Bookie Brunch: with vvb32 reads in October

Welcome to Bookie Brunch
Founder: Sasha Soren
(Random Magic)
Come join the discussion!
* Every Sunday*
schedule

Today’s host: vvb32 reads - me-me-me
Next week’s host: The Fluidity of Time
This week’s discussion open through: Wednesday, October 19

Guests this week:
Guest blogger: AimeeKay of Reviews From My First Reads Shelf
Guest blogger: Christina the Book Addict
Guest blogger: Sarah Says Read
Guest author: Crystal Johnson, author of The War Game
Guest author: Prue Batten, author of A Thousand Glass Flower

AND, you’re invited!

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QUESTION:
What are your thoughts on books that are an unusual size? (i.e. coffee table books, larger than mass market or trade paperback or hardback, miniatures, non-rectangular, pop-up books)

Related topics to consider:
-Do you own any unusual-sized books?
If so, what was it about them specifically that appealed to you?

-If you don't own any, do you have any on your wishlist?

Please provide title(s) and author(s).

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vvb - the host, first in the hot seat

Brunch Beverage pick: mexican mochaccino (my fave at home drink)

omg! a vlog! -- my first.



While I love unusual sized books because of their unique-ness, I only own a few.

Masked Ball
by Prue Batten
Miniature book: 2 1/4" x 1 1/2"
Hardback: 46 pages with 6 illustrations
My first mini that is a story and not one of those off-the-shelf novelty ones with quotes.

Griffin & Sabine
by Nick Bantock
Size: 8.1 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
Hardback: 48 pages with color illustrations
This is an interactive books with illustrations galore and an actual story told with postcards and letters. I have the trilogy which just thrills me.

Faberge Eggs
Imperial Russian Fantasies Poster Book
by Christopher Forbes
Size: 14.7 x 10.6 x 0.4 inches
Paperback: 64 pages with color photos
One of my favorite coffee table book acquired at a museum influenced by the art exhibit of Faberge eggs.

Bestiary
Poems by the Modern Animal
by Jeff Van Bueren
Size: 9 x 6 inches
Paperback: pages with stamped artwork
Limited edition
Handmade book by the author, my bro-inlaw ;-D

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Guest: AimeeKay of Reviews From My First Reads Shelf

Brunch Beverage pick: A Green Tea Frappucino with whipped topping and caramel from Starbucks! I decided to treat myself to something special for this one.

First I would like to thank Velvet for inviting me to her Bookie Brunch!

I have a love/hate relationship with Books of Unusual Size, or B.O.U.S.'s. (Yes that's a reference to The Princess Bride! Love that book and the movie!) I love them because they are almost always guaranteed to be unique and enjoyable.

Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia
by Christopher Paolini
My collection includes books that are large to books that are small. I especially love my Ology books, Dragonology or Egyptology for example, with their amazing pictures and little add ins. Such as the letters from explorers that are folded and tucked into little envelopes or the dragon scales. But even the ones that are over-sized books are entertaining, with big glossy pictures.

I can't however leave out my smaller books. I have one or two that have found their way to my library by way of my children that hold special places simply because of fond memories. But I also have others that I have collected over the years.


My favorite of these being Caesar's Gallic War, from David McKay Company, Inc. New York, copyrighted 1896 by David McKay. It has been severely beaten on over time, but it still holds a place of high regard in my library if specifically because of its age and size.

The smaller books I always find special because when you hold them it is like holding a special secret. They get lost in the shelves and are pulled as if from no where, it feels as if they have some mysterious importance that must be hidden away again once you are done reading them.

Of course that last part kind of leads into why I hate B.O.U.S.'s. They are almost impossible to shelve!!!! The big ones are sometimes TOO big for the shelves and have to be laid flat. If they have special designs or embossing on the front it makes it hard to stack them that way also. As for the small ones, they get lost so easily amongst regular sized books, or slip back so that there isn't a neat row of bindings, but a small slit left at some point that makes you think all the books aren't placed neatly together. It's very frustrating when you are trying to organize shelves and do away with clutter. Sometimes they are even too small to put with the rest and you have to find someplace special just for them. Which isn't always a bad thing, except when one is pressed for space.


As for ones I do not own, or are on my wish list. I actually would like to acquire the entire Ology series. Such as Monsterology: The Complete Book of Monstrous Beasts by Dr. Ernest Drake and Dugald Steer or Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion (Ologies) by Captain William Lubber and Dugald Steer. There are many more than this, however the list is long and I don't want to take up the whole post! As for smaller B.O.U.S.'s I do not have anything specific on my wish list at this time, however I would love to own a set of those little letters that Velvet uses in the picture on her In My Mailbox posts!

Again thank you Velvet for inviting me, and the drink is delicious! I can't wait to hear other's takes on B.O.U.S.'s and which ones are their favorites!

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Guest: Christina the Book Addict

Brunch Beverage pick: apple juice



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Guest: Crystal Johnson, author of The War Game

Brunch Beverage pick: Spiced Apple Cider, served piping hot!

Answer:: I love unusual sized books, they catch my attention right away. Usually, the books that catch my eye are often graphic novels, photographic memoirs, and just odd little quirky books.

Usually, when a book is oversized, that means that there are fun things to open and discover in them! I love books where you can read “private” letters, unfold clues, and manipulate it so the pictures on the pages move.

Some favorite unusual sized books come to mind:

Lost Girls
by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
This book is an adult graphic novel about Wendy, Alice, and Dorothy (yes, those characters from your favorite children’s literature), uh, “discovering their womanhood.”

Alice in Wonderland Pop-Up
by Robert Sabuda
I used to collect Alice in Wonderland books since the copyright is so old any company can produce their own illustrated versions. I stopped after I got to 25 books (I even found an “Alice In Bibleland”). Some of which were awful, some were great. This one, clearly, falls into the great category.

The Jolly Postman and Other People’s Letters
by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg
My favorite and most coverted book. In elementary school, I would race to get it off the shelves as soon as story time ended. Until I receive a copy from Santa, of course.

Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book
by Terry Jones
A fun and quirky book. It’s fairy good!

FYI: coming soon...

The War Game
by Crystal Johnson
-fantasy, YA
Release date: tba
Pearl, a teenage orphan of a lesbian couple and an illegal citizen of an Untied State, is shuffled around from camp to concentration camp. She meets John at a former amusement park turned prison and they hatch a plan to escape to Canada (because, as the saying goes, “You Can in Canada!”). But various threats-from whispers of “cards”, a place called Camp Z, soldiers doing their daily “shopping”, and an arranged marriage, threaten to tear them apart.

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Guest: Sarah Says Read

Brunch Beverage pick: coffee with italian sweet cream creamer



He's Just Not Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

The Kiss

Great Lies to Tell Small Kids by Andy Riley

Cyanide & Happiness by Kris Wilson, Matt Melvin, Rob Denbleyker and Dave McElfatric

Suggestion by Illegal Art, Michael McDevitt and Otis Kriegel

Santa Claus by Rod Green

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Guest: Prue Batten, author of A Thousand Glass Flowers

Brunch Beverage pick: If it’s a late brunch then I would like champagne with organic Tasmanian strawberries floating in it.

Answer:
I don’t mind at all if it’s an author I like or subject matter I crave. The thing with non-fiction coffee table books is that they are so luscious to look at it, how could anyone not want them, size notwithstanding? But I crave even smaller ones as well… right down to miniatures.

Related topics:

I do. I own a specially large and stunning coffee-table book called Fairie-ality: The Fashion Collection from the House of Ellwand by Eugenie Bird and David Downton, Walker Books, 2002 It is the most superb catalogue of fairie garments actually put together from eclectic botanical pieces. It’s gorgeous!


There are quite a few other books of the same size; in fact I have six bookshelves with quarto-sized books! But from the biggest to the smallest - I have a neat little collection of miniature books on many varied subjects. My favourite miniature currently is Gisborne which is created by Pat Sweet and contains a short story inside written by myself.

With the larger books, it is always subject matter and divine illustrative work. With the miniatures, it is the subject matter, divine illustrative work and the manipulative skill of the artist.

