Miss Read et al

Thanks for thoughts on Miss Read - they seem to be overwhelmingly positive, so I shall have to un-neglect this author! I always had her down as quite bad romance, but that was based on the covers seen in my local library - I was rather taken with the covers on the ones I bought. So I might read on and make my judgement on something more literary... the two which I have to sample are Miss Clare Remembers and Gossip from Thrush Green, which seem to be from vaguely the beginning and end of Miss Read's writing career respectively.

These were called comfort reads by a few of you - we were chatting about comfort reads at Book Group last week, and two people there didn't really understand the concept, and thought they'd probably never re-read a book... gosh! I don't re-read much (though have done more this year than usual) but some comfort reads are essential for me.

What else did I buy? Against my better judgement, a book by Jeremy Paxman, who irritates me a great deal - but The English was mentioned so often with fondness in Kate Fox's excellent Watching the English (my thoughts on it here), and seems to attempt a similar thing. Hopefully his writing isn't anything like his presenting/reporting... But it's non-fiction, so that will please Our Vicar (Dad, I've read 28 non-fiction books this year! Proud of me?) Also related to one of my 50 Books... is David Garnett's Aspects of Love: I was in the book shop and toying with spending £3 on a secondhand copy, then saw that there was another copy a few books away for £1.50. I love it when that happens. And I bought it, and read quite a lot of it on the train home - not up to Lady Into Fox, and rather hurried... I daresay I'll write about it soon.

And to finish with, Richard Yates' excellent novel Revolutionary Road - we had a class on this on Friday, and I read a library copy, so am delighted to have a copy of it myself. Will doubtless blog about Revolutionary Road soon too - I've been finishing so many books recently that I'll be able to fill days and days with them! Then again, sometimes there are so many that I forget... I never did blog about Passage to India, and now I can't remember much about it. So I'd better get onto these soon...

But for now, bed. With Miss Buncle's Book, the latest Persephone title.


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Book Notes: Viragos

 

If things look a little different here, it's because Typepad has changed "platforms" and I was migrated to the new one last night.  Right now it is very, very strange to work in.  I think it's going to take some getting used to on my end, as I had no idea this was coming.  I guess I really should read the Typepad blog more often?  Are there other Typepad subscribers out there who have already been switched?  And does it make more sense as you use it?

Anyway, on to bookish business.  I belong to several discussion groups in Library Thing, including a Virago Modern Classics group.  I tend to be more of a lurker than anything else, but I was contacted about a Secret Santa sort of opportunity a few weeks ago.  I was very tempted to join in, but in the end I decided to sit this one out.  Now I am feeling a little regretful as there are all sort of fun discussion threads about the exchange. 

I've not picked up a new Virago since I finished Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann.  My intentions are good, but my current reads pile is a little too large still.  Not that that stops me from thinking about what I would like to read eventually.  Actually what I was mostly contemplating was the fact that I really wish I had a bookscase to devote just to my Viragos and Persephones, but I can't imagine where I would put it.  Or I could reorganize the bookcases I already have, but that's a job for when I have time off from work.  They just look so undignified in their current unwieldy piles.

Feeling a little disappointed that I am not part of the Secret Santa fun, instead I have thought perhaps it is time to a purchase a few new (well, used actually) Viragos.  The thing with buying "unknown" Viragos is you never really know what you're getting unless you happen to be familiar with an author and their work.  Often I will order a title on the assumption that I will like whatever I order (whether I know anything about the book or not).  This time around I am trying to be more practical about my order.  LT has become a great resource to find descriptions of the books.  Since many of them are long out of print I usually can't find more than a title on Amazon, let alone anything about the contents.  In many cases the LT catalog record now includes not only those blurbs, but also reviews as well.  I now have a list to choose from and am confident I will be ordering books I will really be interested in reading.  However, is anyone familiar with either Nina Bawden or Ellen Glasgow's work?  Both sound like authors I might like, but I'm just not quite sure and both are represented very well on the Virago list.

There were actually other book notes that I was going to share today, but as I didn't bother to make any notes to myself today, and I am feeling totally disoriented by Typepad's changes (subtle though some may be), I think I will save the rest of my news for tomorrow.        

