The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I've read so many wonderful books by first time novelists this year, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield will certainly join the ranks of Audrey Niffenegger and Elizabeth Kostova. This is another one of those unread treasures that has been sitting on my shelf and it makes me wonder what other visionary treats lie there in waiting.

The Thirteenth Tale is a prime example of storytelling at it's top form. Margaret Lea is a young woman who works at her father's bookshop which specializes in rare and antiquarian books. She's been surrounded by books throughout her life and has grown comfortable with the classics such as Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, The Woman in White, etc. and has shied away from more contemporary literature. That is, until she is summonsed by Vida Winter, a top selling novelist with a mysterious past who has requested that Margaret record the story of her life. Margaret is a bit leary of the commission, but accepts and finds that she must face her own ghosts while recording the ghosts of Ms. Winter's past - a past that reveals that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

There are so many things that I loved about this book. The characters are wonderful. Vida Winter is someone that I wish truly existed just so that I could sit in her library in front of her fireplace and listen to her tell me her stories. But of course, the wonderful Diane Setterfield, who wrote Vida Winter's character does exist ;) The storytelling aspect of this novel was just perfect. There wasn't a single moment in the novel when I was bored. There's constantly a hook to grab you and the story is always appealing.

I haven't read Daniel Wallace's book, Big Fish, but much of this novel reminded of a gothic version of the film. It's a tale of a past that's truly bizarre, yet grounded in fact. This novel could easily be translated to the big screen and make a beautiful film by the way. Setterfield paints a very vivid picture in her descriptions of the landscapes, her characters appearances, the libraries, etc.

I'm so glad that I've finally joined the other half of the world that's read this book! I've been saying this a lot lately, but here's another author that I really look forward to following throughout her career. Setterfield certainly has a promising future ahead of her if she continues to turn out novels that deliver as well as this one did.

I leave you with a truly devilish passage from the lips of Vida Winter that's not essential to the plot, but I had an evil grin on my face during this particularly RIP-ish scene:

"Picture a conveyor belt, a huge conveyor belt, and at the end of it a massive furnace. And on the conveyor belt are books. Every copy in the world of every book you've ever loved. All lined up. Jane Eyre. Villette. the Woman in White...Middlemarch. And imagine a lever with two labels, On and Off. At the moment the lever is off. And next to it is a human being with his hand on the lever. About to turn it on. And you can stop it. You have a gun in your hand. All you have to do is pull the trigger. What do you do?"


Other Reviews:

Chris (Book A Rama)

Thoughts On A Thursday

I've noticed that my mind has been somewhat stagnant lately and it's a very unsettling feeling. Life needs to move on. I feel like I've spent the last few months just waiting. Waiting for Megan to come back home, waiting to start my job, waiting for some spark to ignite, and I just need things to happen. And I know they will, and I know that they will happen very soon. In fact, I'm going into work on Tuesday to fill out all of my tax forms and payroll stuff so that I can start on the following Monday and there's talk of Megan coming for another visit soon.

I really have enjoyed the time off of school and work, but I'm not the type of person who takes idle time well. Sure, I say that I'd love to just lay in bed all day and read, and that certainly appeals to me, but I need something else in my life. Things will get better with the start of work. This funk has been going on for awhile and I just couldn't figure it out, and it all sort of made sense all of a sudden when I was talking to Megan today and she said "We never talk about things for hours anymore." I asked what she meant and she brought up how we used to talk about various topics ranging from philosophy to hamburgers for hours on end and it all clicked. Most of those conversations were brought on by stuff that happened during my day or hers. We still talk about the things that happen during her day, but when it comes to my day, there's not much to report on these days. I used to talk about what happened at the internship or what happened in class or what I learned that day and it would spark a long conversation and we'd go on forever. I miss that. I miss those long conversations. I miss the academic life already, or my days at my internship, and I just can't wait to get back into the counseling profession. Just a week and a half to go and I'll be there again.

God, this is a depressing post, and it really wasn't meant to be. I don't necessarily feel depressed, just sort of in a mist...waiting...but at the same time, once my job starts, I'll no doubt be bitching about how much I miss my reading time and how much I miss blogging. I've grown so attached to being in the blogiverse (I like that word :p) all day that I don't know what I'll do without checking in on everyone all day. But I'm sure that's how I'll spend my evenings...checking in with friends and burying my nose in books. Actually, come to think about it, Megan and I do still have some fun conversations and they're usually related to things I read in blogs...or on the latest book I'm reading. You would all be surprised how much Megan knows about you ;) But it's a sign of how much I truly enjoy everyone's "company". I talk like you're all friends that I see in person every day!

One spark of the day on a book related note. After hearing of them from Stephanie, I decided to submit a review to Curledup.com to see if they'd consider me as a reviewer. Well, they apparently liked what they saw and are sending some books my way this weekend! Free books should cheer me up. I don't know what I've got myself into with all of these challenges and now I've commited to reviews...I might have to admit defeat eventually, who knows...

Two More Challenges For 2008 (But They're Mini...)

They're "mini-challenges" as our host, Becky, calls them, so I don't feel so bad joining yet another challenge ;) These are two very cool challenges and actually fit quite nicely into the reading I had already planned for myself for next year.

The first challenge is inspired by Masterpiece Theater's announcement that they will be showing all six of Jane Austen's BBC Productions next year! If you haven't done so yet, I recommend heading over to their site to sign up for their email list, because if you do you are entered into a drawing to win one of 100 Jane Austen book box sets! Becky's challenge to us is a simple one: In 2008, either read or watch two of Jane Austen's books and then write a post about it! I had already planned on reading Northanger Abbey next year, as that one sounds like my cup of tea, and I'm adding Persuasion as my second Austen book. I'll also be watching all of Masterpiece Theater's airing of the BBC productions as I love all of them!

The second challenge is to read any 2 books by C.S. Lewis AND any 2 books by J.R.R. Tolkien! How cool is that for a challenge?! I had already planned on re-reading the Narnia books for the series challenge and Cardathon challenge, and I'll be breaking in my beautiful new boxset of Tolkien books from Carl for the other part of the challenge by re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'll probably do that as part of the Once Upon a Time challenge assuming that it takes place again ;) Of course, you're not required to read 10 books for this challenge like Mr. Over-achiever here...just 4!

Anyone else joining in? Head over to Becky's blog to sign up! It looks like we have all of 2008 to complete this...am I right?

Heart -Shaped Box by Joe Hill

So here's my first foray away from vampires for the RIP challenge, and I'd say that overall it was a successful voyage. Heart-Shaped Box will most probably not make it onto the list of favorite books of the year, but it's a hell of a debut novel for Joe Hill. The book didn't start off all that great for me. It centers around a rock star who is a collector of dark and occult-like objects such as sketches of the seven dwarfs drawn by John Wayne Gacy and a smut film; plays death metal music, and dates goth chicks. So it inherently had a few aspects too it that were just a bit too cliche for my taste while the story was being set up. They were mostly too cliche for my taste because I was a part of this culture as a teen and in my early college days and I guess I'm still there at heart...just don't dress the part. It was just a bit overdone. But once Hill got comfortable with his story and the whole goth, shock thing was dropped and we met our real, vulnerable characters, I really enjoyed the rest of the ride.

Heart-Shaped Box is the story of a rock star with a past. Jude Coyne has lived a life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Needless to say he's been with many women throughout his career and has taken to naming some of them after the states that he met them in. His current live-in girlfriend is Georgia and Jude's found more comfort in her than he's found in anyone else in awhile. His only other true relationships are with his two German Shepperds. He hasn't spoken with his father in over 30 years after suffering a horrible childhood with him, two of his best friends and former band mates are dead, and his only other friend is his assistant, but he's more of a secretary than a friend.

So here's the RIP part...As I mentioned before, Jude's a collector of all things macabre and can't turn down an offer of something new to add to his collection. The assistant friend mentioned above one day finds a suit for sale on an eBay-like auction site. Here's the catch - the suit belongs to a dead man who has been haunting the house that it occupies. The auction says that the man never got to wear this suit in his earthly life and will follow the suit wherever it goes. Jude buys the suit for $1000, essentially buying a ghost to add to his collection. Well, Jude gets his ghost. The suit arrives in a black heart-shaped box. Shortly after Jude awakens at night to find a man sitting in his hallway wearing the suit with his eyes scribbled out and swinging a razor blade on a chain. But there's more to the ghost than Jude knows and both his life and Georgia's is at stake...as the cover says "sooner or later the dead catch up..."

I've heard plenty of people say that this novel scared the crap out of them and kept them up all night. I can't say that it did that for me, but that's nothing against the author. I'm rarely truly freaked out by books. This book did have my heart pounding with suspense at certain parts and I was definitely flying through some pages. I tend to not scare easily though. The only things that truly frighten me are "jump out at you" moments, so movies and haunted houses will do the trick! Now there were scenes in this novel that repulsed me (and I guess repulsion is a cousin of fear) and be warned that there are topics that arise in this book that are quite disturbing. But I think that Hill handled everything well, and I have to say that I will be reading Mr. Hill's next novel whenever it is published. I know that he has a collection of short stories coming out soon called 20th Century Ghosts and it is already available in the UK!

*Oh, and a quick note totally unrelated, Lisa Snellings-Clark has Orange Poppets Available!

My Reading Spot And A Package Arrives

Today's been the perfect, gloomy, RIP reading day and I spent it finishing up Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box. I'll post my full review later. It was my least favorite of my RIP reads so far, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a good book. It started off kind of weak for me, but it got progressively better and it really hooked me about half way through...but like I said, full review coming later. Anyway, I thought I'd share my reading spot with you and invite anyone else who would like to to do the same...because, well...I'm a bit of a voyeur when it comes to people's books and anything associated with them :p

My new reading spot is one of my favorite things about this house that we're renting. For the first time in my life, I have a back patio. I've always wanted one. It has a tin roof, and on a rainy day like today, you just can't beat the sound of soft rain on a tin roof for reading weather. We have a Wisteria vine that is sadly not in bloom starting off and I'm hoping that it will vine itself throughout the wooden beams of the patio and there's a Bougainvillea behind the swing that you can't see in the picture. We have two swings which is odd, but I like to read on the swing that I took the picture from where the little skeleton guy is sitting. Part of the reason is because our neighbor is a garden freak and I like the view of her plants and the birds that visit them. So here it is, my reading spot...complete with hanging eyeballs and a skeleton for Halloween.

So onto the package arriving. No, it was not a package of books! It was a package from Lisa Snellings-Clark..I know, another shocker. I am so pleased with this purchase! They're amazing. It's a pair of Harlequin candlestick holders painted in shades of blue and gray and they are so much more beautiful in person than I imagined them to be. They're huge! About 18 inches tall. She offers these in bronze and silver sometimes during her sales for $30 a piece and after actually seeing them, this is an amazing price. So I highly recommend them next time they're available ;)

OK, that's it for me until it's book review time. Off to get ready for the Saints game...God I hope it's better than the last two...I can't take any more games like those.

Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston

You might say that I lucked out when I stumbled across my "favorite author". Orson Scott Card manages to publish about two to three books a year, has about 50 books under his belt, and has written books, poetry, and short stories in just about every genre imaginable. His first publication of this year was Space Boy (my review), a very limited run by Subterranean Press, that was enjoyable but doesn't even compare to his latest collaboration with screenwriter Aaron Johnston, Invasive Procedures.

Invasive Procedures is the story of the dangers of genetic manipulation. It can certainly be classified as science fiction as Card dots his i's and crosses his t's when it comes to the science aspect, but I'd consider this one more of a bio-medical/political thriller. The setting is Los Angeles in the near future. Geneticist George Galen has created a group of super humans called "Healers". Galen is the villain of the novel, but he's a charming villain, the most dangerous kind. His Healers are giants, around 7 feet in height, have the bodies of gods, and go throughout the community recruiting the sick and homeless in a cult like fashion for Galen's genetic experiment - to help the human race evolve.

Here's where the story gets interesting. Galen has developed a virus that cures deadly genetic diseases such as Parkinson's, Sickle-Cell Anemia, etc. Viruses work by attaching to DNA and changing their structure and Galen has developed a virus that will do just that for these diseases. However, the virus he has developed is deadly to the general population and causes near immediate death. It can save the life of the few who need it, but can cause the death of the many to whom it is toxic. In steps Frank Hartman. Frank Hartman has been recruited by the Biohazard Agency, an FBI-like governmental agency, to develop an anti-virus to or vaccination to Galen's virus. Galen soon realizes the plans that the government has to stop his advancement of the human race and one thrilling novel ensues.

I've always said that I love Card for his characters, and this novel is no exception. Frank Hartman is one of the strongest heroes I've read in a while. Joining him in his race against Galen are Galen's test subjects, a group of homeless people that he picks up, offering them a hot meal and a bed, and while he does give them that, they also get much more than what they thought they were in for.

