12 | July | 2010 | Care's Books and Pie

Just realized that I still don’t have a button….

Allow me to introduce the selection for the August Discussion of Care’s Online Book Club. (You did figure out that COBC is the acronym for Care’s Online Book Club, right? good.)

FINGERSMITH by Sarah Waters!!!

Blurb on my copy, quote from Entertainment Weekly:

A deftly plotted thriller with two equally compelling heroines, orphans Sue Trinder and Maud Lilly. Manipulated by someone she knows only as Gentleman, Sue is sent to a country estate to work as Maud’s maid and help him woo the simple heiress. The plot twists = then again and again – until one girl is in a terrifying insane asylum and another and another held captive. An absorbing and elegant story that’s old fashioned in the best way.

How about I share the link in Wikipedia to the novel (there’s also a BBC television series? oo la la!) and what I found in imdb.com for “Fingersmith” which is also about the TV series, I guess… Anyone seen it?

I want to read this because of the author mostly – I probably thought I would start with Tipping the Velvet but this one fell into my house one day – can’t quite recall how. Fingersmith does seem to pop up often on the best-of lists around the blogosphere.

I do think we need to change up the format until we get something that… feels right. The best ReadAlong that I’ve participated in set a date and then everyone who participated blogged on or after (some before, I guess – that’s fine, too) said scheduled date and the Leader would post the various links to everyone’s posts. Then everyone and then some commented at the Leader’s post and everywhere else. Any suggestions? Or we can keep trying what I’ve attempted so far which is a list of questions from yours truly on the 10th of the month and participants may comment answers or whatever strikes the fancy. Ever flexible, I take suggestions.

Tell me now, have you read Fingersmith? ☆ Loved it? yes or no. ☆ I am guessing the genre is Victorian Thriller. Is this a genre you adore? ☆ If you haven’t read it, is it already on your tbr? ☆ If the answer is YES to that last question, why do you want to read it? ☆ Are you going to join me? If you need help being convinced, does knowing it was a finalist for the Orange Prize assist you in deciding?

If you’ve already read Fingersmith, you can leave a link here and/or come back on August 10. Thank you all.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Thoughts American Gods by Neil Gaiman, HarperTorch 2002/orig pub’d 2001, 588 pages.

MOTIVATION for READING: Maree suggested on Twitter that we have a July read-along for this book. I’ve been meaning to read some of Gaiman’s adult fiction since I discovered that he is one of the true “author-rock-stars” – I had no idea such a concept existed (John Green is another; perhaps Jane Austen is in that category, too?) Challenge: Personal Year of Reading Deliberately. Disclosure: I purchased this paperback from the closest big box bookstore, Borders.

WHAT’s it ABOUT: A man just getting out of prison finds that the world he hopes to return to has been altered by tragedy. He quickly and unavoidably meets some extremely interesting characters and ends up getting involved with their troubles since he has nothing else to do.

WHAT’s GOOD/NOT so good: I was reading this during my 4th of July Holiday trip and when my cousin asked if it was good, I answered, “It’s so gripping!” She took the book to read the blurbs and sure enough – the USA Today quote on the cover says, “Powerful and gripping.” I concur.

I found Shadow, the protagonist, charming and rooted for him from the very beginning to the climatic end. His wife, however, I never trusted, which is OK. Actually, this only added to my respect for Gaiman and his story-telling character-developing skills. And yes, I guessed a few plot points and chuckled at a few contrived coincidences; I thought it all worked beautifully. VERY entertaining morality tale.

QUOTES:

“Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through their eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.” p.323

RATING: Four pie slices and an extra big bite.