Oh, and if you were wondering what Virago I was thinking about reading, well, I'm split.  When I mentioned a while back that I really want to read Sarah Waters' Affinity  a reader suggested I choose that for my next Virago book, and I thought what a great idea--killing two birds with one stone sort of thing.  However, I have a US edition, which is not published by Virago, so I guess that doesn't really count.  No, to my way of thinking it means I get to read not only Affinity but a Virago I own (see how my mind works?).  So instead I have pulled out Molly Keane's The Rising Tide.  I've wondered about her work for a long time.  Both books are still in the "in anticipation" stage, however, as I've already got my work cut out for me . 

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erent-here-its-because-typepad-has-changed-platforms-and-i-was-migrated-to-the-new-one-last-nigh.html

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Martin Millar Interview: "Many of the things the
unfortunate young werewolf suffers from have been taken from my real-life experiences."

Martin Millar's Good Fairies of New York has received no small amount of cult-like status among fantasy readers (including an introduction by Neil Gaiman to its recent Soft Skull edition). I discovered Millar through his werewolf novel, Lonely Werewolf Girl which manages to be as much about a dysfunctional family and loving Sabrina the Teenage Witch as much as it is about werewolves. Here is a bit of my review from my July column:

Millar has done more for the urban fantasy genre with Lonely Werewolf Girl than most authors. He lifts the entire oeuvre of werewolf stories up, in a manner similar to what Joss Whedon has done for vampires. There is far, far more here than killing, although Millar never shies away from realistic violence. But when he introduces Kalix?s older sister as a fashion designer he then spins out a subplot concerning the theft of fashion design and gives it a fantasy element. Her cousins are alcoholic pop singers who can?t hold it together long enough to carve out decent careers and Millar takes part of the plot into their hopes, dreams and addictions. Politics, both in Kalix?s dysfunctional family and the larger werewolf world, are key to the story and the author makes that as exciting as one of Kalix?s many desperate chases through the city. Every detail in this book is rich and deep and thoughtful; Millar gives his characters the time and attention they deserve and because of that, readers finds themselves with far more story then werewolf fans have come to expect.

Martin's latest title, Suzy Led Zeppelin and Me, is an autobiographical novel about Led Zeppelin's 1972 concert in Glasgow and teenage crushes, battling with best friends and what it means to be cool. (As it jumps back and forth in time there's also a bit about being a modern literary fiction judge which will likely make many writers shake their heads and pronounce "I knew it!!"). I am reviewing that book next month but here is some of what Jenny Davidson had to say in August:

It is a work of utter genius and considerable grim hilarity, so that I was laughing out loud as often as every couple of pages. It is a short book, composed in short chapters, about the weeks leading up to the night of the 4th of December, 1972, when Led Zeppelin came to play in Glasgow. Martin Millar is just as funny as Charlie Williams and Cintra Wilson, my two other particularly favorite not-as-widely-read-as-they-should-be funny novelists.

Here are some thoughts from Martin Millar he forwarded my way in the past month.

Chasing Ray: Lonely Werewolf Girl is a big book. Did you plan in the beginning to write an epic about werewolves (everything from politics to romance to music to the ripping off of arms) or did the book?s overall narrative expand as you got deeper into it?

MM: I didn?t expect it to be such a long book; it just seemed to evolve that way. I think that?s probably due to the number of relations Kalix has. She?s a member of a large clan of werewolves. It was quite surprising, finding myself writing such a long book. My previous works have tended to be short.

CR: I know you?re a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ? any aspects of the show that affected how you wrote about the MacRinnalchs? Also, what audience were you think of when you wrote Lonely Werewolf Girl? I reviewed it for teens but as an adult I enjoyed it a lot as well. It seems to crossover perfectly (just as Buffy does). Is it hard to create characters that appeal to both teens and adults?

MM: About teens and young adults - I never intended to write for a specific market. After enjoying Buffy the Vampire Slayer so much, I thought I'd like to write something which shared the same sort of general tone. And also, in a way, the tone of various comics I used to read.

