Thursday Tea: The Wish List Edition

Thursday Tea is hosted by Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. Here's how it works: Tell us what tea you are drinking (and if you like it). And then tell us what book are you reading (and if you like it). Finally, tell us if they go together.



The Tea

This week I'm drinking Stash Tea's Orange Spice: It is a "blend [of] full bodied black teas from India, Sri Lanka and China, with the finest cinnamon from Sri Lanka and sweet California orange peel and orange oil. The result is a very aromatic tea that has the flavor of zesty orange and spicy cinnamon." This is one of my favorite teas, and I've been drinking it iced and unsweetened.

The Books

The Assessment

I am almost done with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and it is getting hard to turn off my MP3 player! The new issue of AudioFile magazine came the other day, and that got me dreaming of new audios. Here are the covers of just a few of the new releases that caught my attention. I've read at least one book by each of these authors, and I'm looking forward to more. I've already pre-ordered Catching Fire in print, but some of the others I may read with my ears instead of my eyes.

Orange spice iced tea is the way to go when sitting on the deck on an August evening, flipping through the magazine, and circling the books I want to read.

What new releases are you looking forward to reading in the next few months?

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Wordless Wednesday (August 12)

Sunflower

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

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Where Are You? / Teaser Tuesday: A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

New Orleans. Summer. Yellow fever. There are few of us who can escape the heat, and those of us who can are regarded with suspicion, with a touch of fear. I like the life of an iceman, and I like the slim Irish lass who shares my bed. The war's been over 14 years, but I still struggle with my sins. Then, yesterday, the letter was slipped under my door. Could I deny General John Bell Hood—the man I once wanted to murder—his dying wish?


For more Where Are You? answers, visit Raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading.


MizB at Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Here's how it works: Grab your current read; let the book fall open to a random page; and share 2 “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. For more teasers, click on through to MizB's blog.

But he was out of his mind and tore at the bedclothes I tried to draw over him. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled my face down to his so that those hard, blue, stone eyes were all I could see. They looked into me as if I'd stolen something and hidden it in my skull. (p. 18)

—Both from A Separate Country by Robert Hicks (to be published September 2009)

A Separate Country at an Indie

A Separate Country at Powell's
A Separate Country at Amazon

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Unfinished: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll

Summary: On the day after their wedding, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy travel to Pemberley to begin their life together. Elizabeth learns to manage the household, ride for the hunt, and throw a ball. Although the Darcys are the focal point of the novel, we also learn about the marriages of Jane and Lydia and a bit about Wickham and Darcy as boys. Other familiar characters make an appearance as well.

Why I Abandoned the Book: I listened to just over a third of this 22-hour audiobook before I called it quits. It isn't that the novel is so bad, it's just that it seemed to be going nowhere. The story alternated between blissful love scenes with the Darcys to several other plot lines involving Wickham, the Bingleys, a man servant, Darcy's ex-mistress, and others. Perhaps there were too many subplots, but I found it difficult to connect with the novel, and I had no clear idea of where the book was going. I think I ended up being a bit bored.

A Quick Look at Reviews: I checked several commercial book sites and book cataloging sites and discovered that Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife averages a 3.5-star rating. I found a few 5-star reviews in Library Thing: A couple of them mentioned that the plot does come together by the end, so it is possible that I gave up too soon. This book was also reviewed by Katherine at A Girl Walks into a Bookstore (2-star rating).

Note that I am not an Austen purist, and I normally enjoy the Austen spin-offs. For example, I liked the movie Lost in Austen (review here), I loved Clueless, and I loved the book Confessions of a Jone Austen Addict. I just didn't like Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. In case you're wondering, the audio was read by Rosalyn Landor, who did a nice job.

Question for my Readers: What Austen-inspired novels or movies would you recommend?

Published by Sourcebooks, 2004
ISBN-13: 9781402202735

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Movie Review: Lost in Austen

My first ever movie review. Let me say right up front that I'm not a movie connoisseur, and I really have no clue how to review a film. I am reviewing Lost in Austen as part of the Everything Austen Challenge hosted by Stephanie's Written Word.

From Netflix: After a dispute with her boyfriend, Amanda lands in the 19th-century world of author Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. While helping the Bennet sisters find husbands, Amanda accidentally causes problems that could alter the course of the tale. Throughout this British series, Amanda must balance her feelings for Mr. Darcy (Elliot Cowan) with her responsibility to the one of the world's greatest love stories. Jemima Rooper stars. [Made for UK television, 2008]

My Thoughts: This was fun movie for fans of Pride and Prejudice. I'm not sure how much it would appeal to viewers who do not know Austen's novel, but if you do know P&P and if you're familiar with some of the other film renditions (especially Colin Firth as Darcy), then you'll probably enjoy Lost in Austen.

The movie brings new insight to the novel as we learn the "true" stories and personalities of several of the familiar characters. Some of the scenes in which Amanda's 21st-century perspective and behavior slip out are funny, and the character of Caroline Bingly was particularly well played.

I recommend this alternative P&P for all Austen fans. Remember that Lost in Austen is supposed to be a takeoff on P&P not a faithful rendering. In fact, the humor is in the ways Amanda's actions threaten to disrupt the story line, and it's entertaining to predict how or if she will be able to set things right.

Here's the movie trailer for those who haven't seen it yet. EDIT: be sure to visit the link in Liz B's comment for a great scene that was left out of the DVD version of the movie.

The IMDb site has information about the actors plus some trivia and quotes.

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