Books

Now there's an action-packed cover for you. I don't know who the artist was, but wouldn't that have made a great stunt in a movie? I don't know anything about Jack Smalley, who wrote the lead novel, but this issue also includes stories by Walt Coburn, Eugene Cunningham, and T.W. Ford. Definitely worth reading, I think.

If Artemis Cooper’s book was a novel rather than a biography, you’d never believe the story. Born in London in 1915, Patrick Leigh Fermor - Paddy to family and his legions of friends - was arguably the greatest travel writer working in the English language in the 20th century. Insatiably curious about other cultures, his ornately elegant writing style reflected his fascination with languages, and particularly their etymology. Fluent as a speaker and reader in eight languages, Fermor was a cultural magpie, delighting in the shiny, the rare and the unique. But Paddy Fermor was no donnish wordsmith. He was a decorated war hero for orchestrating the abduction of a German general from the island of Crete in 1944. He took part in the last cavalry charge to take place on the European mainland. A renowned ladies’ man, he had a prolonged affair with a Hungarian countess, and yet, craving solitude, was often to be found holed up in remote monasteries. He wrote a novel as well as his travel books, found himself the subject of a blood feud vendetta on Crete, swam the Bosphorus in his sixties as a homage to Lord Byron, and lived the life of the renaissance man to the full. When he died last year Paddy Fermor was mourned equally in England and Greece, although the most common reaction to the news of his death was, ‘Has he finished the third volume?’ Born into a reasonably prosperous middleclass family, Paddy was expected to achieve a respectable education and become an engineer, lawyer or doctor. Instead the young boy found himself expelled from a number of schools, as his fizzing imagination and irrepressible spirit refused to conform to rules and regulations. A magnet for trouble, he was a sponge for poetry and literature, for history, geography and philosophy. At the age of 18, living a dissolute ‘miniature Rake’s Progress’ in London as he waited to join the army at Sandhurst, he was struck by a fantastic notion: he would walk across Europe, from England all the way to his beloved Greece. Setting out in December 1933, Fermor tramped across the continent against a backdrop of rising Fascism, walking through Holland and Germany, down through Hungary and Romania, and on through the Balkans to Constantinople. In the first book recounting his travels, A Time of Gifts (1977), Paddy tells how he would sleep in a hayrick one night, a castle the next, as he marched from Holland to Hungary. The second instalment, Between the Woods and the Water (1986), follows on as Paddy walks deep into the Balkans, and the third instalment - well, we wait still. Long before A Time of Gifts was published, however, Fermor had established himself as the pre-eminent travel writer of his generation, with his debut The Traveller’s Tree (1950) an insightful account of Caribbean cultures, and the twinned Mani (1958) and Roumeli (1966) both fabulous accounts of life in the Greek Peloponnese. His feeling for the Greek character was honed by his wartime experiences as a SOE operative, when he parachuted onto Crete and spent years behind German lines liaising with the local resistance groups, or andartes, an experience that culminated in the storied account of how Paddy led the abduction of General Kreipe in 1944, at the time a propaganda coup for the Allies. Dirk Bogarde played Paddy in the film made about the abduction, Ill Met By Moonlight (1957). Artemis Cooper is a family friend of Paddy Fermor, and knew him as a young girl. If the book reads in large parts as a breathless Boy’s Own adventure tale - indeed, it is subtitled ‘An Adventure’ - she can hardly be faulted, given the extent to which Fermor spent his life constantly in search of the next challenge, the next curiosity. By the same token, the book is more biography than it is hagiography. The fabled account of how Fermor took part in the last cavalry charge on European soil, for example, is here presented more as a story about how a precocious teenager took advantage of his gracious h