Dolores is my favorite of this group. She is an elderly homeless woman with no family who slept on a playground before Galen picked her up. She has extremely low self esteem, but a wonderful sense of humor and was a delight to read and my heart went out to her. Nick and Jonathan were two younger punk kids who were homeless heroin addicts. Both put up a tough front, but Card shows us the young kid inside just begging for help and love. Their story was touching as well. Hal, I had no sympathy for! Hal is a drunk who is arrogant and loud when he's picked up and remains that way throughout the book...he just got on my nerves. And Byron is the last of the group. Byron was mistaken for a homeless person, but is really a tax attorney whose car broke down and he just needed a lift. He's a great guy and another strong character.

Put all of these wonderful characters together along with a doctor forced to perfom surgery on all of them against her will while her child is held at ransom along with one of the most thrilling and forward moving story lines I've read in awhile, and you get a book that is heart stopping and very meaningful in these days of lightning speed medical advancement...not that I think we're at risk of something like this ever actually happening.

This one just came out Tuesday, so it should be well stocked in most bookstores. I highly recommend as I usually do with most books :p But this one really was a 5 out of 5. It's based on an Orson Scott Card short story originally published in 1979 by the name of "Malpractice." OK, now back to the RIP Challenge!

Updates, Updates

As another tropical disturbance approaches Louisiana, I'm reminded that life is always uncertain. As much as I complain about what Katrina left us with down here and how it seemed to uproot life, it has done some positive things. Mainly, I've learned that there's no use in harping on things. Life is going to do what it's going to do and plenty of that is out of my control. What's out of my control is exactly that. So...something out of my control has happened, and I'm going with the flow...my start date for my new job has been pushed back to October 8th due to the state licensure board not meeting on the date that we originally thought they were going to. I can't start my new job until I have my licensure number, so now I have to wait until the beginning of the next pay period to start, which is October 8th. Originally, I was upset because I was anxious to get in and get started, but I'm just going to enjoy the extra time off while I have it. I still have my other job, so I'll just continue there until the 8th.

In other news, not a whole lot lot has been going on. There have been a couple of new arrivals at the house. The first was my little black poppet who is so very, very cool and fits in nicely with the purple poppet. I think that black and purple will join forces and be mascots together for the remainder of the RIP challenge as they seemed to do well together for The Historian. I also picked up the new Orson Scott Card book a couple of days ago and I'm almost finished that and it's amazing! But that should be no surprise coming out of my mouth. It's called Invasive Procedures, and I should have a review up either tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Should be going to see Across the Universe tomorrow. Anyone else going to see that one? It looks like it's really going to be a treat! I've been looking forward to this one for awhile now. It's rare that films this imaginative make it to the big screen and I'm hoping that it does well.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian is one whopper of a book, but it's worth every page and every word. It is the haunting tale of a young woman, a historian, who one day finds a book and some letters on the shelf of her father's library. The book is very old and is blank, except for a woodcut image in the middle of a dragon and the word "Drakulya". She asks her father about the book and the letters and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian unfolds.

Paul, the narrator's father who is also a historian, one day discovers the previously mentioned book and consults his dissertation adviser, Professor Rossi about it. He learns that his professor has also been "given" one of these mysterious books and has done some extensive research on it. Danger lies in the acquiring of these books. Rossi's research has taught him that Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula, still walks among us as a vampire. Shortly after revealing this to Paul, Rossi disappears. Paul digs deeper and deeper into the Dracula legend and history and begins to learn that there is more truth than myth to vampires. Along the way, he meets Helen, an anthropologist from Romania who is also interested in vampires and Dracula. Paul leaves America to find Rossi as he is convinced that the book leaves a clue as to his whereabouts and Helen joins him in his travels.

The above paragraph has happened in the past, but takes up the majority of the book. It is told through a very long letter that the narrator's father has written her. The narrator herself is on her own hunt. She certainly has her own interest in the hunt for Dracula, but she is hunting for more knowledge on her father's mysterious past, and even more so, she is hunting for the mother that she never knew.

The Historian hits all the right marks. It's written very well and has a very gothic feel to it. It was an extremely creepy book and the atmosphere was just perfect...old books left in dark places, empty libraries at night, old gothic buildings with people lurking in the shadows, and all of the scenes in Turkey, Hungary, and Romania were just perfect. In fact, I've never really considered wanting to visit any of these places until Kostova wrote about them and some of the amazing architecture, churches, cafes, and festivals in these countries.

