Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books I've Read So Far in 2015

I've never participated in Top Ten Tuesday before -- a link-up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  But a lot of blogs I read do, and so, I'm trying it out myself :-)  This week, the theme is Favorite Books I've Read So Far in 2015.  Here are mine:

Persuasion by Jane Austen -- my favorite Austen novel.  I read this as part of a read-along at Literary Adventures Along the Brandywine in January and February.  Re-read, of course, and a book I dearly love.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- my first time reading this.  I fell in love with the BBC adaptation earlier this year, and just had to read the book.  Not disappointed, for sure!

Hamlet:  Poem Unlimited by Harold Bloom -- an eye-opening musing on various themes in Hamlet.

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd -- a delicious concoction of magic, mystery, and friendship.  Junior fiction, yes, but you should read it.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott -- another re-read, this time for my own read-along.

Laura by Vera Caspary -- and another re-read.  One of my favorite mysteries, and the basis for one of my favorite movies.

A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz -- awesome look at how reading Jane Austen's novels changed a grad student's views of himself and the world around him.

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King -- the latest novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes finds them in Japan, solving mysteries.

Corral Nocturne by Elizabeth Grace Foley -- a western retelling of the Cinderella story.  It's a novella, and only available in ebook form right now, but I totally loved it.

The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey -- the first ebook I ever read!  And an enjoyable western, to boot.

"Saint Anything" by Sarah Dessen

I first heard of this book on Reading in the Dark, and Hannah made it sound quite interesting, and even heart-warming in a way, so I got it to read for myself.

It kind of reminded me of a Jodi Piccoult book.  I read a whole bunch of her books 7 or 8 years ago, and this has a similar approach in that it's about a family grappling with a serious modern issue.  In this book, it's what happens to a family when one sibling goes to prison.

Sydney's older brother drives drunk and hits a young teen with his car.  He was already on probation, so he has to serve time for it.  Sydney's parents spend all their time thinking about her brother and ignoring her.  She decides to switch schools because she's tired of being known simply as the sister of her popular and infamous brother.  At her new school, she makes friends with two siblings, Layla and Mac, who welcome her into their circle of friends.  They're nice to the point of almost being too perfect, though they do have a flawed older sister.  

Then there's Ames, Sydney's brother's friend who creeps her out.  Getting into spoiler territory here, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want spoilage.  I was actually annoyed that creepy Ames did end up assaulting Sydney because it felt rather cliche -- teen has creepy feeling about someone and it turns out they're evil.  Happens so much in YA.  I'd have much preferred if she'd had a creepy feeling about him, but he never actually did anything horrible, because that would have been much more realistic.  I've known a lot of people that gave off a creepy vibe to me, but weren't actually creepers.  I know that it's important that teens learn to trust their gut instinct because creepers do exist, but I feel like this is so prevalent anymore that teens could start believing, "Oh, I thought that person was creepy, and I need to trust my instincts, so clearly that person is bad!"  Which ain't necessarily so.  However, this is fiction, and there are certain things you have to do in fiction -- if you spend lots and lots of time throughout the novel discussing how creepy someone is, they'd better turn out to actually be a creeper cuz your audience expects it.

Okay, mild rant over.  For the most part, I liked this book a lot.  One thing I absolutely loved about it is that there's zero sex.  Not only that, but even though Sydney gets a new boyfriend, and they do kiss, there's never any suggestion that either of them were even considering sleeping with each other.  It's not simply a given, which feels kinda rare for modern teen fiction.  

Particularly Good Bits:

I'd done the right thing.  I always did.  It just would have been nice if someone had noticed (p. 61).

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for themes of teen alcohol and drug use, a scary moment, and mid-level profanity, including taking the Lord's name in vain.

The Winners!

We have winners!  We have a LOT of winners :-)  Thank you to everyone who entered my big book giveaway -- I only wish I had enough books (and money for postage) so that everyone could have have gotten a book.

Here they be:

Adventure Books

Fear is the Key -- D. Johnson
Master and Commander -- Lois Johnson
Where Eagles Dare -- Eva Schon

Blank Books

Rainbow stripes -- Olivia
Leather -- Sarah Margaret
"Shakespeare Never Tweeted..." -- Hannah of Reading in the Dark

Classics

The Black Arrow -- Tully Family
Damon Runyon Favorites -- Naomi
Dear Enemy -- Jennyfer
North and South -- Bzee

Mysteries

And be a Villain -- Stormi
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late -- Lois Johnson
In the Teeth of the Evidence -- Vellvin
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution -- India
The West End Horror -- D. Johnson

Poetry

Paradise Lost:  Books I and II -- Rose
Selected Poetry of Keats -- Jessica Prescott
The Sonnets:  Poems of Love -- Olivia

Westerns

Gunfighters of the Old West -- Heidi Peterson
The Virginian -- Emma, Plain and Tall

There you have it!  I will be emailing all the winners over the course of the day to ask for your mailing address.  Just for fun, would you like to know what countries all these books are going to?  The US, Canada, Belgium, Indonesia, Australia, and Denmark.  The Post Office is gonna looooooooove me!

