bookshelves of doom

The Bad Miss Bennet -- Jean Burnett

I love Lydia Bennet.

I can't help it. I know I shouldn't, because SHE IS SUCH AN ASS. 

But I love her BECAUSE she's such an ass.

So, when I found out about The Bad Miss Bennet, a novel STARRING Lydia, obviously I HAD TO READ IT.

It's set three years after Pride and Prejudice, and a few months after Lydia's husband, George Wickham, died at at battle of Quartre Bras. Not due to any dashing act of heroism—that would have been totally out of character—but because he got thrown and then trampled by his own horse. Which seemed fitting*.

So, now Lydia is stuck living with boring Lizzie and pompous Mr. Darcy and, worst of all, the insufferable Miss Georgiana. After three years of relative freedom—Wickham wasn't a particularly good husband, but he wasn't particularly concerned with his wife's habit of flouting social conventions, either—staid life as an impoverished relation at Pemberley chafes.

Also, mourning is a HUGE DRAG. Black is just NOT. HER. COLOR.

So, the moment that opportunity strikes, Lydia heads out on her own, determined to live life on her own terms.

Sadly, The Bad Miss Bennet did not live up to my expectations. It was extremely scattered, in that it didn't seem to know if it wanted to be a sex romp or a mystery or a romance: it had elements of all three, but never settled on one long enough to dig in, so the plotting wasn't particularly strong. The story would meander in one direction for a while, and then it felt like the author just... got bored, switched gears, and meandered in another direction for a while, and then got bored again. And the end of the story felt the same way, just: BORED NOW, THE END.

Which, to be (possibly excessively) blunt, was pretty much my attitude by the time I hit the halfway mark.

So, the plotting didn't do anything for me. But what about the voice, right? I mean, if ANY of the non-Lizzie Bennet sisters ought to have a strong (if asinine) voice, it's Lydia. Not so here. She's got a few super lines, but overall, it certainly wasn't strong enough to carry the entire book.

Characterization? There's no growth whatsoever, and while that made sense in the context of the original text—everything got fixed for Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, so while she had the opportunity to learn lessons, she was never forced to—I found it hard to believe that she wouldn't have matured at all during her three years of marriage, and especially hard to believe that she wouldn't mature at all over the course of her independent adventures. Basically, she started the story as a caricature, and she ended the story as a caricature, and while that can make for a hugely entertaining secondary character, it doesn't work so well in a heroine.

TL; DR: Overall, totally forgettable. Lydia deserves better.

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*That said, I did love that Lost in Austen made him out to be a nice guy.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

Publisher.

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Go the F**k to Sleep is headed to the big screen.

From Deadline:

Husband-wife scripting team Ken Marino & Erica Oyama have been hired to adapt the book Go The F To Sleep for Fox 2000 and Twilight Saga producer Karen Rosenfelt and All You Need Is Kill producer Erwin Stoff. The book, which was written by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortes, is categorized as a children’s book for adults.

I had no idea that Ken Marino was so multi-talented! Love him.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie -- Alan Bradley

I used to post about older books a lot more. Somewhere along the way, though, in an effort to keep up with the never-ending supply of review copies, new books at the library, and new books that I buy, I've gotten away from that. And I feel like I'm missing out.

So, for the foreseeable future, anyway, I'm going to start covering older titles on Fridays.

This week's book is—obviously—Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which I've been meaning to read ever since it came out. I remember pestering my former library director to buy the series for the library, and she did, but somehow—despite all of the factors that make it a perfect ME book (obnoxiously smart girl detective, philatelic mystery, sisterly squabbles, impoverished British upper class, small town gossip, boys' school hijinks)—I've never made the time for it until now.

June, 1950. When we first meet eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, she's tied up, gagged, and locked in a dark closet. Not for long, though: her older sisters Ophelia and Daphne may have her beat in terms of pure physicality, but they'll never be a match for her brain.

