Neverwhere and Beyond Retrospective & Winners

neverwhereToday is the last day of November, signaling the close of my Neverwhere and Beyond month. Despite the burnout I felt toward the end of the month, I am so glad that I came up with the idea and followed through on it. I had wanted to do more, but given the circumstances of my job and home life, I am pleased with what I did accomplish. I have found that I enjoy Neil Gaiman’s writing more than I hoped that I would.

Here are links to the reviews of the novels I did read this month.  I’m listing them in the order I read them.  Interestingly enough, that is also the order in which I liked them, too.

The Graveyard Book

Neverwhere

Coraline

Stardust

Although Stardust is at the bottom of this list, please do not take that to mean I didn’t like it.  I found it as good or better than most of the other books I’ve read this year.  There is no doubt that I will remember the characters and their stories for a long time to come.  I truly think that I would have liked it even better had I not been on a Neil Gaiman binge. LOL!

For once, I’d like to announce the winners of my contest on schedule.  I know, I’m shocked myself…

First, let me announce the last two winners of my WWNR bookmarks: Sandy and Pam R.  Congratulations!  Sandy, I have your address, but Pam, I need yours.

Now for the Neverwhere and Beyond prizes:

Individual Coraline Bookmarks

I will send email notifications to all of my Coraline bookmark winners.  Suffice to say, if you entered the contest, you almost probably  won a bookmark.

Coraline Bookmark for you and 50 for your local library

Amanda from A Bookshelf Monstrosity! I think that it’s appropriate that a librarian-to-be wins this prize. :)  Please send me your address and the address of your library of choice, I’ll send them on their way.  I will of course let your library know that you sent them your way. :)

Neil Gaiman Poster

Zia from My Life in Not So Many Words!  Congratulations!  I have your address, so I’ll be ordering the poster and sending it your way.

Coraline DVDs

1 each for Piroska and Micheal Herdegen!  Congratulations to both of you!  I have both of your addresses, so I’ll package the DVDs up and send them to you this week.

Grand Prize Winner (1 of each of the books I read or planned to read)

Jill from Rhapsody in Books!  Congratulations, Jill!  Please send me your address.  I don’t think I have it yet.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Neverwhere and Beyond.  It was a great month!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 30, 2009 | Filed Under Neverwhere and Beyond | 8 Comments 

Thankfully Reading ~ Day 1 Update

thankfully-reading-weekendI hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (or just a very nice Thursday if you’re not from the US).

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a smashing success.  The girls and my mother-in-law were, in fact, flabbergasted by the table.  The girls wanted nothing more than to help spread out the table cloth and set the table.  I loved using my wedding china.  Danny and I don’t think we’ve used it once in the 7 years we’ve lived in our current house.  The food and the company were wonderful.  I couldn’t have been happier about it.

After the girls went to bed, I started reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  In the first few chapters I can see that it is so different from any other Tudor novel I’ve read.  I only read 39 pages (first section), but I have a feeling that I will love this novel.  I love reading about this time period from the female perspective,  but seeing things from Thomas Cromwell’s point of view is going to be delicious.

Today, amidst my Black Friday shopping and the restoration of my walk-in-closet back into a space I can walk into, I finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  I’m not sure what I think of this novel. There are parts I really enjoyed, but there are others that dragged on and on and, to my mind, had no other purpose than to function as a red herring. What to think of the ending? I’ll have to sit with this one a while before I write a formal review. Simon Vance’s narration is once again top notch. That’s about all I’m sure of here.

I then started The Help only to have my MP3 player die on me.  While I was waiting and working on my extremely delinquent bookmarks for the Bookmark It club (one for Oct/Nov and one for Dec will be in the mail soon!), I started listening to Peace Like a River.  I know how I felt about that.  After only an hour and 15 minutes, I stopped it.  I couldn’t take the writing – or at least the way that the writing was narrated.  Let’s just say that I’m thankful that one is over. LOL!

That’s about it from here today.  Have a great night and I’ll post again tomorrow.  Until then, I’ll be thankfully reading!

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 27, 2009 | Filed Under About Literate Housewife | 13 Comments 

Thankfully Reading Weekend

thankfully-reading-weekendHappy Thanksgiving, everyone!

