Books and Movies

So, if I counted correctly (I wish my blog numbered comments!), here are the winners:

#57 - Ashley, who wins her first choice of Islands of Divine Music

#1 - Ladytink, who wins her first choice of Blindspot

#6 - Seandonland, who wins their second choice of Dirt

#32 - Audrey, who didn’t post her choices, and so wins Company of Liars

But, I digress. LadyTink is spreading her fairy dust around, and has given me the “You’re Tink Approved!” Award. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Ladytink at both her personal blog and through her book and movie reviews at The Movieholic and Bibliophiles Blog.

Fleur Fisher awarded me the Let’s Be Friends Award. Fleur Fisher Reads is another blog that I am so grateful to have found. Fleur writes wonderful and insightful book reviews, and has pointed me toward some brilliant short stories as well.

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Here are my eight nominees. Be sure to check out their blogs - they’re all terrific!

Most of you know the plot of Outlander: Claire Randall, a married nurse, is on a holiday with her husband Frank, trying to reconnect after years of separation during WW II. They are vacationing in Scotland when Claire discovers a circle of standing stones, a henge. Claire disappears through the stones, arriving in Scotland two hundred years earlier, a couple years before the Scottish Uprising and the devastating battle of Culloden.

Claire is found by the ruthless MacKenzie clan, and is given in marriage to young Jamie Frasier, a man wanted for murder. Claire, who loves her husband Frank, finds herself falling for her new husband. The love Claire experiences with Jamie completely outshines and overshadows the relationship she had with Frank, and when faced with the opportunity to return to her own time, Claire opts to remain with Jamie. She is then faced with the question of what she should do with the knowledge she possesses - especially when some of her kinsman-by-marriage will most likely be involved in The Uprising.

I enjoyed Outlander very much, even having read the book several times before. Because Ms. Gabaldon takes so many years before putting out another book in the series, I have re-read them all several times so that I’m not lost. These books are monstrously long, and the plot threads are intricately woven with many people and details.

The first time I read the book, I would have rated it five stars. This time, I find myself reluctant to give it that highest rating, and I’m not quite sure why. Part of it is the length, I think. While I appreciate the fine details and descriptions that place you into the story, I think that some of the day-to-day minutiae could have been eliminated, making for a better paced book.

Also, when I read the book, I skimmed over some of the more explicit love scenes. That is very hard to do when listening to the book on audio - I fast-forwarded some, but it was hard to figure out when that specific scene ended and another scene began. I found myself wishing that Gabaldon had shown a little more restraint in those scenes, simply because I would love to recommend the series to certain readers, but I know they would be put off by the explicitness.

I checked out Dragonfly in Amber on audiobook from the library, and will be starting it soon, after a quick detour into Stephanie Plum-land.

~ Over at Conversational Reading, a discussion about gimmicky author or book web sites, as opposed to straight journals and information-driven sites like Neil Gaiman’s. What do you think?

~ The Washington Post is getting rid of its print edition of Book World.

~ Neil Jordan, director of Interview with a Vampire, is set to direct the film version of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

I honestly don’t know what it is about the fiction in The New Yorker. I think the people who choose the short stories for publication are either depressed, or think that to be good and literary, a short story must be sad and hopeless. This story is about a marriage falling apart. It didn’t make me want to look up any of the author’s other works.

Title: The Shell Collector
Author: Anthony Doerr
Source: The Shell Collector: Stories by Anthony Doerr
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Anthony Doerr is a new author to me. I purchased this book in a used book store while on vacation last summer, and picked it up on a whim a couple nights ago. The first story in the collection has me extremely excited to read the rest of the offerings in this slim book.

The shell collector is a blind man living on the African coast. He supports himself by collecting the rare and beautiful shells that he finds completely by touch. When his lover is stung by a rare cone shell and claims to be healed of her depression and health issues, the shell collector is overwhelmed by the sick and the thrill-seeking, looking to be stung. The writing is lyrical, the descriptions extremely lovely, and the character draws you in. Highly recommended.

The ophthalmologist knew the boy was blind as soon as he walked through the door, one hand clinging to his father’s belt, the other arm held straight, palm out, to stiff-arm obstacles. Rather than examine him - what was left to examine? - the doctor ushered him into his office, pulled off the boy’s shoes and walked him out the back door down a sandy lane onto a spit of beach. The boy had never seen sea and he struggled to absorb it: the blurs that were waves, the smears that were weeds strung over the tideline, the smudged yolk of sun. The doctor showed him a kelp bulb, let him break it in his hands and scrape its interior with his thumb. There were many such discoveries: a small horseshoe crab mounting a larger one in the wavebreak, a fistful of mussels clinging to the damp underside of rock. But it was wading ankle deep, when his toes came upon a small round shell, no longer than a segment of his thumb, that the boy truly was changed. His fingers dug the shell up, he felt the sleek egg of its body, the toothy gap of its aperture. It was the most elegant thing he’d ever held.

Cry of Justice by Jason Pratt

The voices must be beginning now. Her troops would dress her in a long-sleeve shirt, tie the sleeves behind her back, and haul her in a wagon looking for an honorable way to be rid of her - feeding her until then with a long and cautious spoon.

If you post your teaser, be sure to leave a link at Should Be Reading.

Since I haven’t started the above book, I’m still traveling through the Holy Land with Sherlock Holmes (O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King). I’m dressed as an teenaged Arab boy, and trying to learn enough Arab quickly to get by without drawing attention to myself.

For this award, I am to name five things I am addicted to, and then pass the award on to five bloggers.

My addictions:

1. Books. I know - shocker.

2. Coffee. I’m not supposed to drink it anymore, but….

3. Gilmore Girls - I never watched it when it was airing, but I am rapidly making up for that. I just started Season 3.

4. British men. Not in real life, just in movies. Sandy only named one actor on her addiction list, but if he’s British, Scottish, Australian, or Irish and good-looking and talented - I am so addicted. Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Clive Owen, Colin Firth…

5. Facebook. I am having so much fun re-connecting with old friends from high school and college.

My nominations:

1. Sheri at A Novel Menagerie - she has funny posts, great memes, and has motivated me to start posting more about movies.

2. Eva at A Striped Armchair - I’ve been enjoying her 100 Shots of Short lately.

3. Stacy at Book Psmith - her blog is relatively new to me, but I’m loving her bookish insights. And, she already finished her Essay Challenge list!

4. Lilly at Reading Extravaganza - she is a thoughtful comment-er here at Books and Movies, and I love her book recommendations - my wish list has grown by many titles due to her reviews.