Darling, Angela. Lauren's Beach Crush. (Crush #1)7 May 2013, Simon and Schuster Books Lauren has had a crush on Charlie Anderson for several years and has a plan to get him to like her THIS summer at the family beach house. When she finds out her mother has invited Chrissy to join them, she thinks her plans are ruined. Chrissy turns out to be cool, and has a BF in California, Justin. Lauren and Chrissy end up talking to Charlie and his friends, especially Frank. Lauren thinks Chrissy and Frank would be perfect together and tries to fix them up. Things don't go well with Charlie, the girls fight a bit, and there's massive confusion at the end about who "like likes" whom, but it all works out, and the characters get to spend some quality time on the beach at sunset savoring the moment. Coming out from now until December: Maddie's Camp Crush, Lindsay''s Surprise Crush, Noelle's Christmas Crush,Rachel's Valentine Crush.From Picky Reader (who will soon be a jaded high school sophomore), after she gave a dramatic reading of the last chapter on the way home from clarinet: "It sounded like it would make a fantastic Taylor Swift song." Strengths: The girls will ADORE these. Lauren is going into seventh grade, and is all about finding True Love Forever and gaining a BFF. She has embarrassing plans, takes magazine quizzes.. true middle grade romance.Weaknesses: Does anyone on the East coast like, totally overuse "like" and "totally"? Do girls doodle "Lauren and Charlie" and "Lauren Anderson" on their notebooks? 'Cause I totally have to slap them if they do. This was painful to read, but I remember having elaborate plans to "get a boy to like me". Just feel like maybe I shouldn't be encouraging this kind of thinking. These have an odd, 1980s feel to them.

Title: Hysteria (Goodreads) Publisher: Walker Books Source: Netgalley Publication Date: 05 February 2013 Series or Standalone: Standalone ISBN: 0802723101 Format: ebook Pages: 336 The Author on the Web: Megan Miranda - Official Site Megan Miranda - Blog Megan Miranda - Twitter Place(s) Traveled to: New Jersey // New Hampshire Rating: 3 out of 5 stars First Line: My mother hid the knife block. In hindsight, that was the first sign. Ever have one of those books that you just don't know how to review? Ones that you've read a while back and keep meaning to write something about but keep putting it off because there was nothing super memorable about the story? Well, that's how Hysteria by Megan Miranda was for me. This was a book that first attracted me to it by its cover and creepy sounding premise. I liked the idea Mallory might be an unreliable narrator and the idea that she might be a serial killer in the making. I expected Hysteria to be a creepy story but for me it was anything but. And for someone that scares easily that is saying a lot. The main plot line hinted at in this story never materialized until near the end of the book. Then events were just rushed through and resolved before I could even say WTF. Not that this was a WTF story but it just all happened so fast and then blink it was over. Which was a bit of a let down since the set up was so very long in the making. As a character Mallory was a bit blah and whiny and I really wasn't all that impressed with her. Nor did I really care for any of the characters. As I mentioned about the plot was drawn out and rushed at the same time and I'm not sure how I managed to finish this one. I guess I just kept expecting something amazing to happen based on the description and how excited people were for this story. Hysteria was a meh read for me that in the end wasn't very memorable. I had to skim through the book in order to remember basic events in the book. Normally I have a really good memory when it comes to stories so the fact that this one is vague means that its not one that I can recommend. As for reading other books by Megan Miranda I am on the fence. This one left me a bit underwhelmed and so I'm in no hurry to check out her other works.

Oconee Spirit Press has been releasing Carolyn Hart's backlist. And, Memorial Day weekend is the perfect time to discuss a young adult novel she wrote in 1970, No Easy Answers. It's about a time period when there were no easy answers about patriotism, war and peace. It's a novel of suspense set in the Vietnam era.Bart Hastings was born in a military family. Even though his father was a Colonel, in line to be promoted to Brigadier General, Bart wasn't sure he believed in war and military service after his brother was killed in Vietnam. In fact, he and Nancy, the general's daughter, were attacked in the middle of a peace march. But, the beating he received wasn't the worst thing that would happen to Bart that night. After arriving home and fighting with his mother about the government's attempt to make Americans fear a Red Threat and Communism, he and his mother were horrified to find military police on the doorstep, saying the Colonel was under suspicion of selling a secret weapon to the enemy. Now, despite his dislike of the military, Bart was determined to do everything he could to prove his father was framed.In a desperate search for the truth, Bart and Nancy hatched a plan to investigate the other men who could have been responsible for the theft. While searching for clues, Bart's conversations with a priest and the general help him realize he doesn't have all the answers to the state of the country. There are discussions of law and military service, issues that aren't just black and white. And, there's a young man as confused about Vietnam as others were then.Carolyn Hart doesn't provide answers. She offers opinions on both sides in this riveting story of suspense and espionage. And, Bart Hastings comes to realize there really were No Easy Answers to the conflict the country was going through. But, it took good men to try to help the U.S. get through it, just as it was going to take a determined young man to find answers that would keep his father out of prison.Carolyn Hart's website is www.carolynhart.comNo Easy Answers by Carolyn Hart. Oconee Spirit Press. 1970, 2013. ISBN 9780983004080 (paperback), 153p.*****FTC Full Disclosure - The publisher sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.

The End Games T. Michael Martin Balzar and Bray 2013 Michael is deep in The Game. Travelling through a desolated America he has only the voice of The Game Master to see him and his five-year-old brother through a country that is only barely recognisable to the final Safe Zone. On this most perilous of journeys, they are continually running from the hellish Bellows, undead creatures who echo the cries of those they pursue. As Michael tries desperately to keep Patrick going, it becomes clear that there is both more and less to The Game than is first apparent and that this new and scary landscape is populated by monsters that are less obviously monstrous than the Bellows. Ultimately, Game or not, Michael has only himself to rely on as he navigates his way to a Safe Zone that may or may not exist. Michael, while not always easy to like, has an authentic teenage voice. In fact, he’s incredibly well written. Straddling, as he does, the immaturity inherent with his age and the very adult responsibilities he has voluntarily shouldered, he is a fascinating mix of motivation and confusion. His inner monologue is tinged with desperation as he tries to figure out how to survive and also filled with memories of a geeky, nervous, unhappy school life and a home life that has kept him running despite the horrors of the outside world. These memories create in him a lack of confidence but Michael is, in actuality, very capable and focussed. He’s a real survivor and his slow realisation of this is both excruciatingly slow and satisfyingly believable. His relationship with Patrick is extremely well drawn, his understanding of his brother at times almost heart-breaking as is the fact that he embraces the role of parent so willingly and with a real maturity. Conversely his interactions with Holly highlight the fact that he is, still, a teenage boy who fumbles his way around girls and comes out with utterly ridiculous attempts at flirtation. It’s a clever and delightful paradox and engenders the heart of The End Games with a realness that is occasionally lacking from the rest of the book. Holly herself is an interesting enough character. While at first she practically shrieks Manic Pixie Dream Girl, she later evolves into something quite different and is as flawed and believable as Michael. Patrick is also well realised as a child who is clearly somewhere on the autistic spectrum trying to understand a no longer understandable world. The Game, for Patrick, provides an absolutely necessary structure to the madness he’s encountering and the fact that The Game cannot last forever provides a sense of dread for readers in that it is unclear what will happen to Patrick should his structured world disappear. As the only real adult in the story, Jopek is a strange mix of Tallahassee from Zombieland and Colonel Kurtz from Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. Yet this lack of originality doesn't make him any less of an imposing, intimidating figure, if a rather predictable one. The story of The End Games is almost less important that the way in which it is structured. The idea of The Game is extremely clever and Michael’s point of view verges on being a stream of consciousness rather than standard he said she said. This gives the story an immediacy that zombie stories often lack. And make no mistake, this is a zombie story yet it is a relatively original one with some pleasing Science in the mix. Particularly interesting is the idea of a mutating virus – one of those ideas which is so perfect that you wonder why no one thought of it before. However, the story occasionally lacks coherency with aspects of it verging on the surreal rather than the believable. In particularly, the hot air balloon and especially it’s appearance towards the end of the story made little sense – something that will perhaps have been resolved in the final copy, this review being based on an e-galley. Finally, th

OK, so a bunch of us are going to try to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay together over the next couple of weeks. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us. The rules are simple as there aren't any really. Just a few suggestions and/or guidelines. If we start reading on Monday then we can all check back here at the end of each day and I will have left a blog post with some sort of thoughts and, if you are in the mood, you can add to them. There'll be conversations going on at Facebook and Twitter, no doubt. I will use the hashtag #kavalier if you want to tag along, so to speak. I have had a look at my copy, purchased for £1.35 from Save the Children, and it is split into six parts. Part one takes us to page 67 and part two gets us to 163. I was going to aim to get to the end of part two by next weekend. That's just over 30 pages a day. Sound OK? Feel free to read along at your own pace but things tend to work better if most of us are roughly in the same place as it avoids too many spoilers. Er, that's it. Any questions?

Well, Lydia Bennet wanted to go to Brighton.  And by the time Pride & Prejudice was published, Brighton was a thriving seaside resort and, apparently, the location of some highly desirable soldiers – Lydia’s main reason for wanting to go.  As we approach the start of summer and those nice, lazy, seaside holidays, let’s take a look at Brighton. Brighton was originally a fishing village, one of the flourishing ports along England’s south coast.  By 1740, however, it was pretty much in decline due to erosion of the town’s beach resulting in loss of buildings, several severe storms, and an ageing population. Bathing machine Fortunately for Brighton, during the late 18th century sea bathing came into fashion in a big way.  The growth in national wealth that resulted in large estates and grand manor houses, also caused urban centers to be more prosperous.  People who chose to live in towns had the means to travel outside them.  Seaside resorts offered something more than available in the towns or even the countryside. Royal Pavilion Spas surrounding mineral springs, such as Bath and Buxton, had been frequented for health reasons from time immemorial.  The 18th century saw the advent of seabathing as another healthy activity.  The first resorts were located in declining coastal towns such as Brighton, Hasings, Margate, Scarborough, and Weymouth. Brighton, in particular, benefited from its location in a densely populated region of England and its easy access from London. Moreover, failing economy in the area resulted in a surfeit of accommodation, providing places for visitors to stay. Bathing dress Brighton was well-established as a seaside resort before the Prince of Wales (later George IV) took a fancy to it in  1783.  However, George’s visits and his Royal Pavilion, begun in 1786, certainly increased the draw, first as the place frequented by the Prince of Wales and, later by the Pavilion itself as a tourist attraction. If you wanted a little seabathing in Brighton during the Regency, you did not have to wait for an invitation from the prince.  Brighton had plenty of hotels and guest houses from which to sally forth in your fetching bathing dress and rent a bathing machine for your dip into the channel. So, do you want to go to Brighton?  Or do you have something other than a little seabathing in store for your holidays? Recommended sources: Georgian Brighton by Sue Berry and Spas of England and Principal Sea-Bathing Places by A. B. Granville.

So Book Expo America is next week and I AM GOING. So basically if you are too, you should hit me up on twitter or comment because we definitely need to meet up :) I am attending the book blogger con on Wednesday, then BEA for the rest of the week. Those of you going, I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU :) Related posts: Book Expo America and Book Blogger Con! What happened at BEA? (Sun-Tues) Book Bloggers That Rock

Brigid Kemmerer finds the time to write somewhere between caring for her family and working at her day job, but sometimes she ends up mothering her coworkers and managing her family. Storm: The Elemental Series is her first novel. Find out more about Brigid and the Elemental series on her website. Apples or Bananas? Both! Twilight or Mortal [...]