Quirk Classics continues

A while back I made a post about the release of Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to the international smash hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies where Elizabeth Bennet and her four fabulous sisters become kick-ass warrior babes. We also finally get to know what started the zombie plague in the first place as P&P was kinda hazy on that subject. Anyway, the recently released trailer is gory, sexy and hilarious, lets just hope the book can live up to the craze.



Those of you who are getting a little bit tired of the ghoulish Austen adaptations will also be pleased to hear that the next Quirky outing will be swapping horror for SciFi. Android Karenina, based on the classic love story by Leo Tolstoy is set in a strange new world filled with robots, cyborgs, and interplanetary travel where a secret cabal of radical scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society’s high-tech lifestyle, making our heroes fight back with all their courage and all their gadgets.

Magnolia Bakery

I've been suffering from baking blues lately. In December we got a new oven and since then, every cake I bake simply implodes. In the oven it looks all crisp and voluptuous but as soon I take it out, it simply caves in. Faulty technology or a diabolical plot to stop me from fattening up my sweet pea?

Anyway, I’m now on a quest for the ultimate experience in blissful baking. For the next few weeks, I’m going to let the world’s top bakeries guide me with their full proof recipes so that even a fickle piece of machinery can’t keep me from nirwana.

First up is the world famous (due to several cameo's in Sex and the City) Magnolia Bakery in New York. It opened in 1996 at 401 Bleecker Street and is renowned for its cupcakes and old-fashioned Depression era icebox cakes which I'm dying to try. This bakery is so famous in fact that they have to limit cupcake purchases to 12 per customer.

Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel are the owners and authors of the glorious Magnolia Bakery Cookbook which will hopefully restore my faith in creative confectionary concoctions. They started off as an ordinary bakery but making bread proved to be impractical due to time and space constraints so they moved on to smaller sensations.

The cupcakes were born in early fall of 1996 and personally started the 1990s cupcake craze. They were Allysa's brainchild and the result of batter that would otherwise have gone to waste. Originally they were just plain vanilla cakes with vanilla butter cream icing tinted pink. Now they are available in a wide variety of flavors and colors and soon they will also appear in my very own kitchen.

Catching Fire

Last year I was completely taken by surprise by a phenomenon called The Hunger Games. Suddenly, every blog I had subscribed to was writing about it, there was simply no escaping this thrilling trilogy by Suzanne Collins, a YA author who has rightfully earned her place amongst the ranks of JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer.

I read the first part of the trilogy, The Hunger Games, last Christmas and was completely blown away by it. I have to admit that although I enjoyed the Twilight series more than I care to say, I’m still a little skeptical when it comes to Young Adult (YA) fiction seeing as I’m no spring chicken anymore and require more than first loves and growing pains to tickle my fancy but this novel was so exciting and refreshing that I finished it almost immediately. YA or no YA, it’s just plain good.

The first part introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a kick-ass heroine who lives in a very bleak post-apocalyptic world where a powerful government, the Capitol, has risen up after several devastating disasters. Every year a televised event is organized where the ruthless and evil Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who then have to battle to the death until only one remains. The survivor gets to save their family from ruin and their district from starvation.

This book is basically the literary equivalent of a well-crafted blockbuster if such a thing actually exists; it’s full or surprising twists and turns, engaging characters and non-stop action. The story was original and fresh, aided by Collins fluent and captivating prose that simply makes you want to curl up on the couch and stay there until the novel’s finished. Slowly but surely, I’m becoming a true believer in the astonishing quality (and quantity) of YA fiction and will be the first to admit that studying English Literature may have in fact turned me into a literary snob.

Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games and a great one as far as sequels go. Without giving too much away like the almost mandatory teenage love triangle and a little torture here and there, I’ll just say that it deals with the shocking aftermath of Katniss’ rebellious act that made her win the Games and gives us a little more insight in her gruelling world. Seeing as it’s a trilogy we already know that Katniss will survive all the horrific events the Capitol faces her with in the first two installments otherwise there would be no Mockingjay, part three which will be released in August. And as soon as I can get my hands on a copy, nobody is allowed to bother me.

