- Bernardine Evaristo
This is a slave's story, but not quite the one you're expecting. In Evaristo's tale, the blacks have become the slave-traders and the whites, slaves. Doris, a poor, young English serf living on her family's farm under their feudal lord's yoke circa 19th-century, is captured by Aphrikan slave-traders and subsequently forced to endure a life of slavery as in reality so many black Africans experienced. The reader is swept through Doris' shock of capture, first experiences of servitude in a strange land, the incredible disease and death during the Middle Passage route to Amarika and a life of complete despair as a whyte slave among many in "New Ambossa" where Doris finally lands. This will read like the slave narratives you're probably familiar with from school, but so much more vivid and lifelike. The pages turn themselves as Evaristo's beautiful descriptions of life in then-Aphrika and New Ambossa reveal cultures "whyte" and "blak" and perspectives that become almost interchangeable between the two races. Truths about human nature surpass both color and culture in narratives rich with Doris' observations of her peers in slavery and the often hilarious takes on the slave drivers and masters. I even found myself forgetting the cultures (and skin colors) of the characters as the story goes on (and the pages keep turning!), and coming to understand these characters free from the supposed trappings of culture and even sympathizing with their faults, which still had terrible consequences. This part of the book, very effective for me.I'd love to supply you with a pithy quote from the novel however I was not able to stop reading for long enough to grab myself a post-it and mark the sections I wanted to share. Sorry about that, but it's a nice, appropriately short book, which is something to treasure these days - it gets the point across beautifully, and keeps the reader guessing long after the last words are read. Highly recommended.
by Charlotte Bronte & Sherri Browning Erwin.
has been butchered by vampires, zombies and apparently werewolves (didn't reach that part)... and not in the good way. I won't describe the plot here because it's exactly the same as the classic. So the only difference left to review is the presence of aforementioned creatures.
, 
and 
, all of them promising a fun mix of characters we've come to love (or hate) and dead things that turn their old, musty worlds upside-down. I did not get this impression from Jane Slayre. It was not hilarious on a grand scale (which it so could've been!), wasn't particularly smart in weaving the ghouls into the plot, and obviously didn't make an attempt to be scary. Actually as I read, I found myself getting bored, until I finally reached page 133 and decided I'd long surpassed the 50-page rule and called it quits. It's Jane Eyre without the heart, wit and style (excepting the many parts where the original text appears - why??). So now I'm left wondering if it's worthwhile to pick up other re-vamped (no pun intended) classics like 
- maybe the ones that aren't based on the actual texts would be better, as they don't run the risk of reading like the same thing but not as awesome, etc. That said, here's a quote from the book which hinted at its unfulfilled silliness-potential (sob!) --
- Margaret Drabble
... oooh pretty colors.
- Deanna Raybourn (this is actually 
- Gail Carriger (I asked if this was the steampunk about the Italian chick, and just looking at the cover now, yes, apparently so!)
Here it is, the second book: 
(Book 2 in the series). 
The first book left a lot to live up to, but I was pleasantly surprised. At first, starting Dragon I thought well this is weird, there's no real villain unless you count plain ol' bad luck. But I thought that made it kind of unusual which is always nice. Emerald O'Brien has been stuck with her very own cursed mini jade dragon, a 500-year-old artifact from the Ming Dynasty, left on her table by a disheveled stranger who was in her shop for a tarot-reading. Only seconds after leaving, poor Daniel is hit and killed by a van hurtling around the corner -- the jade dragon is now Emerald's. As Em and friends investigate the artifact, they uncover secret after secret and endure crisis after crisis along the way. What is it about this exquisite piece of jade that's threatening Em's life and the lives of her loved ones? Can she stop it before it causes real damage and takes away all that she's worked hard for in her little hometown of Chiqetaw, Washington? Hmm... you'll have to read to find out!
- Davis Bunn (just realized now this is Book 2 of the Storm Syrrell Adventure Series)
- Charlotte Bronte; Sherri Browning Erwin (yessss!)
- Chris Bohjalian ("clash between progress & tradition; science & magic" - sure, why not!)
- Karen Harper (wanted this since it was hardcover)
- Doranna Durgin (unicorns!!)
(In Search of Lost Time Series, Book 1 
(In Search of Lost Time Series, Book 2)
(Book 2 of the Dollanganger Series) by V.C. Andrews. I wanted to read this before I forgot 
(Book 1) - reviewed 
series, for instance), and in many cases each installment seems to get worse and worse until you feel you're drawn into a downward spiral of wasting time that could be spent on fantastic stand-alones that were actually inspired. But I digress. Petals on the Wind is no such installment but is totally entertaining, as we are swept from these poor children's lives in their nasty grandmother's attic, pining for their greedy, neglectful mother's attention - to their freedom, as they find a sweet guy who takes them in and watches them fill out their destinies. Of course this is not all as fancy-free as that implies, since our heroine Cathy is a vengeful spirit, bent on giving her mother the cold dish of revenge she's asked for since locking her 4 kids (now 3) up in her mother's attic, and all for the love of money! Terrible!
