Bea Turvey's Blog, page 6

My Trivial Baby

They (who?) say a girl  should never go out with anyone better-looking that her.  That the beauty in a relationship should always be the property of the woman.  Why?  Because in this shallow world a woman is first noticed by her beauty and then by all her other assets…and if she fails to possess any then it is not such a hardship.  Well, I say bollocks to that.  Beauty fades, nay, it suffers a degrading decline like a well-washed T-shirt that sags everywhere.  With men the opposite is the reverse.  Perversely, men seem to age better than women so, at some point, the man in the relationship (please excuse the fact that I am strictly referring to hetero relationships) will be better looking than the woman so the point is moot.

Well, that was a short argument.

But I haven’t quite finished.  I am in a relationship (married) to a wonderful man who, in my eyes, is quite gorgeous.  That’s the whole point, isn’t it?  My looks may be slowly melting away, like a big church candle left too long on the window ledge, but he gets more growlingly scrummy with every year that passes.  I think he put me on the window ledge out of spite!  But his primary attractions (for me) are his wit and knowledge.  He knows stuff that no-one should know; ridiculously inconsequential details about the most obscure things.  We have sat down to play Trivial Pursuit (the American version – don’t ask why we don’t possess the British version) and he knows the answers!  How?  Why?  And the General knowledge section poses no threat at all.  While our friends and I sit there for a full five minutes piecing together tattered bits of facts that we manage to pull out of our cobweb-strewn minds he takes a deep breath, pauses for a full second and then blurts out what he thinks it-might-possibly-be-but-he-could-be-wrong (he so very rarely is).  So, his knowledge (which he likes to translate as intelligence (and we have argued about the difference) is a very big pull for me.  It is a huge turn-on – second of my big five.  He is also funny - numero uno of my big five.  I’ll give you an example:  He was walking through airport security behind a pilot who was pulling a wheeled suitcase.  One of the wheels fell off.  Without a blink my husband walked by with the comment, ‘let’s hope that only happens to you once today.’  I want that wit.  I want the heroes in my books to have that wit.  He kills me with comments like that.  At the Global Village festival in Dubai one year we were about to enter the Palestinian ‘village’, literally walking through the archway, when he leant down and whispered, ‘whatever you do don’t say shalom.’  Aaargh!  I had to keep my mouth clamped shut and run round the stalls.

So, I am pretty lucky in my choice of husband.  I hope he never reads this or he’ll print it off and keep it tucked away alongside the declaration he made me write out the one and only time he won Monopoly, claiming him to be the King of Monopoly.  Okay, maybe he is intelligent (either that or I’m particularly stupid).

‘Love sees not with the eyes but the mind…’     William Shakespeare

Filed under: New Author Tagged: attraction, beauty, intelligence, my husband, wit

Cathartic Reads

If you’re reading this without the right glasses on please let me clarify – cathartic, NOT catheter, so if you’re expecting some fascinating insight into the literary world of all things urinary please know that disappointment will follow.

As many of you are aware I am a librarian and not only do I have access to some fabulous books but I spend huge amounts of time doing nothing but talking books to teenagers and staff.  I was telling a friend of mine a story:

New 14-year-old arrives at school, very pretty with a surly, apathetic St Trinian’s attitude.  Doesn’t want to read, hates reading, I already know how to read so what’s the point Miss, blah, blah, blah…  Well, after engaging her in a verbal headlock she left with a book, albeit grumbling and adamant she wasn’t going to read it, but she was holding the book!  Yay me!  [boxing ring victory punch]

Two weeks later – that’s right, not later that day, not the next day or the week after, but the two whole weeks later – she returned with the book.  It hadn’t been ripped or recovered with mouldy sandwich.  I caught her eye as she stood in the queue and there was a definite gleam there.  She was sucking in her lips and jiggling.  To me it really looked like she just wanted to throw the book down and get away as fast as those jiggly legs could take her.  But no.  When it was her turn she held out the book and…smiled.  Grinned.

‘I’ve come to return my book.’

‘And…’ a mixture of confusion, hopefulness and trepidation in my voice, ‘what did you think about it!’

‘Yeah, I really liked it.’