So, for instance, there aren't any explicit sex scenes in the book, but that's not because I meant the book to be aimed at a specific audience, it's because an explicit sex scene wouldn't fit in with the tone of the book.

I'm quite happy for Lonely Werewolf Girl to be seen as a Young Adult book - because I seem to be a fan of this sort of thing myself - but I really didn't write it with that in mind. I expected adults to enjoy it too.

Possibly the distinction between Adult/Young Adult has become blurred to an extent where it isn't that important any more. Certainly, if I'd attempted to add any specifically 'adult' scenes to Lonely Werewolf Girl, it wouldn't have improved the book, it would have made it worse. The tone would have been spoiled, all the different strands wouldn't have fitted together properly, and it wouldn't have been believable.

CR: Kalix is not an obviously sympathetic character; in fact for most of the book she reads as more bipolar then you would expect (even for a werewolf). Was it hard not to write about the teen protag as a victim? How did you envision her from the very beginning?

MM: Poor Kalix has a lot of problems, though her highs and lows tend to arrive via anxiety and depression, rather than being strictly bi-polar. Many of the things the unfortunate young werewolf suffers from have been taken from my real-life experiences. From myself and from people I?ve known. Her eating problems and her self-abuse are based quite directly on people I?ve known, as is her depression and anxiety, and panic. Speaking personally, while I?m not prone to depression, I have suffered badly from anxiety at times in my life.

Writing about Kalix, I felt very sympathetic towards her. I didn?t regard her entirely as a victim, because she does have the power to take control of her life at times. When things really get tough, she has the willpower to come through it, just about. As for how sympathetic readers would be, that?s always hard to tell. Possibly I like her more than a lot of readers might.

CR: There is a ton of humor in this book ? a lot more than readers have a right to expect compared to most of the urban fantasy out there. How much of this (from Sabrina the Teenage Witch to some major fashion insanity) did you plan ahead of time? Were you always intending to balance the violence with laughter or did some of the characters (such as Kalix) just evolve that way as time went by?

MM: You?re giving me too much credit for planning. I?m a terrible planner when it comes to writing, and always have been. However, I did set out to write Lonely Werewolf Girl with quite a specific tone in mind, and that was always going to involve humour. I think in general I find it difficult to write without being humorous to some degree.

Agrivex, or Vex, is really a character straight out of an American teen comedy. I have, for some time, been a fan of American teen comedies (This may be unusual for a British author of my age) I think this started with the film ?Clueless?, which the first time I saw it, affected me quite a lot. I was very impressed that anyone could make such a sharp, funny film, using a Jane Austen story as the source (I am a great fan of Jane Austen, though I have never attempted to emulate her style, obviously.)

Queen Malveria is another humorous character. However, I don?t know where the inspiration for her came from, she?s not based on any other character I?ve encountered.

CR: What aspects of the story did you enjoy writing the most ? the political maneuverings, the fashion crisis, the music crisis, the coming-of-age moments and friendships or the cut-throat violence? And how hard was it to bring all of this together into one story? Did you ever worry that there were too many threads or do you think maybe we (as readers) just aren?t used to reading books that combine so many characters into one coherent (and thrilling) tale?

MM: That?s difficult to say. I?m not sure what I enjoyed writing the most. I like writing anything about Kalix, because I like her, and apart from that, probably the scenes between Malveria and Vex. I liked writing about Thrix and Malveria and their fashion obsessions, though that was difficult because although I sympathise with people who are very keen on fashion, I don?t actually know anything about it. So really I was relying on copies of Vogue bought from the local newsagent.

As for the werewolf violence, I quite liked writing that too. (I wouldn?t say it was on a very high level ? I?m not fond of gore or horror) It made for a change. I?ve never written about fighting before but possibly, having read a lot of comics as a youth, I had a secret desire to do so.

I wasn?t worried about including a lot of different threads. I thought that they were related enough for people to follow. Though there are a lot of characters, most of the story is driven by the feud about the succession to the leadership of the werewolf clan, so it?s all going in the same direction. As for the balance of the book, with its humorous parts and serious/violent parts, I have the general feeling that if you write these parts all properly, they should fit together well enough.

CR: Switching gears a bit, Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me reads more as a memoir than novel in a lot of ways ? could we call it a fictionalized memoir? How much of your own story (past and present) is found in the book?

MM: Most of the significant events in the book are true, so in that way it?s a memoir. However, I re-arranged them all, added in pieces of fiction, and I had no qualms about shuffling events, places and times around to make it into a better story. So I think of it as a novel rather than a memoir.

CR: How much do you think we bond with the music of our youth? In a lot of ways you?re written an entire book around this subject ? how significant do you think music can be over the course of someone?s life. (Or in other words ? is it more important during the turbulent teen years than to adults?)

MM: We definitely bond with it. When I was a teenager there was nothing so important in my life as music. Actually, that lasted beyond my teenage years, though it?s faded a little now, which is natural as you get older. New music doesn?t resonate in the same way, and you find yourself more attached to the music you?ve always loved.

I regret this in a way. It would be good to hear some new music now and think ?This is fantastic! It?s changing my life!? But that doesn?t seem to be possible when you get older. Shame really.

However, when you do get older, and find yourself keener on the music from your youth than the music that people are listening to today, you should take care not to assume that the music you love is somehow better. It?s not necessarily better, it?s just that it means more to you.

CR: Part of what really appealed to me about Suzy was that it seemed like the ultimate coming-of-age story. Readers bond with Martin as he struggles with first love, fragile friendships and significant relationships and then see, basically, how he ended up. Is this sort of the ultimate (and most realistic) sort of coming-of-age story ? one that does not stop with a moment of teen awareness but continues right through to adult nostalgia?

MM: I needed to find some way to write about my extreme excitement at the thought of Led Zeppelin coming to town, but I was too aware of how life went on afterwards to end it like that. So I wrote it from the viewpoint of an older person looking back, and that naturally took the story on after his coming of age moment. Possibly, if I?d been writing about some fictional characters, I?d have let them just end happily at the Led Zeppelin concert. I?m not against a happy ending, even if life isn?t really like that!

From my own point of view, it was interesting looking back in detail at the concert, and my life at the time. I got in touch with various school friends, asking what they remembered about the gig, and I learned a lot of details I?d forgotten. Also, to my amazement, I found a bootleg CD of the actual gig, which I bought from Japan. I was astonished that a recording of this concert in Glasgow in 1972 existed, and it was strange listening to the concert again, and thinking about being there, such a long time ago.

CR: So what sort of book do you prefer writing ? the big sweeping epic with a dozen main characters and confrontations or the short chapters in a tightly focused story about one singular event in the narrator?s life?

MM: Short books. I said In Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me that I have a short attention span these days and it?s true. My attention span has been destroyed by cable TV and the internet, no doubt. I can offer no cogent explanation as to why I suddenly wrote something as long as Lonely Werewolf Girl. And, as I'm writing a sequel now, I?m doing it again. But I have vague plans for my next book after LWG 2, and that will almost certainly be short.

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The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman?a rising star in the foreign ministry?to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic.

Told in the voice of Haruko, meticulously researched and superbly imagined, The Commoner is the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarified and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other. With the unerring skill of a master storyteller, John Burnham Schwartz has written his finest novel yet.

An online friend read this book and gave it a five out of five. That may not normally be enough for me to pick up a book, but she is rather picky about her reading and rarely seems to give book higher than the three range, so I decided that was a good enough reason for me! As soon as I saw that five, it didn't even matter the subject matter, I knew that it was something I should pick up. I am very glad that I did! I had never heard of the author before and I wasn't very familiar with the subject, but once I got caught up in the pages all of that was quickly forgotten!

A lot of my history seems to centre around my own history, with a bit of random stuff thrown in. There is so much to learn about when it comes to history, though, that you cannot be an expert on everything. Japan is not an aspect of history that I have ever really concentrated on. Not that it is not interesting, but more along the lines that you really can't read everything. I do find Japanese history worthy, they are the oldest monarch after all, but I was concentrating on Western history. It is nice to break out of your comfort zone once in a while, though, and I am glad that I chose to with this book.

One of the biggest problems, for me, with male authors is when they try to write about women. It is not an easy thing to do to pretend to be the other sex; to get into their head, but I think he did a really good job! He was trying to portray the isolation that came with being a member of the Royal Family, while at the same time see it from a female point-of-view. Being royalty, in many ways, is something that you just have to be born for. Not everyone takes to it, that is for sure, and the two women that are looked at exclusively in this novel have a very hard time coming to terms with it. They are, in essence, commoners, and this is a life that they have never had to be a part of before. With it comes many responsibilites that they may not actually be ready for! They have a role to play, and it is not what they were raised to aspire to, that is for sure...

Wonderfully written, this novel was well-worth my time! I strongly recommend it. It inspired me to hopefully read more books on Japanese history, but that does not mean the chance will present itself! So many books, so little time, after all! I hope others will give it a chance!

Read The Full Article:
http://myreadingbooks.blogspot.com/2008/11/commoner-by-john-burnham-schwartz.html

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Presenting Ginny Weasley, the Quidditch Player[...]

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http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/

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New HBP Video Game Screen Shots of Quidditch, Slughorn, and More[...]

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Random House Changes Pension Policy

Starting next year, publishing giant Random House will "freeze" pensions for employees and stop granting such benefits to new employees.

Spokesman Stuart Applebaum stressed that current employee pensions "will not be reduced." Also, the publisher will still support 401k plans with matching funds. The AP article has more: "Applebaum said talk of cutting pension had been going on for years, although changes at Random House have been expected since Markus Dohle replaced Peter Olson in May as chairman of the publisher's worldwide operations."

At the end of October, Random House's Doubleday division announced 16 layoffs. This pension news followed another set of gloomy headlines as Barnes & Noble announced that sales from "stores 15 months or older" fell 7.4 percent from previous years. (Via Huffington Post)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

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Survey Time

All you MFAers out there (or MAers in fiction, or MPWers, or whatever else your degree is called if you studied creative writing at the graduate level), go take the MFA survey at Our Stories.

There are seventeen sections, but it won't take you that much time. If nothing else, it helps you to reflect upon your past experience and present situation. Also, I looking forward to seeing what type of results come in, and what sort of conclusions can be drawn from those results.

For instance, I really am interested in the survey results for questions like these: What percentage of MFA graduates are teaching creative writing? How many stories have graduates published, on average, in print/online journals after being out of their program from 1-3 years?

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Grafton, Burke named MWA Grand Masters

For the first time since 1978, Mystery Writers of America will have two Grand Masters for 2009: James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton. From the release that went out today:

According to MWA executive vice president HarryHunsicker, the Edgar Awards -- or "Edgars," as they are commonly known-- are named after Edgar Allan Poe, whose 200th birthday will be markednext year. "One of the great pleasures of my tenure at the helm of MWAhas been informing two of the most talented writers on the planet thatthey have been selected as Grand Master. As a long-time fan of both, Icannot think of two more deserving individuals."



"News of mybeing named MWA Grand Master, along with James Lee Burke, caught metotally off-guard," said Sue Grafton, "but I'm delighted to be tappedand pleased to share the honor with a writer I so admire. I lookforward to the ceremony which will surely be a blow-out affair in thatit celebrates Edgar Allan Poe as well as the mystery genre."



Says James Lee Burke:"It is a great honor to receive the Grand Master award from the MysteryWriters of America. It's an enormous compliment to my work and to me,and I feel extremely grateful and humbled by the MWA's generosity ofspirit. The award will always remain as one of the greatest tributes mywork could receive. Thank you for all the support the MWA has given mywork over the many years.

Both Grafton and Burke will get the official honor on April 30 at the Edgar Awards Banquet. Very cool news indeed!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2008/11/grafton-burke-named-mwa-grand-mas
ters.html

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Answers art provides are far from a Nuisance.

In a recent post Dan Green contests my championing of the idea that it is through connection with character that the reader bonds with a book, and that this bond is an essential determinant of whether or not that book is designated ‘great.’ Here’s Dan:"Those readers like Nigel, who recoil from novels "which impose [...]

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