Fun Book Club

Woot Woot it is time for Spooky Days, Comforting Food, and a Pumpkin Carving Contest!! So come and hang out, play games, and carve a pumpkin!

I am minking it most of the day so you can drop by for food and carve a pumpkin early if you want and stay late for board games.

I will get a bunch of pumpkins and scoop them so its fun and easy for all ages If you know you want to come please post it here or message me!

Another Great Book from Atwood!!

When Felix is deposed as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival by his devious assistant and longtime enemy, his production of The Tempest is canceled and he is heartbroken. Reduced to a life of exile in rural southern Ontario—accompanied only by his fantasy daughter, Miranda, who died twelve years ago—Felix devises a plan for retribution.

Eventually he takes a job teaching Literacy Through Theater to the prisoners at the nearby Burgess Correctional Institution, and is making a modest success of it when an auspicious star places his enemies within his reach. With the help of their own interpretations, digital effects, and the talents of a professional actress and choreographer, the Burgess Correctional Players prepare to video their Tempest. Not surprisingly, they view Caliban as the character with whom they have the most in common. However, Felix has another twist in mind, and his enemies are about to find themselves taking part in an interactive and illusion-ridden version of The Tempest that will change their lives forever. But how will Felix deal with his invisible Miranda’s decision to take a part in the play?

A masterful epic of magic, politics, war, and the power of love and hate — from the renowned author of The Fionavar Tapestry and Children of Earth and Sky.

Tigana is the magical story of a beleaguered land struggling to be free. It is the tale of a people so cursed by the black sorcery of a cruel despotic king that even the name of their once-beautiful homeland cannot be spoken or remembered...

But years after the devastation, a handful of courageous men and women embark upon a dangerous crusade to overthrow their conquerors and bring back to the dark world the brilliance of a long-lost name...Tigana.

Against the magnificently rendered background of a world both sensuous and barbaric, this sweeping epic of a passionate people pursuing their dream is breathtaking in its vision, changing forever the boundaries of fantasy fiction.

That The Pastel City has been considered a classic by so many for so long may be its greatest failing. The one thing apparent in the negative reviews is disappointment: they didn't get the be-all & end-all of fantasy they anticipated. But here's the rub; a book can be a classic for more than one reason.

The Pastel City is, from a plot standpoint, a typical epic fantasy. If you've read Moorcock, Leiber etc., you've a basic idea of what's going to go on here. Love, death, betrayal, lots of nonhuman baddies, lots of human baddies, a brooding hero-type & his overly sanguine friend, a crazy dwarf or two, & lots of stuff blowing up. This is nothing out of the ordinary in epic fantasy. Those who read it looking for a classic of plot will be most disappointed.
What elevates it from its peers is its style. This is a fantasy as written by a true lexiphile, Elric through the lens of John Dryden, or Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser as written by Chaucer. As with most true prose stylists (Cormac McCarthy comes to mind), Harrison's subtle blend of archaic & contemporary British phrasing, & little stylistic tricks that pull the whole in an entirely new direction, take a little getting used to. But once you've got the rhythm of it, you can get pulled along for the ride with consummate ease.
So let's be clear: The Pastel City is a good book, a fine book, one worth reading. The typical fantasy fan should probably not expect too much. The fantasy fan who is more attuned to the details of writing will get the most out of it. Word lovers, fantasy fans or not, are going to get a kick out of this.--Robert P. Beveridge (edited)