Once again, I am planning to take part in Carl’s Once Upon a Time Challenge. My plan is to explore Quest the Fourth, wherein I commit to reading five books that fall within the genres of fairy tales, folklore, mythology, and fantasy. Then I will follow that up with an early June reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In addition to the Shakespeare, I hope to choose from:

Kristin Cashore’s Graceling
Michael Scott’s The Sorceress
Homer’s The Odyssey
Arabian Nights
Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Rick Riordan’s The Last Olympian
Shannon and Dean Hale’s Rapunzel’s Revenge
Susan Cooper’s Greenwitch
Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember
Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men
Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Got any other suggestions? Or recommendations from the list above? I’ve got until Midsummer’s Eve to finish reading them all.

I’m writing from a coffeeshop near my MiL’s house, where I have a view of outside. Roughly every five minutes the weather changes. Right now, for instance, it’s sunny, but there is an ominous sheet of clouds overhead. Just after I arrived a few hours ago, it began sleeting. There have been snow showers — several an hour — and a little bit of misty rain, as well. However, nothing sticks to the ground and because Salt Lake is a desert, the pavement dries quickly. I hope Rudi’s weather up in Park City involves less rain and more snow for his skiing adventures.

I know I promised you book reviews, and it’s still possible I’ll write them this weekend. But I’m just not feeling the love at the moment. All three books I’m behind on posting — The Help, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and Shades of Grey are each deserving of a thoughtful review. I don’t want to rush them. But I also know that the longer I wait to write them up the more I’ll forget of the nuances of each novel, so I’ll try to get to them soon.

Just for tonight, I’m skipping post 2010.7, which talks about The Help, because it was just too good to allow my review to go out as is. In the meantime, I offer you the book I read for the first half of my California trip:

Austenland, by Shannon Hale

From the jacket: “Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man — perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths to her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined. Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?”

My take: In this cute tale of a woman so caught up in her fantasy life that she’s unwilling and increasingly unable to focus on her real life, Jane is a graphic designer living the modern fairy tale life in New York City. Except she can’t find her Prince Charming, or in her case, Mr. Darcy as portrayed by actor Colin Firth.

An eccentric but sharply aware great-aunt dies, willing Jane a trip to an Austen immersion “camp” in England. Arriving, Jane is told to hand over her iPod and cell phone and is assigned Regency-period clothing, schooled in old-fashioned social niceties, and introduced to an estate’s worth of actors and guests designed to make her feel as if she’s stepped right between the covers of Pride and Prejudice.

Adventures and misadventures ensue as Jane compares her past “dating” disasters with the eligible men with whom she is role-playing: young Colonel Andrews, the second son of an earl; Mr. Nobley, a dashing but brooding gentlemen; and Martin, playing the part of Theodore the gardener, with whom she’s supposed to have no contact.

The book isn’t high art and isn’t as accomplished as the young adult fiction that Hale is best known for. But it’s a good romp, particularly if you’re an Austen fan or if you’ve ever fallen in love with a character straight off the page or screen.

Pages: 196

I forgot to post this last Saturday, so caught up in the snow was I. Conveniently, I didn’t finish anything new this week, so it won’t be overshadowed by anything else.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco S. Stork

From the jacket: “Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear — part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify. But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo’s differences, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer … to join ‘the real world.’ There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it’s a picture he finds in a file — a picture of a girl with half a face — that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.”

My take: I started hearing a lot about this book at the end of last year, when it appeared on several best-of-young-adult-literature lists, and so, when I saw it in a display at the library, I picked it up.

I’m glad I did. Marcelo has a unique voice amongst the characters I’ve read before. Half the time he refers to himself in the third person and half the time in the first. He has a tough time discerning sarcasm (I was reminded somewhat of Sheldon’s perpetual confusion in The Big Bang Theory.), is often confused by people’s emotions and underlying motives, and likes to work in a methodical way that enables him to minimize errors. When he’s forced to work at his father’s law firm, that’s a big problem, where petty jealousies, selfish subterfuge, and cut-throat competition define the rapid-fire paced workplace. And that doesn’t even begin to get into what it’s like to work for your father, especially when he’s made it clear that he feels you’re coddled and not living up to your potential.

The only bright light is his supervisor, Jasmine, who, despite declaring that she hadn’t been in favor of his hire, works hard to make sure he’s able to do his job. And when he makes a discovery that will change the tenor of his days, Jasmine is there with him to assist in what will become his summer’s quest and a crucial decision in his life.

I always find it fascinating to see into the thought-process of another, and this book really gives you a glimpse into that. The end of the book brought a smile to my face and I can only wish good thoughts for Marcelo in the next (unwritten) chapters.

Pages: 312

I finished this novel on January 31st, giving me three novels that were begun and completed during the month. Thanks to the NaJuReMoNoMo folks.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

From the jacket: “Pow! Freeeeoooooo! Pop pop pop! Previous best score … Seven million five hundred and ninety-five thousand, two hundred and … Now join the end-of-the-world party, bring your pink towel and your jogging shoes and find out if potatoes are the answer. Life, the Universe and Everything. Join Arthur Dent, earthling, ‘jerk,’ kneebiter and time-traveler; sexy space cadet Trillian; mad alien Ford Prefect; unflappable Slartibartfast; two-headed, three-armed, ex-head Honcho of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox … you’ll learn to fly. Is it the end? Or just the beginning, again. (Over five million copies of the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy books now in the hands of earthlings.)”

My take: I find reading Douglas Adams to be an exercise in contradictions. Really, nothing happens, but Arthur Dent and company save the world. The characters can seem one-dimensional, yet endlessly deep. There is nothing difficult to grasp in the novel, but it tackles all the major issues — y’know … life, the universe, and, well, everything.

In this third book of Douglas’ original trilogy, Arthur Dent is reunited with his old pal Ford Prefect, an alien who saved him, if not his world, when the Earth was slated for demolition. They’re sucked back in time and back to Earth just in time for the conclusion of the Ashes. But not for long, because they’re about to head back into outer space in order to save the universe. Between those two events, they’ll find out that cricket is actually a recreation of a violent interplanetary war, learn how being killed repeatedly by the same man can make you very bitter, and discover that the secret to flying is merely to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Oh, and that quantum physics is much like a restaurant — the math doesn’t add up the same way it does elsewhere in the universe.

A fitting conclusion to the original trilogy of books.

Oh, and it’s worth noting that picking this book up was a pre-destined choice. As I’ve mentioned before, I was having some trouble getting into Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey, so went seeking something else to break it up a bit. Jane, a character in the Fforde novel, attracts a lot of undesired romantic attention because of her retroussé nose. Imagine my surprise earlier this evening, when I discovered a retroussé nose in this novel, too! Coincidence? I think not…

Pages: 227

When you’re having a hard time getting into a book you’re in the middle of and it has nothing to do with the story itself, you might be better off putting the book down for a bit and picking up a different one.

That is to say, I have put put aside Shades of Grey in favor of Douglas Adams’ Life, the Universe, and Everything. There’s nothing wrong with the Fforde novel; I’m just not finding myself drawn in in the way I normally am with his writing. I assume it’s not him, but me. In the meantime, more erudite British humor…