Author Spotlight: Emma Donoghue

I own four of Emma Donoghue’s books: Slammerkin, Life Mask, Kissing A Witch, and The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits. Donoghue’s writing is rich and rife with emotions and portraits of people who we quickly become obsessed with. She is well-versed in her history and fashion and her descriptions are so rich as to draw the reader into the world she is working with. You do not read Donoghue’s work, you inhabit it.

Her imagination is also to be lauded. As a lesbian writer, Donogue manages to infuse the lifestyle into the very fabric of the story, weaving it almost seamlessly, complete with all the joys and consequences of the taboo. In her book Kissing The Witch: Old Stories in New Skins, Donoghue rewrites the best known fairytales of our time, connecting them one with the other and changing the ending slightly. Rapunzel does not find her Prince but weeps over the fallen Witch and asks, “Who were you before you bought me for a handful of radishes? And she said, Will I tell you my own story? It is the tale of a brother.” And those lines lead us into the next story, that of the Snow Queen. It is artful the way that she ties each story the one before it and the one after it. I adore fairytales and I adore this book.

Donoghue is an excellent writer with an imagination of color and characters who, even centuries old, happily and willingly become all her own.

So many books, so little time

So, Dear Readers, I find myself conflicted. I have so very many books to read, all screaming for my attention and taunting me with their promises of amazing adventures. Unfortunately, I find myself unable to concentrate for too very long. The end of the school year fast approaches and there is yet much to be done with my students, not to mention taking care of a husband with a healing broken bone.

So things are bit busy. Therefore, I apologize for the long time between updates. Is there any way you can ever forgive me?

I shall do my best to be back with reviews and excitement soon, dears. I promise.

Spring is upon us!

Two more days, my dear ones. Two more days and then Spring will be here officially. YAY! Unfortunately, I have not had much time lately to read, because of life issues. I am hoping, with the end of school and spring/summer vacation, that I will be able to bury myself in books and read until my bibliophile heart’s content.

I am very, very much looking forward to that! ^_^

New Buys: The Sight, The Light Bearer’s Daughter, and Silksinger

 

These three books are my newest buys. Out of three, I have read the predecessors of two of them. Firebringer by David Clement-Davies was an epic novel about the red deer that filled Briton in its ancient days. I really enjoyed the story of Rannoch and his herd. The Sight is Clement-Davies epic about the wolves of Transylvania. I have tired to read this book before but ended up giving it to a student as a goodbye present, as she enjoyed Firebringer even more than I did. So I am excited to read it this time through.

I read O.R. Melling’s first novel The Hunter’s Moon and very much enjoyed it. It was my first experience with the dark side of the Fae, especially the fae myths and stories of Ireland. I am hoping that this novel will be just as fun. If the glossary is any indication, it will be.

Silksinger is the sequel to Blackbringer by Laini Taylor. I have just begun Blackbringer but Silksinger’s cover was too enchanting to leave behind.  I shall definitely be putting these books in my classroom when I am done with them.