We librarians are taught not to faint at the first signs of joy (like doctors and blood), so I kept my cool and immediately launched into strike two.

‘Would you like to read the one that comes immediately after that?’

‘Oh no.’

My joy faltered but I rallied the positive vibes.  ‘Well, let’s go and find another.’  Before I could ask her what she enjoyed most about the book she was beaming again.

‘No need.  My mum’s already bought me the next in the series.’

Yes, yes, yes!!!  I asked her what her mum had said when she’d seen her reading the book: ‘She couldn’t believe it but she was dead chuffed.  I didn’t ask her to buy me the book, she just went ahead and did it.’  Then came the my-work-here-is-done moment.  ‘Miss, thank you so much for making me take the book out and read it.’

As you know we can’t make them read the books, but if we can just get them to dip a toe into the right volume then maybe they’ll jump.  This young girl’s mother is so pleased to see her daughter with a book in her hands that they’re a constant presence in the local bookshop, which means she rarely comes into the library.  I know mum’ll have a kindle-shining moment in the not too distant future and that’ll mean bye-bye St Trinian’s convert but it really doesn’t matter because I have seen this girl and her friends talking excitedly about new releases, seen them ogling the ‘coming soon’ board and seen them reading.

Get rid of school libraries and librarians?  Pfft!  The knock on effects of that one book will reach far.

That, Dear Readers, was my big moment of 2013.  Don’t you just love them?

So where is the cathartic factor?  Well, actually I haven’t got there yet, although it refers back to this girl and her friends.  I like to ask the kids what they enjoyed most about the book they read.  Many of the boys will speak about it clinically while the girls tend to speak emotively.  Shall I explain?  Boys will tend to say things like: I liked the adventure; the way he describes the zombies; that bit where the dragon…; all the jokes; the pictures…

Whereas girls: it made me sad; it made me laugh; I thought it was funny; it made me cry; how scary it was…; the pace just kept me glued.

I’m not saying it’s true in all cases but one thing that has cropped up more and more, especially with teen girls, is that they love a good cry or a good laugh – excesive emotion.  A Child Called It has been on the ‘must read’ list for a while now and I have requests for books like Room, Ugly, My Left Foot, Angela’s Ashes, etc.  In fact we’ll be receiving a  nice little parcel of Jodi Picoults next week.

But why do we women like weepies?  Personally, I adore them…romances with heart-rending conflicts really hit my buttons and I give you the likes of Beautiful Disaster, Crossfire, Find you In The dark, Hopeless and good ol’ FSOG as some of last year’s faves.  So, crying and that ‘bluesy’ feeling – when you’re in public a few tears will invoke empathy and you will receive hugs and sympathetic murmurs galore.  But in private?  Well, if you are truly grief-stricken then it does have a weird way of releasing emotion that might otherwise effervesce inside of you and  erupt at the most god-awful moment.  But to voluntarily sit down, grab a box of tissues and put on Titanic or Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares To You, or pull out Hopeless seems a trifle bizarre.  Is it a practise thing?  Do we need to learn how to expel these emotions?  Or is it the act of expulsion that’s important, like the whistle blowing on a pressure cooker.  Remember reading about hysteria in the 1800s?  In those days a bit of gentle  manipulation in the right area by a competent doctor (I kid you not) would remove the excessive emotions caused by overactive hormones; in fact, I recommend you watch the film Hysteria - spinsters, this is your cue to send another posthumous Thank You to Mr Granville for such a marvellous invention.  But that’s not quite it either.  There is one widely discussed argument that a good cry makes us feel better because it helps us re-evaluate the important things in life; makes us realise how lucky we are.  Hmmm, nope.  Not buying that one either because I don’t finish a book like Hopeless and think ‘Oh, my life is so much better’.

Personally, I believe a good ol’ cry links directly to the emotional centre that makes me feel good. The good feelings you get with first dates, first kisses, romantic evenings (& nights) with your guy (or gal), whizzing round a rollercoaster (without the sick feeling), watching your kids go crazy happy…see where I’m going with this?  Instant emotional highs (which look like lows because of all the crying).

So cathartic?  Yes.  Enervating?  Yes.  Elevating?  Definitely.  Will guys ever get it?  Unlikely.  But then, they are from Mars…shame it’s not the chocolate manufacturer.  And that’s a whole other post waiting to be written.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: Books, crying, library, pleasure, reading

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman – review

Why not 5 stars?  Actually I was thinking 3.4 because I really dislike books where everything is so different you end up spend half the time trying to keep up with what amounts almost to a new language.  That is my huge bug-bear for this book.  Everything has weird names, from the characters to the lands to the species (yes, plural), the forms of government, titles, even body parts.  It dissolved a lot of the pleasure for me. The romance in this book is very much like skimming cream-off-the-top-of-milk, barely there and lacking in everything – intensity, passion, obsession, focus, desire…need I go on?  The story: Dragons and humans have lived peacefully for nearly half a century.  Seraphina was brought up by her Uncle (her father remarried and has a new family).  She has imaginary friends – well, an imaginary garden populated by people she has to keep in line – who give her debilitating headaches.  She has just secured a position as assistant to the royal musician.  The princess, one of her pupils, quickly becomes a friend as does the bastard prince (who also heads the Queen’s guards) when there is an assassination that could threaten the peace treaty. But there is more to Seraphina than meets the eye and while she and her friends try to unravel the mystery behind the murder she does everything in her power to keep her secret intact. If you’re a fan of fantasy worlds (like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld) then this might appeal to you. For myself I am wondering why I didn’t give up halfway through – and that is why I gave it so many stars because it did manage to keep my attention.

Addendum: I am now looking for other novels featuring dragons so this book has met a critical directive: create enthusiasm.  Move over angels, dragons have flown in!

Filed under: New Author Tagged: dragons, Rachel Hartman, review, Seraphina

Daughter of Smoke and Bone review

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8490112-daughter-of-smoke-bone

I was blown away by this book.  The poetic phrases, the subtle philosophy, prejudices, romance, rebirth/reincarnation and past lives, angels, conflict, war and…Prague, beautiful, wonderous, romantic Prague.

It is different to other paranormal books yet the same in many ways.  The difference is in the writing and the identity of the characters, the seemingly unpainted effusiveness of their flaws and ‘otherness’.  The main character is witty and friendly and talented and self-possessed yet retains all the cheeky selfishness of a teenager – desperate for knowledge, desperate for love and family and normality, desperate to fit into a world she doesn’t understand and that cannot understand her.

The hero – ah, what can we say except he is beautiful.  Not just in looks but beautifully angry and beautifully obsessed with ‘the one’.

When he first sees her he tries to kill her, despite the way she makes his blood rush and don’t we just love that?  The guilt from this one act is sweet and colours everything he feels.

Oh, read it and fall in love with the author – with the way she can overwhelm you with prose.  Rediscover that heady feeling of euphoria great phrases instil.

Thank you Ms Taylor.  You made my evening.





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Filed under: New Author Tagged: Daughter of smoke and bone, Laini Taylor, Reviews

Clock Watching

Normally I’m a very patient person.  I’m quite happy to wait in queues, look around and observe what everyone else is doing, make up various scenarios in my mind of why/who/what/when about their lives; that is, if I’m not reading.  I read at the dentist’s, doctor’s, bus/train stations, airport…anywhere I can sit down or slouch against a wall under cover.

However, when it comes to books I want it NOW!  Bonnie Langford Thkweamingly bad NOW! Mark my menses on the calendar? Phffth;  Birthdays? If I can remember them; Anniversaries?  See birthdays; Holidays?  Okay, maybe that one.  But the biggest praying-for-the-days-to-pass-quickly dates that highlight my calendar are the ones that denote the next instalment to a particularly juicy series.

