strange and random happenstance

Artemis by Andy Weir
Published by: Crown
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The bestselling author of The Martian returns with an irresistible new near-future thriller—a heist story set on the moon.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first."

Anyone who has read The Martian I'm sure has been eagerly awaiting this book. 

Ice by Anna Kavan
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dazzling and haunting vision of the end of the world, Ice is a masterpiece of literary science fiction now in a new 50th anniversary edition with a foreword by Jonathan Lethem.

In a frozen, apocalyptic landscape, destruction abounds: great walls of ice overrun the world and secretive governments vie for control. Against this surreal, yet eerily familiar broken world, an unnamed narrator embarks on a hallucinatory quest for a strange and elusive “glass-girl” with silver hair. He crosses icy seas and frozen plains, searching ruined towns and ransacked rooms, all to free her from the grips of a tyrant known only as the warden and save her before the ice closes all around. A novel unlike any other, Ice is at once a dystopian adventure shattering the conventions of science fiction, a prescient warning of climate change and totalitarianism, a feminist exploration of violence and trauma, a Kafkaesque literary dreamscape, and a brilliant allegory for its author’s struggles with addiction—all crystallized in prose glittering as the piling snow.

Acclaimed upon its publication as one of the best science fiction books of the year, Kavan’s 1967 novel has built a reputation as an extraordinary and innovative work of literature, garnering acclaim from China Miéville, Patti Smith, J. G. Ballard, Anaïs Nin, and Doris Lessing, among others. With echoes of dystopian classics like Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, and J. G. Ballard’s High Rise, Ice is a necessary and unforgettable addition to the canon of science fiction classics."

Seeing as I've read so many of these other authors I think I HAVE to read this dystopian classic.

Ours is the Winter by Laurie Ellingham
Published by: HQ Digital
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Kindle, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Journeying across the Arctic, their pasts are about to catch up with them.

Erica, Molly and Noah are embarking on the challenge of a lifetime, driving Siberian huskies across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Cut off from the world and their loved ones and thrown together under gruelling conditions, it isn’t long before the cracks start to show.

Erica has it all. A loving husband, a successful career and the most adorable baby daughter. But Erica has been living a double life, and as she nears her fortieth birthday her lies threaten to come crashing down.

Molly was on her way to stardom. But when her brother died, so did her dreams of becoming an Olympic champion. Consumed by rage and grief, she has shut out everyone around her, but now she’s about to learn that comfort can come from the most unexpected places.

Noah has a darkness inside him and is hounded by nightmares from his past. Tortured, trapped and struggling to save his fractured relationship, he knows this journey is not going to help, but try telling his girlfriend that.

As their lives and lies become ever more entwined, it becomes clear that in the frozen wilds there is nowhere to hide."

Yeah, I'm a little arctic obsessed of late...

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
Published by: John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siècle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she’s sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina.

At loose ends after Dorina becomes enamored with their uncle’s friend, Lady Henrietta “Henry” Wotton, a local aristocrat and aesthete, Evadne enrolls in a fencing school. There, she meets George Cantrell, an experienced fencing master like she’s always dreamed of studying under. But soon, George shows her something more than fancy footwork—he reveals to Evadne a secret, hidden world of devilish demons and their obedient servants. George has dedicated himself to eradicating demons and diabolists alike, and now he needs Evadne’s help. But as she learns more, Evadne begins to believe that Lady Henry might actually be a diabolist . . . and even worse, she suspects Dorina might have become one too.

Combining swordplay, the supernatural, and Victorian high society, Creatures of Will and Temper reveals a familiar but strange London in a riff on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray that readers won't soon forget."

But will it be a successful riff? 

The Wild Book by Juan Villoro
Published by: Restless Books
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From one of Mexico’s foremost authors comes a wondrous adventure story of a boy who goes to live with his kooky, book-obsessed uncle in a library where books have a supernatural power all their own.

