strange and random happenstance

"My writing about the 1920s and 30s was born from a love of the contemporary literature, especially the mysteries. My Dorothy L Sayers are dog-eared from re-reading. Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Michael Innes and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple too. 

I do have a passion, as well, for some aspects of the actual 1920s and 30s. Unlike many enthusiasts, though, it's not the clothes. I adore the vintage clothes of the 40s, 50s and 60s (Doris Day in a pair of gingham capris is my style icon) but, oh my grated floor soap, I love 20s houses. Especially the kitchens, laundries and sculleries; the products and recipes; the vegetable gardens and garages; the sewing baskets and washing lines. 

There's quite a bit of tramping round stately homes, castles and mansions in the course of researching Dandy Gilver and the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms are all very well. But show me an attic floor of servants' bedrooms and a back stairway to the basement and I'm (a) in heaven and (b) wondering who set the trip wire at the top and sent who tumbling to the bottom and why and how Dandy's going to catch them."- Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson was born in Scotland, Edinburgh to be precise, unlike her famous sleuth Dandy Gilver, who just moved to Scotland upon marrying her husband Hugh Gilver. She lived in Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire, and Galloway before emigrating to the United States and settling in in California three years ago, though she's still coming to grips with how big our country is, though she might just beat me for number of states visited... nope, just checked, I'm at 29, she's at 22, let's see who's the first to 50! Married to another artistic soul, she is a little peeved that despite being a writer she isn't the most artistic member of her household. She loves reading, gardening, cooking, baking, and practising an extreme form of Scotch thrift, from eating home-grown food to dumpster-diving for major appliances. Catriona should really stop by Wisconsin in a few weeks when it's college moving time... great deals to be found in the gutters.

But more importantly is that not only has she just released the eighth book in the Dandy Gilver series in the UK, but she's winning some seriously awesome and well deserved awards, such as being the recipient of this past year's Agatha for Best Historical Novel! How awesome is that? And then in just random coolness, she's totally awesome to follow on facebook, so you should go do that. I am beyond jealous that she has the amazing Jessica Hische doing her cover art for her. She likes Doctor Who and Jane Austen to name just a few! Oh, and finally, her new book, As She Left It, is published by my bestie Amy's company Llewellyn Worldwide under their Midnight Ink imprint.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Agatha, Agatha Christie, As She Left It, Catriona McPherson, Dandy Gilver, Doctor Who, Dorothy L. Sayers, Golden Summer, Jane Austen, Jessica Hische, Margery Allingham, Miss Marple

Harbinger: A Book of the Order by Philippa Ballantine
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: July 30th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Deacons of the Order are all that stand between the wicked spirits of the Otherside and the innocent citizens of the Empire. They are sworn to protect humanity, even when they cannot protect themselves…

After the Razing of the Order, Sorcha Faris, one of the most powerful Deacons, is struggling to regain control of the runes she once wielded. The Deacons are needed more desperately than ever. The barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead is weakening, and the Emperor has abandoned his throne, seeking to destroy those he feels have betrayed him.

Though she is haunted by the terrible truth of her past, Sorcha must lead the charge against the gathering hordes of geists seeking to cross into the Empire. But to do so, she will need to manipulate powers beyond her understanding—powers that may prove to be her undoing…"

Ok, so I haven't actually started this series yet... but my love of Pip Ballantine's Ministry Series is SO STRONG that I not only picked up the first in the series, but heartily encourage you to do the same!

Fairest Volume Two: The Hidden Kingdoms by Bill Willingham
Published by: Vertigo
Publication Date: July 30th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure in the FABLES tradition, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.

In a stand-alone tale, Beast must hunt a beauty, but what is her relation to his past? And then, in a 6-part epic, Rapunzel lives one of the most regimented lives in Fabletown, forced to maintain her rapidly growing hair lest her storybook origins be revealed. But when word of her long-lost children surface, she races across the sea to find them--and a former lover."

