Errant by Diana Peterfreund

Set in the Killer Unicorn universe, this novella takes place in 18th century France.  It is a tradition of the nobility to  hold a unicorn hunt before a wedding to prove the virginity of the bride.  When Sister Brigitta of the Order of the Lioness arrives with her unicorn, she is surprised to discover not only is the bride of the bloodline, she also has the power as well.  Together the two find a way to save Elise from the men trying to control her life.

I really enjoyed the story.  At first it was frustrating because neither Gitta nor Elise has any interest in trying to understand each other, but once they come to see the other's point of view was great.   I liked the whole story and I think it added something to the story that was started in Rampant and Ascendant.  It was interesting to see in this world how unicorns are accepted and something known even if they are scarce.  And how the world generally views unicorns and unicorn hunters. 

Gigi by Colette

From Goodreads:
Gigi is being educated in the skills of the Courtesan: to choose cigars, to eat lobster, to enter a world where a woman's chief weapon is her body. However, when it comes to the question of Gaston Lachaille, very rich and very bored, Gigi does not want to obey the rules.

"A liaison with a great professional lady is the only suitable way for him to wait for a great marriage, always supposing that some day he does marry."  p.29

I have seen the movie Gigi countless times and consider it one of my favorite movies.  I love Leslie Caron and the music is so wonderful.  It wasn't till I was older that I realized how it verges into creepy especially Gaston's song at the end.  But Leslie Caron does not look 16, as Gigi is suppose to be, so the creep factor is dialed down a bit.  

Recently I discovered that Gigi is based on a novella by Colette and decided to read it. The movie follows along with the story so I recognized most of the dialogue and knew what was going to happen next.  It is, of course, shorter and the movie adds scenes that expand on Gaston falling in love with Gigi, but the gist is here.  Gigi is portrayed as an innocent girl who both understands and doesn't understand her family's "career" choice. Gaston is a rich younger man (33) who is friends with Gigi's grandmother and who Gigi has known a long time.  Gradually he develops feelings for her while her family grooms her to become his mistress.  It's actually pretty shocking for our time, but I guess it was less so then?  But the story has a sweet ending and I'm glad I read it.  Now I feel the urge to rewatch the movie.

Hogwarts: Book in the Day mini-challenge
GLBT
Lazy Girl Mini Challenge

Illyria by Elizabeth Hand

Rogan and Maddy are cousins who have fallen in love with each other. But, even as they hide it from their families, they begin to explore their talents.

I touched my fingers to his lips, then kissed him.  I was afraid to guess at what might be there, beyond the tiny stage; afraid to give a name to what we saw there, just as I couldn't give a name to what I felt for my cousin.
Magic; love.   p.50

You'd expect the main theme of this novella to be the incestal relationship of the cousins.  Surprisingly it's not.  It definitely factors into the whole book since the relationship of Maddy and Rogan is such a huge part of her life.  But really I think this is not only about love, but art.  Rogan has a huge natural talent while Maddy is much more plain.  But their aunt sees more in Maddy than Rogan since Rogan is inclined to be more reckless and wasteful.  Maddy is a steady kind of girl, more inclined to hide in Rogan's shadow than stand out.  But, as this book shows, sometimes it is better to the rock than the star.

I expected to be squicked out by Rogan and Maddy, but I felt sad for them.   That no one was going to accept their relationship and that they had to hide it (though I don't think they did that good a job at it since everyone seemed to know) was a little heartbreaking for me.  It was sweet to see how much they loved each other.  I thought the actual sex scenes were well done and described tastefully, not exploitative at all.   

It is a book worth reading; full of love and sadness and magic.  The relationship was very well developed and idea of talent and how it is used is an interesting one.

Hogwarts: Charms

A Christmas Carol (audio) by Charles Dickens + Disney's A Christmas Carol

This is the first time I have ever listened to A Christmas Carol.  Lucky for me the narrator just happens to be Jim Dale, narrator of the Harry Potter series and one of my all-time favorite narrators.  I love his voice so much and he does an excellent job as usual though some of his voices seemed to carry over from Harry Potter and so there was one character who sounded a bit like Hagrid to me.  That might be because I listened to this simultaneously with Deathly Hallows though.

It's funny what things listening to a book can bring to light versus reading it.  I never noticed the dialogue skips and how the book is so wordy.  I still enjoyed it though.  It is such a classic Christmas book and one I don't mind reading over and over.  I'd like to try a different narrator next year just to see how someone else reads it. 

