Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
I read most of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus curled up on the divan under a fleecy blanket, nursing a steaming mug of milk tea. I was halfway through the book, work was cancelled because of the storm wreaking havoc through the metro, and the power was out, hence I finally got some much-needed quality reading time — my favorite kind! :p
I’ve had a copy of Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice for a couple of years now, and only remembered it last week, when I was digging through my shelves of TBR books for some books to read for Halloween. I remember I looked through a list of books that other Harry Potter fans were reading post-Harry Potter, and this book, the first in a series called The Wardstone Chronicles, came highly recommended.
I hadn’t planned on a Halloween theme for the 24-hour Readathon, but I got home late that day from seeing the Galeón de Andalucía at the South Harbor and had no time to pre-select books for the Readathon. Since the pile of scary books was already sitting on my desk, I just grabbed a bunch of them so I could sign up in the nick of time.
Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! The drumming sound was driving me crazy. Maybe it was a combination of the heat and the fact that I’d been walking frantically for the past half hour, but the faint drumming I’d heard as soon as I stepped into the used bookstore complex was getting louder by the minute.
I rounded the corner and found a bookshop I hadn’t noticed before, small and cluttered, with a labyrinthine arrangement of tall shelves. The Hindu storekeeper beckoned with a smile, so I ventured inside. Instantly, the drumming escalated into a frenetic rhythm: Pum-ba-da-bum-ba-da-pum-ba-da-ba-da-bum! Heart pounding, I backed into a shelf, causing a stack of books to fall on the floor in front of me. On top of the pile was book covered in snakeskin, with a strange word emblazoned on the cover: Shamanka.
If you’ve just “tuned in” to my blog, well, I’m a big Harry Potter fan (^_^), and I collect different editions of Harry Potter books, even in languages I can’t read. I haven’t counted recently, but I think I’m up to nearly a hundred different Harry Potter books (I know, I know, I owe the readers of this blog a nice long pictorial entry on my collection, but I am still scrounging for time to do that).
While my ultimate dream is the collector’s edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, I have resigned myself to the impossibility of that for the moment, so this is the next best thing (or so I try to tell myself).
It’s practically the same as the hardbound US edition except for the dustjacket, clothcover, and the front matter.
Here are the photos (because I know my Flipper friends have been waiting to see this!):
Harry
dust jacket with special Mary Grand Pre art
Spines
Red clothcover with gilt stars
brand-new frontispiece, also by Mary Grand Pre
Copyright page
My favorite part: an early sketch of Snape by J.K. Rowling
and a little intro by JKR
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuEAJFnMIjk]
***
My copy: hardcover with dustjacket
My rating: 5/5 stars
I read this book thinking it would be something to add to my BookMooch inventory, but I ended up liking it and now I don’t want to give it away.
I got it, hardbound, for P20 at Book Sale and from the summary it appeared to be a werewolf book so I decided to read it, and it turned out to be more of a historical novel.
Marius’ brother John Pierre is born on Christmas eve, and the people of Venyre believe he is marked with the curse of the loup garou — the werewolf– ad will one day unleash his evil in the village. With their mother dead and their father busy at his smithy, Marius is appointed as John Pierre’s guardian as the village keeps close watch for sinister changes in John Pierre.
One fateful winter turns their life upside down as the small village grows obsessed in hunting down the enemies of the Church, and Marius must gather all his courage to keep his family safe.
The eerie cover art confused me into thinking it was a paranormal story, but John Pierre doesn’t seem to show signs of lycantrophy; he just happened to be born under unlucky circumstances — superstitious beliefs dictated that a chiId born on Christmas Eve indicates he will grow into a werewolf (go figure). Instead, I found something better: a well-researched historical novel that homes in on an important lesson that the world seems to never learn: tolerance.
The novel is set in 16th century France, where the Protestants, known as the Huguenots, were persecuted, and hundreds of other “enemies of the Church” were executed, most of them accused of being witches, sorcerers or werewolves. The book vividly captures the tensions of this period from the point of view of innocent children caught in the middle and it’s quite poignant — the boys remind me of Crispin and Basilio in Noli Me Tangere, especially as the abusive clergy is one of the book’s themes.
The book’s one downside is that the story is left hanging at the end, and I wish I could read more. I am hoping the author writes a sequel, because there are very few well-written historical books for young readers, and even fewer on 16th century France for the YA genre.
***
My copy: hardcover with dustjacket, bought from Book Sale MCS
My rating: 4/5 stars
