Return to Labyrinth

Have you ever been at a party and had someone mention... the macarena or something similar, and before you know it, a whole pile of 20-somethings are on their feet, singing along, doing all the movements, generally making right eijits of themselves, and loving it?

Well, my version of that occurs at least twice a year. I'll be at some do or other and someone will say 'You remind me of the babe...' 

And before I know it, we're replying:

'what babe?', 

'the babe with the power...', 

'what power?', 

'the power of voodoo, 

'who do?', 

'you do, you remind me of the babe!'

If you've seen the Labyrinth, and loved it, chances are you knew what I was typing before you read it! 

If you've seen it and didn't like it...then this might not be the blog post for you(but you'll probably find something else you like!).

If you haven't seen it...yet... I envy you!!! 

The Labyrinth is a 1986 film, directed by Jim Henson (The Muppet's!), produced by George Lucas (some space based trilogy, twice), and designed by Brian Froud (who created the good faeries/bad faeries book, amongst others). 

More importantly, it stars a be-wigged, all singing, all dancing, all Lycra wearing David Bowie, as Jared, alongside an enchanting and enigmatic Jennifer Connelly as Sarah.

The film follows the adventures of Sarah Williams, a 15 yr old girl struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother, her father's remarriage, and her relationship with her baby brother Toby. During a fit of rage, she wishes the baby away with the goblins, and to her shock, the baby vanishes. 

He has been kidnapped by Jared, the King of the Goblins, who is in love with Sarah, but has a rather strange way of wooing her. She has only 13 hours to learn the tricks of the labyrinth or she will lose her baby brother for ever (such a pity...). 

On her journey, she meets the weird and wonderful, makes some true friends and finds that life is not always as it seems. It's all very surreal and wonderful (gotta love the MC Escher inspired ending), and there is singing and dancing galore, by creatures of all sorts and shapes. For years, it has been one of my favourite films, and I would have happily chewed off my own arm for some sort of a sequel. 

Turns out, they didn't need my arm!

The wonderful people at Tokyo Pop have released a four part comic series, designed to bring the legendary world back to life, and up to date. 

It is set some 15 years in the future, and little Toby - now a rather blase, yet hapless teenager - is the hero of the books...though Sarah does make her presence felt too!

The characters that we know and love are all present and correct (Jared, Ludo, Sir Didymus and of course, Hoggle), though the focus is on new ones. Though very different (in that durr, it's a different format completely sort of way), I do think that the spirit... the heart of the original lives on in a glorious fashion!

Everyone that I have lent these too has loved them, almost as much as the original film. So, if you are a fan, I can't recommend these enough! If you merely liked the film, but are looking to explore the world of comics more, this is a great introductary set. I know that it's contrary to all comic conventions, but these are set out in western linear fashion - you don't have to read em backwards. I find reading backwards disorientating with comics. My eyes automatically move in the wrong direction, so this was fantastic.

If you fancy em, I know that OK Comics have had em in the past, and are rather super about ordering stuff in (and lending a patient ear when you want something but can't remember the name!). I imagine that they will be available competively priced online, though I obviously haven't looked (never understood that tendency myself) - I have mine now!

(As for me, I've started collecting the sister series - a sequel to the Dark Crystal! 2 down, 2 to go)

Richard and Judy - Decade's top 100

So, Richard and Judy have just released their list of the 

Top 100 Most Inspiring Reads of the Decade

Personally, I think it's a bit of a silly name as list names go, but the books seem to be fairly representative of the styles of books that have been on offer the last ten years.

So, I've only read 36 of the 100 listed here - to be honest - I thought that it might have been a bit more, but I guess I can always take on one of these if the Booker Challenge becomes too exhausting, and work my way up! 
Funny thing is, I'm so entrenched in my ways! The books I've read, are pretty much the ones I liked the look/sound of, and the ones I haven't are ones I probably wouldn't have chosen for myself anyway! Still, expanding repertoire and all that!


If you fancy it, post your 'results' in the comments section, and at the end of the year, we'll see if we've moved up any!