“We walked toward the part of the library where the air smelled as if it had been interred for years….. Finally, we got to the hallway where the wooden floor was the creakiest, and we sensed a strange whiff of excitement and fear. It smelled like a creature from a bygone time. It smelled like a dragon.”

Thirteen-year-old Juan’s favorite things in the world are koalas, eating roast chicken, and the summer-time. This summer, though, is off to a terrible start. First, Juan’s parents separate and his dad goes to Paris. Then, as if that wasn’t horrible enough, Juan is sent away to his strange Uncle Tito’s house for the entire break! Uncle Tito is really odd: he has zigzag eyebrows; drinks ten cups of smoky tea a day; and lives inside a huge, mysterious library.

One day, while Juan is exploring the library, he notices something inexplicable and rushes to tell Uncle Tito. “The books moved!” His uncle drinks all his tea in one gulp and, sputtering, lets his nephew in on a secret: Juan is a Princeps Reader––which means books respond magically to him––and he’s the only person capable of finding the elusive, never-before-read Wild Book.

Juan teams up with his new friend Catalina and his little sister, and together they delve through books that scuttle from one shelf to the next, topple over unexpectedly, or even disappear altogether to find The Wild Book and discover its secret. But will they find it before the wicked, story-stealing Pirate Book does?"

Come on, it's books and adventure? You know you want to read it too! Also, is that a cat on the book cover!?!

Skavenger's Hunt by Mike Rich
Published by: Inkshares
Publication Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 300 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After young Henry Babbitt tragically loses his father, he can’t help but remember the promises of the great adventures they would now never take. Then, on a snowy Christmas Eve, his grandfather reveals that he’s tracked down a series of mysterious century-old clues left by Hunter S. Skavenger, the eccentric magnate who launched the first and greatest scavenger hunt.

Hours later, on Christmas Day, Henry finds himself magically transported back to 1885, where he teams up with a ragtag band of youngsters in a quest to solve Skavenger’s elaborate puzzle. From New York to the Mississippi riverboats to the streets of old Paris, Henry and his new friends face off not only against brilliant competing teams, but also Skavenger’s own dark and elusive nemesis: Hiram Doubt."

Who doesn't like a bit of a puzzle? 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Andy Weir, Anna Kavan, Artemis, Creatures of Will and Temper, Ice, Juan Villoro, Laurie Ellingham, Mike Rich, Molly Tanzer, Ours is the Winter, Skavenger's Hunt, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Wild Book

Lucien just might be the easiest character I have ever dream cast from Lauren Willig's oeuvre. The second I heard of this supposed prince of darkness I instantly thought of Reeve Carney who plays the mysterious Dorian Gray on the always fabulous Penny Dreadful. In fact, I'd say Dorian and Lucien might have quite a bit in common, except for the fact that one is evil and the other... well, you'll have to read The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla to know for sure.

Name: Reeve Carney

"Dream" Character Casting for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Lucien, Duke of Belliston

First Impression: Penny Dreadful all the way. This show is so stylish and is such an interesting combination of literary characters in the demimonde. How could I not love it? Plus, Reeve brings something sexy and enigmatic to the character of Dorian Gray, something that is really lacking from Oscar Wilde's book. Yes, I said it. Dorian Gray as a book isn't very good.

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Firstly, just look at him! He's got the overly long hair, the mysterious air, and a smile just quirking the corner of his mouth as if he's trying to hold back from laughing at whatever Sally has just said. Also, at least in Penny Dreadful, he has an interest in botany, much like Lucien's mother. But more importantly, he feels a combination of British and other, probably because he is American, or immortal, and therefore I think an ideal candidate for Lucien; he can't be too British after spending so much time down in New Orleans! Also, the accent is totally working in his favor!

Lasting Impression: Penny Dreadful. Seriously folks, one and done for this actor. Rarely does an actor so capture me the first time I've seen him, but everyone on Penny Dreadful, including those actors, like Reeve, who I'd never seen before, were truly memorable. In other words, WATCH PENNY DREADFUL PEOPLE!

