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Booking in Heels

Devouring books whilst looking fabulous.

The Time Will Come #4

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This is a Thursday meme hosted by Jodie at Books For Company to shine a light on those books we’ve had on our TBR piles so long that they’re practically part of the furniture.

To join in, just post about a book you’ve been really meaning to read and then hop on over here and link up. I love looking at everyone else’s TBR piles, so you can see a full list of the other participants over there too.

This is The Sisters Who Would Be Queen by Leanda de Lisle, and it’s been on my TBR for, ooh… over a year now. 

The dramatic untold story of the three tragic Grey sisters, all heirs to the Tudor throne, all victims to their royal blood.

Lady Jane Grey is an icon of innocence abused. Remembered as the ‘Nine Days Queen’, she has been mythologized as a child-woman sacrificed to political expedience. But behind the legend lay a rebellious adolescent who became a leader, and no mere victim. Growing up in her shadow, Jane’s sisters Katherine and Mary would have to tread carefully to survive.

The dramatic lives of the younger Grey sisters remain little known, but both women became heirs and rivals to the Tudor monarchs, Mary and Elizabeth I. To gain Queen Mary’s trust, teenaged Katherine ignored Jane’s final request not to change her religion, only to risk her life with a marriage that threatened Queen Elizabeth’s throne.

While Katherine’s friends fought to save her, the youngest Grey sister, Mary, stayed at court. Though too poor and plain to be significant, she looked set to escape the burden of her royal blood. But then she too fell in love and incurred the Queen’s fury.

Exploding the many myths of Lady Jane’s life, and casting fresh light onto Elizabeth’s reign, acclaimed historian Leanda de Lisle brings the Grey sisters’ tumultuous world to life: at a time when a royal marriage could gain you a kingdom, or cost you everything.
Well I’m not sure about ‘untold story,’ as I must own at least another five versions of the Lady Jane Grey tragedy. But hey, I like her and always felt more than a little sorry for her, so I keep on buying them.
One of my favourites is The Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir.

Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong

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I’m not usually a fan of paranormal romance, but I picked up Bitten (Kelley Armstrong’s first novel) before I was even aware that such a genre existed. Personal Demon is her eighth book in the Women of the Otherworld series, although they can easily be read alone.

Every summary I’ve ever read blows, so here’s my version – Hope Adams is a chaos demon, so she gets thrills from violence, death and other horrific events. Whilst trying to accept her demonic nature, Hope is offered the chance to spy on a group of supernaturals suspected of trying to topple a supernatural organisation. Her werewolf sometime-lover, Karl Marsten, tags along to make sure she’s safe, but Hope isn’t sure how she feels about his closeness. Meanwhile, Lucas Cortez is forced into a family role he’s always rebelled against.

Alright, so mine wasn’t that much better. The summaries of Kelley Armstrong’s books always sound like a Twilight-esque, young adult, fluff-piece or seedy, naked-vampire erotica. Actually, they’re neither. She’s one of my all-time favourite writers because her writing flows so naturally. Ever since Bitten, her books have really stood apart from others of this genre. This is definitely not YA – they can be quite dark, quite brutal and have occasional sex scenes. They’re exceptionally well-written though – her plot-lines are as believable as vampires and werewolves can possibly be and her characters seem to jump off the page.

I think that’s truly the secret behind the success of Ms. Armstrong’s books – the characters. Each book focuses on one of an expanding group of supernaturals – Elena the only female werewolf, Jaime the celebrity yet genuine necromancer, Hope the chaos demon… but familiar characters pop up in each one. As all the stories inter-connect, it’s great to see how the life of each person has progressed, even if that particular book isn’t about them.

The relationships are easily my favourite thing about these books. There’s none of that teenage vampire love-at-first-sight crap. Relationships can sometimes take the span of a few books to develop, and when they do, they seem somehow real. Everyone is aware of their partner’s flaws and weaknesses and arguments do occasionally break out. Each couple speaks to each other in their own special way, teasing and bantering, which makes them seem just like any real-life partnership.

