ReadingAdventures

This week's Booking Through Thursday question

This week’s question is suggested by (blogless) JMutford:

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

Quirky huh? Lets start with a definition:

Quirky - having or full of quirks

Hmmm, that doesn't really help

Quirk -

1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
2. An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event; a vagary: a quirk of fate.
3. A sudden sharp turn or twist.
4. An equivocation; a quibble.
5. Architecture A lengthwise groove on a molding between the convex upper part and the soffit.

When I think of quirky characters I definitely think of those with idiosyncrasies outside the norm. There is no doubt in my mind that it takes quite a skilled author to take those quirky characters that populate book world, and make them into characters that do not eventually irritate and annoy.

When I was trying to think back to books that I have read not in the not too distant past and which I have quirky characters, the first series I thought of was the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - her books are chockful of them! I do wonder if in some cases the quirkiness that started in her earlier books have not become the characters in the later books. By that I mean that there are certain things that you know the characters are going to do in every book. Lula is going to maneuvre herself into clothes that are too tight and too skimpy, Stephanie is going to be inept, Grandma Mazur will be just a tad crazy! Not that I don't like that, because I know now what to expect, but in a lesser series it could definitely become tiresome.

How about some other examples - Amelia Peabody and family from the mystery series of the same name by Elizabeth Peters. I definitely don't get tired of them. It seems that cozy mystery series seem to give us more than their fare share of quirky characters. Another one that came to mind was Phryne Fisher from the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerrie Greenwood. Maybe it is that quirkyness gives the author a hook to carry a book on - something that can carry through a series of books without having to come up with completely new characteristics every time.

Thank goodness that there are some authors out there that are skilful enough to come up with quirks, and quirky characters, that don't irritate after a while. There are some that just don't have that skill, or who think that being quirky equate to being bitchy or horrible in other ways!

I am sure that there are loads of examples, but for now this will do!


*Definition from Dictionary.com

So Oprah announced a new book club pick on Wednesday's show, and for the first time since she restarted the book club, I have absolutely NO interest in reading it! There have been some that I haven't been completely over the moon about reading but there was still a little enthusiasm. The book she chose was A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle - apparently a self help book. I don't know. It seems that she has plenty of opportunities to push self help books without having it as her book club selection as well.

New York Times bestselling authors Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes top an impressive roster of the Emerald Isle's most popular women writers and prove that when it comes to spinning a good yarn, the Irish are the best in the business. Showcasing dazzling wit and remarkable insight in short stories that run the gamut from provocative to poignant, these Irish women will tug at your heartstrings and have you crying with laughter in no time. In these stories, and throughout this fabulous collection, Ireland's finest women authors celebrate the joys and perils of love, the adventure and constancy of female friendships, and their own irresistible band of Irish charm.

I originally picked this book up from the library as part of my quest to read everything that has been published in book form by Marian Keyes. Imagine my disappointment when I open the book to read the Marian Keyes contribution, only to find that it is a story that I have already read in one of the two short story collections I have read not too long ago!

Having said that there were stories from 15 other Irish authors including Maeve Binchy, who I last read about 15 years ago if not longer, and Cathy Kelly, who I have never read but I have heard good things about! In fact, in reading this book, which features 14 new to me authors, I have upped my total number of new authors to me so far this year to 21 - which is more than the number of books I have read!

Interestingly enough, quite a few of the stories featured older characters - middle aged women

Here's a brief glimpse of the stories in the anthology:

Soulmates by Marian Keyes - Fun story about a super couple who do everything with style, much to their friends amazement, or perhaps it should be called jealousy!

Destress by Joan O'Neill - When Alex is expecting a marriage proposal, what she gets a break-up. Suddenly single she takes up exercise and finds that maybe she didn't really need that marriage proposal after all.

The Twenty-Eighth Day by Catherine Barry - PMS gone crazy!

Thelma, Louise and the Lurve Gods by Cathy Kelly - Another fun story, this time about two girls who decide to do a driving tour across America, only to find that they have to share their trip with two guys.

Your Place or Mine? by Gemma O'Connor - An Irish family by a French cottage. Luckily they find some friendly locals willing to maintain it while they are away...or is it!

A Good Catch by Mary Ryan- A kind of strange story about an older woman who moves into a flat, and befriends the girl across the way, only to be caught up in a scandal.

About That Night by Sarah Webb - I liked this one for the most part, although I hated the best friend! Fortunately, I think I was supposed to. A group of friends go to Cowes to go to their mate's society wedding. One of them has a secret though. The question is can her friend keep it to herself?

The Cup Runneth Over by Julie Parsons - an attractive middle aged woman sets her sights on a married man. The main character in this one was a bit of a bunny boiler!

Carissima by Maeve Binchy - a friend tries to convince Nora that her family is using her. Quite a nice story really, about the value of strong friendships.

The Ring Cycle by Martina Devlin - How does a divorced woman finally rid herself of her wedding ring? Especially one that doesn't seem to want to go away!

The Unlovable Woman by Annie Sparrow - A lonely and little bit past her prime woman meets a clairvoyant who tries to help her find love. The question is, 'Will she recognise it when she knocks on the door?'

Moving by Colette Caddle - After many years of living in London Sara, a somewhat bored housewife, and her family are returning to Ireland. She is dreading being inundated with family, and also with the prospect of running into her ex again.

Playing Games by Catherine Dunne - This story was well written, but pretty gloomy in its outlook. Norah has been visiting her aunt regularly for many years, and playing her role in the many games of manipulation, and guilt. Suddenly though, she finds out that she doesn't actually know all the games.

Girls Weekend by Marisa Mackle - Emma's partner is a bit of a lad about town - going off for weekends with the boys etc etc. What happens when it is her turn?

The Union Man by Tina Reilly - My goodness, if I was married to this bloke I would have kicked him to the curve many years ago! Peter is a man who promises much, but delivers little. What does his wife have to do to get some action anytime before the tomorrow that never actually comes?

An Independent Woman by Morag Prunty - Bridie takes pride in having maintained herself quite nicely, but she's been lonely for quite a long time, especially seeing as she seems to be losing touch with her daughter as well. When she answers a lonely hearts column she meets someone very different than she expected. Bridie to me was a very harsh character - not one that I found easy to like at all!

In summary, a few good short stories, a few not so good. If I had of known that I had already read the Keyes contribution I probably wouldn't have read it at all, but once I had it here, I figured it wouldn't hurt to read it!

Lara is the Warprize

A powerful healer, she has sworn an oath of loyalty to Keir the Warlord, and his people. Now the Warlord and his chosen mate face enemies within the tribe and danger lurks on every hand as they journey toward Keir's homeland.

When they reach a village marked with the warnings of the plague, Keir forbids Lara to heal the sick, commanding that she not risk her own life. But both Lara and Kier are strong of will and neither will bend easily, even for love; and when Lara disobeys, she pays the price: both she and Kier are plague-struck... and so is their entire encampment.

In the midst of the dying, Iften, a rival warrior, gathers his followers and challenges Keir for the right to rule their tribe. If Keir, weakened by the sickness, loses -- he dies.

And so does Lara.

To save her love, her life, and her adopted people, Lara must find a cure for the plague -- and fully embrace her sworn role as Warprize to her Warlord.

I tend not to move directly from one book in a series to the next, but I was sufficiently intrigued when I finished Warprize that I did pick up Warsworn the next day to keep reading Kier and Lara's story. Please note that there may be SPOILERS for Warprize in this review!



Having come up with a way to still be with Kier without jeopardising her country, Kier and Lara begin to travel back to his country, where she must be accepted by the elders as the Warprize. The journey itself is yet more of a learning curve for Lara as she begins to understand the rules that dictate the life of the Firelanders - a people that she had long thought uncivilized. It turns out that although their ways are much different from her own, there are very distinct rules to protect individuals privacy and as to how challenges to leadership can be made.

The book opens with Lara suffering from sore feet after the events where she basically gave herself up to Kier as the Warprize. Whilst they are travelling through her land on the way to Keir's homeland, he demands as his right the homage of the towns and people within Xy, so when they get to a town and the necessary homage is not forthcoming, Kier interprets it as an act of disobedience. Ready to declare war, Lara puts a stop to it when she realises that by shooting at Keir's warriors the town was not declaring war but rather trying to warn the people off as they have contracted a very virulent form of plague in their town.

As a healer, Lara knows that it is her role to go and provide whatever assistance she can, despite the risk that she puts herself and those that accompany her. When, despite all the precautions she takes, she catches the plague, she believes that her life is over, but Kier gives every resource he can to trying to save her, even though they still remain far away from the main camp to try and prevent the spread of the disease. All their precautions were in vain though, as the main camp does become infected, and soon, instead of dying honourable deaths in battle, the warriors are dropping from the disease, including some of the people who they value highly within their inner circle. Many within the camp take this as a sign from the gods that there is something amiss and soon Kier is not only fighting for his people, to try and protect as many as they can, but he is also is being challenged in his position as Warlord.