For the last 6 years, Thanksgiving has been an extremely subdued holiday. There have been years in fact where we didn’t even eat a proper Thanksgiving meal. Danny’s parents are not up to the cooking much any more and ordering a catered meal has become our modus operandi. Earlier in our marriage Danny and I traveled to Michigan to celebrate with my family. That lost its luster the year that we were in Detroit and Emma came down with pneumonia. All’s well that ends well, but we’ve kept to home since then.

This year is no different except for the proper Thanksgiving dinner.  The girls are getting to the age  where they know what is happening and I want them to have some Thanksgiving memories.  Theirs might not be surrounded by their cousins, but it will include turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and a great desert.  Danny’s parents are coming over this year and I’m hoping for a relaxing but grand family meal complete with china.  The girls might not survive the shock.

The advantage of staying home during the Thanksgiving holiday is having four days in which I can relax as much as possible.  What could enhance relaxation  more than reading?  I see you’re all with me on that.  So, when Jenn from Devourer of Books, Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelves, and Beth from Beth Fish Reads announced Thankfully Reading Weekend with no rules and the most adorable graphic, I knew this was for me.  So here are my plans:

There are many parts of my house that need to be organized.  There are two areas I’d like to tackle this weekend – my walk-in closet/stamping area and the bar area downstairs (more crafting things).  I may not finish the bar downstairs, but my walk-in closet will get finished.  What does this have to do with Thankfully Reading Weeekend?   My main type of reading will be audiobooks.  I have several audiobooks that I’ve been wanting to get to.  They go rather slow for me to because I generally only have my drives to and from work.  I don’t mind that speed at all generally, but I’ll make in roads into my Audible TBR list this weekend.  I will be finishing up the last 3 and a half hours of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and then diving in to my backlog:

The Help
The Abstinence Teacher
Peace Like a River
The Hunger Games
The Other
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Other by David Guterson

I’m not sure what the order will be, but The Help will definitely be next up on my MP3 player.  I also have another Audible credit available that I might cash in this weekend.  I’m not sure what I will pick up.  If any one has an audio book suggestions, please let me know.  Beth from Beth Fish Reads gave me a suggestion on Twitter saying that  Simon Vance’s narration on Patrick O’Brian’s novels is incredible.  Simon Vance is, for me, the equivalent of a rock star, so I’m very tempted.  I’m still open to more suggestions though.

What about when I’m not working around the house (and that will be relaxing in that I won’t have to think about it once it’s done), I am starting Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel this weekend.  I have so been looking forward to this novel!  It’s going to be such a treat.  I’ll also be checking in with the Book Blog Social Club for updates from other thankful readers.  I hope to see you all there!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 26, 2009 | Filed Under About Literate Housewife | 15 Comments 

Too Much of a Good Thing?

neverwhereYes, I do think that there can be too much of a good thing. While reading Stardust, I figured out that reading four books might be too much to ask of any author. There was no reason for me not to connect with Tristran or Yvaine that I can think of, but I didn’t. I really think that I ran into author fatigue. It makes sense, too. I’m not much of a series reader because of similar reasons. I need something new. I’ll even take that a step further. I get tired of stand-alone books within the same genre or time period as well. From what I’ve been able to gather on Twitter, I’m not alone in this.

When I first conceived of Neverwhere and Beyond month, I decided that I would read Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, Coraline, and Fragile Things. To date, I’ve read all by American Gods and Fragile Things. I had been saving American Gods for last because I’ve heard it is amazing. Fragile Things get’s iffier reviews overall, so I fear that reading it might put me full-fledged into a Neil Gaiman funk. I don’t want that. Also, I don’t want overload to take away from my reading experience with American Gods. More than anything else, I want to be in full-on anticipation mode when I pick up that book.  I don’t want that to change.

So, I think I’m going to hold off reading those until later to give myself some time and space. This will also be a lesson learned for next year. I’m hoping to make October or November a spotlight month for a new-to-me author. I enjoyed my spotlight on Erika Mailman in 2008 and I have enjoyed Neil Gaiman this year. Going forward, I might spread it out over two months or just select fewer books. The key thing is to keep things interesting.

Leave a comment to this post for a chance to win one of the last two WWNR (I decided in the end that “What Would Neil Read” was better than WWND) bookmarks I’ve made. I promise to publish the pictures this weekend. If you leave a comment you can also enter to win one of the many prizes available during Neverwhere and Beyond Month. Use code: N&B-2Much.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 25, 2009 | Filed Under Books, Neverwhere and Beyond | 15 Comments 

Wonderful News about Makensie!

At the end of September, I posted about the missing daughter of one of my co-workers, Makensie.  I am so pleased to let you know that I just spoke to her mother.  She was found in California and mother and daughter are on their way home.  It will be a long drive, but they are happy to be back together again.

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers.  What a great day!

November 24, 2009 | Filed Under About Literate Housewife | 10 Comments 

#215 ~ Stardust

Cover of Stardust

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Tristran Thorn has an interesting background.  His father was born in Wall, behind it’s wall.  His mother was born in Faerie and has never been to Wall.  The closest she came was to the Market that resides just outside of Wall every nine years.  When Tristran was born, he was left by the wall with only his name.  His father and his new wife took Tristran in and raised him.  Tristran grows up in Wall not knowing of how he got there.  On the brink of adulthood, he falls in love with the most beautiful girl in Wall and, in an attempt to win her love, he vows to go out into the world in search of the star they saw fall from the sky.  Stardust is the story of Tristran’s journey through Faerie and back.

neverwhereStardust did not capture my imagination and heart the way that The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, or even Coraline did.  I liked Tristran’s character and what woman wouldn’t want a man to promise to go out and bring back a fallen star to her as proof of his love and worthiness?  For whatever reason, something was missing for me with this novel.  It had such imaginative people and places.  I thought the sub-plot with the nasty sons of Lord Stormhold was interesting and I liked how that story and others were weaved into Tristran’s travels.  It even contained the tree that Neil wrote for Tori Amos.  It isn’t that I didn’t like the book.  I just never got into it the way I had hoped.  There isn’t one concrete thing I can point to that explains this.  Perhaps it’s just that I don’t typically read four books by the same author in such quick succession or that I’m tired in general.  All in all Stardust may not have been the strongest Neil Gaiman I have read this month, but it is as good if not better than much of what I have read this year.

To enter for a chance to win the prizes for this theme month, leave a comment here and then go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-R4.

Other Voices:

The Bluestocking Society
Becky’s Book Reviews

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 23, 2009 | Filed Under book review, fantasy, fiction, male author | 15 Comments 

A Song for Saturday

We have a new radio station in Roanoke – 101.5 The Music Place.  When Danny sent me a link to their homepage to take a look at their playlist archives, I think he was in shock.  A radio station like this?  In Roanoke?  It seems impossible, but it’s true.  It makes me think that radio isn’t dead after all.  The very first time I listened to the station, on my way to meet Jaime from Confessions of a Bibliophile (had a great time once again!), I heard my new favorite song: “I and Love and You” by The Avett Brothers, a band out of North Carolina (so there’s hopes of seeing them live).  Yeah, I’m hooked.  I just might get up to speed on some modern music now.  I thought I would share this gem with you today.  Enjoy!


Not too hard on the eyes, either…

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 21, 2009 | Filed Under About Literate Housewife | 4 Comments 

#214 ~ Coraline

Cover of Coraline

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline, a vivacious and curious only child, has moved with her parents into a large old house that has been subdivided into four units.  She has odd neighbors whom she occasionally visits, but she feels alone for the most part.  Her parents, although home, seem always to be working, and there are no other children around.  It is while following her father’s suggestion of counting windows and doors throughout the house that she discovers a little locked door in the one room in the house that is rarely used.  Her mother finds the key, but it opens only to a brick wall separating sections of the house – or so Coraline thought at first.  What Coraline later finds in the dark and without her parent’s knowledge is that this door leads to her other world.  Coraline’s other world is ruled by her Other Mother.  At first, she is charmed by her Other Mother and Father even though their eyes are simply black buttons.  They take great interest in her and make true home-cooked meals.   While she might enjoy the attention, she soon discovers how sinister Other Mother is and she is forced to save herself and her true parents from the world through that little door.

Coraline was a much different reading experience for me than The Graveyard Book or Neverwhere.  While Other Mother is a creepy, evil character, she isn’t developed in the same way as Gaiman’s other villains.  Her edge comes from her physical presence, while the ghouls or Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemaar make themselves apparent through their dialog.  I found more delight in the Vandemaars and Bishops of Bath and Wells, but writing the Other Mother this way did bring spunky Coraline firmly front and center.   What wasn’t there for me in the way of banter, Coraline made up with her bravery and ingenuity.  She is not afraid to get up and chase a shadow through a strange house and, when push comes to shove, she puts others before herself.  She takes responsibility for her own problems and throws a thrilling tea party, too.  In those ways, she was very real to me.

neverwhereWho can remember daydreaming about having the perfect parents?  I most certainly can.  The parents in this fantasy fluctuated from kings and queens to Luke and Laura (yeah, I’m dating myself here).  While I never had a problem with my mother’s cooking like Coraline did, there were many things that my Other Mother would have done better and with more finesse.  What Coraline points out so beautifully is that often the characteristics and actions we prescribe to our “perfect parents” would in fact prove detrimental to us, at least to some extent.  One of the things I remember longing for in my parental dream team was the permission to stay up as late as I desired.  Had my parents allowed me to do that, they wouldn’t have been parenting at all.  There’s no possibility that I could have performed at my best at school if I was exhausted all of the time.  Regardless, getting whatever you want eventually loses its luster precisely because it’s not what you really need.  You need parents who love you, take care of you, and provide you with the discipline you need to lead your most healthy, productive life.

Coraline reaffirmed my preference for reading a novel before seeing the film.  We rented and watched “Coraline” a couple of months ago.  I enjoyed the movie a great deal and loved what Tim Burton did with the animation.  However, there was a character in the movie that played a prominent role that did not exist in the book.  I spent a third of the novel waiting for him to arrive on the scene only to realize that he would never come.  It was a distraction and I wished that I had come to this novel with a clean slate.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed this novel a great deal and read it in less than 24 hours.  I look forward to the day when I can read this with my daughters – and not just to put the fear of the Other Mother in their hearts (hey, they probably think they’ve already got one… LOL!)

To enter for a chance to win the prizes for this theme month, leave a comment here and then go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-R3.

***

I won my copy of this novel from a contest hosted by Bermudaonion’s Weblog.  Thanks, Kathy!

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 20, 2009 | Filed Under Young Adult, book review, fiction, male author | 14 Comments 

#213 ~ Crossed Wires

Cover of Crossed Wires

Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

Peter has an accident along the road near his house after avoiding running over a cat.  He calls into his insurance company and happens to speak with Mina.  When he is involved in a second accident just a short while later, he calls his insurance back requesting her specifically.  Through the course of helping him out after a second accident in just a short while, Mina learns that he is a widower with young twin daughters approximately the same age as her daughter.  She herself is a single mother living in her mother’s flat.  When her mother moved in with her boyfriend, she left the flat to Mina’s care.  There she is not only raising her daughter  Sal, but her unruly teenage sister as well.  When Mina calls Peter at home to let him know that his second accident would not count against him, a quiet over-the-phone friendship begins.  They share each other’s sorrows despite the distance between Peter’s higher education lifestyle and Mina’s working class one.  Can they also find love?

I picked this novel up several times since it first arrived.  I think the cover is adorable and I quite liked the coincidence that brought Peter and Mina together in the first place.  It was the differences between American English and British English that kept me from reading past the first chapter.  It isn’t that I couldn’t understand what was written (there was some pop culture references and slang that went over my head), but it was the pacing of the language and the colloquialisms that kept tripping me up.  For example, when I read something such as “going to hospital” instead of “going to the hospital,” it makes me stumble.  It took me several chapters to get into the flow of things.  Once I did, I enjoyed picking up new words and expressions.

Crossed Wires is character-based book.  It spends a great deal of time developing its characters and telling their story.  Despite some fast paced scenes, much of the book focuses specifically on Mina and Peter’s internal life and the joys and challenges that surround single parenting.  In that, I felt it mirrored life as it actually is.  It was more a view of a slice of their lives than it was about any one event or plot line.  It never seemed to go anywhere.  I was convinced that when Peter took the trip to help Mina out during a crisis that things would start to happen, but I was mistaken.  This did frustrate me while reading the novel, but it is precisely the lack of split second drama and over-the-top happenings that make me look back on this novel as fondly as I do.  Traveling through the lives of ordinary people at their speed in a book is an interesting way to experience a culture different from your own.  I enjoyed Peter’s and Mina’s story and I can imagine them happily spending the rest of their lives getting to know each other better.

