Jane Austen Scarves by Brookish

Feb7

February’s Literary Item Spotlight is brought to you by the fantastic guest blogger Flaneur in the City! Please take the time to check out her amazing and intelligent blog filled with original opinions on ‘Reading between the lines of pavement cracks and pop culture.‘

The scarf is the from the talented Brookish on Etsy. They do more than just scarves but everything is inspired by memorable quotes in literature!

“It’s a long scarf, my favorite kind, since I can wear it in different ways with different outfits. I wore to the grocery store yesterday, doubling it over and wrapping it “turtleneck” style over a long sweater, paired with leggings and boots. I tied it so the ends intertwined and the Mr. Darcy quote became a swirling pattern beneath my neck. Tomorrow I’m meeting a fellow writer for dinner and I can’t wait to show it off. Literature and fashion, unite!

The quote, of course, is simply romantic. What girl wouldn’t melt if such words of love were spoken? Oh, Mr. Darcy! As a writer, I can only hope (and dream and pray!) to one day capture such romance on the page.

I am truly, truly blessed to have you as a friend and every time I wear this scarf I think of you.”

Many thanks to Flaneur in the City for the lovely post! I’m just as lucky to have such a talented friend! Many thanks to Brookish for your amazing projects and handiwork!

Ariel

Feb4

Harrods. London, England. 2012. Partnered campaign with Disney.

Manga YA – Peach Girl by Miwa Ueda

Jan31

Young fiction shouldn’t be limited to just books. Whilst my experience with manga isn’t too broad, one of my favourite series in High School was Peach Girl by Miwa Ueda.

With long blonde hair, blue eyes and tanned skin, Momo is constantly being made fun of because she looks different. She can’t help the way she looks, she’s on the swim team at school and the long hours have made her skin dark and hair lighter than everyone else.

It’s a typical teenage story. A beautiful girl that is the envy of everyone else. She’s in love with the popular guy that doesn’t notice her, has a best friend that ruins her life and an annoying boy that teases her constantly.

That’s basically the premise of the series. It’s simple and focuses mainly on teenage love. This series spoke to me when I was sixteen and I still to this day love the drawings. Manga should be read more by everyone. I believe halfway through the Peach Girl series, the author even changed the format to read backwards to the front of the book, which is traditional manga. I enjoyed reading something so different and seeing the emotions of the characters through the drawings.

The series is very girly, but if you’re looking for a break from traditional books, give Peach Girl a try. A quick read finished on a train journey, this is perfect is your wanting to see a love triangle rather than just read about it.

There’s 18 manga’s in the series, I recommend buying the first few and then getting some from the library to make sure you want to invest in the series. (When I have my own library be sure this series will have it’s own shelf.)

January 2013 Purchases

Jan26

I had a lovely time with my friend over at Books and Berries last weekend. After having a few pots of tea at my favourite teahouse, Yumchaa, we breezed through Soho in the bitter wind. Down through the streets, rounding corners and dodging other people walking with speeds of an urgent mission, we finally made our way to Foyles bookstore.

It’s so nice to be surrounded by so many books, even if it did become overwhelming after ten minutes. I settled on these two books, one because I believe it was suggested by the Seattle Public Library YA newsletter and the other because my friend works for that publisher and said I should give it a go! Here are the summaries provided from Goodreads:

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Black:

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story…

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Black Spring by Alison Croggon

Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, BLACK SPRING reimagines the passionate story in a fantasy 19th century society sustained by wizardry and the vengeance code of vendetta.

Anna spent her childhood with Damek and her volatile foster sister Lina, daughter of the Lord of the village. Lina has magical powers, and in this brutal patriarchal society women with magical powers are put to death as babies. Lina’s father, however, refuses to kill her but when vendetta explodes in their village and Lina’s father dies, their lives are changed forever. Their new guardian Masko sends Anna away and reduces Lina to the status of a servant. Damek—mad with love for Lina—attempts to murder Masko, then vanishes for several years. Anna comes home five years later to find Lina about to marry a pleasant young farmer, and witnesses Damek’s vengeful return and its catastrophic consequences.

Passionate, atmospheric and haunting, BLACK SPRING will stay with readers long after they turn the final page.

I am so excited to read these! Did anyone else buy something they can’t wait to start breezing through the pages?

The Long Walk by Stephen King – Vintage YA

Jan24

People love to complain that Battle Royale was the original of The Hunger Games. True, both of the stories have similarities: Teenagers being forced to kill each other until one stands as the living victor within a secluded ‘battleground’. BA was published in 1999, HG was published in 2008. However, there is a book that was written before either of these dystopian realities. 20 years prior, Stephen King under the pen name Michael Bachman wrote The Long Walk that was published in 1979.

Every May there is a lottery where boys enter their names. 100 are selected to embark on a walking contest until one of them remains. This last survivor is crowned the winner. The winner of the contest receives whatever he wants for the rest of his life.

There are similarities to BR and HG: it’s set in a futuristic time period, technology is used to determine that the boys are walking more than 4 mph at all times and if they try to leave the road they get shot.

Thrilling and horrific, The Long Walk precedes these books that have rocked the world with their cruelty and grief. King, the master of terror has paved the way with this book that was before it’s time. Can King write YA? With this book I think the proof is more than exceptional.