FOUR MONTHS?!

Four months! That is how long it’s been since I last blogged on the old Leaf. It still says I’m reading The Dovekeepers, which I actually never started! I suppose that’s what happens when your baby becomes a toddler. But more importantly, in the last four months I’ve read both the Hunger Games AND the Game of Thrones series and I AM LOST as to what to read next. I tried Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger but couldn’t get into it. I whipped through Alter of Eden by James Rollins thinking a good adventure would get me back in the spirit, but I’ve finished and still stand at a loss in front of my bookcase. I picked up the copy of The Lost Hours by Karen White which I’ve had on my shelves forever, and the writing is horrendously annoying and first-persony and far-too-introspective as she sits waiting for tears to come over her grandfathers death. Seriously, three times in the first chapter she pauses to see if perhaps THIS will be the moment she grieves, but alas, she stands dry-eyed.

So, what does one DO after they’ve read such a HUGE series as the Game of Thrones? Good heavens, please help me find something to read because I’m miserable! I need something GOOD, and preferably BIG, and would love a series that I can dive into that will last me forever. Suggestions, please? Give me something I haven’t heard of!

THE GALVESTON CHRONICLES by Audra Martin D’Aroma

Hi Friends! I know it’s been forever since I last posted something of real bookish value on here, but I assure you my absence has not been wasted. I’m oh-so-thrilled to let you know that Rozlyn Press’s second novel has officially been released!

Buy your copy now at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or request a copy from your local independent bookstore!

 

In the stifling days before the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Isadora Khaled dreams of catfish and murdering her daughter, setting off a chain of events that will not be resolved until Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The descendents of Isadora are defined by and eventually named after the hurricanes that shape their lives: Fatima, who enters into a doomed relationship with a visiting artist in 1961; her drug-numbed daughter Carla, desperate to get home in 1983; and Carla’s daughter Alicia, reunited with her heritage on a modern island embracing disaster culture in 2008.

An epic tale, The Galveston Chronicles holds a mirror to the transformation of an unforgettable island, looking at the Gulf Coast region through the eyes of these women in the days preceding and following Galveston’s major hurricanes.

 

Quickies and the Christmas List!

Book #2 is mid-edit/mid-design right now for Rozlyn Press, which explains the lack of postings happening on ye old Leaf. The Galveston Chronicles is going to be amazing, though, and my absence here will make up for itself when you read Audra Martin D’Aroma’s debut. Trust me, you will love it. (Visit TGC’s page at Rozlyn Press)

I haven’t been not-reading though, I mean seriously, when would I ever stop? In the last few months the most recent books I’ve read were The Magicians by Lev Grossman and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri,

The Magicians is The Chronicles of Narnia meets Harry Potter with some adult content sprinkled in. Really fun, really speedy. The lack of complete detail makes the book seem to fly by. In just over 200 pages Quentin had been accepted into a magical school, gone through all four years, and graduated. And although Grossman clearly borrows from other magically themed books, his additional plot points and characters are original enough for me to forgive his obvious references to Narnia, the White Witch, the Pevensie children, and all things Hogwarts. If you like those, you’ll like this. I’m very much hoping I receive the sequel for Christmas. (4 stars)

The Namesake is a coming-of-age story about the Ganguli family and their transition from a traditional Indian family to a more-Americanized version of themselves. Gogol Ganguli is born and raised in America but his parents stick with their home’s traditions. As he grows, Gogol fights the expectations of his parents and rebels to create a modern version of himself, away from his Indian heritage. It is a beautiful and at time tragic story of a boy growing into a man, struggling to find himself. The writing is smooth and fluid, and we really come to empathize with Gogol, understanding the reasons for the paths he chooses, but knowing it will not end happily for him we must wait and watch Lahiri’s plot unfold. Definitely recommended. (4 stars)

And for fun, these are the books on my 2011 Christmas List:

 

 

 

 

 

Hoping Santa brings me at least a couple of these readable goodies!

P.S. Who’s the cool kid now, y’all. My quirkily-unique name is all the rage in Book 3 of the Game of Thrones series. Yeah, yeah! Alayne in the house!

Peter Pan, Chapter 6 & 7 – Fairies do what?

Avery’s on the tail end of her cold so we were able to resume Peter Pan yesterday. A week or so ago we read Chapter 6 which involved the Lost Boys building a house for Wendy to recuperate in after she was shot by one of them when Tink said she was evil. Nasty, Tink. Peter Pan sits outside after the house is built keeping guard as fairies fly by on their way back from an orgy. Yup, orgy. That’s in the book, not my addition. I know back in the day an orgy is just a party (or is it?) but really? I can just see Avery now on her birthday: “Yay! An orgy!”

Chapter 7 is short and a bit dull. Wendy, John, Michael, and all the Lost Boys move back down into the underground house via hollow trees made especially for them. Everyone’s snug-as-a-bug and Wendy darns some socks and plays Mother-dearest while the boys slumber. Lots of description, lots of detail of Tinker Bell’s fashionable nook in the wall. Lots of classic language referencing designers and things I’ve no idea about.

To be frank, I’m bored to tears of this book and ready to give up, but, as my husband reminded me, I shouldn’t teach Avery to be a quitter. So we’ll persevere, though I’d rather be reading The Chronicles of Narnia. Them’s the good stuff.

Rozlyn Press Call for Submissions

My small press is at it again, folks. We’re open for submissions of unpublished manuscripts by female fiction novelists. Visit the SUBMISSIONS page for the details. Spread the word and post this on your page!

Peter Pan, Chapter 5 – An island full of hooligans.

“They are forbidden by Peter to look in the least like him, and they wear the skins of the bears slain by themselves, in which they are so round and furry that when they fall they roll. They have therefore become very sure-footed.”
Peter Pan, Chapter 5

Mother-daughter reading of Peter Pan resumed last night, much to Avery’s joy (if by joy I mean utter indifference followed by a nap).

We’re on the island now, and most of chapter five deals with the inhabitants of the Neverland. The lost boys are looking for Peter, the pirates are looking for the lost boys, the redskins are looking for the pirates, the beasts are looking for the redskins, and so on, ad infinitum. Sprinkle in some scary stories about Hook’s hook, and pirate adventures. End with a tragic weeping from the sky, “poor Wendy,” followed by AN ARROW TO THE BOSOM of poor Wendy all thanks to the cantankerous Tink. A sweet feminine fairy she is not, more like a spiteful banshee.

Things are starting to pick up now. We see the burgeoning roots of Hook’s animosity toward Peter, and I had forgotten about the silly crocodile with the tick-tocker in her belly who wants to eat Hook. Lots of childlike suspense in this chapter, what will become of our dear, poor Wendy?

Q&A with Audra Martin D’Aroma

Visit this here website to read a fun Q&A with Audra Martin D’Aroma, author of Rozlyn Press’s upcoming 2012 release, The Galveston Chronicles.

Peter Pan: Chapter 4 – The Psychedelic One

Little Miss Avery was awake for all of Chapter 4 last night, so now in her tiny three-month-old spongy brain she undoubtedly thinks that she’ll be able to fly someday, and survive doing so by taking food from the mouths of birds and manage sleeping while floating on her back. That’s Chapter 4 of Peter Pan in a nutshell. Peter and the kids have flown the coop, literally, and are on their way to the Neverland where they are greeted by PIRATES and so cannot land. When said pirates start shooting at them they scatter and are separated. Poor Wendy is left with Tink, who is furiously jealous of Peter’s attentions toward Wendy (don’t forget, they thimbled in Chapter 3), and so Tink leads Wendy to her doooom, which we will uncover in Chapter 5.

Far less depressing, Chapter 4. A bit trippy instead. Reads like a drug-induced hallucination. Not that I would know.

This picture is from my favorite version of Peter Pan, the 1960 movie starring Mary Martin. Somehow this is the one I was raised on in the 80s and I’m fiercely loyal to my childhood favorites (1985 mini-series of Alice in Wonderland as another example).

Peter Pan: Chapter 3 – Where Wendy becomes a floozy.

Chapter 3 is the lightest installment of Peter Pan thus far, not nearly as macabre or melancholy. Peter comes back to the nursery in search of his shadow. Accompanying him is Tink, a fairy with a lovely figure, I believe the exact word Barrie chose was embonpoint meaning a full, fleshy, curvy bosom. (Dirty old man, Barrie!)

While rooting around for his shadow, finding it, and attempting to attach it back to his person with soap, Peter awakens Wendy and–being the smart lady she is–she determines she can sew Peter’s shadow back on his body. Kneedlepoint ensues, after which, sitting next to Peter on her bed, Wendy tells Peter he may kiss her, if he likes. He doesn’t know what a kiss is, so Wendy shows him, calling it a thimble, and they thimble a few times after that.

I tell you, if Wendy were my daughter I’d ask her just what she was thinking by thimbling a boy who crawled in her window in the middle of the night. Instant grounding, that, and wait till your father finds out. Seriously though, I know there’s some history with Barrie and children and speculation of general creepiness. I certainly hope it’s not true, but I have doubts that this book should be read by young children.

Luckily, Avery was asleep the whole length of Chapter 3, so she won’t get any ideas about sneaking boys into her room.

Peter Pan: Chapter 2

Last night’s reading of Peter Pan went slightly better than the previous, although this is likely because I was more prepared for how depressing of a book it is. Chapter 2 begins with Peter’s shadow getting trapped in the nursery when he jumps out the window, and Mrs. Darling keeping it and trying to find a time to tell Mr. Darling about it. A week later the opportunity presents itself on the evening of a party. Looking back on that night, Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana sit talking about how much they miss the children who, I think, have been taken to Neverland. The story of that night, and how Mr. Darling tricks Michael into taking his medicine, is awful. Mr. Darling pretends to be brave and his children goad him into taking his medicine to prove to Michael that it’s easy; except Mr. Darling only pretends to take it, and the children catch him. In an attempt to deflect, he pours the medicine into Nana’s bowl and tricks her into drinking it. When the children gang up on Mr. Darling for being a real asshat, he drags Nana from the house and chains her up outside. Mr. and Mrs. Darling leave for the party, and this is presumably when Peter Pan comes back for his shadow and whisks the children off to Neverland, only I can’t be sure since that’s in Chapter 3 which we’ll get to tonight.

Slightly less toxic, but still depressing. Mr. Darling is quite a weak man, pressured into tricking his children and then taking his anger at his own deficiencies out on poor Nana. Avery seemed to enjoy it, though she did nod off toward the end. 

But unfortunately Mrs. Darling could not leave it hanging out at the window, it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the house. She thought of showing it to Mr. Darling, but he was totting up winter great-coats for John and Michael, with a wet towel around his head to keep his brain clear, and it seemed a shame to trouble him; besides, she knew exactly what he would say: “It all comes of having a dog for a nurse.” (10)