I slept in until noon today and I definitely wasn't planning on that. Actually, I got up at eight to finish my cookies and then I went back to sleep at ten, planning on only sleeping for about thirty minutes. Silly me for not setting an alarm. It wouldn't be a big deal but I'm going to a Christmas/Birthday party at two o'clock so I have zero time.
I am not in Iowa City anymore, I'm at my parents house very far away from Iowa City. Actually not really, only about in a hour and a half. So far my mom has pushed a hydrating nasal rinse on me because I have a small nose and asked me if I'm eating enough fruit in Iowa City. Gotta love moms! My boyfriend brought his presents for my parents over yesterday but my dog has started to open them. Woops!
Last week was a good reading week for me because I had nothing else to do. I didn't finish quite all the books I wanted to, but I never expect that I will. I finished The Eyre Affair, The Moment Between, and The Red Necklace. I also posted a review of In A Gilded Cage, which I finished two weeks ago. I did some deep thinking this week about how people look at you when you read certain types of books, and how it doesn't really matter. Today I plan on finishing The White Garden by Stephanie Barron and The Clumsiest People on Earth edited by Todd Pruzan. I am also reading The Luxe by Anna Godbersen right now and I must admit that I am hooked! This week I also plan on reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors by Nigel Cawthorne. I was only planning on reading four YA books for my self challenge, but I ended up purchasing the first three of The Luxe series and I might end up reading all three before I turn 20. We shall see!
I do like a nice book cover, but I don't give them nearly as much thought as Jana at the Broke and Bookish so my list won't be as in-depth or interesting as hers. Mine aren't in any order either because I'm just putting them in as I think of them basically.
There were times when I was reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova where I just couldn't help but stop reading and look at the cover. This is truly one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. I love the darkness of the background and how the image changes for you as you read the book and find out more about the story. The text is great as well, kind of a mix between old and new, which is something the book plays with a lot. Also, I know this isn't part of the cover and I don't know what the books that have been released look like, but on my ARC the binding is gold and looks quite nice on my shelf.
One of the most effective ways to sell books is probably to have them cover out instead of binding out. If it wasn't for that, I never would have seen The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell this weekend. I was attracted to this cover because of the bright colors, fun font style, and the mystery about why she's covering her face with a picture of her dad. I picked up the book and read the back cover, thought it looked interesting so I opened it up to find it was a graphic novel! I was really excited to find a graphic novel in memoir form because I loved Persepolis so I bought it right away.
This cover is really simple and white, with a great brightly covered image that totally sums up the message of this book. It looks comicy, but still empowering. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson is probably one of my favorite covers from books I've read this summer. Every time I see the librarian with her cape I smile and I realized something a little different about the picture every time I look at it. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that those were books she was flying out of.
I think part of the reason I read Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick was that every time I looked at it I said "Pretty!" I love Sunflowers and Vincent Van Gogh's art and I think it was really effective to do a close up of one painting rather than try to fill the cover with an entire painting. The white text allows the image to speak for itself, and those who know Van Gogh will be immediately attracted just by recognition. Plus I just love green and yellow.
I buy children's books all the time even though I have no children and I'm not a teacher nor do I want to be one. Part of it started when I was a reading tutor and it's just kind of carried on since then. One day I'll have kids to share some of these beautiful children's books with and one I can't wait to share is The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. This was a staff pick at a store once and the artwork is just beautiful. I was attracted by the little red haired boy who sticks out amongst the green and blue of the natural scene behind him.
I still haven't read Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman but every time I walk by the cover I get the urge to start it. It is so simple, most of his covers are, but it just looks interesting. The image reminds of a children's reference book about dinosaurs with all of the labels on it. I love dinosaurs so I'm attracted to that. And I like how the author's name and the title are the same size and sandwich the image.
I just had to add one more children's book to this list. Boris and Bella, authored by Carolyn Crimi and illustrated but Gris Grimly is just a great cover. It's Tim Burton-esque and creepy. Normally when you see a male and female name on a book you assume they are in love, but this is not the case with Boris and Bella. We can tell from the image that these ghouls obviously do not like each other. I also like the purple and black for a creepier story like this one, plus the text fits perfectly.
I haven't read Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart yet, but I intend to soon because the book sounds great to me. I love this cover because it combines and simple colorless photograph with a tiffany blue colored box for text, and then the box is topped with a bow like one from Tiffany would be. I just think that was a really cute idea and I love the simple color scheme of this book.
