newt's emerald

Garth Nix is one of my all-time favorite authors.  I have an entire shelf of his books in my living room (including one duplicate copy of Lirael, but who’s counting?).  I await each of his books with a sort of glee, because I *know* I’ll love them.  It was funny/shocking to realize that I’d somehow missed news of Nix’s Regency romance Newt’s Emerald.  It contains: a girl posing as a boy, adventures magical and mundane, and FUN.  It's also exactly what I asked for on my reading wishlist in January.

After the Newington Emerald is stolen at the height of a conjured storm, eighteen year-old Lady Truthful Newington goes to London to search for the magical heirloom of her house. But as no well-bred young lady can hunt the metropolis for a stolen jewel, she has to disguise herself as a man, and is soon caught up in a dangerous adventure where she must risk her life, her reputation... and her heart. 

Balancing twin roles as a young lady coming out in her first season and as an intrepid young man up against an evil sorceress isn’t easy, but Truthful has to manage it. Her father’s life and even the fate of England may depend upon her recovering the Newington Emerald!

Truthful Newington is a young lady of eighteen, and she is about to make her debut in Society.  You might think she lives in the Regency England so often co-opted as a setting by romance novelists like Georgette Heyer, but in fact her England is different: it contains magic.  When a famous family jewel (the Newington Emerald, don’t you know!) is stolen in the midst of a storm, Truthful sets out to recover the heirloom.  To do so, she’ll have to pose as her own (male) cousin.  Shenanigans ensue, mistaken identities abound, and all the adventure leads to the requisite happy ending.

Whether you’ve read romances for years or are new to the genre, you likely know that a happy (and romantic) ending is the norm.  Garth Nix doesn’t take any chances in that regard with this tale, but he does include rather more adventures than the traditional romance novelist.  The best fun, of course, is in playing with a cross-dressing female.  There’s more freedom of choice, movement, and even thought for the heroine when she can go about life as a man.  And Truthful, while not exactly meek or docile, worries about making a good impression and finding her feet.  Nix surrounds her with interesting people, and in (and out of!) her alternate identity as Hénri de Chevalier adventure soon breaks out. 

While I enjoyed the book as a frothy, fun read, my favorite bits tended to be about side characters like Lady Badgery (Truthful’s great aunt, who has hidden depths), Lord Otterbrook (a chance encounter), and the three Newington-Lacy cousins (young scoundrels all, in different ways).  I appreciated the book at novella length, but I wished for a bit more time with Truthful’s merry band of friends and family.  Though he describes Truthful’s stubbornness and the struggle keeping her double life alive very well, Nix’s writing is strongest in the action scenes, which mostly cluster toward the end of the book. 

On the whole, Newt’s Emerald is an amusing adventure wrapped in a mystery.  Its strengths are the setting, active writing, and secondary characters, though the central romance has its own delightful moments, too.  It’s the perfect introduction to Regency romance for aficionados of young adult fiction who may be unfamiliar with the genre.

Recommended for: fans of Georgette Heyer, Patricia C. Wrede, and Mary Robinette Kowal (and Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series!), and anyone looking for a few hours of pure reading fun.

top ten books to read if you liked shakespeare's the tempest

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.

Many of my fellow bloggers will have lists today that feature top ten books to read if you like a certain TV show or film.  I don’t watch much television, and my movie-going has tapered off as well.  What does that leave me?  I decided to put together a list of (mostly YA) books to read if you liked William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  I haven’t seen a theatrical production of this play in quite a while, but I remember loving the set, the actors, and the inexplicable magic of it.  So, here’s a list of books that evoked a bit of that enchantment, though they’re quite different from anything the Bard would have dreamed up.

Top Ten Books to Read if You Liked Shakespeare's The Tempest

1. Lisa Mantchev’s Théâtre Illuminata series – Mantchev uses all of Shakespeare plays to inspire a magical new story series focused on the adventures of heroine Bertie Shakespeare Smith, who may (or may not!) fall in love with Ariel from the original Tempest.

2. Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli – A mermaid tale based on a story in Homer’s Odyssey, featuring a shipwrecked sailor and his new island home.  The beautiful prose and heart-rending choices that the titular character must make have ensured that it’s one of my favorite retellings of all time.

3. Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley – The cover and summary of this one may suggest a simple retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but McKinley embroiders the tale and the characters find and create their own way.  It’s beautifully written magic.

4. Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange series – Livingston has played with Shakespeare’s characters and the land of fairies to create a modern, NYC-set tale full of immortals and supernatural creatures, with a healthy side of playacting.

5. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente – In this modern classic September discovers Fairyland for the first time.  She quickly makes new friends, runs afoul of the powers that be, and discovers several different kinds of enchantment.

6. Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint – A dark, urban fairy tale retelling that is notable for its bite and its beauty.  I ADORED it as a teen.

7. The Game by Diana Wynne Jones – Could any list of read-alikes for The Tempest be complete without one of Diana Wynne Jones’ magical, puck-ish characters?  I felt that this novella was the most… literary(?) of her works that I’ve read so far, and so it made the list. 

8. The Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw – A story that plays on themes of isolation, music, and magic, written by one of the original greats of children’s and YA literature.  Also, it received a Newbery Honor (so, it’s good!).

9. The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip – A small, isolated town on the sea is host to a grand old house which is not all that it seems.  The adventures that ensue are by turns fantastical and romantic.

