"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence."
— From the story, The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
— From the story, The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
July 22, 2021
Fiction: Ghost Companions
Everyone at the school called the headmistress Mistress. She ruled the school with iron fists that punished more than rewarded. At Mistress' funeral, there was a brief recital from the pastor but the children, school mistresses, five servants and two constables had nothing to say about the deceased.
The epistle was later found in Mistress' room. It was addressed to Charlotte Jane Bell, Mistress' name that only a few knew. In brief sentences, the epistle mentioned a Weston Weightman's passing. In his last breath, he asked for Jane's forgiveness for breaking off the engagement. He wished only happiness for her. A dried, yellow primrose was tucked in the envelope.
July 20, 2021
US Verses UK Book Title Changes
Books from the US and the UK often have different covers and sometimes different titles for marketing reasons. Most of the time, the title changes are for the US editions since UK books are released first. Here are some books that have title changes that I think are worth wondering about.
This is a series that have all the titles being the same except for the first book. I find this is a dumb change. I don't like Sorcerer’s Stone but at the same time I don't like Philosoher's Stone either but that always sounds better to me somehow.
This series text are changed be more Americanize for the American audience which I have always thought was silly. Are American children supposed to be believed their English is the only one in existence? There are also text changes to the story itself that might not be in the American versions but I decided to ignore that because I don't think they effect the story that much. If I have known about the difference between US and UK books, I might have read the UK versions and forget about the US versions.
The series is known as A Wells & Wong Mystery in the US while in the UK, it is known as A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery which is confusing since people can confuse them as two different series. And they also changed the titles for some of the books for the US but not all of them. If they were to change the series name, why not also change the titles of all the books to make them consistent? Why were they picky about that? For the first two books, they are retitled to Murder Is Bad Manners and Poison is Not Polite as oppose to Murder Most Unladylike and Arsenic for Tea, both title change just seems unnecessary to me.
This series, like Harry Potter, changed the text to be more Americanize for the American audience which I think seems to be a standard now though I've never noticed when reading since I don't go around thinking if they changed the text.
I didn't quite known this change until I saw both books have the same synopsis. I think the US title makes more sense since they market this as a Beauty and Beast retelling so the UK title didn't make any sense to me but I like the mystery of the title.
I like A Girl Called Owl more but I guess it's doesn't quite say much about the book. This is about Jack Frost's daughter so I supposed The Lost Frost Girl makes more sense. But I find no appeal in the title The Lost Frost Girl - this seems generic to me.
I like The Girl, The Cat & The Navigator better but maybe The Girl Who Sailed The Stars is more appealing as the other title is a bit of a mouthful. Strange that they should keep the same art for the cover.
I read North Child first and then found the book had been retitled to East. I don't really like the change but I think they changed it to match the sequel which is titled West. This is one of my favorite books but I have to say The North Child is a much better title as East just seems a bit lacking.
The change was so people won't confuse this with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I read an article about title changes referring to this particular book and one of the joke was that they supersized the title which is amusing.
I had only ever seen Murder on the Orient Express as the title so maybe the changed title aren't being used. The change was because of another book have a similar title which is a good reason for the change but Murder in the Calais Coach is just meh.
This is the first book of the His Dark Materials series. I didn't read this series so I don't know if The Golden Compass is more fitting than Northern Lights.
I don't know why they changed the title as it really is a bit confusing considering this is a series and people might mistake this for book 3 instead of 2 which I kind of did. I think Explorers on Witch Mountain sounds a lot better than The Forbidden Expedition.
Do you know any book with their titles changed? Do you think they should stop changing book titles to cater to each audience in different countries?
July 19, 2021
The Sadness of Missing Back Covers for Ebooks
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| (Left) What I usually see at the end of an ebook. (Right) Popup notice to rate the book. Both are for Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. |
I now mostly read ebooks and I like it enough to keep on reading them. One thing that I miss is the back covers. Sometimes when I'm at the end of an ebook, I just keep tapping forward hoping to see something but there's nothing. Not to say there aren't any ebooks with back covers, it's just that, they are rare. Of all the ebooks I had read (less than 50), I only saw one back cover.
Usually a paperback and hardcover have a back cover that had a blurb about the book and a UPC code. The back cover is usually used as a promotion/advertisement space to entice readers to buy the book. With ebooks, readers won't see the back cover unless they had already brought the book (or borrowed from the library) so I suppose this is why the back cover is no longer used
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| The rare back cover of an ebook. This is for the book, The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel. |
For ebooks, the last page is either credits (such as publishers' info), acknowledgements, the book content list or the occasional book excerpt of another book followed by the the pop up box asking you to rate the book and that's that. I read mostly kindle ebooks so maybe it's different for Nook, Kobo, Apple or Google books? I don't know since I have not tried those but I assumed most ebooks are the same because I don't see publishers or even self-published authors, adding a back cover for one format and not the others.
For me, the back cover of a book is a sign that the book has ended. Credits or acknowledgment to a pop-up box to rate the book does not do that. I guess this is another reason why ebooks will never be like paper books.
July 18, 2021
Agnes Grey Book Editions
One of my favorite books is Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (or Anne Brontë). I used to like Jane Eyre but now I prefer Agnes Grey.
Agnes Grey was first published in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby in London. It was punished under the pseudonym Acton Bell and was included in a three-volume set with Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
There are many editions of Agnes Grey and many of them are really bad but I'm only going to list the ones that I think are worth checking out. These are all English editions.
I don't really like this cover, I prefer they crop a little to the left and leave out that back scene. Cover art is The Governess by Richard Redgrave. This artwork is also used on some Jane Eyre book covers which I guess because it being a painting of a governess.
Extras: Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell by Charlotte Bronte, endnotes
For the cover art, I don't like the repetition of the painting but in terms of text, I like this edition because they made minor text corrections which I thought is a good idea as there were mistakes in the original text. I own this edition which I always read when I do a re-read. The painting is Interior by Vilhelm Hammershøi.
Extras: Biographical note, introduction, endnotes
This edition has various extras that help you understand the book. I would recommend this for first time readers. As for the cover, not quite sure I like it. The art is Girl at the Fountain by William Morris Hunt.
Extras: Introduction, biography, endnotes
This edition has red spines which I like a lot and the cover is wonderful as it depicts a scene toward the end of the book. Cover illustration is by Júlia Sardá.
Extras: None
This edition includes Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Agnes Grey. This has deckle edges which some people dislike because it looks like the pages' edges are chopped up. This is large paperback at about 6.20 inches wide and 9.20 inches high, spine is 1.6 inches wide.
There are three paintings on the cover, back and spine that I assumed represents the three Bronte sister. I think the one on the back cover is Anne, the spine is Charlotte and the cover is Emily - it's strange but somehow I can see them as these ladies. The cover painting is by Henry Tanworth Wells, the spine painting is by Sir William Beechey and the back painting is by John Robert Dicksee.
Extras: None
This includes Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. On the cover is the painting of the three Bronte sisters by Patrick Branwell Bronte cropped around Anne. There is a pattern of gray dots on the image which you can't really see. This edition is hardcover but it's not as wide as regular hardcovers as the width is a little over 5 inches.
Extras: Dark red ribbon bookmark
This is pretty small at a little over 4 inches wide by 6 inches high. Maybe some people will find the text too small for reading. They have blue ribbon bookmark, gold edges on the pages and they are well designed. I really would get this edition if it's larger. As for the cover artist, I couldn't find who painted it as I don't own the book. I searched online but the painting seems to be only used for this cover and nowhere else.
Extras: Introduction, blue ribbon bookmark
Have you ever read Agnes Grey? Do you prefer the other Bronte sisters' works instead?
July 17, 2021
Postcards From the Bookstore – Introduction
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| 'home' |
This is not a book blog, more like a blog that talks about books and maybe veering off to ramblings about movies/tv shows/music that I consume, fiction that I write, art that I made or anything that interest me so anything goes.
Questions, comments, thoughts, complaints or friendly hellos, email me at lissawrites(at)gmail(dot)com.
Sincerely,
Lissa
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