The Anatomy of Ghosts-You Just Need to Read It!!

Yes that's right.  I'm telling you what to do ;)  This isn't my actual review of The Anatomy of Ghosts (that will be up in a few days).  This is just my OMGIJUSTFINISHEDITANDITSAWESOME!! post.  For real.

This is soooo up high on my favorite books read in 2010 list!  I already posted that list a few days ago because I didn't think I'd have the time to finish anymore books this year, but....I was up until the wee hours of the morning yesterday (er....this morning..) finishing The Anatomy of Ghosts.  And it is AWESOME.  It is a MUST-READ.  It is FABULOUS.  I think it comes out January 21st or something like that.  Go read it, because it's possibly my favorite book of 2010 (which is funny because it's actually not out until 2011....).

Just read it.  It's called The Anatomy of Ghosts, and it's by Andrew Taylor.

Starting the New Year off Right

Christmas and my loving family and friends have ensured that I will be starting off 2011 with plenty of books.  I received five books from my family for Christmas, and two gift cards to Barnes and Noble, thanks to my mom and Twin's boyfriend.  I'm still deciding which books to get with the gift cards.  Here are the wonderful books I received:

Three books from my Wishlist: (I always list about 5 books on my X-mas and B-day lists for my mom, and tell her to choose one or two.)

Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo



Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende




Letters from a Lost Generation: First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends by Alan Bishop




Then Little Sis bought me this one, which looks really good:
A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware



And Twin brought me this back from France, complete with excerpts from Last of the Mohicans.  And anyone who took Lit. of American Conflict with me and Mr. Perrelli my senior year of high school knows it's gonna be a riot to read in French.  Trust me, if you want a laugh, read Last of the Mohicans.  If you want to cry, watch the movie.
15 Westerns (by various authors, translated and compiled by Claude Appell and Yvonne Girault)
No photo because the book is from the 70s and she found in at the market ;)

Review: The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

This is going to be a very short review. For one, it's book 3 in a trilogy, and I don't want to give anything away about how the series ends for those of you who haven't yet read this book. I also don't want to give too much away about the two previous books because I know a few people who read this blog want to start reading the Gemma Doyle Trilogy (like Little Sis). So, here is the synopsis and review in a nutshell.

The Sweet Far Thing is the end of the much loved Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. I put off reading it for….3 years(?) because I loved the first two so much, and as many of you probably know, I hate finishing a really great series. Gemma at this point has been in England about a year, and it's been about the same time since her mother's death back in India. Her friends from the last two books are also in this one (Ann, Felicity, and my favorite, Pippa). Kartik, the mysterious young Indian man also reappears here. Gemma at this point has sole control of the Realms, or so she thinks. She has promised to share her powers with all the tribes in the Realms, but starts to doubt her own plans when the Realms' magic starts acting weird. Gemma and her friends will have to come face to face with whatever evil is lurking in their once peaceful world, putting themselves and the ones they love in danger. Will they succeed, and at what costs?

Once again, Libba Bray has not let us down. Her writing is beautiful and really captures the scenery of the countrysides and London's streets (and society life) back in the late 1800s. This book for me started a little bit slow, but I'm 100% positive that it's just because I read the last book like….3 or 4 years ago and was having issues for a little while remembering where I left off in the story. Once I refreshed my memory, the book went a lot faster and I couldn't put it down. I read the last 400 or so pages in one sitting.

I love how I could see the characters evolve. In a way, taking so long to finally pick up this last book helped me to see how much the main characters changed from the first book. I remembered their quirks and their faults, and slowly, as I read this, I saw the characters "grow up." Which, ya know, makes sense, because Gemma and Felicity are about to make their "debuts" to the queen in this book. They truly are becoming young women, and by the time the book ends, they definitely are grown up.

I, of course, bawled my eyes out during this book. I knew it was probably going to happen. I burst in to tears shouting "WHAT?! THAT CANNOT HAPPEN!!" and my mom started yelling at me because as she put it, "It's just a book. You shouldn't cry over a book." Which is funny, because all she does is read too. I replied, "BUT MOMMY, IT'S JUST SO SADDDDDD!". And she was like, "Oh."

So there, no spoilers. Except you know that I cried and that it is sad. PUHLEASSEEEE, if you've read this and want to chat with me about it, email me, or find me on Twitter. Because I was a bit in shock for about, oh….a week. I loved the book, and I understand why it ended the way it did. But still. Twin of course was still in France when I finished this, so I couldn't just call her up and be like "OMG we need to talk about this!" She loves these books too, and I remember her crying when she read in back in 2007 too.

I definitely recommend the Gemma Doyle Trilogy to all of you. Young Adult books are not usually what I choose to read, but these are so good that I barely noticed they were "young adult."
Oh, and sorry if this review is kind of not really much of a review and more just me and my train of thought explaining my reaction to the ending. I've now calmed myself down ;)

Some favorite quotes:
From The Rose of Battle, a poem by W.B. Yeats:
"Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.
Beauty grown sad with its eternity
Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea.
Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,
For God has bid them share an equal fate;
And when at last, defeated in His wars,
They have gone down under the same white stars,
We shall no longer hear the little cry
Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die."

Pg. 47 (Gemma as narrator): We take such pains to be polite.  We never say what we mean.  For all it matters, we could greet each other and speak only of cheese- "How was your Limburger, miss?"  "Salty as a ripe Stinking Bishop, thank you."  "Ah, very cheddar, miss.  I'll have your Stilton brought to your Camembert, then." -and no one would likely notice.
"Your grandmother waits for you in the parlor, miss."
"Thank you."  I cannot help myself.  "I'll see myself into the Muenster."
"As you wish, miss."
And there are are, though it is a pity my wickedness has been wasted with no one to appreciate it but me.
(I LOVE Gemma's wittiness.  She says the most hilarious things in this book, which can be embarrassing if you're reading it in public and start laughing out loud..)

Pg. 673: (Gemma and her brother, Thomas, arguing.)  His eyes widen.  "And you would take her part against me, your own blood?"
Blood is thicker than water.  That's what they say.  But in truth, most things are.

Title: The Sweet Far Thing
Author: Libba Bray
Date of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 832
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Source: Borrowed from a Friend

Wrapping up the Year

First, am I spelling "wrap" correctly??  I'm a bit braindead at the moment and it just doesn't seem like I'm using the right form of it..

2010 will soon be coming to an end, so I decided to look back on everything I read this year to try and pick some favorite reads of the year.  Boy was it hard.  Instead of picking one or two awesome books, I'm going to list a bunch of favorites that are definite must-reads (and rereads in the future pour moi).  I'm always surprised by how many books I read and truly adore, and then I remember that it's probably because I'm such a picky reader.  If I'm bored, I'll read anything, but for the most part I only read books that I REALLY want to read.

My Favorite Books of 2010 (links lead to reviews on my blog):

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (review coming tomorrow!)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke



The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Books of Pellinor (The Crow and The Singing) by Alison Croggon


Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk



The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters



I realize this is a really long list.....and there are still books that I had to leave off because I didn't want the list to be even longer.  If you want any good books to read next year, feel free to take some ideas from this list :) 

Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is a book I'd been dying to read for ages. I remember seeing my first review of it in the Buffalo News sometime back in 2009. After getting really sick of waiting for it to be free at my library, I finally decided to buy it. Of course it didn't help that I had a 50% coupon from Borders and bought a few other books with it..

This is my kind of book. It is creepy, and it is a ghost story. But it is different from a lot of ghost stories. It's about Dr. Faraday, a family doctor in a small town in England. He gets called one day to Hundreds Hall, an old manor that used to be gorgeous and always hosting lavish parties. Now, with the man of the house dead and the family fortune dwindling, the house is in disrepair, and so is the small family that still lives in it. Dr. Faraday is very welcome by the family, and soon he starts taking regular visits to the Hall. He and the family become very good friends. Then something strange starts to happen. Is the young, war-wounded son going crazy, or is there really an "infection" in the house, as he claims? As time goes by, things start to get even stranger, and the story starts to unravel with a possibly disastrous end.

The plot of The Little Stranger was brilliant and kept me really captivated. We only get little "glimpses" of the house's weird events throughout the book, so you want to keep reading and reading. The title hints that the house is haunted by a little girl's spirit, and that's originally what I thought it was about too. Though some of the characters think that the ghost might be a child who died years ago in the house, we as readers never see the ghost, if there even really is one.

Which brings me to another thing I really loved about the book. Is there really a ghost? We never see it, Dr. Faraday never sees it. But there is a feeling in the house that is unmistakable. Some of the characters wonder if the house itself is what's haunting the family. The house has fallen so much from it's former glory, and the characters struggle daily with its upkeep. They hide strong feelings of resent. Could the energy of the family's pent up anger and frustration be bringing the house to life? It's something to think about, and something you won't be able to solve when the book ends.

I loved the setting of The Little Stranger. It takes place in the English countryside just after World War II. The family is struggling with what I'm sure many former elite families were really dealing with at the time. They have lost the family fortune and are now struggling to find their place in a new society that is nothing like their former lifestyle. I'm very interested in this change in English society and might be reading up more on it in the future.

Sarah Waters is an impeccable writer. I started reading The Little Stranger on Halloween because I was in the mood for a subtle yet bone chilling read, and this definitely did it for me. Her descriptions of Hundreds Hall are enough to make me not want to go there.  Here is one of them:

Pg. 5: "My heart began to sink almost the moment I let myself in to the park. I remembered a long approach to the house through neat rhododendron and laurel, but the park was now so overgrown and untended, my small car had to fight its way down the drive……The house was smaller than in memory, of course-not quite the mansion I'd been recalling-but I'd been expecting that. What horrified me were the signs of decay. Sections of the lovely weathered edgings seemed to have fallen completely away, so that the house's uncertain Georgian outline was even more tentative that before…."

This book was filled with descriptions like that one.

One thing I noticed in the book that interested me but I don't recall seeing in other reviews of it was Dr. Faraday's relationship with Hundreds Hall. To me, he seemed to almost because a little bit obsessed with it. He wanted to live in it with the family, and he didn't want the family to leave it even though it seemed like the house was slowly consuming them. Could it be because he grew up poor and worked hard to become a doctor, and he was so close to being one of the "elite class"?  He struggles with his feelings about his social "status" a lot throughout the book.

I really loved this book, and its ending. It was a shocker, but not a total shocker. More like a "oh no you didn't!" sort of thing, where you knew it was probably going to happen, but were still shocked that it did happen. This is going down as one of my favorite reads of 2010, and you should also go read it if you haven't already! If you read The Little Stranger, what did you think of it? My mom liked it, but thought it was very "disturbing". I understand what she means, but I think I love the book because it's disturbing.

Some quotes:
Pg. 170: "It can do what it wants to me.  For so long as I can keep it, you see, in my room, I can contain the infection.  That's the vital thing now, don't you agree?  To keep the source of the infection away, from my sister and my mother?"

Pg. 277: "'That girl Brenda I met tonight: I don't much like her, you know.'
I said, 'You don't?  I'd never have guessed.  You greeted each other like long-lost sisters.'
'Oh, women always go on like that.'
'Yes, I've often thought it must be exhausting to be a woman.'
'It is, if you do it properly.  Which is why I so seldom do...'"

Title: The Little Stranger
Author: Sarah Waters
Date of Publication: 2009
Number of Pages: 528
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

A Christmas Carol Read-a-long: Stave 2

I read Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol in one sitting because I just could not put it down.  It covers Scrooge's visit by the first spirit.  I once again loved Dickens' writing style, and he was able to capture Scrooge's emotions beautifully.  I really loved Scrooge's confusion when he first wakes up and then hears the clock going off.  And what I really, really loved was getting a glimpse into hard, mean Scrooge's past, when he was a nice, joyful child and young man who enjoyed Christmas and being with friends and family.  With each glimpse of Christmases past, we see how Scrooge is slowly sinking into his greed and isolation.  I think I'm with Sheery in feeling that losing his Belle, the woman he loved, was probably one of the last straws before he became who he is in the present story.  It's sort of like losing his good friend in life, he lost all connection with the outside world and lost himself in his greed.

One of my favorite passages is when the first spirit shows him his last encounter with Belle:
"Our contract is an old one.  It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry.  You are changed.  When it was made, you were another man."
"I was a boy," he said impatiently.
"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she returned.  "I am.  That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two.  How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say.  It is enough that I have thought of it, and can release you."
"Have I ever sought release?"
"In words.  No.  Never."
"In what, then?"
"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end.  In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight...."

