The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

The Vintner's Luck is the story of the relationship between a human and an angel. In 1808, Sobran Jodeau is a young vintner who steals two bottles of the family wine and wanders off into the vineyard one night with the intention of drowning his first real sorrow in drunkenness. He literally stumbles into the angel Xas, who catches him as he falls. They spend the night discussing Sobran's rejection and agree to meet again at the same place the following year. Xas has an appetite for earthly pleasures and this meeting, between human and angel, becomes an annual event that develops into a relationship that intensifies causing much joy and sorrow.

I must say up front that I struggled during most of the book with what I considered a theological affront. The God that Knox presents is not inherently good and neither is Lucifer inherently evil; there is really very little to recommend one over the other. God and Lucifer are immortal beings focused on their own eternal battle. They maintain a remote existence from humanity while using the angel, Xas, as a pawn. This does create an empathy, especially for Xas. It is this empathy, and my own pursuit of the deeper questions underlying the story that kept me reading this book. Oh, and the writing. Gorgeous.

The writing is at once lush and succinct, and left me both dazzled and sometimes confused. I had to work hard to determine the meaning of some passages and even then they were sometimes elusive leaving a "cloudy" spot. I like the way Memory, in her review, describes Knox's writing as "rarely transparent."

The Vintner's Luck is much more than a moving story written beautifully. It is deeply spiritual and delves into the very nature of love and hatred, of good and evil ... with an intensity that made me cry at times. What does it mean to be fallen? To be redeemed? To be rejected? To be loved? How very painfully these things seem to intertwine sometimes.

So, did I like the book? I am aware that my thoughts might seem a bit conflicting without a clear answer to this question. I will say that I was both repulsed by and drawn to this story. The author was able to get under my skin and move me. I sat about thinking for hours after reading this book. These are good things. *smile*

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Jamaica Inn is a wonderfully atmospheric book with plenty of Gothic elements, and I do so love Gothic! The opening scene of the 1939 Hitchcock movie version of Jamaica Inn, all dark and stormy and eerie, was in my mind as I picked up this book hoping for something with "mood" and setting. I was not disappointed as you can see by this wonderfully "gray" opener:

"It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the pallour of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold ..."

A "mizzling rain." I'm not even sure what mizzling is, but it sure does bring up an image in my mind.

The story takes place in the early 1800s on the Cornish coast. The main character is Mary Yellan, a strong willed and independent young woman who promises her dying mother that she will sell the family farm and go to her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn. Mary's mother is afraid that it will be too hard for a single woman to maintain the farm and wants an easier life for her daughter. Mary honors her mother's dying wishes even though she would really like to stay near her sunny, friendly village and farm the family property.

Mary has only met her Aunt Patience once and remembers her as a vibrant, vivacious woman. The woman she finds when she arrives at Jamaica Inn, on a cold and stormy night, is not even recognizable. Aunt Patience is a shell of a woman, frightened of her own shadow. Uncle Joss is a big, mean man radiating evil intent. Jamaica Inn is in a state of utter decay and, despite its position on a main road, has no traveling customers. All of the locals know it as an evil place and coach drivers hurry past without stopping.

There are plenty of mysterious midnight goings-on that Mary has been warned to ignore. Of course, you can't have a heroine that ignores mysterious midnight goings-on! Mary soon learns that there is true evil and what that evil can look like. I can't tell you more about that without seriously spoiling the story, so you will just have to read it. *smile*

There is a romance within the story that took me by surprise. Mary is attracted to Jem, the proverbial "bad boy." Jem, a horse thief, is the younger brother of Uncle Joss and Mary is wary of her feelings for him. After all, he is a Merlyn man. Again, I can't tell you more about this without spoilers. I will tell you that I was a bit surprised at the way this aspect of the story resolved and I'm not sure what I think about the way the book ended.

