French Elegance

Author: Muriel Barbery
Book: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Language: Translated from French
Publisher: Gallic Books, 2008

A writer friend of mine urged me to read this book, so when I saw it in the airport bookshop I decided it would keep me company for the flight home from Barcelona. My copy has a beautiful cover, with dreamy-coloured French houses in twilight, a stained-glass window effect and (appropriately) elegant text. Humour and levity balance the profound thoughts of life,  culture and the delicacy of human interactions.

The hedgehog of the title is the book's main character, Renee. More cultured and observant than any concierge ought to be, Renee is a clever but understated woman who conceals her inner elegance. She is known as Madame Michel to the residents of the prestigious Paris apartment on the Left Bank. The novel is propelled by two narratives, one from Renee and the other twelve-year-old Paloma, who lives in the apartment where Renee is the concierge. Paloma is not your typical preteen. She is determined to escape what she believes is a 'predictably bourgeoise future' (Gallic, back cover copy) and is intent on writing 'profound thoughts' in her journal prior to committing suicide on her thirteenth birthday. She is one of three people who sees glimpses of the intelligence Renee tries to hide.

The characters' speech is nuanced just so, and the travails of everyday life are expressed in sure, deliberate prose. Barbery's supporting characters could easily have been empty caricatures, but each contributes to the atmosphere of Renee's Paris. The book is charming and accessible, and French down to the spine.

Forgotten Books are Dangerous

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Book: The Shadow of the Wind
Language: Translated from Spanish
Publisher: Penguin, 2005

My family is full of readers, and this past Christmas, my mother-in-law insisted I read a book she'd brought on her trip from Canada to Australia, which had been given to her by her sister in America. So this is a well-travelled book, with two satisfied readers already - and it's been on the New York Times bestseller list.

If you like gothic romance, Barcelona, dark family secrets, power struggles, bookshops and books about books, this is for you. It is overpowering and at times over the top, but its whole is masterful.

Even through the translation, Zafon's words are gorgeous. A poor translation - or a poor synopsis - would have made this novel read like a Dan Brown thriller, but instead the story builds in suspense and is full to bursting of gothic-novel-worthy settings, plot twists, violence and heartache. Above all, though, this is a "love letter to literature" (Entertainment Weekly) and to the booksellers and readers who seek out precious volumes and keep them on their shelves and in their hearts.


The novel follows Daniel Sempere, an antiquarian book dealer's son, from childhood to tortured adulthood. His father entrusts him with a great secret - the location of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books - and charges him to choose a single volume and keep it safe for the remainder of his life.

"This place was already ancient when my father brought me here for the first time, many years ago. Perhaps as old as the city itself. Nobody knows for certain how long it has existed, or who created it. I will tell you what my father told me, though. When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day they will reach a new reader's hands." p. 6

When Daniel discovers that his copy of The Shadow of the Wind is the last in existence, he is mystified, and devotes his life to finding out more about its author and its publication history. But it is no accident that the author's entire canon has been destroyed, and soon Daniel is too close to the truth...

The Alexia Tarabotti Novels

Author : Gail Carriger
Series : The Parasol Protectorate
Publisher : Orbit, 2009-2010

The steampunk-esque cover for Soulless had been taunting me from the shelf for weeks, but it had the potential to be one of those books that couldn't live up to its cover blurb. So I hesitated. When one of Sydney's best sci-fi/fantasy bookstores gave it a very favourable review, I couldn't resist anymore.

* Image from The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review

Gail Carriger packs a lot into the first novel of the Parasol Protectorate. Vampires, werewolves, the concept of "Soulless" - I won't give that away - and high tea. The series continues to build on Alexia Tarabotti's forays into the unforgiving social world of Victorian England, tempered by Carriger's stylish and humorous writing.

I had concerns that steampunk + supernatural + Victorian comedy of manners = too much goodness, and it does - but in the best possible way. Carriger's impetus for this peculiar bundle is a character-driven plot, in which England could not have maintained its autonomy without the help of supernatural forces. Vampires, you see, are masters of society and its manners. Werewolves are master tacticians. Together, the two are an unbeatable combination, and the royal family has wisely used this combination to build an indomitable England.

