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2010 Ireland Challenge

February 18, 2010 by

OK, I know I said I was done with reading challenges, but for some reason, I’m addicted.

BethFishReads turned me onto this challenge, even though I have been resisting it for some time.  I’m also going to sign up for: Shamrock level: 2 books.

The first of my two books will be reviewed next week.  See how easy that was to get 50 percent done?

What’s stopping you from joining?  There are prizes…and we know how everyone loves those.

Check out the challenge information by clicking on the challenge button!

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: challenges, Ireland Challenge

2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in D.C.

February 18, 2010 by

MARCH 10-13, Washington, D.C. will host the Split This Rock Poetry Festival, which brings together poets and activists to speak out on the latest issues facing our nation.  This year, there’s a lot to discuss with two wars, an economic crisis, and more.

The festival features readings, workshops, panel discussions, and other activities and it is a mix of performance, poetry, and film.  I’ve never been to this event, but this year I received a scholarship to cover the registration cost of $75, which is the early bird price through Feb. 20, 2010.  So if you’d like to go, register TODAY!

For information about the scholarships, go here.

Check out the schedule, which is being updated regularly.

I’m really looking forward to these panels:

1. The Public Role of Poetry: How to Build a Poetry Reading
2. The Care and Feeding of the Rural/Small Town Poet-Activist
3. Women & War/Women & Peace: International Voices
4. Warriors Writing: Teaching Creative Writing to War Veterans
5. The Peace Shelves: Essential Books and Poems for the 21st Century (which features my Suffolk University Advisor Fred Marchant; He now directs the Poetry Center, which emerged after I graduated from undergrad)
6. Cross-Discipline Collaboration: How Writers and Artists are Working Together to Push Boundaries and Engage the Public
7. Giving Voice to the Silence/d
8. What Makes Effective Political Poetry? – Editors’ Perspectives
9. Split This Rock Panel
10. The Poet as Historian in the 21st Century: A Rare Opportunity in Difficult Times
11. Fatty Girls, Imaginary Cocks, and Vaginas Built Like Bookstores: A Workshop on Writing the Activist Body

I probably won’t get to all of these panels since some of the times overlap, but you can bet I’ll be blogging about the festival and showing you some great photos.

Did I forget to mention that Bruce Weigel will be reading.  There are individual reading tickets available for $8 as well, so even if you want to just attend a reading, you can!

This also marks the first time I will be visiting the U Street Neighborhood and its cool venues.  One of those venues is Busboys and Poets, which I’ve been dying to get to!  Thankfully, there is a great list of venues and directions on the festival Website.

OK, I’ve left out the best part of the festival — besides the panels and the readings — THE BOOK FAIR!  Not that I need more books, but it will be good to check out new-to-me poets and their books, and maybe break that book-buying ban!

Now, I don’t consider myself an activist poet, but I’ve always admired their work and would love to take this opportunity to learn more about them.  I hope some of you in the D.C. area will join me.  It’s bound to be a lot of fun, and there is an end-of-festival party!

What panels would you like from the list?  Which ones do you think I should attend?

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: announcements, Split This Rock Poetry Festival Tagged With:

Reagan Arthur Book Perpetual Challenge

February 17, 2010 by

I wholeheartedly point the finger at Kathy from Bermudaonion for convincing me to join yet another challenge.  Yup, we were chatting during That’s How I Blog, and here I am today, joining another challenge.

The best part of this challenge is that there are no deadlines or minimums to meet!  I just have to read books with the Reagan Arthur imprint!

Reading can be print or e-books and audio!  Don’t you just love flexibility.  I know I do.

Here are some of the books I plan on reading for the challenge:

1.  The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
2.  Black Hills by Dan Simmons
3.  Still Midnight by Denise Mina

What books will you be reading for the challenge?

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page, no purchase necessary.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: challenges, Reagan Arthur Challenge

Guest Review of Going After Cacciato

February 15, 2010 by

Today on War Through the Generations for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge, Mary Simonsen, author of Searching for Pemberley (click for my review), is guest reviewing Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien.

It’s an opportunity for everyone to check out a great book and review.

I hope you will all stop by.

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page, no purchase necessary.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: announcements

Mailbox Monday #69

February 15, 2010 by

It’s been a slow week here in terms of books, which is a good thing.  I’m waiting on a couple of books for review that have not arrived yet, which I suspect is because of the heavy snowfall here that dropped more than 2 feet of snow in my area.

Marcia at The Printed Page and Kristi of The Story Siren both sponsor memes in which bloggers share what books they’ve received in the past week.  I’m going to continue calling these Mailbox Mondays, but The Story Siren also has In My Mailbox.

