Moyes' Interview

You can watch this at YouTube by clicking here (OfficialRichardandJudy, 2012).

Above is Jojo Moyes' discussion of her work Me Before You at the Richard and Judy Book Club 2012 hosted by WHSmith, a bookshop in the UK.  I absolutely loved this book and I think it's topic is incredibly pertinent in today's society - this clip is worth a listen.

The Richard and Judy Book Club 2012 have conducted interviews with all of the authors from this years reading list.  Their other interviews can be found on YouTube by clicking here.

Me Before You

Photo taken by Ms. C. 

Jojo Moyes has often been labelled a chick-lit writer.  However, I think she is anything but the producer of fluffy, inconsequential romances.  Moyes does write love stories... but her tales are able to combine controversial topics, emotion, hilarity, and intense drama.

Moyes explores the everyday life of individuals with severe physical disabilities within her work Me Before You.  The story centers around Will, a quadriplegic young man who was once highly active, and his budding relationship with Lou, his caretaker.  Readers are introduced to each character before they meet - thus we are able to view Will as a young athletic business man at the top of his world and Lou as a recently laid of cafe employee supporting her parents and sister on minimum wage.  Moyes does an excellent job of developing the characters and portraying the tensions in each one's life which ultimately bring them together.

Picture Me Wednesday - Heart

Photo taken by Ms. C. 

My iPod Touch sock =) 

It comes with me everywhere now that I am commuting all the time.

The Best of Me

Photo taken by Ms. C. 

I began Nicholas Sparks' latest book, The Best of Me, tentatively.  It's not that I don't like his other works.  I love his older novels.  However - prior to reading The Best of Me - I found his recent tales tiresome, repetitive, and with too strong a focus on criminal activities.  Sparks came to be an author who wrote love stories that always included a crazy person with a gun somewhere within the plot.  And that, to me, is not an attractive story.

Before Ever After

Photo taken by Ms. C

I first heard of Samantha Sotto's book when she commented on my blog.  I like to respond to people's comments and see if they have a blog I can visit in return.  Low and behold, Sotto's comment led me to her blog post about Before Ever After - a book she had released a few days prior.  Her book sounded amazing and its cover was gorgeous... I mentally filed it into my TBR list.  Last month, while browsing my bookstore's shelves, I found Sotto's book and knew I had to give it a read.

Sotto provides us with the story of a bereaved widow's quest to find the truth behind her late husband's life. Shelley, the widow, is told that her husband is alive and somehow seems immune to aging three years after his supposed death. The story is based on Shelley's  recounts of how she met her husband on an European trip and his intimate knowledge of history during her flight halfway across the world in search of her late husband.

Love, Books, and Marriage

I stumbled upon a story of love, books, and marriage while surfing through Twitter earlier this afternoon. 

This article, featured at Quill & Quire, describes Naly and Ben's recent Toronto wedding (congrats!).  The couple, who met at Davenport Public Library, decided to hold their wedding vows at Ben McNally Books as the store's name is eerily similar to their own. 

This led me to ponder.... would I want to get married in a bookstore or library? 

While reading this article I immediately thought of Sex and the City and Carrie's use of the New York Public Library for her wedding venue.  She rationalized that the library was the perfect location for a wedding as it held all of the world's greatest love stories.  How romantic!

Me.... while, I've always wanted to get married in a castle.  Or someplace that looked vaguely like a castle.  I recently joked that I should just find a brick wall somewhere, considering the amount of castles Canada has to offer.  However, I can see potential if a really cool, old-fashioned, European style library popped up on my soil.



Would you combine love and books on your big day?

My Temporary Life

Martin Crosbie's My Temporary Life is a complex and dark tale of the life of Malcolm, a Canadian-Scottish man in the late twentieth century.  Crosbie delves into the childhood, adolscence, and adulthood of Malcolm as he experiences the hardships of his parents divorce, trans-Atlantic life (he spends his summers in Vancouver with his mother and remaining time in Scotland with his father), puberty, and his slowly developing romance with Heather which sends him on a suspenseful chase throughout Canada.

RSVP

Helen Warner weaves a tale of weddings, lost loves, and mixed messages in her novel RSVP.  Warner tells the story of Anna, a love lorn young woman who never got over her ex, in modern London.  Emotions come to a boil when she is invited to her ex's wedding ten years later.

Chaucer Fuss - The Clerk's Tale

"The Clerk's Tale" is a story that I secretly love. Why secretly? Because this work seems simultaneously degrading and progressive for women.

