Werewolves, walking trunks and magical dresses!

My 'second' update! The trouble with reading books you don't know about is that you're always going to come across one or two that didn't particularly float your boat. Fortunately, books aren't written to take everyone's fancy, so if a werewolf romance or shenanigans in love (or fantastical tourists) sound like a bit of you, then grab these books for what could be your idea of a good time.

A book by a female author - Bitten by Kelly Armstrong

Elena is your average everyday modern woman - except, she's also a werewolf. The only female werewolf in the world, in fact. After being transformed against her will by her lover, Clay, and finding she didn't fit in well, she left her 'pack' to try her hand at becoming a normal person again, living in cities and working your normal 9-5 job with an even normal-er fiancee. It's been years that her pack has tried to contact her, but now the Alpha is calling her back - the pack family is under siege and someone is murdering humans on their land.

A paranormal romance, this one was the first werewolf romance I've read since Twilight (if you could call it one). While not a huge fan of Elena herself, I could definitely see how Armstrong became the immensely popular author she is today if this was her first in what is now a HUGE series.

A book by an author you love that you haven't read - The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I'm a fan of the hugely popular Discworld series, but I came in late to the books - starting with Going Postal. I had read a few of the older ones, but never bothered to read the first, as I'd already seen the movie. However, when this category came up, I thought I might as well. An earlier work and you can tell, it was still interesting to read of the 'beginning' of the Disc.

Rincewind is by far the most useless wizard in Ankh-Morpork. He only knows one spell, and even then he's never used it. When Ankh-Morpork's first ever tourist Twoflower turns up, with a sentient trunk and bundles of gold, it's Rincewind who gets stuck with him as a tour guide. All his life, Rincewind has tried to avoid trouble - but all Twoflower seems to want is trouble. Seeing dragons, meeting barbarians and getting in pub fights is all on his to-do list, and Rincewind is unfortunately dragged along.

A book with a love triangle - The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna van Praag

Cora is a scientist, with no time for love, or feelings of any heartfelt manner. Walter is the young man with a heartbreaking voice at the bookstore, who is hopelessly in love with her. And Etta is Cora's troublemaker of a grandmother, who sells dresses that are magic. Everyone is nursing a broken heart, and only Etta takes any steps to fix them. Not hers, of course, but definitely Cora's. When Etta's magic goes awry, nothing goes to plan as Walter finds 'love' elsewhere and Cora gets entangled in a strange crime regarding her parents death.

Van Pragg is a unique storyteller. Every chapter follows a different characters perspective and gives insight to how everyone reacts to Etta's well intentioned magic. The different perspectives did get me a bit confused at times, but it was a magical read with lots of twists and turns.

GNU Terry Pratchett

When I hear people mention things about fantasy, my knowledge is pretty much limited to fairy tales, those little ones with badass chicks on the front or Terry Pratchett. And even about those things, I hardly know much of outside of the books I've read. I don't really care much for the lives authors have outside of writing the books I love - except for if they're writing their next book and when can I have it.

However, just because I don't know jack about the world of authors and what they do, it didn't stop me from shedding a tear or two earlier this month when I found out that Terry Pratchett died.

I know nothing about him, except that he wears wide brimmed hats, appeared as cameos in film versions of his books and that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's (courtesy of one of my great reader friends who was devastated at the news). I know nothing about the guy personally and I know nothing about who he was as a person - but I did know that he wrote very, very amazing books.
So, I won't pretend I know him and write about how amazing he was and how he changed the world, whether he did or not. I'll write about the only thing I feel at liberty to write about.

His books have a magical kind of power. Discworld, his main series (which can also be read as stand alone novels) is a mess of hilarious illogical logic and such detailed and reasonable chaos that you either had to put the book down because it was too much to grasp, or fall directly down the rabbit hole into the most amazing, well put together world that you can actually imagine co-existing with ours in some kind of crazy parallel universe. Funny, stupid, wise, heartbreaking, all rolled into one.

The first Terry Pratchett book I ever read was Going Postal (the second word will link you to the film instead of the book, as the first does). As such, it holds a special place in my heart as my favourite book in the Discworld series. No, I haven't read all of them - I just checked Wikipedia and I've only read 11 out of the 41 listed there (did I mention I don't keep track of this stuff?). Anywho, Moist von Lipwig's adventures into being a Postmaster was my first adventure into Discworld, and I still haven't left.

Moist is a scruffian big-time crook, who likes to have money, and lots of it. He likes it especially if it comes out of others pockets - which he often dips into. When finally caught by Lord Vetenari, he has the choice of either dying or facing the ultimate punishment... Becoming the Postmaster of Ankh-Morporks run-down and shabby postal office.

His first in the Discworld series, The Colour of Magic (also a film), is literally about the very first tourist Ankh-Morpork has ever seen, Twoflower. As he wanders about in pursuit of fun and wonder (ie. dragons, barbarians, bar fights), his travel guide, the not-wizard Rincewind of Ankh-Morpork is driven around the bend by the constant shenanigans Twoflower gets them into, and he tries very hard not to let them get killed. That's it. No epic romance or spell-flinging swordfights (or not very many, at least) and yet it's everything that there is to love about the Discworld.

Which, by the way, is the (flat) world, on a disc, on the back of four giant elephants, on the back of an even bigger, great turtle flying through space.

I'm pretty sure Terry Pratchett is the only author who can think up the Discworld and still make a reader believe it, make them say, 'Okay, I get that. I see how that can work'.