The books might be laden with new ideas but they are by no means heavy, and they made me laugh out loud on several occasions. Aside from Alexia, our witty but soulless heroine, there is a string of memorable and engaging characters. From werewolves in waistcoats and flamboyantly gay vampires, to a woman who is far too fond of ridiculous headgear, Alexia's acquaintances populate the pages with quirky charm. Changeless and Blameless are excellent as well, and the story speeds along with dashes of fiery romance, mischievous deeds, secret labs and dirigible flights.

This is worldbuilding at its best, and I can't wait until July 2011 for book four, Heartless.

A word of warning : don't read blurbs for books 2-5 on Gail Carriger's official website until you've read the novel previous. As River Song would say, "Spoilers!"

Getting some Zzzzzz's

I haven't felt like I've gotten quality sleep lately. It's not that I'm staying up reading Stieg Larsson - that at least it a plausible excuse for sleeplessness - I'm just waking up tired, even if I've been in bed close to 8 hours. So the question is, am I imagining the poor sleep, or is it really happening?

Browsing the apps available on Android (I got a swish new smartphone because my little cell phone just wasn't working anymore), I found something intriguing : Sleep as an Droid. I decided I'd use its two-week trial period to see if I could uncover something about my sleeping habits.

The app tracks your sleep patterns, keeps track of your sleep deficit, enables sharing (though why I'd post daily updates to facebook I don't know) and the paid version adds nature sounds to the alarm options. Plus, it has a cute logo - don't you think?

The principle is this : use the sensors in your smartphone (in my case, a Samsung Galaxy S) to determine how much you move around during the night, thus guessing what type of sleep you are in and for how long. The trick of course is that you have to put the phone on the mattress when you go to sleep, so this won't work for "burrowers" or "flailers" who may knock the phone to the floor as they doze.

The official webpage does a much better job at explaining the aim of the app:

https://sites.google.com/site/sleepasandroid/

So far, my first night's sleep looks similar to the sample graph, and I slept well last night - likely because I didn't eat too late, and we had the air conditioner on and a blanket so I felt like it was time for sleep. Napping on the couch without blankets? No problems. In fact I managed to fall asleep midway through a TV movie a few nights ago, gunshots and explosions notwithstanding.

Oh - and this isn't a single incident. See this blog for two more sleep aid apps.

On top of mapping my sleep patterns, Sleep as an Droid has a few features I'll be trying out :

• Gentle wake - begins to wake you with a pre-alarm, from 30 minutes to an hour before your set alarm, but only if it senses you are not in deep sleep
• Lullaby mode - quiets text and message alerts
• Music volume turns down as you fall asleep

I'll let you know if this is bunk or it actually works... Even if it doesn't, it might be worth it for the gentle alarm, according to other reviewers.

Winding Down

Oh, I am so happy the big conference week is over.

Yesterday I had most of the day to myself - first thing in the morning, Jody made blueberry pancakes & bacon at home, and I cleaned up after he and our three guests had left for a "code sprint." As far as I can tell, a bunch of coders and users get together and try to solve a problem using only the power of many laptops & some serious wi-fi.

I put on sunscreen and a hat, downed a glass of water, and walked to the next suburb to find the library. It was a nice walk, just under half an hour, and I walked slowly because it was noon and getting quite warm. I had my iPod (2nd gen turquoise 4G - still good!) so it was quite an enjoyable trip.

The library did indeed have the aforementioned book on the hold shelf for me, with the "J" in my name written backwards ( I guess her hearing isn't the only difficulty the staff member I spoke to has). They also had the fourth book, and I already had #3 from my last library run - so now I have books two to four of The House of Night to churn through. Yay for light reading! I wouldn't say they're phenomenal, but 1) the pace makes them hard to put down, and 2) I am trying to write a story with some similarities, and am hoping that mine isn't so parallel it will look like a House of Night rip-off. So far so good.

To those of you wondering, I'm halfway through book 2 now (Betrayed) and, while it's a fun series, I wouldn't likely read it more than once - and despite Visual Bookshelf app's combined reviews stating it's "Not to be Missed," you could miss it. But if they're at your library, you may want to pick them up for something fun - just don't expect the teenagers to actually sound like teenagers. The language is a little too clean and there are too many full sentences, compounded with the irregularities of words and phrases that are supposedly slang. Unfortunately for the Cast writing duo, teen speech is hard to master on the page. (I hope I can do a good job with my own writing - but I am definitely concerned about that.)