Disney's A Christmas Carol

I wanted to see this last year when it came out but I never got around to it.  I watched it the other day with my husband and son.  We enjoyed it for the most part though I think the ghosts might have scared my son (who is 4) a little.  Definitely he was scared by Marley's ghost and the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come.  The animation was pretty though I didn't care for how the humans looked except maybe Scrooge.  He came out alright.  I really liked how the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come was brought to life (so to speak) and how it turned out.  I was fine with the other ghosts as well.  I liked that it followed the book very accurately and they didn't just let Jim Carrey run amok all over it.  There were only a few points where his general overacting came out but he was a good Scrooge and I liked his voice for the part.  He did a good job overall.  I think I would watch it again.  It was one of the most faithful animated adaptations that I have seen.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

This Eclipse novella shows the other side of the the Eclipse battle between Edward's family and the army of newborn vampires created by Victoria as part of her revenge scheme for the loss of her love at the hands of Edward.

It took me a long time to get around to this novella.  I sort of lost interest in Twilight after Breaking Dawn, a book with which I have a whole lot of issues.  But I figured I might as well read this for the November Novella challenge.  It was a fun, fast read.  Kind of interesting to see how Victoria and Riley created and trained the newborn army and the battle from the other side.  It provides a little more motivation for the Volturi in Breaking Dawn and, of course, we get to meet the vampire that Carlisle tried to save.  Bree is a sweet, some what innocent girl and it is sort of tragic reading about her already knowing her fate.  The "romance" was too short to really make me care and I really only interested in what was going on elsewhere.  The character that I wish we would have had more on was Fred, but he provided an interesting idea to the series.  So all in all, it wasn't bad.

Hogwarts: Defence Against the Dark Arts
November Novella
Library

Shopgirl by Steve Martin

Mirabelle works at Neiman Marcus selling fancy gloves when she meets rich, middle-aged Roy Porter.  The two begin a relationship that has a lasting effect on both.

He never complicates a desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile.  p.10

What better way to compliment a book than to close it and sigh?  That is exactly what I did for this novella.  It was a very thoughtful and insightful book about one woman trying to become an adult and deal with adult relationships.  I wouldn't say there were lessons to be learned about life in general because it is a very focused book.  I will say that watching Mirabelle learning harsh lessons about life and love was a profound experience.  Martin accomplished a lot in 130 pages, managing to capture the right tone and emotion of the situation between Roy Porter and Mirabelle as well as exploring how these two people made a connection at all.  It was a sweet book, a bit sad, and very engrossing

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
November Novella

Inside Job by Connie Willis

Rob runs a magazine that exposes psychic charlatans for what they are with his beautiful assistant Kildy.  When he comes across a psychic who seems to be channeling one of the best skeptics in history, he tries to discover the truth to this new spirit.

"The skeptic's first rule is 'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.'  You've got do something extraordinary."  p.77

I always enjoy anything by Connie Willis and this is no exception.  At just under 100 pages, this is a fun and surprisingly informative novella about H.L. Mencken and psychic scams in general.  The first time I encountered anything written by Willis with psychics was in To Say Nothing of the Dog (highly recommended) and so this is a more undated look.  There is some character growth which is unusual in a novella and it is a funny book.  I love the characters and how they set out to disprove something that seems really real.  I liked all the background information and I learned about a U.S. law case that I hadn't heard of before.  So really it was a very enjoyable book.

Hogwarts: Divination
November Novella

Blockade Billy (e-book) by Stephen King

 While I was searching for books on the other tasks for the Take Another Chance Challenge, I realized I was outright dismissing certain writers.  One of the them was Stephen King and I realized that I always assume that I will be scared or won't like a King book.  Once when I was around 10 or so, I wanted to read The Stand and a neighbor told me that I wouldn't like it because it might be too scary (I can agree now that The Stand might be too much for a 10 year old esp. one prone to nightmares) and so I never read anything by him.
I was suppose to read Dolores Claiborne but in the end I couldn't do it.  So I picked Blockade Billy, a novella by King, which combines two thing I don't read, Stephen King and sports.

Told in an interview form, Blockade Billy tells the story of a rookie coming in to catch for a professional New Jersey baseball team in 1957.  But bizarre things begin to happen for the team and something is up with the new guy.

There was something strange about him, something off, something that made folks nervous...but that something made people take to him too.  p.13

Going in I wasn't sure at first.  Like I said I'm not usually up for Stephen King and I'm not a huge sports fan, but I enjoyed this novella.  It was suspenseful waiting for the secret of Billy and even interesting to hear about the bad luck that followed him around.  The ending was as disturbing as I had anticipated.

Even though I enjoyed this, I don't think I'll read any more Stephen King.  I am just a huge fraidy-cat and I know that I won't sleep reading a lot of his books.  Though, even saying that, I might have to give The Stand a try or maybe just try to graphic novels of that book first.

Hogwarts: Defence Against the Dark Arts
Take Another Chance
Library

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

A short novella from the Enderverse focuses on Dink Meeker and the small act of giving a Sinterklaas present to one of his friends.  Little does he know that this is going to incite a war among the Battle School students.  Zeke Morgan comes from a fundamentalist Christian family.  His father preaches that everyone is full of sin and that is why they cannot hear the Lord's Word.  He "purifies" Zeke, but knows nothing of Zeke's phenomental metal abilities until the Fleet come for Zeke to bring him to Battle School.  There Zeke does his best to remain a pacifist, believing that God does not glory in war.  But when Dink leaves his friend a Sinterklass present as a token of friendship, Zeke takes it upon himself to turn this simple act and turn it into something bigger.  And Dink retaliates in return.  But Ender Wiggin seeks to create an understanding in the Battle School between Dink and Zeke and the conflict they have bought to it.

One of my favorite books is Ender's Game.  And I love reading stories set in this world and getting to know more of Ender's world and his time spent in Battle School.  It's stories like this that add to the over-all story and later are alluded to in Ender in Exile.  A War of Gifts presents an excellent commentary on the true nature of religion and the religion that children will create around their parents and for their parents.  Zeke's struggle to become pure is interesting one since he was only taught he was impure by his father.  This leads to an incident where Ender can show what a great leader he is becoming, helping Zeke without Zeke really understand what is happening.

Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case

*spoilers for any of the Abhorsen books if you haven't read those first*

In this novella, Nicholas is still recovering from his possession by Orannis, the Ninth Bright Shiner.  He is brought his uncle, the Chief Minister, to a secret facility studying the Old Kingdom.  All Nicholas wants to do is return to the Old Kingdom and Lirael so he agrees to answer any questions the researcher might have.  But when a dangerous creature escapes, Nicholas does all he can to stop it before it reaches the Wall and the Old Kingdom.

"Who would not fear the power of the Nine Bright Shiners, highest of the high?"

I loved all of the Abhorsen series so when I found out about the short novella that continued the story of Nicholas Sayre, I really wanted to read it.  There is very little of Lirael and the Old Kingdom as all the action takes place in Ancelstierre, the non-magical part of this world that Nix has created.  But it was nice to see what became of Nicholas.  He was one of my favorite characters.  Even though it is short, it is amazing how well developed all the characters and the world are, but I guess that this is because the world has been explored at length in three full novels.  It was an action packed adventure with all the hallmarks of this series.  I wish there would have been more Lirael, but it was good to explore more of Nicholas' character.

I Am Legend

First let me say, Happy Halloween!!! It's one of my favorite holidays and we've got some good fun planned for the little boy (who is 2).  He's going to be a tiger (RAWR).

So on with the review.  I've chosen a wholly appropriate book for today, I Am Legend.

After a plague almost decimates the human population turning killing off most and turning the rest into blood thirsty vampires, Robert Neville is left completely alone to fend off the vampires who come to his house at night.  Leading a completely solidarity existence causes him to turn to alcohol and fuels his rage.  But as time passes, Neville tries to learn as much as he can about the disease and to create a cure.

Written in 1954, I Am Legend helped, according to the Wiki, to popularize the idea of vampirism as a disease and one of the first stories with that concept.  So I don't know if Peeps gives it a shout-out or not, but it definitely should.  I have seen the Will Smith version which I found scary, but mostly just sad.  It showed vividly how a human will behave if left compeltely alone and it was just a sad movie.  The novella also contains that same mixtures of sadness and horror.  It really shows that a person could get use to anything.  Day after day, Neville does his daily chores,  cleaning up the dead bodies on the front lawn, making stakes, killing any vampires sleeping in the area and after a while he barely notices the abject horror of his situation as the only human in the city or in the world for all he knows.  And all the while he relives the past and what happened to his wife and daughter.  I was really struck how he managed to live through the whole thing and with his memories.  But his will to live was strong.

*highlight for sort of spoilers*
The science part is well-research albeit it is from th 1950's and I'm no biology expert but it sounds good to me.  The only part that was sounded shaky to me is the end with the "living vampires."  And I got confused between the two a lot.  I found the ending to be fitting if not sad and it actually made me a little angry, but there was really no other way.


*for the November Novella Challenge

D.A.

From book jacket:

Theodora Baumgarten has just been selected as an IASA space cadet, and therein lies the problem. She didn't apply for the ultra-coveted posting, and doesn't relish spending years aboard the ship to which she's been assigned. But the plucky young heroine, in true Heinlein fashion, has no plans to go along with the program. Aided by her hacker best friend Kimkim, in a screwball comedy that has become Connie Wills' hallmark, Theodora will stop at nothing to uncover the conspiracy that has her shanghaied.

At only 80 pages, D.A. is a very fun but very short novella (which I'm counting towards the November Novella Challenge).  First off, Connie Willis is one of my favorite writers (she wrote my favorite book, Bellwether).  And this was an excellent story and has some very cool pictures included in the story to help give more a visual idea.  Because it is a novella there is very little character development and a lot more action, but in a clever way.  I like the twist at the end and how Theodora figures out how and why she was shanghaied with the help of her friend, Kimkim.  I would like to see more of a world build for this story one day.  It would make an excellent full length novel especially if it added on at the end.