What else you've seen them in: Reeve has been more into music than acting, see the Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble" music video. Yes, I just said Taylor Swift. But he has had an interestingly varied career from a young turn on Dave's World, you all remember that show based on Dave Barry's life right, to being in Julie Taymor's The Tempest, which I was way too cowardly to watch after the memorable impression that her version of Titus made on me.

Can't believe it's them: And speaking of things that I can't believe and Julie Taymor, Reeve was the star of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark! Seriously, I will never be able to get this hilarious information into a proper place in my brain where it makes sense. He was in the most lampooned Broadway show like ever! And he was the star! Oh, I wonder how many limbs he broke...

Wish they hadn't: Seriously, I'm not getting off this Spider-Man thing ANYTIME SOON! Though it looks like he didn't break any limbs. Still, can't stop laughing.

Bio: Reeve was born in New York and from the beginning performing was in his blood seeing as his great uncle was the wonderful actor Art Carney. His family moved to California where he attended the Academy of Music at Alexander Hamilton High School where he met his future band mates. In fact by the age of fifteen he was playing guitar professionally at B.B. King's night club in L.A. Though he continued his education majoring in college in studio jazz guitar, not forsaking study for fame. His first band opened for such groups as Arcade Fire and U2. While still doing music it's his acting chops on Penny Dreadful that are really getting him noticed. Mmm, Penny Dreadful.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Broadway, Dorian Gray, Dream Casting, Julie Taymor, Lauren Willig, Lucien, Oscar Wilde, Penny Dreadful, Reeve Carney, Spiderman, Taylor Swift, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Published by: The Franklin Library
Publication Date: 1891
Format: Hardcover, 243 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

The painter Basil Hallward has found his muse in Dorian Gray. Just having the dazzling and innocent youth in his life has made his work reach heights he never thought it would. Basil longs to keep Dorian his secret but his dear friend Lord Harry Wotton is so enthralled by the portrait that Basil is painting of Dorian that he demands to meet the youth whose likeness is sure to be the best painting of Basil's career. But the meeting of Harry and Dorian changes everything. Harry fills the empty vessel of Dorian's mind with vanity for his own beauty and that naivete that Basil so adores quickly starts to slip away from Dorian. Upon gazing at the finished portrait Dorian makes a heartfelt plea that he might remain forever youthful and pure in his looks while his likeness ages and withers before his eyes. Little does Dorian know that sometimes wishes come true. After an ill fated love affair Dorian realizes that sometimes the unexplainable happens and soon he's on the path of vice and immorality while his portraiture suffers, all guided by the steady hand of Harry.

The late nineties was the perfect time to develop an Oscar Wilde obsession. Almost a hundred years after his death the cinema was filled with marvelous new adaptations of his most celebrated plays as well as a biopic starring that celebrity I am most likely to kidnap to read all my books to me, Stephen Fry. Even that one movie I saw more then any movie ever in theaters, Velvet Goldmine, had a little Wilde in it. Birthdays and holidays I was gifted new Wilde books, from The Importance of Being a Wit: The Insults of Oscar Wilde to the Wilde: Screenplay. I even had a postcard from my friend Paul promoting Wilde with Stephen Fry in his dapper photoshop pink suit that I remember holding pride of place on the mirror in my bedroom for many years. In fact, I'm pretty sure given the impetus I could dig it out again. I waited for each adaptation with baited breath and saw them all on opening weekend, even if I had to see Wilde at our rather run down art house cinema where half your attention was on the screen and the other half on the ceiling hoping it wouldn't collapse. Wilde and his wit became a way of life for me. 

When I ended up becoming a theater major through the back door by way of classes cross-listed with my art major I felt like I was becoming more in tune with Wilde's world. I studied the history of the theater and read my fair share of plays from the Greeks right up to Wilde himself. In the fall of 2001 I was taking a class that was meant to expand our critical writing skills of plays, both productions and text being analyzed. I was frustrated with this class in that I had spent my life honing these skills and to be given simple exercises that I could have done in freshman year of high school, well, my mind tended to wander. What my mind wandered to was the one thing I was looking forward to in this class, and that was my semester long project on a play of my choice. It almost goes without mentioning that I chose The Importance of Being Earnest. I dove into the research material and lived there while blocking out the boring class. I learned the finer details of Bunburying and the great value of not misplacing your handbag.

While researching my paper I read a selection of Wilde's non-fiction essays and quickly came to the conclusion that he needed to remain a playwright. Reading his only book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, has not changed my opinion on this, in fact it has reinforced it. Plays and prose are such vastly different creatures. The way Wilde writes, every single sentence or line of dialogue is quotable. This works better in a play, because the way the actors bring the words to life and bounce them off each other the rapid fire wit entrances you. In a book it tends to get bogged down and lost. The back and forth of unassigned dialogue makes you confused and makes it loose it's punch. So many of the lines from The Picture of Dorian Grey are classics of Wilde's wit, but read in context they just loose something ineffable.

The best way I've thought of describing this ineffable issue, which, given it's ineffable is near impossible, is to compare Wilde to Nancy Mitford. Nancy Mitford wrote all her books so that each and every line amused her. Some were inside jokes, others mere wordplay, but each book was crafted to the nth degree sentence by sentence. Now Nancy wrote eight fiction books in her lifetime, only half of those are worth reading. Because of the way Nancy wrote the success of her brand of humor was hit or miss, either wonderful or awful. Given Wilde crafted his sole book in a near identical way he had about a fifty-fifty chance of success, and he did not succeed. Nancy had more time to get it right, and I must say it's a pity that Wilde didn't have that luxury, dying at the age of 46. As a reader I am not someone to necessarily be amused by an author who is amused by their own wit. I don't want to be highlighting every line as a favorite quote. You need the book to ebb and flow with valleys and peaks. Even if I take away the fact that Wilde wants us to stay at the top of this mountain range, when he does deign to descend, he gives us weird ramblings about gems and tapestries that would try the patience of any reader.

I am not the only one to have issues with this book. The Victorian society into which Wilde debuted his novel was scandalized by the hedonism and homosexuality of the book. This is another instance where I agree with someone having a problem with the book, but not for the same reasons. Wilde's themes and how he is laying them bare is what intrigued me while scandalizing those prudish Victorians. The way he wrote it is where my annoyance lay. Yet it wasn't my only issue. The self-impressed characters, especially Lord Harry, are people I would have to murder if I spent more then five minutes with them. Also, while the book's themes were worthy, the way they were handled was not with a deft hand. The hedonism was in some regards too obvious and in others too opaque, giving us a muddled view as to how evil Dorian has really become. If you're going to really show how a man's soul has been corrupted, I don't think you can go by halves here. Wilde's already scandalized the public, why not go all out?

The chilling fact that this all stems from Dorian wanting to remain the societal ideal of beauty is the most intriguing aspect of this book, but again it is badly handled. NO ONE EVER COMMENTS ON DORIAN NOT AGING! I just don't get this. By the end of the book he's what, thirty-eight and looking twenty-one? Someone would say something, wouldn't they? Or were Victorians really that missish to think it rude to ask? So while I applaud Wilde for handling a topic that is still relevant to today's society, IE, worshipping at the Temple of Youth where appearance is everything, he could have done a better job. But seeing as Wilde himself was felled by a twenty one year old, well... getting it wrong in literature is not nearly as bad as getting it wrong in your life.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Classics of Horror and Suspense, Nancy Mitford, Oscar Wilde, Playwright, Stephen Fry, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Theatre, Velvet Goldmine, Victorian, Wilde