A Place of Secrets Rachel Hore

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years Townsend, Sue

Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: The Mo Macintyre, Ben

Alone in Berlin Fallada, Hans

American Wife Sittenfeld, Curtis

Angel's Game, The Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

AtonementMcEwan, Ian

Bad Science Goldacre, Ben

Before I Fall Oliver, Lauren

Book Thief, The Zusak, Markus

Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Boyne, John

Brisingr Paolini, Christopher

Case Histories Atkinson, Kate

Change in Altitude, A Shreve, Anita

Child 44 Smith, Tom Rob

Children's Book, The Byatt, A.S.

Cloud Atlas Mitchell, David

Corrections, The Franzen, Jonathan

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Haddon, Mark

Da Vinci Code, The Brown, Dan

Duma Key King, Stephen

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Gilbert, Elizabeth

Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Barbery, Muriel

Engleby Faulks, Sebastian

Exit Music Rankin, Ian

Five People You Meet in Heaven, The Albom, Mitch

Ghost, The Harris, Robert

Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest,The: Millennium Trilogy Larsson, Stieg

Girl Who Played with Fire,The: Millennium Trilogy Larsson, Stieg

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The: Millennium Trilogy Larsson, Stieg

Greatest Show on Earth,The: The Evidence for Evolution Dawkins, Richard

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Shaffer, Mary Ann & Barrows, Annie

Half of a Yellow Sun Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda

Help, The Stockett, Kathryn

Host, The Meyer, Stephenie

House at Riverton, The Morton, Kate

Interpretation of Murder, The Rubenfeld, Jed

Island, The Hislop, Victoria

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke

Kite Runner, The Hosseini, Khaled

Labyrinth Mosse, Kate

Lacuna, The Kingsolver, Barbara

Last Fighting Tommy, The: The Life of Harry Patch, the Only Surviving Veteran of the Trenches Patch, Harry & Van Emden, Richard

Lieutenant, The Grenville, Kate

Life of Pi Martel, Yann

Little Stranger, The Waters, Sarah

Making of Modern Britain, The Marr, Andrew

Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Edwards, Kim

Most Wanted Man John Le Carre

Murder Room PD James

My Sister's Keeper Picoult, Jodi

Never Let Me Go Ishiguro, Kazuo

No and Me Delphine de Vigan

No Time for Goodbye Barclay, Linwood

Noah's Compass Tyler, Anne

Norwegian Wood Murakami, Haruki

One Day Nicholls, David

Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of WWII. Ben Macintyre

Other Hand, The Cleave, Chris

Other Queen, The Gregory, Philippa

Outcast, The Jones, Sadie

PS, I Love You Ahern, Cecelia

Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Hamid, Mohsin

Remarkable Creatures Chevalier, Tracy

Restless William Boyd

Road Home, The Tremain, Rose

Road, The McCarthy, Cormac

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Torday, Paul

Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, The Kinsella, Sophie

Secret Life of Bees, The Kidd, Sue Monk

Secret Scripture, The Barry, Sebastian

Sepulchre Mosse, Kate

Shack, The Young, William P.

Shadow of the Wind, The Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

Short History of Nearly Everything, A Bryson, Bill

Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, A Lewycka, Marina

Sister Rosamund Lupton

Small Island Levy, Andrea

Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor

Starter for Ten Nicholls, David

Suite Francaise Nemirovsky, Irene

Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Levitt, Steven D. & Dubner, Stephen J.

Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, The: The Murder at Road Hill House Summerscale, Kate

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built McCall Smith, Alexander

Tenderness of Wolves Stef Penney

The Crying Tree Naseem Rakha

The Observations Jane Harris

The Snowman Jo Nesbo

The Wilding Maria McCann

Thirteenth Tale, The Setterfield, Diane

Thousand Splendid Suns, A Hosseini, Khaled

Time Traveler's Wife, The Niffenegger, Audrey

Tipping Point, The: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell

Very Thought of You, The Alison, Rosie

Waiting for Columbus Thomas Trofimuk

We Need to Talk About Kevin Shriver, Lionel

White Tiger, The Adiga, Aravind

Winter in Madrid Sansom, C. J.

