Hello and welcome to my world

My name is Jody S. and I'm a reader. I read everything. Literally. I read the backs of the shampoo bottles in a hotel. I read cereal boxes. I'm addicted to my British newspaper app. And I read all nature of books. History, biography, mystery, cookbooks, philosophy/religion, archeology, and so on and so on and so on--you get the idea. I'm particularly fond of Brits in all their many splendoured writings. I do read Americans now and again. But mostly only American mystery writers.

That long-winded introduction leads to my current distress--I'm having a hard time finding anything that really interests me right now. It's not the fault of the authors. Let me be clear that this is a Jody problem. My bookcases overflow with many of my favorite authors' newest books. I also have about 20 acquired at Bouchercon which are "let's try these books." This book malaise resembles the "nothing sounds good for dinner" malaise. I'm unsure what I wish to snarf down next.

Reading books I've read before signals the onset of this problem. I just finished Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. I've read this more than once, but it's one of my go to books when I feel the need to reinterest myself in reading. I enjoyed it. Pym has the most incredible internal dialogue going on in her characters' heads. She's one of those authors I feel compelled to read aloud to whoever is nearby (sorry, David). She delights me. I thought that would cure my reading doldrums. Hmmm.

Next up was Carolyn Hart with Merry, Merry Ghost. I borrowed this from my mother, so I felt that I should read it and return it. Bailey Ruth is a ghost sent to earth to help some mortal in distress. There are many rules about the conduct of the ghostly emissary broken into pieces by Bailey Ruth. Bailey Ruth is an engaging character, incorrigible in her methods. The plots don't really amount to much, but then, they don't really need to. It is a lovely piece of fluff. Although I wasn't swept away by the plot, the characters jumped right out of the book. Unlike most books with secondary characters, this book delineates each and every one. It's pretty easy to sketch in the red herring characters, leaving the reader unclear about the difference between George and Charlie or Mary and Debbie. I think Agatha Christie does this all the time. So the strength in this series is the character portrayal. I admit I prefer Hart's Death on Demand series. I enjoy the setting in those, as well as the characters. I hate readers who say the setting is a character, but it is in these books. And the fact that it is a resort island influences many of the plots. Bailey Ruth didn't release the doldrums. I was still at a loss.

After the unconscionable pugilism surrounding the health care debate, I felt I needed a more civilized brand of psychopath. So I'm now rereading The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Ok, this was what I needed to return to reading. We had seen Matt Damon as Ripley, and we were disappointed in the adaptation of the book. Halfway through the book again, I'm seeing why the movie didn't suit. That atmospheric, homoerotic mood of the book is totally overlooked. Perhaps the inability of a movie to depict the claustrophic internal dialogue contributes to its failure. I'm blown away by Highsmith's ability to make me like this damaged and very unpleasant little thief and murderer. I want him to get away with things. It turns the quest for justice of a mystery novel on its head. I enjoy my psychopaths with more straightforward motives, which is why I dislike hypocritical, psychopathic politicians. You know who you are.

Here's hoping Tom Ripley puts my reading back on track. God knows, it's been a train wreck lately. Let's do some reading.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls - Review and Contest

(I met Steve Hockensmith at the Bouchercon mystery convention last fall in Indianapolis. I was already a fan of his cowboy detectives Big Red and Old Red and regularly read his blog. He had dropped hints on the blog about a big, new, secret project he was working on but said he couldn't disclose details. To his credit, he didn't even give up the secret that he was writing a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies when confronted about it in person. Well played, Steve. Here's my review of the book and then a link to a contest sponsored by the book's publisher Quirk Classics. Remember to mention our blog in the contest. I hope to publish an 'Impertinent Interview' with Steve in the near future. Check back.)

In being chosen to write the prequel to the publishing phenomenon that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Steve Hockensmith was handed a formidable set of tasks. Write a prequel to a one-joke sendup of one of the most beloved novels in English literature. Continue the knockoff novels that have become a genre unto themselves: 19th Century classics mashed together with movie monster tropes. And while you're at it, Steve buddy, don't damage the franchise.

Good thing Quirk Classics picked the right guy for the job. It turns out that Hockensmith doesn't even owe Jane Austen a letter of apology for turning Jane and Elizabeth and the other Bennet sisters into katana-wielding ninjas. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is funny, brash, and moves at a breakneck pace. Hockensmith makes even the living dead come to life on the page.

The cast is a laundry list of Jane Austen character types that you all recognize from movie and TV adaptations of her novels even if you haven't read the books: the demure daughter, the buffoonish nobleman, the doting father, the social-climbing mother, and the blustering military man. But, like the Amlingmeyer brothers in Hockensmith's Old West detective series (Holmes on the Range, On the Wrong Track, etc.), each character type is given its own twist. Just as his well-plotted series books make you believe that two Sherlock Holmes-loving cowboys can solve crimes in the manner of the great detective, Hockensmith keeps the thin premise ("Oh, it's Jane Austen, with zombies") from coming apart in the middle by keeping the action fast and furious.

The only effective way to deal with such a tissue-thin premise — it reminds me a lot of a drunken frat boy's take on the Monty Python skit "The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights" — is to not care too much when you poke holes in it. Or poke fun at it.

To make this work, Steve keeps the characters fresh, funny, and unpredictable. He is ultra careful to never let the plot sag. For in that saggy plot instant, a thoughtful reader might begin to wonder if this is all worth it.

There's never a doubt as to who will live and who will die. It's a PREQUEL. The people who are alive in the first book, which is really the second book, can't die in the second book because they already have appeared in the first book. There's never a doubt that love and virtue will triumph or that the lord of the manor will turn out to be a total prat. It's a JANE AUSTEN NOVEL. Or at least a take-off on one. It's what happens in a Jane Austen novel.

Hockensmith manages a couple of twists on the genre. For example, not all of the heroes turn out to be heroic. But it's all fair play and for fun. Read it in that spirit and you'll enjoy every page. Take it too seriously and maybe not.

And to all you serious-faced English majors out there (In the interest of full disclosure, I was, am, and always will be an English major, but not one of the serious-faced ones.), we wouldn't be able to laugh at this stuff if we didn't read, understand, and love the originals. So chill, OK?

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As I said above, Quirk Classics is running a contest to coincide with the publication of PPZ:DD. Here's the link to their site and the contest. Be sure to tell them you got there from our blog. Thanks!

Here's the details on what you'll win in the Quirk Classics contest:

One of 50 Quirk Classics Prize-Packs worth more than $100, each of which includes: 

o   A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Journal

o   Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Postcards

o   Audio Books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

o   An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

o   A password redeemable online for sample audio chapters of Dawn of the Dreadfuls

o   A Dawn of the Dreadfuls Poster