A Book for English Majors

I remember reading the promotional blurb for The Heroines, by Eileen Favorite, and thinking to myself 'I have got to order this book'. The premise is great: Anne Marie runs a cute bed-and-breakfast in rural Illinois where literary heroines can come to get a grip when their story becomes too intense. Anne Marie is always willing to listen and nod sympathetically, but does not want to dispense counsel, lest she alter the course of great literature. Her 13-year-0ld daughter Penny is tired of her mother's time and attention being taken up by weepy 19th century women, but when she gets involved in one of the stories (and I mean involved), the weepy lodgers are the ones who come to her rescue. Some of the lines in this book are great. When a dashing horseman comes thundering into the woods looking for his lost love Deirdre, Penny's thought is "Deirdre was so depressed...she must have come from some awful romance. Only a cheap book would have binding too weak to hold back a stereotype like this guy". A little bit about teenage angst, a little bit about the importance of literature in shaping in our lives, and a little bit of a love story, Heroines is a wonderfully fun read (even if you hated Senior English class).

A Valentine Read

I don't usually do humor books in the blog (since funny is such a subjective thing), but a new book caused such unbridled laughter amongst the library staff that I feel compelled to share. Everything He Hasn't Told You Yet: a new way to get men talking about stuff that matters, by Burton Silver and Martin O'Connor, is so far out in left field that even though it bills itself as a help guide for interpersonal communication, it really is just plain humor. Here's the scenario: you are supposed to get the man in your life to sit down, listen to a hypothetical situation, and answer a series of questions which you then interpret - much like dreams - to discover his true inner workings. Want to find out if he's interested in being in a relationship? Read out loud a list of animals and ask him to come up with names for each animal pair. If he picks a male name and a female name (Rex and Fluffy), then he's interested in committment because "he sees a world of couples". If he picks Rex and Scamp, then you might as well pack up your toothbrush. Want to find out what he thinks about women? Have him answer a bunch of stupid questions from an alien, like "Why do women have so many shoes?"
This book reads like the literary equivalent of a cootie catcher. If you can get a guy to go through these dumb exercises with you, you've either been dating for less than 4 months or he's making stuff up to pull your chain. He's in a relationship with you - he's not applying for a job. Save the goofy personality tests for Human Resources.

A troubadour, a Templar, and a lady walk into a bar....

A tarot-inspired retelling of the events of the Cathar crusade? A tongue-in-cheek parody of historical intrigue novels? A prequel to The Da Vinci Code?
The Last Troubadour: song of Montsegur, by Derek Armstrong, is a hard book to categorize. Set in the 13th century, this book follows the sometimes funny adventures of a troubadour, a Knight of the Templar, and a beautiful woman as they work together to find an important religious relic before an evil agent of the Pope gets to it. Not having read The Da Vinci Code, I can't comment on any parallels or judge whether this is a true parody. The 13th century was not a real great time to be alive, and I don't ordinarily connect an Inquisition with big belly laughs, but Armstrong does his best to inject some wit and humor into his story. The Tarot-inspired characters will interest anyone familiar with the history of the Tarot (again, not my thing). I guess at the end of all this I'm not really sure if I'm recommending this book or not. Perhaps the most mysterious thing about this mystery is whether or not it's worth reading.

The Forgotten Genre

Mysteries, Fantasy, Chick Lit, Romance, SF (not Sci-Fi, I was informed), Christian, Thriller....all these literary genres get all the glory, the awards, and the big names. But what about the poor Western? Whatever happened to the glory days of Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour and Ray Hogan? The steely-eyed cowboy, the lonesome drifter and the determined but beautiful farmer's widow all seemed to disappear. But wait! With the sound of hooves, a cloud of dust and a hearty High-Ho Silver, new popular interest has arrived in the nick of time to breathe life back into a moribund genre. Two of the most watched films of last year were Westerns: 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Maverick Arizona politician John McCain (who would probably have been a cowboy in an earlier time) is the Republican front runner. And we have a new book on the shelves: The Rebels: sons of Texas. A reprint of Elmer Kelton's 1990 edition that he published under a pseudonym, this book follows the adventures of the Lewis brothers in Mexican-controlled Texas just before the Battle of San Jacinto (which is actually how the book closes). Reacquaint yourself with all the comforting hallmarks of the Western genre and drift back into our frontier past.
(On a side note, thank you for your patience during this incredibly snowy weekend. I don't know what the deal is with all this snow - I didn't move to Alaska to deal with a bunch of cold weather, for pete's sake!)

Branching out

I don't ordinarily read YA (teen) novels, but I had been told that they can be just as interesting and well-written as adult novels. So I have dipped my toe in, and I've found the waters surprisingly pleasant. My first YA read was General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn. A fantasy novel set in an alternate world, it actually reads like a Regency romance. Averie’s father is the general of a colonizing army, and she sails to the conquered land of Chiarrin to join him and her fiancé, a handsome young Colonel. Chafing at the social and political constraints imposed upon her by her conservative culture, Averie is intrigued by Lieutenant Ket Du’kai – a native of another conquered territory. Once she has reached her father’s new outpost, she begins to push her limits as she adopts local customs, befriends a Chiarrin merchant girl, and begins questioning the imperialistic policies of her homeland. Along the way, she realizes that perhaps true happiness lies with brooding Ket, rather than her stolid – and boring – Colonel. Local unrest and guerilla attacks bring issues of trust, loyalty and politics to a head, and readers may be surprised by the way the story ends (or not - I suspected the big plot twist pretty early on). There are obvious parallels with the situation in Iraq, but I won't dwell on them. This is a very light novel that reads quickly and doesn’t particularly challenge the reader, but it is romantically satisfying. Give it a try - you may find yourself drawn in to the world of YA literature.

Dead Man's Hand

To me, watching someone else play poker is like watching paint dry. But judging from the number of poker tournaments being broadcast on TV - even before the writers' strike - I am in the minority on this. Poker is a wildly popular, and noir is a wildly popular literary genre, so why not marry the two into one great book? Dead Man's Hand: crime fiction at the poker table is a short story collection edited by Otto Penzler (who also edited The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps). Such famous mystery writers as Walter Mosley, John Lescroart, Jeffrey Deaver, and Michael Connelly join forces with such literary talents as Joyce Carol Oates, Alexander McCall Smith and Eric Van Lustbader. Each author has been given the same task: pen a gripping short crime story in which the cat and mouse game of poker plays a central role. Sounds easy? Well, these writers managed to come up with a huge array of plots, angles and hooks that will captivate the reader. Even if you don't know the difference between a deuce and a trey, you'll enjoy this book.

Library Beauty Queens

For those of you who were unable to catch the Wearable Art Show this weekend, let me assure you that you missed quite the spectacle. Kathy Graham - from the UAS library - outdid herself in designing 3 of the most fabulous gowns ever to come out of the Closed Reserve stacks! The title of the piece was "I Want to be a Librarian", and the three librarian beauty queens were:
Miss Directed (Judith McQuerry) - who wore a lovely pleated skirt made of discarded nautical charts
Mis Printed (Lisa Pearson) - who wore an overdress of hardback book covers with a lovely long train
Miss Shelved (Kathleen Wiechelman) - whose ruched dress and ruffle were made entirely of government document envelopes
I rarely get to sashay in front of a cheering crowd, so this was a total blast. Thank you, Kathy, for making my dreams of glamour and adoration possible....