Ok, so as you may know, I now have a full blown addiction to Fables. Sadly, I'm all caught up. But luckily the spin off series Fairest is just as awesome. Volume One kicked some serious ass and the coda with Beauty and the Beast means I'm WAY excited for this collection. Like way way way excited, pre-ordered in in December excited. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beauty and the Beast, Bill Willingham, Fables, Fairest, Harbinger, Ministry of Peculiar Occurances, Philippa Ballantine, Pip Ballantine

The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton (Laurence Bartram Book 2) by Elizabeth Speller
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: May 1st, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Laurence Bartram has been invited by his friends the Bolithos to come to Easton Deadall. William, despite his injuries from the war, has found a job. He is restoring the cottages in the village as well as creating a monument to the fallen. Easton Deadall lost all their men in the Great War, though the sad tragedy of the town goes back to before the war, when the five year old Kitty Easton was kidnapped out of her bedroom in the manor house and never seen again. While Laurence may question William's idea that a maze is the best tribute to the fallen, he is intrigued by the church he has been asked to look at. The carvings and the hastily tarred floor have secrets. They have pagan accents of green men and labyrinths. Yet inside the house is a world of hurt and pain. Kitty's mother still clings to the belief that her daughter is alive, while the rest of the household cannot move forward while Lydia clings to her dreams. Lydia is a sick woman, often laid up in bed, and the thought of her daughter is all that keeps her alive while it sinks the house into the quagmire of the past.

The arrival of Laurence and the Bolithos, as well as the return of the youngest Easton, Patrick, brings some much needed life and change to the house. Yet it also stirs up the past. When an excursion to London and the great 1924 British Empire Exhibition leads to the disappearance of the household's young maid, Maggie, the disappearance of Kitty, all those years ago, is brought even more into everyone's mind. The discovery of a dead female at Easton Deadall and a hidden chamber beneath the church lead to more questions and perhaps the possibility of finding out what happened to Kitty all those years ago.

I always find it interesting that my expectations versus the reality of a book can vary so much. I was not prepared to adore the first book in this series, The Return of Captain John Emmett, viewing it more as the book I had to read to be able to get to The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton, which I assumed would be my dream book. I mean a country house in Wiltshire, land of chalk and Terry Pratchett (yes, that's how I refer to it in my head), a mysterious disappearance years earlier, and mazes! I mean, that maze is what was really selling it for me, seeing as I have more then a little obsession with mazes and have built more then my fair share in cardboard, paper, and metal over the years. So yes, you might say me and mazes, and labyrinths in particular, are buddies. But when it came to the book, I just felt it didn't live up to the promise of the first book. Maybe it was my expectations, but while I enjoyed this book, it lacked the spark and originality of The Return of Captain John Emmett. It was less unique and more a mish mash of other things. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton was a bit of the Lindbergh kidnapping, deformities included, very much a strong helping of the Inspector Lynley episode "Limbo," and then to top it of, quite a bit of Gosford Park, at least with Digby and his darkness that mirrors Michael Gambon to an extent.

Now lets get to specifics. One aspect of the book that really annoyed me was the layout of the manor house, Easton Deadall. Now, I don't know if Speller intended the layout of the house to be a bit confusing to mirror the history of the house and its connection with mazes, the name itself perhaps a bastardization of Daedalus, but it just really got under my skin. I don't really get the layout at all. Were the gardens, terraces, maze, pond, basically all in front of the house? Because that doesn't really fit with, well, any kind of English architectural style. Usually they were behind the house with terraces, gardens, then tamed wilderness, to indicate mans taming of nature in successive steps from the full control of the house environs to the return to nature the further away you got. And William Bolitho, being an architect, would have commented on this rather strange set up in my mind. I need a place that I can get my mind around, a place of respite in the land red herrings and mysterious machinations, and the competing architectural styles combined with what Laurence saw out of certain windows drove me a little round the bend. His view from his room seemed to randomly change. Also, don't get me started on that oppressive maze. I like a maze, more then the next, but the setting was too confusing, labyrinthine and oppressive and instead of adding to the feel of the book, it just set me against it.

Yet, the manor house and all it's issues was nothing to what I found as the main flaw in this book. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is seedy and debauched. I couldn't get around this fact. While you might take the view that exposing the aristocracy and their flaws would be historically accurate and liberating to an extent, there's handling it with kid gloves and making it fascinating, a la Gosford Park where we absorb the horrors without them being explicit, and then there's exposing us to this world and going into vibrant detail about beatings and sexually transmitted diseases, pederasts and whore houses. No thank you! This also feeds into my issue of character development. Speller is a master of unique and individualized characters, but here, in the suffocating world of Easton Deadall, they are so beaten down and depressive, that I wanted to run there and give them all happy pills. Where was Laurence's wise cracking friend Charles when he was desperately needed? Speaking of favorite characters from the previous volume... one of the characters does something that I will not forgive Speller for writing. Is it realistic, yes. But you know what, in this horrid little bleak world she has created, I needed something good, someone good to hang onto. To take that away from me... that was the last straw. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton may have kept me absorbed, but it did not keep me happy, which is what a great book should do.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daedalus, Easton Deadall, Elizabeth Speller, Golden Summer, Gosford Park, Inspector Lynley, Labyrinth, Laurence Bartram, Mazes, The Return of Captain John Emmett, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton

The Return of Captain John Emmett (Laurence Bartram Book 1) by Elizabeth Speller
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: March 4th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Laurence Bartram survived the Great War, his wife and child did not. In the years since he has become more and more recluse ostensibly working on a book about churches while in his garret of an apartment. A letter from his past is about to bring him back into the world. Mary Emmett, attractive and nymph like younger sister of his former classmate John Emmett has reached out to Laurence as perhaps the one person in the world who knew her brother well. This past winter John killed himself after a stay in a sanatorium and Mary wants to know why. Laurence insists that he is not the right man to make these inquiries on her behalf because long before the war he lost touch with John and he wouldn't possibly know where to begin.

His affection for Mary and what might have been reluctantly enlists his help, and she does have a suggestion for a starting point. John left three bequests in his will to people other then his family. A Captain William Bolitho, a widow named Mrs. Lovell, and a Frenchman the solicitors were never able to find, a Monsieur Meurice. With these three names Laurence starts to piece together a horrific event that happened during the war, an event that still has ramifications as those who were present start turning up dead. Sadly Laurence realizes that John Emmett has ended up being more important to him dead then alive... just as he is to a mysterious figure in a coat and hat.

The Return of Captain John Emmett is a good old fashioned murder mystery that I could not put down. Phone calls went unanswered, emails were not replied to. I had a desperate need to just absorb this book into the very fibers of my being a la evil Willow in Buffy. In fact, I thought of the day I found this book at my local used bookstore and all I could think was, who could ever sell this awesome of a book? It had everything you could want! Atmospheric London right after the war, unrequited love, mysterious deaths, suicides that might not be as they seem, mistaken identities, adultery, murder, paternity issues, poetry, villains, heroes, humor, insane asylums, quaint rural pubs, love... everything!

What the meat of the book hung off of was the amazing character development. Each and every person was so unique and individual. While I think it might be a sin to say that Laurence wasn't my favorite, I mean, he was stolid and trustworthy and so sweet in how he seemed to always get the wrong end of the stick and he just stumbled into answers versus actually solving them, but my heart is with his best friend Charles. Firstly, Charles is a rabid Agatha Christie fan (even if she had only written one book when this book was set, not more, a historical accuracy oops). Yet Charles' love of mystery fiction doesn't go into too much of the cliched Watson and Holmes shtick that so many golden age mysteries suffer from. Instead it's manifest in his rapid love of the case and his suggested reading materials to Laurence. Plus, having Charles around would be wonderful, he always has a cousin who knows all the gossip, plus a car to get around. Sorry Laurence, you are trumped in the sleuth category in every category by Charles. Yet that's why I love this book, it's like Watson is the protagonist! But these are just two of the amazingly multi-faceted characters that are too many to be mentioned. From John Emmett's father and his very Mitford-esque nature, to George Chilvers, the power hungry possessive son of the owner of the secure facility that John Emmett was locked in, to the fiery red-head Mrs. Bolitho who was a nurse during the war and has very progressive political ideas. Not one person was flat and lifeless, they just emerged from the page fully formed and instantly became my friends.

