Your Stories #7: The Morganville Vampire Series

Saturday, 2 March 2013

YOUR STORIES discovers the books that are important to you. These articles tell the stories of favourited books and their readers. If you're interested in being interviewed for a future YOUR STORIES feature, please email me at hello[at]ibelieveinstory[dot]com.

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RACHEL CAINE'S THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRE SERIES

CHOSEN BY RACHEL PATRICK

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What compelled you to begin The Morganville Vampire Series?

I believe it was my freshman year of high school, so five or six years ago. I was just getting into reading, thanks to Twilight, and I had a little obsession with vampires. Someone I went to school with had a list of favorite books on their Myspace (yes, it was cool then!) and I saw Glass Houses, the first Morganville Vampires book, on there. I decided to check it out and now I'm in love.

What makes you love this series so much?

This is kind of hard to answer. Why do people love chocolate? Because they do. Because it's delicious and addictive and has so many flavours, from dark to light and everything in-between.

For one, the books have absolutely everything: romance, action, drama, and terror. The feels run the gamut, from a pulsing heart to butterflies devouring my stomach. The story is so cool and, thirteen books in, I'm not ready for it to end. I can re-read it over and over and keep falling in love. Vampires and humans (somewhat) coexisting in a modern day town? SWEET. And the characters: my sweet babies. It may sound weird, but it kind of feels like I know them. I was out and about once and was hit with this sudden picture: Claire, Shane, Michael, and Eve just standing there on the sidewalk, looking so realistic.

Do you have a a favourite quotation from the series?

I don't have a specific quote, but I'll always love words exchanged between Claire and Shane, as well as all the crazy things Myrnin says.

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Rachel Patrick is a somethingteen-year-old who would like a one way ticket to Neverland. Her middle name is Awkward. She's attending college to work towards being a better writer, and she hopes to some day have her name on shelves around the world. She has an obsession with books that some may call unhealthy, but she just calls it life. She can be found posting reviews and other bookish shenanigans on her blog, Beauty and the Bookshelf, obsessively tweeting on Twitter, and tumbling all sorts of things (like Disney!) on Tumblr.

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La photo de la semaine

Friday, 1 March 2013

Pour AMARTIA

L'extension de Port-Fréjus

Comme sous l'Empire Romain, la mer aux portes de Fréjus ...

Quelques bateaux ont déjà pris possession du chenal et deux barques à joutes laissent présager des tournois nautiques animés ...

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Marcher à la tombée de la nuit dans cet endroit réinventé procure une sensation étrange ...

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(photo de mercredi)

AMITIES

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On the Shelf: A Moveable Feast

A MOVEABLE FEAST | ERNEST HEMINGWAY | SCRIBNERS | 1964

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

The book really does hold up to the synopsis. I've always loved Hemingway's novels and short stories, but this memoir explores his thought process as he comments on everyday events from his time in Paris. Each chapter is almost a small story in itself, but rather than focus on plot, the narrative shows a glimpse of Hemingway's imagination and "writing mind." You can sense how he worked ordinary things into magic on a page.

There are anecdotes about other literary figures and it makes this book almost too good to be true. I was giddy the entire time, imagining so many great American authors sitting in one room together, simply talking about art. Hemingway paints the perfect portrait of living in Paris right after World War I. They certainly don't have a grand lifestyle, but Hemingway and his wife's way of living is enough to make anyone envious.

All I wanted to do was abandon my cold Canadian city and fly to Paris, curl up in a small café, and finish reading this book. It also inspired me to buy some new notebooks and spend more time writing for myself, without a deadline, without a purpose.

If you love literature or writing or Paris, read this book.

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"When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself."

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