Monday, January 7, 2008

10 little things about Jennifer Donnelly

Finally, oh, FINALLY, the book gods smiled down on me. Joy joy, happy happy! Jennifer Donnelly, one of my favorite authors ever evah, is visiting us! SQUEEE! :D If you guys haven’t read her books already, you’re a dum-dum eheh you don’t know what you’re missing.

Jennifer’s A Northern Light has won like a gazillion awards, including the Carnegie Medal, UK’s most prestigious prize for children’s literature. Her epic historical novel The Tea Rose is an exquisite story about star-crossed lovers. *sigh* To quote Frank McCourt (author of Angela’s Ashes), “When you start reading The Tea Rose, give yourself plenty of time because this is a most seductive novel.” Seductive, indeed; I couldn’t put it down!

Now, the second book in her “Rose” trilogy, The Winter Rose, will be released in the U.S. tomorrow. Wonderful Bitches that we are *g* we’re going to raffle a copy for one of our lovely readers, yay! To participate, all you have to do is answer a question Jennifer asks in her interview. The two-part interview will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some facts about her:

1. Favorite comfort food: Chocolate. I like it dark, bitter, and expensive. It’s my comfort food and my discomfort food. I eat it first thing in the morning. I eat it when I write. I eat it when nobody’s watching. I love Vosges, Larry Burdick, and Maison du Chocolate the best. And when I’ve got a box of something good, I never, ever share it.

2. Weirdest thing you like to eat: Beans on toast. But it’s only weird here, not in England.

3. Favorite TV show and/or favorite movie: Silence of the Lambs. I identify with Clarice Starling more than any other fictional female character. Like her, I’m “a well-scrubbed hustling rube.”

4. If you could wake up tomorrow in the body of someone else currently living, whom would you pick? Johnny Knoxville. I want to put aside the teapot and the reading glasses and the Times Literary Supplement—just for a day—and go careening through a busy intersection in a runaway shopping cart.

5. 3 things you never leave your house without: My passport, $10,000 in unmarked bills, and a Bowie knife. Well, hardly. Sadly, it’s more like my phone, my keys, and a pack of Dentyne.

6. Last movie you watched: Monsoon Wedding. Again. That song “Chunari Chunari”? It’s instant Prozac to me.

7. Man (besides hubby) you think is too gorgeous for your peace of mind: I instantly fall in love with anyone who makes me laugh. This week it’s Ricky Gervais.

8. Book you’re reading right now: The Child that Books Built: A Life in Reading by Francis Spufford. It’s about the books the author read as a child that comforted him, taught him, inspired him, and made him into the adult he is. “I need fiction. I’m an addict,” says Francis. There’s a picture of him on the back flap. Big glasses, big sweater, big grin, nutty hair. My kinda guy.

9. What one toiletry item could you never live without? The perfume Hadrien.

10. Which famous person, now dead, do you wish you could have seen naked? Louis XIV. Dude was hot.


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15 comment(s):

Blogger Isabella said...

Johnny Knoxville? LOL. Oh, the things he did in Jackass....

I can't wait for the interview.

1/07/2008 10:56:00 AM  

Blogger ... said...

I love A Northern Light, and one of these days I will get around to reading The Tea Rose.

1/07/2008 11:28:00 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will get The Tea Rose if it's available online. I love discovering new authors and books that aren't by Dan Brown. I think this is a book I will enjoy reading.

1/07/2008 12:41:00 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love Jennifer's books! Northern light,Tea Rose and Winter Rose are among my top favorites ever!
And I've been recomending her books everywhere...with quite a success!:D
So a high five to you bitches for having this interview,can't wait to read it!;)

1/07/2008 12:54:00 PM  

Blogger Jordis Juice said...

Jennifer, fabulous picture.

Harlot recommended The Tea Rose to me together with TBH. I ended up loving both books. Can't wait to read The Winter Rose!

1/07/2008 02:08:00 PM  

Blogger Marg said...

I envy you all getting to discover the wonder that is The Tea Rose, and more particularly The Winter Rose! TWR is one of my favourite books evah! I am just about to reread The Tea Rose, so that I can reread The Winter Rose....and I don't usually do rereads!


Oh, and The Gathering Light is good too!

1/07/2008 04:05:00 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm one of the dum-dums who hasn't read anything by Jennifer Donnelly, but what do I come here for if not to add books to my already groaning shelves (and for the brazen wit and general hussiness, of course :P). I'm excited to read these books from the rave reviews here!

1/07/2008 04:41:00 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I loved The Winter Rose! It was amazing. Now I need to go out and find the other books.

1/07/2008 05:14:00 PM  

Blogger Jolie said...

I loved The Tea Rose, have yet to read A Northern Light, already ordered The Winter Rose. Looking forward to reading the interview!

1/08/2008 12:35:00 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another 'dum-dum' here lol. OK, just included the Tea Rose on my TBR list!

1/08/2008 01:05:00 AM  

Blogger Lollie Rose said...

Good job ladies. Fun answers. Is Jennifer going to stop by?

1/08/2008 01:35:00 AM  

Blogger Jennifer Donnelly said...

Hi! I'm stopping by...I think, I hope! I'm a total tech doof, so I hope I'm doing this right and that it will actually post!

Thank you all for the great comments. This site is the coolest. Love the webmistresses, and their readers!

Jennifer

1/09/2008 01:46:00 PM  

Blogger ValVega said...

Hi Jennifer, I'm webmistress Trollop (love that webmistress thing, might even change mi nick to that LOL Sounds totally dirty and sexy *wink*). I've yet to read any of your books, though I admit being badgered to death by Harlot to do so. She send me a YA one which I'll be starting soon *g*

Thank you so much for letting us interview you. You've been a great sport.

1/09/2008 02:03:00 PM  

Blogger Harlot said...

Jennifer, so glad you dropped by!

Again, thank you for letting a pair of heathens like us interview you. I had so much fun talking to you. Please know you're always welcome on our blog and that we're always ready to go visit you on your huge mansion. :D

1/09/2008 02:38:00 PM  

Anonymous Nishant verma said...

Jennifer,
just now I've finished reading "A gathering light" and i must say that it was a real good book & fun to read. so i've become your fan and now soon i'll be hanging in the nearest bookstore to buy 'the tea rose'.....heared a lot about it.
Infact jenny, i wanted to thank you for such a beautiful work .....
i love you

11/12/2009 03:50:00 AM