I loved Kostova's characters...or loved to hate some of them. Either way, she knows how to create an interesting character. The love story between Paul and Helen was remarkable and something that I cherished and enjoyed every time I got a peek at it. I wished that I could've spent a little more time with the narrator of the book, and that is one of my only criticisms of the novel...that I didn't get to know her better. The different characters that Paul and Helen meet along the way that help them in their journey were wonderful -Rossi, Turgut, and Stoichev were all classic old scholars whom I really enjoyed and would love to sit down with and have a cup of tea and study their libraries.

For me, this novel was everything that a horror novel should be. The subject matter is certainly there - vampires, more specifically, the grand-daddy of all vampires, Dracula. There's a constant sense of foreboding, mystery, shadows lurking in the darkness, being a step away from a dark discovery. The best way to describe the book is that it is a modern gothic, mystery novel. Some may say that things fall into place a little too easily in this one...and at times they do, but it's fiction...and in fiction, that's just fine with me. Kostova has created a riveting novel that kept me up many nights because I just couldn't put it down. I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of her career!

It Can't Be Stopped

My God! Hi, my name's Chris, and I'm a bookaholic....I made a deal with myself that I wasn't going to buy anymore books until after the RIP Challenge. The reason being, I thought it would be nice to see what my TBR bookshelf would look like with the 20 books I signed up for taken off of it with no books put back on it to take the space up again...yeah, not happening. Last night, I decided to go to Barnes and Noble to get "just the two books that I didn't have for the Four Legged Friends Challenge" and instead came home with 5 new books. It could've been worse though. Anyway, here are the new acquisitions.1. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - I first heard about this book from Nancy aka Bookfool. She gave it an awesome review and it sounded like something that I'd like. And the cover is really cool! It has tons of great reviews, and anything set in the south that has to do with magic is fine by me. And Barnes and Noble had it at an incredible price (they're really promoting this one).

2. The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull - I'm very leary about this one, but I'm hoping it's good! I had planned on buying this one just because of the author's name, but didn't think it was coming out until October! But when I saw it on the shelf, well...I had to get it. Brandon Mull is the author of the Fablehaven series which I love and learned of through Orson Scott Card. So when I heard that he was writing this other book, I knew I'd be picking it up when it came out...and I did.

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I've become addicted to Marquez's writing with just one book. I read Love in the Time of Cholera about a month ago and I really enjoyed it...my review here. But I've found that the book has come back to haunt me. I find myself thinking of Marquez's writing over and over again and I want to revisit it. I have a feeling that anyone who's read his work will understand. I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera when I first read it, but it's really become a masterpiece too me as it's sunk in. Quite a few people recommended that I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, so I picked this one up to appease my craving to jump back into his writing. It sounds like a magical book and he won the Nobel Prize for this one as well. I think I'll add this one to the Seconds Challenge as a bonus. Only thing I don't like....it has a stupid Oprah sticker on it :/

4. Varjak Paw by S.F. Said - I'm so excited about this one! I'm reading this one for the Four Legged Friends Challenge. I first heard of this one through Nymeth awhile back when she discovered it in a bookstore. It's a children's/young adult book about a cat and it's illustrated by Dave McKean!! And there are lots of illustrations! I also saw that there is a sequel out which is also illustrated by McKean...yay!

5. Watership Down by Richard Adams - I've been meaning to read this one for ages and the Four Legged Friends Challenge has finally given me a good reason to! Though I must admit that at 476 pages, it's much much longer than what I had imagined it to be! I'm sure I'll enjoy it though.

Lesson Of The Day: Control Road Rage!

I'm known for my road rage. Aside from that, I'm probably one of the most easy going people you'd ever meet. It takes a lot to piss me off, and I mean a lot. I'm all about keeping the peace and making life as harmonious and easy going as possible, but get me behind the wheel and this alter ego comes out and I suddenly think the worst of humanity. It's my tragic flaw.

So I'm getting coffee today and on my way home from the coffee shop, I'm driving at a leisurely 35 mph when the car in front of me slams on their brakes and makes a sudden left turn with no blinker or anything. Of course the first thing that comes out of my mouth after slamming on my brakes is "nice f***ing blinkers asshole!" Then I immediately say to myself "well that wasn't very nice Chris, wonder what karma's going to do to you for that one?" Literally said that out loud!....well don't you that not 30 seconds later, I go to take a sip of my iced coffee and the lid isn't on all the way and a good portion of it goes spilling all down my shirt and shorts. Karma's a bitch. Lesson: I really need to learn to stop screaming obscenities at people I don't know, even if they do drive like morons!

Enjoying The Rain & Yep, Another One!

