Title:  Spindle's End
Author:  Robin McKinley
Format:  Paperback
Pages:  354
Genre:  Fantasy/Fairy-tale adaptation
Date Started:  May 17, 2010
Date Finished:  May 18, 2010

Rating:  A

Description (from Barnes & Noble):  All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy Pernicia on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep-a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love the way McKinley retells the classic fairy-tales.  Especially when she decides to take them in a whole new direction.  This book was a completely different look at the Sleeping Beauty story.  In fact, it's so different that it's really easy to forget that it's not an original story.  It could be, if she changed the one consistent part between the original and her retelling-- the spinning wheel.  Remove the spinning wheel element, and you wouldn't even think to compare this story to Sleeping Beauty.

The characters are well-developed and lifelike.  Rosie is wonderful as the atypical princess, and her best friend Peony is the yin to her yang.  I also love the fact that McKinley focuses on more than just Rosie.  The first few chapters are almost entirely focused on her guardian, Katriona, and her own romance is in many ways much sweeter than Rosie's.

McKinley's writing style is great, but she tends to get bogged down in very long, drawn-out descriptions.  The first few times I read this, I skimmed through all the descriptive parts.  Then I reread it fully, and I'm glad I finally did.  McKinley's attention to detail adds so much realism to her stories.  Her skill with dialogue is amazing too.  Rosie's sarcasm is great!  A

Title:  Charity Girl
Author:  Georgette Heyer
Format:  Hardcover
Pages:  254
Genre:  Regency romance/Clean romance
Date Started:  May 16, 2010
Date Finished:  May 16, 2010

Rating:  A

Description (from Barnes & Noble):  A sparkling Regency romance from the queen of the genre--Viscount Desford tries to help a very young lady walking to London alone, and finds himself working hard to prevent his young charge from bringing ruin upon herself--and him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Barnes & Noble really needs better descriptions for their books.  If I was picking a book based on what the summary said, I might never have read this book.

I was completely surprised by the ending!  Heyer's romances tend to follow a formula, and you always know who's going to end up together.  This book completely destroyed that.  I had no idea it was going to end that way, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was happy with the twist.

The characters in this book were amongst Heyer's best.  Four great main characters, an awesome set of secondary characters, and four perfectly awful villains.  Cherry, the title character, reminded me a lot of Fanny Price; very sweet, very soft-spoken, taken advantage of by her relatives, and just a little bit more outspoken than Fanny when she finally gets her freedom.  And if you think Aunt Norris from Mansfield Park is evil, it's because you haven't met Cherry's aunt.  She makes Aunt Norris look nice!

There was a lot less slang in this book so it was very understandable.  The dialogue was great too, as usual.  Some parts of the story were a little slow, but overall the book was great.  A

Title:  The Corinthian
Author:  Georgette Heyer
Format:  Hardcover
Pages:  244
Genre:  Regency romance/Clean romance
Date Started:  May 15, 2010
Date Finished:  May 15, 2010

Rating:  A-

Description (from Barnes & Noble):  Beset by marriage-minded relatives, Sir Richard Wyndham nearly plunged into a dutiful betrothal. But just in time, lovely, impulsive Penelope Creed climbed out a window—and into his arms. Dressed as a boy, Pen was escaping her own demanding relatives, and wanted only to return to her childhood estate. Sir Richard refused to permit a young lady to travel unescorted, no matter what her garb. But upon discovering his charge meant to ride a mail coach, the sophisticated lord nearly changed his mind! Still, before long, marriage wasn 't looking quite the evil it had been—if he had the right bride in his arms...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is the first time I ever disliked a Heyer heroine.  She was so irritating; I might even compare her to nails on a chalkboard at times.  Her character could have been done so much better.  I liked that she was atypical; she didn't fit with the other Heyer heroines.  But some of her differences were extremely annoying.

The secondary characters left much to be desired too, except Cedric.  He's one of my favorites in this book.  He's humorous, exciting, and surprisingly well-developed for a minor character.  Luckily, people like George, Louisa, Beverly, etc. all had very small parts, so you don't have to put up with their ridiculousness for very long.

It was nice that this book followed a slightly different storyline from Heyer's usual formula.  I say slightly different, because a good deal of the formula is still in there.  The hero, Richard Wyndham (whom I love), starts out as a drunkard, but he very quickly becomes as respectable as the rest of Heyer's male leads.  There's still the May-December romance, the awkward situations, and the great dialogue.  The big difference is that the heroine of the story is pretending to be a boy through most of it, which introduces some very new, very interesting situations.  The very last scene in the book is the best example of this.  Made me laugh so hard.  A-

Title:  The Cotillion
Author:  Georgette Heyer
Format:  Hardcover
Pages:  316
Genre:  Regency romance/Clean romance
Date Started:  May 11, 2010
Date Finished:  May 14, 2010

Rating:  A+

Description (from Barnes & Noble):  The three great-nephews of cantankerous Mr Penicuik know better than to ignore his summons, especially when it concerns the bestowal of his fortune. His freakish plan is that his fortune will be his step-daughter Kitty's dowry.

Eager to put an end to the attentions of all these fortune-hunting men who pursue her, Miss Kitty Charing flees to London with Freddy Standen, a confirmed bachelor. Kitty finds life in the exciting city more wonderful than she ever imagined, but is it the city or the man who brought her newfound happiness?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is completely irrelevant to my opinion of the book, but why is it that most of the new reprints of Georgette Heyer's books have covers that are completely unrelated to the story?  Yes, the title is The Cotillion, and a cotillion is a dance, but the three girls waiting for dance partners has absolutely nothing to do with the book.

This is one of Heyer's funniest books.  Her characters, their personalities and eccentricities, the trouble they get themselves into.  A faked betrothal, elopements, crazy family members.  All of it is so funny!  A few of the characters can grate on your nerves, but their annoyingness doesn't detract at all from the great dialogue and romance in the book.  One problem I did have was that Heyer included a lot more Regency era slang into the book, so I felt like I needed an interpreter at some points.  But that didn't make the book an less awesome either.  A+

Everything Austen is here!

Today is the first day of the Everything Austen challenge.  I am definitely ready for this challenge because I have just been in a Jane Austen mood lately.  It's all those Georgette Heyer books I read.  They're all set in that same time period, and now that I've read all the Heyer books that the library has to offer, I want to get back to Jane Austen.  Everything about her books and that era is just so romantic and beautiful and different.  I'm so jealous of all of the Austen heroines, because no guys are really like that anymore.  I wish they were, but they're not.

So I had to decided what six Jane-Austen-related things I was going to accomplish, and since I've read most of the books and seen many of the movie adaptations, it was actually really hard to figure out what I was going to do.  But I've finally come up with a list.  During the next six months, I intend to:

• Read Northanger Abbey.
• Read Emma.
• Watch the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey.
• Watch the biopic Miss Austen Regrets.
• Watch the 1996 version of Emma, starring Kate Beckinsale.
• Watch the 1980 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. 

That's the next challenge, and I'm confident that this is one that will not fail.

Challenge 3 Results

Challenge 3-- Thirty Books in 30 Days-- was not a success.  At all.  Instead of reading thirty books, I read three and started a fourth.  But that was about it.  The main reason for this flop-- catching up on all the TV shows and movies I missed during the Unplugged challenge.  I really should have combined those two challenges, since I had all that free and uninterrupted time.  Next time, I will do better.

The most interesting thing I learned during this challenge was just how easy it is to get sucked right back in by TV and Netflix.  As soon as I could start watching TV and listening to music again, that's all I wanted to do.  So the challenge wasn't a completely waste, because it taught me something about myself.  What I also find interesting is that now that the pressure of the challenge is over, I really want to read.  So weird.

A New Look!

Welcome to my renovated and redecorated blog!

I was starting to get bored with the old look, and decided it was time for a change.  I feel that this background expresses the purpose of my blog, as well as who I am.  Of course, those shelves are much too neat, but I don't think they have a picture of messy, disorganized, overflowing shelves.  I think the new look also makes my blog look more.... I don't really want to say professional.... I guess it looks less bland, more exciting.  It looks like I actually care more about it, instead of just leaving it with that original blah layout.  I'm really a lot happier with this new layout.  Let's see how long it lasts.

Title: A Hat Full of Sky
Author: Terry Pratchett
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 278
Genre: Fantasy/Weird/Discworld
Date Started: May 9, 2010
Date Finished: May 10, 2010

Rating: B

Description (from Barnes & Noble): Tiffany Aching - the boldest heroine ever to swing a frying pan against the forces of evil - is beginning her apprenticeship in magic. She expects to work hard, learn spells, and become a witch. She doesn't expect to find herself doing chores, caring for the careless, and trying to outthink an ill-tempered nanny goat. There must be more to witchcraft than this!
But as Tiffany pursues her calling, an insidious, disembodied creature pursues Tiffany. When it strikes, neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the six-inch-high Wee Free Men (the greatest thieves in the world) can save her...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another really weird book from Pratchett. It might even be weirder than the first. I think that may be my opinion of all his books, if they're anything like this one. Several parts in the plot seemed to just come up out of nowhere, and there were random paragraphs of nonsensical prose just thrown in here and there. I understood the basic plot and even some of the twists, but other parts were either too rushed or too rambling to make any sense.

I did really like the romance that is starting up between Tiffany and Roland. I'm hoping that it continues to develop in the next two books. And the new characters were great too; some were annoying of course, but most of them were good. There were also the awesomely funny and satirical parts that just kept this book from being too... too... just too.

Favorite quotes:

Nevertheless, an entire village of hermit elephants moving across the plains is one of the finest sights on the continent.

The problem wasn't that he smelled of ferrets. Well, that was a problem, but compared to the big problem, it wasn't much of one. He talked to himself. That is, bits of him talked to other bits of him. All the time.

He had mastered the first two rules of writing as he understood them. 1. Steal some paper. 2. Steal a pencil. Unfortunately there was more to it than that.

So obviously the book had some redeeming qualities. B

Title: The Wee Free Men
Author: Terry Pratchett
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 263
Genre: Fantasy/Weird
Date Started: May 6, 2010
Date Finished: May 7, 2010

Rating: B

Description (from Barnes & Noble): Up on the chalk downs known as The Wold, witches are banned — ever since the Baron’s son vanished in the woods. Anyway, as all witches know, chalk is no good for magic.

Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching thinks her Granny Aching — a wise shepherd — might have been a witch, but now Granny Aching is dead and it’s up to Tiffany to work it all out when strange things begin happening. There’s a fairy-tale monster in the stream, a headless horseman and, strangest of all, the tiny blue men in kilts, the Wee Free Men, who have come looking for the new “hag”. These are the Nac Mac Feegles, the pictsies, who like nothing better than thievin’, fightin’ and drinkin’. When Tiffany’s young brother goes missing, Tiffany and the Wee Free Men must join forces to save him from the Queen of the Fairies.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My first impression about this book was "This is a weird story." It was good, just very strange. And it made you think, which is a good thing. But it's still strange. It's supposed to be made into a movie, and I really don't know how they're going to pull that off.

My favorite characters were absolutely the Nac Mac Feegle (the wee free men). They were funny and entertaining, and their matter-of-fact reactions to crazy, magical things helped set them apart from everything else, helped make them more magical (as if being tiny, blue creatures wasn't enough). They are the anti-Smurf. While the Smurfs liked to sing and dance and play games, the Nac Mac Feegle swear and drink and steal. Their dialogue was great too, because Pratchett wrote in brogue for them, rather than merely saying "They had a Scottish brogue."

The main character, Tiffany, annoyed me a little, especially in the beginning. I was having such a hard time connecting with her, but by the end of the book, she had redeemed herself. Speaking of the end of the book, I'm going to have to reread that part, because it still doesn't make sense to me.

Pratchett's writing style helped make this book fun and exciting. It reminded me of the Princess Bride, where the author keeps breaking in to the story to point something out in parentheses. Pratchett did something similar in this book, either through Tiffany or as the narrator. I love it when writers do that. B

Title: The Reluctant Widow
Author: Georgette Heyer
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 279
Genre: Regency romance/Gothic/Clean romance
Date Started: May 4, 2010
Date Finished: May 5, 2010

Rating: A+

Description (from Barnes & Noble): Penniless Elinor is rather surprised at the carriage that meets her from the stage, and more so at the decayed grandeur of the house to which she's transported. Realising that there has been a case of mistaken identity she agrees to an audacious plan.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I loved this book! So much comedy, sarcasm, and excitement! This was so different from any other Heyer book I've read. The heroine gets thrown into a situation, practically against her will, and her way of coping through sarcasm was so much fun. I love sarcasm, especially when it's done well. The hero is of course equally sarcastic to her, and the dialogue between these two was so good, I didn't even need the plot or secondary characters to enjoy the story. The two of them sending stinging barbs at each other was enough.

Of course, the plot and the secondary characters did add a lot of excitement and comedy to the story. Lord Carlyon's younger brother Nicky and his dog Bouncer were probably my favorite characters in the whole book. They were both constantly getting into trouble and "under" people's feet, but you couldn't help but love them. Elinor had her patience worn thin by both of them, but she still loved having them around. I always love the comic relief, and these two never disappointed.

The plot of this story was great too, because it was Gothic mystery novel. Riddles and secrets that needed to be solved. Secret passageways. Political intrigues. French spies. This is one of my favorite Heyer books. Actually, it's one of my favorite books... period. A+