The last in my favorite series in the Discworld of his (the Tiffany Aching series) was his last book he ever managed to write, and is planned to be published this year posthumously. If you ever feel the need to pick up one of his books, I suggest starting with The Wee Free Men, the first in that series. Its under Teen Fiction (and in some cases, Children's) but don't let that fool you. It's as amazing as any others of his. If you feel the need, order some of his books - read them for the first time, or the fifth time. Read all of them, or only one.

Why would a criminal taking over a post office be interesting? Why do you need to know what a tourist gets up to on his first OE? Why do I care what Death the Reaper is doing on a farm or dressed up as Santa the Hogfather (again, a film) or how a sports team made of incompetent wizards does? The answer is, I don't know. I don't know how it could pull me in as much as it did - it just did. That is the power, the magic of what Terry Pratchett did. And this is what I, and all of his fans all over the world, will miss.

'Certain things have to happen before other things. Gods play games with the fates of men. But first they have to get all the pieces on the board, and look all over the place for the dice.' - Soul Music

Shaking hands with Death - Sandara

Every book has its day

I've read some articles lately that attack the public view of what makes a good book. First up was a piece about The Great Gatsby, in which the reviewer admitted they thought the book was utter crap. And that what most people think it's about - the parties and the celebration of decadence - completely misses the point.

Someone else sneered at Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and other bestsellers. They may be popular, the writer said - but that doesn't mean they're good. Only women's book groups like them, not real critics like me.

Fact is, everyone likes to look down on something. We all want to feel superior in our own way. Yes, I love a formulaic slasher novel, but at least I don't read romance. Yes, I read British chick lit, but I don't touch that American trash. Oh, fantasy...I prefer Margaret Atwood myself...

And so on.

Well who says what a good book is? These are the ingredients for me:

It must have a story that makes me want to keep reading.
It must have characters I like spending time with.
I must enjoy it.

Anything else is just a bonus.

Thing is, almost every book is a good book to someone. One person's tastes do not match another's. Thank God for that. At Easter I get to eat all the marshmallow eggs, because others in my house don't like them. Lots of authors get told they're unpublishable before making their first billion. It's just how life is.

If the mark of a quality book is one you read over and over, here's my own list of the classics. Take it as read that Jane Austen is on here...

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

Feet of Clay and Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett

Q & A - Vikas Swarup

The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

One For the Money - Janet Evanovich

Be My Enemy - Christopher Brookmyre

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

Dead Beat - Jim Butcher

I own a lot of crime novels, naturally, but they don't feature on here so highly because it's best not to remind yourself of the ending too often. Wait a few years and then surprise yourself all over again! I recommend: Mark Billingham, Louise Penny, Stuart MacBride, C. J. Sansom, Belinda Bauer, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Adrian McKinty.

Embracing your inner teenager

A few years ago the genre barely existed; now it's a major money-spinner for publishers and movie studios alike.

Hands up how many of you have read a young adult novel in the past year. Some of you will be teenagers, (like, duh), but many of you will be well past the age of adolescence, if not the angst part. And you are a major reason why teen fiction is doing so well. Thanks to Harry Potter, adults need no longer feel ashamed to pick up a book for "children". While they should actually be ashamed of picking up a book about sparkly vampires and vapid heroines, those days are long gone. In fact, publishers are now packaging books with separate covers for adults and teens.

This, my friends, is the age of the crossover. Now that the stigma of reading teen fiction is gone, so is the writing of it. Every big-name adult author is writing for teens now - Philippa Gregory, Elizabeth George, Harlan Coben, Gena Showalter, John Grisham, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult. They're all at it. Once Lee Child figures out how make his sentences any shorter, no doubt he'll get round to it too.

If you're like me, you probably want to forget your adolescence entirely, but the teenagers in the best of today's books are dealing with a lot more than what to wear to the prom, and the stories are generally easier to get into than the stuff written for adults. They're perfect escapism with bite. Ignoring The Hunger Games, which I've already written about at length, there are futuristic books in which evil regimes are overthrown, by heroes with complex problems. There are fantasy quests (think the Eragon series). There's historical fiction with intrigue. There are even stories based on real events, about refugees and concentration camp survivors.

And lots of paranormal stuff, of course.

So here it is: a list of crossover YA and adult books that will appeal to all audiences. Give one a try!

Authors in the news

A number of articles caught my eye as I was reading the online news this week.

Dickens family seek to overturn writer's dying wish for no memorials (From The Independent)
Author Charles Dickens left strict instructions in his will that he be remembered for his work only. "...no monument memorial or testimonial whatever". Next year will be 140 years since his death and his family are wondering if it's time to change their stance over a memorial of some sort.

Shakespeare goes digital (From Reuters)
"A U.S. and British library plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of William Shakespeare's plays printed in the quarto format before the year 1641.
The Bodleian Library in Oxford and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC have joined forces to download their collections, building on the work of the British Library which digitized its collection of quarto editions in 2004."

Hutt Valley teacher gets global book deal (From Stuff)
Publishing house Quercus has bought the rights to distribute Bernard Beckett's sci-fi thriller "Genesis" around the world.

Match it For Pratchett! Raising £500,000 for Alzheimer's research (via Boingboing)
Terry Pratchett has a rare form of Alzheimers. He's donated half a million pounds to Alzheimer's research. The "Match it for Pratchett" campaign aims to donate the same and make it an even million. (Okay, technically not this week but still interesting author news. )