While we're not getting a direct hit from tropical storm Humberto here in New Orleans, we are getting a good bit of rain from it, and that makes me happy! It's been pretty dry down here lately. We've had the occasional Summer shower here and there, but nothing substantial. We're supposed to have rain for the rest of the afternoon and all into the night, which will fit the mood of The Historian perfectly! So my plans for the rest of the afternoon are to sit outside underneath the patio with some coffee enjoying the rain and reading The Historian which I have been loving...and I'm only 200 pages into it.

This will be the last book in my Dracula series, and I'm really glad I chose to start off the RIP challenge in that way. These three books have gone together really well. Dracula and Renfield were both excellent books, but neither really gave me that eerie, spooky, creepy feeling...The Historian does, and I love it for that! It's the first book that's really captured that mood for me. Reading these books in this series type of way has also helped me to appreciate Stoker's work even more than I already did. With both Renfield and The Historian, I get to re-examine parts of Bram Stoker's original masterpiece and see the amazing influence that he had on other writers and really on society in general!

Different topic - I'm joining another challenge :p Kailana is sponsoring this one in memory of her dog Sandy who passed away the other day. She was a beautiful dog and I know that her and Kailana had a very special relationship. I'm a dog lover myself, so I can empathize with her and I think that this is a wonderful idea for a challenge. Its' the Four-Legged Friends Challenge and the challenge is to read 3-5 books with animals as a central character. Here are my books:

1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
3. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
4. Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams

While reading these, I'll be thinking of my little white mini poodle, Buddy. Me and Megan bought Buddy together 6 months before Katrina. He's the sweetest dog that I've ever met and has the cutest personality that I've seen in a dog. He's as curious as a cat and is always looking to get into anything that he can. His favorite trick is "give me a kiss" and he does great little "jump in the air and spin around" tricks :) When Katrina came, Buddy evacuated with Megan, so I don't get to see him too often these days, but whenever I make trips to visit with Megan, he gets super excited and cuddles up in the bed right between me and Megan when we go to sleep. It'll be nice to be all back together in one place again soon.

Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly

I went into this book not expecting too much to be honest. I knew that it was a spin-off of Dracula focusing on Renfield, of course, and imagined it to be some sort of horrific, crazed lunatic badly done insult to Bram Stoker that I would read anyway just for fun....at least the cover was really cool! I couldn't have been more wrong! It was a wonderful book!

Renfield: Slave of Dracula is written with the utmost respect for Bram Stoker's original work. Barbara Hambly did a remarkable job with this book. The book's main focus is, of course, the character of Renfield, resident of Dr. Seward's asylum who consumes life in the form of spiders and flies in the hopes of strengthening his own. Renfield comes to have visions and meetings with Dracula and quite literally becomes a slave of the mind to him calling him "Master."

Hambly retells Bram Stoker's tale through the eye's of Renfield with this book and takes absolutely no liberties with Stoker's original story, which made me so happy! She certainly adds things that "weren't seen" in Stoker's original so that she does have her own novel, but when dealing with his own story, she changes nothing. The story is told through journal's written by Renfield from his cell that often start with an insect count, i.e.: "20 May 7 flies, 3 spiders", letters from Renfield to his wife and child, original passages from Stoker's Dracula, and through a third person narrative.

Hambly has also worked in an incredible story involving the three vampire women that live in Dracula's castle that I loved. I'm not going to talk about it too much because I don't want to give much away, but one of the women by the name of Nomie was actually quite a beautiful character and one that I sympathized with quite a bit.

There is one huge twist in the middle of the book that really makes this one her own. She picks up Renfield's story where Stoker ended it and I'm sure you can guess the basics of how she may have been able to do that. But I'll say no more, which really kills me because this is where we find out all kinds of cool stuff about Renfield. But of course it's all stuff that Hambly made up, not Stoker...but she really did a great job with it.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. It was handled perfectly. I was very leary about this one and in the wrong hands it could've been a travesty. But you can tell that Hambly has the utmost respect for Bram Stoker. What she has added to the character of Renfield fits well with what we knew of him from Dracula and the story that she creates is a fascinating one! Highly recommended for fans of this character! If you're interested, the hardcover is available through Amazon at a bargain book price of $4.79. You can get to it by clicking the link above.

Series Challenge

So...Kathrin at Crazy Cozy Murders is hosting a series challenge which is running from December 1st through May 31st, and well, I couldn't resist. This is a good one to get some more books off of my TBR shelf, and it will fit in with other challenges ;) The goal of this challenge is to finish a series that you've been reading. We all have series' left unfinished! So I'm tackling two!