10. Stardust by Neil Gaiman – Well.  If you haven’t read this one yet, just know that it’s about a journey from our land to another, it contains a Captain Shakespeare and his merry crew, and there’s quite a lot of murder (or at least murderous plans).

What books would you add to this list?  Or perhaps suggest a read-alike for another of Shakespeare’s plays!

death sworn

I own Leah Cypess’ two previous novels, but I never made a concerted effort to start reading them – they sit on my Kindle shelf for ‘someday’ off in the future.  ‘Someday’ wouldn’t work for her third book, Death Sworn.  No, I was bursting with excitement to read it the minute I heard about it.  I included it on a list of anticipated spring reads, for heaven’s sake!   Why?  A mage losing her magic + assassins.  *happy sigh*

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.

But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

Ileni was once hailed as the most powerful young sorceress in generations.  Now, she is losing her power day by day, minute by minute.  Since she is useless as a magical trainee, the Elders have sent her off on one last mission, to the caves of the assassins.  There she will try to hoard the last of her magic, fulfill an ancient bargain, and investigate the deaths of her two predecessors, who died under mysterious circumstances.  The fate of her world may rest on what she finds in those caves – if she doesn’t die first.

Among Ileni’s people, the Renegai, some magical power fades before adulthood and some stays forever.  Everyone is Tested early, and those who have lifelong power are trained to use their magic.  Ileni’s magic was supposed to be the lasting kind, but it is leaching away from her with every spell.  This set-up (where someone loses their power instead of discovering it) is very interesting.  The coping mechanisms that Ileni employs and the morass of her dark thoughts are extremely convincing.  Ileni is entering the realm of death (what else would you call a school for assassins?), but she also mourns her power so much that she lives as if she has a death wish.  Ileni's not a light or funny character, and she says and does some things that are less than likeable, but she’s real. Cypess hits her notes of despair, desperation and fearlessness perfectly.

Sorin is Ileni's match.  He's the young assassin assigned to guard and guide Ileni through her transition.  He’s been chosen for that role (and survived the caves at all!) because he's intensely loyal to the Master, and lives for his missions and to fulfill his training, even if it means his death.  When he and Ileni interact, there are sparks – but the kind that come from rock striking rock.  Little by little the two come to understand more about each other, but trust is in short supply in the caves, and it is not fed by the intrigue and death all around.

Of course, a story like this wouldn’t be complete without a twisty plot.  It revolves around the Master of assassins and the world outside the cave, which is split between the Empire (evil) and the non-Empire (ambiguous).  Although I enjoyed the story, I only experienced one true surprise.  That said, Death Sworn is an effortless read, and it was fun to see some ‘usual’ fantasy tropes turned on their heads.  Although there was a Sorin/Ileni dynamic I wouldn’t call it a romance (because it’s quite dark).  All in all, Death Sworn was a quick and enjoyable read.

Recommended for: fans of Kristen Cashore’s Graceling, and anyone intrigued (as I was) by the concept of a sorceress exiled to certain death in a school for assassins.  

cynthia’s banana bread

My grandmother is a reader, and I remember raiding her shelves during long summer afternoons at the lake house.  I also remember (and still experience!) her generosity with her reading: there were/are book-shaped packages at every birthday, Christmas, and sometimes in between.  But I think my greatest discovery was a book my Nana brought as her plane read on one visit sometime in the mid 1990s.  It was the first in Jan Karon’s Mitford series, At Home in Mitford.  I gobbled it up in a day or two and begged for more.  I adored that series (through book 5, at least)!  Looking back I must have been quite the picture: gawky teenager with terrible haircut reads voraciously about an overweight, 60-something priest in small town Carolina.  Those stories made me happy, though.

I hadn’t thought about Father Tim in years, but when I mailed myself all of the books that were under my parents’ stairs, I found a paperback set of the Mitford novels.  They’re on my shelf now, and up for discussion.  I wondered aloud at a recent party if a Mitford cookbook existed, because all I really remember at this remove are fantastic descriptions of food.  And upon checking the interwebs, my book club friends assured me that there was one.  I put it on hold, and dutifully picked it up at the library.  To be honest, I didn’t like the cookbook itself – it was badly organized.  HOWEVER.  This delicious banana bread recipe made the whole exercise worth it.  Oh my word, it’s good!  And in the land of funny coincidences, my Nana’s name is Cynthia.  So!  It’s Cynthia’s recipe, two times over.

Cynthia’s Banana Bread (modified slightly from Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader)

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (2%)

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 large, ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

2 tablespoons lemon zest (see note)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat a 9” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Place the sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the yogurt, lemon juice, bananas and lemon zest and beat well.  Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture in two batches, and stir until just blended.  Add the walnuts and mix again until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out fairly clean.  Don’t over bake!  Cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Note: The Mitford Cookbook introduced instructions for zesting a lemon unlike any that I have ever tried.  Using a vegetable peeler, peel the colored part of the peel and leave the bitter white pith alone.  Once you have a small pile of lemon peels, mince and measure.  There’s your zest! Two tablespoons ended up being the zest of one large lemon when done in this manner.

This. Banana bread.  Happy Easter to ME!  I don’t ever recall wanting to eat banana bread batter by the spoonful before… but this recipe did it.  I won’t ever switch back to anything else, because, YEAH.  Holy yum.

Recommended for: everyone.  It’s delicious.

Interested in other food-related posts?  Check out Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking!