The Best Laid Intentions

So why start this blog? That's a good way to start this blog, huh? I'm a lover of books. That's no surprise to anyone who knows me. I think that few publishers have had as rich and influential of an influence on the publishing industry and as remarkable of a history as Penguin has. They've consistently put out amazing titles and I think they've been trendsetters in their designs.

I'm the first to admit that a good cover will ALWAYS cause me to gain some curiosity on a book, often to the point of just buying it :p Penguin, along with their many imprints now, continue to put out amazing lines of books.

What originally started me wanting to do this project was wanting to read the original Penguin paperbacks. Though they're SO hard to find here in the US. But that won't stop me :p The design was so simple, yet so aesthetically pleasing. They were published during the wars when people were looking for distractions and were color coded based on the subject matter of the book. I'd love to own them all one day, but that's a bit ambitious!

Since then they've put out MULTIPLE lines of other amazing books including their Penguin classics line, their gorgeous penguin hardcover classics with the amazing cloth covers, and tons of different smaller imprints that have unique covers. One of my favorites are their Penguin Great Food series which I'm lucky enough to have a few of. They've also put out a series of Shakespeare books through their Pelican imprint and continue to put out amazing childrens books through their Puffin imprint.

Yeah...you can see why I'd like to read as many of this publisher's books as I can. Even their regular old literary fiction titles are some of my favorites out there. So this blog will sort of be a learning experience for me. It'll be about what I find and bring into the house, my thoughts on the different designs that Penguin is putting out, reviews of course on the Penguins I read, and my journey through it all.

Is it dangerous to add yet ANOTHER specific type of book I'd like to collect when it's already bad enough? Well of course....but there could be much worse problems, right? RIGHT? :p

Two Weeks With the Queen by Morris Gleitzman

Puffin Books, 1999

I love it when a book surprises you. I love it even more when you think a book will be good before you read it and then it surpasses even those high expectations. I love it when a book makes you cry huge sobbing tears. I love it when a book makes you laugh hysterically. I love it when a book touches you with characters that are so loveable and three dimensional. This book did all of those things and is officially now on my list of favorite books ever. So taken over by this one. Colin is thirteen and is a very smart little kid. Despite his heart of gold, he gets awfully jealous of the attention that his younger brother, Luke, gets from his parents. Even when his brother passes out at Christmas and gets rushed to the hospital, he's still jealous that his brother has stolen the show. But he loves him. And it affects him deeply when he learns that his brother has an incurable form of cancer. His parents don't want him to have to watch his brother die, so they ship him off to stay with his aunt and uncle in England while his brother gets treatment in Sydney. Colin decides that he is NOT going to let his little brother die. He'll get the queen to help him...or find the best doctors in the world...or go to whatever means he needs to to have her cured. Along the way, he forms a bond with a young man who's partner is also fighting for his life and they form a bond that's amazing. I can't even put into words how much I loved this book. It's only 127 pages, but this book is more powerful in that amount of space than books I've read that were 800 pages. Gleitzman is just such a touching and such a charming writer. Even in the darkest moments of the book, there were things that made me laugh hysterically. And then I was sobbing with the next paragraph. This is exactly the type of book I love and I wish I could find more of them. I'm betting that Gleitzman's novels are all wonderful. And I've ordered two of them already from Paperback Swap...can't wait to read them now!

Light Boxes by Shane Jones

I'm home with a migraine today and I'm medicated enough to be able to look at the computer screen right now, so I thought I'd ACTUALLY write a couple of reviews. I know...haven't done that in ages. I finished two books last night that I didn't completely understand, but still enjoyed despite that. They were Light Boxes by Shane Jones and H Day by Renee French.

Light Boxes is full of magical realism and it's short enough that I could probably read it a couple more times to really grasp it. I know some people that would relate to this book fairly well :p It's premise is that February has taken hold of a town and won't let go of it's grip. All signs of new growth and warmth have disappeared from the town and flight has been banned. Birds can't fly, balloons can't sail, the town is a big blanket of snow and children and joy are disappearing from the town. It's basically neverending, depressing winter. But the townspeople decide to revolt against February by forming things like light boxes that spread warmth and setting things ablaze for warmth. But February doesn't go down without a fight. February himself is depressed and doesn't always know why he's keeping the town in eternal depression and winter, but he does, nonetheless. I'm afraid this is as much as I can describe the novel to you :/ Great job, huh? lol. It's written very well...one of the more unique styles that I've ever seen a book have. It's broken into very short chapters, sometimes a page long, switching between the view of February, town members, lists, and the main character, Thaddeus' daughter. It's just....hard to follow sometimes. I caught myself thinking "what?" at times...but somehow still really enjoyed and appreciated the story and the style of the book. It's filled with moments of quotes that are just pure beauty and imagery that takes your breath away. Like I said...may just need another reading or two. The other book I read was equally confusing, but at the same time, I could relate to it. It's a wordless graphic novel called H Day, written by Renee French. It's best described as an abstract look at migraines and ant infestations. Yes....you read that right. I followed the migraine path more, possibly because I can relate to it. The artist and storyteller BEAUTIFULLY illustrates her struggles with migraines and her struggles with argentine ant infestations on opposite pages...telling two stories at once that blend together to literally form a feeling of panic, inundation, beauty and chaos as you "read" it. The art in this book was absolutely amazing. The migraine story line resembled (at least to me) the artwork that accompanies Radiohead's albums. I just loved it. And I thought it captured the feeling of migraines perfectly as we see a faceless man's head being manipulated, pulled, prodded and tied as the story progresses. I felt Renee's pain. The ant story was a bit more confusing...you certainly get the feeling of a takeover...an army launching it's campaign, as you follow the story line. And the art was just stunning. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Shaun Tan's art work. Yeah...maybe I should stay away from reviewing books while I have a migraine :p But this was definitely worth the read and it's a little book that I'd love to have on my coffee table for people to flip through. Gorgeous stuff. Ok...I'm going to shut up now :/

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

So I'm here to talk about FOUR books today!!! Mini review style. Because I've had this bad habit lately of not blogging lately :( And instead of making excuses why I haven't been blogging, I'm just going to actually blog and review books because this is a review blog...sort of...not really. It's kind of a whatever I want it to be blog. But that's besides the point. What I'm going to give you here are my thoughts on four really excellent books that should have longer posts where I go into extreme detail on why I loved each of them, but honestly, it's either been too long now since I read them or I'm just too sick right now (I have a bad cold) to think clearly enough to write those thoughts out. So without further ado, I give you thoughts...sponsored by cold medicine: Maybe it is best that I review I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly in mini-review format, because not much needs to be said about it except for the fact that it's brilliant. It's a graphic novel that deals with the subject of trauma and how one girl, Barbara, deals with it. I posted my thoughts on my tumblr blog about why I think the graphic novel format is so perfect for this type of book, books that deal with psychological issues. I don't think I've read a better book on trauma...that portrayed it so accurately and conveyed the emotions so well...that made me feel the emotions of the character as well as Joe Kelly did with Barbara. The secondary characters in I Kill Giants were just as wonderful as Barbara. I loved the counselor and her sister and her friend...everyone was so very human. And perhaps that was what made this very fantastic story so very true and so very beautiful. Next up is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle which I'm currently hosting for the Classic Reads Book Club! And oh what fun it is to be hosting this book right now!!! This was my first Shirley Jackson novel. The only other thing I had read by her was "The Lottery", her short story which I've always loved. This book was wonderful despite a few lingering questions that I have that I'll leave to be discussed at the book club site. It follows two sisters and their uncle who hide themselves away in a house after their whole family has been poisoned by arsenic. They have been acquitted of the murder, but the town has not acquitted them in their minds. Jackson is SO good at setting up a perfectly atmospheric novel and creating this ominous feel to her tales. I just love it! And you always know while you're reading that there's just something "off" about things..the characters, the place, the situation. I just loved this book...though maybe I could've used another chapter to answer a few more questions for me.... By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters just knocked the wind out of me. I don't think I was expecting this book to be as emotional of a read as it was. But then again, it's Julie Anne Peters...I guess I should've seen it coming. It's an amazing book. So amazing. It follows a teenager named Daelyn who has attempted suicide several times in her past due to past bullying and traumatic events. But this time, she doesn't plan on living to tell the story. She's joined a suicide website where she's planned her final days and the novel follows her days as she counts down to her "day of determination". Daelyn can't talk for reasons that are eventually explained, yet she meets a boy named Santana who forms an interest in her along the way and we know from the beginning as the reader that he may be her only salvation...but is he even enough? This one is a big freaking punch in the gut, let me tell you...I warned you ahead of time. But it's one that's necessary, as are all of Peters' books that I've read so far. This is an author that I can't thank enough for coming into my life. Her books are just absolutely AMAZING!!! So far I've read about same sex parenting of a teenager, a book about a transgendered teen, and now one about bullying and teen suicide. She writes about things that need to be talked about and are not talked about enough. And she writes about them SO WELL. Read this book. And finally there's a lovely surprise that I didn't even know existed until a few days ago!!! The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger! It's a graphic novel that she's just released. It's short, but it's such a treasure. Picture walking into a library and perusing the shelves and realizing that what was on the shelves was everything you have ever read in your life. Like the EXACT copy of everything you've ever read from when you were a child. Even like the back of cereal boxes. Well that's what this book is about. A woman is walking the streets of Chicago one night and finds an old Winnebago on the side of the road and it turns out to be a bookmobile. When she steps inside, she finds that it is a library of every book she has ever read. But it is years before the bookmobile returns again and it becomes an obsession of hers to find the bookmobile again...reading becomes an obsession of hers...books become an obsession...but mostly, finding the bookmobile becomes an obsession. Oh, I really can't tell you much about it because it's so short. But it's so good! The art is so different, but I really liked it! Looks to me as if she did it all in watercolors. If you're a book lover (and we all are) I think you're sure to love this one. And she says in the afterword that it's part of a larger collection she hopes to do called "The Library"! Hooray!!! Ok...all caught up now finally!!! YAY :D Now back to my current reads, Fated by S.G. Brown, The Armless Maiden and Other Tales For Childhood Survivors edited by Terri Windling, The Stand by Stephen King and My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer. That should keep me busy, eh?

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Penguin Books, 2007

Every now and then a novel comes along that plays games with me. It's not until I can view it in it's entirety that I can sort out my opinions on it. Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera was one of those novels for me. It started out fantastic, a unique story with a well developed setting and well defined characters that I enjoyed. As I continued with the novel, my thoughts began to blur. The characters became blurry for me. I didn't know how to feel about them. My thoughts would change from page to page. Characters that I loved would suddenly seem vile and vice versa. But by the time I finished the novel, Marquez had sealed the deal for me. His beautiful words had won me over and I'm so happy that I chose to read this wonderful work of literature.

Love in the Time of Cholera is a love story. It is not your typical love story, however. This story is honest. The characters admit that sometimes love is feigned and at other times love comes as a surprise. It is the story of Fermina Daza, Juvenal Urbino, and Florentino Ariza; three characters that will remain with me for a long time. The setting is Colombia in the early 20th century and Marquez does an amazing job at placing the reader in that setting with it's warm landscape, almond trees, and markets. Florentino Ariza pledges his love to Fermina Daza when they are both in their youth, but the relationship is forbidden by Daza's father. Fermina Daza marries Juvenal Urbino, a doctor who saves the town from the cholera epidemic, and Florentino Ariza spends the next fifty years having various affairs with women who will never match up to Fermina Daza while observing her from the sidelines. When Urbino dies, Ariza once again pledges his love to Daza.

This book won the Nobel Prize for literature and I can't argue with that. I don't know if this book would be for everyone though. It is not a fast moving book at all, and I think that it is best read slowly. I'd also recommend that it be read in the summer as it goes nicely with the weather. This book reads like a memoir, a history of lovers. There are emotional highs and lows; anger, betrayal, love, passion, death, deceit, hilarity, honesty, and contentedness. There were times when I found it hard to stick with the book because it seemed stagnant, but it all comes together when observed as a whole and that final picture is a beautiful one. I'm glad that I saw this one through. Marquez has written a true masterpiece of literature and I look forward to visiting some of his other works.

Other Reviews:

Chris (Book A Rama)