I read this book a week ago and I think it has a pretty neat cover. This cover of Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman really embodies Rita's personality. The orange and green are bright and fun, which is just like her attitude. I also like the map at the top of the cover that shows all the different places she goes to and how she's constantly traveling back and forth. Plus I like that they used a photograph for a travel narrative because it let's you feel like you're in on their trip a little bit.
My last cover is the 50th Anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's beautiful. The color scheme is really unique, you don't see that deep, wine red on books very often, and it let's the green of the tree really pop. I have the older lavender version right now and I have been lusting after this book ever since I saw it. I also love the text they use on this cover, a slanted print that looks almost like a child's handwriting.
I actually learned a lot about myself by doing this, I appears that I'm really attracted to colors or white covers with a single image on them. Who knew! What are you attracted to in covers?
I know I already did a post at the end of my one hour, but I didn't include any stats so I figured I'd just include them here.
But first, mini challenges! I couldn't resist I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read's mini-challenge to make a soundtrack for a chapter of the book you are reading. I just finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and I wanted to pick a song to be playing during the scenes where Guy Montag and Clarisse McClellan are talking and Montag starts to realize that something is really wrong with the world. The song I chose is Something to Talk About by Badly Drawn Boy, which was actually mad for the soundtrack of the movie About A Boy which is a great book by British author Nick Hornby. So I got very literary on this one.
This song might sound a little too peppy to be on a soundtrack for Fahrenheit 451, but can imagine it being really cool in a movie for the scene, especially since I see Clarisse as being a soft but strong character.
And I'm also going to do 'Til We Read Again's And The Nominees Are challenge.
Favorite Female Character in a book: Marian Halcombe from the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Favorite Male Character in a book: Henry DeTamble from The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Favorite Side Kick in a book: I really like Dick in High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, is he a sidekick? Favorite Couple in a Book: Jane and Rochester in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Favorite Book Series: Right now probably The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen Favorite Author: As far as authors I have read multiple books by... I'd probably have to say Virginia Woolf Favorite Book Cover: I really like the cover of The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova Favorite Book of 2009: Middlemarch by George Eliot, which is a book I read in 2009
And lastly, I'll do a kick rundown: Title of book(s) read since last update: Fahrentheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Number of books read since you started: 1 Pages read since last update: 179 Running total of pages read since you started: 179 Amount of time spent reading since last update: 3.5 Running total of time spent reading since you started: 3.5 Mini-challenges completed: Miss Remmers' Kick-off Challenge, I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read's Soundtrack Challenge, and 'Til We Read Again's And The Nominees Are challenge.
Have I mentioned I don't have any finals? Well, just in case I haven't I will again. I don't have any finals! Which means that I am almost done with everything. I just have to go in on Tuesday and present a website and I have a portfolio due tomorrow. Portfolios are strange, I'm not sure how much time I'm supposed to use on them. I usually figure one week's worth of homework time for projects so that is about six hours. One last college thing: I have three books about Emily Dickinson that I don't want, but the bookstore won't buy them back because they're not going to use them again and I can't get any money for them. So they're just taking up space. I'm very upset about this.
So this week I posted reviews of Northanger Abbey, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, and Shirley Volume One. I also posted a list of cool gifts to get the books lovers in your life here. This week I began a self challenge called the 19 Going On 20 challenge. I am going to be reading four YA novels for the last four weeks before I am no longer a teenager. Check back to see what I think of these! I don't read YA very often. I finished In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen this week as well, but have yet to review it.
This week I'll be finishing The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (actually today most likely). I will be reading The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner, The Moment Between by Nicole Baart, The White Garden by Stephanie Barron, The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, The Clumsiest People in Europe edited by Todd Pruzan, and Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors by Nigel Cawthorne. Hopefully I'll be able to finish most of those books before I go home for winter break. I'll sure have quite a bit of time to do it.
I'd also like to point everyone towards this post at Bookstore People called Jane Austen: A Love Story. It's a beautiful story that I found on Books and Movies Bookish Links post.
And now I advise you all to watch this video, or rather listen to this song.