So when a real tangle of a mystery arrives at Buckshaw—quite literally at the front door—Flavia isn't just intrigued: she's ecstatic. She doesn't know what the dead jackdaw means, or why it has a Penny Black postage stamp impaled on its beak. But she does know that it means something to her philatelist father: and whatever it is, it isn't good. When she finds a dying man in the cucumber patch later that night—a man who she saw arguing with her father just hours before—the mystery becomes that much more intriguing... and with her father as the most logical suspect, her need to find out the truth becomes that much more urgent.

Surprisingly enough, this book didn't win me over until about the halfway mark. Before that, despite Flavia's obvious charms—she's bright, enchantingly vicious, a great liar, and impressively obnoxious—she felt more like the idea of a person than an actual person. Also, and more off-putting, Bradley's third-person narration was slightly condescending towards her, like, "Oh, look at this child who thinks she's so clever. Let's titter at her innocent obliviousness." Sadly, I can't identify anything specific, but SOMETHING put my back up, clearly.

But! There is a distinct turning-point for both problems: after a long conversation with her father—well, it's more of a monologue on his part—there's a shift, Flavia suddenly blooms into a real, three-dimensional person, and there's a subtle change in the narrative voice as well: it starts treating her as an equal. To be fair, before that conversation, Flavia had been looking at the mystery as a game of sorts, and after it, she begins detecting in earnest. So, to a degree—even though it made me uncomfortable—the condescension in the beginning was warranted. Or at least understandable in hindsight.

Other thoughts: I pegged the murderer immediately, but that didn't bother me, since the whys and hows were still left to untangle. Flavia's interactions with Inspector Hewitt are wonderful, the class issues are nicely handled, as is the depiction of post-WWII life. By the end, I had developed some serious affection for almost all of the characters, and I'll definitely be reading the sequels.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: Personal copy.

March 25, 1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

As you may have noticed, I've been making an effort lately to highlight some of the books I've covered in the past. After all, we don't want to be all new, all the time, right? That gets boring.

Anyway, as today is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, I'm pointing you back to my post about Katharine Weber's Triangle, which I adored:

I loved Katharine Weber's writing, period—I'm not usually drawn to reading about science and math, but I found the segments about George's music (and about Rebecca's job as a genetics researcher) just as fascinating as the personal relationships and the history. The transcripts of Esther's interviews and testimony brought her to life for me. It was short (less than 250 pages), but it was tight, so tight that I felt much more strongly about these characters than I have about many in other, longer novels.

There are some YA titles about it, too (Ashes of Roses, Threads and Flames, and Uprising are the ones I've seen most often mentioned). I haven't read any of them, though: any standouts that I should bump up the list?

JK Rowling on adolescence.

At the Telegraph:

In reality, she said, teenagers were fragile, self-centred and even left contemplating their own mortality as they struggled with growing up.

"I think that as an adolescent you are very fragile, generally speaking," she said. "Obviously it's a time when your empathy is not terribly well developed.

"You are spending a lot of time thinking about yourself."

There's another retelling of Rebecca in the works.

From yesterday's Publishers Lunch:

...THIS SIDE OF MARRIED and LADY OF THE SNAKES author Rachel Pastan's ALENA, pitched as a contemporary "restaging" of Daphne Du Maurier's classic Rebecca. 

Unlike New Girl and Frost and The Dead and Buried, though, this one (I assume) will be geared at the adult market.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz wins yet another award!

This time, though, it's not for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe:

The directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Tuesday that author Benjamin Alire Saenz will receive $15,000 for "Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club." ''Everything Begins" was published by Cincos Puntos Press, based in El Paso, Texas, where some of Saenz's stories take place.

And the newest author to be accused of plagiarism is...

...(brace yourself, because this is depressing)... Jane Goodall:

Jane Goodall, the primatologist celebrated for her meticulous studies of chimps in the wild, is releasing a book next month on the plant world that contains at least a dozen passages borrowed without attribution, or footnotes, from a variety of Web sites.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal...

