I like interviews. I enjoy meeting people, and I enjoy the fun of discovery that comes from questions.
Recently I was asked if Grace, Ben and Josh would consent to participate in an interview. With some difficulty, the three of them were assembled in one place, and this is the result:
http://oneminutebooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-characters-make-you-feel-like-you.html
Here’s a link to a blog post by a young lady in Toronto who LOVES books, Kelsey Bhatia. She is vocally anti-electronic book. I keep trying to convince her, but she isn’t buying the concept. 😉 Yet.
See my response to her comments below her blog.
When I look around my house that is exploding with books, I know I have a problem. I have over a hundred books just ‘about’ in my living room within sight of where I type at this moment, and two shelves of cookbooks in the kitchen, stacks on the backs of the toilets in two bathrooms. There are two shelving units packed with books in the guest room, and 14 4′ long book shelves in my family room, 4 shelves in my craft/laundry room, and six 6 foot book shelf units in my office (where most books are laid in vertical stacks, in double layers), plus boxes and bags of my ‘class room library’ books in office and garage. Obviously, I love paper books, but I am so thankful that the e-reader is storing 60 books that don’t have to find a space for in my house! I hear that you can store well over 2000 books on a new generation Kindle, and that makes me very, very happy. An entire library in your purse, all the time. So far I’m fine with my Sony e-reader (despite my frustration that Grace Awakening is STILL not showing up on the Sony Store!)
In Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon has doctor Claire, make the following observation,
“So many you can never touch, so many whose essence you can’t find, so many who slip through your fingers. But you can’t think about them. The only thing you can do—the only thing—is to try for the one who’s in front of you. Act as though this one patient is the only person in the world—because to do otherwise is to lose that one, too. One at a time, that’s all you can do. And you learn not to despair over all the ones you can’t help, but only to do what you can.” (p. 815)
This applies for teachers, social workers, and Rotarians as well. We can’t save everyone, but we can make a difference where we are. One by one.
I was impressed with OneMinuteBooks’ review of Grace Awakening for a couple of specific reasons. Of course, I like that she’s enthusiastic in her praise, but specifically, I love that she GETS it.
She understands that since Grace is the narrator, the reader has only as much information as Grace does. (Well, they get a little more, as they get to peek in on those 3rd person mythic realm dialogues that Grace doesn’t know about). Yes. This is confusing. Yes. This was intentional. Yes. This means you are Grace, in all her confusion.
I like that the reviewer gets the mythical allusions, and understands the purpose behind not telling the reader straight out. Yes. You’re supposed to be smart enough to be able to look this up yourself (with the help of the glossary at the back). Yes. I expect that you are smart enough to figure out that there is another story happening, beyond the one that Grace knows about. Congratulations on discovering the puzzle pieces that Grace doesn’t understand! Reading between the lines and interpreting the additional clues take skill! Grace hasn’t figured it out. I’m glad when readers can! 😀
Once upon a time I was told “Grace Awakening is Twilight for intelligent girls.” I think this is true. Most people will get the surface story, but there is a lot more at play here than is apparent on the surface. It makes me happy when someone not only gets it, but actually appreciates that it’s there.
Followers of Athena, I salute you! This book was written for you!
Thanks Amanda for understanding what Grace is all about. After a couple of weird reviews this week when I suspected the reviewers hadn’t actually read the book, this gave me faith in the process again. Not everyone will get it, or like it, but there are more out there who do!
I’ve been reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series the last week or two. I got the first book from the BC e-book library service, loved it, put in requests for the next two, had to wait a couple weeks, got them, read 1800 pages in 4 days, and now I’m waiting for the next two books to come available. As I wait, I have to catch up on the basement clear out, because the moment they are on the e-reader, I will be travelling to other worlds for a few days.
My own family tree is firmly rooted in the South and West of England, and on Continental Europe (France and Prussia). There are no Scots in my lineage, but there are in my husband’s side. In fact, his father is the clan genealogist for the Clan Rattray. Their traditional lands are 20 miles north of Perth and Dundee (make an equilateral triangle, and you’ll find the family seat near Blairgowrie at Craighall Rattray). Some clan maps show them as a Highland clan and others as a Lowland clan, since it’s right on the border.
I wondered whether any of the ancestors had been at Culloden, and did some research. I discovered that the son of his great great great great great great granduncle James was John Rattray, a surgeon from Edinborough, was in fact at Culloden. Moreover, he was serving there as the personal physician of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Kind of makes the heart flutter.
Did I mention my husband is also called John?
Believe it or not, Dr. Rattray was a golfer. He won the world’s first golf tournament, was head of the world’s first golf club (it later became St. Andrew’s) and is a signatory to the creation of the official rules back in 1744. (see here) In a historical story that is almost comical (but certainly something that could have been in a Diana Gabaldon novel!) after being taken at Culloden, he was reprieved from the gallows by the intervention of a golf buddy- Lord President Duncan Forbes, Lord Culloden, himself.
The Rattrays are a sept of the neighboring Murray Clan (or allied with, but not actually a sept, according to some sources). On the other side of the bordering Murray land, are the Frasers. Around the time of Culloden, the Rattrays had just won back Atholl Castle from the Stewarts, so I suspect they weren’t on the best of terms. One wonders about the political initiatives that led to their involvement in the Jacobite uprising.
Knowing something of your family history brings the past alive. Knowing our people were there, doing this, brings an immediacy to events. It also makes a historical fiction seem even more possible.
Oh. There’s a stone circle at Craighall-Rattray, too.
Got goosebumps yet?
.
Lost wanderer,
head in clouds,
still travelling fictional roads
though the covers are closed.
Slowly moving through today,
heart heavy
from a world spun from words.
Fiction being truth,
when living between pages
for several days,
rousing reality
proves difficult.
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
Do you ever find yourself feeling something akin to culture shock when you emerge from several days of reading- reading book after book from a single series until the fictional world in your head is more real than the world your body habitates?
As you try to pull your head back from where it is still lost between pages, does your heart ache to be back in that place? Even while you’re full of knowing that the place exists only in your imagination, crafted from the imagination of another, do you feel it is yours as much as the creators, because you’ve journeyed together?
I have the same feeling coming home after a time abroad. Finding myself takes time. Good thing there is a waiting list for the next book in Diana Gabaldon‘s Outlander series. After reading 2 books (1800 pages) over the last 4 days, I’m quite emotionally exhausted.
When my high school English students are struggling to figure out the theme of a novel they are exploring, I always suggest that they take a good look at the title. Most of the time, the title distils the essential element of the story. This is certainly the case in each book of the Grace Awakening series.
Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this way. According to Poynter, in 1962 songwriter Johnny Mercer was asked whether lyrics or music begin the songwriting process for him. He replied,
First — the title. That encompasses the grand idea, the crux of the obsession, the thought; it all goes into that … that’s what hits first, that’s what’s way back in your mind brought together in sharp focus; the title hits like a bullet, and if it’s right, then you have it, all of it, ready to go, in a succinct package — all the crazy, unconscious groping has merged into something real. … A title sends me. Is it the title that comes first? Or is it all of the inside of you that has produced the title, and suddenly you recognize it, and you think there it is — and from there you go. When a title occurs — I have begun.
I have to say that when I began Grace Awakening, I had the feelings conveyed in youthful poetry and some nostalgia. I started writing about the feeling and imagining a scenario that went with it, but it wasn’t long before Grace introduced herself, and once she had, the title arrived soon after. The feeling scene that started the book was edited out rather early on, as Grace herself pulled the story in a different way than I originally intended, but from the first week, Grace awakened to herself, and her dreams held the key.
First let me say that I LOVE the cover of this book. I thought it was absolutely fantastic, and although I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the symbolism is (I get the green dress- but why the bubble?), I think it is a very powerful image.
I enjoyed this book. On Goodreads there are a lot of angry statements that it’s a rip off of The Giver. I appreciate the many comparisons to The Giver, but the oft-repeated statement that it’s a copy are unjust. While there are some similarities, I see more in common with Orwell’s 1984, Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, or the 1970’s move Logan’s Run. It’s dystopian literature. There are only so many ways to interpret the theme! A few concepts are going to overlap. I don’t hold that against Condie.
I like the protagonist, Cassia. I like her feisty nature and her thoughtful approach. She knows she’s good at things, and she isn’t humble about it. I like the logical development of her awareness and her conscience. I do think the impetuousness is going to cause trouble. It’s inevitable, otherwise there wouldn’t be more books coming, right?
I like Xander. I like the strong security of him. I like his unquestioning devotion. I understand the attraction of Ky, with his mysterious past and strange knowledge, but personally, I would say good-bye, think fondly of him, and stick with the steadfast spirit of devotion that Xander provides willingly. (That’s a Bright picking Jim kind of choice, I realise). I wouldn’t walk into the trouble that Cassia is going to get into because of Ky. But then, I don’t live in a dystopian novel.
Thankfully.
I belong to a YA reading group on Goodreads.com that had Hourglass by Myra McEntire as its monthly book in August. I really enjoyed this story of a teen who is fresh out of the psych hospital for hallucinating. She wasn’t hallucinating though, she was seeing through time bubbles. I love Emerson the protagonist- she’s sarcastic, feisty, and tortured. I enjoyed the time travelling component that came up toward the end of the book.
The characters in this book were well crafted and became very real for me. In fact, they became so real that as I read Hourglass, I had a new experience. I kept hearing echoes of my own characters, and I kept thinking how well Grace and Ben would love to hang out with Emerson and Michael. I could see them all taking on the bad dudes together. How cool would it be for Emerson and Michael to go back and visit Grace and Ben in one of their past lives? (There’s a project for some fan-fic writer).
I had never had that experience before, and it was quite fascinating. Emerson is tougher than Grace, but she shares the same bent for sarcasm and healthy doubt about the male in her world.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Very entertaining read, Myra McEntire! Thanks a lot!
Shawn L. Bird 
October 11, 2011
Tags: Diana Gabaldon, dragonfly in amber, postaday2011
I was amused by this passage in Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber, describing life in Britain.
Nineteen year old Brianna asks, “Why on earth would people deliberately make toilet paper that feels like tinfoil?”
“Hearts of oak are our men…stainless steel are their bums. It builds national character.” Roger replies. (p. 37)
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