The Night Circus – unnerving magic

I listened to The Night Circus just after Christmas, but I've been holding off writing about it. Partly it's because I've been busy freelance writing, but also because I was still swimming through the currents of the book long after I'd finished listening to it. Author Erin Morgenstern, whose website is titled, "erin's emporium of discount dreams & well-worn wonders," and offers a free mystery with purchase, has managed to create something that, for those who are susceptible, is very alluring and seductive, yet hard to grab hold of. Reviewers seem split on the book, with some outright disliking it, and others liking it, but having a hard time explaining why. I'm firmly camped in the latter category but I have a very hard time describing what it's really about.

Released in September, 2011, The Night Circus is a quirky tale of a mysterious circus, Le Cirque des Rêves, that suddenly appears overnight, the illusionists who work there and create earthly illusions to mask the real magic that underlies each of the tents. The circus itself is an organic being and the people who work in it and the patrons who would follow it to the end of the earth are the blood and heart of it. The story is about a contest between two old magicians, who pit their very young apprentices, Celia and Marco, against each other in a dual to the death that will last for decades, and that they are unaware of until it is too late to get out. The competition becomes more complicated when Celia and Marco fall in love.

This book, and Jim Dale's excellent narration, got under my skin. I may need to re-listen to it to see what else happens the second time around. I can't imagine it would be the same twice.

I downloaded The Night Circus from Library to Go. You can listen to an excerpt below.

 

Listen Up:

 

 

The Night Circus, Random House Audio (13 hrs, 40 mins), 2011

 



The Millennium Trilogy - Lisbeth Salander is like an addiction

Apparently I am at my blogging prime in the summer and at Christmas – when freelancing slows down. Catching up on audiobooks I've listened to in the past few months and I can't not post about a trilogy that I've listened to twice, an addiction that still has me wanting to listen again - and together all three books add up to a formidable 55.5 hours. I avoided the enormously successful Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) for a long time because sometimes I resist things when everyone is telling me I should do (or read) them. I can be a bit stubborn that way. I'm oh so glad I relented.

Written by the late Stieg Larsson, a writer who died too early of a heart attack without being able to enjoy the success of his books, these books are a compulsion for many lovers of mystery and suspense, or just plain good books. They are harsh - there is no way around that. There is a graphic rape scene in the first book that sets much of the tone for the series. I'm not usually one for graphic sexual violence, but I actually believe this was necessary for the story. I do warn my patrons who I already know may not be OK with reading it, however, but I also reassure them that it is told briefly, in a matter of fact way, and that it is important to the story – but it's by no means all of the story. It's really a series about very smart, strong-willed characters who each, in their own way, refuse to let wrong win over right. Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant, tortured, and socially dysfunctional hacker, and journalist Michael Blomkvist, are both intense characters, and both absolutely compelling.

Award-winning reader Simon Vance does an outstanding job bringing these stories to life for the reader. I have listened to a number of things he's read, and they are all excellent. His female characters do sound a bit breathless and more similar to each other than his male voices, but I can let him get away with it because his voice is like British honey and apparently that works for me.

As with my previous post (Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri Mysteries) about audiobooks being particularly pleasing when it comes to foreign place and character names, this series also lends itself to audio very well. My mom, who read the books, enjoyed listening to them with me (my second time) because her eyes had jumped around trying to figure out the Swedish pronunciations when she was reading. I've recommended the series to a number of my patrons, and they have all come back to the library thrilled with the stories and devastated that Larsson is no longer around.

I listened to these books on CD as they were not available from the library for download... grrrr! 55 hours means a lot of disc changing!

Simon Vance read the unabridged versions while Martin Wenner reads the abridged version. If you know me you know I NEVER choose the abridged version. That will be another blog post someday.

***I just discovered that Random House Audio is having some issues with their sound clips, and at Audible you get a completely different reader - why would they do this???? They have the perfect reader already!

If the sound sample gods are with me right now, you can listen to a sample of Simon Vance's reading here.

Listen Up!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (16.5 hrs), Random House Audio, 2008

The Girl Who Played With Fire, (18.5 hrs), Random House Audio, 2009

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, (20.5 hrs), Random House Audio, 2010

Dr. Siri Paiboun Finally on Audio!

As someone who is charged with the responsibility for finding books for my mystery-hungry mother, I came across Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries a few years ago. She loves them, and I thought they looked interesting, but they weren't available on audio, so I let them go. I was totally shocked, therefore, when I saw a few of the books pop up on the new audiobooks list on Library to Go. Of course, the wizened selectors at Library to Go only purchased books 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8 of the series – I think exploring that logic may be a whole other blog post. I had to use less appropriate means to secure the rest of the audiobooks and have now purchased the CD sets for my library. Thankfully, it was worth it!

Dr. Siri, (pronounced 'Silly') is the National Coroner for the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in the early 1970's, shortly after the communist revolution. Siri, who is in his 70's and had been hoping for a peaceful retirement where he could tend a garden and read, is appointed coroner despite the fact that he's never done an autopsy and has spent much of his medical career as a field doctor in the war. To say that he is reluctant would be an understatement. Siri is insubordinate and mocking of his superiors, and he would love nothing more than for them to fire him and leave him alone.

In Laos, a country that has no money, and a new and inexperienced government, the fact that Siri has been a paid member of the communist party for over 40 years makes him the ideal candidate in the eyes of those in power. Siri inherits a morgue with no chemicals for testing, little equipment or reference materials, a nurse who he initially believes is a 'bubble head' and spends her time reading Thai fan magazines (he is later proved wrong in dramatic fashion), and a morgue technician with Down's Syndrome, who knows more than both the doctor and the nurse about performing autopsies. Together the three make a very happy and loyal team.

In the first book, The Coroner's Lunch, Dr. Siri discovers the source of a lifetime of dreams where he routinely encounters the souls of the recently departed. Much to his alarm, he discovers he is the embodiment of a 1,000-year-old shaman spirit. Learning to use, rather than fight the dreams, Dr. Siri makes up for his lack of resources in the real world by solving mysteries using logic, a little luck, and a bit of help from the spirits.

These books, which I listened to back to back while mourning the fact that there are only eight of them, are read by actor Clive Chafer. Chafer's reading style is dry and initially I was a bit worried I'd want to kill him before 5 minutes were up, but his character voices are outstanding and very consistent, and the dry narration makes the wry humour even funnier. I laughed out loud more than once and will likely listen to the series again because I missed parts because I was laughing.

One of the nice things about listening to a story that takes place in a non-English speaking country, in this case Laos, is that someone else has already worked out the pronunciations for the difficult Lao, Vietnamese, and Thai place and character names. If I was reading the books my eyes would stop and the flow of the story would be interrupted as I tried to figure out how to pronounce the word. That jerkiness when reading makes it harder for me to get into or enjoy a series. In audio, all the hard work has been done for me!

Another interesting thing about these books is that they open up a world that I have had not yet experienced. Life in Asian countries like Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia during the tumultuous 1970's is portrayed from the point of view of the people who live there, and their struggles for independence, and the struggles that arise from their success, are captivating.

You can listen to samples of Chafer's reading by clicking on the titles below and choosing the sample on the page.

Listen Up!

The Coroner’s Lunch, (6.8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2004)
Thirty-Three Teeth, (6.8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2005)
Disco For the Departed, (6.8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2006)
Anarchy and Old Dogs, (6.8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2007)
Curse of the Pogo Stick, (5.6 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2008)
The Merry Misogynist, (6.8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2009)
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, (8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011, (book published in 2010)
Slash and Burn, (8 hrs), Blackstone Audio 2011 (book published in 2011)

The Agency: The Body at the Tower – A little Victorian indulgence

If everyone has a literary indulgence – a genre, author, or type of book that we are drawn to over and over again, I believe mine might be the Victorian mystery. Of course, I'm always good for some fantasy, ogres, witches, time travel, and adventure, but the Victorian era has been a weakness for as long as I can remember. Maybe there's something intriguing about the concept of hiding weapons or other clever devices in mounds and mounds of fruffy skirts?

The Body at the Tower, the second book in the Agency series by Y.S. Lee, was just the right kind of Victorian indulgence I needed a few weeks ago. The first book in the series, A Spy in the House, was a lovely treat that I listened to last summer. The series revolves around Mary Quinn, a woman in her late teens, now approaching 20, who lived on the London streets after her mother died and her father disappeared. Half white and half Chinese, the much younger Mary lived as a thief and often dressed as a boy in order to survive. She was smart, resourceful, and quick.... and sentenced to hang after she got caught breaking into a house.