EDIT:  Winners, I need you to respond to my email within one week (by July 2nd) with your mailing address, otherwise you will be disqualified and I will choose a new winner for your prize.  Thanks!

"Laura" by Vera Caspary

It's so hard to talk about this story without giving away any of the plot twists.  This is me, doing my best.

Laura opens with NYC Detective Mark McPherson arriving at the home of Waldo Lydecker, a famous columnist and the close friend of Laura Hunt, who has just been murdered.  McPherson isn't usually a homicide detective -- he specializes in taking on corrupt businesses and organized crime, but he got stuck on this case by a spiteful superintendent.  He's a working-class guy and snobbish about the high-class people he's investigating, who in turn look down their noses at him.

Laura Hunt was a career girl, important in the advertising industry, and also a member of "good society" thanks to Waldo taking her under his wing.  She was engaged to Shelby Carpenter, who worked for the same advertising firm as she did, and who was something of an opportunist.  According to everyone McPherson interviews and investigates, everyone loved her.  No one had any motive for killing her.  She was beautiful, gracious, generous, kind, talented, and warm-hearted.  So much so, that McPherson begins to fall in love with her, even though she's gone.

This story was first released as a serial in Colliers magazine in 1942, then released in book form in 1943, made into a movie in 1944, and re-released as a book that same year too.  I have the 1944 edition, which I picked up at a library book sale for probably 50 cents years ago.  Mine doesn't have the cover I pictured here, it's a plain brown hardback.  I just looked it up on Abe Books and there's an identical one selling for $75, so that's pretty cool.  Not that I'd sell mine -- I love this story too much.  

(My copy)

But anyway!  Why do I love this story?  First, of course, it's a mystery, and I love those.  Second, it's got a forbidden love thing going on, with Mark in love with the memory of Laura.  Third, Mark McPherson.  Which is pretty much due to Dana Andrews in the role, because I saw the movie first.  (My equally spoiler-free review is here.)

(Dana Andrews as Mark McPherson)

Like I mentioned last week in my Inkling Explorations post, this book starts out being narrated by Waldo Lydecker.  Then it switches to other narrators, including Mark McPherson, which is my favorite part of the book.  Him trying to reason his way through falling in love with a dead person is just a wonderful bit of character development.  Love it!

Particularly Good Bits:

Although I spread butter lavishly on my brioches, I cling religiously to the belief that the substitution of saccharine for sugar in my coffee will make me slender and fascinating (p. 11.)

Whereas a detective may be a unique and even trustworthy friend, one must always remember that he has made a profession of curiosity (p. 46).

Clues to character are the only clues that add up to the solution of any but the crudest crime (p. 220).

I'm not reporting our actual language because, as I mentioned before, I haven't had a college education and I keep my writing clean (p. 223).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  a light PG-13 for murder, very vague allusions to sexual activity, and some mild curse words and several instances of taking the Lord's name in vain.

"A Snicker of Magic" by Natalie Lloyd

I believe it was Kara of Flowers of Quiet Happiness who first brought this book to my attention.  But I can't find her post about it to link to here.  ANYWAY!  Some blogger I follow who reads junior fiction loved this.  I saw it at the library last week, picked it up to read the first couple pages, and knew I had to get it before I'd finished the first chapter.

The best word to describe this book is definitely "spindiddly."  Which happens to be a word the main character, Felicity Pickle, uses a lot.  Instead of "cool" or "awesome."  I like it.  I'm saying it in real life.  Try saying it yourself!  It's very fun to say.  As is "Felicity Pickle," actually.  And so many other words in this book.  It's clearly written by a word-lover, one who remembers childhood vividly.  I liked it very much indeed.

Okay, so this is a book about a lonely sixth-grade girl, Felicity, whose mom moves her and her little sister around all over the US, never staying anywhere for very long.  Dad walked out years ago and hasn't been heard from since.  They arrive back in her mom's home town of Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, and move in with Aunt Cleo.  Mom gets a job at the local ice cream factory.  Felicity and her little sister go to yet another new-to-them school.  And on the very first day, something magical happens:  Felicity makes a friend.  She's painfully shy, and she even stutters sometimes when she has to talk to strangers, but a boy befriends her nonetheless.  Through him, she gets to know the other eccentric people in Midnight Gulch, learns the history of the place, and solves a mystery concerning one of her forebears.

Also, there's magic.  Magic woven all through the story -- helpful and benign, completely original and made-up magic, as it turns out, but that IS why I read this first before letting Sam read it.  Never know about magic in books -- as a Christian, I am always wary of it, and want to familiarize myself with what's going on in a book that contains magic before I let my kids read it.  

What kind of magic is this?  Felicity can see words, see them when people say them, see them around people and things like an aura.  She collects them by writing them in a book, on her shoes, on her arms, wherever she's got a spot.  And is that not one of the best descriptions of a writer ever?  Other magic involves ice cream that brings back memories, music only a few people can hear, memories captured inside objects... no spells cast, no Dark Arts.  Very imaginative and imaginary.  Whimsical, kind of like Edward Eager in a way.

