What Happens In London by Julia Quinn

Julia Quinn bounces back to form with this witty romantic comedy. Squees all around.

I discovered Julia Quinn after reading The Duke and I many, many years ago. I loved the Bridgerton series but honestly found the books after that to be sadly lacking. I didn’t like The Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever and I found The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr. Cavendish, I Presume to be repetitive and disappointing. So I waited a while before buying this one and was pleasantly surprised to find Quinn back to her old form.

What Happens in London was lovely and delightful. I haven’t been able to say that about a book (much less one of Quinn’s) in a while. It made me smile at the most inopportune moments. I had to put it down and wait until I got home so people wouldn’t think it was silly that I was laughing to myself.

Olivia Bevelstoke is the daughter of an earl. She’s a bit bored this season since her best friend married her brother (see The Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever) and moved away. She’s got a new neighbour, and the gossipy friends that she has now have told her that he killed his fiancée. So she decides to check him out. (more)

(Last updated: 14/10/2009) Just in from Twitter: Amazon will now ship the Kindle internationally. According to Bookseller+Publisher:

Kindles are available to order for US$279 (A$313) from the Amazon website now and will begin shipping from 19 October. Amazon’s director of merchandising Laura Porco is scheduled to run a demonstration of the device in Sydney on Monday 26 October. An Amazon spokesperson told WBN that it had ‘not been confirmed as yet whether [books from] Australian publishers will be available’ to read on the device.

CNET Australia provides some technical details:

The reader can either download books via USB or by 3G or 2G wireless, without any mobile contracts … but the spokesperson could not (more)

I managed to read 7 books for the challenge (total of 8 for the month), when for the past 5 months I’d only managed 2-5 a month, so I think I achieved what I set out to do and that was to get over this slump and read more.

The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison

This was a book I had in my TBR box for a while, mainly because someone had spoilt something in the previous book, For a Few Demons More, so I was a bit put off reading that one and not about to jump ahead. I finally read For a Few Demons More before the challenge and decided to forge ahead with The Outlaw Demon Wails while the details of the last book were still fresh in my mind.

Rachel Morgan is determined to squash her inner adrenaline junkie and make wiser decisions that won’t land her and her friends in so much trouble. But a request for her help in obtaining an elf DNA sample from the ever-after leads to a revelation of Rachel’s true origins and changes her perspective on family and risk-taking. (more)

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

When I realised I couldn’t, in good faith, review this book—the reasons for which are outlined below—I asked my friend Gutsy if she’d be interested in reading it. Gutsy and I share a love of beautifully written fantasy novels. She’s the only person to whom I’ve ever lent my Patricia A. McKillip hardbacks. Gutsy is currently doing her PhD in Children’s Literature.

Anyone who’s read The Aeneid would have learned that Vergil had considered it an unfinished work. Ursula K. Le Guin spun that concept into her version of the events that led to the founding of Rome and moved beyond Vergil’s ending, beginning from an ending she herself imagined of what had become of the heroes of The Aeneid after the war had been won.

Lavinia, princess of Latium, tells us the story of how she came to be promised to a foreign hero causing a war to be fought in her name. We walk with her through the forests of an Italy far removed from even the ancient Rome we are familiar with, from the innocence of her girlhood to the burdens and joys of an awakened womanhood and to her days as the mother of Rome. (more)

How to Break Your Own Heart by Maggie Alderson

Recently, in romance blogland, someone asked where the older romance heroine has gone. I can tell you this much: she’s not in this book.

My biggest problem with How to Break Your Own Heart is that it’s not a romance. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have picked it up—it’s not the sort of premise I’d invest time in unless I know there will be a happy ending.

Yes, I read the back of the book. Oh, it deceived me. And so did the book’s nomination for a R*BY Award for Romantic Elements. Seriously, I’m not sure which Australian romance readers judged this book, but the readers I know would throw it against the wall.

Amelia Bradlow is content with her life. Her husband, Ed, isn’t the most demonstrative man on earth, but he loves her and provides for her. She has a job, and although it’s not the most wonderful career ever, she’s fine with it. But she’s 37 and approaching the point of no return for having a baby. To her dismay, it seems Ed isn’t so keen on children. (more)

A recent First Page entry at Dear Author (Trespasses and Sins) nearly made my brain explode. The first paragraph starts thus:

The lamb’s blood was splattered against the wall. Its bleating shrieks of pain and surprise drowned out the crowd noise around them. The woman covered her ears to the animal’s pitiful cries. In a circle, the seven of them stood around the dying creature.

Of all the bloody (ha!) things to criticise about the work, some commenters immediately latched on to the first sentence. Among the criticisms (I’ll link directly to the comment for attribution—this post isn’t about pointing fingers):

#1 Ouch, started in the passive!

#13 The gore didn’t disturb me as much as the passive voice… (more)

Put your books down!

The 2009 Books Alive Reading Challenge finished yesterday (or today if you’re behind the date line). Stop reading and start writing your lists! Include a link to your challenge results in the comments below, so we can check out what you read. I’ll post a round-up post next week, so you have until Sunday to get those reviews done!

If you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your books in the comments below, or let me know if you’d like to do a guest post here on Book Thingo.

Books Alive Quickie Challenge

Here’s a list of the top 10 books I’ve read this year so far.

1. My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne – If you think romance writers can’t write beautiful prose, you need to read this book.

2. Addition by Toni Jordan – For maths nerds, people who count their steps, and lovers of base 10. You know who you are. (more)

10 Short Stories You Must Read This Year (Anthology)

The most startling thing about this anthology is that most of the works feature love stories. I rode the weekend on a wave of literary pleasure.

It’s worth buying a book listed in this year’s Book Alive Guide just for this anthology, 10 Short Stories You Must Read, which isn’t available for individual sale.

The collection starts off with Robert Drewe’s brooding story of unrequited love, in which the object of the protagonist’s desire happens to be his best friend’s wife. I very much doubt I’d read this as a novel, but the beauty of the short story is that it usually ends before properly resolving the central dilemma. A View of Mount Warning is no exception, which means I can cheerfully imagine the unfaithful husband dying from a Viagra-induced stoke, thereby freeing his wife and best friend to have their happily ever after.

I found the stories by male authors to be darker, moodier, more … well, self-indulgent. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I found many of the protagonists a challenge to relate to. (Also, none of the authors have websites!) (more)

Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands by Christina Lamb

Award-winning journalist Christina Lamb’s collection of stories brings to life parts of the world, but also the personal impact of her work.

All right, so I haven’t been reading a lot of romance lately. (That’s why this site says reading “mostly” and not “just” romance down under!) As per usual I found myself wandering through a bookshop, randomly picking up a book and not putting it down. This is the real test for me. If I want to—no, have to—keep going after the first few pages, it needs to be bought. Such was the case with this book.

Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands was written by Christina Lamb, who won the British Press Award for Foreign Correspondent of the Year in 2007. She’s written pieces for the Financial Times, Time and the Sunday Telegraph, just to name a few. (more)

Addition by Toni Jordan

Toni Jordan’s debut novel was a delight to read. It’s not often I come across unconventional protagonists, and this one has become a favourite.

“It all counts.”

So begins Toni Jordan’s debut novel about a woman with a peculiar problem: She counts—everything.

Grace Lisa Vandenburg lives by numbers—from the number of letters in her name, to the number of bites it takes to eat a flourless orange cake sprinkled with poppy seeds from her local cafe, she shapes her world using whatever unit of measurement presents itself.

So when she finds herself 1 banana short at the grocery checkout, what’s she supposed to do?

My shopping trolley has 2 trays of chicken thighs, fat and glossy, (more)