I meandered through Vinnies (Australia's short form of St Vincent de Paul thrift shops, aka "Op shops," yet another short form - "opportunity shops") and found a cheap towel to aid in hair-colouring, a pair of brown sandals, a short sleeved white blouse, a cute casual skirt, and FINALLY a collection of charms I can use to make a necklace I've had in my head for months. I also picked up a lovely Portmans blouse that is minus its belt, which I will be mailing to someone in Canada in the hopes it will fit.



Hungry, I chose a friendly-looking cafe and ordered a beef burgundy pie & side salad and a Sprite. It was a little while in coming to my table, but I realised that I had nowhere to be, and could simply sit at the table with my book and watch the world go by. Such a nice change from all the madness of these past several weeks. I had a serving of house-made Strachiatella ice cream to top it off, then took a walk down the main road.

The nail salon I'd already passed a few times was still busy, and I thought that must be a good sign. They had time for me, so I booked a mani-pedi and spent some time being pampered. My nails are now a lovely shiny cranberry. Usually I do my own nails (unlike most Sydneysiders) but it was such a treat to have someone else tend to them. I had just finished up when Jody called to say the code sprint was over and people were heading out for burgers, so I hopped on the tram to save time walking and met up with the nine of them for dinner.

Dinner turned naturally to drinks at our place, and later in the evening I improvised a mango and puff pastry dessert, so it was quite a nice evening, if impromptu. And plans were made for breakfast (at a cafe this time) before Code Sprint Day Two.

Corn hotcakes with poached eggs, bacon, and tomato ragout with a side of potatoes. Delicious!

It's noon now and it's been raining, so I am going to take it easy - do a load or two of laundry, make some tea, read my book. Other than taxes (due Oct 30th) I am actually winding down now. It is such a nice feeling to have my spouse paperwork done - and now the wait begins.

Scrivener Trial

I downloaded a copy of Scrivener from Literature & Latte and will be giving it a trial run on my aluminum 13" MacBook this month.

If I'm lucky, it will make it easier to make some headway on my single-chapter-long novel "Turned." Last night, I transferred the text from my Open Office file into Scrivener, which allows you to separate text into chapters and scenes. The look and feel is not too far away from iTunes, with a left-hand gutter called the 'binder' that can be turned on or off - this is where you can see the structure of your document. There's also a nifty 'corkboard' view which allows you to pin up virtual index cards with brief synopses of each chapter/scene, and makes it simple to view pieces of your work. Rearranging the pieces is easy with the Outline tool, which shows the synopsis and draft number along with the title of each section. When you're ready to see how the pieces fit together, you can either Export to a document or PDF format, or view a selection of your scenes as a continuous file within Scrivener.

There can be as few or as many chapters and scenes as you like, and each can be 'tagged' so you can keep track of which draft you're on, whether it's a scene or a concept, et cetera. In addition to text, Scrivener can be used to store all those bits of research any writer needs - photos, maps and other images, and other media such as music or video. So there's no need to have more than one program open, and everything flows together! I popped a photo into the Research 'binder' by drag-and-dropping it straight from iPhoto, and it let me resize the picture right there. Easy. And for less distraction, an annoyance second only to writers' block, there's a Full Screen Edit view that hides everything from your e-mail to the dashboard.

When I'm more familiar with Scrivener's capabilities, I'll give a more thorough review. For now, keep watching this space!

Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief" : a mini review

It's the kind of book that stuns you with its gravity. The full power of The Book Thief is not felt until its conclusion. which, like the story's narrator, Death, silently slips into your consciousness as the end nears.

Though the story itself is beautifully told, punctuated by sadness, poetic phrasing, and sketches, that shows only a hint of Zusak's craft. His WWII Nazi Germany is masterful in its scope. The dual narrators of Death and a book-hungry teen girl coexist within the world the Fuhrer believes is of his own making, and the result is an exquisitely crafted plane of words, souls and priceless gifts.

This book will stay with me. It might be the best thing you'll read this year.

***

The New York Times calls it "Brilliant and hugely ambitious...the kind of book that can be life changing."

And the Age deems it "A triumph of control... one of the most unusual and compelling of recent Australian novels."

Amazon link to The Book Thief

In case you want more info, click the link above... I have an Australian copy, with a stunning cover. I wish I had a scanner. A hooded figure is walking across a crisp, snow-covered grove in a rather bleak photograph, and bright red splotches of blood are dashed across the photo and title bar. I like it much more than the American cover shown on Amazon and Facebook's Visual Bookshelf app.