...is Donald Westlake's The Hot Rock, the first book in his series of caper novels about John Dortmunder, a thief whose exploits usually end up going so spectacularly, hilariously awry that he's lucky if he breaks even on any given heist.

I... Westlake... Dortmunder... Dormunder's friends... I JUST LOVE THEM ALL.

There's a castle for sale in upstate New York.

So, with that in mind, I shall re-recommend both Keeping the Castle (so adorbs!) and I Capture the Castle (which I loved so much that I posted about it three pages in, and then after I'd finished it). Oh, and look, NPR posted an excerpt of it back in 2008.

More about the New York castle up for grabs over at boingboing.

10 MORE of the Best Outsider Books for Teenagers.

Noting that Darren Shan's recent list of Outsider Reads at the Guardian "was written by, and is largely concerned with the exploits of — you guessed it! — a straight white man", Emily Temple at Flavorwire compiled a companion list that includes titles like Geek Love and Weetzie Bat.

SO, YAY! DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF RECOMMENDED READS!

Darren Shan's Top 10 Books about Outsiders for Teenagers.

Good call on The Chocolate War and Stephen King's The Body.

I'd have definitely included Brock Cole's The Goats, though. (Check out the new cover!-->)

It's been years since I read it, but merely thinking about it still makes me twitch.

Click on through to the Guardian for the whole list.

THE EPIC ELIZABETH PETERS LOVEFEST.

If you've been reading this blog over the past week, you may have picked up on my totally measured and mature and not-at-all-fangirlish appreciation for the body of work Barbara Mertz has published under the names Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.

I first discovered her in seventh grade. My high school was a combination high/middle school, and so in an effort to make the seventh graders a tad less terrified, the administration matched us all up with a senior Big Brother or Big Sister. For the most part—and my experience was no exception—the senior would take her Little Sister under her wing for approximately five minutes and then forget about her for the rest of the year. In other words, it was a great idea, but in practice, didn't really have a huge effect. On our first (and only) outing, My Big Sister took me to see Pretty Woman, and when she asked me what I thought at the end, I said something along the lines of, "It was kind of predictable, wasn't it?"

(It was SUCH an "I carried a watermelon" moment. I'm slightly less socially awkward now—Josh would emphasize the slightly—but I clearly haven't changed all that much.)

ANYWAY, before I went home, she gave me a copy of Crocodile on the Sandbank. So maybe she understood me a little better than I ever gave her credit for, because I took that book home and read it and re-read it until it fell apart.

I've been a fan ever since.

And I'm not alone in that.

Mallorie Colvin (@MJColvin): "I originally fell in love with Elizabeth Peters through her writing as Barbara Michaels. I devoured everything I could find by her all through middle and high school. Then, in college, I discovered the Amelia Peabody series and fell in love all over again. I was an anthropology major and a lover of all thing Egyptian as well as mysteries - it's like the series was made for me. I've since read (and loved) the Vicky Bliss books and really need to get my hands on the Jacqueline Kirby series!"

@sarahokeefe: "The running gag where Ramses, as a child, is referred to as (I paraphrase), "Aaaaah, the afreet!!!" by the locals."

@msmcclure: "Love, no adore, the Amelia Peabody series. I can't think of a new release that I'd be more excited about. In addition, I'm constantly torn between wanting a movie or TV show, but then dreading that it might be untrue to the books."

Beth C.: "I discovered Ms. Peter's Amelia Peabody Emerson series just this past summer. I can't remember where I first heard of her, but the first book in the series had been sitting in my to-read list on Goodreads for a while and I needed a summer read. Anyway, I was in awe of Miss Peabody from the start! What self-confidence, bravery, and intelligence! I confess my own mental processes had a difficulty keeping up with that of Miss Peabody. It was so refreshing to discover a character like her. I've now read most of that series and have loved how the characters have grown and evolved. I won't lie, but when I find myself second guessing a decision I remind myself that Amelia Peabody Emerson would never do that. That always gives me a little boost. Or I drink a whiskey and soda. I get a boost from that too.

Thank you Ms. Peters for creating the ultimate crime-fighting, pyramid-excavating, strong-minded detective!"

Kate VT: "I read my first EP book (The Last Camel Died at Noon) lying in a hammock in my parents' backyard, and was hooked for life. I loved Amelia and Emerson but actually found Ramses kind of annoying - how little I knew! Ramses, of course, became my favorite literary crush - a tall, dark, handsome, brave feminist? I swooned (still do!). It's so rare that the follow up to a cliffhanger lives up to the potential (cough, West Wing 5th season premiere, cough), but He Shall Thunder in the Sky is probably my favorite of the series. I haven't found my Ramses in life yet, but, as Amelia would say, where there's life, there's hope!"

Kathy J.: "discovered years ago ... read many times ...
but all time favorite is The Last Camel Died at Noon. just read it and you'll see why ...
just gotta love Amelia Peabody ...

[Readalikes] Ellis Peters, of Brother Cadfael fame, has a most charming book: City of Gold and Shadows; and then there's Dorothy Gilman's Incident at Badamya - I read it once a year ... about a 16-year-old girl in Burma during wartime and the puppet master she meets under unusual circumstances."

Heather: ""John sprang out of bed. Clad only in a wristwatch and a lordly sneer, he struck a pose like Jove about to hurl a thunderbolt and declaimed, "'Yet she / Will be / False, ere I come, to two, or three.' Aren't you scheduling your appointments rather too tightly? Far be it from me..."" Trojan Gold

Oh John, you have the ability to make me feel vaguely dissatisfied with my otherwise happy marriage."

Gail Gauthier (Author of, among others, my much-beloved A Year with Butch and Spike): "I discovered Elizabeth Peters after picking up some of her Amelia Peabody books from the library sale rack for my son. He read adult fiction, was on the young side, and I thought the historical Egyptology focused books would be both interesting and appropriate for him. Years later, he would be concerned about his grandmother reading those books, fearing they would be too mature for her. He only read the first 4 or 5, quitting after Ramses was no longer funny.

I didn't read them until years later, when I wanted to get myself into the world of Egyptology for a book I was thinking of writing. I've read all of them."

Anonymous: "My favorite EP is the Amelia Peabody series - the earlier ones, at least, up through the one where they rescue Nefret. I also really like the ones about Jacqueline Kirby (being a librarian myself), but they haven't stood the test of time as well. I rather wish she'd do a 21st century version of JK."

Michelle (@GemmaArcadian): "Elizabeth Peters created heroines who were true role models for me. They are curious, smart, independent, and willful. The romantic banter was always witty and again, intelligent. And I always closed the book having learned something new about art, geography, or history. To this day, so many years later, I still haven't read books that manage to teach, inspire, and melt my heart the way hers do.

The book of hers that always stays with me is The Copenhagen Connection. It's left me with a strong desire to see Copenhagen for myself. And it's funny, too. I always read Peters shaking my head, thinking, I don't know how she does it. But I'm sure glad she does!"

L.G. Evans: "When I first set eyes on Elizabeth Peters words I was walking the streets of Kansas City.

Actually, I was wandering through the library, but I had to play off of the brilliant opening line of Crocodile on the Sandbank.

That was my first experience with Elizabeth Peters. I laughed, fell in love with Emerson, wanted to protect - and throttle - Evelyn.

Her books became my friends that were read and reread until worn.

My husband, after years of me laughing him awake in bed, got them on audio. If you have not heard them on audio with Barbara Rosenblat you are missing out. She is exactly what Amelia had always been in my mind!

I would love to thank Barbara for the hours of pleasure her work has brought me and for adding (I hope) a touch of Amelia to my own characters.