I particularly enjoyed the setting and the contrast the author creates between the sunny village of Mary's childhood and the stormy, windswept moors and stark coastline of Jamaica Inn. The decay and lurking evil are palpable. The characters are much like the physical settings. Mary has a sunny disposition and radiates confidence and an inner happiness, while the other characters are dark and display an inner decay.

I loved the character of Mary Yellan. I liked her strength and independence. It is rather odd to have such an independent woman for the time period of the story; perhaps this was a bit of 1930s seeping in through the author. Still, even with the disconnect, the strength of this character kept the story from becoming depressing.

This book is definitely a keeper that I will read again in the future. I'm looking forward to watching the old Hitchcock version again, now that I've read the book, so I can compare!

Jamaica Inn was my selection for The 1930s Mini-Challenge hosted by Nymeth at things mean a lot and one of my selections for the Daphne du Maurier Challenge hosted by Chris at Book-A-Rama.

Grandville by Bryan Talbot

This book was SO much fun to read! How's that for an opening? I don't usually gravitate toward graphic novels and often find graphics amidst words a bit distracting, so I was rather surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'm not an experienced graphic novel reader and can count the number of reads in this format on one hand. Yeah, a real newbie. I also have no experience reviewing the format ... but I'll try.

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw Grandville at the bookstore was the cover art. Very appropriate for a graphic novel I would think. Of course, it didn't take me long to note the subtitle: A Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard Scientific-Romance Thriller. Now that just sounds cool ... a detective inspector, Scotland Yard, and scientific-romance thriller ... with the Eiffel Tower and dirigibles on the cover no less. Yup, definitely cool. Then I opened the book and fell in love. The graphics. Oh my, the graphics. I have no idea how to objectively judge graphic novel art, but I can judge it subjectively. Kind of like my skill at judging wine. If I like it, then it's good *smile*. So, please keep this in mind as you read my comments.

OK, back to the graphics. The colors are bold and the artist appears to consider color in matching the mood of the scene presented. Some frames use a warm tone, like this one:

Other frames use cool tones, like this night time rooftop frame:


I love the depictions of an English village. You might be able to see the character mowing his lawn in the yard across the street:

I was enamored by all the details. Grandville has plenty to look at and deserves extra time in order to notice those details. I'm assuming that the artwork in a graphic novel should be a major part of the storytelling but I have seen some that do not seem to follow this rule, so perhaps that is just my preference. Either way, the artwork in Grandville is definitely a part of the telling.

Another thing that stood out to me was the way the artist captures action. Wow! The frames practically move. You've really just got to see it for yourself. I don't think I can adequately describe it to you using words

You might be wondering about the story. The story is fairly simple, but it kept me wondering what would happen next. I see that as a positive sign. The setting is an alternate history that, as alternate histories do, takes liberties with the timeline of real history. Interestingly, it is sometimes inconsistent with its own created history (e.g. Britishisms? Scotland Yard? Really? Even though Napoleon conquered Great Britain? Oh well, it was still charming.). The characters are primarily anthropomorphized animals with very few human characters even appearing. The few humans that do appear are referred to as "doughfaces" and don't seem to be full citizens in Talbot's world. An interesting twist. LeBrock is a badger ... and just wait until you meet the mole! I just loved the mole. I'm a fan of Victoriana and steampunk and truly enjoyed seeing the artist's depictions of these elements. The author's use of current terrorism concerns was interesting. Social satire? I'm not sure if he was poking fun or if he was letting his politics hang out. Just. Not. Sure.

Re-readability? I'll be reading this one a second time just to revisit the art.

Above graphic from Sequel to Bryan Talbot's Grandville Gets a Synopsis

Author website: Bryan Talbot

See what other bloggers have to say:
Shanra at LibriTouches

Have I missed your review? Leave me a link in the comments and I'll add yours.