So, in light of the last nail-biting wait (Beaneath This Man) where I was close to having a fit, I thought I’d share some of the items on my precious date list with you:

Expected   date
Title
Series #
Author


29 January 2013
Prodigy
Legend #2
Marie Lu


05 February 2013
Scarlet
Lunar #2
Merissa Meyer


26 February 2013
Never Too Far
Fallen too Far #2
Abbi Glines


19 March 2013
City of Heavenly Fire
City of Bones #6
Cassandra Clare


19 March 2013
Clockwork Princess
Infernal Devices #3
Cassandra Clare


26 March 2013
Angelop[olis
Angelology #2
Danielle Trussoni


09 April 2013
Apollyon
Covenant #4
J Armentrout


23 April 2013
Natural Born
Immortal City #2
Scott Speer


30 April 2013
Sweet Peril
Sweet Evil #2
Wendy Higgins


07 May 2013
Entwined with You
Crossfire #3
Sylvia Day


28 May 2013
Goddess
Starcrossed #3
Josephine Angelini


unknown
Untitled
Divergent #3
Veronica Roth


unknown
Out of Breath
Breathing #3
Rebecca Donovan


unknown
Origin
Lux #4
J Armentrout


unknown
Convicted
Consequences #3
Althea Romig


unknown
?
Penryn and the End of Days #2
Susan Ee


unknown
?
Penryn and the End of Days #3
Susan Ee


unknown
Light In The Shadows
Find You In the Dark #2
A Walters


unknown
This Girl
Slammed #3
Colleen Hoover




Filed under: New Author Tagged: Books, crossfire, publishing date, reading, Scott Speer, series, starcrossed, This Man

Beneath This Man (This Man #2) Review

Sexy Reading

Thank you,thank you, thank you, Jodi! First: Thanks for not making us wait a whole year for the second installment, thank you for the story and the wicked romance, thank you for mentioning David Kimmerle to help us appreciate how steaming hot Jesse is and thank you for filling my head and thoughts with such a captivating trilogy.

Second: The music tracks picked are fabulous. I especially enjoyed Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks and am, in fact, listening to it as I write this!

Third: This books hits so many of my chocolicious buttons – romance, obsession, compulsions, volcanic emotions and sex, denial, angst, twists, turns and big reveals, the bitchy ‘other woman’ he totally ignores, a disturbed psyche that only her tender embrace can soothe… Jodi, you could have written this book just for me.

Story: If you haven’t read This Man (TM) then DO THAT FIRST! Beneath This Man (BTM) continues from the cliff we were left hanging off (by the fingernails, I might add) and yes, you guessed it, Jesse and Ava do meet again. There will be enough reviews out there with spoilers so I shan’t go down that route. What I will say is that several of things that were glanced upon in TM are revealed in their entirety (unless the final book tells us more?) in BTM - such as Jesse’s absence for those four days (!!!), his drinking and those damned pills! We also get up close and personal with the Manor. The things we loved about Jesse and Ava in TM are amped up by their words and behaviour in BTM.

The secondary characters are really great and I really liked the way small things, such as Ava’s observation of Sally’s attire, reveals more about Ava’s character. That is real show and tell character development.

My only gripe is editing, mainly punctuation and grammar – ‘hadn’t of took’ instead of ‘hadn’t taken’. Silly simple things, but for the

sake of time (getting that book posted on Amazon by the deadline), I don’t particularly care. The story overwhelms what, in other books, would have me gritting my teeth and ruining the experience.

Read it – just bloody read it! – if you are a fan of FSOG, BD and Crossfire; you won’t be disappointed.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: Beneath This Man, Jodi Eleen Malpas, review, This Man

Atlas Shrugged [review]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A friend recommended this book and it was a revelation.
I was blown away by so many things – the characters, the plot, the philosophy, the insightfulness… I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether you enjoy art, social literature, romance, controlled society (dystopian) novels, detective/mystery/thrillers…
Although there are a lot of characters the basic storyline is fairly straightforward where an industrialist tries to produce the best product to supply the railroad industry. That is the basic story. The subplots and sub-subplots are as twisted and perverse as the characters, the government and the society the book is set in.
Read it. Just…read it!

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Filed under: New Author Tagged: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Reviews

Shamefully Hooked

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Pride cometh before a fall.  In this case it was a personal fall – not huge in other people’s view but in my own personal world it was important enough to rate an entry into this, let’s face it, less-than-regular blog.