I never would have thought that Dickens could write such heart-wrenching words.  As I read this, I could really feel what Scrooge's poor fiancee was going through, giving up the man she once loved and had hoped to have a long and happy life with.  (Mind you, I'm sometimes a sucker for a good sappy and heart-breaking love story..)

I'll be posting my thoughts on Stave 3 later this week :)  For more info on the read-a-long, or to read what others have to say about A Christmas Carol, stop by Sheery's blog.

Literary Blog Hop: Favorite Poem (In which I rave of Arthur Rimbaud)

Oh admit it.  You all knew it was coming.  This week's question is "What is your favorite poem and why?"  Seeing as my blog's name is Kelly's FRANCE Blog, you must have guessed it would be a French poem.  By none other that Arthur Rimbaud, by literary love and obsession and crush.  I seriously get teary-eyed sometimes when I read about him and how he really was taken from us too soon :(

Anyway, a little introduction here.  The Literary Blog Hop is a wonderful new hop started by the lovely ladies over at The Blue Bookcase.  If you consider your blog to be "literary", stop by their site and start hopping too! 

My favorite poem by Rimbaud is a poem called "Ma Bohème" ("My Bohemia" in English).  I'll post it first in French and then in English :)

Ma Bohème
(Fantaisie)

Je m'en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevées;
Mon paletot aussi devenait idéal;
J'allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'étais ton féal;
Oh! là là! que d'amours splendides j'ai rêvées!

Mon unique culotte avait un large trou.
-Petit-Poucet rêveur, j'égrenais dans ma course
Des rimes.  Mon auberge était à la Grande-Ourse,
-Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou

Et je les écoutais, assis au bord des routes,
Ces bons soirs de septembre où je sentais des gouttes
De rosée à mon front, comme un vin de vigueur;

Où, rimant au milieu des ombres fantastiques,
Comme des lyres, je tirais les élastiques
De mes souliers blessés, un pied près de mon coeur!

My Bohemia
(Fantasy)

I went off, my fists in my town pockets;
My overcoat too, became ideal;
I walked beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your liege;
Oh ho! what splendid love affairs I dreamed of!

My only pair of trousers had a wide hole.
-A daydreaming Hop o' My Thumb, I strung out rhymes
As I went along.  My inn was on the Big Dipper.
-My stars in the sky had a sweet rustling

And I listened to them, as I sat by the roadsides,
Those good September evenings when I felt drops
Of dew on my forehead like a heady wine;

When, rhyming amid the fantastic shadows,
Like lyres I pulled the elastic bands
Of my wounded shoes, a foot close to my heart!

Not the greatest translation out there, but it'll have to do.  This poem has so much meaning, especially if you've studied his life.  Rimbaud spent time living the "Bohemian" life on the road, with poet Paul Verlaine, his lover.  It was a great time in Rimbaud's life, but also not really..Verlaine had a lot of outbursts and tried shooting Rimbaud once (Verlaine went to prison).  This poem captures the beauty and happiness of being outdoors and living the Bohemian lifestyle.  And I heart it. 

Other poems that I could have mentioned include Le Bateau Ivre (The Drunken Boat) by Rimbaud, and a poem I memorized when I had my French Honors Society Ceremony thing and had to read it aloud: L'Automne by Lamartine.  But Ma Bohème always strikes a chord within me, so I chose to talk about that one :)  The translation of it really won't ever do it justice because in my opinion, if you're reading Rimbaud in English, you're just not getting the full meaning of his words.  But that's just my two cents ;)

And now a photo of him.  I feel weird saying this because I'm now 21, and he was probably 15 or 16 when this photo was taken, but how adorable is that face?!

I'm so happy to be back on the Literary Blog Hop!  I havent' had time to participate the last few weeks, and I really wanted to.  There were some great discussion questions :)

2011 South Asian Challenge

I've been wanting to get more "worldly" with my reading and planned on reading some books by South Asian authors next year anyway, so why not sign up for one more challenge..  For more info on it, or to sign up yourself, please visit S. Krishna's Books.  It's a wonderful blog that I read daily, and Swapna reviews a ton of different books, many of which I've never heard about until reading her reviews!
I will be doing the South Asian Explorer Level, reading 5 books by South Asian writers.  I haven't chosen my books yet but I'm really excited to start reading for this challenge!