She's a Party Girl, But Not the Way You're Thinking

How do you recreate the magic that inspired you in the first place?Sarah Mason sure doesn't have the answer to that one. She is one of those “good first novel, mediocre sequels” authors for me. She wrote a brilliant first novel, and the sequel was still pretty good (just couldn’t measure up to the first), but by the third, the magic has been drained. And from what I hear, her fourth isn't so hot, either. 

As I’ve said before in my review of Sarah Mason’s other book, Society Girls, Playing James is a great British chick lit book I would definitely recommend to people. The characters were varied, funny, loveable and pretty well developed (it is chick lit after all; I’m not exactly expecting Pulitzer Prize-winning material here). The plot moved along quickly with plenty of hilarious snafus and the ending left me satisfied. In the sequel, the Colshannon sisters were up to their usual adventures, but it just didn’t have the same oomph.

Party Girl does not pick up where Society Girls left off, nor does it have any of the same characters. Instead, it follows Isabel (I kid you not, I had to look up her name. That’s how memorable she is), a party planner in London who is requested to plan an event for a family she spent her childhood with. The estate she spent her summers on now holds bitter memories, all because Simon Monkwell flipped from best friend to bitter enemy in a matter of weeks.

The problem with this novel does not lie with the hijinks or the plot. It lies with the main characters themselves, who are just trite. It’s pretty bad when the only word you can come up with to describe your protagonists is “trite.” Simon is now this businessman with a ruthless reputation, which in the grand tradition of chick lit is revealed to be a façade. I apologize to those of you yelling “spoiler alert” at your computer screens, but if you can’t see it coming, I think you need to read more. He has a hybrid between an icy attitude and cool politeness aimed toward Isabel, yet she’s supposed to be in “like” with him. They’re also supposed to have chemistry, especially once Isabel understands why he acted the way he did, but I just didn’t feel it. The chemistry between them is just not palpable.

 

"Oh, uh, I failed chemistry...."

The lack of chemistry could be attributed to the boring Isabel and Simon. I hate to compare Party Girl to Playing James, but I just can’t help myself. While James Sabine was cynical and uptight, he was the perfect antithesis to Holly Colshannon’s chaotic whirlwind of a life. His wry and dry comments made everything that much funnier (think House, Chandler or Frasier in terms of witty quips). Simon is just boring and Isabel isn’t much more memorable. I take it as a bad omen that I had to look up her name because I couldn’t remember it for the life of me.

It’s left to the crazy relatives to carry the weight and offset Simon and Isabel’s “relationship” by making irrational decisions, creating comedic mishaps and shaking up everything with their eccentric personalities. At one point, there is a tarantula loose in the house, which causes panic and mayhem among the residents. There was a great opportunity for a tension-filled romantic scene between Simon and Isabel, but because they’re boring, nothing happens. Go figure. If it weren’t for the stereotypical, yet still enjoyable, crazy family members and coworkers, this book would have fallen on its face faster than a drunk giraffe on roller skates.

It is important to remember that this is a fluff novel. It doesn’t need the substance other novels need, as long as it makes the reader happy and leaves them feeling warm and squishy inside. Party Girl did not leave me feeling happy, just bored.

This brings me to an interesting question: how do you qualify boring? Boring is subjective. What you might qualify as boring (baseball, fishing, most nonfiction, vanilla ice cream) others might qualify as some of their favorite things. In the end, it comes down to what you think is boring. If you can’t handle the craziness of the Colshannon family or don’t like eccentric characters, you might like this novel more than Sarah Mason’s other novels. However, if you can’t stand a single moment of normalcy, I would recommend Sophie Kinsella or Jill Mansell. You can still pick up this book, but be warned that not even the cringe-worthy scenes can make up for the love story that is lacking. 

Society Girls: More of that Brit Chick Lit

This week here at Brumbles Publications (if you can call a blog that even), we’re gonna switch it up! So far, I have reviewed dystopian fiction, young adult, an autobiography, science fiction, humor, and fantasy. Which, granted, isn’t too diverse, but hey, it’s better than reading the same genre every week. This week we’re reviewing chick lit!! Hooray! Something light and fluffy and not hard to concentrate on during finals week! And even better than that, it’s British chick lit.

Let me start off by saying one of the best, funniest, most entertaining and well-written chick lit books I’ve ever read is Playing James by Sarah Mason. (Holly Colshannon is a reporter for the Bristol Gazette and is assigned a piece that entails she follows Detective James Sabine around. Holly is clumsy, hilarious, outgoing and pretty impetuous. She is such a funny character, and naturally, chaotic and hilarious mishaps occur all around her, usually because of her doing.) I’m not reviewing that book because I read it a while ago and I just think you should read it, if you like a little Brit Chick Lit every once in a while.

The Colshannon adventures continue with Holly’s sister, Clemmie. Clemmie was an art appraiser until her boyfriend got her fired, so she took a year off to travel. Now she’s back in Cornwall to recover when Holly drags her into the missing case of Emma McKellan, who was a writer for the Bristol Gazette until she disappeared just days before her wedding. It’s like mystery lite, but with more eccentric characters and no murder. Of course, no book could top Playing James, so it’s tough to read a book by the same author and expect the same thing. But I’ll try.

Clemmie is a lot like her sister in the sense that she’s clumsy, headstrong, happy-go-lucky and funny, but she’s less successful career-wise and she has a very eclectic sense of style. To me, she was the slightly odder  but no less lovable one of the pair. Just because she wasn’t Holly didn’t mean she wasn’t endearing. Holly, on the other hand, was more subdued than in the first book. Perhaps it was because we were seeing Holly from another character’s point of view and we couldn’t hear the running monologue in her head or get her perspective on events. Or, maybe it was because Holly had to be toned down a little to make Clemmie shine. Either way, you get the effect that this isn’t another book about Holly, but Clemmie was the focal character. It is her book after all.

I loved the main plot of locating Emma because there was just as much hectic chaos and interesting turns of events. The rest of her large and eccentric family is more present in this book, and as I am from a large family, I can relate to that aspect. Except for the animals. We did not have a zoo in my house at any time. The romantic aspect of the book was predictable, but that is to be expected. I mean, come on, that’s the point of chick lit. People wouldn’t read it if it weren’t predictable. I mean, could you imagine a chick lit (not a drama book, there’s a difference) where one of them dies in the end or middle? 

Oh wait, that does exist! Introducing,Nicholas Sparks: killing off characters in Chick Lit since 1995. 

So if you’re looking for something to read on the beach, or in your room, or on a bus, or pretty much anywhere, but you just want to be along for the ride in a funny British rom com book, I would bring Playing James and Society Girls. I can guarantee you will laugh. Unless you have no sense of humor, in which case, get off my blog and go buy one. 

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Don't Panic. Continue Not Panicking.

“The Story so far:

In the beginning the Universe was created.

This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

-The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams

Could there be a more perfect beginning to this book? No, there is not. The opening to the book, perfectly combining humor, satire, history and science (I’m being facetious here) sets the bar pretty high for Douglas Adams’ sequel to the brilliant Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Luckily, he set the bar himself and knows how to vault over it like the literary genius/comedian that he is.

I do not think I can summarize the plot of this book, if the difficulty of wrapping the first book up into a neat little abstract has anything to say about it. The best I can do is give you a short play-by-play of the highlights of the book, so about every other paragraph (and that’s just an average). I think just the best of the best will suffice.

The introduction of Ursa Minor Beta, or “one of the most appalling places in the known Universe,” is just genius. It “is excruciatingly rich, horrifyingly sunny…[and] it can hardly be insignificant that when a recent edition of Playbeing magazine headlined an article with the words ‘When you are tired of Ursa Minor Beta you are tired of life,’ the suicide rates there quadrupled overnight.

Not that there are any nights on Ursa Minor Beta.”

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (also known as Milliways), is a pretty hilarious concept, too, but only because your preconceived notions of the context of the word “end” here are shattered. When he writes “end” in the same phrase as “universe,” we all think of physical end, as in location, but Douglas Adams means “end” as in “destruction.” The restaurant is protected by a time bubble that resets itself every meal period so the diners can witness the end of the Universe. As it is a “time location” and not a “location location.” This way, you can come back multiple times.

As usual, Douglas Adams likes to shoot all your ideas about time travel and relativity to hell. Also, he introduces an amazing new tense that tells you how “to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it.” Of course, that means that you must describe the event differently depending on if you’re talking about it in the future, the past, natural time, etc. It is known as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past SubjunctiveIntentional. This is to replace the “Future Perfect.” I cannot even describe this tense. It is practically a new language even J. R. R. Tolkien might be a little proud of.

"Legolas! What wioll haven do your elf eyes willan seen?"
"They're willing taken the hobbits to Isengard!"

The existence of a spaceship so black you cannot make out its shape or even tell how close you are to it, let alone distinguish any of the controls in the ship. Because it’s black on the inside, too.

Then there's the almost-paradox of writing the guidebook: “The simplistic style in which [the statistics of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy] are written is partly explained by the fact that the editors, having to meet a publishing deadline, copied the information off the back of a packet of breakfast cereal, hastily embroidering it with a few footnotes in order to avoid prosecution under the incomprehensibly tortuous Galactic Copyright laws. It is interesting to note that a later and wilier editor sent the book backward in time through a temporal warp, and then successfully sued the breakfast cereal company for infringement of the same laws.” Amazing. Simply amazing.

I hesitate to disclose my favorite part of the novel, the end, but truthfully, I don’t think you can really have spoilers in a Douglas Adams book. Each sentence is not so much a an event not to be disclosed to non-readers, but more of another piece of an adventure. A stepping stone, if you will. If each Douglas Adams book were a ladder, each chapter is simply a piece of wood (or metal, depending on the type of ladder you’re imagining) that makes up the ladder. If you remove a splinter or even a rung, the entire ladder will not fall apart, but it does take away from the ladder’s essence.

So when I tell you my favorite part, it does not make the story unreadable. In a way, it’s like the universe itself; the story and the universe are infinite and could continue in any direction indefinitely.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ambled along, delighting me with every page, but the best (and funniest) part was the ending. Arthur and Ford end up on this spaceship, Ark B, to find millions of bodies in suspended comas. What kinds of people are they? “‘Hairdressers, tired TV producers, telephone sanitizers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, management consultants, you name it.’” Why, you ask? And actually, Ford and Arthur essentially ask it themselves. “‘The idea was that into the first ship, the ‘A’ ship, would go all the brilliant leaders, the scientists, the great artists, you know, all the achievers; and then in the third, or ‘C’ ship, would go all the people who did the actual work, who made things and did things; and then into the ‘B’ ship–that’s us–would go everyone else, the middlemen.’” As funny as it is, it just keeps getting better. The planet they came from, Golgafrincham, sent Ark B off to “rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population. The other two-thirds stayed firmly at home and lived full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.” Oh, the irony.

Of course, the downside to sending a colony of people such as these off to a new planet is that some things hold precedence over others. For instance, hairdressers electing to create curling tongs instead of developing fire. And in creating the wheel, the marketing department must first decide on a color. And instead of exploring the area, their film producers make a documentary on the indigenous cavemen in the area.

  

"I've always been told hairs before bears. As in protecting yourself from bears. You'd be surprised
 how much perfectly styled tresses can ward off danger."

But the most hilarious of all, and most satirical, is that they develop a fiscal policy. Ford wants to know how they can have money when they don’t make money. As a response to saying it doesn't grow on trees, the management consultant says “‘Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt the leaf as legal tender, we have, of course, all become immensely rich… But we have also run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability, which means that, I gather, the current going rate  has something like three deciduous forests buying one ship’s peanut.’” So, to revalue the leaf, they are going to burn down all the forests. I cannot stress how loudly I laughed at this point.

I think Douglas Adams just sat in his room and decided to make fun of everyone he could think of. And as they say, the pen is mightier than the sword. The worst part is that I can actually see this playing out in similar situation, if to a lesser degree. I am just glad that Adams has commemorated it on paper. And, er, Ebook/tablet screen.

The book ends with Arthur trying to teach the cavemen to play Scrabble with rocks, “‘but they only word they know is grunt and they can’t spell it…. [He’s] probably spelled crzjgrdwldiwdc again, poor bastard. I keep on telling him there’s only one g in crzjgrdwldiwdc.’” Man, on a triple word score, that word would be pure gold.

A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Just Don't Panic

Thank God I have WiFi so I can update this blog post about sci-fi!

Was that too forced? Yeah, I thought so, too. But it is true, if it is corny. Speaking of sci-fi and humor, it’s time to review a book! This week: Douglas Adams’ A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

I realize that it has been around for a long time, what with being published in 1979 and all, but I only got around to reading it a month or so ago. And now that I have read it, I don’t know what took me so long to start reading it! It made me laugh out loud, and the plot and characters were interesting and compelling enough to keep me hooked. To get the humor, I would have to say you have to like slightly sarcastic, very silly, and at times dry British wit. As I mention later, if you like Doctor Who or Monty Python (or if you have good taste, you like them both), you would like this 5 book series.

