The Places You Will Go

Baaaa!!!!

Reading Read Roger one of my favourite book blogs, I happened on this post (I admit that it's been a while since I visited) Reading for Young Sheep. Call me slow, but it was a while before I twigged. Oh. My. Goodness. Please click on the link to "bookstore for Baby Nazis". Anne of Green Gables? Golly! (As they used to say)

I love the site (Read Roger, not the nazi bookstore!). I adore Roger Sutton's way with words and his wicked sense of humour.

By the way, I'm writing about my favourite book blogs this Sunday, in my column Tots to Teens. And I may bring back the blog links on this site too. Plans, plans ....

Needed: More Shelfspace for Pratchett

So I've finally read A Hat Full of Sky, the sequel to The Wee Free Men. At the end of the copy Eyeris lent me are some "extras" including an interview with the author, Terry Pratchett, in which he says there will be at least one more book about Tiffany Aching. I nearly wept tears of joy when I read this.

Tiffany is one of the coolest fictional heroines I have ever come across - an ideal role model for I-Shan (my daughter - she's going to get her own copies of the books as soon as she's old enough).

Jan Mark 1943-2006

I'm not familiar with her books, but I'm really curious now that I've read her obituary in the The Guardian Unlimited.

Rocking (and Writing) for a Good Cause

Stephen King, Amy Tan and Scott Turow play in a band called Rockbottom Remainders!

I read this in an article, in The Independent Online, about a series of Peter Pan prequels (by Ridley Pearson) that have got Great Ormond Street Hospital's knickers in a knot.

Anyway, the band may be going to England to raise funds for the hospital. I know I don't like going to gigs anymore but I think I'd make an exception if it meant seeing Amy Tan straddle an amp!

The Rockbottom Remainders: Out to save Great Ormond Street Hospital. (Yes, that's Amy Tan in a blonde wig.)

A Tale of Wu

I spent most of the weekend reading Pearl S. Buck's Pavilion of Women. In fact I found it difficult to stop reading and was really sorry when I got to the last page.

However, I don't think I will read anymore Buck. I had a look at the other books I've "inherited" from a colleague (whose father was a big fan of the author: she's given me his entire collection and there must be more than 25 books in the bag) and they all look really depressing, which, I find, books about and set in China tend to be.

Saree, Did You Say US$500k????

I bought a saree the other day and found it folded around a couple of sheets of The Hindu, India's national newspaper. Scanning the headlines I saw a short story about a teenager who's secured a US$500k two-book deal with Little, Brown!

Googling her name produced an article in The New York Sun, which I've tried linking to. However, for some reason it goes to the subscription page. This link will take you to the Google results page: just click on the headline that says Publisher Bets Big on Harvard Freshman to read how Kaavya Viswanathan is about to (to paraphrase the title of her first book) "get kissed, get wild and get in".

Funke Fantasy

If you liked Cornelia Funke's Inkheart, Inkspell is the second book in the trilogy Funke claims she never planned.

Read The Times Online's review here.

In Inkheart, Mo, a restorer of books, has the ability to read stories into existence and characters out of their paper-and-ink worlds into ours. In Inkspell, Mo's daughter Meggie, barely recovered from past events, goes on another unforgettable adventure when she is read into the pages of the book that started all the problems in the first place.   

Mini Review: Socrates in Love

Socrates In Love

By Kyoicho Katayama

Publisher: VIZ Media, 208 pages

This Young Adult love story tells of the innocent love affair between two classmates: Saku and Aki.

The latter is a pretty girl, romantic and just a little shallow - predictably so for someone of her tender years. She has a good heart though and she is sensitive and thoughtful.

Saku is a friendly, wise-cracking, laid-back kendo and rock fan. When he and Aki become friends, he is blissfully unaware of his schoolmates resentment and jealousy.

It takes him awhile to realise how much he likes Aki. In fact, Saku is so clueless that he ignores every single one of Aki's hints, even the most blatant.

To her credit, Aki behaves in a dignified and graceful manner throughout. And once Saku gets his act together and starts seeing his buddy as the lovable girl she is, he too reveals himself to be a warm, generous, loyal and considerate person.

Unfortunately, Aki is diagnosed with a terminal illness and Saku has to learn to carry on by himself.

It's always good to read a Japanese novel that isn't brimming with sex and violence. That's why I enjoy Botchan and Totto-Chan so much. However, this story reminded me too much of those awful Japanese soap operas where one of the leads almost always dies.

Still, at least the writing isn't overly sentimental, and the writer's portrayal of teenagers and their feelings, behaviour and actions is accurate (yes, I remember what it was like!). 

This book is a bestseller in Japan so I'm thinking it's lost something in translation.

Honestly, I can't see why it made such an impression. It's an easy and pleasant read, but it didn't really touch me or grab my attention.

Saku and Aki are two nice kids, but I don't think that they are terribly interesting or special.

I think I'd have liked it much more as a teenager though. I remember being very taken with a Japanese soap opera in which the girl, dying of leukemia (or was it congenital heart disease?), falls in love with a bloke who mistakes her for a half-sister and so, nobly, rejects her although he stupidly doesn't tell her why. All very complicated and melodramatic and tragic and sentimental, but I loved it.

Socrates in Love should be a hit with emotional teens age 13 to 16.

P.S. Full marks for the pretty cover!

Whitbread Winners

I received a text message at 01:31:52 hrs: "Tash Aw won Whitbread Best 1st novel."

"Uhmmmph," I mumbled, turned over and went back to sleep.

Typically, I am only excited about winners of literary awards when my favourite authors/books happen to win. Otherwise, I think: "Well, if God of Small Things won the Booker then any old crap can win anything." Still, congratulations to Aw. How thrilling for him.

Ardizzone, as Good as New

I just found out that Edward Ardizzone's Little Tim series has been reissued! This is cause for celebration!

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, Tim to the Rescue were reissued in October last year. Tim and Lucy Go to Sea will be out in March and three more (Tim All Alone, Tim and Charlotte and Tim in Danger) are due in April! Yayyy!!

Last year also saw the reissue of the Nurse Matilda books, which were illustrated by Ardizzone. Carry on reading for my review that appeared in Star Mag a week ago.