Return, part 3

This is the rest of the books that I have read so far this year:

Luminous by Greg Egan **1/2
LIE by Caroline Bock ****
The Maze Runner by James Dashner ***
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner ***
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade ****
The Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade ****
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling ***** (duh!)
Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley ***
The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan ***
Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin ****
Clash of Kings by G.R.R. Martin ****
Room by Emma Donaghue ***1/2
The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean ***
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris ***1/2
The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett ***
Beasts (Mystic Phyles) by Stephanie Brockway ****1/2
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel ***1/2
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine ****

Return, part 2

This is a list of second quarter titles dominated by three series: the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz (lots of teenage fun), Three Pines mysteries by Louise Penny (marvelous characters), and the Temeraire dragon series by Naomi Novik (fabulous fantasy/alternate history).

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith ****
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
Still Life by Louise Penny ***1/2
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny ***1/2
Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz ***
Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
Cruelest Month by Louise Penny ****
Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz ****
Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny ****
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom  ***1/2
Bound by Donna Jo Napoli ****
Riot by Walter Dean Myers - DNF
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny *****
The Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Boronik **
Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz ***
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford *****
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny ****1/2
Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Collin Cotterill ****
Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz ***
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik ****
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson ****
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik ****
Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz ***1/2
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik ***
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik ****
9-11: Artists Respond, various contributors ****
Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie ****
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik ****
Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik ***1/2

The Return to the Buzz

It has been over 6 months since I lasted posted here but I will try to get caught up. The following is a list of books I have read during the first quarter of this year with my rating.
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde ****
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde ****
Dracula by Bram Stoker ****
Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel ***1/2
Trash by Andy Mulligan ****1/2
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff  *****
1st to Die by James Patterson ***
Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris ***
Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman ***1/2
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan ***1/2
Dark Life by Kat Falls ***
Fueling the Teen Machine by Ellen Shanley and Colleen Thompson **1/2
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin ****
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather ****1/2
Pig Island by Mo Hayder **
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin ****
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin ****
Crusader by Edward Bloor ***
Breathers by S.G. Browne ***
A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin ****
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan **
Scarlet Traces by Ian Edginton ****
The Ring of Solomon by Jonathon Stroud ****
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon ***
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley ***1/2
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque by Joyce Carol Oates ****
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride **1/2
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson ****
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne ***
A Samurai Never Fears Death by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler ***1/2
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman ****1/2
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld ***1/2
Spinning Out by David Stahler Jr. ***1/2
They Called Themselves the K.K.K. by Susan Campbell Bartoletti ****1/2
Stones for my Father by Trilby Kent ***1/2
One of our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde ****
City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin *****

Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence (2010)

This graphic novel is based on a book of the same name by Geoffrey Canada and is illustrated by Jamar Nicholas. It is a memoir of the lessons learned growing up on the streets of the South Bronx. There is a code that is passed on from older kids to younger kids as they emerge from their families' apartments out on to the street. If they don't adhere to this code the consequences are some form of violence and the older the kid, the more severe the consequences.

As he gets older, Canada finds that the means to defend himself increase in efficiency from the fist to the stick to the knife and to the gun. At first he feels he must carry a gun to defend himself but he eventually comes to the realization that the consequences of using the gun could mean taking a life. He decides that carrying the gun makes it too easy and convenient to shoot someone so he decides to get rid of the gun and rely on less violent ways to survive.

And yet, these are young men who because they are armed feel less inclined to avoid confrontations that could escalate into bloodshed.
The power of the gun is no less intoxicating to them that it was to me. The evidence of their need to carry a weapon for self-defense is made clear to them every day as they talk about who was shot, who was robbed, who was killed.
They are not going to swap their guns just for sneakers, or gift certificates, or small amounts of cash. And unfortunately for us all, many of them have not been raised in the church or with any moral teaching, so the fact that they might end up taking a life is not a persuasive argument for throwing away their guns.

Canada is very involved with the ambitious program, Harlem Children's Zone, so that children can walk to school and the store without fear.

The illustrations in this book are in black, white, and gray and are rough and stark. They add to the fear and intimidation that the writer grew up with.

I highly recommend this book.

My rating: ++++

The Well of Lost Plots (2003)

This is the third book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. In this book, Thursday is in the Character Exchange Programme and is in hiding in an out-of-print book replacing a character that will spend some time in the real world. She is going to stay here until her child is born. In the meantime she is studying to be a Jurisfiction agent in the Book World with the help of her mentor Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations). Her grandmother, Gran Next, pops in to make sure that she doesn't lose any memories of her husband because that would indicate an attack by the mnemonomorph Aornis, sister to Acheron Hades, who was killed by Thursday in the first book. Another threat to books everywhere is the introduction of a new program called UltraWord which is supposed to create more than the eight plot lines that all novels derive from.

Whew! That's a lot in one book. Besides all this is the introduction of all sorts of creatures like the "vyrus" which changes the spelling of words with predictably dangerous results. One of my favorite parts was an exchange about the overuse of had had and that that and how it confused the reader too much.

"Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example," explained Lady Cavendish. "You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not."
"So the problem with that other that that was that --?
"That that other-other that that had had approval."
"Okay," said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, "Let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim's Progress, which had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC's approval?"
There was a very long pause.

I put Jasper Fforde in the same high realm as J.K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett for his ability to create a new world with original creatures and physics, he is that good.

My rating for this book: ++++

Arctic Drift (2008)

I know I said in the last entry I wasn't supposed to be reading but I actually had finished this book days ago and I am taking a break from writing to add it to the blog.

Wonderful action. Yes, it's the stereotypical testosterone-pumped thriller but Clive Cussler some how manages to come off less misogynist than other action writers like Clancey or Brown. Maybe I'm just swayed by the fact that most of the action takes place on or under the water.

Anyway, the action in this book takes us as far north as is navigable, the Northwest Passage. Bad guys are digging for oil and expelling CO2 in disastrous amounts. Rumors of an extremely rare element being found in the northern parts of Canada have the bad guys and the good guys rushing to locate whatever amounts already mined and any mines still undiscovered.

It is always necessary for the reader of books like this to ignore any inconvenient facts that are glossed over. For instance, only in these books can divers go down thousands of feet and not have to undergo decompression. Characters are, of course, immune to the bends. We can excuse the author however, since it is extremely unlikely that a reader would take it upon themselves to attempt a dive like that, suffer debilitating effects, and sue. It is much more likely that people will take a blow dryer with them into a bath and electrocute themselves so the dryer company has to place a warning on the cable and absolve themselves of any fault if the user is that stupid.

In any case, this is a real page turner.

My rating for this book: +++

NaNoWriMo 2010

November is National Novel Writers Month!

I'm taking the big plunge and attempting to write a novel this month. It's six days into the challenge and I've written over 8,000 words. I'll have to see if I can make it to 50,000 words.

I'm writing a YA novel about a boy whose father left to work in Columbia three years previously and hasn't been heard from since. The boy gets some help from some very shy and rare creatures that somehow connect books across space.

My back up plan, in case the story ends before I reach 50,000 words, is to create inter corollary chapters about made up mythological creatures.

In the meantime, I probably won't get much reading done since that is pretty much viewed as procrastinating as is my writing here on my blog. Oh, well. Back to work.

Wish me luck!

Soulless (2009)

I really hope that the action and humor in this book by Gail Carriger continue with the rest of her series because I really enjoyed it! Alexia Tarabotti is a pretenatural, she has no soul. She is the oldest of three girls, 26-years old, a spinster. The BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry) has tried to keep her existence quiet but her files were stolen by the Hypocras Club, an organization trying to learn how to create their own supernaturals. The head of the club, Mr. Siemons, explains why she is so special.

Mr. Siemons stopped blowing smoke in Miss Tarabotti's face and blew it instead at the American scientist. "This young lady is a preternatural: a Homo exanimus. We have been looking for her since we first deduced her existence here in London. Which, I might add, was only shortly after finding out that preternaturals existed at all. Of course, if you follow the couterbalance theorem, her kind seems perfectly logical. I am surprised we never before thought to look. And, of course, we knew the supernatural set had ancient legends pertaining to certain dangerous creatures that were born to hunt them. The werewolves have their curse-breakers, the vampires their soul-suckers, and the ghosts their exorcists. But we did not know they were all the same organism and that that organism was a scientific fact, not a myth. They are startingly uncommon, as it turns out. Miss Tarabotti here is a rare beast, indeed."

Alexia shares her attraction to the head werewolf, Lord Maccon, and he to her, much to the shock and amazement of her family who had given up on her getting married. In this excerpt one can see the humor that comes with the Victorian setting.

"Well, my love" said Alexia with prodigious daring to Lord Maccon, "shall we?"
The earl started to move forward and then stopped abruptly and looked down at her, not moving at all. "Am I?"
"Are you what?" She peeked up at him through her tangled hair, pretending confusion. There was no possible way she was going to make this easy for him.
"Your love?"
"Well, you are a werewolf, Scottish, naked, and covered in fbood, and I am still holding your hand."
He sighed in evident relief. "Good. That is settled, then."