Having gushed about Kelley Armstrong’s characters for far too long… I don’t really like Hope Adams, the protagonist of Personal Demon. She’s whiny and comes across as a little pathetic. All the other books feature such strong, self-sufficient women that Hope pales in comparison a little. Her relationship with Karl saves her from the wrath of my displeasure though – the werewolf thief is interesting and suave enough to more than hold my interest. I love his protectiveness and that he’s not afraid to give her a sharp kick if she needs it (which she does. A lot.).

My other gripe was that this book didn’t really seem that supernatural, but I suppose that’s the problem with the demonic books. Hope never does anything fancy except occasionally feel sick from too many chaos vibes – she feels a little more like a sidekick than superhero.  It sometimes seems more like a crime novel than a paranormal romance.

Although this is my least favourite in the series, I still enjoy it. Hope’s struggle to accept her ‘dark side’ was realistically drawn and I can’t wait to see how Lucas comes to terms with his new role in the Cabal.

I’d still recommend starting with Bitten though – it’s by far my favourite.

The Sunday Sum-Up #5

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The shoes in question

The funniest thing of my week was a little girl in ASDA this morning. She was about four, I think, and was stood behind me in the queue.

So I’m staring absently into space, as you do, when I hear this little voice pipe up – “Mummy! Look, that lady has pink hair! *pause* And pink nails! *pause* And look at her shoes! Mummy, I want to be that lady!”

Aaaawww. That’s still making me smile now 🙂

Book-wise, this is what’s been going on here this week:

  • Congratulations are in order, as I’ve most likely managed to write The Least Objective Review In The Entire World (what can I say, Law degrees warp people). My review of Cinderella Ate My Daughter (which I did actually like!) by Peggy Orenstein is here.
  • I finally finished off The Hunger Games trilogy, only a year or so after everybody else! My review of Mockingjay is here.
  •  Two Bibliomaniacs kicked off their Books to Movie Challenge this month and I’ve finished my first complete entry – The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. My film review is here and the book version is here.
  • My wishlist for this week is here and you can find the rest of it by clicking here.

Thinking about it, I should probably also win the award for the most uses of the word ‘here’ in one blog post… 

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

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Firstly, a big thank you to Ellie of Musings of a Bookshop Girl who sent me this as a R.A.K. last week. Secondly, this book sparkles. Not in a wow-this-book-is-exceptional way, it actually, quite literally, sparkles.  Cue the necessary girly over-excitement that proves the book’s entire point.