When I'd finished this, I let Sam read it.  He polished it off in an afternoon, and his first comment to me about it was, "Is there another one?"  Not yet, but I found Natalie Lloyd's blog this morning, and she says there could be a sequel some day.  She has another book getting published before long, but it's not a sequel.

Particularly Good Bits:

And I think if you're lucky, a sister is the same as a friend, but better.  A sister is like a super-forever-infinity friend (p. 10).

Because home is where shabby hearts like ours belong (p. 52).

And some miracles, the very best miracles of all, show up wearing cowboy boots (p. 101).

"Stories aren't peaceful things.  Stories don't care how shy you are.  They don't care how insecure you are, either.  Stories find their own way out eventually.  All you gotta do is turn 'em loose" (p. 146.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G for gumdroppy goodness.  Clean and charming -- like I said, I let my 7-year-old read it.

"Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper" by SARK

Last month at the book store, I went looking for a book to give our oldest niece, who will turn 13 this summer.  She likes to write, and I wanted something to encourage her in that pursuit.  I thought this might be just the book, all bright and friendly and cheerful.  So I bought it but, being a prudent aunt, I thought I'd better read through it first, to make sure it would be appropriate for her.  Which, it turns out, it kind of isn't -- I may just hang onto this for her until she's like 16, if she's still into writing then.

Now, if you're a writer who isn't going to be shocked by the use of the word "vibrator" in the introduction (no descriptions of what it's used for) and the inclusion of an amateur drawing of a partially-topless woman much farther in (drawn by a guest contributor, not by SARK), then you might really like this book.  It's vibrant and playful, and most definitely encouraging.  I'm on the verge of beginning a new short story, and this helped me gain enthusiasm to be bold and truly begin it, not keep putting it off.

I really dug SARK's quirky, almost child-like style, with every page hand-written and hand-drawn.  This is from my favorite page in this book:

I need to print that out and paste it above my writing space.  Too often, I feel like I need to wait until everything is perfect before I write (I'm talking about fiction here, not blogging -- I blog in stolen moments throughout the day, which SARK calls "micro-movement"), but for first drafts especially, I need to concentrate on getting the story down on paper and not worry so much about whether I'm wasting time or doing "valuable" writing.

SARK's advice is a little more touchy-feely than some might appreciate, and gets a little humanistic in places ("good is within everyone," "everyone is capable of creativity," that sort of thing).  But if you want a jolt of creative juiciness, you might want to try this out.

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for the aforementioned inclusion of the word "vibrator" and a non-salacious sketch of a semi-nude woman, and also for non-detailed references to a child being abused.

Gripping Story Opening -- Inkling Explorations for June

Heidi Peterson has a monthly link-up on her writing blog, Sharing the Journey, and last month I answered it on my Soliloquy blog because I was so busy with the Little Women read-along over here and didn't have post space.  This month is focusing on books, so I'm posting over here, though if there's another time when I answer about movies, I would probably do that on the Soliloquy instead just because that blog has more about movies.

So anyway, this month's focus is on "A Gripping Story Opening in Literature."  I've decided to share the opening from Vera Caspary's Laura:

The city that Sunday morning was quiet.  Those millions of New Yorkers who, by need or preference, remain in town over a summer week-end had been crushed spiritless by humidity.  Over the island hung a fog that smelled and felt like water in which too many soda-water glasses have been washed.  Sitting at my desk, pen in hand, I treasured the sense that, among those millions, only I, Waldo Lydecker, was up and doing.  The day just past, devoted to shock and misery, had stripped me of sorrow.  Now I had gathered strength for the writing of Laura's epitaph.  My grief at her sudden and violent death found consolation in the thought that my friend, had she lived to a ripe old age, would have passed into oblivion, whereas the violence of her passing and the genius of her admirer gave her a fair chance at immortality. 

My doorbell rang.  Its electric vibrations had barely ceased when Roberto, my Filipino manservant, came to tell me that Mr. McPherson had asked to see me. 

"Mark McPherson!" I exclaimed, and then, assuming the air of one who might meet Mussolini without trepidation, I bade Roberto to ask Mr. McPherson to wait.  Mahomet had not rushed out to meet the mountain.  

It poses so many questions, doesn't it?  Who on earth is this snooty-sounding Waldo Lydecker, who clearly is almost as infatuated with words as with himself?  Who is Mark McPherson?  And who, above all, is this murdered woman, Laura?

If you've seen the movie, you know the answers.  And, if you've seen the movie, but not read the book, you're probably going, "Whoa, whoa, wait -- Waldo Lydecker narrates the book?!  Is this genius or madness?"  At least, that was my response the first time I read it ;-)  And actually, IIRC, Mark McPherson narrates part of it too, though I must admit it's been more than 6 years since I read this.

I KNOW Heidi said this wasn't supposed to be about movies this month, however!  The 1944 movie version is so perfectly cast I must include a couple pictures from it.  (Heidi, please don't whack me with a broom or anything.)

Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker

Gene Tierney as Laura and Vincent Price as Shelby, in a flashback

Dana Andrews as Mark McPherson