I decided to start this new post series because in this blog there aren’t posts enough about books. Maybe it’s because lately I’ve been reading less* and I have to catch up.

Also I’ve decided to school myself in creative writing: reading the great novels, the classics. Of course if you read rubbish you learn what NOT to do, but why waste time on rubbish when there are whole bookshelves filled with classic literature? “Forcing” myself to this new series of posts I’ll be even more motivated to read at least one classic a month.

Yes, it’s my nightstand, all prepped and pimped just for the picture, but it’s really my nightstand, with bunnies and lanterns and all :)

For this first post I’ll simply go with some of the latest books I’ve read:

– Gods in everyman by J. Shinoda Bolen. I had already read and liked Goddesses in every woman, even though it is really tied to the period in which it was written (’68 and feminist movement), but this male chapter isn’t bad. At least it offers more facets on men personalities than the simple duality of Alpha male and Beta male (a topic I’ll have to write about more, in the future) offering different “role models”, if I may say so. But just like with some “goddesses”, Bolen’s preconcepts are strong and well visible. If the Juno or Persephone women weren’t really high on Bolen’s esteem, here any kind of male god is almost always pathological, with lots of problems relating to other people and most of all to women. I guess it was dr Bolen’s first hand experience, ok, mostly if contestualized in that period, but come on… There are also healthy men out there, luckily!

– Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. Well well well, if I had never read and loved “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffman nor “Chocolat” by Joanne Harris, it would have been a nice book to read in autumn, on the couch, with a hot cup of something to sip, a blanket and a cat if you have one. Sadly I’ve read and loved those books, so I couldn’t help but keep thinking this book was a copy-sum up of the other two. There are two great Mary Sue as protagonists (pretty, good hearted, a little outcast, with special powers, that end up with a cool family with the hottest guys in town…). It was a romantic magic realism that could be better.

– Peaches for monsieur le curé by Joanne Harris, it comes after The Lollipop Shoes, which comes after Chocolat. I have to be honest, it took me a while to get back in the atmosphere, it was quite hard, but then I was done with this in just a couple of lazy afternoons… I like to meet again characters I loved in other adventures, and most of all I like when, and this is the third book, things are never old nor repeated and you are still amazed. And Harris keeps your mouth watering for hot chocolate. I’m off seeing if I have some in the pantry!

– Steamed by Katie MacAlister: Sa gave me this as a birthday present, it was a novel I wanted to read for quite some times, yes, just because it’s steampunk-related, what can I do? Did I like it?So and so, it’s a love story, like the title says “a steampunk romance“, sadly I counted more on the steampunk part, that is present and enjoyable, but it’s like a nice decorative frame. Luckily the protagonist ins’t a complete Mary Sue, sadly the male protagonist is a Gary Stu (handsome, intelligent, adventurous, brave, a sex god). And he also has some stalkerish traits to me (ok, she looks like she’s really attracted by you, but she’s saying no, what the hell are you doing pinning her to the wall and running your hands and tongue all over her? You’re to report to the police!). And there are totally uncalled for sex scenes (and quite out of this world, ok your piratesque plan has an hour to waste, you can but wait, but the life of some of your friends is at stake and you can really be so ok to have sex? Whatever…). Overall the novel itself is quite ok, it was my fault: I was expecting more steampunk and less romance 😀

* I can already hear Sa say “You’ve been reading little? You read the entire Game of Thrones series, in english, in less than a month! You had more books in this summer suitcase than bathing suits!” Well, that IS little, and after all one serie by one author counts as one book U_U

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