Equally fascinating sisters

Ah, summer is in the air and lots of websites are recommending books galore! Not just the actual Brontë novels, but also Brontë-related (or sort of) books that have been previously featured on BrontëBlog.

The Record Eagle suggests Withering Heights: An Ellie Haskell Mystery by Dorothy Cannell.

Dorothy Cannell's "Withering Heights,”(St. Martin's Minotaur, 248 pages) is the second book in her Ellie Haskell mystery series. Ellie, a happily married mother of three, is a sometime sleuth and Gothic romance addict who gets tangled up in her own drama when she and her husband visit Yorkshire, England, to investigate strange events at a house that her family recently bought with lottery winnings. Can she solve the mystery and get out of Bronte country with her life — and her marriage — intact? (Al Parker)

Bookshelves of Doom (remember her great T-shirts?) reviews The Scarlet Letterman by Cara Lockwood, which is actually the second installment of another Brontë-related book by the same author: Wuthering High.

I should probably mention that again. I like this Heathcliff. He's got all of the smoldering passion and romance without the assholicness.

Now for a book we haven't mentioned before. Bookslut reviews The White Darkness - a Young Adult thriller - by Geraldine McCaughrean. Although the synopsis on the publisher's website doesn't mention the Brontës in the least, Bookslut posts a fragment where they appear.

At one point, the author name drops the Brontes to give Sym some courage. Consider this passage:

The Bronte sisters invented a whole town full of people, didn’t they? -- Glasstown -- and wrote stories about in microscopically small handwriting. Anything rather than be cooped up in a gloomy rectory in the middle of a god-awful moor: Glasstown.

Anything rather than share a school-bus ride with Maxine and her huge repertoire of filthy jokes. Glasstown.

Anything rather than remember Dad lighting bonfires from my books, to keep imaginary jackals away from our windows. Glasstown.

Anything rather than drive over a frozen sea, with people who are not what they seem toward a gaping hole in the Earth.

Of course, Glasstown. Why not bring that particular literary allusion to a teen audience? It was invented by children, why not let more children know about it? Why not the Brontes along with Robert Scott? (Colleen Mondor)

Totally agree.

And one more book. One we haven't mentioned before - for obvious reasons you'll see - but we are sure this won't be the last we hear of it. Magical Musings reports the book rights that were sold over the weekend at Publishers Marketplace. One of them is:

Title: THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Agent: Pam Ahearn at Ahearn Agency
Editor: Juliet Grames at Overlook
Blurb: Featuring the legendary 19th century novelist herself and her equally fascinating sisters
Deal: “Nice Deal”

We look forward to knowing more about the book.

Variety posts the list of 'Made-for-TV movies and miniseries' which are candidates for the Emmys. Jane Eyre 2006 is, of course, included.

"MASTERPIECE THEATRE: JANE EYRE" (PBS)
Premiere: Jan. 21
Director: Susanna White
Cast: Ruth Wilson, Toby Stephens
Logline: A governess goes to work for a moody employer and captures his heart before a dark secret intrudes.
USA Today's take: "Love, betrayal, despair, redemption, reconciliation. All of the elements expected of any epic love story are included. The distinction here: The story is splendidly retold."

Here's hoping the series will be included in the nominations when they are announced on July 19. A few weeks ago we posted a list of the categories Jane Eyre was being submitted to.

And finally Bullchef visits 'the house of Heathcliff' (a.k.a. Top Withins) and finds out that Wuthering Heights wasn't supposed to look like that according to the explanatory plaque. What we love about his post is the hilarious picture of the sheep :)

Categories: Books, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Juvenilia, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights