Saturday, July 12, 2014

Rose Mannering’s five best books

Rose Mannering (AKA G. R. Mannering) is an English writer and international author. She signed up with literary agency Creative Authors when she was eighteen and secured her first UK publishing deal when she was nineteen. Roses, her first fantasy novel, is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

At Eat More Cake, Mannering tagged her five top books, including:
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

I was introduced to McCullers by my agent and there began an intense book-love affair. I could ramble on for ages about how beautiful McCullers prose is and how she manages to say everything in just a few words. Her rhythmic style is second to none and her isolated, yearning characters are so painfully realistic that it actually hurts. If you want a small introduction to her work, then I would advise starting with The Ballard of the Sad Café. That was where I fell in love. Then I fell head over heels for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, before settling with The Member of the Wedding. I think the latter is my favourite because it is so painfully relatable. The main character, a young tomboy similar in some respects to Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, experiences all the loneliness of the world. The Member of the Wedding took McCullers five years to write and its so perfectly balanced that I can’t believe she wrote it so quickly.
Read about another book on the list.

The Member of the Wedding is a book to which Antonya Nelson always returns and one of Zoë Heller's favorite books.

Visit G. R. Mannering's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Roses.

--Marshal Zeringue