BoundbyWords: August 2012

Monday, August 20, 2012

REVIEW: A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Title: A Tale Dark & Grimm (#1)

Author: Adam Gidwitz
Genre: Middle Grade Fairy Tale Retelling
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books

Release Date: August 18/2011

Acquired: Library borrow

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

In this mischievous and utterly original debut, Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm-inspired tales. As readers follow the siblings through a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind (and beyond) the bread crumbs, edible houses, and outwitted witches.

Fairy tales have never been more irreverent or subversive as Hansel and Gretel learn to take charge of their destinies and become the clever architects of their own happily ever after.

INTERVIEW: Etiquette for the End of the World by Jeanne Martinet

What or who inspired the storyline for this book?

I had written a lot of humorous guides on subjects of social mores and etiquette, but I really wanted to try my hand at a book that was purely humor. So I started writing a spoof on a self-help guide, which I was going to call Etiquette for the End of the World (this spoof was, more or less, the guide that was eventually folded into the novel). Then I started thinking about the end of the world as a metaphor for personal crises. And that’s when the persona I was using for the “author” of the spoof began to evolve, to take up more space in my imagination, and it became apparent I was really writing a novel. Almost against my will, to tell the truth.

REVIEW: Etiquette for the End of the World by Jeanne Martinet

Title: Etiquette for the End of the World

Author: Jeanne Martinet
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction/Humour
Publisher: Liza Dawson Associates

Release Date: July 31/2012

Acquired: E-arc provided by publisher

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Book Depository

A romantic comedy of post-millennial manners, apocalyptic career moves, and a woman's last chance to get life right...

RULE #1: DON'T PANIC—IT ONLY ATTRACTS THE SHARKS

It's not the end of the world. That's what 39-year-old Tess Eliot has to remind herself after losing her newspaper column ("Tess Knows Best") and being dumped by her boyfriend for a younger woman (a feng shui expert? Really?) Then Tess is hired to write an etiquette guide preparing readers for the Ancient Mayan doomsday of December 21, 2012, and she has to ask herself: Could the world really be coming to an end? At first, Tess fakes her way through chapters like "Boundaries in the Bunker" and "Cannibalism: Yes or No?" But after uncovering a secret plot for world destruction, she is forced to embark on a life-changing odyssey of her own—involving all-too-close encounters with touchy-feely survivalists, conspiracy theorists and one handsome guy who seems way too perfect.