Wolf Hall Mantel, Hilary

World without End Follett, Ken

First big book club meeting...

...will be up later this week. This is not THAT blog.

I just wanted to say that I was thrilled by the meeting that we had tonight! It was brilliant to put faces to twitter names...and actual names, and I always love being connected with other bookie people, so even before the meeting had started, I was in hog heaven!

So, thanks so much to those who made it, and look forward to meeting you in early March (date to be confirmed here)! Our next book choice is 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

And if you are half thinking about coming along - DO SO! 

You'll meet some great people, and we'll natter about lots of different types of books. 

Also, there is the wonderful travelling suitcase library at the same event, so bring any books you want to swop, and feel free to take your pick of the books on offer! (blog linked on the top bar!)

Falling For A Dancer

If you've read any of the Steelathon you may be forgiven for thinking me a heartless, emotion-free freak heart-made-of-stone balls-to-love-er. This would be a pretty fair assessment of my attitude towards a certain myth, that of "romantic" love, the one-look-into-their-eyes-lost-forever love (that's lust. Once againLust. .

I do, however, believe in Actual Love-that is a combination of respect, lust, appreciation, trust, and friendship between two persons that leads to them regarding each other above all others.

This albeit highly cynical and unromantic viewpoint doesn't stop me from squealing like a hamster that's being held too tight whenever I see "love" acted out in front of me. Being a Hormonal Wreck a good 40% of the time I literally cry at anything. Pictures of cute baby elephants? A slight tightening in my chest. The "True Life" bits in That's Life magazine? Eyes welling. The bit off Love Actually where he's standing at Keira Knightly's door with the cards and the Silent Night and the 'you to me are perfect'? Sobbing. Three hours of constant, wrenching, dehydrating sobbing. True Story.

When helping N with her book shelves a couple of weeks ago, I (of course) borrowed a fair few. One of which was Falling For A Dancer by Deirdre Purcell. Now N's collection is as eclectic as mine, don't get me wrong, but a floaty-fonted front cover with Colin Farrell looking all kinds of lovely in white shirt and waistcoat combo was not what I was expecting to find.

The book tells the story of Elizabeth and here's when I insert the ***CONTAINS SPOILERS*** warning cos I'm going to to talk about the the end of the book and I really really want more people to read this one

Elizabeth is 19 in 1937, living in Cork City, the only daughter of prosperous, middle class, respectability. When she meets George, an actor in a travelling theatre she falls head over heels in what she believes to be love with him. He is, of course, a Bastard, married, who sleeps with her and allows her to follow him around like a lovesick puppy for a summer ruining her reputation in the process and then drops her for the bright lights of Hollywood.

Elizabeth soon realises she is pregnant. This is handled beautifully by the author. Living where she does at the time she does her options are limited and in the end it her parents who make the decision for her; she must marry, and fast.

A Man is found in the shape of Neely Scollard, who lives with his four children out on the West Coast of Ireland, in a slightly dilapidated farm. The television adaptation, which I have also watched this weekend, shows the gritty awfulness of the countryside beautifully. The rugged landscape, steep-as hills (and having spent a very wet week on the West Coast I can testify both to the beauty, and the thighachingly steepness of the cliffs), randomly placed farms next to even more randomly placed ruins of old farms, the roads, the muck, it's all there. And the men walk around in the ol' white shirts and waist coast combo, which I have No Problem With but seriously have these people never heard of coats? A cardigan at least? Brrr.

Neely is predictably awful, though far far worse on screen than on paper, but the community accepts her and her Bastard Child, and Elizabeth settles into 'making the best of things'.

Six years on and Elizabeth is bored, repressed, depressed and frustrated. Three living children later, she is no more than a drudge, with no excitement past the occasional church "do". Neely tries his best but doesn't understand her and it is only her friendly neighbour Tilly that offers any true support. When Tilly invites her to go see a travelling theatre company it is nothing more than an innocent excursion, until it turns out that George is one of the company.