Here’s what I received:

Sonnets for Sinners by John Wareham for review.

What did you get in your mailbox?

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: mailbox monday

32nd Virtual Poetry Circle

February 13, 2010 by

It’s the 32nd Virtual Poetry Circle, and it’s time to visit with a contemporary poet, but before we do that, I wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this project thus far.  Feel free to spread the word.

Additionally, you should start noticing some small changes here on the blog, including possible article suggestions at the end of my posts (Thanks Bloggiesta for calling this widget to my attention) and some share buttons, which I’m not overly thrilled with, but they’ll do for now.

I would also love to get a new three-column template that meshes better with my header, so if anyone would like to volunteer, please email me.

OK, Here’s a poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

From Say Uncle by Kay Ryan:

Among English Verbs (page 52)

Among English verbs
to die is oddest in its
eagerness to be dead,
immodest in its
haste to be told–
a verb alchemical
in the head:
one speck of its gold
and a whole life’s lead.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: virtual poetry circle

Book Party in NYC

February 12, 2010 by

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the Book Expo America and Book Blogger Convention 2010 tour posts to drum up excitement and provide practical advice to attendees.  Today, I’m going on the assumption that you ARE going to BEA and BBC because it is the biggest BOOK PARTY in NYC (May 25-28).

1.  First order of business is RESERVE your hotel room NOW through BEA’s discount program.  These rooms will go fast.

Once you reserve your room, you can look for roommates to share the cost with.  If you haven’t met any other bloggers, don’t worry, we don’t bite (much) and would love to share a room with you.

If you prefer, there is a hostel in New York City, check out The Zen Leaf’s pros and cons post.

2.  Second, pick a mode of transportation to NYC.  Depending on how close you are and how much you dislike airport security, you may want to consider Amtrak because the costs are lower, the security is smoother, and the trip allows you to read a book.  If you have AAA, you can get a discount on travel and BEA indicates Amtrak will give you as a BEA participant a 10 percent discount on the lowest fares.

Traveling from D.C. to NYC last year by train was smooth, and the train drops you in Penn Station, which is right near the NYC subway, making it convenient for getting to your hotel destination.

3.  Third, if you plan to arrive earlier than the beginning of the conference, plan out what sights you want to see.  Whether it is the Statue of Liberty or Strawberry Fields, having a plan makes it easier.  But in addition to sights, make sure you check out the areas where you plan to visit to see what restaurants are available.  I always make a plan of places I want to eat, especially near famous landmarks and museums.  Makes it easier to grab some good grub, in budget, when you find that you are ravenous!

BEA does offer discounts on event tickets and monuments, and according to the Web site, there will be additional incentives for food places as well.

4.  Fourth, pack your bags!  Imagine a book connoisseur who also loves photography.  You can imagine what this individual (ahem, me!) would take with her on vacation.  I have a digital SLR Nikon, which I failed to take last year, but you can bet that won’t be happening again this year.  This will require not only charged batteries and a charger, but also an additional long-range lens and cleaning paraphernalia.  Good thing I have a backpack case for all this stuff.  Will I bring it all?  Not sure, but I know I need a plan.

Traveling by train or plane will give you time to read, which means you will want to bring books.  BUT remember why you are going to BEA — networking and BOOKS!  I suggest you pick 2 likely candidates or 1 chunkster, but not more than that.  YOU won’t have time!  From the moment your feet hit the ground, you will be running and excited and overwhelmed.

I also tend to pack clothes that are versatile.  Clothes that present well, but are casual and comfortable.  Docker slacks, nice t-shirts, and a few blouses . . . and of course, as you’ve heard COMFORTABLE FOOTWEAR!  I have a foot problem, which means I only wear sneakers because dress shoes aggravate me.

5.  Fifth, While in the city, you want to make sure you have a transportation plan.  Do you want to pay hefty cab fares over the course of a week?  I know I don’t, and I didn’t.  Anna and I took the subway and the bus last year, which was made simple with the NYC MetroCard.

We bought day passes, since we only attended about 1.5 days of BEA last year, but this year, I’ll be picking up the $27 7-day Unlimited Ride MetroCard (click to see where you can buy these cards), which means all trips are covered for seven days and bus ride transfers are covered as well!  Great deal for sight seeing and for getting to and from the Javits.

There are shuttle bus routes at a variety of hotel spots throughout the area that take you to Javits as well.  I tend to prefer the freedom of the subway because I don’t have to worry to much about timetables.

