Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #107
by muffy
Playwright Theresa Rebeck has won an Edgar and a Peabody for her TV work and numerous awards for her plays and shows great promise as a novelist.
Her debut Three Girls and Their Brother* refers to teenagers Amelia, Polly and Daria Heller - "insanely beautiful" sisters of a well-connected Manhattan family, and their brother Philip. A lavish spread in the New Yorker makes the sisters overnight media sensations and instant celebrities. Exposure and fame brings on enormous opportunities, as well as the paparazzi, lechers and rivalry. When the grown-ups around them prove unreliable guardians, the siblings are forced to take responsibility for themselves.
Three Girls is “a wickedly enjoyable expose on modern celebrity”, “a timely and entertaining morality tale” --- much more than a fluffy chick lit.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
The Darjeeling Ltd.
by John J. Madonna
About three minutes into The Darjeeling Limited, we watch a close up of a businessman running to the titular train pulling out of the station. All of a sudden, Adrien Brody’s character pops into frame and overtakes the man to the crunching opening chords of The Kinks’ “This Time Tomorrow,” and is able to throw himself aboard while the businessman falls into the distance, all in slow motion no less, and I knew I was going to love this movie already.
No one makes a film quite like Wes Anderson does. Bottle Rocket showed promise, Rushmore fulfilled said promise, and his unique filmmaking style culminated in The Royal Tenenbaums. And even though I actually liked The Life Aquatic (so much so that its cool reception actually surprised me,) I will admit it didn’t offer anything particularly new, and when a director releases a movie only every three years or so, especially a director so unconventional, one so-so movie will raise the questions, “Does he still have it in him, or is he just rehashing a formula?” making this next movie much more important.
The main thrust of the film isn’t anything too novel. Three brothers set out on a meticulously planned spiritual journey, it doesn’t pan out, they inadvertently find themselves on a new journey, which ends up providing the spiritual exploration that they had given up on. Granted people not as enamored with the director as I apparently am probably won’t fancy this movie nearly as much, but movie definitely shows Wes Anderson continuing to carve his niche in the world with distinct (almost anachronistic) set design, overhead shots aplenty, offbeat humour, slow motion endings and beginnings, angsty characters, hints of tragedy, and Rolling Stones music. Honestly, The Darjeeling Limited has surpassed, in my mind, The Royal Tenenbaums as his best movie.
The DVD includes the short film "Hotel Chevalier" which if you eschew iTunes as I do or didn't see the original festival run, it's an interesting thirteen minutes that isn't necessary to understanding the rest of the film, though does make one part particularly more amusing.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #106
by muffy
In this Olympic year, all eyes are on China. Coincidentally, we have a bumper crop of FFF by expat. Chinese writers, as well as a number of outstanding mysteries set in China.
The Eye of Jade, by Chinese exile Diane Wei Liang who fled her country after participating in the Tiananmen Square protests, is an impressive debut.
Set in the late 1990s' Beijing, P.I. Mei Wang was hired by a family friend to track down a jade seal from the Han Dynasty, supposedly destroyed by the Red Guards. Challenging family relationships, bureaucratic intricacies and an unconventional protagonist made for a fascinating read.
Two other outstanding mystery series set in China are: Peter May's Li Yan/Margaret Campbell* series, and the Inspector Chen* series by Xiaolong Qiu.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #105
by muffy
Literature professor (Louisville, Kentucky) Will Lavender’s debut novel Obedience is one tautly strung thriller!
Students at Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 are greeted on the first day of class with one startling assignment – find a hypothetical missing girl name Polly before the end of term or she will be murdered.
As the clues set forth by the creepy prof. point more toward something real and sinister rather than a logic exercise, three of the students find disturbing personal connections with Polly. What looks like an academic exercise at first could turn deadly.
Obedience hooks you fast and hard. Ride it out and brace for the shock.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #105
by muffy
Black Ships* is debut novelist Jo Graham's captivating retelling of Virgil's The Aeneid from the perspective of Gull, a slave girl taken at the sacking of Troy.
