Anthea Carson's Blog

I want to tell everyone about a wonderful new book I just discovered called Stephanie

I am always looking for a book I can't put down and I've definitely found it in this one.

Love the characters, so true to life, so real. The story is of a deeply troubled, perhaps even possessed teen who seems hell bent on self destruction, and even becomes dangerous to the other members of her blended family.

It's a must read for anyone dealing with real life issues of drugs and alcohol abuse.

But there is always hope, as this book shows.

I wanted to write Game of Kings because I have spent 20 years playing Tournament Chess and I thought people might find this world intriguing, because of the nature of the game and because of the strange assortment of people I met and got to know.
I chose to use a template plot, and picked my favorite, the tried and true structure of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I did not use the character names, but just the personalities and plot points. I’ve always been intrigued by the brilliance of these plot devices. I love how Lizzy and Mr. Darcy are thrown so believably together by her sister’s love interest in his dearest friend. The chemistry is built into the relationship by the fact that though they dislike each other, they are confined together in a closed space for lengths of time.
Chess tournaments are ripe for this. We often joke that we are really like a big dysfunctional family. Even if you hate each other you might find yourself paired against each other in a game, forced to sit across from each other for as long as 7 hours for a game.
Another feature that I like about Game of Kings is that I didn’t write this one alone, I wrote it as a team with the wonderful editor I used for The Oshkosh Trilogy, DJ Natelson, an author whose work I respect and admire. I believe that working alone I could not have achieved the level of success that Game of Kings has had, because I simply would have put way too much chess in there, and alienated the bulk of my readers.
After all, this book is not for chess players, it is for fans of Jane Austen. And most chess players, as you will learn from the book, are so obsessed with chess they rarely raise their head above the board to look around at the world, much less the romance novels contained in it.

Here is a quote from a recent review about The Oshkosh Trilogy that summarizes something unique about this story.



The reviewer says : I'd recommend "The Dark Lake" to readers who like suspense that's character driven--it's also worth noting that this book happens chronologically after the two sequels. I liked this technique as a kind of delayed gratification--the secret to Jane's past and current troubles is revealed slowly, and reading the entire series gives you an almost eerie sense of foreboding; something bad awaits her, and you know that in advance, so the pleasure of the story is seeing the slow unspooling of how it came about.

Thin Ice (The Oshkosh Trilogy) is free today (November 25, 26)

I have found it difficult to finish The Bird's Nest. Not just because it's so weird, and dated. But because I have a terrible tendency to rip books to shreds, literally. The book completely fell apart and I would have had to collect the last loose 40 or so pages and number them.
I did the same thing to Faulkner's The Sound and the Furybut in the case of that book I just had to finish it. I even then read an online version with a key so I could understand it.
I didn't have that same passion for Shirley Jackson's book, although I did want to know what the significance of the bird's nest in the story actually was. Something clearly happened on a beach with a bird's nest to the main character that caused her personality to fracture.
I made the mistake of buying a used copy with really small print in both cases. Perhaps if I had just invested in a larger print copy I could have saved both paperback's lives and my eyesight.
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill Houseis definitely on my list of rereads, and eventually I must find out what happened on the beach with the bird's nest, so I suppose I'll have to get another copy, as I have long since decluttered the last one into the trash.

I recently finished reading Perceval.
Perceval by Chretien de Troyes, written in 12th century France, contains the inspiration for TS Eliot's .
I recommend this book to anyone who loves medieval history, poetry, King Arthur and fantasy. Full of colorful imagery and metaphor too sophisticated for the time in which it is written, this book is enjoyable on many different levels.
I read the Wasteland in conjunction with the desolation of the land of the Fisher King, savoring the beauty of both of the side by side.

I recently finished an interesting book called You came Back, about the experience of grief in losing a child. .

I thought this book showed the depths of grieving very well and highly recommend it.

I am lucky and grateful to say I have never experienced the death of a child,I would imagine such a thing very difficult to survive.

This book showed the depths of despair and the lengths one may go to in preserving that stage of grief known as denial.

I found a very interesting Interesting book available on dream interpretation:

http://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Dr...

Interpreting Dr3AM5

Scripturally based interpretations based on symbology directly from images in the Bible.

Always 99 cents!

Forgotten Word
by Sam Jane Brown

Zena McGrath is a detective working for an International Police Organisation at their Dublin Office. A routine day is turned upside down when she receives a call from her boss in the New York office.

I am looking forward to the release tomorrow of taRNished. I enjoyed his other book and this looks like a great one too from the description.

"Killing patients in the ICU became a thrill for Dale, RN until his equally prolific murdering mother started feeling threatened by his new girlfriend while working in the same hospital. Will mothers love trump the new love in his life?"

And the author is a registered nurse so should be authentic read.

Free today! I highly recommend this charming, fun Science Fiction about a middle school girl alien who is supposed to eat earthlings but falls in puppy love with one. Delightful!