Blog Tour: Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

I was pretty excited when I received my review copy of Helen Oyeyemi’s new book Mr. Fox in the mail (thank you Penguin Canada!). There was something about the synopsis that intrigued me…

What makes a marriage? Does marriage mean the end of fairy-tale romance? It might if your husband is the writer Mr. Fox, who does devilish things to the heroines of his stories. His wife, Daphne, is unable to change his ways, but when his imaginary muse—the gorgeously offbeat Mary Foxe—conjures herself one sunny afternoon and confronts him about his dark denouements, things take an unexpected turn.

Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising, and their romances put our villainous writer through his paces, exploring every facet of love. Full of delicious period detail, this is a love story like no other, and it reaches a new pitch when Daphne becomes suspicious that her husband is having an affair.

Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another.

Having never read anything by Helen Oyeyemi before I wasn’t really sure what to expect. This book was definitely original and incredibly inventive. I admit to feeling slightly lost at times. There were moments where it felt like I had no idea what was going on. The narration changes, the time period changes, and the chapters are more like short stories. In other words, you really have to pay attention while reading Mr. Fox.
In the end, I don’t think I responded to this book the way that I thought I would. It happens.
But while I may not have loved this book, it did make it pretty clear to me what a gifted writer Helen Oyeyemi really is. And it made me curious to read her other books, especially The Icarus Girl, which she completed before her 19th birthday.

You can read an excerpt of Mr. Fox here. To read what NPR had to say about this book you can check out their review here, and for more Mr. Fox reviews be sure to visit the other blogs taking part in this tour:

Tales of a Ranting Ginger  – Oct 24
Snowdrop Dreams of Books - Oct 25
Just a Lil’ Lost - Oct 26
In the Next Room - Oct 27
Evie Bookish - Oct 28
A Bookworm’s World -  Nov 1
Krystal’s Stellar Book Blog - Nov 2
The Indextrious Reader - Nov 3
Hands and Home - Nov 4

Poe: an Etsy collection

Watching the trailer for the 2012 release of The Raven (see it here) made me want to get some interesting Edgar Allan Poe stuff. I already have a complete collection of his stories and poems (it’s fun to read his work around Halloween), and I couldn’t resist buying a version of The Raven that is so beautifully illustrated by Ryan Price. But when trying to find things that are a bit more, um, quirky, I always turn to Etsy. And as usual Etsy did not disappoint.

Poe Stache Necklace by AndreaC Glass Art 

Mr. Poe Plush Creature by ForeverFall 

Edgar Allan Pillow by RegansBrain 

Literary shades of nailpolish

When browsing the shelves for a new shade of nail polish, do you ever actually read the names? If you’ve never paid attention to how funny some nail polish colour names are, you should check out the blog Stupid Nail Polish Names. But even though the majority of the names are pretty silly, occasionally the nail polish companies will throw in a literary reference to appease their book-loving fans.

From essie: Vanity Fairest and Scarlett O’Hara

essie: vanity fairest

essie: scarlett o'hara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From OPI: Romeo & Joliet and Shorts Story

OPI: Shorts Story

OPI: Romeo and Joliet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From butter LONDON: MacBeth and Artful Dodger

butter: MacBeth

butter: Artful Dodger

Playing With Books

As I was browsing in Anthropologie one day, I was drawn to the display they had set up featuring Playing With Books by Jason Thompson. Intrigued but not fully convinced, I flipped through the pages of the book while a salesperson watched me from nearby.
I didn’t buy the book (or anything else for that matter), but I did go home thinking about it. Thankfully, my local library branch had a copy because I needed to look at these book art projects more closely without someone watching me while I did it.

Playing With Books is for people who like to craft. I’m not really one of those people, but I admit there are a few projects I wouldn’t mind trying, such as the one-of-a-kind cards and postcards (as seen above). But I don’t think I’m crafty enough to try making my own book bag or book clock. There are lots of bloggers out there who are crafty enough though, like Drawing Near and JaneVille.

I really liked the artist profiles at the end of Playing With Books. If you’d like to see some amazing book and paper art, check out the Playing With Books blog. You’ll see some cool stuff along the lines of the video below.

The Move, Paper Animation from Mandy Smith on Vimeo.

And if I ever actually try to make something out of a book I’ll be sure to blog about it so we can all make fun of my attempt at crafting together.

Judge the book cover: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

I went looking to my own shelves for a book to read the other day and decided that I would finally read something that I’ve ignored for far too long: Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
I’ve seen the movie so many times but I’ve never read the book. That’s very unlike me.
I’m just about done with the novella and I think it’s a shame that many people will never read Truman Capote’s beautifully written story because they either don’t know it was a book first or because they don’t care.
Speaking as a huge fan of the film and now of the book as well, I think they can both can be appreciated individually.
No comparisons necessary.
But you should compare these book covers because, well, that’s what this post is about. I don’t own any of these versions. Mine is the 50th anniversary edition seen here.
Which Breakfast at Tiffany’s cover do you like best?

Related posts:
Judge the book cover: The Beautiful and Damned
Literary Halloween Costumes