Reading in Reykjavík

I haven’t participated in Top Ten Tuesdays for ages, but as it’s freebie week, I decided to enter one of my book lists. Do visit the hosting blog, The Broke and the Bookish , and click through to some of the other participating blogs. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. Non-fiction. Lovely, lovely collection of letters between Hanff and the staff of a bookstore in England, written over a period of 20 years. Recommend the movie as well.  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Written as a series of accounts of the theft of a precious stone, using different styles and voices. It’s long, but worth reading.  Letters to Alice, Upon First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon. What the title says, plus much more besides. Discusses not only Austen, but the art of writing as well.  Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos. A novel told entirely in letters between the characters, a couple of scheming French aristocrats playing a dangerous game of seduction.  The Screwtap...

Originally published in September 2004, on my original 52 Books blog. Slightly edited for length and to remove spoilers. American title: The Boy Next Door Author: Meggin Cabot Year published: 2002 Pages: 392 Genre: Chick lit/romance Where got: Public library This book was recommended to me by an online friend. It was written by the author of The Princess Diaries . The story: Gossip columnist Melissa “Mel” Fuller is in danger of losing her job because she’s always late for work. As the book begins, she is late again, but this time she has an excuse: her elderly neighbour has been assaulted and Mel has had to call the police and then take care of the old lady’s pets, two cats and a Great Dane. Getting hold of the old lady’s heir, playboy photographer Max Friedlander, is hard, but finally she tracks him down in Florida where he is cavorting with a supermodel and has no intention of coming to New York to take care of his aunt’s pets. To make sure he doesn’t lose his inheri...

I went on a reading spree over the weekend and finished three books, all of which I started and read from cover to cover with only short breaks. One was the Katie MacAlister book I quoted from in the previous post, which turned out to be good, mindless fun, full of steamy sex, violence and hot vampires, and another was a Regency romance by Loretta Chase, Viscount Vagabond , which I enjoyed despite, or perhaps because of, the improbable plot. The last was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , which makes it 7 books I have finished in the Bibliophilic Book challenge . Not only is it about a book club, but each member of the club has his or her favourite book or author, which they frequently mention. Year published: 2008 Genre: Novel, epistolatory Setting & time: London and Guernsey, Britain, 1946 Writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, Dawsey Adams, telling her about a book he owns that was once in her possession and sparking her curiosity with a men...

Read an epistolatory novel. These are novels written as a series of documents, e.g. letters or e-mails, blog entries, historical documents, reports, reviews, excerpts from books, newspaper clippings and diary entries. Basically anything that is traditionally written or typed, used without any connecting passages to form a narrative. It enables the author to let the characters (or a chosen number of characters) express themselves directly without having a narrator tell the story. I have already recommended reading fictional diaries, which form part of the epistolatory genre, so a different epistolatory form is recommended. Here are some that I have enjoyed: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Written as a series of accounts of the theft of a precious stone, using different styles and voices. Letters to Alice, Upon first reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon. What the title says, plus much more besides. Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos. A novel told entirely in letters between the c...

Author: Meg Cabot Year published: 2005 Genre: Romance Setting: Italy, 21st century The Story: Cartoonist Jane and foreign reporter Cal agree to accompany their eloping friends Holly and Mark to Italy to be their bridesmaid and best man. They take a violent dislike to each other at first sight and when Jane discovers that Cal doesn’t believe in marriage and intends to try to talk his friend out of marrying Holly, she likes him even less. But when a bout of food poisoning almost ruins the wedding plans and Jane and Cal have to rush to Rome to get some papers for the bridal couple, they get to know and understand each other better on the way. Technique and plot: Like all the other Meg Cabot novels I’ve read, this is an epistolatory story. Jane writes in her diary, Cal writes on his PDA, and they both email back and forth with friends and family. The epistolatory form is Cabot’s specialty and she does it well. Managing to convey different personalities through a few lines of e-mail ...

As the first book of my challenge I chose a classic of the mystery genre. It has been called the first mystery novel ever written, which is not entirely correct, but it is true that it is the first mystery novel known to include all of the most important features of the modern crime mystery. Some of these features had been used in previous mystery stories, but some were new. Title: The Moonstone Year (originally) published: 1868 Availability: In print, or, since it has passed into the public domain, you can read it online or download it here Pages: 518 pages in the e-book version, downloaded and read in Word (font: Geneva, 12 pt). The Penguin Popular Classics version is 464 pages. Settings and time: English country manor and surrounding area (mostly), London (a little), India (scene setting and conclusion), mid 1800's. Type of mystery: Whodunit: theft Type of investigator: Amateurs and a professional detective Some themes: Justice and injustice, misunderstanding between love...