If just one person feels as attached to my characters as I feel to Amelia, I will count myself successful.

Thanks MPM!"

L.M. Ironside: "I mostly experience the wonderful world of Elizabeth Peters through her "nonfiction" pen name, Barbara Mertz. Her writing on Egyptology is thorough, accessible, and engaging...often very funny! No one brings research into ancient Egypt to life quite the same way. I have relied on her two nonfiction books about Egypt to research my own novels, the next one of which comes out on March 11th. Thank you, Barbara Mertz!"

Rebecca Moore, middle school librarian: "I was introduced to the Amelia Peabody books by a good friend, who herself had fallen in love with them for the wittiness and the heroine's unabashed appreciation of Emerson's "attentions," as it were. While I loved all that as well, and the wonderful details about Egypt, what I really loved was that in Emerson I found a hero who was perfectly happy to be a leader, and not even vaguely conflicted about it (or all that perturbed when his wife seized the lead and ran with it). After reading and watching so many mystery series/superhero stories/supernatural series/etc. with tortured protagonists, Emerson was a self-confident breath of fresh air, and more, he backed up that self-confidence with actual ability (and a few endearing foibles). Amelia has many of those same qualities, and I find her just as refreshing."

Maureen E.: "I'm definitely a Vicky fan! I've tried a couple of the Amelia Peabody books and haven't been so enthralled by them. But something about the combination of mysteries + Vicky + the whole cast of crazy characters just does it for me. I love the kooky plots and the way Schmidt is obviously awesome and then Elizabeth Peters confirms that he is awesome (in Night Train to Memphis). There are in-jokes and allusions. And John, who falls squarely into my Lord Peter Wimsey/Howl/Eugenides loving heart. Mostly, though, there's Vicky herself, who can always be counted on to be where the action is."

And here are links to all of the Posts o' Love I ran over the course of the week:

Malinda Lo: "As an author, I'm always asked which authors inspired me, and I rarely say Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, but I don't know why. I should probably start mentioning her! Maybe I'm a little worried that nobody knows about her anymore? Because she clearly taught me almost everything I know about romantic suspense. And she did it while being witty, feminist, and extremely smart. I love her books!"

Kate Flaim: "I devoured all the books that had been published this far, fell in love w/Ramses, and let the witty silliness (especially the early installments) distract me from the very dark times around me. I ended up buying them all on the cheap, and they still eat up a whole shelf--every time I weed my books I think about passing them on, but I think I'll plow through once more first."

Colleen Mondor: "It's Amelia that caught my attention first and what got me was not only her independence (which I adored and totally appreciated for the time period) but also that she and Emerson fall in love and get married and have a child and she never changes her independent attitude. She is still the same Amelia he falls in love with and doesn't have to become anyone else's idea of who a woman should be. This was....huge for me."

Book Addict Katie: "When I was a sixth grader at a small, private school, I was depressed and miserable. I was having a difficult time socially and emotionally and all I ever wanted to do was read. I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt from a very young age, so when my mom saw a paragraph in The Washington Post about a book called The Mummy Case, she took me straight to Borders to pick it up hoping that this outing might brighten my day. Boy, she didn’t know what she was starting!"

Debra Touchette: "Jacqueline! The purse! The stare! The sharp tongue! The knitting! The hair! If I could be anyone in the world, it would be a combination of Jessica Fletcher, Evy Carnahan, Flynn Carsen, and Jacqueline Kirby. And I would rule the world."

CC: "So I think I will just leave it at this: I love the work that Elizabeth Peters has done for the last forty years so much that it destroys my critical judgment and undermines my moral faculties. You see, when Leila moved back to Maine . . . I deliberately hid all her double copies of EP/BM books that I didn’t own yet myself. Which (I recognize in a hazy kind of way) is actually theft."

