bookshelves of doom

The Flannel Shirt Controversy.

Who knew?

From the AV Club interview of Michael Cera and Kat Dennings:

AVC: There was a big uproar online when people found out that Norah wasn't going to have her flannel shirt, which is a big part of her character in the book.

KD: Oh, I know.

MC: Really?

Best Thing Ever #45: Stormtrooper and Cybermen to teach reading!!

Sadly, it doesn't sound like they're ACTUALLY going to teach people to read.  Just that they're doing some sort of library promotion thing.  Whatever.  I'm still jealous.

Celebrate Banned Books -- with food!

The Haphazard Gourmet is running a series called Civilization is Cooked Without Books -- click through for a fairy cakes recipe inspired by the Eloise books.  And be sure to look for other CiCWB installments on the HG sidebar.

(via Bookslut)

[A bit later: Also via Bookslut, a quiz on banned books at the Guardian.  I scored a 9/12.  V. ashamed.]

Whoa.

Remember The Jewel of Medina?  How Random House dropped it and Gibson Square picked it up?

On Saturday, Martin Rynja's house (which doubles as the Gibson Square office) was firebombed.  According to everything I've read, he's okay and going forward with publication.

Borrower of the Night: Vicky Bliss, #1 -- Elizabeth Peters

I decided to re-read all of the Vicky Bliss books before reading the new one!  Hooray!

We first meet Vicky in Borrower of the Night:

When I was ten years old, I knew I was never going to get married.  Not only was I six inches taller than any boy in the fifth grade--except Matthew Finch, who was five ten and weighed ninety-eight pounds--but my IQ was as formidable as my height.  It was sixty points higher than that of any of the boys--except the aforesaid Matthew Finch.  I topped him by only thirty points.

Poor Vicky.  Her troubles don't end there:

For several years my decision didn't give me much pain.  I wasn't thinking seriously of marriage in the fifth grade.  Then I reached adolescence, and the trouble began.  I kept growing up, but I grew in another dimension besides height.  The results were appalling.  I won't quote my final proportions; they call to mind one of those revolting Bunnies in Playboy.  I dieted strenuously, but that only made matters worse.  I got thin in all the right places and I was still broad where, as the old classic says, a broad should be broad.

BotN in a nutshell: Vicky is an art historian.  She comes across evidence that the legend of a long-lost shrine carved by Riemenschneider is more than a legend and decides to go after it.  She has competitors:  Tony, her co-worker and on-again, off-again lover* and George Nolan, the millionaire sportsman/playboy/big game hunter.  So they all end up at Schloss Drachenstein, there is much Gothic fun (including a seance!!) and treasure hunting and romance, and oh, really, what's not to love?

Well, I'll tell you.

Vicky, I love you.  I love you and Elizabeth Peters.  I love you, Elizabeth Peters, and Schmidt, who doesn't have a big enough part in this book.   I love you, Elizabeth Peters, Schmidt-who-doesn't-have-a-big-enough-part-in-this-book, and Sir John Smythe, WHO ISN'T IN THIS BOOK.  How could that have slipped my mind?  That's probably exactly why I've re-read the other books in the series 40 hundred times, but only read this one, like, 20 hundred times. 

I was somewhat mollified by Doctor Blankenhagen, who is made of AWESOME, especially at the very end. 

On to Book Two!**

_________________________________________________

*I really don't like that word.  It gives me the yicks.  But what else could I call him?  Boinking-partner?

**I'll have you know that I'm blaming Mr. Dickens for my recent over-use of exclamation marks.

Sydney Carton and the Slingshot of Doom.

I kid you not.

I give you:  A Tale of Two Cities FAN FICTION!!!

Book challenges.

• It's Banned Books Week, as I'm sure you know...
• Philip Pullman on his challenge glee.
• TTYL challenged in Round Rock, Texas.
• The 2K8ers are looking at challenged and banned books this week.
• A video via HipWriterMama:

The Big Read IV/NaNoReMo.

Some of you may remember that The Big Read was originally inspired by defective yeti's NaNoReMo idea.

So I'm thinking that November would be the perfect time* to do another Big Read.

But, as A Tale of Two Cities came very close to destroying me emotionally, I think we need a less heartbreaking story**.  I've been wanting to re-read Ivanhoe.  Got any other suggestions?  

________________________________________

*Whaddaya mean, it'll conflict with my Cybils reading***?  You think I can't read more than one book at a time?

**Then again, heartbreaking makes for good reading.

***You're working on your list of nominations, right?

Heh.

The Taking Tree.

(Thanks for the link, Rebecca!)

Contest results.

Okay, it was a tie between:

Hot guys take classics
And act in plays by Shakespeare--
Can Janet save Tom Lane?
(Tam Lin by Pamela Dean)

and:

Bloody Jack Faber
Joins His Majesty's Navy
Too bad she's a girl
(Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyers)

So I flipped a coin, and the copy of Sovay goes to annie!  And, as there was only one entry on the Facebook page (What gives, guys?  Why don't more of you want this book that I didn't like??), it goes to Margaret for:

Strange Swedish creatures
Midnight sun and long winter
More human than us
(the Moomin books)

Congratulations, and thanks for reminding me about the books that have been languishing on my TBR pile!  Email me your mailing addresses, ladies!

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 13-15

Chapter Thirteen:  Fifty-Two
In which Darnay and Carton meet for the last time.

• While I've never particularly taken to Charles Darnay, the passage about him coming to terms with his situation and his impending death really got me:

Before long, the consideration that there was no disgrace in the fate he must meet, and that numbers went the same road wrongfully, and trod it firmly every day, sprang up to stimulate him.  Next the dear ones, depended on his quiet fortitude.  So, by degrees he calmed into the better state, when he could raise his thoughts much higher, and draw comfort down.

The bit about 'quiet fortitude' reminded me of the end of Angels with Dirty Faces, except, of course, reversed.  (Because Jimmy Cagney went to his execution screaming so that he wouldn't be a hero to the kids.  What?  You haven't seen it?  REALLY?)

• And I do appreciate that it isn't just Lucie that everyone wants to protect, but also (and maybe even more so) Doctor Manette.
• "He never thought of Carton.  His mind was so full of the others, that he never once thought of him."  Oh, man.  He's going to feel like a jerk.  Wow.
• Carton is there.
• And he is switching clothes with Darnay. 
• Darnay is understandably shocked and confused.  "The prisoner was like a young child in his hands."
• Sniffle.  The note that Carton dictates to Darnay.  Oh, waaaaaaaaaaaaaah.  Why did I want to read this book????
• Wow.  And Carton just totally drugged Darnay.  He was right, though, he wouldn't have been able to make this work otherwise because Darnay would have argued.
• Barsad has a couple of jailers carry Darnay (dressed as Carton) out, and Carton is now in Darnay's cell, alone.  Sniffle.
• Carton does love the weak and pitiable ladies.
• Okay, I'm full-on sobbing now:

As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment.  he pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips.

"Are you dying for him?" she whispered.

"And his wife and child.  Hush!  Yes."

"O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?"

"Hush!  Yes, my poor sister; to the last."

• And Mr. Jarvis Lorry, Lucie, little Lucie and Darnay are on their way out of France.  (What happened to Cruncher and Miss Pross?)

Chapter Fourteen:  The Knitting Done
In which we enjoy The Showdown to End All Showdowns.

• And now Madame Defarge has revealed that she wants Lucie and little Lucie to be executed.
• Jacques Three continues to be yicky:

"She has a fine head for it," croaked Jacques Three.  "I have seen blue eyes and golden hair there, and they looked charming when Samson held them up."  Ogre that he was, he spoke like an epicure.

• I do think that Madame Defarge's affection for her husband is affecting her actions -- if she suspected anyone else of thinking about warning Lucie & Co., she'd want them executed as well...
• And the wood-sawyer is ready to testify against Lucie...
• The Vengeance is like a cross between Gollum and a harpy.
• Whoa.  Madame Defarge just handed her knitting off to The Vengeance.  That, combined with the chapter title... is something going to happen to Madame Defarge???
• Oh, here are Miss Pross and Jerry.  Oh my good god, is there about to be a Pross/Defarge/Cruncher showdown???
• Ha ha ha:

"First," said Mr. Cruncher, who was all in a tremble, and who spoke with an ashy and solemn visage, "them poor things well out o' this, never no more will I do it, never no more!"

"I am quite sure, Mr. Cruncher," returned Miss Pross, 'that you never will do it again, whatever it is, and I beg you not to think it necessary to mention more particularly what it is."

Oh, I love them both.

• Oh.  Not Jerry's gone out to tell the coach to meet Miss Pross at the cathedral instead... leaving Miss Pross ALL ALONE.
• AND NOW MADAME DEFARGE IS THERE!!!
• "Each spoke in her own language; neither understood the other's words; both were very watchful, and intent to deduce from look and manner, what the unintelligible words meant."
• "I little thought," said Miss Pross, "that I should ever want to understand your nonsensical language; but I would give all I have, except the clothes I wear, to know whether you suspect the truth, or any part of it."  I love that she's so practical that she makes the "except the clothes I wear" exception.  Hee.
• NO WAY!!!!  Go, Miss Pross.  That was an excellent showdown, but ultimately, a very quick end for a character as formidable as Madame Defarge.
• Oh.  And Miss Pross has lost her hearing forever.

Chapter Fifteen:  The Footsteps Die Out for Ever
In which I took no notes because I was too busy sobbing.

• Sydney Carton's last thoughts:

"I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.

"I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.

"I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.

"I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place-- then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement --and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

_____________________________________________

Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4
Book the Third, Chapters 5-8
Book the Third, Chapters 9-12

_____________________________________________

Other reader/bloggers:

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 9-12

Chapter Nine:  The Game Made
In which Mr. Lorry sees Sydney's good side, Sydney goes for a midnight ramble and Darnay's second trial begins.

• Ha ha ha.  I forgot that Jerry's grave-robbing might disturb my darling Mr. Lorry:

...Mr. Lorry looked at Jerry in considerable doubt and mistrust.  That honest tradesman's manner of receiving the look, did not inspire confidence; he changed the leg on which he rested, as often as if he had fifty of those limbs, and were trying them all; he examined his finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention; and whenever Mr. Lorry's eye caught his, he was taken with that peculiar kind of short cough requiring the hollow of his hand before it, which is seldom, if ever, known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect openness of character.

I'm glad to know that pretending to inspect one's fingernails goes back so far.  I find that hilarious for some reason.

• So Sydney has fixed it so he can get access (through Barsad/Solomon/spy-face) to Darnay IF this new trial goes badly.  I'm starting to think that Mr. Charles Dickens and I will NOT be friends by the end of this book.
• And he's totally making Sydney more and more likable.  Grrr.  This almost choked me up:

"You are a good man and a true friend," said Carton, in an altered voice.  "Forgive me if I notice that you are affected.  I could not see my father weep, and sit by, careless.  And I could not respect your sorrow more, if you were my father.  You are free from that misfortune, however."

Though he said the last words, with a slip into his usual manner, there was a true feeling and respect both in his tone and in his touch, that Mr. Lorry, who had never seen the better side of him, was wholly unprepared for.

• Oh, wow.  I hadn't even thought of the suicide-before-execution option.
• Okay, I know I need to Let This Go, but what is it about Miss Manette that inspires these men????  Sydney just let out a "long, grieving sound, like a sigh--almost like a sob".
• Jebus.  I can't take this.  I AM getting choked up.  Dickens, you jerk:

It was not a reckless manner, the manner in which he said these words aloud under the fast-sailing clouds, nor was it more expressive of negligence than defiance.  It was the settled manner of a tired man, who had wandered and struggled and got lost, but who at length struck into his road and saw its end.

• And now, the trial.  The Defarges were two of the people who denounced Darnay... and DOCTOR MANETTE was the third!!  How could that be -- even he himself doesn't know!!  Somehow I think it has something to do with whatever Defarge was looking for a the Bastille...
• "I defy that bell!"  Ha ha.  Thank goodness for The Vengeance.  She bumped me right out of my Sydney-Carton-induced funk.
• Jacques Three is a very unattractive character.
• And Defarge DID find a paper in the cell.  But we will only find out what it says in the next chapter.  (If this had been the end of an installment in the original, I would have wanted to strangle the author.)

Chapter Ten:  The Substance of the Shadow
In which we finally find out why Doctor Manette was imprisoned.

• And, of course, the verdict is death.  (Because Charles (who was two at the time) must CLEARLY pay for the sins of his father and uncle.)
• PS.  No, I'm not going to tell you why he was imprisoned.  What do you think this is, Cliff's Notes?  Sheesh.  Read it yourself.

Chapter Eleven:  Dusk
In which Lucie faints like a champ.

• Gosh.  Lucie hasn't even swooned yet.  She is being Strong for her Man.
• Doctor Manette tries to kneel and ask forgiveness, but Darnay won't hear of it:

"No, no!  What have you done, what have you done, that you should kneel to us!  We know now, what a struggle you made of old.  We know now, what you underwent when you suspected my descent, and when you knew it.  We know now, the natural antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake.  We thank you with all out hearts, and all out love and duty!  Heaven be with you!"

• The second Darnay leaves the room, of course, Lucie faints all over the place.
• And then Sydney swoops in and picks her up.  (He's very proud of her.  Blecch.)
• And, LOOK!  Lucie Junior speaks!:

"Oh, Carton, Carton, dear Carton!" cried little Lucie, springing up and throwing her arms passionately round him, in a burst of grief.  "Now that you have come, I think you will do something to help mamma, something to save papa!  O, look at her, dear Carton!  Can you, of all the people who love her, bear to see her so?"

Straight out of Days.  I swear.

• Doctor Manette is going to try and get the conviction overturned, but Mr. Lorry and Sydney know that it's a lost cause.  I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING, SYDNEY!  DON'T DO IT!!

Chapter Twelve:  Darkness
In which we learn that Madame Defarge is in this for more than her ideals.

• Sydney very deliberately goes to the wine shop, because "it is best that these people should know there is such a man as I here".  Sob.
• Madame Defarge notes the uncanny resemblance immediately.
• Nice:

"It is true what madame says," observed Jacques Three.  "Why stop?  There is great force in that.  Why stop?"

"Well, well," reasoned Defarge, "but one must stop somewhere.  After all, the question is still where?"

"At extermination," said madame.

• Wait.  So Madame Defarge is literallythe sister of the woman destroyed by the Evremonde brothers?  Not just metaphorically?  So this is personal revenge?  Huh.  I did NOT see that coming.  "Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don't tell me."  That is a FANTASTIC line.
• Awww, no!  Doctor Manette is looking for his shoemaker's bench again.  My heart just broke a little.
• Carton just gave his identity papers to Mr. Lorry.  And then made Mr. Lorry swear to follow his instructions -- to secretly get everything and everyone ready to leave Paris, to "wait for nothing but to have my [Carton's] place occupied, and then for England!"  Sob.  Sob sob sob sob sob.
• This book doesn't, like, secretly have a happy ending, does it?  Because I'd be okay with that.

_____________________________________________

Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4
Book the Third, Chapters 5-8

_____________________________________________

Other reader/bloggers:

TadMack @ Finding Wonderland

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

Contest reminder.

If you want a copy of Sovay, be sure to get your haiku in before noon tomorrow!

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 5-8

Chapter Five:  The Wood-Sawyer
In which Lucie manages to keep herself very busy AND YET, stand around a whole lot.

• "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death;--the last, much the easier to bestow, O Guillotine!"
• Ah, good.  Lucie is keeping herself busy and useful, by arranging the household and tutoring little Lucie.  She's also set aside Darnay's chair and books -- does that mean his stuff from England?  Did they show up with LUGGAGE?  How on earth did she go about making travel arrangements?  I am envious of her skillz.
• So is the wood-sawyer the same mender of roads?  And if he knows that Lucie is there to "visit" her husband in prison, is that going to cause trouble?  Apparently not.
• I haven't mentioned it for quite a while (as I've been so caught up in the story), but all along, Dickens' description has continued to provide & create such fantastic, clear images for me.  He really is great for that.  I can see everything.
• I suspect that the Carmagnole scene has been dissected in many a high school English class. 
• Madame Defarge appears right after Lucie blows a kiss to the prison window -- UH OH.
• And who could that be with Mr. Lorry?  Could it possibly be Sydney Carton??  He saved Darney at his first trial, after all.  If he saved him again, it would all be so attractively symmetrical.

Chapter Six:  Triumph
In which Darnay's trial goes very well.