I do have a wishlist:
Andrew Zega’s and Bernt H. Dam’s Architectural Alphabets...

and also another of theirs entitled Chinoiserie...

They are absolutely stunning to look at. Never to be afforded. $US300 for the former and $US1100 for the latter.


And many others by a host of authors, including the miniature Traveler's Library from Bo Press Miniature Books.

FYI: kindle version just released in August...

A Thousand Glass Flowers
by Prue Batten
-fantasy
Release date for print: Christmas 2011

side note: a very happy birthday to Prue today!!!

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Visitors:
Please share your thoughts on the topic in the comments section, so they can be included in the discussion.

And share what brunch beverage you enjoy.

This is an active discussion though Wednesday, so feel free to stop by again later on.

*-*-* B R U N C H goodies *-*-*
WIN this...

Jane's Fame:
How Jane Austen Conquered the World
by Claire Harman
About: When publisher Thomas Cadell declined an unsolicited manuscript offered to him by a Hampshire clergyman in 1797, he made one of the biggest mistakes in publishing history, for the manuscript was an early version of Pride and Prejudice, and the clergyman's daughter was destined to become one of the most recognizable names in literature...
- Claire Harman, author of the book Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World



Shown above: Modern Jane, concept photo by Theo Westenberger; Jane Austen signature circa 1817

Jane’s Fame tells the story of writer Jane Austen’s renown, from the years of rejection the author faced during her lifetime to the global recognition and adoration she now enjoys. Almost two hundred years after her death, Austen remains a hot topic, constantly open to revival and reinterpretation and known to millions of people through film and television adaptations of her work.

In Jane’s Fame, Claire Harman gives us the complete biography - of both the author and her lasting cultural influence. Trade paperback. 320 pages



Shown above: Enjoy a leisurely audio talk by the author about her book, including some quick notes on the private life of writer Jane Austen. Part one of two.



Shown above: Part two of the author's discussion about her book, Jane's Fame.
Mentioned in clips: Becoming Jane | Portraits | Memoir

Browse this book: Preview

Details: This would be an engaging light read for anyone who enjoys Jane Austen's work. To win this brunch gift, please leave email info and thoughtful or interesting comment below. A winner will be picked at random. If host and guests agree that a specific visitor comment is substantial, outstanding, or in some other way has particular merit, they can override random.org pick at their discretion.

International. Through December 15, 2011, 12 midnight EDT.

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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Brought by: Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Explore Random Magic: Amazon | Kindle | YouTube | Tumblr | Twitter

Shown above: Jane Austen portrait
Jane Alert! Please join us at this blog on November 14-19, 2011,
for this year's Pemberley Ball. - save that date!

Last season: The Party Scouts | Gallery of Gowns | Dance Card

Jane Alert! Enjoy spontaneous festivities worldwide - or throw your own party - for Talk Like Jane Austen Day (Oct. 30)

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* Bookie Brunch is a weekly meet-up, held every Sunday, where book bloggers can have a cup of tea and chat about a particular bookie question of interest. The discussion is open from Sunday through Wednesday, and you’re welcome to drop by any time to add your opinion or read what other people have to say. This discussion is open as well to general readers or bloggers in a different field, authors, publishers and publicists. More details can be found here.

Contact Bookie Brunch
Be a guest at an upcoming brunch: @StoryWings
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Suggest a question: @LiederMadchen

* Courtesy guidelines: Thank you for coming! All thoughtful comments will be considered and probably get a response from fellow bloggers. In fact, you’re encouraged to talk about it and share viewpoints or include links to relevant materials. We’d like everyone to have a nice time. Differing viewpoints are just fine, even if strongly expressed, but inflammatory or off-topic comments will be removed.

* image source drinks: champagne-strawberries, hot apple cider, apple juice

* HUGE THANKS to this week's guest bloggers and authors - y'all rock!

Alice, Caterpillar and WereCat

~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
by Crystal Johnson
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Alice wouldn't have known that she had somehow wandered into Wonderland if it hadn't been for the rocking horse chair fly that buzzed in her face and flew off. For all she knew, all that was in front and back, east and west of her was woods and more woods. She held Dinah in her arms tighter the deeper they stepped into the forest.

