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...but at the moment, I'm suffering from the Cold of Death, which has broken me to the point where all I can handle is watching episodes of Fringe on Hulu.
I love Pacey. And this guy*.
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*We've been watching him on The Wire, too.
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Though she's loath to admit it, Judith Audley, wife of the Earl of Worth, would like to match her brother-in-law, Colonel Charles Audley, up with her young friend, Miss Lucy Devenish:
The Earl put up his quizzing-glass. "Ah! May I inquire, my love, whether you are making plans for Charles's future welfare?"
Down went the embroidery; her ladyship raised an indignant rueful pair of eyes to his face. "You are the most odious man that I have ever met!" she declared. "Of course I don't make plans for Charles! It sounds like some horrid, match-making Mama. How in the world did you guess?"
But her plans are upset when Charles has no interest in the quiet, sweet, proper Miss Devenish -- no, it's the ravishing, fascinating and somewhat scandalous widow, Lady Barbara Childe, who gets his attention. Almost immediately, he proposes -- and to her surprise, almost immediately, she accepts. Oh, but if it were only so easy! Lady Barbara wants to be sure that Charles knows exactly who and what he'll be marrying, so she sets out to prove just how awful she can be.
An Infamous Army is set in and around Brussels in the time leading up to and during the Battle of Waterloo. The young Alastairs -- Lord Vidal*, Barbara, George and Harry, the grandchildren of Dominic, The Devil's Cub -- all have their parts to play, but Barbara is the one to watch. She's a firecracker.
After reading the first two Alastair books, I thought I'd be in for another light, somewhat silly romp. I was wrong. The tone of the book was so different that I struggled a bit with the first half -- there's quite a lot about Wellington's preparations for his inevitable battle with Napoleon, and that's just not my cuppa.
This is much more of a historical novel than a romance novel -- the second half of the book includes a description of the Battle of Waterloo that had me sobbing. Sobbing. And yet, on occasion, it still made me laugh:
"Oh, we don't give a button for the cavalry!" replied Mercer. "The worst is this infernal cannonading. It plays the devil with us. We've been pestered by skirmishers, too, which is a damned nuisance. Only way I can stop my fellows wasting their charges on them is to parade up and down the bank in from of my guns. That's nervous work, if you like!"
Even though it totally wrecked me, the second half was what did it for me. Her description of the battle was a pretty amazing piece of writing. I do think that the first half will improve on me upon a second reading -- after actually reading about Waterloo, the preparations and lead up will be much more interesting. But it wasn't just the war element that made this a darker read -- the romance itself was distinctly non-frothy. It's very different than the romance in the first two books. I honestly didn't know if it would work out between Charles and Babs. And at times, I didn't know if I wanted it to.
This story doesn't end in glittery rainbowed sparkly vampire kittens -- it's much more muted, bittersweet and real. But as much as I loved the first two books in the trilogy, this is the one that will stay with me the longest.
According to Wikipedia, this book is a crossover with Regency Buck -- so rather than moving on to the Inspector Hannasyde books, which was my original plan, I'm going to hunt that one down instead. I'm actually really excited to read it, because I adored the Audleys so I'm looking forward to reading about their courtship.
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*Because, of course, Dominic became the Duke when my darling Justin died. (I assume at a very great age.)
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Previously:
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A. S. King is the author of the upcoming (February 2009) Dust of 100 Dogs, a book about piracy, reincarnation, true love and dog psychology. Over the past month, we've corresponded so much that if she ever comes up to Maine and doesn't stop by, I'll probably cry myself to sleep. Due to our conversation, I've been thinking Deep Thoughts about YA, how I see the world and how I react to literature. Also, I now know her astrological sign and her college nickname. I also know that her book is pretty darn super and that you'd probably like for me to just get on with the actual interview.
Not only does the main character in your upcoming book spend 100 lives (and 300 years) as a dog, but the story is interspersed with Dog Fact chapters that deal with canine behavior and psychology. Does your dog knowledge come from having dogs, watching lots of The Dog Whisperer, reading up on them or from your own prodigious imagination?
My dog knowledge comes from having dogs and from reading up on them. It started with a fascinating article I read in National Geographic in early 2002, when I began writing the book. But the Dog Facts cover a little human psychology too, about which I know squat, except for what I see with my own eyes. Short version: Humans are pretty messed up. Dogs are totally awesome.
In response to my review of Dust of 100 Dogs, you said that YA is a "genre that's getting harder and harder to box". Care to elaborate a bit?
I know YA has to be boxed, because it has to be shelved. But in the case of YA novels - does the age range of intended audience really make an entire genre? Imagine I said to you that I wanted to discuss YA art. What would that mean? Certain colors or styles? Nothing too challenging or suggestive? No nudes? Thumbs up for the wacky Cubism, thumbs down for those depressing German Expressionists? With art, as long as we stay within reasonable boundaries, the notion of an age-defined audience past adolescence is absurd. (Where is the elderly fiction section? Excuse me, can you point me to the mid-life crisis fiction?)
So let us consider audience for a minute. Certainly there are people of all ages who like to read about coming of age, because it is an exciting and gut wrenching time in life. And just as there are people of all ages who prefer to read cleaner fiction - less swearing or violence or little sex, there are also people of all ages who like dark fiction. Of course there are fantasy fans or horror fiends, or those people who love a good mystery or romance. Some readers want an easy read, some want a challenge. YA has all of these things. So, the only similarity, then, is the age of the protagonist and the types of stories and situations coming of age can explore. But of course, not all young adults go through the same things. And not all books with young adult or child protagonists are shelved in YA. What is To Kill a Mockingbird? Something Wicked this Way Comes? Deadeye Dick? What is The Catcher in the Rye? Which brings me back to the notion of a shelf - a device that is a logical necessity, and yet, impossible to perfect. Bookstores and libraries have many many books that are enjoyable for young adults. Not all of them are on the YA shelf. That is what I meant by hard to box.
What were the books that made a huge impression on you as a teen?
As a younger teen, all of Paul Zindel's books, especially The Pigman, Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball and Confessions of a Teenage Baboon. Golding's Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. As an older teen, and in my very early twenties, I fell in love with the novels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Tom Robbins.
And now for the standard prompts:
Books Currently Reading: Rabbit Redux, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, The Patron Saint of Butterflies, Chains, and a bunch of non fiction war books.
Music Currently in Rotation: In car: Burnin' by The Wailers, The Pretenders, and Fishbone's Truth and Soul. In the office: OK Go's Oh No and lots of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. Always in both car and office: Axis Bold as Love & Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Last Movie Viewed: The Big Lebowski
Literary Crush: It's a toss up between Hank Rearden from Atlas Shrugged and Elliot Rosewater from God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. (I have weird taste in fictional men.)
Pet Peeve: Misplaced apostrophes.
Current Obsession: My work-in-progress is always my current obsession.
Guilty Pleasures: Utz cheeseballs. They are so wrong. Also, long, super-hot baths, which I miss, now that I am in the land of very short bathtubs. Irrational Fear: Bottled propane could explode and kill us all! Something's on fire! Explosions! Fire!
Favorite Piece of Trivia: If you breed two Blue Orpington chickens, you will get an even mix of black, white, white speckled and black speckled Orpington chicks. But to get more Blue Orpington chicks, you have to breed one of the white speckled hens with a blue rooster. (Runner up - humans lose 50,000 tiny flakes of skin every minute. That's three million an hour.) [BoD: EWWWWW!!]
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Other Friday WBBT interviews at/with:
Mayra Lazara Dole at Chasing Ray
Francis O'Roark Dowell at Fuse Number 8
J Patrick Lewis at Writing and Ruminating
Wendy Mass at Hip Writer Mama
Lisa Ann Sandell at Bildungsroman
Caroline Hickey/Sara Lewis Holmes at Mother Reader
Emily Wing Smith at Interactive Reader
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Photos from Life are available through Google. Just punch in someone's name along with "source: life", and wait for the awesomeness. I tried Carson McCullers, Robert Mitchum and Truman Capote.
(via The Valve)
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I don't know why I'm getting such a kick out of the Twilight premiere stuff. A bunch of my young ladies from the library are going to a midnight showing tonight.
I, however, have some amount of self control. I'm waiting until Saturday evening to pay my eight bucks to see the sparkly horror. And I'm wearing my shirt.
Do go and read this Fug post. It almost killed me.
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From the NBF website:
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For years at Harewood Tech, the girls have lived in fear of being D-listed. The Defiled aren't simply made unpopular: they're made to disappear. Other students don't speak their names, interact with them, even look at them.