A Non-bookish Post

Since I still haven't written any book reviews to share with you, I thought I'd share some food thoughts instead. Food is indeed the next best thing to books ... right? *smile*

Have you ever had cucumber water? No ... really ... hear me out on this one. Some restaurants serve a slice of lemon in their water, but there is a bistro near my house that serves it with a slice of cucumber. I know it sounds weird, but it really is good (unless, of course, you despise cucumbers). I like it so much that I decided to make up a pitcher here at home. I sliced four very thin discs off of the cucumber (wash first and leave the skin on) and tossed them into a 2-quart pitcher. I let it sit for about an hour in the refrigerator before serving into a glass with ice and another thin slice of cucumber. You might like it with either more or less cucumber.

Summer is the season for berries and we are having an excellent strawberry year here in California. I went to the farmers market this week and came home with all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables. Here are the strawberries I brought home; all sliced up and ready to eat.


They are so sweet this year that they don't need any sugar sprinkled over them.

Do you have any foods you especially like to eat in the summer? Are you having a good summer fruit year where you live (those in the Northern Hemisphere)? Do you grow any of your own fruits and vegetables? Do you have a farmers market near you?

Blogroll Update

I haven't been keeping up with the maintenance of the blogroll on my sidebar, but I finally sat down and did a little updating. I added some book blogs and, hopefully, I included yours!

If I missed you, please let me know.

How Goes the Book Weeding?

You might remember, if you visit here often, that back in May I wrote about my need for some book sanity. Specifically the need to weed my collection. I've been working on this since January and since then I've found out that I'm not alone! Many of you have been trying to keep up with TBR collections or, like me, just trying to get the whole down to a more manageable size for the space allotted. I've made some good progress, but I'm getting to the point where it is going to become more difficult because I've gone through almost the entire collection and weeded out the obvious (don't have an interest anymore, will never read again, etc.).

So far (January through June):
Books out = 203
Books in = 60 (really, I couldn't help it!)
Net books out = 143

How are your weeding efforts coming along? Are you making progress? Staying even? Increasing the collection?

Update to yesterday's post:
After I posted yesterday, I realized that I didn't mention the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Bellezza. I've committed to read one book before January 30, 2011. Yes, I can do this! I didn't create a list this year, but will probably read Real World by Natsuo Kirino. Of course, I could pull something from last years reading list.

June 2010 Wrap Up

What happened to June?? It went by so quickly! I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted to (sighs), but I did get some projects done around the house (smiles).

What I read this month:
Like the Flowing River, Stories 1998-2005 by Paul Coelho
Lord of Emperors (Book Two of the Sarantine Mosaic) by Guy Gavriel Kay
Beautiful Maria of My Soul by Oscar Hijuelos
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
Soulless by Gail Carriger

What I started reading in June that will carry over into July:
Elfland by Freda Warrington

Bits of interest:
Freda Warrington is apparently known in the UK, but is just now making it to the US. I'm not sure how I stumbled on this fantasy title, but I'm glad I did. You can check out this title at the publisher here. It is worth a look just to see the gorgeous cover art by Kinuko Y. Craft. Check out her artwork here. I'm hoping to stumble upon a bookmark with her artwork on it some day.



Challenges:
I still need to write a review of Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier which I read for Nymeth's 1930s Mini-Challenge. This challenge ends July 18th, so I've got a couple of weeks. At least the book is read!

I have yet to read a book for the Women Unbound Challenge hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva. This challenge ends November 30th, so I haven't run out of time to complete this one either. You can see my list of potential reads here. Have you read any that are on my list?

Goals:
I hope to do a better job in the second half of the year with writing and posting reviews for the books I read. It would be a bit more social of me if I'd actually share my thoughts with you!

Update to post:
After I posted and this lovely bit went out to your readers, I realized that I didn't mention the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Bellezza. I've committed to reading one book before January 30, 2011. Yes, I can do this! I didn't create a list this year, but will probably read Real World by Natsuo Kirino. Of course, I could pull something from last years reading list.