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.