• "And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them."  Isn't there some other quote along those lines, that under the right circumstances, any person is capable of any thing?  Or did I just make that up?
• Wow.  Fifteen people condemned to death in an hour and a half.  And yet, note how Dickens is totally spinning this out -- he's all about the nail-biters.  I want to shake him and yell, "YES, THE HATS OF THE JUDGES, JURY AND AUDIENCE ARE EXTREMELY INTERESTING, BUT WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN??  YES, IT'S TRUE THAT I DON'T PARTICULARLY CARE ABOUT DARNAY AND LUCIE BUT I NEED TO KNOW ANYWAY!!"
• "So capriciously were the people moved, that tears immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before, as if with impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him."  There's something so surreal about this whole scene -- totally weird, but I keep thinking of Running Man.  (I think it must be the audience -- that for the people who aren't connected to the cases, it IS a form of entertainment.  (Well, and it's entertainment for us, too...)  Isn't there a scene in Oliver Twist where all of the rich people go to a hanging with picnic lunches?  Like that.)
• Hey, wow.  Gabelle is still alive!  And a free man, apparently.  And Darnay's first witness.  Then come Doctor Manette and Mr. Lorry, and Darnay is declared a free man.  Did that seem waaay too easy to you?  Yeah, me, too.
• "Then, began one of those extraordinary scenes with which the populace sometimes gratified their fickleness, or their better impulses towards generosity and mercy, or which they regarded as some set-off against their swollen account of cruel rage."  Huh.  Well, fickleness goes both ways, and we have almost a hundred pages left...  But, at the moment, the People Love Darnay and carry him home on a big chair that they happen to have handy.
• Aaaand Lucie faints.  From happiness.  Or something.  Shocker.
• Aaaand there's the Carmagnole again.

Chapter Seven:  A Knock at the Door
In which I TOLD YOU SO!!

• Erm.  Shouldn't they be looking into GETTING OUT OF DODGE?
• I'm so glad that Doctor Manette "showed a compassionate superiority to this woman's weakness".  Awesome.
• Ah, Jerry.  Still around.  And now pretty much always at the Darnay/Manette household.  I wonder how he and Miss Pross get along.  I can't imagine that she'd take much guff from him.  What was the point of telling us about his grave-robber-y habits?  Is that ever going to tie in, or was it just, you know, local color?  Seems like he'd be able to make a killing (har har) in France, what with the bazillions of bodies just lying around (har har again).
• Miss Pross thinks of the entire French language as "nonsense".  I love her.
• No wonder I love her.  She asks all of the questions I want the answers to -- the foremost among them being, of course, why haven't they left yet?  Answer:  Too Dangerous for Charles.
• Man, even Doctor Manette is getting annoyed with Lucie.  (The elder.  The kid-version seems to be one of those soap-opera kids -- stick 'em in a corner or up in the attic until there's a family gathering in need of a Touching Moment or their presence is somehow necessary to further the plot.)
• I KNEW IT.  They've re-arrested Darnay.  Why?  WHO KNOWS?
• Ooooh.  The Defarges have denounced Darnay.  As has one other.  BUT WHO???

Chapter Eight:  A Hand at Cards
In which also sorts of awesomeness happens.

• "Happily unconscious of the new calamity at home..." Dickens-speak for 'meanwhile...'!  I like his version better.
• SHUT UP!!  Miss Pross' BROTHER?!  Is in FRANCE!?
• AND HE'S ALSO BARSAD?!!! 
• AH HAH!!  Sydney Carton IS in France!  And he's much more likable than he's ever been.
• Oh, son of a... I know where this is going.  AND I DON'T LIKE IT.
• Barsad/Solomon was also the spy in the wine-shop.  Ha ha ha.
• Ask and ye shall receive:  Jerry's grave-robbing ways have become a plot point.  Ha ha.  Oh, I love you, Charles Dickens.
• The Plan Has Not Been Revealed.  I suspect that the writers of Days of our Lives must totally love Dickens.

_____________________________________________

Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4

_____________________________________________

Other reader/bloggers:

Tadmack @ Finding Wonderland

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

I... oh.

From the Globe and Mail:

Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life. But our family has never spoken publicly about the extent of her illness.

What has never been revealed is that L.M. Montgomery took her own life at the age of 67 through a drug overdose.

I wasn't told the details of what happened, and I never saw the note she left, but I do know that it asked for forgiveness.

Wow.