Must-Have items on your trip to BEA and BBC:

1.  Book(s) to occupy travel time.
2.  Rolling suitcase with minimal clothes and enough room for books on the way back.
3.  Comfortable shoes and clothes.
4.  Business cards; I got mine from MOO, and I LOVE them.
5.  Plan for tackling the autographing lines and BEA/BBC events.
6.  Camera for those photo ops with other bloggers, authors, and more.
7.  Water/Snacks/Gum or Mints to keep you refreshed. 
8.  Spending money for food, sight seeing, and nights out.
9.  Tote bag to carry all those ARCs, Galleys, and books.
10.  Notebook and pen/recorder to make sure you remember everything you want to blog about.

I hope this advice helps and that I will see all or most of you there! If anyone wants to meet up while in NYC, I’m all for it.

FTC Disclosure:  I am not affiliated with MOO, but really recommend their business card services because my business cards came out AWESOME.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: BEA, Events Tagged With:

Ben Winters: Jane Is my Co-Pilot

February 11, 2010 by


Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (click for my review) by Ben Winters and Jane Austen is another mash-up of classic literature with the paranormal.  Winters was kind enough to provide a guest post about why he chose to use Austen’s work.  Please give him a warm welcome.

Jane is my Co-Pilot: The Fine Art of Making Sense and Sensibility Totally Ridiculous
By Ben H. Winters
Since writing Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I’ve gotten a ton of feedback about how nice it is that I’ve made Jane Austen appealing to certain readers — meaning readers who previously suffered a persistent allergy to The Classics. I am complimented for taking the prim and decorous Jane Austen and making her, A) really violent, and B) really funny.
The first compliment I will gladly accept. Over the decades since Sense and Sensibility first appeared, it has been noted by scholars and casual readers alike that the book is sorely lacking in shipwrecks, shark attacks, and vividly described decapitations. I believe it was the poet and critic Thomas Chatterton who admired the novel’s careful plotting and social critique, but lamented the total absence of vengeful ghost pirates.
But I can’t take credit for making Jane Austen funny. As is well known by passionate fans of Austen — I have yet to meet any other kind — the old girl has always been funny. Take for example Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, a set of secondary characters in Sense and Sensibility. The periodic appearances of the Palmers comprise what any comedy writer will recognize as a running gag. Mrs. Palmer is chatty and trivial, while Mr. Palmer (a delightful Hugh Laurie in the Ang Lee version) is gruff and unaffectionate. What Mrs. Palmer labels “droll,” the reader — along with Elinor, our sensible heroine — recognizes as plain distaste for his wife, her friends, and everybody else in the universe. Every time those Palmers show up, we know we’re in for the next variation on the same great gag.
Note that Austen doesn’t do to the Palmers what Charles Dickens would: Exaggerate their core traits to the point of absurdity. (Also, she doesn’t name them something like Mr. and Mrs. Featherwit). The Palmers are funny, but they’re plausible, and their primary function in the book is to provide not laughs, but a corrective to Marianne’s rosy ideal of married life. So Austen makes them funny, but not ridiculous.
Making them ridiculous was my job. When the Palmers appear in my monsterfied Sensibility, I give Mr. Palmer’s drollery a murky, weird-tales back story, part of the preposterously elaborate foreshadowing of my H.P. Lovecraft-inspired denouement.
I play the same game, of comically amplifying what’s already there, in varying ways throughout the book. Colonel Brandon, stiff and formal and middle-aged, becomes a stiff and formal and middle-aged man-monster. Genial Sir John becomes genial adventurer/explorer Sir John. Had Austen made all her characters ridiculous in that Dickensian way, if she had been the kind of writer who is forever winking at her readers, my book would be (as they say in improv comedy) a hat on a hat. But because Sense and Sensibility is so eloquent and restrained, Sea Monsters gets to go way over the top.
This is true even on the simple level of vocabulary. Austen’s precise early-19th century diction is the textual equivalent of Eustace Tilly, the top-hatted, monocled figure from the cover of the New Yorker: Her writing simply oozes good taste. The trick was to appropriate that ever-so-tasteful and old-timey Austenian style to describe things she never would have:
In the profound silence that followed, their ears were filled with a low thrashing sound, as the corpse of the bosun’s mate was noisily consumed by devil fish. At length the captain drew upon his pipe, and spoke again. “Let us only pray that this is the worst such abomination you encounter in this benighted land; for such is but a minnow, when compared to the Devonshire Fang-Beast.”
“The . . . what?”
Even more fun to play with than Austen’s eloquent vocabulary is her universe of enforced emotional rectitude. The Dashwood sisters live in a world where one’s feelings are not blurted out — or, at least, they’re not meant to be, as sensible Elinor is continually reminding sensitive Marianne. It’s a constant struggle to keep one’s emotions hidden beneath the surface; all I did was literalize that metaphor in the most preposterous way, by adding deadly and dangerous monsters which appear literally from beneath the surface.
There was one factor above all that made Sense and Sensibility such a fun comic foil, and that is the place the book holds in the cultural firmament. One question I’ve heard a lot (or read a lot, as it’s the sort of thing that comes up on blog comment-threads), is “Why didn’t you do Persuasion? That’s the Austen book that actually takes place on the water!”
The answer is simply that Persuasion, unlike Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice, may be a great book, but it is not a Great Book. It has not gathered around itself the unmistakable stink of importance.
Sense and Sensibility, on the other hand, stands in the literary tradition as Margaret Dumont stands before Groucho Marx, as the Chairman of the Reception Committee in Duck Soup: Prim and proper and radiating worthiness — just waiting, in other words, for someone to hit it with a pie.