From Amazon – ‘The acclaimed author  reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls’ successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today’s little princess become tomorrow’s sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?’
Just like Tolstoy and the Purple Chair (review here), I thoroughly enjoyed the book but just didn’t agree with the author’s ideas. Her theory goes that little girls who are exposed to Disney Princesses and their ilk are likely to grow up being overly obsessed with their looks and directly connect their self-worth to their appearance.
I can see her point, but surely any half-decent parent can reinforce the belief that it’s what’s inside that counts. Ms. Orenstein approaches the issue rather like a Glitter Nazi and is actually surprised when her daughter still wants to be read a fairy tale.
The enemy.
‘I had never told Daisy the story of Snow White. I had purposefully kept it from her because, even setting aside the obvious sexism, Snow herself is such an obvious pill. She is everything I imagined my child would reject, would not, in fact, ever encounter or even understad if she did, let alone embrace… yet here was my girl, somehow having learned the plotline anyway, blissfully lying in wait for Love’s First Kiss.’
I’m all for explaining to children that life is not a fairytale and there is more to it than waiting for your handsome prince. But all I can think is that my Disney-enhanced childhood never did me any harm. How can you reasonably expect to ‘shield’ your child from a fairytale? Aside from anything else, why would you want to? Yes, Snow White pretty much only tidies and cleans, but she does that in return for living in the dwarves’ cottage rent-free. I can think of much worse alternatives for her to earn her keep.
The author constantly wavers between muttering madly about pink unicorns and remembering logically that little girls embrace pink, tea sets and princesses because they don’t understand that gender is biological. They think that to be a girl, you somehow have to ‘prove’ it by acting like one. She comes across as very confused, like she can never quite decide which side of the unicorn to land on.
‘While I was off searching for cleanser, Steven told Daisy she could have a cheesy blue Fairytopia Barbie with crappy plastic wings. I demanded that he take it away from her. She started to cry. So I gave her it back.
   “You’re confusing her,” Steven said.
   I did the mature thing: I blamed him.
   “Look, I’m sorry I started this,” he replied. “But you need to decide where you stand on this stuff and stick to it.”
   He was right, so I took the doll away again. I promised I would get her a well-made- Barbie instead, perhaps a Cleopatra Barbie I had seen on eBay, which, at the very least, was not white or blonde and had something to offer besides high-heeled feet. As if the ankh pendant and peculiar tan made it att okay.
    “Never mnd, Mama,” she sobbed. “I don’t need it.” Then I started to cry, too, and bought her the damned Barbie.’
I wouldn’t mind so much if she approached the issue objectively or admitted her confusion. Instead, she acts as if her God-given mission was to annihilate all forms of Girl (*shudders*) from the Earth. I just don’t understand. Surely brainwashing your child against so-called girliness only implies that femininity is something to be pushed away and look down upon? How will that affect her daughter’s future relationships with other women?
This is an understandable dislike…
I do agree with some of her points. I don’t think I’d ever be happy to buy my child a Bratz doll with their obscene pouts and over-applied make-up, and I believe that Miley Cyrus needs to put some more clothes on if she wants to continue being an acceptable role model for some children. It’s just that sometimes Ms. Orenstein goes a little overboard – she actually, honest-to-God, no exaggeration, thinks Twilight is a better role model for children than The Little Mermaid.
Bella Swan. The girl who throws herself off a cliff to haer Edward’s voice one more time and lies in bed for three months screaming his name, then runs off with a half-naked werewolf while constantly telling a vampire that she is nothing without him. That Bella. That’s the one that’s the better role model.
”Think about it: what a relief that must be for girls who feel constant pressure to be physically, socially, and academically perfect! Bella does not spend two hours with a flatiron, ace her calculus test, score the winning goal in her lacrosse match, then record a hit song. Bella does not spout acidly witty dialogue. Yet Edward, the most desirable dude in the room, loves her – now, that is a fairytale.’
You must have deep-seated, psychological issues to think that Twilight is good for your children. I’m pretty sure Peggy Orenstein was molested in Disneyland as a child.
Again, I’m being argumentative and cynical. But hey, Law school does that to a girl. Besides, I  did enjoy the book. I’d half-expected dull essays peppered with long marketing figures from Mattel, but it’s nothing like that. Ms. Orenstein writes very, very well with a dry sense of humour that amused me even as I half-wanted to throttle her. Her anecdotes about her daughter’s desperate need for Princess fluff despite Peggy’s best efforts really bring the ‘problem’ to life.
… this is not.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the rise of Barbie and I’ve added a biography of that particular doll to my wishlist. I hadn’t realised that the creator of Bratz was sued by Mattel for designing his doll while on the Barbie payroll. It’s full of other gender-related facts that I found to be genuinely interesting.
I don’t mean to slate the book, as I have a problem with the author’s ideas, not her writing. I’ll even look into buying her previous book. But you can’t read a book like this without choosing sides and, I have to say one again, Cinderella never did me any harm.

Saturday Wishlist #5

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Like most of you, I have a wishlist the length of the Nile or, at the very least, the River Severn. It’s long. Most of them will never see the light of day as they were added on a whim or a reading phase I’ve gotten bored of, or have been so trampled on by the newer additions that they languish on page eight, completely forgotten about.

However, Carolyn from Book Chick City has a solution to make all those neglected wishlistees feel loved again. Each week, she posts a few of those books that one day (one day, God damn it!) she will eventually buy.

I have as much guilt over not yet introducing those unloved tomes to my shelves as anyone, so here’s part #5 of my now-weekly Wishlist. These are three books that I might have eventually got round to owning by 2019. Maybe.

 
 This is the most recent addition to my wishlist – Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll by M. G. Lord. It was recommended in Cinderella Ate My Daughter as the best guide to the history of Barbie and so it hoppity skipped onto my Bottomless Pit of an Amazon Wishlist.

I loved Barbie as a child and I’m still interested in the impact of particular toys on children and feminism and so I can’t wait to read this one.

I read Carrie Fisher’s short autobiography, Wishful Drinking, last week (my review is here) and found that she was a hell of a lot funnier than I could possibly have imagined.

This book, Postcards From The Edge, is fiction but if it’s even half as well-written as her autobiography,it should be brilliant.

Lastly, just to get away from books-I-want-to-read-because-of-other-books…. Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

I’m featuring this today because I was browsing through my Amazon wishlist a few minutes ago, saw this book… and realised that I dreamt about it last night. Seriously. I don’t remember anything else, other than I was reading this book, but if that’s not a Sign that I should write about it today, I don’t know what is.

So those are my three wishlisted books this week, but you can see the rest of my wishlist here 🙂

Books to Movies 2011 Challenge: The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

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First off, this is a review for the film version of The Reader, the book version can be found here. I don’t normally review films here (hell, I don’t usually watch films!), but this is for Two Bibliomaniacs’ Book to Movie Challenge.

I’m terrible at watching the films after I’ve read the book. Terrible. I always mean to but reading other books always seems to take precedent over watching the film until I forget why I wanted to see it in the first place.

The Reader was an excellent one to begin with – it’s easy to see why it won so many awards. It really captured the feel of the book, both during Michael and Hanna’s affair and afterwards in the courtroom. The best way I can sum up the feeling of the film is to call it ‘beige.’ If you’ve ever seen a war film, I’m sure that will make sense. The atmosphere in the courtroom was intense, perhaps more so than in the book as the lengthy legal paragraphs that bogged down the story were broken up.

The legal principles were cleverly explained, as in the book they’re simply explained in the narrative. Instead, they’re discussed among the students back at the University, a place never actually seen in the book. It was explained very simply too, without assuming you have a prior knowledge of the law, a trap many legal films fall into.

The issue of German guilt was dealt with nicely too – how the generation born after the war blamed their parents and other adults for not stopping the horrors committed in the concentration camps. It’s a central theme of the book that doesn’t feature so much in the film, but it works nevertheless. It again takes the form of an argument that occurs in the seminar at University instead of Michael just pondering the moral issues to himself.

I’m not surprised Kate Winslet won an Oscar for her performance – this is easily her best film. She’s just perfect as Hanna, from her brusqueness during the affair to her vulnerability after the trial. I couldn’t find a single fault. Her subtle avoidance of books was artfully carried out and the look of betrayal on her face and the end was so moving I nearly cried.

Speaking of, that scene was amazing. It hurt me inside more than the book did, and the book was pretty powerful. Ralph Fiennes was good as a distant, apathetic carer but Kate Winslet was better. Its rare that a scene in the film can be better than the book but its true here nevertheless.

Unfortunately, the aspect of the book that I found so clever was the one thing the film-makers didn’t quite manage to achieve. In the novel, Mr. Schlink manages to completely differentiate the sections of the book pre-trial and post-trial – the characters are different and the atmosphere just feels different. The film doesn’t really seperate the two, perhaps because Michael’s fifteen year old self isn’t quite vulnerable or naive enough and the older Michael just stares moodily off into the distance a lot.

All in all, a great start to the Challenge. It leaves a few bits out, but not crucial ones, and it sticks to the book almost perfectly. It’s well worth a watch, but I’m not sure how interesting it’d be without seeing the film first.