In case you don't GoodRead...

I do not insist you subscribe to GoodReads, but I do love it. It helps the laziness that was setting in. Turns out the thyroid was hypo. I will try not to turn hyper.

It's off to Anaheim, if not Disneyland. No, it's ALA, or ALA Lite, which is what I call my version. I'll be posting my draft session reports at 23 Lakeside Things. Cannot get the link to work. You can Google it just fine. My final posts will go in MPOW's conference reports, also on Blogger. I think they'll be viewable by any--will post when I know.

A Love Match by Barbara Allister

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
I think I may be finally cured of regency romances, and this book was the one to do it. I know, what do I expect of a Signet? But really, awful character development--generic would be better. The main character was basically a spoiled ninny with pretty hair and clothes. At least this regency described the clothes a bit, but no really good words. Lots of pelisses, and that was the acme. But a NINNY! The writing was putrid, and the editing rotten. I always keep a little tally of errors--even the best books usually have one. OK, I'm crazy fussy. But this so-called book had one per page! I tortured myself and finished it, unlike countless other pulpies. It was medicine, to get me onto other things, as I should be. Not that I will never read trash again. TG. Now to break it to the Boyfriend to stop combing the donations at HPOW for regencies. I'm on to the Magician's Assistent--wish me well.


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An open love letter to Jennifer Crusie

Dear Jenny:

I can call you Jenny because a)I have know you since years B.D. (before my divorce, i.e., 1994). A beautiful young woman I once babysat told me about Getting Rid of Bradley (GRB) in a bar in downtown Watkins Glen, NY I think over Christmas break. My two beautiful grown nieces concurred: I HAD to read it.

Unbeknownst to the bevy of beauties, I had already begun to think of GRD (Getting Rid of Danny). Those of you unfamiliar with the Crusie canon, GRB is about a woman trying to break up with a boyfriend. So it was not that I wanted to kill my then husband; I was a bit worried he wanted to kill me. Turned out it would have been quicker, easier, cheaper, and tidier to have killed him. Or at least have put him in jail. But no, I was a nice woman, and I didn't want my darling, beautiful daughter to have a dad in jail. As it was, in the end, through his decisions, she didn't really have a dad.

So I was one of the many women who have turned to romance literature for fantasy and comfort. I started quite young (8?) on my grandmother's Emily Loring mass market paperbacks. But wait! I haven't gotten past a)!

b) I actually have met Jenny, and shared some laughs (see photo). I attended the Romance Writers of America librarians day in 2002, I think, in Washington DC. I always recommend that any librarian who can get to it should go. So I saw Jenny on a panel, then hung out with her at the cocktail party/literacy fundraiser. It's a treasured memory for me, though I doubt she remembers it. Up until recently, I could saw I owned every title published by Jennifer Crusie. She was one of the few authors I collected. The others are Thomas Pynchon, Sheri S. Tepper, and William Gibson--books I can reread, happily.

I was not at all pleased with Don't Look Down I didn't think I'd read another Crusie/Mayer collaboration. But once again, the cover caught my eye, and I needed something that wasn't a challenge. When I started it, the Boyfriend and I had a discussion of how Jenny was cheapening her brand (a favorite topic with us--think Harry & David corn chips or Old Navy outlet). He accused Jenny of just phoning it in. I did not think that was the case, but I worried that in reaching for a larger, different audience, she'd lost what made her fabulous. Well, the first couple of chapters were to slog, but then Agnes started cooking her sumptuous breakfasts and trying to write her food column. I started laughing. Then I marked pages. I tried to memorize some of Doyle's curses on Brenda. ("Call on the devil to save you, you limb of satan. God couldn't see you if he tried, you black-hearted whore.") I worried about the flamingos, the wedding dress, you name it.

Contrived and crazy. Anger management. The mafia goes Southern. More plots and dead bodies everywhere, plus of course, assassins. And guns. Chase scenes. Government-sanctioned killings--I didn't think we did that. It was a perfect companion for one of my bouts with insomnia. I did follow up with a good breakfast, though not one of Agnes level.

Jenny, forgive me for anything bad I have even considered. I'm so happy to have you in my life. I'll end with one more quote. "the Cranky Agnes Theory of Holiday Cooking can be summed up in two words: More Gravy."

Spell bound

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen certainly has its charms (sorry :*) The Waverlys have always been an unusual family, with peculiar gifts and a peculiar garden. Though they have lived in Bascomb, North Carolina for generations, they are outsiders.

Claire Waverly has stayed at home, quietly running a successful catering business. Her recipes incorporate flowers, and have some strange properties. Their mother abandoned Claire and her sister Sydney to the care of their grandmother. Sydney ran off when she turned eighteen, and Grandmother has died, so Claire is alone in the old family home.

A new neighbor has moved in, and ignores Claire's protective borders. He is an attractive if abstracted artist, and quickly becomes fascinated with Claire. Then Sidney returns home with her young daughter, Bay. Sidney has run away from her abusive husband, but she won't tell Claire where she's been, or anything else. Both sisters need to confront the past and the future, and the Waverly magic. The romantic subplots are a bit forced. Cousin Evanelle Waverly and her gift for giving the exactly correct gift at the time it will be needed makes up for it. It's a sweet, quaint, comfortable if not quite magical read. This was another Advance Reading Copy--thank you Random House.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick held me spellbound completely. One of my customers recommended it to me, and I trusted her without even asking questions. It is wonderful.

I was rather surprised the book weighed in at 534 pages, or roughly 2.5 lbs. On the long side for juvenile fiction, if not quite Harry Potter (is the new book classified teen again?). On page 511, Hugo says he will create an automaton that can "produce one hundred and fifty-eight different pictures, and can write...an entire book, twenty-six thousand one hundred fifty-nine words. These words." I'm not sure if that is a precise inventory of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It is mainly images--black and white--Hugo, clocks, clockworks, the station, the people he meets. It is cinematic in feel, which is quite fitting, though I don't want to give anything away... There are actual archival images interspersed with the fine, crosshatched, atmospheric closeups and pans.

The orphaned Hugo has been living with his uncle, who is the clock-keeper of a large Paris train station in the 1920s. However, the uncle has disappeared. Hugo has continued to tend the clocks, stealing food from the businesses in the station, since he doesn't know how to cash his uncle's paychecks, which continue to arrive. Hugo is fascinated by some mysterious drawings his father made in a notebook. The drawings show an elaborate machine, an automaton, like an early robot. Hugo believes if he can repair the broken automaton, it will communicate with his father. Hugo is caught stealing from a toyshop in the station. He makes friends with Isabelle, the goddaughter of the man who owns the toyshop, and they set out to solve the mystery of the notebook and the automaton. Its a wonderful escape to a Paris of magic and wonder.