The seeing of George again after all that time re-awakens something in Elizabeth. She tells him he has a son, and to go to hell, but it doesn't matter, she has Been Seen and returns to her husband brandishing her a slut.

At this point I was about halfway through the book and no closer to figuring out what Colin Farrel had to do with any of this when Elizabeth meets Danny McCarthy. Nineteen, handsome, and desperately in love with Elizabeth, she completely looses her senses. Flattered by his attention, she once again believes herself in love with someone when actually, its lust. A dance in the town leads to trouble as Elizabeth allows herself to have fun in the arms of a man that isn't her husband. The town in scandalised, Neely goes berserk and tragedy unfolds.

And thus starts the second half of the book. Having taken one million words to go through the first half, I'm not going to do the second. Its very complicated involving murder, deceit, another pregnancy and the most tragic fall off a horse since Gone With The Wind's Bonny croaked 50 pages before the end on the book.

The TV version is veeeeerrry different from the book, not always in ways I disapprove of. I am going to talk about one last thing though, and that is the ending.

Throughout the book there is one character who is always a bit of a mystery. Mossie, Neely's neighbour, is just "there" for most of it, so when he proposes to Elizabeth it comes as a bit of a shock. Its very very funny (and this bit in the TV version had both N and myself cringing into out pillows), but also kind of tragic. It is only at the very end that Mossie, played with smouldering brilliance by Liam Cunningham (snarf snarf one of them please. (Must Not Objectify Must Not Objectify)) comes into his own. When invited to have his birthday tea at there's by Elizabeth's daughter, he interrupts proceedings by pinning her against the wall, confessing undying love for her, snogging her brains out and then shagging her, after she's realised that she's been a dumb-ass for long enough of course!

The last scene of the book had me squealing with joy. As a woman who knows that there's a side to herself that wouldn't have been acceptable in 1930s Ireland either, if you know what I'm saying, I identified a lot with Elizabeth. I can't even begin to imagine how awful it must be not to be able to make choices about if you should be able to become a mother, no choice as to who you marry, where you live or how you live. And no idea that its OK to just fancy someone. Its OK to just have sex with someone (as long as its safe and enthusiastically consenting). The problem with quite a lot of "romantic fiction" is that is always has to be love, no matter what. Danny McCarthy, gorgeous and highly shaggable though he is, is not Elizabeth's equal when it comes down to it, but there's nothing wrong with that.

When Mossie does his Thang (at which point the Bar for all Future Possible Interests was raised once again, sorry All Men), Elizabeth realises that he is in love with her because he loves her, and he also wants her. There's is a meeting of minds, and bodies. The last scene is them in bed together, spent (horrid word but highly appropriate) and is just so perfect in the completion of Elizabeth growing from naive young girl thinking herself in love to mature sexually awoken woman who is comfortable with her best friend and lover.

The TV version ruins this. They get married (in the book they already are-told you it was complicated), and do a weird little dance-floor kiss watched by their neighbours. Pathetic. What makes this even worse is that Liam Cunningham is so ridiculously fit I feel I was denied a serious investment in the bank watching him ravish Elizabeth Dermot-Walsh (perfect casting all round). I spent a good five minutes shouting at N's television at this betrayal to possibly the most sensory awakening love scene I've read in a bloody long time. Not Pleased.

Read the book. I know I've already told you the ending, but read the book. It's too good to miss out on and I am once again flabbergasted I've not read it before.

Just don't watch the last five minutes of the TV version. Use your imagination. I guarantee it'll be better.

Happy Reading!
BookElf xxx

Big Announcement the First!

BOOKELF and AVIDREADER are delighted to present....

the LeedsBookClub podcast!

We're arrogant enough to believe that our ramblings on books, life and the world arround us might be of interest to other book minded people!

Each month or so, we're going to record a podcast on the books that we've been reading. 

Our first podcast will be released via the blog, and itunes (as soon as I figure out how to do that exactly).

First up:

'Better bring a torch, it's going to get dark'

We will be looking at the following YA series

• The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper