Gables and Skyfall

This post is linked with: Booking Through, Thursday 13 

One of those quick, easy questions that I ask periodically because the answer is always changing: What are you reading right now? (And, is it good? Would you recommend it? How did you choose it?)

The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Started it last year and since then I have finished two John Grishams, one Nicholas Sparks, a Philippa Gregory and a few other leisure and work-related distractions. If anyone wants to explore themes of retribution or atonement or know what the consequences of greed were like around 1851, they may want to have a go at this classic. I'm developing curious sympathy for Hepzibah, poor old maid, so I'm going to finish this book before the next full moon invites howls from handsome shape-shifters.

Thursday 13: word associations from Skyfall. I didn't mind not getting around to watching the 23rd JB film until a bloggity friend commented on a post I shared with Judi Dench singing in it, saying she "just watched M die." Oh, blimey I hurried off to buy the DVD, and something caught my attention aside from their latest toys. I provide the 6th, 12th and 13th words as 007 and the psychologist mentioned only 11, and I doubt 'M' counts, as in M = bitch or that skyfall was really done.

I added a literary work that begins with the same word in bold. What are your associations of these words though? Any book, poetry or story you are reminded of with these words?

1. day - wasted -  Day with a courteous mother, A by Helen Hunt-Jackson
2. gun - shot - Gun for hire by Mack Reynolds
3. heart - target - Heart of Arethusa, The by Frances Barton Fox
4. agent - provocateur - Agent at the door, The by Walt Mason
5. woman - provocatrix - Woman who loved Chopin, The  by James Huneker
6. head - quarters - Head of Caesar, The by G.K. Chesterton
7. sunlight - swim - Sunlight on the soul by John S. Adams
8. moonlight - dance - Moonlight favor  by H.G. Wells
9. murder - employment - Murders in the Rue Morgue  by Edgar Allan Poe
10. bird - sky - Birds of spring, The by Wasington Irving
11. country - England - Country lass, The by Robert Burns
12. sky - fall - Sky is falling, The by Lester del Rey
13. lab - rat - Laboratory-Ancien Regime by Robert Browning

Gifts

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Do you like to give books as gifts?

I do, but the whole process can be complicated for many reasons. It's great if I knew what book would be appreciated or wanted or loved. I gifted two nephews a book each once and luckily they liked it, and read it which was inspiring to me. I think a gift certificate to a bookstore is a nice gift for a book lover.

Thursday 13: Quotes from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I didn't know about the book then, nor the film. This was random shopping but I bought the DVD in a snap when I read it had something to do with books.

1. “Perhaps the story in the book is just the lid on a pan: It always stays the same, but underneath there's a whole world that goes on - developing and changing like our own world.”

2.“Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask for anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly.”

3. "When you open the book it's like going to the theatre. First you see the curtain. Then it's pulled aside and the show begins.”

4. “Books are like flypaper, memories cling to the printed pages better than anything else.”

5.  “The book she had been reading was under her pillow, pressing its cover against her ear as if to lure her back into its printed pages.”

6.  “The book was spinning a magic spell around her heart, sticky as a spider's web and enchantingly beautiful.”

7.  “You know what they say: When people start burning books they'll soon burn human beings.”

8.  “She always did like tales of adventure-stories full of brightness and darkness. She could tell you the names of all King Arthur's knights, and she knew everything about Beowulf and Grendel, the ancient gods and the not-quite-so-ancient heroes. She liked pirate stories, too, but most of all she loved books that had at least a knight or a dragon or a fairy in them. She was always on the dragon's side by the way.”

9.  “What on earth have you packed in here? Bricks?" asked Mo as he carried Meggie's book-box out of the house.

10. “It's a good idea to have your own books with you in a strange place”

11.  “There was another reason [she] took her books whenever they went away. They were her home when she was somewhere strange.

12.  “Sometimes it's a good thing we don't remember things half as well as books do.”

13.   “The books in Mo and Meggie's house were stacked under tables, on chairs, in the corners of the rooms. There where books in the kitchen and books in the lavatory. Books on the TV set and in the closet, small piles of books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new. They welcomed Meggie down to breakfast with invitingly opened pages; they kept boredom at bay when the weather was bad. And sometimes you fall over them.”

Lace and Expectations

"Lace is a thing like hope. It is beauty; it is grace.
It was never meant to destroy so many lives."

Lace also usually associates well with tenderness, delicateness.  But how does it end up destroying lives? Author Iris Anthony weaves a story of "fleeting beauty, mad obsession and ephemeral hope." Ruins of Lace is for historical fiction fans, and is going to be published on October 1st 2012. More info here.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150"] Charles Dickens' great-great-great-grandchildren, Rob Charles Dickens, and Rachel Dickens Green, lay flowers at the grave during a ceremony at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the English novelist on February 7, 2012 in London, England. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)[/caption]

Remember Pip, the orphan who rose to wealth, and got affected by the improvement of his circumstances? If you think you have seen Pip somewhere in the news last week, I don't blame you. The novel was written long before our grandparents' parents existed. But don't we all mind a good story about being humbled after a stint with arrogance? Published in 1860 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens depicts life in Victorian England.

If you like old English masterpieces, chances are you did not miss the 1998 film adaptation of this book. A 2012 version is just around the corner, and is packed with a stellar cast - Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, along with a couple of promising newcomers. Mike Newell directs.

Canada will be first to watch it in September. New Zealand, Ireland and the UK will follow in November; Germany in December and Russia - January 2013. Check the trailer -