At 17, Gull was chosen by the oracle Pythia as her successor for her prophetic visions, but she must decide if she would give up her exalted position and sail with exiled Trojan Prince Aeneas on the black ships, in order to guide him to his destiny.
Graham ably re-creates a vivid picture of the ancient world in this historically based fantasy. Her spare style complements the action-filled plot, and the “smoldering emotional resonance” fully engages the reader.
For historical fantasy fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana Paxson.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #104
by muffy
L.A., gangs, turf war. Sound familiar? Well, Toby Barlow's debut Sharp Teeth* is anything but!
Written in free verse, this "highly addictive, enormously enjoyable, and unexpectedly moving", horror/thriller is about the fantastical world of werewolves. Caught in the middle of savage pack rivalry is Anthony, a kindhearted, down-and-out dogcatcher and the girl he loves who is in fact, a female werewolf.
This adrenaline-packed, fast-paced, darkly comic (card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing) debut by a Michigan author will surprise and entertain. Barlow is the Executive Creative Director of the giant ad agency JWT, whose clients include Ford, Shell and MTV. He lives in downtown Detroit.
* = Starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #103
by muffy
Tired of the bleak Feb. days? Looking for something light and engaging? You might want to try Gods Behaving Badly by first time novelist Marie Phillips.
The immortals of Mount Olympus have fallen, and not just on hard times. Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis, Eros and Zeus are slumming in modern day London, working menial jobs as a dog walker, a phone sex operator, a TV psychic; and falling for their cleaning woman, all the while worrying about their waning power and each other with their endless squabbling.
"Phillips imagines a hilarious world that explains all that is inexplicable in our own". "Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar" ~ Publishers Weekly.
Phillips is a graduate of Cambridge University currently working at the BBC and writes for the blog StrugglingAuthor.blogspot.com.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #102
by muffy
"Shades of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Caleb Carr's The Alienist, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and Kim Newman's Dracula-inflected Victoriana"(Kirkus)... now, if that does not intrigue you, let me tell you this is by far one of the best thrillers I have come across in quite awhile.
A guaranteed page-turner, British(Oxford)scholar Jonathan Barnes' hectic, layered, odd and oddly affecting literary extravaganza The Somnambulist* features the shadowy magician/private detective Edward Moon and his sidekick - the 8' tall, bald, mute somnambulist.
"Barnes is up to something very special here. He's created a new genre, really, a graphic novel written in longhand, and it combines the subtle horror of Patricia Highsmith, the goofy gore of Christopher Moore, and the cartoon action of the TV series Heroes. Read for the sheer fun of it"~ Jen Baker for Booklist. Trust us on this one.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #101
by muffy
The Queen Gambet: A Leonardo da Vinci Mystery* by Diane Stuckart is the first of a projected series.
Set in 15th-century Milan, the Renaissance artist/inventor was pressed into service by the Duke of Milan to solve a murder during a spectacular chess match played with human pieces.
With high-stake political maneuvers across Europe and a priceless painting in the balance, da Vinci must investigate quietly behind the scene, with only the help of Dino, his young apprentice who has his own secrets to guard.
This new historical whodunit renders a lively portrait of court life in Renaissance Milan, as well as fleshes out the humanity and the genius of the renowned master.
*=Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts#100
by muffy
"Emily Haxby is an up-and-coming attorney at a big firm in Manhattan. From the outside, she seems to have her life tied up flawlessly with a big red bow; however, the package is coming unraveled." so begins The Opposite of Love*.
Then comes the break-up with the perfect guy, an assignment from hell, and Grandpa Jack slipping away in an Alzheimer's haze. Can Emily pull it together — work, family, love life, and all? You'll be turning pages until you find out!
First-time novelist and Harvard Law alum Julie Buxbaum handles Emily's tale "with notable intelligence and grace" (Booklist). Just the buzz of her very generous 2-book deal could be a clue to this being a newcomer worth watching.
* = Starred Review.