Persepolis

It took me a while but I finally read The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Lots of people really loved this unusual memoir / graphic novel but I had my doubts about it at first and still do really. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in this story despite the rave reviews and critical acclaim because I’m not that into coming of age stories, nor am I into politics, Iran or Satrapi’s drawing style.

What makes this book unique however, is the way Satrapi’s tells one of the darker chapter’s in Iranian history. By using herself, as an innocent child and troubled adolescent, as the protagonist we get a very humane yet fragmented look at the events that occurred. The format of the graphic novel is an interesting way to tell such a tale but it’s not that unusual if we look at Art Spiegelman’s historical and political rodent infested masterpiece Maus or Craig Thompson’s beautiful adolescent memoir Blankets.

Satrapi’s drawings are simple, humorous and in black and white adding clarity and compassion to her rambunctious youth but they are by no means dazzling. Drawing such a lengthy memoir is quite an impressive endeavor and a wonderful way of making an otherwise troubling subject mainstream. Sadly, for me this was the only reason why I’d read it, the combo of form and content.

Like the drawings, the story wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Having no idea what happened in eighties until early nineties Iran, made it very interesting. The injustices, hypocrisy, political dogma and their impact upon humanity gave this graphic novel unusual depth.

Satrapi was also a very funny an enthusiastic protagonist but as there is so much ground to cover, that the other characters become merely ornamental and the story of a young women growing up trying to live a full, free and independent life is not that original anymore.

Persepolis is honest, entertaining and informative. It’s great if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary or a quick read. If you only want to check out what all the fuss was about, watch the movie instead.

The End or Future of Publishing

Being Human

A while back I bought the first season of BBC's "hit drama" Being Human about (are you ready for this?) a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who share a cozy flat together in Bristol. It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke but it's not, it's actually really good.

It’s an off-beat drama with an intelligent script and thoughtful but compelling story lines, which I wasn’t expecting. It’s not sexy and cool like True Blood, nor is it all lovey-dovey like Twilight although it does have its fair amount of blood, nudity and profanity, this show focuses more on the characters struggle to be both human and alien than on their supposed super powers.

The ghost (Annie played by Material Girl’s Lenora Crichlow who al of a sudden remembered how to act) is agoraphobic and when she gets emotional normal people might not see her. She is desperately trying to find out why she is unable to move on. The werewolf (George) has a troubling love life and your typical werewolf angst and the vampire (Mitchell) tries to avoid vampirism temptation while other vampires try to persuade him to embrace his true nature, but he just wants to get on with his job at the hospital.


Being Human is funny, interesting and comes as a breath of fresh air during a time when vampires and werewolves have become everyday occurrences in the entertainment industry. This show takes all the appeal of myth and legend and flawlessly applies it to modern life, allowing us to connect to the characters on a human level while still giving us a well-done version of the occult. Like many British sci-fi and fantasy dramas, the special effects are unsophisticated and a little outdated creating a rather fake Doctor Who atmosphere, which I personally find charming.

The backdrop may seem ordinary but combined with a great cast of self-loathing characters who have killer chemistry, results in a different and quirky angle which hasn't really been explored before. Dealing with friendship, love, isolation and some very unique people, it is very believable and bold and one of the BBC’s most original series since Life On Mars.

Little Bee

This weekend I finished Little Bee or The Other Hand as it is called in the UK, by Chris Cleave. Why this novel has two different titles depending on whether you buy it in the UK or US is beyond me. Anyway, it turned out to be one of the best novels I've read this year and it's only March.

I bought this novel after reading a few dozen rave reviews and now I'm ready to add another one to the list. Chris Cleave is one of those authors who just springs up out of nowhere and takes you by surprise with a stunning and intense tale about two unusual woman, redemption, refuge and Batman.

The funny thing is that when I bought the book, despite having read multiple reviews, I had no idea what it was about. I just loved the US cover. On the back of the book is says:

We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again. The story starts here... Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Like all other bloggers, I won't say another word except you have to read this novel! Naturally it is an ingenious sales pitch, making the content all mysterious and that but trust me, the less you know, the better it is seeing as the content matter is quite subversive and (shock horror) emotional but I won't say another word.

Little Bee / The Other Hand is a novel that will make you laugh out loud due to some of the most endearing characters I've met in a long time and it will also make you gasp during some very horrific yet crucial scenes. It is simply a beautiful, socially relevant (there's a first for me), heartbreaking, hilarious, raw, hopeful and gorgeously written novel by a man who is a master at creating believable and truly engaging characters and voices. He is a fearless, eloquent and utterly compelling author who has produced a shocking story infused with sharp and witty dialogue.

Chris Cleave was a columnist for The Guardian and this is his second novel. Needless to say, I'm dying to read his first fictional outing, Incendiary, which is already burning a hole in my ever expanding TBR pile.

Woman’s World

I read this novel a while back but somehow forgot to mention it, so here we go. Woman’s World is like nothing you have ever seen. It is a stunning novel both visually and intellectually. For lack of a better word, it is a true work of art that combines a surreal story with an exceptionally original layout.

Norma Fontaine is the lead character in this subtle yet subversive story of what it’s like to be a woman in 1960s England. She is a real lady who spends her days reading magazines and is on a perpetual quest for the perfect outfit. Her life is glamorous, or she’d like to think so at least. Besides occupying herself with fashion and beauty, she’s also waiting for her brother to finally come home and bring her tales of the outside world seeing as she rarely goes out because when she does, things never go according to plan…

Woman’s World is entirely comprised of words and phrases that have been cut and pasted together. To be more accurate, it is a collage from individual fragments of text that were found in women’s magazines published in the early 1960s to create an element of historical accuracy in terms of languages and more importantly, beauty products. Rawle wrote his story the conventional way and then went in search for the perfect words. Aided by scissors and glue, he was able to create a mesmerizing tale out of several thousand snippets. Five years later, Woman’s World was born.

The plot is funny, dark and intriguing with several twists and turns making it a ravishing read but it also adds a healthy dose of social critique and questions gender roles in a highly unusual yet effective way. The cut-up method of construction does take some time to get used to but in the end it only enhances the overall vintage experience of this visually stunning piece of literature. A gimmick is often used to conceal bad writing but nothing could be further from the truth. In this case it adds a hauntingly authentic voice to the mix and captures the 1960s atmosphere like no other author ever has. Rawle’s crazy endeavor became a graphic novel, in the literal sense of the word, that combines art and literature, psychology and sociology, humor and mystery into a remarkable retro read that is also being made into a feature film.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

Seeing as I'm not a big fan of non-fiction, it may not come as a surprise to you that I'm also not big on documentaries, except biographical and natures ones where no animals die at least. Waking Sleeping Beauty meets all these criteria.

This documentary gives us a behind the scenes look at the Disney animation studios from 1984 until 1994, in other words my childhood when I was completely in to Disney (and I still am). The main reason I want to see this, is pure youth sentiment but it also gives us an interesting look at how the studio recovered from a rather bleak post-war period and went on to make classics such as Beauty and the Beast, Alladin and of course The Lion King.

This "bleak period" produced films such as The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective, movies I vividly remember watching in the cinema when I was an itty bitty girl and fell madly in love with as they were my first cinema and Disney experiences. Looking back, they are indeed darker than your average contemporary animated film but they still rocked my world and might be partially to blame for my bright and cheery persona.

During this period most of their movies bombed at the box office and the production company was even going to be evicted, forcing them to put their head together and make something wonderful: The Little Mermaid aka Disney's rebirth.

The documentary uses archival footage cut from over 250 hours of footage, photos and narration from newly recorded audio interviews featuring some incredibly young versions of renowned animators, directors and producers as Don Bluth, Tim Burton, John Musker, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Don Hahn, John Lasseter and even Roy Disney.

Now you can enjoy the unlikely story of how the magic was recreated.

Brooklyn

In my previous post I mentioned that I wasn't that impressed by Brooklyn, a novel by Irish writer Colm Toibin. Although the story gets off to a very slow start, it does pick up its pace in the second half but still not much really happens.

I had never read anything by Toibin before, in fact I had never even heard of the man but apparently he has quite a reputation. He is mainly a journalist but Brooklyn is his sixth and most successful novel to date. Toibin is openly gay and focuses a lot on homosexual identities and the Irish society. Enniscorthy County where he was born and its population frequently feature in his novels as well. He is particularly interested in people who emigrate and leave their old life behind so he can clash old and new world stories, just like in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is about Eilis Lacey, a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland so she emigrates to New York with a little help from Father Flood and takes up a job in a department store. At night she takes classes to become a bookkeeper. It takes a while before she settles in but thanks to some new friends and a handsome Italian called Tony, she feels right at home. Then tragedy strikes (like it always does when things go great) and she must return to Ireland where things get even more complicated. Will she return to her new and beloved life in Brooklyn or will she live the life she was destined to lead?

Although many news papers proclaimed it The novel of 2009 and it won several awards, I'm still not convinced that Brooklyn is actually worthy of all the praise. It is a charming old fashioned post-war yarn that quietly muddles along no more no less. As I said the first part, actually until she gets settled in really, is incredibly slow and almost made me give up altogether but then she starts going out, meeting people and we finally get to know Eilis. Strangely enough, when she goes back to Ireland she turns into a completely different person, not in a good way, making the character development quite odd indeed. Brooklyn has many flaws but all in all it is a simple unpretentious story about a girl's journey into adulthood.

The Secret Life of Bees

Last week I finally started on a little project that I've been dying to do for years now but for some reason keep putting off aka writing a novel or trying to at least. It's been a lot of fun and has kept me pretty busy. So busy in fact, that I've hardly done any reading. I started in Brooklyn by Colm Toibin this weekend and although its only 250 pages, I'm only half way. It's not bad but I wouldn't exactly call it The novel of the year like many critics did in 2009 but we'll see.

I did finish The Secret Life of Bees for my book club, mind you this was last week but who's keeping track? It was actually the first stereotypical 'Book Club Book' that we read meaning it involved a girl who escapes from her dad's clutching claws together with their black maid in the 60s. They try to find out the truth behind her mother's death / disappearance and end up staying with three unusual black sisters who make honey, go figure. Female bonding, tragedy, love and a whiff of politics, it's all in there covered in a nauseating layer of honey.

The Secret Life of Bees was a pleasant and quick read but not really groundbreaking material, the perfect fodder for a sweet and cozy afternoon. It was a nice change from my usual reading list but nothing I'd go back to any time soon. It did however mange to shock and perplex me for a completely different reason, namely there were 50 pages missing from my novel smack in the middle. All of a sudden someone was dead and someone else was in jail for non-related reasons. What the hell's all that about? Am I forced to check every page before buying a book now?

Alice in Wonderland

And no, I'm not talking Tim Burton's highly anticipated technicolor fantasy which looks quite good and has Johnny Depp in it so you just know it'll be great. I've loved the quirkiness of this story ever since I was a little girl and now that I'm (slightly) older I keep on discovering new riddles and allusions in Lewis Carroll's magical world.

Alice in Wonderland, both Disney and Burton's version are actaully a combination of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass which introduces character such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum creating a slightly misconceived interpretation of the actual story.

In 1907, 37 years after the book was published and when motion pictures were just learning to crawl, the first film adaptation was made and it is one of the few adaptations that stay true to the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It has a running time of just 12 minutes (9 of which survive) and was the longest films produced (literally, 800 foot) in England at that time. The movie also contains some of the first special effects.