waiting on wednesday (59)

Today I’m participating in "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Its purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

YOUNG ADULT SCI-FI, GET AT ME.  Wait, too much?  *grin*  I made it one of my goals for 2013 to read more YA sci-fi, and since science fiction is apparently 'the next big thing' I can see this trend stretching into the next few years.  That's great news because there's already some fantastic-looking YA sci-fi on the horizon in 2014, including this title by Mindee Arnett.  The gorgeous cover and fantastic summary remind me a bit of A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix and Dom Testa's Galahad series.  I'm all in.  Avalon will be released on January 21^st, 2014 by Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins).

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light. 

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

What books are you waiting on?

top ten first lines in my favorite fantasy books

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we all get to exercise our OCD tendencies and come up with bookish lists.  If you’d like to play along, check out this post.

This week’s list is basically a top ten of my favorite fantasy books and the first lines from those favorites.  I’m not a meticulous record-keeper or sentimental reader. What I mean is, I know the stories that I love beyond reason, but I’ve never kept a journal of awesome quotes or perfect first lines, and I don’t really swoon over prose except as part of a whole book.  It's not an original list, but here, have it anyway!

Top Ten First Lines in My Favorite Fantasy Books

1. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente – “Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog.”

2. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – “In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.”

3. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley – “She scowled at her glass of orange juice.”

4. Sabriel by Garth Nix – “The man looked at the child again and sighed.”

5. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – “She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.”

6. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal – “The Ellsworths of Long Parkmead had the regard of their neighbours in every respect.”

7. Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey – “Her eyes were so sore and swollen from weeping that she thought by right she should have no tears left at all.”

8. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater – “It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.”

9. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis – “It was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.”

10. Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton – “Bon Agornin writhed on his deathbed, his wings beating as if he would fly to his new life in his old body.”

What are some of your favorite first lines in books? 

tooth and claw

You know that fizzy feeling of happiness and completion when you finish a really good book, one that you know you’ll read again and again?  That.  I have it.  I’ve just read a smart, scathing comedy-of-manners, complete with status-obsessed mothers, impoverished young relatives, flighty males bent on spending their way through the family fortune… and DRAGONS.  Yes, this book and I were made for each other.  Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw is freaking brilliant.

A tale of love, money, and family conflict—among dragons. A family deals with the death of their father. A son goes to court for his inheritance. Another son agonizes over his father's deathbed confession. One daughter becomes involved in the abolition movement, while another sacrifices herself for her husband. And everyone in the tale is a dragon, red in tooth and claw. 

Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses… in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which the great and the good avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby. You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw. 

Family patriarch Bon Agornin is dying, and his surviving children are gathered at his deathbed.  There is the cleric Penn, the married and self-satisfied elder sister Berend, the younger brother Avan, making his way in the world, and two younger sisters (Selendra and Haner) still living at home.  Their father’s death and bequests will change their comfortable world completely, and each of these dragons will find the future a rather dangerous unknown.

Others have described this book as Jane Austen, but with dragons.  I agree to a point.  Walton meticulously describes the familial scene and conflicts, within a larger, hierarchical society influenced by politics, connections, and acting in accordance with propriety and tradition.  However, Walton is not winking at the reader with caricatures from her own time as Austen did.  She’s taken the tropes of the Victorian novel and changed the essential biology and beings in play, making for a complex, wryly funny mash-up of genre.  It’s all beautifully written, too – I couldn’t put the book down.  Oh, and it’s just fun!

Of course, it’s not all ideas and power struggles – there’s a great story, too, with bits and pieces from different locations interweaving into a whole.  The action follows the siblings as they leave their father’s home, but there’s more focus on Selendra’s story arc than the others’, and her course is full of treasure, romance, close escapes and spirit.  I fell in love with most of the characters, but Selendra was my favorite (as she’s meant to be).   I don’t think I’m spoiling anything when I say that the reader is left satisfied at the end, as anyone reading a proper Austen novel would be, though there are moments when you can’t see how it’ll turn out right.

In all, Tooth and Claw is a clever, entertaining, and elegant little fantasy novel, and it fit this reader perfectly.  It’ll definitely be on my ‘best of 2013’ list at the end of the year.  Many thanks to The Book Smugglers for the recommendation!

Recommended for: fans of fantasy, those who like unusual and interesting plays on genre, and anyone who feels a spark of interest at the thought of a Seraphina/Pride and Prejudice mash-up.

rosé under fire

When you get a lot of people who are passionate about young adult books together socially, amazing things happen.  My DC Forever Young Adult book club (associated with the ever-hilarious FYA site) usually meets once a month, but this summer we’ve been getting together much more often as part of a YA authors vs. YA readers scavenger hunt.  Last weekend one of our activities was a cocktail mix-off/showdown between the two teams.  My team (the readers. and of the readers, mostly Catie.) came with one YA-related drink recipe in hand, which we called the Rosé Under Fire (after Elizabeth Wein’s Rose Under Fire, obvi).  Friends, it’s pretty AND delicious.  And it won that round!

Rosé Under Fire (adapted slightly from a Creative Culinary recipe)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 ounces silver tequila

1 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce rich simple syrup (two parts sugar, one part water)

2 ounces rosé sparkling wine (we found a sparkling rosé moscato!)

Lemon twist for garnish

Strawberry for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Fill a Collins glass with ice (we used Mason jars, because we’re classy like that). 

Put the tequila, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously.  Open the shaker, add the sparkling wine (do not shake!) and strain into the ice filled glass.

Flame a twist of lemon (hold peel between two fingers, light a match and bring close to the peel without touching it, let spark and then blow out the match), and then run it around the lip of the glass.  Drop into drink when done!

Note: Flaming the lemon may seem a little crazy, but it smells great and heats up the oils in the peel, so when you then rub it on the lip of the glass you get tiny taste of fiery lemon.

Making the simple syrup a day or two before will simplify this drink to the point of ‘too easy not to make it.’  I recommend going that route.  The end result is a fun little drink that has lovely notes of berry and citrus, and if you can’t imagine the tequila and wine together, don’t worry – it works!  It’s a tiny bit like sangria, but mostly just refreshing and lightly sweet.

Recommended for: a simple, summery cocktail to make for yourself or share with friends on a warm evening.

Interested in other food-related posts?  Check out Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking.