Once Upon a Bookshelf

I love the concept of time travel. Especially when it’s done well (which it isn’t always, especially when it doesn’t go into some potential implications of traveling into the past – would you be changing history, or would you just be doing what’s already been done?). This is most probably part of the reason I love Doctor Who so much.

All of the book I’ve listed today have something to do with time travel – whether in the traditionally popular sense, or not.

1. Orion. Written by Ben Bova. Originally Published 1984. In each part of this book, Orion is sent to an era of time previous to the one he was just in. In fact, the whole series deals with different times in history (or our future, depending on the book). In this particular book in the series, Orion starts in present time and eventually ends up sent back to the beginning of the human race, with a few other stops along the way.
2. The Time Machine. Written by H.G. Wells. Originally Published 1895. The time traveller in this book travels to the future to see what becomes of the human race – to see some very disturbing results of our class systems.
3. Many Waters. Written by Madeleine L’Engle. Originally Published 1986. This is the one book in the Time Quartet that centres around Sandy and Dennis, the Murray twins. They inadvertently transport themselves back to Biblical times (think Noah’s ark and that huge massive flood).
4. Both Sides of Time. Written by Caroline B. Cooney. Originally Published 1995. I loved this book growing up. Annie travels 100 years into the past through the Stratton Mansion, where she meets and falls in love with one of the mansion’s residents.
5. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Written by Laurie Viera Rigler. Originally Published 2007. A modern-day woman finds herself back in Jane Austen’s times.
6. A Christmas Carol. Written by Charles Dickens. Originally Published 1843. Scrooge has run-ins with both the Ghost of Christmas Past and Ghost of Christmas Present, allowing him to see moments from his past, and potential moments from his future.
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Written by J.K. Rowling. Originally Published 1999. Hermione Granger has the use of a Time Turner to attend classes for their third year at Hogwarts – at the end of the year, Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak.
8. Runaways: Dead End Kids. Written by Joss Whedon. Collection Originally Published 2008. A group of superhero kids find a device made by their parents, and it transports them back to 1907.
9. Beauty. Written by Sheri S. Tepper. Originally Published 1991. A retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale (with appearances of Cinderella and Snow White) that brings Beauty into contact with time travelers, and brings her to a crazy dystopian future.
10. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Written by Douglas Adams. Originally Published 1980. Our group of travelers head to the future to eat in a restaurant that allows them to see the universe end.

What time traveling stories do you like?

Katherine’s family is struggling to make ends meet, so when her uncle the Mad Duke writes her mother with a proposal, it’s something they can’t turn down – if Katherine goes to stay with the Mad Duke in town to learn to become a swordsman, he will drop all of the lawsuits he has against them and pay all of their debts.

Soon Katherine is thrown into lessons to learn to become a swordsman, and finds that town is NOT how she always expected it. Not only is she not getting a season, and is not allowed to own any dresses, but people she would like to be friends with will not associate with her due to the Mad Duke. Amidst her lessons, she soon becomes good friends with her uncle’s steward and the two start to get into adventures of their own, which includes surreptitiously tracking a nobleman through the streets, hiding in a brothel, and greatly offending one of the Mad Duke’s greatest enemies. Of course, the Mad Duke’s enemy does not take well to this offense and is determined to get back at them.

Okay, wow, I so need to read more of Kushner’s books. This was such awesome fun; a complete rollicking Regency adventure! Eep. Loved every second of it; in fact was intrigued right from the first paragraph:

No one sends for a niece they’ve never seen before just to annoy her family and ruin her life. That, at least, is what I thought. This was before I had ever been to the city. I had never been in a duel, or held a sword myself. I had never kissed anyone, or had anyone try to kill me, or worn a velvet cloak. I had certainly never met my uncle the Mad Duke. Once I met him, much was explained.

For some reason, it reminded me very strongly of Kristen Britain’s Green Rider, which happens to be one of my favourite fantasy novels. It’s not the setting, and it’s not the plot, but there is something of the same spirit through them both. If you enjoyed one, I have no doubt you would enjoy the other as well.

The characters were, for the most part, fabulous. Artemisia Fitz-Levi got on my nerves quite a bit, but Katherine and Marcus were a lot of fun, and there were just SO MANY colourful minor characters, from Master Venturus (who first taught Katherine sword fighting), to the Mad Duke, to his numerous friends. Oh, so much fun!

The Bottom Line: Loved loved loved this book! I should’ve read it much sooner, and now I need to read Kushner’s other books. Will definitely be keeping this on my shelf, and will be returning to it whenever I need a story where the heroine is kicking butt in a stereotypical male’s role. Yay fun!

It’s a day late, but I was out all yesterday…

Mmmm, the butter tart. Was there anything more delicious EVER? If you’re not Canadian, if you haven’t visited Canada, or don’t know people who are Canadians who are obsessed with butter tarts, then you have no idea what I’m talking about. Butter tarts are delicious, and they taste like … well, the closest thing I can think of is that it is kind of like pecan pie without the pecans in it.

I had a MAJOR craving for homemade butter tarts this week, so called up my mother for the recipe that she used to use when I was growing up. It’s from the red Best of Bridge book… I believe it’s the first in the series of the books. Fabulous series of cookbooks, by the bye.

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 cup seedless raisons
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup butter
4 Tbsp cream or half & half
1/2 cup broken walnuts (optional)
1 dozen tart shells (not those sissy mini ones!)

Directions
Beat eggs. Combine with remaining ingredeints except nuts. Boil at medium heat for 3 minutes. Add nuts. Fill unbaked (and thawed) tart shells. Bake for 15 mins at 375F.

Notes from Courtney
Omnomnomnom! Delicious! Love butter tarts so much. I didn’t expect this recipe to be nearly as easy as it was. The only real note I have is to make sure that you watch the oven – I left them in there for a minute or two too long, and the tops were a little bit browner than I would’ve liked them.

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