Mailbox Monday for 2/08/20010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page

I won a signed hardcover of The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl, a hardcover of The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins, and a paperback of There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya from Stephanie at The Misfit Salon.

Beth from the fabulous Beth's Book Review Blog forwarded a paperback of The Calling by David Mack.

I bought hardcovers of Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins for $1 each from the Friends of the Library Bookstore.  The Wilkie Collins book has a different cover but I couldn't find a image of the cover I have.

I got a signed copy of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff in paperback for a TLC Book Tour.

3 Wonderful Patti Labelle Songs

Getting ready for work this morning I was in the mood for some Patti Labelle, who I absolutely adore so I thought I would share some of my favorite songs.  I could have made a list that went on forever but here are 3 of my favorites.

"On My Own"

"New Attitude"

"The Right Kinda Lover"

Hell's Belles by Paul Magrs

Synopsis From Inside Flap:

Brenda never meant to tell anyone the truth. She's got used to keeping secrets over the years. But in Whitby, people have a habit of working it out. Especially best friends like Effie, who sniff out the unusual, and expect the unexpected. And Brenda needs friends. She can't keep us safe all by herself. Not any more

Reading over the synopsis I can honestly tell you that it doesn't do this book justice. I have not been this amused by a book in a long time and I'm now going to have to get my hands on the 3 previous books. Now since this is the 4th book in a series I'm obviously missing out on a lot of the back story so I can only tell you the basic premise of this book.

The basic premise is this, a classic horror movies is being remade in the small coastal town of Whitby. This isn't your normal B horror movie though. The original is associated with mysterious deaths and audiences going crazy and killing themselves. The Government actually ordered the movie to be destroyed so no known copies are in existence.

Well, this remake brings back the scream queen who starred in the first movie and she is in working for a bunch of cultists who's motives are murky at best, the director is the son of the original director and is bent on full filling his father's mission, and the lunch wagon lady, who fed the first crew, is now bent on making sure this is one movie that doesn't get remade, because if it does the mouth of Hell will open up and God only knows what will come through.

By the way did I mention that that lunch lady is in fact Brenda, the Bride of Frankenstein and her best friend is a witch? I loved both these hilarious old women and their relationship glues all the wild happenings and wonderful cast of characters together into one cohesive story.

Speaking of some of the other characters we actually have Brenda's husband Frank is in the story as well as a their father, the resurrected Victor. The famous Alucard, Effie's beau, makes his appearance towards the end of the book though I get the impression that if I were to read the earlier books I would be seeing a lot more of him. Throw in a divorcee goth woman who isn't sure what to make of what's going on, a gay hotel manager who has a secret friend, a Mrs. Claus who isn't all that jolly, and a Faerie King and you got a wonderful romp through time and space that I can't imagine anyone not enjoying.

This will qualify for the Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City.

A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home. 

Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home.  And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hold so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable...despite his body never being found.

He doesn't have long to mull over his ressurrection , though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him.  His only concern now is vengeance.  Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.

It's been a few days since I finished this book, I've actually started and finished another plus started on a third, and I'm still not sure what I think of this one.  For the most part I really enjoyed it, I found the premise interesting and enjoyed the action.  What I didn't like was the sometimes frantic writing style, there were times I felt rushed by the author.  The pace of the action and dialogue at times overwhelmed me and I felt completly lost until it slowed down once again.  I almost think it was intentional on the part of the author, to match what the character of Matthew Swift had to be experiencing in his head. 

While I was typing this I remembered the other aspect of the book that took me a while to get used to.  Matthew kept shifting pronouns between "I" and "We" when referring to himself.  I don't want to ruin one of the major plot points by explaining it, but I needed to mention that it was a bit jarring at first.

What I loved about the book was how alive the author made the magic for me.  This was the magic of the city, the magic found in electricity, stop lights, graffiti, and forgotten telephone conversations.  It was the magic of litter, signs, and plumbing. It felt real to me, that if magic exists today it will be found in this form.  It has to be one of the most intersting magic systems I've come across and I want more of it. I don't want to give any of the specifics away but some of the things that can be done with this magic amazed me. For that reason alone, I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

This will qualify under The Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City.

Word Verification Balderdash

For those of you unfamiliar with the greatness that is Balderdash, here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are commenting on other people's blogs. Then you play balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition of it. Do this for a week and post your best ones on Thursday.

Come back and leave a link to your post and I will add it to the bottom of the post.

Here are mine for this week:

 

Lioder:  Dermatological condition that infects elderly male lions with dry skin and red scaling.  This condition never lasts for long period of time but it does happen on a regular basis and can only be relieved by the lion rolling around on the ground which exfoliates the scales.

 

Pyrawash:  Proffesional cleaning service that can be hired to clean up your bonfire and funeral pyre remains.  They charge a minimal fee plus they request  that they be allowed to keep the ashes for whatever dark rites they choose to practice.

 

Cactopod:  Odd shaped species of cacti that resembles the shape of a octopus.  I has eight stalkes rising out of the ground all of which connect into a large sphercial shape at the top.  This species is only found in Death Valley.

 

Velpo:  Evil despot that ruled the Visigoths with a iron fist.  He was notorious for cutting off every other finger on each hand, starting with the thumb, of those who wrote poetry he could not stomach.  He was overly fond of bawdy love poems and any poem that dealt with death was strictly forbidden.

 

Other Players This Week:

Alexia's Books and Such... 

My World

The Ladybug Reads

Favorite Fictional Character --- Encyclopedia Brown

Judging by what I read as a kid, I can pretty much say I was born a mystery fan.  Between Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, my early love of Agatha Christie, and Encylopedia Brown I was hooked at a young age.

Encylopedia Brown was a young boy who lived in the fictional town of Idaville and solved mysteries either on his own or helping his dad who was the local police chief.  The books I read tended to be a series of short mysteries where Encylcopedia would gather the clues and ask the right questions in order to solve the case.  Sometimes he was helped by his friend Sally Kimball who was the one kid in town who was able to stand up to the town bully.

For some reason the one story I still remember to this day involved Chineses fighting kites and how one of them was purposefuly attacked by another.  What really sticks out in my head is how Encyclopedia figured out which of the suspects was lying to him.  When he was interviewing a young girl who claimed she just got out of the shower and was filing her nails, Encyclopedia explained to her that he knew she was lying because someone as fashionable as her would never file her nails after leaving the shower because the nails are too fragile after being wet for so long and they would tear up.

He was a brilliant boy and I thank him for all the memories.

Laura Branigan "Self Control"

I have no idea what got this song in my head but it's been stuck there all day. So, I figured I would post it here for all to enjoy.