I am looking forward for to reading the rest of this series with great relish.

My rating for this book: ++++

The Age of Innocence (1920)

I read this book by Edith Wharton for several reasons. I had never read anything by her before, it was on the Banned Books List, and I am trying to catch up on many classics that I have not yet read.

It can almost be called historical fiction since she wrote the book in 1920 but it takes place in the 1870s. It is a biting look at high society in New York with all of its strict rules and conventions. Everything is so structured, in fact that the characters find they don't even have to speak to share their thoughts.

Archer Newland is a young man who, in the opening of the book, becomes engaged to Mary Welland, the neice of Mrs. Manson Mingott and cousin to the Countess Ellen Olenska. He encounters her in her family's box at the opera and "communicates" his intention to announce their engagement.

As he entered the box his eyes met Miss Welland's, and he saw that she had instantly understood his motive, though the family dignity which both considered so high a virtue would not permit her to tell him so. The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done. Her eyes said: "You see why Mamma brought me," and his answered: "I would not for the world have had you stay away."

Even though Ms Wharton was raised in this society, she is very biting in her descriptions of the people and their daily lives. The introduction of Mrs. Mingott had my jaw drop in disbelief it was so mean.

The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon.

I would have been really bad to be on Ms Wharton's bad side!

On the other hand, I found charm in the characters looking forward to the future, Ms Wharton's present, our past. In this excerpt, Archer has a rendezvous with the Countess in the now famous MOMA.

They had this melancholy retreat to themselves, and seated on the divan enclosing the central steam-radiator, they were staring silently at the glass cabinets mounted in ebonised wood which contained the recovered fragments of Ilium.
"It's odd," Madame Olenska said, "I never came here before."
"Ah, well --. Some day, I suppose, it will be a great Museum."
"Yes," she assented absently.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. Don't wait to read it like I did. Now that you have heard about it, don't delay.

My recommendation for this book: +++++

Mockingjay (2010)

This book is the third and last installment of the series by Suzanne Collins which started with the fantastic "Hunger Games". The violence in this dystopia fantasy was quite disturbing particularly since so much of it was teen on teen. In this last book, the rebellion is in full swing and everyone is involved, whole districts are being fire-bombed and the most dastardly traps are around every corner. Katniss, has been elevated as the face of the rebellion, Mockingjay, named after a pin she wore, given to her by her mother.

What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for me. The symbol of the revolution. The Mockingjay. It isn't enough, what I've done in the past, defying the Capitol in the Games, providing a rallying point. I must now become the actual leader, the face, the voice, the embodiment of the revolution. Ther person who the districts -- most of which are now openly at war with the Capitol -- can count on to blaze the path to victory. I won't have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances -- as if that doesn't sound horribly familiar -- and all I have to do is play my part. Sometimes I listen to them annd sometimes I just watch the perfect line of Coin's hair and try to decide if it's a wig. Eventually, I leave the room because my head starts to ache or it's time to eat or if I don't get aboveground I might start screaming. I don't bother to say anything. I simply get up and walk out.

I probably should have read the three books together because I found Katniss' character positively grating. I wasn't the only one. Even the other characters in the book seem to have a problem with her. One of the times she is recovering from wounds, she talks with Johanna.

". . . How about you, Mockingjay? You feel totally safe?"
"Oh, yeah. Right up until I got shot," I say.
"Please. That bullet never even touched you. Cinna saw to that," she says.
I think of the layers of protective armor in my Mockingjay outfit. But the pain came from somewhere. "Broken ribs?"
"Not even. Bruised pretty good. The impact ruptured your spleen. They couldn't repair it." She gives a dismissive wave of her hand. "don't worry, you don't need one. And if you did, they'd find you one, wouldn't they? It's everybody's job to keep you alive."
"Is that why you hate me?" I ask.
"Partly, she admits. "Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you're a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romantic drama and your defend-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn't an act, which makes you more unbearable. please feel free to take this personally."

Another aspect of this book that bothered me was the use of drugs. It seems that every time Kat got agitated, like after seeing Peeta speaking for the Capitol on TV, someone was there with a syringe to sedate her. Also, it seems she was receiving a lot of pain medication for her many wounds.

I will have to give this series another shot, some day, and read them together. I may have more sympathy for Kat then.

This series is very imaginative and violent, but very readable. I suggest the reader tackle all three in a row.

My rating for this book: +++ 1/2