"You might like...."

[Alibangbang]

......to read"


"You might like to read....." are words nicely situated in the middle of page 122, of a book, that have been on my “to read list” for a while, that I only got to, this week. The book was on loan from a good friend on proviso, she gets it back in 5 days for her transatlantic flight. I scramble ---no time to waste.

“The Thirteenth Tale” is a brilliant debut novel by Diane Setterfield. It’s multi-layered, story-within-a-story gothic tale I can only describe as, unputdownable.

To all you book lovers out there, please, please, check this out you’ll be glad you did.

K-Spy, I'm not asking you, I beseech you to read it if you haven't already. (unaha naah ini p-l-e-a-s-e) Check your email. Come, let's join Margaret and her “hot cocoa”.

Happy reading you all......

[kampanaryo_spy]

abb,

no, i haven't heard of the book but i'll take your word that it's a must read! nobody here has it, and that makes it sad.

[Alibangbang]

K-Spy,

I think that we need to change that. You then can pass it around

[Alibangbang]

K-Spy,

Pag abot namo kabii ga trang-ka dayon ako sa kowarto to take my missed dose of tagosds.org hahaha....

Koman pag lingi ko ga pilok-pilok an message button nan answering machine. Dili konasa gud ini reparahon kay kon dili kami sakpan sa bay mo tawag sa sa cel demodo panagsahi da na may mag bilin nan message.

An message galaong Darling it's me. I'm calling from Athens. I'm at the airport. Did you get it? It was orgasmic why you didn't tell me you DORK!!! See you Monday Happy Thanksgiving ...don't get fat. Love to the family.

hahahaha... K-Spy problem is I have no idea what Helena is talking about. Siya an ga pabus sa ako nan Thirteenth Tale.

Then it dawned on me. K-Spy tabang maboang ako.....

Elizabethan isab ini na babaye. OO agaw K-Spy maka high when the connection is made. Please himo-on takaw na sounding board naay okay then you can correct me. My thoughts are in mishmash pero sege lamang we will sort this out later.

Diane Setterfield admired the work of Novelist, Essayist Virginia Woolf born Adeline Virginia Stephen. Now isn't it a coincidence that she named one of the twin in the book Adeline? . The author (Diane)said she studied and pored over "Mrs Dalloway" for months.

In the book... I picked up (subliminal) but I blow if off ---very slight subtle hint of lesbianism.

Protagonist/narrator, Margaret is hired by the dying Vida Winter to write her biography.

Now let's bring in "facts" the personal life of Virginia Woolf. Before she tragically drowned herself by putting stones on her pockets and walked into the river near her home, she had a torrid love affair with yet another famous writer, poet, novelist and gardener Vita Sackville-West aka The Honorable Lady Nicolson.

Vita Sackville-West is an heiress but unfortunately being a woman she was denied her vast wealth and fortune because it was entailed to a male line in the family. The estate went to a male cousin. She married a writer and MP (member of parliament) Harold Nicolson.

The husband and wife, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson had an open marriage. Both bisexual, they peppered their marriage with same-sex affairs but they always returned to each other sleeping in separate bedrooms nevertheless under the same roof. They died pennyless but aside from their writing they left a lasting legacy (where they spent most of their money). They designed and built a garden in Kent. The Sissinghurst Castle Garden. (God willing a place I must visit someday)

Now for the cream---let's incorporate the facts and fiction that makes Thirteenth Tale truly a THIRTEENTH TALE. But ....Oh... K-Spy, I will spoil it for you. Shall I continue?

K-Spy, Helena is right. What Diane Setterfield did --- she took ideas from the lifestyle of the early 1900's writers, and marry it to her literary work of today. For us Elizabethan ---as you call it --- when we put the puzzle together the result is orgasmic.

An imo copya hapit na molarga.

[kampanaryo_spy]

and so who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

if this book is orgasmic, then it's better than sex because you see, sex doesn't always lead to orgasm the way good books do. nyahahahahaha

[Insomada]

Abbs & Kamps,

Since Abbs posted this book, I was then eager to have a copy of it. Only that I had just started “A Twist in the Tale” by Jeffrey Archer. Till now I’m not even halfway with the book. Nevertheless, off I went to the bookshop during one of my lunch breaks. Found and purchased the “The Thirteenth Tale.” When I tried to read it, there was some kind of unnerving feeling that engulfed me. The book certainly got the better of me. “The Thirteenth Tale” and yet there was only 12….…..so far!! I was captivated by it that I had to set aside A Twist in the Tale for now.

I certainly join Margaret having a cup of cocoa (for me tea) at his dad's book shop.

Abbs this is what I can say; as the story unfolds I could immediately foresee premonitions of disaster when Isabelle’s mum died. A mother’s absence in the children’s lives is an unhealthy phenomenon. And so it did to Isabelle when she eloped and came back with twins……......... abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

[Alibangbang]

K-Spy,

Hahahaha you are very perceptive. When I got to "Fossilized Tears" about 2/3 of the book, I can honestly say I begun to experience a sinister feeling of thirteenth tale withdrawal. I was sad to be approaching the ending

Insom,

So happy you're reading it. Enjoy…..

As you may have already discovered, the author has woven a story so dense yet the reader risks falling into its trap of simplicity if they do not pay close attention to what is happening. Be careful not to fall into her trap.

Here’s a trick that will fully enable you to get full benefit of this book. To see the symmetry, try not to get too close, you won’t see a thing or worse, be lead to believe you've seen everything. Imagine yourself gazing at works of Monet, Renoir or Degas. Stand too close, all you see is ancient canvass and blob of colored oil paint but, step back and wa lah….breathtaking works of art.

It is this that makes me a lover of books set in bygone eras. Or in this case, this one. Our imagination goes into overdrive .

Have fun with it.

K-Spy,

You might wonder why I've mentioned the father of impressionism and his fellow impressionist - French; Claude, Auguste and (Hilaire-Germain) Edgar? Just a thought that crossed my mind because Diane Setterfield is a former academic, specializing in 20th century French literature so I can only articulate, art as well. Maybe I'm over analyzing but I sense abstract expressionism.

Can't wait for her 2nd book.

[Alibangbang]

Insom,

This is very, very interesting. I'm trying to understand the marketing demographic of this book in Australia. An cover amo dasa na an ila paga target female readers. For the guys, case in point ini nan cliche na “don’t judge the book by its cover”

Lahi an cover nan UK/US issue - intriguing - indicative that the publisher is targeting both male and female readers.

uhmmm never mind just thinking out loud.

[kampanaryo_spy]

INSOMS,

Ka abtiki mo. i'll save my comment on the book 'til after it reaches me. thanks to abb.

am glad you read archer. until now when i think of the ending of KANE and ABEL, a sense of regret engulfs me.


ABB,

now you "turn me on!" and i agree; while it's an interesting cover, it's the type that could scare off male readers! but having said that, i quote melanie marquez who paraphrased her incomparable self, thus: DON'T JUDGE THE BOOK, COVER IT!

[Alibangbang]

but having said that, i quote melanie marquez who paraphrased her incomparable self, thus: DON'T JUDGE THE BOOK, COVER IT!

K-Spy,

hahahahaha madayaw gani wara ma BOOK THE JUDGE!!!

[Insomada]

Abbs & Kamps,

When I was yet planning to the buy book I was thinking of how the cover would look like. Yes, I was myself, puzzled of how the publisher chose such cover. My concept was; the two girls on the cover represent the twins, Adelline and Emmeline who the former turned out to be Miss Vira Winter. Amo gayod, the cover of the book depicts a good paradigm to the cliché don't judge the book……

Before I even got to the third page of the book I was already overwhelmed of how it was written. Setterfield's imagination is unbelievable. Gothic story superbly written that could be well appreciated if the reader puts his/her perceptiveness in motion. In the lexicon of the English language til now I'm still in search of adjectives that would best describe how the book was written. Thanks Abbs for featuring it here. Adoy, na lalong maghinamhinam si Kamps.

Yes the story is so dense and couldn't yet imagine what's her trap. Maybe I'm too slow on the uptake.

Yes, that's what I'm doing when I read this book. I imagine myself reading it at the confines of the massive and expansive Elizabethan home. Then suddenly an eerie sound comes and cold murmur of soft wind touches my shoulder-length hair saying "Insomada komusta na kaw? Dali iban ngadi ato tan-awon an lubong nan mga Anlelfields". Ay na, huwata dakan Kamps, basta malami lagi. Nakakainis lang as I couldn't read it thoroughly in one go cause of so much to do.

Kamps, I'm happy to hear that Jeffrey Archer is one of your favourite authors. I just got the book from our kitchen sink at work. I started reading this to veer away reading almost all of John Grishams.

[kampanaryo_spy]

INSOMS,

can't wait for the book, even if "A Thousand Splendid Suns" keeps on winking at me, begging me to pick it up. hahaha

I'd rather you read the earlier books of Archer, they're much, much better than his more recent books. Same goes for Ludlum, Follet, and Shieldon.

[Alibangbang]

Abbs & Kamps,

Yes the story is so dense and couldn't yet imagine what's her trap.

Insom,

The "trap" I'm referring to is a game the author play with our mind. Sege lamang kon ya tanak kaw kay hibatokan moda. The puzzle will begin to take shape about 2/3 of the book. Hold off naay on the spoilers kay basin dili na ganahan si K-Spy

[kampanaryo_spy]

yay! i already have a copy that came all the way from the big apple!!! and the cover---eyeluvit!

thank you so, so much, abb!

but i'm afraid i can only read this after my lecture on "Stress Management in the Workplace" at SSPSC on 21 December 2007 with about 100 of its teachers as audience. Haven't even finalized my module yet.

ahhh, so many books (i still have to read "A Thousand Splendid Suns!") yet so little time!

[Alibangbang]

K-Spy,

Hahahaha ya 13th tale kaw gayod kay uno iton may kaiban nasa na mansanas

My pleasure... hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Then, may I suggest that you don't open it until you're ready. Ipa basa dakan naah kan Gly.

>>>>>>>>>>>

TKR's Limited release date ngadi 12/14, Nationwide release 12/21. The release has been delayed six weeks because of fear for the safety of three of the movie's Afghan child actors.

K-Spy, I saw Khaled Hosseini yesterday morning on "CBS News Sunday Morning". He confirmed that, for the kids protection they have to be relocated safely out of Kabul and out of Afghanistan. The kids had to remain in Kabul to finish their school year which was December 6th.

In part he said, and I quote "It's very, very upsetting," Hosseini said. "If you see the film, the children are tremendous. I actually met them when they were on the set, and they're beautiful people. The idea that somebody would want to harm them because of their performance in the film, the idea is reprehensible. It bothers me, especially because I think ultimately the film is antithetical to any notions of ugliness and exploitation."

K-Spy, please read on...

"I rarely think about the Afghan and the American sides as separate parts of my life" he said. It's just kind of become this organic existence."

Yet love was an entirely Afghan affair when Hosseini met his future wife Roya, an Afghan-American, 14 years ago. It was at a party when he was away at medical school. He was smitten within an hour of meeting her.

"I gave her a call five days later, proposed over the phone," Hosseini said. "And she was duly stunned. But I had made an impression on her. And so she accepted. More importantly her father accepted."

He asked his father to seek Roya's hand from her father in the traditional Afghan way. That tradition is played out on scene in what Hosseini says is a favorite sequence in "TKR" which was originally a short story. He says he's been writing since he was 8 years old.

"I've always been happiest when I'm kind of indulging the compulsion," Hosseini said. "And it is a compulsion to me. I really wrote all my life until I went to medical school. And then that takes over your whole life."

He only tried to get some of his work published after his wife Roya nudged him a bit. He said portions of the book are autobiographical.

hhhmmmmmm.....