45D1626629D5/0/HomeFrontrecipes79.pdf
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/blogs/gluten-free/orange-almond-cake
http://www.pastryscoop.com/psCourses/courses_blog_4.php
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Course-Desserts-Cakes-Theme-Decorated
http://www.ldsradio.com/family/recipes/recipelist.aspx
http://www.tastingmenu.com/2007/05/13/bee-cake-for-mothers-day/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/honey-bee-cake-recipe/index.html
http://www.bigoven.com/36374-Beehive-Pumpkin-Bread-recipe.html
Is that enough? Heehee. :)
Have a marvelous day!
–Julia
Oh, and Gaiman is going to write a two-issue Batman story! Yes!!!
Sorry, I spent way too much time on blogs and other sites reading Comic-Con news almost as it happened. Bleary eyes today …
Oh YAAY. When? Any other special goodies?
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One of the things I feel Pat hasn’t received enough attention for is her wonderfully low key humour. How can you resist a book that contains a line like this: “Fitch was writing a list, and Mrs Haw, involved in a seemingly endless comment about life that was interspersed with items to be purchased, broke off mid-mutton at the sight of Emma.”
Reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Spindle’s End: “(Fish, which flew through that most dangerous element, water, were believed not to exist. Fishy-looking beings in pools and streams were either hallucinations or other things under some kind of spell…[)]” I remember the first time I read that–I laughed myself silly. We were learning the rules and practices of the world of the story, and it just struck me funny that, out of the blue, “Fish…were believed not to exist”! :)
Thank you! Yes, I had a *really* good time with the magic in that country/book.
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Good-mood-spoiler alert:
I am need of a few moments of wailing to a sympathetic audience. But since it’s not only off topic of absolutely everything but covers upsetting recent events, I thought it only fair to warn you first.
So don’t read this if you are having a perfectly lovely day. I don’t want to bum you out. Really, truly. In fact, somebody watch a lovely sunset or walk through a meadow on my behalf.
That being said, can I just say how gods-frelling UNFAIR life can be at times? And how it sucks DEAD RAT THROUGH A STRAW that isolated whackos can totally screw up the lives of reasonably decent people.
Dunno how much of this has made the inter/national news, but yesterday (as I write this) some frelling out-of-work truck driver decided to shoot up a church full of families–with lots of kids present–rehearsing a musical. Annie, I think it was. And his motivation? He blamed *liberals* for his lack of a job, and the church is a Universalist church.
Bloody hell.
I’m not a member of this church, but I’m in & out of there on a regular basis. The group that I run, the Knoxville Guitar Society, has used the church as our home-base for several years now. The staff and members are marvelously friendly, and the acoustics in the sanctuary are splendid (we’re a fingerstyle/classical guitar, so acoustics matter to us). I’ve set up, talked in, and cleaned up after any number of events in the church. I was there last week, for one of our events. I have keys to the building, for crying out loud. I know the sound & light & feel of this place, under my skin; it’s one of my territories.
I also have some good friends in that church. None of whom were hurt, by some miracle, but I’m sure they knew the victims. Just a matter of chance.
TVUUC is a church that prides itself on being open to all members of the community, and operates as much as a community center as it does a church. Tolerance, y’know? Acceptance and charity. It provides housing (on a rotation with some other area churches) for area homeless families. Support groups of all types meet there. There’s an art gallery with new shows every six weeks. People bring in extra garden produce to share, and there’s usually extra coats in the winter to give away to anyone who needs one. They recycle everything.
We have two events coming up in the next month. And, since the whacko used a guitar case to carry in the weapon, I’m sure I’ll be attending meetings to discuss how our well-mannered, non-whacko, guitar-playing members need to behave. Which is such a minor problem–we’ll leave cases in cars, or check them in at the main office, or some such. A piddling little thing.
But it just sucks that anyone has to worry about it in the first place.
Yes. The story that’s in the headlines over here is of a British couple on their honeymoon in the Caribbean . . . the bride shot dead and the groom is I think still critical. Why? They think it was a particularly nasty robbery gone horribly wrong. (If there’s an update on this, I haven’t seen it yet.)
But . . . yeah. Some people suck, unfortunately. And it’s easy to wipe out a lot of good people stuff with one brief savage attack of suckness.
Good luck.
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*****We have two events coming up in the next month. And, since the whacko used a guitar case to carry in the weapon, I’m sure I’ll be attending meetings to discuss how our well-mannered, non-whacko, guitar-playing members need to behave. Which is such a minor problem–we’ll leave cases in cars, or check them in at the main office, or some such. A piddling little thing.*****
Sigh. Don’t bother; you’ll inconvenience yourselves with a specific rule for a specific situation that’s already happened, while leaving a million other holes for future situations. It can’t be done. Nut jobs will always find a way to do their harm. It’s so easy to destroy, and so hard to create or heal….
My sympathies.
Judith
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Well, any rules will be set by the church admin, not me. I agree that the too-specific rule is useless as far as true security goes. I’m more thinking about everybody’s twitchy nerves & post-traumatic stress triggers. :-(
Thanks for the sympathy!
Just wanted to say that I’m really sorry to hear that. It’s so hard to understand why someone would think it makes sense to go kill a bunch of people totally unrelated to your life and own personal issues as a way of dealing with your problems. I wish you and your community peace, comfort, and a strong sense of togetherness as you move through this.
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This is NOT FAIR…those are my two my very favoritest authors and you got to read them FIRST. I think I’m going to go cry.
But, I have to say in a little of smugness:
The Graveyard Book will come out in September in America, and Gaiman will do a book tour–INCLUDING PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK. Of course he’s coming to Philadelphia, my hometown, on a *Wednesday* while I’m off being a college student/slave worker on the other side of the state. I’m afraid no author, not even Gaiman, is worth 100 dollars in plane tickets AND missing classes. 100 dollars, I’d be tempted. But the classes are too much. (I’m one of those weird people who love love love being a college student in no small part because of the classes and all! the exciting! new! things! to learn! can’t wait for summer to be over)
If you came to Philadelphia, I’d do it though (maybe…I think.)
Comfort yourself with the thought that Gaiman pulls crowds almost as ghastly as Joss Whedon. I don’t. You could come to *my* appearance and I’d actually, you know, appear. :)
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****** Gaiman pulls crowds almost as ghastly as Joss Whedon. I don’t. You could come to *my* appearance and I’d actually, you know, appear. :)
I’m still hoping for that small hall in Hampshire for the Sunshine promo tour (of one stop)
We could have a rose growing discussion, let the hellhounds play round our ankles (or heads if they’re really excited, of course!), swap book recommendations and eat lots of home made yummies, as well as having an authory sort of session…
… since you’re saying you’d actually appear – covers head ;)
Fine. Besiege my editor at Transworld with requests for a public appearance. I can come up to London. :)
Besieging being organised as we “speak” :)
Is there a contact page/email for Transworld?
I don’t know. I can ask. I mean, I have my editor’s email, but I feel it would be counterproductive to hand it out . . . :)
That isn’t weird at all–it is what all of us who teach in Universities want from our students!
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THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN’S UNION was a good recommendation. It now sits on my shelf. I haven’t read all of McKillip’s books but like her work a lot, so thanks for the heads up on SEALEY HEAD. September looks like being a busy month.
****And I personally am not a big fan of a subgenre of SF&F that sets up a really horrible world or society chiefly in order to talk extensively about how horrible it is.****
No . . . you can hear about the horrible on the news. Reading time is too limited for me to want to waste mine inhabiting anyplace worse.
Yes! Exactly! And we all know that rape and child abuse and torture etc is bad! I don’t need to hear about it any more, thanks!
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It seems to me that, too often, stories that depend upon ongoing horrors to move the plot along are the product of a mediocre author. It’s as though they hope the shock of whatever nasty scene will distract you from poor writing & flat characters.
A teacher of mine used this analogy in a script-writing class: If you cut yourself with a knife, nobody says “How boring that you’re bleeding. Couldn’t you have done something interesting? Or at least bled purple?” One of the points (at least to me) is that a good writer can take ordinary events–including ordinary sorrows–and still end up with a moving story.
It seems to me that, too often, stories that depend upon ongoing horrors to move the plot along are the product of a mediocre author. It’s as though they hope the shock of whatever nasty scene will distract you from poor writing & flat characters.
********** YES. I’m afraid I agree. There is Great Literature out there around trauma and horror, but an awful lot of it is just a cheap means of a big climactic scene.
“There is Great Literature out there around trauma and horror, but an awful lot of it is just a cheap means of a big climactic scene.”
A bit like food manufacturers putting a lot of salt/sugar/MSG/whatever in a cheap processed food dish, to make it hit the tastebuds in one way or another even if not through good ingredients or good cooking?
***YES.***
I’m so glad that you like The House on Parchment Street too! It’s one of those books that no one’s ever heard of, and it’s quite a conventional story, but I read it over and over again when I was a kid because I just thought she drew her characters so well.
To reiterate what other people have said – please do drop the books you’re reading on us! All of us love to read (of course) which means we’re always looking for recommendations.
I’m going to try. As I’ve said a couple of times, for some reason it does not come easily. It’s like a book I’ve really got into I’m *into* it and can’t climb out again and just *talk* about it like a thing. I am working on acquiring this new skill. :)
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you articulated well enough to get me hooked….
:)
The Chris Higgins Guide to Three-Bell Ringing can be obtained from: http://www.kirbymanor.cwc.net/KirbyManorPress/ChrisHigginsGuide.htm
Highly recommended. Doesn’t scare our band at all. :+>
Audrey
You know, I was this close to feeling all smug because I, too, will be getting a galley of The Graveyard Book (it’s GOOD to have friends in the library), but you just blew that right out of the water for me with your acquisition of a new Patricia McKillip. You cruel, cruel thing. :)
Neil Gaiman is a relatively new discovery for me so while I very much like him, I’m not completely invested in him yet. But PM? She’s on the list of my top five favorite authors *ever*…maybe top three. The way she uses words is so lovely. I’m wont to describe it as narrative that seems to flow in a tapestry of smoke and color.
I’m such a green-eyed monster now (well, I’m ALWAYS green-eyed, but you know).
I haven’t read everything that she’s ever written… by a long shot… but her book ‘The Changeling Sea’ has been one of my perennial favourites. I found it in a used book shop about 12 years ago, and it has been on my favourite shelf ever since. (I haven’t been reading as much in the last 10 years, more’s the pity)
Oooh. New Patricia McKillip. Oooh.
:Puts on order:
I got the uncorrected proofs of Dragonhaven from work. Uncorrected proofs and advance copies are GREAT.
Unfortunately I lent them to someone who hasn’t returned them. Grr.
I just sped over to Amazon to see when Sealey Head was coming out (and get the ISBN in case the library hadn’t already ordered several copies and needed a request to do so). And I saw something that made me grin. The “buy together” book for Sealey Head? “Chalice” by one Robin McKinley! Two of my favorite authors all linked together for the entire Amazon buying public. Just look at the company you keep! :)
The “buy together” book for Sealey Head? “Chalice” by one Robin McKinley
********* LOL! Excellent! I didn’t see this when I copied the link last night.
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I actually just read THE BOOK THIEF. Loved it loved it loved it. It was the sort of book that is written so well that you don’t even think about the writing; you just get lost in the story…
YES. EXCELLENT. :)
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Thank all the Gods that you like Patricia Mckillip. You hadn’t mentioned her, so I was very afraid there was some sort of animosity. You and she are two of my all time, thank the stars, kiss the Earth, hug a tree, favorite authors (the two of you are the only authors I’ve actively tried to collect all hardbound editions of, the others I just take as I can.
ANIMOSITY?! Good lord. Crab that I am, I feel *animosity* for shockingly FEW writers. :)
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Thanks for the review! I’ve been wondering whether I’d like this book. Now I’ll have to get my hands on a copy.
Please do keep blogging about the books you are reading…!
I plan to, thanks. I enjoyed writing it but I honestly do find it difficult. Acquisition of a new skill time.
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*****I’ve been reading Pat’s books from the beginning–THE HOUSE ON PARCHMENT STREET, THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD–and I know BEASTS won the World Fantasy, but the way I remember it is that it was THE RIDDLEMASTER OF HED that suddenly put her out there and made her a name to conjure with.*****
Those remain among my favorite books of all time. I’ll never forget in the last book of the Riddlemaster trilogy, her description of beasts in the forest that were so shy that they died if one looked at them — what an image. I just packed “House on Parchment Street” the other night.
Judith
Yes, I was just looking for Parchment Street and can’t find it. Way too many books disappeared in the move that I did NOT release.
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I’m deliriously happy to have one of my favorite authors recommend another of my favorite authors, but… you need a spoiler warning!! I know more than I wanted to know before I actually have her book in my hands and am sitting down (husband locked away so I won’t be bothered) to read it.
Sorry, but I don’t agree. That isn’t a spoiler, it’s a set up. If it counts as a spoiler to you then you may not be able to read my book reports.
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You’re probably right. If it had been a review of any author besides yourself and Ms. McKillip, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But the two of you never disappoint, and part of the fun for me is sitting down with hardly any idea what the book is about before I open the cover.
It sounds rather strange when I put it into words. Spoiler comment withdrawn, and I’ll be on my guard and check what the book report is for before I read the post next time.
I pick up favourite authors and resolutely refuse to look at any of the copy too. I didn’t look at the copy on SEALEY HEAD. But: I am *only* going to be ‘reviewing’ books I LIKE and RECOMMEND, so any time you see a title/author you can stop reading IMMEDIATELY if you don’t want to know, and just say to yourself ‘Robin likes it. (I reserve the right to an occasional caveat, perhaps.)
Yes, love Patricia McKillip and am looking forward to this new one so thanks for this post. I always found Raederle, in the RIDDLEMASTER trilogy, to be a very believable character, although there was no character in there who wasn’t believable, really. Mind you, being the aged crone that I am, I always rather hankered after the old High One. And the animals in ELD, well, just let me live with either of those big cats and I’d be quite happy! :)
But, you know what’s missing? A whole genre of books with aged crones as the protagonists -wait for it – aged crones WHO DO THINGS instead of sitting artound lamenting being aged. It can be done (Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population, Bujold’s Paladin of Souls, Norman’s Makepeace books). Publishers might not like it, because the coming-of-age thing appeals to the youth audience, who do not wish to read about boring old dudes, and also to the more experienced audience, who have been youth and remember how dim-witted they were. But, dear publisher, the aged crones have such vast amounts of money to spend on books! They should have their needs catered to!
For two pins I’d go and write an Aged Crone-lit book myself . Now there’s an idea.
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Ah, galleys. I *miss* working at a book store. I read Gaiman’s CORALINE in galleys. Felt like being let in on a wonderful secret.
Oh well, at least you give us something to drool over that we can get hold of while we wait for CHALICE. I’ve loved McKillip since I found ELD shelved right next to BEAUTY at my local library.
The reunion was small and perfect. We were the first class, and the school was largely unfinished, then. It’s nice to go back and see the lovely finished auditorium and *library*!!! We didn’t have a library – my class began the collecting of books, but they were all kept in boxes, with no place to shelve them, then. Now it’s finished!! Hmm…I think they need a McKinley section … I think they still have one of my Barbara Hambleys.
Hey, does it say who did the cover of SEALY HEAD? Amazon’s giving no clues.
Thingummy–Kinuko Craft–who’s been doing ‘em for a while, I think. My galleys has a plain paper cover.
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Oooh, I thought so. She did one of the paperback editions of the first two of the Darkangel trilogy by Meredith Anne Pierce – I’ve always liked her work (both of them).
Have you read _The Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood_? It’s one of my Meredith Ann Pierce favorites.
I’m saving my $ for 2 books at the moment. #1 is Chalice and #2 is The Book Thief which I borrowed from the library and loved it (thanks to your recommendation). But I *need* to buy Chalice first. I ordered it months ago with my local bookshop. :)
Oh good! In fact, excellent! :)
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No problem …… I’ll consider it an investment in your attic floor! (“You see those couple of nails over there? They were paid for by b_twin_1 when she bought Chalice!” LOL)
LOL! I contributed £25 to the renovation of the Albert Memorial and I like going round and chosing which fleck of gilt is mine . . . :)
My goodness. That took me back years, to reading RIDDLEMASTER in the huge sci-fi/fantasy section at the Rowden White Library at Melbourne Uni.
And then my brain said “And you read that around the same time that you read the one with the girl and the desert and the meerkats.” (The meerkats being the most important things of course.)
At which point I went quietly mad for a day trying to remember the name of the book. Because, well, meerkats.
And this morning, from the depths of my brain, floated up a name. Jonathan Wylie.
Is desperately jealous.
This sounds horrendously braggadocio, to say I’m an awfully good book-talker (I once got a 14-year-old boy to spontaneously shout “I MUST have that book”) but…
I suck hard vaccuum at recommending books I truly, madly, deeply adore. Every three-to-five years I give Enchantress from the Stars a go. No joy.
Oh, I can hand-sell them, no worries there. But that’s the equivilent of sitting down with a cuppa and just chatting. You know that ‘s easy beans.
So are you pleased or not that I’ve had no luck with The Blue Sword or Beauty, either?