“No one believes me except you, Dinah,” Alice said this more for herself than for Dinah's sake. She feared she was lost and perhaps not even anywhere near Wonderland, or home, for that matter. Maybe she imagined the little horsefly. She thought about looking for Wonderland another day and just continue to walk in a very straight line so eventually, she'll end up back where she started from.

Alice noted that the mushrooms started to increase in size (or was she the one decreasing?) and variation of color. It wasn't long before the mushrooms reveled her height.

"Geez, Dinah. You seem to be getting heavier by the minute. Would you be content if I didn't carry you anymore?" Before Alice could set the cat down, the cat pushed its back legs against her arms, jumped several feet into the air, and left Alice alone with fresh scratches. Alice started to chase after the cat but she couldn't see where it went, as the moon slipped behind a cloud at the moment, hiding its yellow face, and darkness prevailed.

Alice, having lost Dinah, wanted to cry. She sat down, with her head in her hands and waited for the tears to flow.

“You are a funny looking flower,” said a smoking caterpillar. She (Alice guessed a "she", since the creature had long, flowing hair) slithered down from atop a toad stool and held Alice's dress up with its many hands. Alice, startled, pushed the caterpillar's hands away. “What do you think you're doing?” she demanded.

The caterpillar inhaled and then said simply, “Your petals are drooping.”

“I'm not a flower, I'm a teenage girl,” Alice remarked.

"What's a teenage girl?" the caterpillar asked.

Alice thought for half a moment, "It's like being in between a girl and a woman."

"Oh, yes. Like a werewolf," supposed the caterpillar.

"I am not anything like a werewolf!" Alice started to storm off but just then Dinah, now a small bear with sharp gleaming claws, jumped through the bushes she was hiding in and rubbed against Alice's legs.

"Dinah, you naughty, naughty cat!" exclaimed its owner.

"That's a funny looking cat," huffed the caterpillar while folding its arms.

"Well, she was a cat, before she changed into this," Alice felt compelled to explain.

"Oh, yes, kind of like a werewolf."

"She is not like a werewolf, she isn't anything like a werewolf!"

"She's is, in fact, kind of like a werewolf. Let me spell it out for you,” said the caterpillar coolly. “She’s a…,” she took a hit from her hookah and blew smoke rings, which slowly formed into letters, “W e r e c a t”.

The letters hung in the air until Alice read them out loud, “Were cat? Do you mean to say that she was a cat? As cat is singular?”

“No, you stupid plant. She’s still very much a cat, a werecat. Look at her eyes,” she demanded.

Alice felt obliged to look. Her eyes did, in fact, contain have bright yellow crescent moons.

“Wonderland sure has changed since I came back,” Alice lamented.

“Wonderland? You’re not in Wonderland,” said the caterpillar.

"Why does everything and everyone have to change? I hate it," complained Alice.

"Well," the caterpillar started, "I think it would be shame for one not to change. For example, soon I shall be a butterfly."

"But it's so confusing!"

"I think it's absolutely clear," countered the caterpillar and disappeared through a thick veil of smoke.

Alice, not sure if the caterpillar was listening or even still there, said aloud, "If you're going to argue with me, then I'm just going to leave."

Alice looked towards the tall blades of grass and the mountains of tree stumps.
Alice didn't know which way to go, if she went straight, eventually she would end up in this very spot and she could do without the caterpillar.

Suddenly, Alice had a thought. "Excuse me, if you're still there, which mushroom will make me grow taller? Is it that one?" Alice pointed to a small pale, blue mushroom. She thought that one looked safe, as opposed to the colony of lime green and bright red polka dotted mushrooms, which looked uninviting and toxic.

Alice forgoes waiting for an answer from the caterpillar and takes a small piece of the pale, blue and eats as if it were a slice of tea cake.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't tried that one," the caterpillar takes another puff off the ornate hookah.

Alice ignores this delayed response and nibbles the mushroom until it's gone. Alice feels a tingly sensation, one that she was once familiar with, running from her toes up to her fingers. However, her perspective stayed the same.

The caterpillar announced, "That didn't do nothing."

Alice steps forward and leans her hands and her head on the toad stool.

"I think you mean to say, 'That it didn't do anything', as two negatives would make the sentence imply that something did happen. One negative cancels out the other, you know. I learned that in school,” Alice said haughtily, while happily swishing her tail back and fourth, thumping the toadstool that the caterpillar rested on.

"Kindly remove your tail," the caterpillar said with a stern face.

Confused, Alice noticed looked down and saw a tail. Alice followed the tip of the tail with her eyes and saw that it ended at her derrière. "I have a tail!" Alice shrieked.

"Didn't you have one before," the caterpillar asked.

Alice was flabbergasted. "You thought I was a flower before! What kind of a flower has a tail?!"

The caterpillar perked up and proudly answers, "I know! An Alice Flower!"

"That was a rhetorical question! A question that doesn't need an answer!" Alice turned her nose to the air, stumped away from the toad stool.

Alice, cheeks flushed crimson with embarrassment and anger, the cause namely being corrected numerous times by the caterpillar and now having a tail.

"I didn't know flowers could change their pigmentation," muttered the caterpillar, too quiet for Alice's ears to pick up. The caterpillar smoked and coughed at regular intervals before asking, "What is black and blue and blinks at night?"

Alice sat up as she was willing to change the mood of the conversation. "Oh, I love riddles," she exclaimed. "Um, let's see...blue and black...that blinks at night." Alice sat down on the ground, puzzled over the riddle for a several minutes. Alice threw her hands up in the air and said, "Oh, I give up! So tell me."

"Tell you what?" the caterpillar rudely demanded.

"Tell me what is black and blue and blinks just at night!"

"I don't know. Do you know?"

"What did you ask me a riddle that didn't have an answer!"

"It was a rhetorical riddle."

“There's no such thing!” Alice screamed with such rage that it nearly knocked the poor creature off its toadstool.

“Watch yourself," the creature warned but Alice was already moving on deeper into the woods. "'Tis a full moon tonight."

~end

Were post created for October Trix-n-Treatz by Crystal Johnson
© 2010. All rights reserved.



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by Crystal Johnson
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-+0+o+ Book Giveaway courtesy of author +o+0+-


Thinks and Things
by Crystal Johnson

signup for giveaway here

AND

Leave a comment here for an extra point to go towards the
Alice prize pack giveaway


~*~
* image source from author

-+0+o+ October Trix-n-Treatz schedule +o+0+-

Thinks and Things by Crystal Johnson

Thinks and Things
by Crystal Johnson

Published: 2009
Genre: Fantasy, Novella
Paperback: 102 pages
Rating: 5

Description from lulu:
A story about thinking and believing.

Thinksandthings can hear people's thoughts and turn them into things. However, the world just isn't ready for a farm of Grandma clones or to be introduced to the Durtle (half dog, half turtle creature).

The Fixer repairs the damage some of the thinks have caused. However, when the Witch from the Hansel and Gretel fable escapes to Suburbia, a carousel lion comes to life and terrorizes small towns, and the Big Dipper starts to disappear from the sky, the Fixer has to work faster and harder before these things unfold irreversibly, all while tracking down Thinksandthings.

My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): dandelions
In enjoyed this whimsical set of short shorts set in a novella. With characters named Thinksandthings and Fixer you're in for a gem of a story.

Favorite quote:
Sometimes the mind wanders into a dark, dark, room and then devours the key.
- page 77

Zombie sighting:
The Fixer steps out of his car and approaches a zombie kneeling on a foam pad, pulling out dandelions.
- page 78

Download a free pdf copy from lulu.

OR

-+0+o+ Book Giveaway courtesy of author +o+0+-
2 winners.

Open to all.

Offer ends: October 31, 2010

TO DO (3-parts):

1. Sign the guestbook (if you signed it already in September - no need)

2. Visit the author, Crystal, and leave her a comment.

3. Come back here and share some of her randomness with me in comments.

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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-+0+o+ October Trix-n-Treatz schedule +o+0+-