C.P. Lesley: "What hooked me—more than Amelia herself, more than her relationship with Emerson, precious as those are, more even than the intelligence and humor that are Peters’ trademark—was Ramses. Precocious, verbose, independent, impossible Ramses. Also Amelia’s rather atypically maternal response to her firstborn son, and Bastet."

Finally, here are the links to my round-ups of the Vicky Bliss books and the Jacqueline Kirby books: clearly a re-read of the Amelia Peabody series is in order! Next year, maybe... if I can wait that long! Thanks again to everyone who participated, and I hope that you will all continue to Spread The Word of the Wonder That Is Mertz/Peters/Michaels!

Round-up: The ENTIRE Jacqueline Kirby series.

Since I know that you're all DYING for one, here's a handy index to my posts about the four books in Elizabeth Peters' Jacqueline Kirby series:

The Seventh Sinner: Jacqueline Kirby, #1:

It's the classic librarian-with-her-hair-down scene! Jean and Michael (one of the other students) barrel around a corner and run full-tilt into her, knocking her down. While Jean had noticed her in the library previously, she hadn't paid much attention to this severe-looking figure with her bun and her horn-rimmed glasses and her impeccably tailored suits... a far cry from the creature that now lies before them, with the whistle-provoking legs and the hair like "molten bronze" and the green "seawater" eyes.

Then, of course, she opens her mouth and she's wonderfully snippy and crabby (but not without a large dose of humor), refuses their help in standing and instead, threatens to lie there on the floor for the rest of the day.

The Murders of Richard III: Jacqueline Kirby, #2:

While I compared Jacqueline Kirby to Mary Poppins and Chestomanci in yesterday's post, it occurred to me while re-reading The Murders of Richard III that if Nancy Drew was a little bit more crabby and a little bit less of a goody-goody, she could have grown up to be almost as awesome. They both have ridiculous stores of random information (as a librarian, JK's are actually believable), they both have lots of random skillz (JK knows karate and can occasionally blow smoke rings), and they are both exceedingly resourceful in any given situation (JK's Purse, of course, is a factor). 

Die for Love: Jacqueline Kirby, #3:

As for the meta-factor, this one is a DOUBLE WHAMMY. There are the expected references to mystery novels and crime stories (she pulls a Columbo towards the end that is OUTSTANDING and all of her knowledge about ciphers comes from Dorothy Sayers), but there are also a plethora of rants about the romance industry, and it's hard to imagine that Elizabeth Peters wasn't taking the opportunity to get a few jabs in. (Rants include: ghostwriting, rape culture, sketchy agents, crappy convention food, the second-class status of fans... the list goes on and on.)

Naked Once More: Jacqueline Kirby, #4:

I love her. I love her curiosity and her love of knowledge and her love of food, I love that she can pick up a book and lose an entire day, I love that she is equally comfortable drinking beers and shooting pool with a small town's ex-sheriff as she is swigging martinis in a swanky NYC establishment with the literati. I love that she's a walking contradiction: super no-nonsense, but prone to being silly; capable of being steely and tough, but also capable of genuine warmth, and of comforting those in need of comfort; prickly but also eminently likable; one who avoids beating around the bush, but is also capable of being extremely subtle; a huge fan of petty revenge, but... well, there's no opposing behavior there. She's a huge fan of petty revenge, period. I love her. I love her, I love her, I love her.

C. P. Lesley on Elizabeth Peters.

Elizabeth Peters Week continues!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (I'm still taking them, but only through today!), I've been running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and I'll be posting the rest and linking everything up tomorrow.

From C. P. Lesley's post:

What hooked me—more than Amelia herself, more than her relationship with Emerson, precious as those are, more even than the intelligence and humor that are Peters’ trademark—was Ramses. Precocious, verbose, independent, impossible Ramses. Also Amelia’s rather atypically maternal response to her firstborn son, and Bastet. (I will not tell you who Bastet is. Either you have read the books and know, or you should read the books to find out.)

Read the rest at her blog!