I've been out sick with Crohn's, so this post has been delayed by at least 5 days, sorry about that. And to add to the difficulty, the book I was reading was almost a thousand pages long, very densely written and plotted, so it took me about a week to read it. Hence, I will be reviewing that book and only one other in this post, which is unusual, but necessary.
I have been a big fan of William Goldman for decades, and not just because his movies were riddled with dry wit and unforgettable characters, but also because his non fiction works, such as Adventures in the Screen Trade were just as funny and brilliant as his screenplays. He was only a year older than my dad. He will be missed. RIP, Mr Goldman.
Obituary Note:
William Goldman
William Goldman
who won Academy
Awards for his screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid and
All the President's Men and was also a prolific
novelist, died
November 16, the New York Times reported. He was 87.
Goldman
"viewed the film business with a jaundiced eye. As he often
pointed out, he
considered himself not a screenwriter but a novelist who
wrote screenplays."
Goldman's books
include the novels The Princess Bride and Marathon Man
(both adapted into
hit movies); The Temple of Gold; Boys and Girls
Together; and No
Way to Treat a Lady; along with nonfiction works
Adventures in the
Screen Trade; Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures
in the Screen
Trade; and The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood?.
Stephen King
tweeted: "So sorry to hear
of the passing of
William Goldman. He was both witty and talented. His
screenplay of my
book Misery was a beautiful thing. Rest In Peace,
Bill."
In an appreciation
of Goldman's work, Jason Bailey observed in the Times
that his legacy
"would have been assured
had he only
written screenplays.... But Goldman wrote more than
screenplays. Aside
from his engaging short stories and novels (including
the source
materials for Princess Bride and Marathon Man), he wrote
several noteworthy
volumes of commentary about the entertainment
industry, offering
an insider's view that cleared the smoke and smashed
the mirrors. And
he carried that refreshing candor into his interviews
and profiles,
carving out a reputation as one of the few heavyweights
who dared to
demystify the business."
Mike Lupica, a
longtime friend and one-time collaborator (Wait 'Till
Next Year, 1988),
wrote in the Boston Globe that he had been on tour
promoting his
latest book for young readers, No Slam Dunk, during the
two weeks before
Goldman's death. "At every stop, knowing how little
time Bill had
left, I would ask how many of the kids knew The Princess
Lupica recalled.
"Just about every hand in the gym would go up. Then,
I'd have them all
shout out, 'Feel better, Mr. Goldman,' even knowing
that he never
would.
"I would have
one of the teachers take videos of that shout-out, then
e-mail them to
Bill and Susan [Burden, his partner]. We started to call
them Bill's daily
pep rallies--proof that a whole new generation of
children knew
about Westley and Buttercup and Inigo Montoya. Maybe it
helped convince
the great William Goldman that, even as he was leaving
us, his stories
would live forever. I hope so. It really always was
about the stories.
As he wished."
I've always been thrilled that Iowa City has such a fantastic bookstore, and this sounds like a great author conversation that I am sorry I missed.
Image of the Day:
A Little Conversation
Prairie Lights http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz38977180,
Iowa City, Iowa, recently lured
longtime book buyer and bookseller extraordinaire Paul Ingram (r.) out of
retirement to sit down for a conversation with Edward
Carey to talk
about Little (Riverhead), his new novel based on the life
of Marie Tussaud.
The two discussed the world of Madame Tussaud's famed
wax figures (Carey
once worked at the legendary London Museum,
protecting the
figures from disrespectful tourists), the dark thrills of
Dickensian
literature, and what a discovery it is when one first picks
up a book and
experiences the infinite possibilities of an author's
imagination, ink
and paper.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J.Maas is the final book in the Throne of Glass series, which has taken us through 7 other YA novels full of trauma, drama, war, death, torture, love and hate. I really feel that this series shouldn't be categorized as YA, because most of the books have rather heated sex scenes, and plenty of grotesque torture, gore and mutilation, all of which are a bit much for your random teenager, IMHO. I'm also going to say it because it needs to be said, Sarah Maas needs the firm hand of a ruthless editor near her finished manuscripts, otherwise we end up with books like this that ramble on and on about all the main character's guilt and suffering and PTSD and pain and longing and yearning and fraught sexual encounters and deadly battles that take forever to come to a conclusion. And of course each and every battle is with long odds that our heroes and heroines will be slaughtered by the evil Valg, but they're inevitably saved at the last minute by either someone's sacrifice or by the protagonists who show up just in the nick of time! This could have been a tightly written 500-600 page novel that wouldn't have lacked a thing, but instead it was a bloated mess that takes 150 pages to even get moving. And I skimmed the battles after awhile, knowing what was going to happen until the final battle, where it comes down to the (light) good guys vs the bad (dark) parasites. Even then, after we've gone through this marathon of Aelin's life, there is a final chapter that is completely worthless and is just basically saying "they all lived happily ever after" with many more paragraphs than necessary. I had a horrible headache after finishing Kingdom of Ash, and I feel that Ms Maas is responsible for the eyestrain, at the very least. Here's the blurb:
Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's #1 New York Times bestselling
Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion.
Aelin Galathynius's journey from slave to king's assassin to the queen
of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts
across her world. . .
Aelin has risked everything to save her people-but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…
With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they've gathered to battle Erawan's hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation-and a better world.
And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen-before she is lost to him forever.
As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.
Aelin has risked everything to save her people-but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…
With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they've gathered to battle Erawan's hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation-and a better world.
And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen-before she is lost to him forever.
As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.
Don't worry, only side characters die in the end (on the good side), the rest of the main characters make miraculous recoveries and most of the evil people die suitably horrible deaths, while the kingdom is actually saved (SPOILER ALERT) by Yerene Towers, a healer, who figures out a way to cure the hosts of their evil Valg parasites. So while Aelin and Rowan do their part and kill the antagonists, it's Yerene's healing light that shows that love is stronger than hate. The fact that she does this while pregnant with Chaol's child makes the "earth mother/goddess" symbolism a bit heavy handed, but readers are saved from it being too syrupy by (AGAIN, SPOILER) the death of Manon's 12 best friend witches who sacrifice themselves as explosive devices to take out a "witch tower" that threatens to breach the walls of the keep in Terrasen. They're kind of the Klingons of the story, and you can almost hear them scream "Today is a good day to die!" as they plunge into battle without their tops on, like Amazon warriors of legend. Also, Aedion's father sacrifices himself for his son, but since he's barely been in most of the books, I felt that all the crying and mourning and such was overdone, because we didn't get to know him well enough to care that much. All of that said, I believe that Maas is a solid storyteller whose prose is like a mirror ball, blindingly flashy and pretty above a dance floor, but also a bit too much for long periods of time, and you wouldn't want one on your ceiling 24/7. So I'd give this marathon fantasy a B, and only recommend it to those who have read the other 7 books, and only then if they have a nice long weekend to wade through it. Be sure to lay in supplies for the siege....you'll need them.
An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason by Virginia Boecker is the first book of hers that I've read. It's a historical YA romance based on actual events and written around real historical figures, like William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. As a theater major, I was excited to see a historical fiction novel that surrounds Shakespeare and a couple of his plays, and I was also interested in reading about the young men who portrayed women on stage at the Globe, since young noble women weren't allowed to be actors in the theater at that time, it was considered one step up from prostitution. The author uses dazzling prose and zingy dialog to outline her two protagonists who are caught up on opposite sides of an assassination scheme, yet manage to learn about one another's POV and fall in love. The fact that Toby is bisexual is a bit of an anachronism, however, it nicely offsets Kit's more wimpy and cowed aspects when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex, while dressed as a boy herself. Here's the blurb: Philippa Gregory meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this witty and thrilling action-adventure novel of star-crossed assassins in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of My Lady Jane and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue.
When Lady Katherine's father is killed for being an illegally practicing Catholic, she discovers treason wasn't the only secret he's been hiding: he was also involved in a murder plot against the reigning Queen Elizabeth I. With nothing left to lose, Katherine disguises herself as a boy and travels to London to fulfill her father's mission, and to take it one step further—kill the queen herself.Katherine's opportunity comes in the form of William Shakespeare's newest play, which is to be performed in front of Her Majesty. But what she doesn't know is that the play is not just a play. It's a plot to root out insurrectionists and destroy the rebellion once and for all.
The mastermind behind this ruse is Toby Ellis, a young spy for the queen with secrets of his own. When Toby and Katherine are cast opposite each other as the play's leads, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another. But the closer they grow, the more precarious their positions become. And soon they learn that star-crossed love, mistaken identity, and betrayal are far more dangerous off the stage than on.
When Lady Katherine's father is killed for being an illegally practicing Catholic, she discovers treason wasn't the only secret he's been hiding: he was also involved in a murder plot against the reigning Queen Elizabeth I. With nothing left to lose, Katherine disguises herself as a boy and travels to London to fulfill her father's mission, and to take it one step further—kill the queen herself.Katherine's opportunity comes in the form of William Shakespeare's newest play, which is to be performed in front of Her Majesty. But what she doesn't know is that the play is not just a play. It's a plot to root out insurrectionists and destroy the rebellion once and for all.
The mastermind behind this ruse is Toby Ellis, a young spy for the queen with secrets of his own. When Toby and Katherine are cast opposite each other as the play's leads, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another. But the closer they grow, the more precarious their positions become. And soon they learn that star-crossed love, mistaken identity, and betrayal are far more dangerous off the stage than on.
The author made sure that everything right up until the end made sense and seemed to be in line with what would happen in 17th century England. However, SPOILER, suddenly allowing Toby to flee the Tower of London and meet up with Kit to start a new life together didn't make sense in light of all the cruelty and control of the Queens spymaster, who seemed more than willing to torture and kill anyone who displeased him or didn't follow his directions and complete their missions. Still, the plot was swift and sure, and I liked Toby a great deal, though Kit went from being a wet blanket to being strong and assured and then back to being a wet blanket again. I'd give this fascinating look at Shakespeare's England a B+, and recommend it to anyone who has wondered about Elizabethan theater.
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