After she was sentenced, she was spirited away before reaching the jail by a woman claiming to be a warden. In truth, this woman was one of the mistresses of an unusual school for girls. There, Mary received an excellent education and learned to be a lady. Then one day she was invited to work for the school, which she discovered was really a front for an agency of women spies. After her first job was an enormous success, she trained in other fields not necessarily associated with being a lady – martial arts, cryptology, and all the skills she would need to be a proper spy.

In this second book Mary is given a task that will test her physically, mentally, and emotionally as she goes undercover as a young boy on the site where they are building the new parliament and the tower that will eventually house Big Ben. A man has died in the tower, and there are rumours that the worksite is cursed or haunted. Mary's slight frame and experience pretending to be a boy make the job a bit easier, but the conditions make her confront her past and the wretched conditions she came from.

As expected, a little light romance ensues when James Easton, a young engineer who crossed paths with Mary in her first assignment, is contracted to provide an independent assessment of the worker's death and the problems on the site. Mary, or Mark as she is called in her disguise, is assigned to assist him.

Y.S. Lee brings Victorian England to light with original detail and description that comes from her education in Victorian studies. She captures the period perfectly and avoids the stereotypes we often see in favour of period details that few of us have encountered before.

This was a great book and a great listen. The style of the book is one that lends itself well to the audio format, making it easy and enjoyable to sit through. Reader Justine Eyre does an excellent job with this series. She refrains from emotional extremes, lacing her voice instead with a restrained urgency, which perfectly mirrors Mary's desire for control over her situation and the world around her.

I listened to The Body at the Tower on MP3 disc as it wasn't available from Library to Go. You can listen to a sample at Brilliance Audio here. The third book, The Traitor in the Tunnel, is due to be released this spring.

The Details:

The Agency: The Body at the Tower, (7 hrs, 39 min), Brilliance Audio, (2010)

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane – Serendipity

I recently read an interview with Margaret Atwood where she was talking about how she felt that the internet promoted literacy. In the interview she said she didn't think bookstores would disappear due to the internet and ebooks because bookstores offer an opportunity for serendipity that the internet does not. To a certain extent I agree - when you walk in a bookstore you see the big pyramidal stacks of best sellers, but when you wander in further, meandering along shelves, a book will often grab you, metaphorically speaking, and not let go. But I also believe there is opportunity for serendipity everywhere, you just have to be open to it.

I found my most recent listening pleasure, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, purely by happy accident. I was cruising Library to Go for something to listen to as I was between books. I had recently listened to one of L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack books (more about that in a future post) and I really like the reader, Katherine Kellgren. I had listened to her read a number of other books and have always been impressed. So I did a search for books she had read, and one that didn't have any holds on it looked interesting. So, through online serendipity, I gave it a try and after a bit of a slow beginning, I was hooked. I always know it's a good one when I plug my speakers and MP3 player in at work and grab a couple of minutes of listening when there is nobody in the library with me.

I'm not sure if this book, which tells two parallel stories that swirl around the 1692 Salem Witch trials, would be considered high literature, but it seemed to be just what I was needing in that moment. It was a book about self-discovery, magic (usually one of my main criteria, but not always), history, books, and a little light romance thrown in to sweeten the pot. I always find myself in a quiet, reflective mood in the time between Christmas and New Years. It seems to be a time of possibility and great dreams – the perfect time to listen to a book by a great reader, that features a woman discovering herself and her ancestors at the same time. Hmmmm... serendipity? I managed to find the perfect book, for the perfect time, when I wasn't looking for it.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, features Connie, a young Harvard graduate student who is searching for a new source of material as she works on her thesis in American Colonial history. At the same time, her mother, Grace - a new-age ex hippie in New Mexico, makes her daughter visit her grandmother's old home near Salem to prepare it for sale. The house is overgrown with vines and has no phone or electricity. It hasn't been visited for over 20 years. Connie finds a key in a bible, and in a chamber in the key, finds a parchment with "Deliverance Dane" written on it, which launches the woman's quest for her own connection to the Salem Witch Trials and the gifts passed down through the women in her family.

In her prologue, author Katherine Howe, who was doing her own thesis when the idea for the story came to her, explains how she looked at the people of the Puritan age when the trials occurred and their firm belief in witchcraft. Instead of dismissing the belief of this large group of people like most historians and authors did, she approached the story from a different point of view. "What if they were right?"

Loved the story, loved the reading, and had that warm, tingly, happy feeling (tinged with that sense of loss that always happens when I finish a good book) when it was over.

I downloaded The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane from Library to Go, and Hyperion doesn't seem to have much of an online presence for their audiobooks so you can listen to a sample here at Library to Go.

Listen Up!

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, (12 hrs, 45 mins), Hyperion Audio, (2009)

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows – an early Christmas Present

Finding out that the wise publishers at Random House released Alan Bradley's new Flavia DeLuce novel, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, just in time for Christmas was a nice way to ring in the season. For a few lovely days I was jumping in the car to drive through the snowy mountains to my little library listening to the best Christmas present ever, and the fact that it takes place over Christmas made the whole early present even better.

In this instalment of Flavia's adventures, Flavia's father, Colonel DeLuce has allowed a film company to make a movie at Buckshaw starring the most popular movie stars of the time, over Christmas. The revenue generated by renting the house will keep the struggling family afloat for a little longer.

It always seems that the town Vicar starts these murderous scenarios when he comes up with a plan to raise funds for the church. This time he plots to have the movie stars perform a Shakespearean vignette in the main hall at Buckshaw on Christmas Eve. Of course, as you can well imagine, hidden relationships, a snowstorm that leaves everyone trapped, and a scandalous murder, are really the presents under the tree. Add in the fact that Flavia's older sisters have taunted her with the notion that Santa, or Father Christmas as they call him, doesn't really exist, and you have a recipe for a Flavia-styled disaster. While everything else is going on below her, Flavia is in her chemistry lab brewing up two concoctions – an explosive one to create a spectacular fireworks show from the roof of Buckshaw to ring in Christmas Eve, and a sticky one to capture the man in the red suit in the act of delivering Christmas cheer. If you have read the three earlier books in this series, you know where those plans are heading!

I think this was my favourite of the books, although I really love them all. Jayne Entwistle's reading is as fantastic as ever, and I even think she produced an even richer rendition of Flavia and her world than in the earlier books, which would be hard to do because the voices were already so original, consistent, and perfectly suited to their characters.  

So, now that I've enjoyed a Christmas murder at Buckshaw, I must wait for more from Mr. Bradley and Ms. Entwistle. This will be a challenge, but definitely worth the wait!

If you haven't yet read the first three books, go and do so now!

They are:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

A Red Herring Without Mustard

I downloaded I Am Half-Sick of Shadows from Library to Go. Check out this delightful soundbite for a sample of Flavia DeLuce!

Listen Up!

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, (7 hrs: 24 min), Random House Audio, (2011)

The Oracles of Delphi Keep

OK, time to catch up a bit here. Apparently if I think about writing, it doesn't actually happen. It seems one must actually write. Freelance writing doesn't count, either! 

I listened to the Oracles of Delphi Keep by Victoria Laurie last summer while I was on holiday in Saskatchewan. I was surprised to learn that the reader was Susan Duerden, who I had just listened to in the awesome Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I wouldn't say this was a fabulous book. It seemed a bit disjointed and far fetched, like it was the first third of an actual story and the reader / listener is left with more questions than answers at the end. There were some great characters, mysterious creatures, orphans, a bit if magic, and the threat of World War II (all my usual criteria). I listened to the end and will probably listen to the rest of the series if it becomes available on audio, but I just didn't think the writing was the best and the mythology that the story is based on was a bit confusing. The reading, however, was excellent. Susan Duerden is a compelling reader who brings the main characters of Ian and Theodosia, orphans who are the subject of an ancient prophecy, to life in a fantastic way.

The story follows Ian and Theodosia, two orphans who are as close as brother and sister, living in Delphi Keep, an orphanage near Dover, England in the years leading up to World War II. While exploring tunnels near the famous White Cliffs of Dover, Ian discovers a silver box embedded in the tunnel floor. When he removes it, he unleashes hell hounds and starts a deadly chase with Theodosia, their friend Carl, two of their teachers and a professor travelling through portals to gather ancient objects in order to prevent the end of the world. Sounds simple enough. 

A sequel, The Curse of the Deadman's Forest, has just been released but I haven't come across an audio version yet. Like I said, I will probably listen to it if only to try and figure out what is supposed to be going on.  

I think this is a case of a reader being able to make or break a story, even possibly rescuing it.

I listened to this recording of the Oracles of Delphi Keep on CD.  To listen to a sample click below or visit Random House Audio.

Listen Up!

The Oracles of Delphi Keep, 13 sound discs (16 hr, 45 min), Random House Audio, (2009)