Salman Rushdie

In this season of incredible events, we are lucky to be hosting my very favorite novelist, Salman Rushdie. There is no book I love more than Midnight's Children and no writer I admire more than Rushdie. And he will be here at Kepler's on wednesday December 1st at 7.00 to talk about Luka and the Fire of Life. It's a book for all ages, the young and older alike. A companion novel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories. A book about a young boy who journeys to steal the Fire of Life to save his father. A tale full of the incredible and unimaginable, an adventure so fantastic you can only marvel at the storytelling.

Here he is talking about writing Luka



And here's Rushdie reading from Luka and the Fire of Life



Will you join me on wednesday?

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher - Review

Here's Elizabeth's wonderful review of Sapphique that will be out in late December.

In this sequel to the thrilling Incarceron, Finn has escaped the terrible living prison of Incarceron with the Warden's daughter, Claudia, but Kiero and Attia remain trapped inside. Claudia keeps insisting that Finn is a lost prince, but he is haunted by visions and can't remember his past. Inside the prison, Kiero and Attia, thinking that Finn has abandoned them, search for a way out, hunting down rumors of a mystical glove once worn by Sapphique, the only person Incarceron has ever loved and the only one to have escaped its walls.

This is an imaginative, dark, and strange story, filled with extravagant
magic and fascinating detail. Its complexities deal with what it means to be free, the relationships between a father and a daughter, the responsibility of a prince to his kingdom and, most importantly, what lies under the façade of what we believe is real. I highly anticipated this book and was not disappointed.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

I realized I hadn't ever posted my review of Incarceron as I was about to post a review of Sapphique. So here it is. Sapphique later this week

Finn lives in a living breathing prison that watches everything everyone does with high tech red-eye cameras. There is no way in and no way out. But Finn has visions that some believe will lead them out of the prison. Claudia is the daughter of the Warden, stuck in a world where the royal courts are made to wear period costume, about to marry a spoiled playboy prince. Both Finn and Claudia have got their hands on a key and thus their lives overlap.

It is a creepy world on both sides of the prison but when they contact each other they believe they have found a way out. Along the way, they discover far more than they ever wished to know about themselves and their history, and about those all around them. If the plot is a little slow to mesh these two stories together, the twists and subplots, and genuine ah-ha moments amply make up for it. I was utterly caught up in this world and counted down the days until I laid my hands on Sapphique.

In My Mailbox

Another week? Really? Well, we hosted Laurie Halse Anderson and Amy Sedaris - both lovely - and I'm almost finished Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and have started Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie. I'm reading far more slowly than usual - I'm blaming the time of year - but it is SO GOOD. Oh, and of course I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. Did you? I had simply forgotten how much I love those books and characters. And now to the books, with thanks to the Story Siren for hosting this meme, as ever.

Yes, I only got one book this week but oh my, I will admit to clutching it tightly and jumping up and down with delight. A reason to be oh so thankful this week.

GRAVEMINDER by Melissa Marr

Yes, Melissa's first adult novel as a bound manuscript.

I am more excited than I can say. And yes I started it immediately. And yes, it is as good as I thought it would be (so far)

Three sips to mind the dead . . .

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn’t a funeral that Maylene didn’t attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.”

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place—and the man—she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D—a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.

Suddenly Rebekkah is struggling with more than just her grief—she’s forced to deal with a centuries-old bargain, dark secrets, a complicated romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.

The Miles Between by Mary Pearson - Review

Doesn't everyone want one fair day, where the good guys win, where everything turns out right, where the universe is just? So when Destiny Faraday finds an unattended car, she persuades some friends to join her for a spontaneous road trip. Now Destiny is the sort of girl who keeps to herself because she's been shuffled from boarding school to boarding school, a girl abandoned by her parents, a girl who knows about how unfair the world can be. Yet she persuades her friends to skip school and drive toward a town that is a lot more important to her than she lets on. It's a day that will change them all.

This creative, quirky quick read about coincidences, friendship, and fate is beautifully written and a lot of fun. And so so different from The Adoration of Jenna Fox!

Teaster Tusday

Haven't done this for ages but I'm reading Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and am absolutely loving it. This meme originated with MizB of Should Be Reading and anyone can play along. Just do the following:

-Grab your current read.
-Open to a random page.
-Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
-BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.)
-Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

Now to the teaser (p. 136):

I've just messed things up with a really cool guy - the coolest guy I've ever met, actually. And that's just in the last few minutes. I've messed up a lot more in the last two years.
I wish I could stop messing up but I don't know how. What is it that mends broken people? Jesus? Chocolate? New shoes? I wish someone could tell me

and because I want to, I'm going to add another teaser this time from the diary Andi finds (p. 143):

I had done this - made the sad prince laugh. made his grieving parents smile. Noone but me. Think only kings have power? Stand on a stage and hold the hearts of men in your hands. make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word. make them love you. And you will know what power is.

Harry Potter movies - and trivia

We all know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 opens this weekend (can't wait!), most of us have seen those great red carpet photos, but have you seen the front page of Sunday’s Los Angeles Times that eatured a Hollywood history of the “Harry Potter“ films.

So did you know that Steven Spielberg was at one point in the mix to guide the Potter films to the screen? "Warner Bros. secured the rights for four “Harry Potter” novels for about $2 million. At that point, only the first book was on shelves in England and none had reached America. Warner Bros. tried to get a financial partner on the project, reaching out to studios including Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks, which passed."

When the books became a sensation, DreamWorks proposed a partnership to make the film, but Horn, president of Warner Brothers, declined. “I did think it would be worthwhile for Steven Spielberg to direct,” Horn said. “We offered it to him. But one of the notions of Dreamworks’ and Steven’s was, ‘Let’s combine a couple of the books, let’s make it animated,’ and that was because ... Pixar had demonstrated that animated movies could be extremely successful ... But I did not want to combine the movies, and I wanted it to be live action.” Spielberg took on “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” ainstead nd the Hogwarts post fell to Chris Columbus. …

The rest of the article has interviews with Daniel Radcliffe, screenwriter Steve Kloves, Columbus,and many others. Check it out here I'll leave you with this: “I admit it, I did cry like a little girl,” Radcliffe said, recalling the day. “There was a feeling that I had, that we all had, that it was the end of something very special.”

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson - Review

Remember Curzon, the boy who Isabel frees from prison in Chains? Well Forge takes up Curzon’s story after they leave New York City. Isabel runs away in search of her sister and Curzon pretends to be free and re-joins the Patriot Army, only to find out just how deplorable the conditions were at Valley Forge: little food, terrible cold, soldiers marching in the snow without shoes, no adequate shelter. Worse, Curzon is recaptured, only to find Isabel didn’t get away either.

Anderson is a remarkable writer who brings the details of the Revolutionary War vividly to life. She makes you consider how much freedom is worth and how much we are willing to pay for it, both as an individual and as a people. It’s an incredible achievement – rich, detailed, and immensely readable.