Last weekend (actually it was now two months ago!) I took my son to Legoland.  Halloween and November the 5th had stretched his imagination and excitement levels to the point where I had to get him somewhere spacious so he could squeal his high-energy-filled excitement through the tortuous twists and turns of sickening roller coaster rides.  We were there, ostensibly, for the rides but I knew his modus operandii: a clever trick to inveigle me into buying him some horrendously over-priced Lego construction.  It worked.  He spent an inordinate amount of time oohing and aahing over boxes of the stuff while I nodded fake-enthusiastically, stiff-smile in place.  As we went to pay for the box he clutched lovingly - as though afraid I’d change my mind and rip it from his arms – there was a lady demonstrating the wonders of 3D glasses.  My son and I looked at each other in confusion.  Had we missed something momentous?  A special film in the Lego theatre?  Perhaps a slide-show in the Star Wars display area – No! Don’t let it be so!  We listened to her spiel and read the fantastic poster extolling the wonders of the cheap plastic and cardboard eye-wear.  Apparently the glasses would transform that evening’s firework display into something truly spectacular.  3D fireworks!  And only for £1.50!  A bargain.  We both tried on a pair and gazed at the overhead lights, hoping it might give us an approximation of the wonders that would be revealed to us if we were to go ahead and use these truly innovative sight-altering occulars.  The light from the small ceiling bulbs scattered and diffused into something eerie; my son was convinced each light changed to a Lego brick!

As it happens we didn’t buy any new eye-wear but I was laughing with my friends over the gullibility of some people who actually thought it would make the firework extravaganza better.  After all it smeared and shattered the light in a bizarre fashion so, if anything, it made the lights look horrible.  My friend laughed and said something along the lines of: ’3D?  That’s unbelievable.  Fab gimmick if you’re idiotic enough to think 3D glasses will make it even more real!”

My brain stumbled over the kicking I mentally gave it and my (obviously) shoe-size-IQ deflated further in shame.  I’d been had.  Thank God I hadn’t actually bought a pair!

Filed under: New Author Tagged: 3D glasses, fireworks, Lego

Damiano’s Return by Lynne Graham

5">5 of 5 stars

Far and away my all-time favourite M&B/Harlequin romance and I can’t quite put my finger on why that should be.  Is it the Cinderella factor?  The second chance?  The reunion?  The amazing chemistry and his swoon-worthy obsession of her, which even five years of absence couldn’t dilute?  Oh yes, definitely that last one. 

Perhaps it is little formulaic when it comes to characterisation but then it is a M&B romance, and I like my romances the way I like my chocolate – smooth and creamy.  You can keep your ‘sun-ripened tangerine with a hint of chilli’ and I’ll sit down with my Cadbury’s Whole nut and rejoice in another opportunity to have my heart wrenched and my tear ducts drained. 

I think I must have read this at least ten times.

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Filed under: New Author Tagged: Lynne Graham, review, romance

Truth (Consequences #2)

Truth by Aleatha Romig

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

****This review contains spoilers****
I intended to wait until at least February before reading part two, but I just couldn’t do it. The thought of it kept me awake.
I am so conflicted about this book. I enjoyed it, truly I did, but the characters…
Like many other reviewers Claire infuriated me with her willingness to brush everything under the carpet (compartmentalizing)- he is a murderer for Heaven’s sake who manipulated her, left her in prison and took away everything! Also, the ridiculous situations she puts herself in even as she thinks ‘I really ought not to be doing this’ makes you think of a confused teenager rather than the mature woman who first left prison. Then there are the constant contradictions – she is so thankful of her support network – the friends she has – so why does she then then ignore everything she has told them (and herself) and turn her back on their advice when she was the one that got them so riled in the first place? I really began to feel Harry was well shot of her, but his input was crucial if only because it showed her how a proper relationship should be conducted…and then she went and ignored that lesson too. I get it – she likes Tony, loves him, and the heart will not be swayed but I was as ready as Emily to scream at her.
Loved the Burkes – it was nice to have some down-to-earth hearts and flowers dedication.
Finally, why, oh why didn’t she call and tell Meredith and Emily that Tony DID NOT abduct her again. I don’t understand.
The twists were great. I really enjoy it when I cannot work things out in a book so thank you for that.
Now, I can’t sleep at night for trying to work out the rest of the plots and twists. But that’s not a bad thing.
This book will make you grit your teeth at times but it will also keep you glued to the very last fullstop.

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Filed under: New Author Tagged: consequences, review, Truth