thebookcoven

[thebookcoven]

I'd like to put the book "The Moon and the Sun" by Vonda McIntyre on the table as our next read. Especially since the movie adaptation is poised to be released April 10th of this year.  If we don't read it together; I'm reading it anyway. It sounds fantastic.

[thebookcoven]

I am so glad I'm not the only one! I've been feeling bad this whole time...

i am a horrible pleb but i cannot actually stand reading the - yes - NOBEL FUCKING PRIZE WINNING NOVEL BY RENOWNED AUTHOR GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ.

witches, i have tried so hard to love this book, i wanted so very much to love this shit out of this book, i was so stoked to read it and enjoy it...

[thebookcoven]

i am a horrible pleb but i cannot actually stand reading the - yes - NOBEL FUCKING PRIZE WINNING NOVEL BY RENOWNED AUTHOR GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ.

witches, i have tried so hard to love this book, i wanted so very much to love this shit out of this book, i was so stoked to read it and enjoy it but i hate it so much, and then i hate myself for hating it, and then it becomes a feedback loop.

i understand why he's a great author and why this is a great book...maybe i'm too far from my English days now and too deep into trashy detective novels, but i can't do it. i will keep trying.

I AM SO SORRY.

[thebookcoven]

Witches, this book tho

[thebookcoven]

and so it has begun! Really excited to read this book. It’s about time I did.

[thebookcoven]

The Mummy was, all in all, a pretty enjoyable read. There were a lot of times where I had hoped Rice would develop some thing or another, and the fact that she chose to dangle pieces of a broader story throughout kept me Googling for more. Most of the time the characters were simply too familiar to other insufferable characters I've encountered (read any of the vampire hunter series by Laurell K Hamilton and you'll understand). But, as an avid fan of British mystery novels, I can't say I ultimately disliked it. Anne Rice did a pretty smart thing capitalizing on the Egyptomania coursing through detective brit-lit at the time and not without adding in her own spices. So, altogether I'd give it a three on a scale to ten. It was a perfect "laying in the sun" read to end the summer with.

[thebookcoven]

I figure if we all have goddess/witch names for BookCoven, we should share a bit about them. Hel/Hella is pretty rad. From paganwiccan.com: 

"In Norse mythology, Hel features as the goddess of the underworld. She was sent by Odin to Helheim/Niflheim to preside over the spirits of the dead, except for those who were killed in battle and went to Valhalla. It was her job to determine the fate of the souls who entered her realm.

Hel is often depicted with her bones on the outside of her body rather than the inside. She is typically portrayed in black and white, as well, showing that she represents both sides of all spectrums.

She is a daughter of Loki, the trickster, and Angrboda. "

Goddesses of the North_Hel by ansfhd

[thebookcoven]

Newbie

I am new to bookcoven (HEY Y'ALL!) so I didn't get the chance to read The Mummy, though I'm really intrigued/pleased/excited that even though the book appears to have been less-than-amazing, you ladies are still giving pretty stimulating reviews. I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK. I've never read anything by Gabriel García Márquez and I need to put a stop to that!

[thebookcoven]

The Mummy

Okay, where do I start with my feelings on this book?

First let me confess that I really had to face up to my “book snob” training on this one, which was a really great thing to do at the outset of this book club! OPEN MINDEDNESS IS THE ONLY WAY. I know it will help me A LOT if I can get over The Academy’s “what is literature” BS, so I am really glad we started here.

Though I  complained about it (which I am not proud of but deserves mentioning in the interest of honesty), I actually enjoyed getting out of my headspace and into this fluffy-but-with-more-corpses style romance!

It was pretty archaic in terms of plot and full of tropes (Forbidden love! Unusual-but-Why? female characters who only develop in the direction of the libido! And Anne Rice’s favorite, the Strong Suffering Alpha Male!) but it had a few moments where it brushed up against things I was interested in. Turns out, Anne Rice has some interesting ideas about language! My pet project! For example, Ramses says to Julie as he learns English: “Language is names, Julie. Names for people, objects, what we feel.” Pretty insightful, I thought. And on page 188:

“‘Explain what you mean,’ Elliot asked when Ramsey said that Latin made possible a whole new kind of thinking. ‘Surely the ideas came first and then the language to express them.’

'No, that's not true. Even in Italy where the tongue was born, the language made possible the evolution of ideas which would have been impossible otherwise.'”

I so wish she had built on this! This is a fantastic snippet of an idea I am obsessed with - where language ends and creativity begins! And how we, as humans, communicate our ideas by distilling them into categories. Really really neat, but sadly she didn’t run with it. The discussion ends right there and Ramses bitches about Italy for awhile.

Actually, I think that was my major problem with this book: She didn’t run with any of it! It was a cool set up, and could be a really fun and erotic romp! But Anne Rice gives up the ghost early on, and well, plays into her standard conservatism. I wished for a bolder approach, in all ways.

I would only give this book a 1 out of 5 stars, or a 2.5 out of 10. Not my favorite, though I certainly enjoyed the brain relaxation!

- Sorceress

What do you think?

[thebookcoven]

The Mummy: Thoughts from Hella

So, The Mummy was more or less my demand at the first book. I read it for the first time when I was in 7th grade, and I loved it. And as a "paranormal teen romance" book (which is probably not how it was intended, but it definitely foresaw the coming Twilight wave, as did all of Anne Rice's books basically), it stands up. 

However, reading it as an adult was a totally different experience. First of all, I found Julie and Ramses insufferable. Ramses is an unapologetic hedonist and narcissist, and not in the charming way. The only thing he really has going for him is he's attractive and crazy intelligent, which is a byproduct of being immortal. Julie's supposed to be "ahead of her time" but she's just irritating to me, and she seems to become less and less complex as her only focus in the novel is Ramses, and banging Ramses, and looking at Ramses, and being flustered by how damn hot Ramses is and how hot her loins burn for him.

I was also kinda disappointed at how Rice basically hardly gave even a nod to what was happening in Egypt during the era The Mummy is taking place. Basically a bunch of white dudes were sacking graves and robbing them, under the guise of "discovery". And Rice had the perfect fucking outlet to explore this: RAMSES THE FRIGGIN' GREAT. He is newly awakened in 'modernity' and travels back to Egypt, but instead of being able to hear his thoughts on what has occurred/is occurring there, which could be a pretty interesting commentary on the cultural robbery and re-appropriation of Ancient Egyptian culture, he just gets sad then fucks Julie in a tent and feels better. Ramses literally just gets a little emo and then is over it. Over the raiding of everything he knew while he lived - even the second time he was awakened by Cleopatra. Also if we could hear or see some of his inner dialogue or even outer dialogue about this, it would have perhaps made his character bearable instead of a man-child who follows the whims of his penis.

Anyway, I was kinda disappointed by this book, but it did a lot of things really well. I feel like it really captured the essence of the Mummy movies of yore, and the historical fascination with and "discovery" of Ancient Egypt, and the rumours of curses and Pharaohs and all the stories that are known very well worldwide. It definitely captured the romance (both "big R" and "little r") of the rising and curses of dead kings, and the seductive mystery of that, and for me the novel was enjoyable based on that criteria alone. It's a superficial novel, to be sure.

I'm excited for our next book...I've never read Love in the Time of Cholera.

[thebookcoven]

Officially kicking off the first ever book coven forum discussion:

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights