My First Guest Review | ‘Lavinia’ at The Blue Bookcase

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book review, ursula le guin

I had such an exciting and productive time last week. One great highlight was writing a guest review for IngridLola over at The Blue Bookcase after discovering they were looking for more reviewers. I thought I’d give it a go and see what people think.

The Blue Bookcase is a blog with numerous contributors who read a wide variety of genres. The book I chose to write about was ‘Lavinia’ by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s an interesting story from an author I hadn’t read up until now that will appeal to many readers. I had a fun time writing about it. If you want to know what I think of it, head over to my guest review at the Blue Bookcase to see what I have to say. It’s a little different to the way I do reviews here, but it was good to try a different format.

Oh and don’t forget to leave your thoughts, as the blogmasters are keen to know how you felt about it (as am I). Thanks for checking it out!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (13/09)

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Anne Frank, Cara Lopez Lee, Cheri Laser, gustave flaubert, hubert selby jr, Its monday what are you reading?, meme, Robert Rankin, ursula le guin

Another Monday, another post! Okay, so this time there’s been some ‘movement’ in the way of reading. I’ve managed to finish one book, but I have another four lying about. This bumps my 50 books a year to a total of 47. It gets harder and harder as I get to the end! But I did have a weird week… in fact it got so bad I did a little rant about it.

Other bookish news include the fact that two bloggers I admire are getting their books published this year. That makes me very happy. Cheri Laser’s ‘The Truth About Cinnamon’ is currently on Amazon.com. You can check out her blog on the link provided. It’s pretty unique, as she’s been using it to track her road to becoming a published author. The insight she gives is invaluable to people who are also looking to follow that rocky path.

Another fabulous author is Cara Lopez Lee with her memoir ‘They Only Eat Their Husbands’. It’s about a journey around the world and ultimately to the centre of one’s being. It’s coming out from Ghost Road Press and Cara’s going to be doing some book signings too. You can find out more from her website.

I met these lovely ladies through the blogosphere. Their generosity with their experiences have inspired me to take up the pen yet again. hopefully this time I’ll follow through and be like them. I wish them every luck in the future.  

OK, so here’s the rundown folks. The titles are familiar now to everybody. You could recite them in your sleep!

1. ‘Madame Bovary’ by Gustave Flaubert – (evil little book! Very good, but refuses to be finished!)

2. ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ by Anne Frank – (Just started after I finished ‘Lavinia’. So far so good.)

3. ‘Retromancer’ by Robert Rankin – (Should have had this finished 2 weeks ago. After it fell on the floor in a hospital, I didn’t pick it up again.) 

4. ‘The Room’ by Hubert Selby Jr. – (I want to finish Bovary before I get onto this. I need totally concentration!)

The book I finished was ‘Lavinia’ by Ursula K. Le Guin.

That’s it from me. Nothing exciting as of yet, but I might have something coming up in the following weeks. Fingers crossed :).

Teaser Tuesday | In Which Le Guin Assumes the Mantle of Sybil of Cumae…

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meme, teaser tuesday, ursula le guin

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Another Tuesday, another teaser. This time it comes from my current read ‘Lavinia’ by Ursule K. Le Guin.

“…the life he gave me in his poem, is so dull, except for the one moment when my hair catches fire – so colourless, except when my maiden cheeks blush like ivory stained with crimson dye – so conventional, I can’t bear it any longer. If I must go on existing century after century, then once at least I must break out and speak.”

I had a bit of difficulty choosing my teaser this time, because Le Guin writes so beautifully! Every page holds a treasure. I really want to highlight the perspective of this novel and how Le Guin asks real, deeply intuitive questions about the spirit of poetry and how it can immortalise a moment of time, like a fly caught in amber, yet confine the players of those legends to very narrow, limited lives.

The afterlife gained by people such as Lavinia, Aeneas and the Helen of Troy is highlighted by Le Guin as one that may not be so glamorous or desirable. ‘Lavinia’ is a novel where Le Guin tries to tap into the obscure legend of a daughter of Italy and re-write her history the way she may have wanted, thus correcting Vergil’s oversight in the ‘Aeneid’.

Ok, history lesson aside, this is a great book and one I’m enjoying thoroughly! Can’t put it down. I highly recommend it.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 06/09

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50 books a year, gustave flaubert, Its monday what are you reading?, ursula le guin

Here I am, back from my weird, indefinite hiatus doing the Monday meme again, (though how long for I’m not sure). For the past 2 weeks there wasn’t much to report in the way of reading anyway, as the frenzy of real life kind of took over. You know how it is, in the quiet moments you squeeze in a page here or a paragraph there, but that kind of shallow reading leaves you confused as to what’s actually going on. So I left off altogether. There’s no point in doing it if there’s no joy in understanding what’s happening.  

For this week I am determined to complete the 50 Books A Year Challenge. I’m on no.46 at the moment, so I’m hoping September will be the month where I polish it all off. It’s my first attempt at a challenge to read so many books in a year. Previous years I’ve managed about 25-30 max, but I’m really proud that I can get so many under my belt. After I pass the 50 mark I’m going to continue to see just how many I can get till the end of the year. Next year’s challenge might very well be ‘100 Books A Year’. Here’s hoping!

OK, so here’s how my reading list looks like:

1. ‘Lavinia’ by Ursula Le Guin
 
I’m halfway through this amazing story about Lavinia, daughter and Princess of Latium and the Trojan warrior Aeneas. This fated tale of star-crossed lovers is told from a unique, sensitive perspective that questions the very fibre of ‘myth’, credibility of epic poetry and the concept of immortality through writing. Le Guin is a fluid, fluent writer whose ideas are easily absorbed by her readers. Lavinia’s tale is similar to that of Helen of Troy; and Le Guin wanted to explore what made Helen’s story survive throughout the ages, while Lavinia’s fate was passed over briefly in that Virgilian epic, ‘The Aeneid’, condemning her unjustly to a ‘long life, but a small one’.  

2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 

I can see how this work was a serious turn towards the contemporary. Flaubert tried hard to breathe life into Emma Bovary. She is full of complexities and what’s more, she is very much like us. It’s fascinating to see that after all these years a modern audience can still identify with her (even moreso now, I think), and that is the hallmark of a true classic. It never stops saying what it has to say. As I’m halfway through this one too, I’m not going to say much about it, except that Flaubert was a true master of description. His turn of phrase, his minimalist way of setting up a scene is a real breath of fresh air compared to his peers. There are no rambling paragraphs to be found here, just a story, a real story that he simply lets unfold.

 So, that’s it for this week. I hope I’ll have more to report back next Monday. Have a happy reading week everybody!