Though the heart of the book is how Speller deals with the more difficult topics of what war does to someone. How to some, like the newspaperman Brabourne, it's just a phase in a life that will be reminiscences to his grandchildren, where to Emmett, it forever changed him and lead him to his grave at that folly in the countryside. Then there is Laurence, who has shut himself off from the world. This investigation he undertakes helps to bring him back to the world and out of his shell. Because of a simple letter asking for help he is slowly reentering the world. The strong characterization of each individual in the book let Speller examine the effects and tolls on myriad people, all who are different and unique. Life is a house of cards and one wrong rotten thing can ruin it... for some. Sometimes we can not be held accountable for everything that happens. We cope, we deal in our way. For some it's poetry, for others photography, some prefer isolation, and for others still, it is surrendering to your base animal instincts. Yet Speller handles all these sensitive issues and more without being preachy. She has created real people and through them we understand.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Bolitho, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Elizabeth Speller, Golden Summer, Laurence Bartram, Murder, Nancy Mitford, Shell Shock, Sherlock Holmes, Suicide, The Return of Captain John Emmett, Watson, WWI

Binny for Short by Hilary McKay
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A tender, sweet, and hilarious novel about growing up with a loving family and a perfectly rambunctious dog, from an author who “has set the standard of brilliance” (Horn Book).

When she was eight, Binny’s life was perfect: She had her father’s wonderful stories and Max, the best dog ever. But after her father’s sudden death, money is tight, and Aunty Violet decides to give Max away—he is just too big for their cramped new life. Binny knows she can’t get her dad back, but she never stops missing Max, or trying to find him. Then, when she’s eleven, everything changes again.

Aunty Violet has died, and left Binny and her family an old house in a seaside town. Binny is faced with a new crush, a new frenemy, and…a ghost? It seems Aunty Violet may not have completely departed. It’s odd being haunted by her aunt, but there is also the warmth of a busy and loving mother, a musical older sister, and a hilarious little brother, who is busy with his experiments. And his wetsuit. And his chickens.

You’ll delight in getting to know Binny and her charming, heartwarming family in this start to a new series from the inimitable Hilary McKay."

Hilary McKay is awesome, that cover, wow, awesome, hopefully the book is awesome too!

The White Princess by Philippa Gregory
Published by: Touchstones
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Caught between loyalties, the mother of the Tudors must choose between the red rose and the white.

Philippa Gregory, #1 New York Times best­selling author and “the queen of royal fiction” (USA Today), presents the latest Cousins’ War novel, the remarkable story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of the White Queen.

When Henry Tudor picks up the crown of England from the mud of Bosworth field, he knows he must marry the princess of the enemy house—Elizabeth of York—to unify a country divided by war for nearly two decades.

But his bride is still in love with his slain enemy, Richard III—and her mother and half of England dream of a missing heir, sent into the unknown by the White Queen. While the new monarchy can win power, it cannot win hearts in an England that plots for the triumphant return of the House of York.

Henry’s greatest fear is that somewhere a prince is waiting to invade and reclaim the throne. When a young man who would be king leads his army and invades England, Elizabeth has to choose between the new husband she is coming to love and the boy who claims to be her beloved lost brother: the rose of York come home at last."

I totally thought that the Cousins' War series was over... guess I was mistaken and it wasn't a trilogy.

Carniepunk by Rachel Caine et al
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 3448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Come one, come all! The Carniepunk Midway promises you every thrill and chill a traveling carnival can provide. But fear not! Urban fantasy’s biggest stars are here to guide you through this strange and dangerous world. . . .

RACHEL CAINE’s vampires aren’t child’s play, as a naïve teen discovers when her heart leads her far, far astray in “The Cold Girl.” With “Parlor Tricks,” JENNIFER ESTEP pits Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin, against the Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns. SEANAN McGUIRE narrates a poignant, ethereal tale of a mysterious carnival that returns to a dangerous town after twenty years in “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea.” KEVIN HEARNE’s Iron Druid and his wisecracking Irish wolfhound discover in “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street” that the impossibly wholesome sounding Kansas Wheat Festival is actually not a healthy place to hang out. With an eerie, unpredictable twist, ROB THURMAN reveals the fate of a psychopath stalking two young carnies in “Painted Love.”"

Could be interesting... could be terrifying.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Binny for Short, Carnipunk, Carnivale, Cousins' War, Hilary McKay, Jennifer Estep, Kevin Hearne, Philippa Gregory, Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Seanan McGuire, THe White Princess

"As for why I love the period –which is the same thing really as why I set my books in it: I had read all of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers or Ngaio Marsh's books while I was in my teens!

What novelists enjoy is putting their characters in jeopardy and then seeing how they get out of it (or don't!). The 1914-1918 Great War put everybody in jeopardy; it changed the lives of everybody in Britain; not just because of the huge casualties but because new ideas emerged - about a woman's place, about class, about foreigners. It offered exciting new possibilities in technology, in travel and in entertainment: cinema, jazz, recorded music. What followed in the 1920's was a fast-moving time of revolutions, economic disasters and a devil may care attitude among the elite.

There were too few men to provide husbands, too few who wanted to be servants in big houses. Heirs had been killed, once grand families were hiding the fact that they were nearly destitute.

In Golden Age fiction, which I have loved practically since I could read it, there are stock characters: the spinster, the brash incomer with new money, the injured war veteran, the outsider –usually a nattily dressed European. Mistrust of strangers, bequests, inheritances, false identities, lost letters and unsuitable marriage were very real issues but wonderful for a fiction writer.

What I like is that these situations and these characters, who were actually created by the aftermath of the war, appear in novels set in the 20's in quite traditional privileged surroundings: an Oxford College, a country house, a cathedral close, an exclusive school; apparently un-changed, closed societies and perfect places for tensions and a dramatic tale to unfold and to create atmosphere.

One of my books, The Return of Captain Emmett, concerns a young officer trying to settle back into peacetime but finding himself confronted with the death of a friend, the past and its violent mysteries. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is set in a struggling country house where the men who worked on the estate have almost all been killed in the war and a child has disappeared. In my next book, At Break of Day, (comes out in autumn) one character is a wealthy Englishman who has long lived in New York, escaping a potential scandal back home. In 1915 he is called up to serve his birth country and, returning to England, his secrets start to unravel." -  Elizabeth Speller

Elizabeth Speller is the author of three novels (one forthcoming this fall, which I am excited to read even though it doesn't star Laurence Bartram) and four non-fiction books, one of which is a memoir. She is also a poet and recently won the Bridport poetry competition and was short-listed for the Forward Prize in 2009, which led to her sensitive handling of poets in her book The Return of Captain John Emmett. Elizabeth Speller had the envious opportunity to read Classics at Cambridge as a mature student where she received a post-graduate degree in Ancient History. She has had numerous jobs, one of which, making a survey of inscriptions in a large village churchyard, I am sure helped with the creation of Laurence Bartram, and most definitely contributed to his own fictitious book on churches.

Elizabeth is currently the Chair of the Criticos Prize (for an outstanding book in English about, or inspired by, Greece) and holds a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Warwick. She divides her time between Glouchestershire and Greece, working in a restored shepherd's hut in an old apple orchard on the edge of a Cotswold valley and in a small cottage on the Ionian island of Paxos. The Return of Captain John Emmett is an astounding mystery that will rivet you to your seat and was actually chosen as a Richard and Judy Summer Book Club pick in 2011, though I would hope you are more swayed by me then Richard and Judy... This book was followed up with the labyrinthine The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton, which I am hoping fervently will not be the last we see of Laurence Bartram. I am honored to have Elizabeth Speller as the first of many authors participating in my Golden Summer, a place rightfully reserved for her and Laurence!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, At Break of Day, Cambridge, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth Speller, Golden Summer, Greece, Laurence Bartram, The Great War, The Return of Captain John Emmett, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton

While the "Golden Age of Detection" has come and gone, we can always revisit it by opening the pages of these hallowed classics. But the problem is, once you have read all these books, there is no more. There is a finite number of these classics, and once read, well, you can obviously re-read them many times till the covers are worn and frayed, but you will always know whodunit. Thankfully there are authors who have come to answer our plight. In literature there is, I wouldn't say a new, but currently a very prevalent trend, to go back and live within this golden age. To have mysteries once more set within the heyday of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. New fresh stories with modern twists on old tropes. A balm to our hearts that are yearning for more.

My "Golden Summer" will now shift it's focus from the old doyennes and masters of the craft, to those authors currently writing in the genre that was created by these great luminaries. I have been blessed with not only loving these author's works, but having the joy of when I reached out to them to have them not only contact me back, but enthusiastically agree to take part in my blog this summer. There is nothing more wonderful then the thrill of sending an email out to an author and getting a little ping back in your inbox. While I could keep you waiting to see who is participating... I view that a little as cruel and unusual punishment, therefore, without further ado, I present my Golden Summer lineup: Joanna Challis, Carola Dunn, Kerry Greenwood, Catriona McPhearson, J.J. Murphy, and Elizabeth Speller. This is quite literally my dream lineup, but while I told you who is participating, you'll have to come back to see why they set their books when they do. I know, I'm such a tease!

Remember to check back often as I'll have guest posts from all these authors, and don't forget to enter the giveaway. You want free books right?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Carola Dunn, Catriona McPhearson, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth Speller, Golden Age of Detection, Golden Summer, J.J. Murphy, Joanna Challis, Kerry Greenwood

Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: July 16th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Italian Renaissance novels—The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan, and Sacred Hearts—has an exceptional talent for breathing life into history. Now Sarah Dunant turns her discerning eye to one of world’s most intriguing and infamous families—the Borgias—in an engrossing work of literary fiction.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and inside the Church. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy as Alexander VI, he is defined not just by his wealth or his passionate love for his illegitimate children, but by his blood: He is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic, consummate politician with a huge appetite for life, women, and power must use papacy and family—in particular, his eldest son, Cesare, and his daughter Lucrezia—in order to succeed.

Cesare, with a dazzlingly cold intelligence and an even colder soul, is his greatest—though increasingly unstable—weapon. Later immortalized in Machiavelli’s The Prince, he provides the energy and the muscle. Lucrezia, beloved by both men, is the prime dynastic tool. Twelve years old when the novel opens, hers is a journey through three marriages, and from childish innocence to painful experience, from pawn to political player.

Stripping away the myths around the Borgias, Blood and Beauty is a majestic novel that breathes life into this astonishing family and celebrates the raw power of history itself: compelling, complex and relentless."

Ever since 2005 when I read and fell in love with Dunant's The Birth of Venus I have been in love with her books. So how excited am I that she has a new one? Very is the answer... she is one author I really look forward to.

The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M. Valente
Published by: VIZ Media LLC
Publication Date: July 16th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Science fiction and fantasy stories about Japan by the multiple-award winning author and New York Times best seller Catherynne M. Valente.

A collection of some of Catherynne Valente’s most admired stories, including the Hugo Award-nominated novella Silently and Very Fast and the Locus Award finalist “13 Ways of Looking at Space/Time,” with a brand-new long story to anchor the collection."

This isn't so much a "go buy this book" (which I probably will anyway, it's Cat Valente afterall) but a STOP USING THIS FONT! It's one of the fonts from the Lost Type Co-op... and yes, they are beautiful, but so overused that now every time I see one I cringe.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blood and Beauty, Catherynne M. Valente, Sarah Dunant, The Birth of Venus, The Borgias, The Melancholy of Mechagirl