When Sherman Mack suspects that his crush, Dini Trioli, may become the next victim, he decides that it's time for a change. His mission? To discover the identity (or identities!) of the Defiler (or Defilers!)... and put an end to the tradition, once and for all.
I LOVED THIS BOOK.
What I'd really like to do is just quote a ton of it to explain why, but if I quoted all of the bits I marked, I'd end up quoting most of the book. So just know that Getting the Girl is a stand out. One of the very few that I've read recently.
One of my favorite things about it was that it did not contain even a single solitary microscopic droplet of angst. I mean it. Not a one. Sherman is sensitive, but not in that his feelings are easily hurt or that he's mushy or deep or a dreamer*. He's sensitive in that he cares about other people.
Sherman's voice is sometimes deadpan, sometimes sarcastic and always original. He tends toward the literal in a way that just killed me. I read this entire book with a huge grin plastered across my face, and it was mostly due to how much I loved him. He's a small guy—one of the incredibly attractive girls from his school thinks he's twelve, though he's almost fifteen—but, like Summer Roberts, he suffers from rage blackouts:
The problem is that when I lose it I also kind of lose the ability to make good judgment calls. I am similar to the Incredible Hulk in that way.
He's being raised by his mom, who had him when she was sixteen, has given up on dating, and spends most of her free time dancing burlesque:
Thinking about my first case got me quite depressed, which my mother noticed as soon as I walked in the door. She may be abnormally youthful and obsessed with an inappropriate hobby, but you could never say she doesn't care about me. Other than her bad taste in names, clothing, dance style, and home decor, my mother is basically a good person.
Rather than go on and on, I'm just going to say it again: I LOVED THIS BOOK. Despite the swearing, the drugs and Sherman's body's tendency to physically display his appreciation for the ladies, this book felt really, really... wholesome. Susan Juby's affection for Sherman comes through on every page, as does Sherman's affection for his friends, his mother and his mentor. Highly recommended for anyone who's over The Angst, anyone who loves crime fiction and would enjoy a book that pokes fun at the genre, anyone who's in need of a book that feels like the literary equivalent of a hug.
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*Though he does have a tendency to get a bit tangential.
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Amazon | Indiebound.
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"The Dummy": Dinner date gone awry .
• "the people who came there laughed quietly and dined thoroughly, appreciating the principle that the check was always a little more than the restaurant and the entertainment warranted..."
• Another situation where the son is away.
• Ventriloquists' dummies are always creepy. Either it's secretly alive and not-so-secretly evil, or it's just a dummy but the ventriloquist uses it as a way to lash out and say nasty things without really saying them. Except for that one episode of Buffy. That dummy -- or, sorry, figure -- was alive and not evil.
• Looks like Shirley Jackson went with Dummy Option #2:
"Shut up for a minute," the dummy said to the girl. "For God's sake will you just shut up for a minute?"
• Well, I didn't see that coming. But, see what I mean? The dummy totally took the hit, even though it was the man who should have. It seems like Mrs. Wilkins must've been right on the edge already to have had that reaction -- she doesn't strike me as a vigilante, defending women wherever she goes. She was on the edge of... something... from the very beginning of the story. Mrs. Straw seemed pretty oblivious to that edginess. The girl in the green dress, of course, in the last line, showed that she wouldn't be changing her situation anytime soon.
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Other reader/bloggers:
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Previously:
"Elizabeth" and "A Fine Old Firm"
"Flower Garden", "Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors" and "Colloquy"
"Afternoon in Linen"
"After You, Dear Alphonse" and "Charles"
"The Witch" and "The Renegade"
"My Life with R.H. Macy"
"The Villager"
"Like Mother Used to Make" and "Trial By Combat"
"The Intoxicated" and "The Daemon Lover"
The Schedule
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The photo makes it look attractive enough, and I like the space saving idea of the tuck-away chairs, but I HATE the idea of the fake books.
(via Urban Fantasy Land)
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Does anyone know if the vampires in the Twilight movie actually sparkle? It doesn't look like it in the trailers I've seen.
As anti-sparklevamp as I am, it would be JUST WRONG if they didn't...
More on the upcoming movie at Smart Bitches.
(link via Chrissy)
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