Once again, this was an excellent read. In fact, I rated it as slightly better than Warprize. I have had both of these books on my bookshelves for months, and it is definitely a case of me wondering what the heck I was waiting for now that I have read them! I have now ordered the next book in the series. Hopefully I will get to it soon and not leave it languishing on the shelves as I did for the first two!


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Romance Rookie

Seeing as I have been tagged by Julia, Rhinoa and Aarti, I probably should answer this meme, created by Eva, which has been sweeping through the bookish blogs that I read!


Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

That would have to be Dorothy Dunnett's books. I have been intending to read them for a while now. In fact, it was one of my reading resolutions for last year, and I still didn't manage to start them. I have borrowed the first one, Game of Kings, a couple of times, but had to return them because I couldn't read them before it was due back. I am going to attempt to borrow, and READ, Game of Kings some time this year!

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Err - well, I think I would have a dinner party (because I am far too old for clubbing!) and start with Jamie Fraser from Outlander because I think that he would be a very entertaining guest. I guess if he insisted that Claire had to come that would be fine.

Another guest would be William Marshal from Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion - a man of honour and integrity - and given his history of participating in tourneys I am sure that he would have some great stories to tell!

And the third? John Thornton from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, but only as portrayed by Richard Armitage - no real good reason other than for the eye candy factor!

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it's past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

It's tempting to say War and Peace, but as I am intending to try and read the new translation by Pevlear and Volokhonsky sooner rather than later, I would hate to be jinxing myself!

Come on, we've all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you've read, when in fact you've been nowhere near it?

I may have inferred that I read a book to an author, when I actually only got half way through! The sad thing is I really enjoyed the book, or what I read of it, and even bought the second one, at relatively great expense because it was coming from Canada. One day, I will finish it, I really will!

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to 'reread' it that you haven't? Which book?

I really can't think of one straight off.

You've been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who's not a big reader). What's the first book you'd recommend and why? (if you feel like you'd have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

It really does depend on the VIP. Is it a female who really needs to escape into another world away from their busy lives - maybe some Outlander. Is it someone who would like to challenge themselves - maybe Anna Karenina.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

I think I would go with Latin, simply because it is the basis for so many other languages, and presumably if I am fluent in Latin, it won't be that difficult to master some of the other languages myself!

Having said that, I always wanted to learn Japanese.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

Hmmm.....maybe Anna Karenina, because I am sure that it is the type of book that you could get something different out of every time you read it!

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What's one bookish thing you 'discovered' from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

Before I started blogging, I would never have thought that I would read paranormal romances. Vampires and werewolves? Bah, not for me! Of course, that's changed and now I read them quite regularly.

Another change is that I read more fantasy now than I ever have before. Books like Anne Bishop's Black Jewels books for example, would be books that I never would have found because I just would never normally have gone near the Fantasy section of the bookstore. Now, I wouldn't say that I read it regularly, but I do read enough now and look forward to reading well written fantasy.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she's granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

My dream library is one where I have ever expanding bookshelves where I could keep all the books that I own and want to own! I am not all that fussed about leather bound, but certainly would love a library full of pristine trade paperbacks, and if some of them are signed by my favourite authors then all the better! At the moment, I am in desperate need of new bookshelves but I also have a problem in how I am going to fit them into my living room if I do buy more!

And the final portion of the assignment is to tag four others.

I tag:

Susan Higginbotham
Kelly from Loaded Questions
Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise
Kathrin from Crazy Cozy Murders


*And, for extra credit, if you leave a comment letting Eva know you've done the meme with a link to the post, she will give you some link love via a big list of who's participated. Additionally, if you link back to her original post, she will enter you in a drawing to win The House at Riverton. If you're an American, this is especially exciting since it isn't going to published until April. ;) To be in the drawing, you must have posted the meme (and commented) by February 5th, which is when she is holding the drawing.

Australian comedian Adam Hills puts forward his idea for the Australian National Anthem. And now I am navigating away from Youtube before I cause you all to stop visiting me!




Not sure what this would sound like in a brass band version though!

Just because I have spent the last hour or so searching through Youtube. Two of my favourite songs ever!

The first is just a link because it can't be embedded, but if there is a song that is guaranteed to get me up off of the couch and dance around the lounge room at 1am (err...not that that happens often!), then this is it.




And We Danced by The Hooters

The second is a live version from last year of I'd Die to be With You Tonight by Jimmy Barnes. He sang Working Class Man as well which I showed in my last post! What can I say...I'm a fan!

Some of you may know that I lived in the UK for five years in the 90s. Whenever this ad for Qantas (the Australian National Airline) came on, I used to tear up....every time! I've been home now for a long time, and Qantas have changed their ads, but it still gives me chills. And the images are beautiful, not only of Australia but also other places!




This second video is probably the quintessential Aussie rock song of the 80s. Jimmy Barnes was (still is) a massive star here, both as an individual performer and as part of Cold Chisel - one of the great Aussie pub rock bands.






And this one...just cause I like it. Thanks to it's use in a Coca-Cola ad campaign this is a song that is definitely associated with summer for me! It was a bit strange watching the video though, because I remember the images from the Coke ad (which you can see here) more than I do the video:



Happy Australia Day!

In my last post I talked a little bit about ways to time waste...here's another!! By clicking on the fish at the top you can choose whether you have a shark or a clown fish, an orca or a dolphin! Just move your mouse to make the fish move!


Very therapeutic!








Click here to get more mini-SharkBreak widgets

www.SharkBreak.com



Hmmmmm....seems to have stuffed my formatting! Scroll down for more posts!

Nalini Singh always has such great contests to celebrate the releases of her books, and this one is no exception. To get all the details of how to enter go and check out this post on her blog. Entries close on 2 Feb, so you have a little time to work out who you want to write about!

To celebrate the upcoming (February 5th!) release of Mine to Possess the 4th full-length entry in the Psy/Changeling world, which features one hot hero in the luscious Clay Bennett, I'm running a contest where you get to rave/gush/cheer about your favorite romance novel hero(es).

What's up for grabs?

The winner, chosen at random, will receive a US$50 Amazon voucher and a very special Mine to Possess Teaser prize pack. All the things in the prize pack have some relevance to the book (ok, so maybe one is kinda just for fun) so speculate away!

1. Fancy Tea
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Strawberry scented soap
4. Candles
5. A Stud...ded collar

No picture because we'll put it together after the contest ends so everything will be sparkly fresh.

So...favourite heroes. hmmmmm...I am going to cop out a little and not actually write about ONE hero, but rather a type of hero - I love me some scarred-from-the-events-of -the-past alpha heroes, who people don't necessarily seem to like, but who really are completely honourable, just wanting to be loved, but don't think that he deserves it kind of men. Mmmmm...can't get enough of them or their darkly tormented ways.

Want some examples? How about Sin from Born in Sin by Kinley MacGregor - even his name was given to him as an insult, kind of like Cyprian Sloan from Diane Gaston's A Reputable Rake, Or perhaps even Zsadist from Lover Awakened or Sebastian St Vincent from Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas.

Whilst maybe not as tormented as a couple of those, other examples of my favourite kinds of heroes - Jamie Fraser from Outlander and Alexander Barrington from The Bronze Horsemen. Both are men who do what needs to be done...even if sometimes that is not the action that mere normal men would be courageous enough to take...but they do it! A bit like Jack Devlin from Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas who pushes Amanda just enough to get what he wants, oh, and all right, I also have to mention Derek from Dreaming of You as part of the dreamy Kleypas heroes collection!

Or how about those cold and aloof heroes that seem to finally only unbend when they find the love of the right woman - men like Wulfric from the Slightly series by Mary Balogh, or Marcus, Duke of Westcliff who appears in several Kleypas books but finally gets his own HEA in It Happened One Autumn.

Nalini really is a bit cheeky asking this question, it could take me hours to finish writing this post, and I do really need to do some other things like wash the top that I am wearing to a wedding tomorrow, and the dishes....oh wait, what am I saying...this is much more interesting!

In closing, I leave a picture of my favourite mini-series hero of the moment....for no good reason at all except that I can! Oh, and I guess he counts as a bit cool and aloof in the beginning!





Of course, for dark and tormented you could always go with this picture...although I am not sure he really counts as a hero!





**Guy banner made be Heathdancer from The Armitage Army**

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

And, folks–Becca was nice enough to nominate Booking Through Thursday for a Blogger’s Choice Award–while you’re here, why don’t you head over and vote for us, too. Because, a vote for BTT is a vote for all of us who play each week!

I think my answer to this question really depends on who 'people' are! If we are talking about in real life, then the list of books that I love that other people haven't read is extensive. If we are talking about in blogland, then it is a little harder to narrow it down!

In terms of my family and friends, there are very few that I can talk books with. The girl I sit next to at work and I do, but we read very different genres. Basically I think I could talk just about anyone to them and they wouldn't necessarily have heard of them, with the exception of probably Diana Gabaldon, Paullina Simons and Bryce Courtenay! The first two is because they have heard me rave on about, the other because when he has a new book out he does get saturation coverage here!

In blogland, I decided that I would look at the least known book out of my best reads of 2007, and that would have to be Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham. I really, really enjoyed that book, but I don't think I have ever seen this author mentioned on any other blogs. Actually, I don't even see him in the shops at all either, so I guess that his sales weren't all that great, given that Barbed Wire and Roses only came out six months ago. If that is the case, it is disappointing because the book itself is a really good read. I am now on a mission to read his backlist, and have another of his books out from the library to read.

I saw this over at Raidergirl's blog and thought that it was a bit of fun. The original idea is actually quite serious. It was created by Foma, and these were his reasons for creating it:

Two years ago I invented a semi-parody of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo that I called National Just Read More Novels Month or, for not-so-short, the unpronounceable NaJuReMoNoMo. It’s only a semi-parody because I am completely serious about wanting people to read more novels. January is the perfect month for this sort of internet meme. It’s the middle of winter and doesn’t conflict with any major holidays. January is 31 days long, giving people plenty of time to read a book. Folks are flush with cash and gift cards from holiday giving, And they are burnt out from the endless November challenges that require too much work.

Best of all, NaJuReMoNoMo is astoundingly easy. All you have to do is read any novel from start to finish within the month of January. You can read memoirs or non-fiction in January, they just don’t count towards your NaJuReMoNoMo total.

Given how many novels a lot of us already read we can already be winners, which has to be a good thing right! So there are badges for our blogs, to say that we are winners, and then there are badges to signify how many novels we have read! So at this point in time, these are the badges that I can claim, having started and finished 8 novels so far this month:




I am aspiring to get a gold badge for having read 10!

It's a shame that I didn't know about it earlier in the month, but it's still a great idea and I am going to try and keep an eye out for it next year!

Kerrie from over at Mysteries in Paradise recently asked some questions on her blog about reading challenges. I was specifically mentioned, so instead of answering in the comments I thought I would answer here. Kerrie's questions were:

So, are you into Challenges?Tell us about the ones doing this year.
If you are, why do you do it?

For me, reading challenges are a way to expand my reading horizons, whilst reducing the number of books on my TBR list, and as an added bonus I think that participating in challenges assist in feeling part of the blogging community, connecting with new people and blogs.

Last year I decided pretty early on that I wasn't going to participate in challenges, mainly because for me just managing my library list is a challenge, and I stuck to that for the year. There were, however, so many people whose blogs I read and enjoy that were participating and posting about their participation and I wanted to be part of that this year. I have put some restrictions on myself though. For example, any challenge that I join really needs to help me reduce the number of books on my TBR list. I don't want to be joining challenges all over the place just for the sake of it, and then have to add yet more books to my list just to be able to participate. Of course, there's every possibility that by reading the posts of other challenge participants then I will add yet more books to my list anyway....but that's a side effect not a direct effect so I can live with that!

There are two exceptions to that. The Pulitzer Challenge and The Complete Booker have meant that I have added books to my TBR list, but given that there is no time limit on the completion of those challenges, and that I had often thought about trying to read them all anyway, I still joined up.

The challenges that I have joined up for are listed in my sidebar. It's not THAT many. I think the person I have seen who is participating in the most challenges is probably Becky, but maybe there is someone who is doing more.

Some other challenges that I have contemplated joining are

Jennie's classic romance challenge
Shannon's Back to History challenge
Royalty Rules Challenge
Sea Faring Challenge

and that's just for starters!

So why haven't I joined these. Well...Jennie has only just put hers up, and I guess I am wanting to figure out in my own mind what a Classic Romance is! Of the books on Jennies list I am somewhat ashamed to say I have only read only 1 of them, but I am thinking that I will put a post up in the next few days asking about what books are considered classic romance and then I will figure out once and for all if I am going to join in or not.

As an aside, it is interesting to me to see that the craze for reading challenges really hasn't caught on all that much in romance land. There are only two that I can think of that are specifically romance related, although I am sure that there are lots of others that could be adapted to fit reading romances.



The Back to History challenge is one that I may still join. I have changed my mind about joining numerous times. It's not like I don't read a lot of Historical Fiction so I should be able to manage it, but the two are not always compatible. When I sat down to look at the books I had that fit into the Royalty Rules challenge I was somewhat surprised to see that I wouldn't have enough books to make the challenge that fit the theme! Although, I did just get a new review book which would fit the criteria...hmmm.

I didn't end up joining the Sea Faring Challenge because having a beautiful button is not enough of a reason to join a cha