Never in my life have I once picked up a "gossip girl" or" A-list" series book with mild interest if not total disgust in a waste of print and paper, but it seems the majority of female youth have an entirely different take on the books turning them into national bestsellers and must reads for teenage girls; Ah, good 'ol pop culture meets the publishing houses giving American teens the summer reading they will actually read, who knew? throw in a blond, a beach, and a couple surfer guys and the occasional all-out cat fight and you have yourself a hook, line, and sinker for at least 3 quarters of my graduating class's interest (the 1 fourth in question is waiting for the movie instead)
So much for the classical Shakespeare romance...
Well maybe not, Lauren Willig's books: The Secert History of the Pink Carnation, The Masque of the Black tulip, and the newest installment: the Deception of the the Emerald Ring are by far some of the best books I've ever read/plan to read (pre-ordering paper back Emerald Ring)
and if not they are certainly among the funniest and most witty! Ms. (hopeful Dr.) Willig has managed to make a great hybrid of Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie, with romance coordinated into the perilous adventures of spies in the Napoleonic 1800's with the added bonus of being hysterical as well.
So like all of my reading material it came into my possession via the odd and bizarre ways of fate as usual. I reconsidered checking out Kiki Strike at the local library three times (this involved picking it up walking around the library in search of an alternative, putting it back, flipping through it bored, and then running back for it at the last minute) before actually taking it home were I after finishing in an all nighter I purchased it hurriedly off Amazon.com and now obsess over a fictional character from the book's blog and have already pre-ordered the sequel. I have hundreds of stories to the same effect from having nothing to read on a red eye flight back to DC to tripping over a book my mother bought but never read in our basement to randomly browsing in Costco, which brings me back to Ms. (future Dr.) Willig's books. Costco is the Wal-mart of the closest shopping center to my house, back in Maryland it was Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, little short on those in my new neighbor hood, the any sort of establishment that sells diapers in large quantities and large enough to "feed-the-church" sized products are a bright welcome sign to any seven person family living under a budget. The only problem with Costco, is the fact that it is in fact, Costco, not Whole Foods, were being a recently converted carnivore-turned-vegan I would much prefer to shop as opposed to "Bigger is better" products of the food warehouses. So as my mother is buying dead pigs and cows (I don't really have any right to be so brutal since she just brought me vegan oatmeal cookies and soy "ice-cream" -- long long day...) I went over to scan the store's book selection. being the book worm I am I'm going to smugly point out how lacking the selection is in comparison to the multitude of music and videos available, but for no reason other then I guess boredom I picked up The Masque of the Black Tulip, which is weird because I usually like more contemporary reading or strict classics and have read some where between only 3 or 4 fictional history novels and even fewer romances, I'll admit, I was curious...plus I needed reading for my 8 hour flight to Peru, but seeing I've finished both of the two I purchased for this very purpose a trip to the nearest book store is certainly in order. So I naively pick up Black Tulip skim the back and miss the whole romance aspect completely only catching only the bit about espionage (I can just see my mother rolling her eyes) thinking it'll be just like Hercule Poirot only with a female main character instead, well! They certainly were! And much much more!
So now it's the middle of the night (I'm so weird the only time I get any good writing done it's at totally odd hours of the night) and I'm half way through Wendelin Van Draanen's newest Sammy Keyes book, Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things--11th in the series, all previous novels I finished out of order(due to availability at the library, but now after moving I haven't found a good library yet and have resorted to enlisting amazon.com"s wealth of reading material in my bookwormship) and in the straight forward manner I finish all worth-while books: straining my eyes in dim light till 3 am on the couch down stairs, with several bottles of water and snacks.
After all of this the only thing left is to give you a little parting advise from an obssessed book worm, under eye conceler. lots and lots of under eye conceler...that and cute book marks :)
Labels: Books
HONK, HONK, ....HONK, HONK,... HONK,HONK.... HONK REAL SLOW...HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKK OR REALLY FAST.....HONK!!! My little brother just learned to sing like a penguin by Diego and Pepito the Penguin as they waddled up the mountain (which they also taught their audiences how to do) Rescue Pack is getting in on the action now--who's theme song is actually longer then the actual shows theme song--he just suggested using a fishing pole to slide on the snow?? Now we're supposed to give Diego a sled...