*****

I want to thank the author for sending me a review copy of this novel.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 17, 2009 | Filed Under book review, female author, fiction | 8 Comments 

#212 ~ Neverwhere

Cover of Neverwhere

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere is the story of Richard, a good man who seems to be meandering through his life without much of his own purpose or direction.  He is engaged to Jessica, an almost domineering woman who is happy to treat him as if he isn’t good enough for her.  Richard seems readily oblivious to her personality until he finds a bloody, beaten young woman lying on a London street on the way to a dinner with Jessica’s boss.  When he takes the decision to pick this unknown girl up and take her to his apartment where she can be safe, Jessica is furious and ends their engagement.  He had no idea at the time that there would be such dangerous and complicated implications resulting from his decision to be a Good Samaritan.  Whether Richard took his fiance’s threat seriously, bringing Door back to his apartment alters his life forever.  Door was from the London Below and as a result of his involvement with her and the two bounty hunters from Below, Richard is no longer a part of the London Above.  Nor is he fully a part of Door’s world.  He needs to shake himself out of his sluggish approach to life in order to survive.

I am the type of person who loves to delight in the mayhem caused by the bad guys.  It’s nearly a love to hate type of situation.  Not every dark character makes me feel this way, though.  The miscreant must be  crafty, intelligent, and have just a tad bit of an advantage over the hero or heroine.  These are the malfeasants that force the hero or heroine to reach deep within themselves to rise to the occasion.  As with The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman proves in Neverwhere that he is a master at bringing to live some of the most wonderful villains.  Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemaar, London Below’s most talented assassins tasked with the the apprehension and murder of Door, were nothing short of a delight for me.  They kept Richard, Door, and Hunter on their toes and always kept a step ahead of them.  Their cocky impatience brought a smile to my face and their dialog was in many ways the highlight of this novel for me.

The more I think ab0ut Neverwhere, the more I compare it to the basic storyline of the movie “The Wizard of Oz.”

  • After taking action to help or protect someone else, both Richard and Dorothy find themselves in an unfamiliar world whose rules are foreign and oftentimes frightening.
  • Both novels include a small band of the most unlikely characters with their own motivations on the same dangerous quest at the request of a magical entity.
  • All Richard and Dorothy want is to go back home.

While there isn’t always a direct connection between Dorothy and Richard, they both are forced to face their greatest fears from both the outside world and within themselves in order to survive these foreign worlds and keep any hope of ever returning home, a place they never fully appreciated in the first place.  Without forcibly being removed from their comfort zones, they never would have  lived up to their full potential.  Dorothy would have spent her life on the farm dreaming of those better places over the rainbow while Richard would have continued to go through the motions of his life.  Richard and Dorothy needed their journeys.  It was their salvation.

neverwhereThis novel is the first book I’ve ever owned by Neil Gaiman. It was gifted to my by the lovely Jena from Muse Book Reviews. She sent it to me along with a copy of American Gods in hopes that I could get his autograph. Unfortunately, that never happened, but I treasured the book nonetheless. Now, I can also say that I treasure the story as well.  I have found this month that I’m not too old for the fantastical.

To enter for a chance to win the prizes for this theme month, leave a comment here and then go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-R2.

Other Reviews

Just A Reading Fool

If you’ve reviewed this novel, please let me now and I’ll add a link to your review, too!

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Neverwhere and Beyond, book review, fiction, male author | 19 Comments 

Next Page »

  • Contact Literate Housewife

    Please feel free to contact Literate Housewife by sending an email to jennifer at literatehousewife (dot) com. I would love to hear from you!

  • Devourer of Books

    Fyrefly's Book Blog

    Medieval Bookworm

    The Book Lady's Blog

    Book Chatter and Other Stuff

    Passages to the Past

    For more great blogs, check out my Address Book.

  • Book Blogger Con

    Have you heard about the 1st Annual Book Blogger Convention that will be held in NYC during the BEA? You should check it out. I know it will be a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend due to family obligations, but I'll be trolling blogs for up to the minute news. Book Blogger Convention

  • WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch

  • Upcoming Reviews…

  • Literate Challenges

    What's in a Name? 3

    Random Reading Challenge

  • In My Mailbox…

  • Archives