I found I was pleasantly surprised by how the book moved along and didn't know much about it beforehand, so I would recommend just closing out of this web page, getting your hands on the nearest copy of this book and digging in. It’s not that long of a read, anyway! I really don’t want to ruin anything for you. Or you could just let me spoil the unadulterated joy of reading something unique and completely new fiction. It’s your choice.

Have you read it yet? Or do you need your interest piqued a bit more?

Ugh. FINE. I’LL LET YOU INTO SOME OF MY INSIGHTS. But don’t say I didn't warn you. Er, recommend to you. You know what  I mean.

Arthur Dent, a middle-aged British man is dragged on an interstellar adventure by his eccentric friend, Ford Prefect. They meet up with Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trisha Macmillian(the only other Earthling) and travel through a series of hilarious hi-jinks that lead to the ultimate question: What is the meaning of life?

If the names above don’t put you off (and you haven’t even read the names of other planets, races and alien characters), then strap in for a hilarious and ever twisting ride, because there isn't really any other way to describe it. It’s like Monty Python and Doctor Who in book form with a character resembling any other character played by Martin Freeman, who usually plays a slightly annoyed guy who gets dragged into adventures over and over in different genres, and for that reason is cast as Arthur Dent in the movie.

To be fair, he plays that role REALLY well. 

I could try to separate the plot and the humor, but they just go hand in hand so well together! For starters, the whole thing starts off with Arthur’s house being torn down to make way for a new highway. Then the Earth is destroyed to make way for an inter-galactic highway system; oh, the irony. That’s exactly the kind of thing Douglas Adams does in his book: he mercilessly pokes fun at anything and everything. It’s honestly some of the most brilliant stuff out there! A depressed robot? People being tortured by having to listen to some awful poetry? The answer to the meaning of life being 42? Totally brilliant! I mean, who thinks of this stuff? He is truly inspired.

I think my favorite part was when they have the Answer to the meaning of life, but now they have to find the Question to the Answer, and as it turns out, the Earth was the final computer to calculate the Question, and it was just moments away from discovering the Question before it was destroyed to make a hyperspace bypass. Amazing.

Don’t even get me started on the infinite improbability drive! Just bloody brilliant.

I have been reduced to fragments and incomplete clauses, that’s just how great this book is. I can’t even- I just can’t describe it to you. You’ll just have to take my word for it and read this hilarious and intriguing book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in bookstores since 1979.

Edit: I've just seen the movie, and maybe it was just me, but I wasn't very impressed. I think it’s just one of those things that your imagination can get perfectly, but there isn't yet a way to get that onto the screen just right. 

Reflections from Bath

Love at first sight might be a controversial issue to some people, but I am in full agreement with it- when it comes to places. There are many cities that take me a while to get used to before I find that it has snuck its way into my heart. Bath, on the other hand, was love at first sight. I loved it all: the Roman-Gothic architecture, the city center full of shops and enticing smells, the everyday hustle and bustle of people out on a Sunday. As you walked farther from the center of town, the excitement gave way to a quiet, natural beauty. The beautiful fence-lined streets with the antique-styled street lamps faded to old wooden fences with small doors built in them, occasionally hidden behind trees covered in colorful autumn leaves.

The enchanting walkway behind the Royal Crescent,
photo taken by my talented friend Nicole Lovold

A street in Bath, taken by my friend Erin Mc Pherson

The juxtaposition within one town (or city, I'm not sure which) was so incredible to me. I loved that Bath had this variety, and I can only imagine what it's like in the summer. It is hard to put into words how much I loved visiting and seeing everything I could in such a short time. 

For all those who don't read Jane Austen novels, who only watch the movies recreationally, or who just don't obsess over her like my roommate, Jane Austen spent about 6 weeks in Bath when she was in her early 20's and later moved there in the late 1800s. The first time she was there, she absolutely loved it and found it quite diverting. She even stages her first published novel, Northanger Abbey in Bath, where the protagonist Catherine Morland finds it just as enjoyable as I do. She writes, “They arrived in Bath. Catherine was all eager delight; - her eyes were here, there, everywhere, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel. She was come to be happy, and she felt happy already.” Living there, however, had its drawbacks and cast a less than favorable light on the city. Jane Austen lived in Bath between 1801 and 1805, but this time, the experiences she had there were rather unproductive and unhappy. She set her last published novel, Persuasion, there and it is a more biting satire about the superficial social life of Bath.

Having only been there a day and not four weeks, let alone in the present day and not in the 19^th century, I still found it to be a beautiful and fascinating place. The shopping areas and streets lined with Gothic Architectural elements made me feel like I was a Regency Era woman going to town to spend an exciting day full of busy people and interesting shops. The parks and green space made me feel like sitting underneath a tree and appreciating nature, reading a book, or writing. The best part was that I could have both of those feelings in the same day without a lot of hassle. Excitement and peace in the same day? Count me in! It truly felt like the best of both worlds. 

All I needed to make this trip feel like a time travelling expedition were Regency Era garb and the 2005 Pride & Prejudice soundtrack. However, had I been there during the week-long Jane Austen Festival in September, I would have been elated. Jane Austen fans flock there from around the world to see everyone in 18^th century costume and many themed events such as dancing and etiquette lessons, concerts, talks, and even a costumed masked ball!

The day spent there, even without a costume promenade, was still wonderful. I can only hope it doesn't turn out to be a Jane Austen situation; I hope Bath is a nice city to not only visit, but to live in.  

Drink in the nature, everyone. Drink it in.
Photo again by my friend Nicole Lovold

The city, while vibrant and vivacious, is nicely offset by the quiet rolling hills and sun dappled dirt paths, with large trees with gnarled roots obscure the buildings. It is a place to feel inspired, creative, calm, captivated, curmudgeonly, classy and comforting. Wait. That third to last adjective didn't fit. Let's try connected. You can feel connected with nature. That sounds about right.

 So the next time you find yourself in the UK and you need a break from London, might I suggest Bath? It has interesting shops, some great places to get a tasty Cornish pasty, original Roman Baths and the Grand Pump Room, the Coeur de Lion, which is the smallest pub in Bath, some wonderful nature trails, the Jane Austen Centre, and even Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon, which has been preserved since 1774 and is lined with shops. Don’t take my word for it, though; go see it for yourself. 

What time is it? Creative time!

Okay. I think I'm ready.
Diet Coke? Check.
Inspirational soundtrack music? Check.
Comfy couch? Check.
Laptop? Check.


No, wait! It's not gone!
Hey, internet. I admit I have a lot of problems with motivation, much like a lot of other people, I'm sure. I'm also almost certain that that lack of motivation stems from a lack of confidence in my abilities (or it's just plain ole laziness), but whatever it is, I have a lot of trouble following through with stuff. For instance, since I last posted (which was too long ago), I had about 5 ideas of what I thought would be funny or interesting (for me, the two are mutually exclusive) blog posts. And did I follow up on that and actually write those?

NO. No, I did not. But hey, here I am, intending to actually DO ALL THE THINGS FOR REASONS. The motivational music helps. It's mostly just stuff from Finding Nemo, Thor, How to Train Your Dragon etc. And to be fair, this blog was originally set up with the intention of writing about my study abroad experiences in England, and it still is! But why not shoot some more creative energy at this? That's what I always say.

So. England. I'm getting excited again! For a while, the excitement waned because everyone was leaving or already gone for school (one of my friends is studying in New York for a semester; VERY COOL) and September seemed like a long ways off without anyone to hang out with or anything to do. If I worked, I'd go to work and when I came home, I'd waste the rest of my day. If I didn't work, I'd waste my day. See a pattern? No? Yeah, neither do I.

But now, London is less than two weeks away! And I still have some stuff to do to prepare! Not a lot of it, just some smaller things. I got a lot of stuff for my trip recently, such as a suitcase, outlet converters, an Oyster card for the Underground, which for everyone else who doesn't watch British media is their subway system essentially, and a U.K. telephone. And it's less than two weeks away! Technically, it's twelve days away! And therefore, I am excited again. It has also helped watching British YouTube vlogs, especially the ones where they go about London, because THOSE ARE THINGS I'LL BE DOING!! Drinking tea, taking the tube, hearing English accents, just generally being in England!

Besides, this blog is helpful in the fact that it kind of helps me from not going insane with boredom or excess creativity. It's like I want to do something, but everything I think of, I don't want to do. I have 3 creative projects I need to start/work on/finish and I have those other technical issues to take care of and then ordinary life on top of that.

To the Batcave! What? We got rid of that? Ah, fine. I'll settle for my backyard.