The Clerk's Tale focuses on the relationship within a nuclear family. The husband is shown exercising ultimate control over his wife's actions... including persuading her to agree to the murder of their two children.

Chaucer Fuss - The Wife of Bath's Tale

I think most people vision medieval England as an era of strict morality, high religion, and chastity belts. And, to be honest, medieval England does not bear a resemblance to the highly sexualized culture of contemporary England. However, the England of the 1300s was sexualized in its own way.

"The Wife of Bath's Tale" portrays the sexual life of a woman from Bath. Morality and virginity were important aspects of medieval culture. Yet, culture is a fluid concept and there remained a flexibility for women to exert dominance within these confines.

Chaucer Fuss - The Miller's Tale

We are quickly introduced to the miller in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The miller, described as an athletic and charismatic man, tells a graphic tale of adultery. The wit and sexual capabilities of an intellectual and tradesman are pitted against each other within this work.

Chaucer Fuss - The Knight's Tale

"The Knight's Tale," Chaucer's first character-led story in The Canterbury Tales, explores gender relations and notions of marriage in medieval England.

The Knight, a man of chivalry and little means, tells the tale of an ancient love triangle. For, as luck should have it, two men imprisoned in a jail cell fall in love with the same woman, Emily. Locked in their cell, the men may only steal glances of Emily as she walks outside their prison window. The Knight provides an account of each man's escape from prison, search for Emily, and battle to win her heart.

Picture Me Wednesday - 2011 Week 21

E is a potter. Not so much an Englishman with the last name Potter (hehe), but more so a guy who knows his pottery.

A few months ago I saw a sturdy white cup in the pottery factory and fell in love. Little did I know that I would soon be receiving one, with a few added personal touches, as a present.

I just love this cup and had to share it online. It is the perfect study companion for a caffeine addicted gal. I know it will be used many, many times come September.

Picture Me Wednesday - 2011 Week 20

Do you write in your books?

I like to record information.

Who? What? Where? When?
I like to cover all the bases.
I guess where my books originate from are no exception in my 'must record information' mind.

When a book comes from a special place, from a special someone, or from a special moment in history, I like to record it all down in its margins.

Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe

Jenny Colgan's Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe explores one girl's highs and lows while establishing her own little bakery in London, England.

Written as a work of fiction, Colgan tells the tale of Issy Randall. Issy, who recently became redundant at her office job, searches for her life's meaning and a way to pay the bills in Colgan's work. Vibrantly colourful characters and a shifting plot-line are introduced throughout the text. Not only do readers learn the intricacies of Issy's personality, but the ins and outs of creating a bakery, too.

Katy Carter Wants a Hero

Ruth Saberton's Katy Carter Wants a Hero chronicles one woman's tale of self-discovery. Katy Carter, Saberton's protagonist, is a disgruntled London high school teacher who believes that the kind of men from her well-read storybook romances truly do exist. But... do they really?

Beautiful Artifacts, Heartbreaking Relics

I received my first e-mail from an author requesting a book review in late March. As the writer of a little-known blog I was shocked to discover that any author would offer up their book for my criticism.

I was unsure about performing the review. What if I didn't like the book? The author suddenly became a person and perhaps, because of that, I wondered if I would be able to write a honest review. I have brutally pointed out the flaws in literature in the past. I hoped to be able to do the same when the author became more than words in a book. When I was greeted with a format (short stories) and style (magic realist) that I do not frequently pursue, I agreed to the task.

No Price Too High

Last month I embarked on a 9.5 hour plane ride home from England. Around a hour into the flight, we were informed that there was a problem with the film feed. Thankfully I had one book in my hand and another twelve in my carry-on.

Did I say I was a book hoarder?

A Weekend With Mr. Darcy

I finished reading A Weekend with Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly a few weeks ago. The book's jacket attests to it being a 'joyous' and 'terrific' read. It was not mistaken. Connelly weaves a tale that is engaging, fast paced, funny, unexpected, and memorable - exactly as a contemporary work of fiction should be.

A Weekend with Mr. Darcy portrays both the romantic and professional lives of a group of women attending a Jane Austen conference in the twenty-first century. Connelly's work asks the question that many modern (and book loving) women have asked - where are the heroic, chivalrous, stoic, and romantic men in today's society? Do men with nineteenth century principles exist? Can we expect to find our very own Mr. Darcy?

Teaser Tuesday (1)

"It's a strange game, love, she thought, and nine times out of ten it's nothing to do with love at all. It's to do with satisfying men's lust, and lust for conquest, and from now on she would play the game to her advantage, not theirs."

Page 74 - Annie Wilkinson, No Price Too High.