The first is George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series. I've read A Game of Thrones, so that leaves three more for the challenge to be up to date with the series:

1. A Clash of Kings (also counts for 2nds Challenge)
2. A Storm of Swords
3. A Feast for Crows

The Second series I'm reading is C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. I've had these sitting on my shelves forever! I bought a new set of these after Katrina since I lost my old set and it's been ages since I've read them...probably since I was about 11 years old! So I'll be reading these in their original publication order:

1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Saturday Night Thoughts

I just got off of work for the night and had to tell my boss that I'll be leaving in a few weeks....and it was sad. I call her my boss, but I don't look at her in that way at all. Those people are family to me. I've mentioned it here before, but I'm a personal care attendant and work with a family of 3 people in wheelchairs ages 23-30 who live with their mom and dad and they are all amazing people. All 3 of the people I work with are considered to have sever mental retardation, though I debate that in some areas...they understand and make more sense than the rest of the world sometimes. They all have a rare muscle degenerative disease called Mucolipidosis Type IV. Their mom and dad are some of the most incredible people I've ever met. The dad has multiple sclerosis unrelated to the children's disease, and the mom does more charity work than anyone I've ever met, all while taking care of her kids and husband. I never leave their house without a smile on my face and I've never met a more positive and loving group of people in all my life. They'll continue to be in my life as long as they're on this earth, but it will be hard after 6 years of working with them to say goodbye in that respect. They are the reason that I'm in this field.

On a different note, how about those Tigers?!! LSU is doing one hell of a job of making me temporarily forget the travesty that was the Saints game on Thursday night. LSU just went into half-time against Virginia Tech 24-0! What an amazing team. I'd kill to be at that game right now. My sister got 4 tickets to the game, and I could've gone...but I had to work. It's all good though, I'm enjoying it on TV. Now if only the Saints could take some pointers from the Tigers, we might be OK! What the hell happened to the Saints? I'm really hoping that the Colts are just THAT good. Which they are, and they did play one hell of a game, but we did play a pretty shitty game. Step it up boys!
And finally, there are only 3 left right now, which may be gone by the time I post this, but Lisa Snellings-Clark has posted little black poppets!!! Of course I bought mine already :p Here's the link to her current sale. If you don't see them up anymore, keep checking back as she may add more. I noticed she also added some more purple poppets and those really cool harlequin candle holders! Also check out her latest blog post as she has a preview of things to come for Halloween time...mwuhahahah! Now go buy a goth poppet!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Books like Bram Stoker's Dracula become so ingrained into our culture that we often let them slip by without ever reading them, assuming that we know what they're all about. There are many books that I've done this with. I'm guilty of making a comment on Nymeth's recent review of Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde about most probably not reading it because "I know the story." After reading Dracula, I think I'm going to make a special effort to go out and read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
I did know the basic story of Dracula, but it was so much more detailed than what I knew and told in such a beautiful language. It's a true gothic masterpiece, truly a work of literature. I never knew that it was told in the form of journal entries, telegrams, and letters. I didn't know a few of the characters that are in the book, and I certainly didn't know how gifted Stoker was as a writer.

It's amazing how these works of horror have lived on in our culture and have moved from a work of minor fiction in it's origins into a major piece of mythology today. The character of Dracula has morphed into something that I'm sure Stoker could've never imagined. I only wish that everyone actually knew Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula as well as they know the novel's namesake character. The story of Lucy Westenra is truly one of the most horrific and tragic stories and one that I would've never known had I never read this book. Mina Harker's slow battle with Dracula's bite is one of the most suspenseful plot lines that I've read and I can't even imagine being her husband, Jonathan Harker!

Then there are characters like the delightfully creepy and insane Renfield...the subject of my next RIP book. There is the keeper of the sanitarium where Renfield lives and the doctor who seeks Lucy's hand and treats her, Dr. Seward, and then there is of course the wonderful Dr. Van Helsing.

I'm glad to have finally read this one, and it's the perfect kick off to the RIP Challenge! It will set the mood nicely for the next two months. The next two books will continue the Dracula theme. Next up is Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly, which focuses on our spider and fly eating friend; and then, of course, is The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova.

It's Football Time!!!

It's that time of the year again :D That wonderful time of the year where many of you get to skip over some of my posts because they will surely bore the hell out of you! Football time! Tonight, the Saints take on the Colts and you'd swear that it's a home game for us. I'll have my Drew Brees jersey on and will fit in with the rest of New Orleans who has just about gone nuts. There's a sense of magic in the air right now. Everywhere you look in the city, there's black and gold, there are smiles on everyone's faces, there are fleur de lis' pasted on everything, people are screaming "who d'at"...the city has taken a day off from life.

The Saints have come to mean more than just football to our city. They are a break from the grim reminders of what life has become down here. During football season, the residents of New Orleans can rest assured that one day out of the week, they're going to have a good day, and they're going to be in good company, and they're going to unite with other fans and wear smiles on their faces, listen to jazz, dance, eat some good food, and watch one hell of a game. Then they go back home to the reality of post Katrina life, but it's just a little bit better than before, because their spirits have been lifted by that sense of unity.

Last year, the nation watched as the Saints took on the Falcons in one of the most memorable games in football history. It was magical..it was our first home game since Katrina and it was that game that started this uniting front. This year, even though our Saints are playing away for their opening game, it might as well be in our own backyards...the unity, the energy, and that same sense of magic can be felt everywhere. And the city looks a little bit happier today than it has in awhile.

The Goings-On Of Life

It's been a few days since I've posted here, so I figured it's time for an update! My weekend with Megan was great :) We made the most of it and managed to make a 2 day trip feel like much more. I think we got a total of about 6 hours of sleep the whole weekend. But I'm all recovered now. The plan is for her to come down for a real trip in a couple of weeks and she'll probably stay for about a week. The bed feels empty again now, and I'll have to adjust to that, but I'm left with a smile on my face from our visit.The 10:4 challenge officially ended a couple of days ago, and unfortunately I did not meet the 10 pound goal, but I'm still proud of myself. I lost 8.6 pounds, which is more than I've done in quite some time! In fact, since Katrina (now a little over 2 years) all I've done is gain weight. So to lose any weight at all is awesome. Carl has given me a chance to redeem myself though the RIP5 Challenge! This one is to lose 5 pounds by October 31st. Weight now is 187.4 pounds. So the goal is 182.4 pounds by October 31st. The 10:4 challenge did lead to some healthy changes for me. I've started drinking a lot more water and juice instead of cokes all the time. I've also cut back on the fast food, though I could definitely cut back some more still :/ In fact, if I just stopped eating fast food all together for these 2 months, I know I'd lose the 5 pounds...but I know I won't, so I'm not going to set unrealistic goals. I'm just going to be more conscientious than I've been!

The RIP Challenge has been so much fun, and it's only day 4! I kicked it off with Rob Zombie's Halloween on Saturday. I absolutely loved it! Halloween is probably my favorite classic slasher flick. Halloween and Halloween II are both excellent in my book. I'm even a big fan of 4 & 5. I'm also a huge fan of Rob Zombie's films. House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects are some of my favorite horror movies since the 70's and early 80's. When I heard he was doing Halloween, I got so excited and it was better than I expected. Warning! This film is not appropriate for those who are easily offended or do not like gore. I saw plenty of people who brought their children, I guess expecting just another horror movie (not knowing anything about Rob Zombie obviously), and they all walked out after the first 5 minutes of dialogue. Zombie did a great job with this film. The first half explains the origins of Michael Myers...the creation of a serial killer, his home life, his mental illness (some sort of dissociative disorder), and makes the movie believable...instead of just some supernatural horror movie killer, he's human...we actually feel for him, for the horrible childhood he has and for his illness. The second part of the movie is an almost exact replication of the original Halloween, but with a few twists, modernized, and with the more believable background story that we now know. I loved it!Just in time to be the mascot of the RIP challenge, I received my little purple poppet in the mail today :D He (I've decided it's a boy) is very cool and came with one of these little hands that I've been seeing and have been wanting! Here he is posing with Dracula that I have really been enjoying. It's such an atmospheric read, and even though it's hot as hell in New Orleans right now, it's managed to fool my brain into believing that it's Fall.

Tomorrow is a day of all things job related. I have a meeting with my licensure supervisor in the morning. She sounds really sweet over the phone, so I'm looking forward to meeting her. Then I have to start all of the paperwork and do the drug test and all of that fun stuff. My very temporary start date is September 24th, but that's subject to change. It all depends on paperwork going smoothly and my licensure paperwork being filed quickly...which in Louisiana post-Katrina..."quickly" isn't a word that's heard very often.

I missed short story Sunday this past weekend, so I'll be playing catch up next weekend. Regular blogs should now be back on the schedule.