Livres – Books – Page 7 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Book of the week: Brightly Burning

With Brightly Burning, I took such a risk. And I am so very frexing happy I did!

She had me at » I woke up regretting all my life choices. »

What I miss the most about being a book shop girl is being surrounded by books. Every book. Ones I knew on the spot I would love, ones I would never touch, ones I would have put directly in the recycling.

(Nobody needs a book shaped like a pizza, full of grammar mistakes and bad recipes. Nobody.)

Also, I miss the book shop people. Reading books that you know you’ll love is great, but letting yourself be convinced by another book shop person to read a novel you first scoffed at was even better.

I am so grateful to have been able to read so many stories I would have never even glance at.

Of course, sometimes I would politely put the book I was convinced to read away, without finishing it. Most of the time though, it turned out well.

Now, alone in the world where I have to either wait forever for my library to get the books I wanna try out or buy every last one of them (I have about 50 books I wanna read since February started on the French only), I rarely get to take the risk of reading something out of my liking range.

With Brightly Burning, I took such a risk. And I am so very frexing happy I did!

The retelling era in YA

Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy.

Nevertheless, sometimes, I do blame Shrek for that retelling trend. Not that is was such a new thing when the movie got out, of course not.

Somehow thought, it kinda spread the word. Retelling of fairytales and beyond worked. Big time.

No offense intended to any of the great authors writing a great retelling of any kind, but I will rejoice the day the retelling trend fades and vanish for a little while.

Still, I loved Alexa Donne AuthorTube sooo much (check it out, fellow writers, for she shares her deep knowledge of the industry in a super fun way, plus she always does her research, hurray!), I took a shot, went on and buy her retelling of Jane Eyre, which was set in space.

Basically, I bought a retelling set in a sci-fi universe. Two literary genre I usually stay away from.

The 100 Pages Rule

On my first time around in a University, my creative writing teacher told us about his rule regarding books.

If, after 50 pages, the writer did not mange to captivate him, he would stop reading and move on.

He’s point: too many books, too little time. I adopted that rule ever since.

Brightly Burning got me at page 33 of my hardcover edition. (Oh yeah, I even bought the book even before it got out in trade paperback like I was frexing rich or something.)

At page 33, reading the first sentence I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I said to myself: ok, look at it this way, woman; it is a novel inspired by one of your favorite classic read.

Once I got off my high-horse twisted snobby thinking, I fully got onboard.

Well written, fast-paced, the novel is a true page-turner, and a real good one at that.

The twist on the whole mystery lurking in the source d’inspiration of the novel is very well thought through. Sprinkled that with fun characters, spaceships and a very obliging AI, and you got yourself an afternoon or two well spent, and in really good company too.

No need to read the source d’inspiration to fully enjoy Brightly Burning, a very entertaining YA sci-fi retelling of Jane Eyre.

I cannot wait to read the upcoming work of Alexa Donne. The next one is set in the same universe, but quite a few years before.

And yes, it is inspired by a Jane Austen novel. And yes, I am very excited to read it.

I think Brightly Burning is available everywhere, but sadly for all the YA francophones readers out there, in english only.

Book of the week : I feel bad about my neck and other thoughts about being a woman

Most of the time, great books finds me more then I find them.

Sometimes, they find me ahead of time, when I’m not entirely ready to read them. A great example would be the excellent The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. How do I know its an excellent book if I haven’t read it yet, yet again that its a perfect book for me, you ask?

Well, because in this novel, everything is there to love! Well, for me to love anyway. Goldrush in New Zealand in the 1860′, murder and mystery, now we’re talkin’!

Fateful books

Sometimes though, thrown my way by this mysterious blow of fate, books find me at the right time. That’s what happened with this book by Nora Ephron.

I swear, I’ve been trying to remember how this non-fiction book, written by a filmmaker I otherwise adored heart&soul, in short, how I came to buy this book at the end.

It was through writing research, for sure. I spent way too much time doing writing research. Its not good to constantly researching, since it slow the writing down; plus, its sparks many story ideas.

Now you might think I’m a heartless reader when you hear what I’m about to tell you, but I will be brave.

What I like the most about non-fiction is the freedom it gives me as a reader; by freedom, I mean the freedom to skip a chapter or two without feeling a smidgen of guilt.

I feel bad about my neck and other things

After reading that book, I stopped thinking me and Nora could have written a movie together.

Her writing is quick, witty, yet thoughtful, more so, soulful. Her love of New-York makes you want to drop everything and move there. Well, move in her beautiful apartment in the East side anyway.

I did skip some chapters, since I already knew I would go back to the book in one, five, ten years.

I feel bad about my neck, by Nora Ephron, is a must have in the Want-to-read pile

Book of the week: The Castle of Otranto

Thanks to my endless writing research, I got my hands on one the first, if not THE first gothic novel ever written. And I loved it !

Actually, truth to be told, a novel that is said to have inspired other writers, like Ann Radcliffe, to name the only one that I can think of right now (how can one who loves books as much as I do can forget the authors names so easily, I don’t know), and therefore the genre.

Now, it was written in 1764 and it set in the first Crusade era, so if you’re looking for creeping haunted mansion, you’ll be disappointed.

I was a bit surprise to see where the novel was going, probably as much as the writer did himself, by the feel of it!

However a real good reading experience, at least if thou shall endure old english, that is.

It was a bit of a difficult challenge for me at first, since french is my native language and I’ve learned much of my english reading Harry Potter and watching Friends (on DVD; yep, I’m that old).

Nevertheless, I truly enjoy the thrilling series of eerie events, like the back cover of my 2006 edition says.

The knight and the haunted castle

That novel was a true find.

I was doing some research for a ghost story (which I abandoned because I got way too scared, honest to heavens!) and came across that intriguing claim : the first gothic novel ever written.

I had to check it out !

I’m so glad I did. The novel was such a fun read, a real page turner. Also the source of all literature cliché you can find.

You have to love it, if nothing else then for those tears shed by the women at the faintest kind words bestowed by a men, and vice-versa.

Plus, well, I have a little something for fugitive princess’s and devoted knights. That brings in mind, I’ve you seen one the earliest of all the wonderful Miyazaki movies, The castle of Cagliostro. With such a title, hard to not make some connections, you’ll say.

When a strange accident kills the son of the Prince of Otranto, a series of eerie events are set in motion. Oh dear, flying giant swords, lost fathers, peasant made knight, most passionate love triangle, perfectly odious vilain, name it, you got it !

Since it’s a classic, a lot of publisher’s have it and it’s easy to find.

Enjoy !