I hope you all a great holiday week! Because of the holidays I'm a little behind on my reading, as I'm sure most of us are. Today I'm planning on finishing The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. I've really been enjoying both books but since The Time Traveler's Wife is a little bit faster to read I've been more eager to read it. I'm actually further in the The Swan Thieves though because I keep thinking I'm further in The Time Traveler's Wife so I read it more. I know that makes no sense.
This week I posted reviews of The White Garden and The Luxe. Both were excellent books that I would recommend to anyone. Check out the reviews if you don't believe me. I also posted some photographs of the book wreath I made. And what would the holidays be without some complaining? Check out my English Major Grievances post here. You can even share some of your grievances here, I love to hear people complain.
I got a lot of books this Christmas, and I'm actually going to do a post about what books I did get most likely tomorrow. I got some book related things though so I figured I would share some of those right now. First of all I got a great calendar from my parents called The Reading Woman. I've actually been eyeing this calendar for months and I was really hoping someone would get if for me. It's just a collection of paintings of women reading. It is a beautiful calendar, the only painting I don't really care for is the last one, Micah Williams' Portrait of a Lady. There's nothing wrong with it it's just really not my taste.
I also got Jane Austen: An Illustrated Treasury
from my boyfriend. It is a beautiful collection of history and photographs/paintings from Jane Austen's past. There are envelopes throughout the book that hold items you can take out. These are copies of Austen's letters amongst other things. My favorite "treasure" is the collection of drawings from an early edition of Pride and Prejudice. There is also a very long section on the history of the gothic novel in the Nothanger Abbey section. I could not stop looking through this book for the rest of the night. The next thing isn't really book related but I got The Tudors
Seasons 1-3. I've never really watched Tudors before but I started it on Christmas Eve and I am so glad I have these!
In the video below Elizabeth Kostova claims she wanted The Swan Thieves to be about obsession. If this was her goal then she definitely succeeded. Everyone in this novel has an obsession. The artist Robert Oliver is so obsessed with a woman that he is willing to attack a painting. His psychiatrist Andrew Marlow is so obsessed with Oliver's case that he lets it consume him, and really allows himself to enter Oliver's life. Marlow is chosen for the case because he is also an artist. He decided to become a psychiatrist instead of an artist to please his father and have a reliable job, but there is a sense throughout the novel that he is extremely unhappy with his choice.
Marlow isn't the only one who chose an alternative life over painting. Oliver's ex-wife, Kate, chose a family and career over her life as an artist. This is actually what drove Oliver and Kate apart. The novel seems to be toying with this idea. Can we ever be truly happy if we make our passion our hobby? Or will we always resent our career for getting in the way of our hobby? This isn't a question I would say the novel answers, and I don't know if there is an answer to that question.
I love the idea of the story of this novel, and I love the idea. Unfortunately, I think the way the book is formatted became a little frustrating. There are several speakers and they are divided into their owen sections. This is normally something that I love, but generally when each character speaks for themselves the chapters have some kind of rotation. This really isn't the case in The Swan Thieves. Marlow is the speaker for the first several chapters. Then the letters from an artist, Beatrice Vignot to her uncle in 1877 show up. These are the letters that Oliver reads and obsesses over. Then Marlow goes to visit Kate and she has some very long sections on her own. Occasionally Marlow is sprinkled in her chapters as well. Then the letters from Beatrice grow into sections in which Marlow (I assume it is him, it is not all that clear) creates an account of Beatrice's actions. He tries to understand what her life is like and these become chapters. The letters are still spread throughout. Finally Mary, a friend of Oliver's speaks for the majority of the second half of the book and Kate disappears. I really wish these speakers would have been more intertwined, and if they couldn't be then I wish the novel was at least separated into clearer sections.
This novel certainly has a mystery. Why would Robert Oliver want to attack a painting? A painting of all things? At the end of the novel I felt extremely satisfied by the way everything was solved. My favorite part of this book was Andrew Marlow. I really felt like the book was less about the mystery of Robert Oliver but about the growth of Andrew Marlow. He is an older man who has never been married and I think feels like he has wasted his life. By the end of the novel his life changes a lot. I think Oliver is less a patient to Marlow than a catalyst for his own growth. Oliver is a little insane but at least he is doing what he wants, unlike Marlow. The relationship between these two men and the choices they make really drive this novel.
This novel earned a B.
Pub. Date: January 12, 2010 Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
This review copy was provided to me by Hachette Book Group.
I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.