Thanks, Ben, for stopping by.  If you missed the global giveaway, please check out my review.  The giveaway ends Feb. 19.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: guest post Tagged With:

Winners of Government Girl

February 10, 2010 by

Out of 36 entrants, Randomizer.org selected 3 winners for the US/Canada portion of the giveaway.

Carol

Valerie of Life Is a Patchwork Quilt

Kristine

Congrats to everyone!  There is still a copy up for grabs for those OUTSIDE of US/Canada.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: winners

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters

February 10, 2010 by

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters is another mash-up of classic fiction and fantasy.  The basic story is the same as the Marianne and Elinor deal with abject poverty, searching for love and affection, and relatives who are less than pleasant, while at the same time navigating their sisterly relationship. The twist is that sea monsters have taken control of the water and attack humans daring to cross the sea or live below it in Sub-Station Beta.

“Colonel Brandon, the friend of Sir John, suffered from a cruel affliction, the likes of which the Dashwood sisters had heard of, but never seen firsthand.  He bore a set of long, squishy tentacles protruding grotesquely from his face, writhing this way and that, like hideous living facial hair of slime green.”  (Page 37)

Readers will either enjoy reading a mash-up of Jane Austen’s work with its fantastical and historically inaccurate elements (i.e. the existence of wet suits, submarines, and underwater domes where people live and work) or they will throw the book aside as ridiculous.  The trouble with these genre benders is that they often polarize readers in one camp or another.  Unlike Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which merely inserts new sentences to achieve the goal of making the Bennets zombie slayers, Winters creates a story nearly all his own, but using Austen’s Dashwood sisters.

“‘It is impossible that she did not know,’ Sir John answered, ‘For a sister to a sea witch is certain to be a sea witch herself.’  . . .  ‘As I said, the witches take the physical form of human women,’ explained Sir John.  ‘There is nothing they can do about their personalities.'”  (Page 320)

By remaking Austen’s world and threatening the characters in it with deranged sea monsters, Winters takes a number of liberties with the text, although he does maintain Austen’s style for the most part.  However, unlike Grahame-Smith’s mash-up where readers discover how the Bennets became skillful zombie slayers, the mysterious Sub-Station Beta and its “experiments” are not revealed or even hinted at for most of the book.  This flaw can make it difficult for readers to continue reading this adventure because so much is unknown and the readers are scrambling in the dark as characters run from monsters, play games, chat while being attacked by monsters, bring up mysterious smoking mountains and five-pointed stars, and generally seem to shrug off the danger.

Overall, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters resembles the dangers of other sea-faring novels — even 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea — and mixes it with ramped up social commentary a la Jane Austen.  The latter half of the novel is the most action packed and is almost hurried along.  But by the end, readers get swept up in adventure, myth, and outrageous challenges and have nothing to do but enjoy the ride. 

To Enter to win 1 copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and 1 copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters:  (This giveaway is global)

1.  Leave a comment on this post about what Austen novel mash-up you want to see next.
2.  Leave a comment on my review of Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.
3.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. and leave a comment with a link on this post.

Deadline is Feb. 19, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST

About the Author:

Ben Allen H. Winters is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with all the other writers.

FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters from the FSB Associates and the publisher for review.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.




This is my 3rd book for the 2010 Jane Austen Challenge.

This is my 10th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: fiction, FSB Associates, giveaway, Jane Austen Challenge 2010, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2010, review copy Tagged With: , ,