Month: June 2009

June Jacket Flap-a-thon

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I read 27 books this month (the 48 Hour Challenge helped…), which is nearly double my “usual” monthly total. Sometimes, I feel like I’m insane for reading SO much (not as many as some… I know that…). Other times — like this past weekend, when I was talking to the wife of one of Hubby’s friends (she’s an aspiring YA writer) — I realize how much I don’t know, how many books I haven’t read, and I wonder if there will ever be time enough to read them all.

Am I the only one who feels this way? (Probably not.)

Starting with the one worst:
Wintersmith (HarperTempest): “At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland. At 11, she battled an ancient body-stealing evil. At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you’re thirteen. . . . But the Wintersmith isn’t exactly a boy. He is Winter itself—snow, gales, icicles—all of it. When he has a crush on Tiffany, he may make her roses out of ice, but his nature is blizzards and avalanches. And he wants Tiffany to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever. Tiffany will need all her cunning to make it to Spring. She’ll also need her friends, from junior witches to the legendary Granny Weatherwax. They—Crivens! Tiffany will need the Wee Free Men too! She’ll have the help of the bravest, toughest, smelliest pictsies ever to be banished from Fairyland—whether she wants it or not. It’s going to be a cold, cold season, because if Tiffany doesn’t survive until Spring— —Spring won’t come.”
It’s not so bad, but it doesn’t really draw the reader in. It’s more dorky than anything, and this book is anything but dorky.

And on to the better stuff:

Whales on Stilts! (Harcourt, Inc.): “Monstrous Thrills! (Startling teeth! Cellos in fast cars! Photocopy repair!) Gruesome Chills! (Okay, maybe not that gruesome, but we’re trying to sell a book here.) Sidesplitting laughs! (Ouch. This is why my friend Bill wears a girdle). Swaying above them, outlined against the fresh morning sky, were the ominous shapes of the whales. They towered thirty feet high, their eyes glowing. They had spread their flukes. They drooled from their wet baleen. Lily stopped on her bike and stood for a second at the crest of a hill. She stared with horror at the scene of destruction down in the valley before her. The whales stepped on used car dealerships and a putt-putt golf course. They burned down trees in a trice with their laser-beam eyes. They stalked on rows through the countryside. They had to be stopped.”
I didn’t do this justice: the jacket flap cracked me up. Like the book.

Poison Study (Luna): “Choose: A quick death and hell or slow poison and hell. About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren’t so clear.”
This is one of those books that, had I been browsing, I would have picked up because the jacket-flap copy is really intriguing. A good balance between being enticing and not revealing too much.

Wicked Lovely (HarperTeen): “Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty-especially if they learn of her Sight-and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens. Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer. Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention. But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King, who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. His is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost-regardless of her plans or desires. Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; everything. Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr’s stunning twenty-first-century faery tale.”
Again, a good balance of intriguing and not giving too much away.

Other books read this month:
Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Don’t Call Me a Crook!
How Not to be Popular
The Painter from Shangahi
Clementine
The Chosen One
Here Lies Arthur
Magic Study
Fire Study
Hat Full of Sky
Manga Shakespeare: The Tempest
Forever Rose
The Talented Clementine
Keturah and Lord Death
Tales from Outer Suburbia
Girl Force
Atonement
Girl at Sea
Garden Spells
The Talisman Ring
That Summer
Ink Exchange
Alcatraz versus the Scrivener’s Bones
Nation

Nation

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by Terry Pratchett
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Imo set out one day to catch some fish, but there was no sea.”

Mau is just a boy in the Nation — an island in the Pelagic Ocean — he’s off on Boy’s Island, in between souls, when the wave hits and wipes out his island. Left alone, he is despairing: how could the gods do this to the Nation? Then he meets Ermintrude (hereafter known as Daphne, since it’s a much more sensible name): a girl from England, who was on a ship that ended up crashing on the Nation because of the wave. At first — because this is how all things go — they were wary of each other, but then, when other refugees see the fire and come toward the island, they begin to forge a new Nation of their own.

I’m not terribly schooled in the world of Terry Pratchett, having only read the Tiffany Aching books, but I loved this one. It’s nothing like the Tiffany Aching books (and probably nothing like the Discworld ones, either), but it’s absolutely engrossing in its own way. M was just asking what it’s about, and it’s about many things: love and loss, religion and science, exploration and stagnation, discovering and retaining. But, it’s mostly the story of two people who figure out new ways of doing things, who find truth in the little things, and who manage to create something out of what had become nothing. It’s got all of Pratchett’s signature touches: the world is 90% ours, but it’s just off enough to make it fantastically different and wonderful. It’s full of love and life and humor. It doesn’t have a something-magical-happens ending (like in the Tiffany Aching books); in fact the ending is as far from magical as possible, and just about perfect.

In short: it’s storytelling at its finest.

Buy it at Amazon, Powell’s, or your local independent bookstore.

Book to Movie Friday: Jane Austen Book Club

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I was looking for something light and fluffy the other night, and I lit upon this one searching in the Netflix instant play (can I tell you how much I love Netflix? I LOVE Netflix. A whole lot.). I remembered liking the book well enough, and I figured that while the movie wouldn’t be great, it might be enjoyable in a shallow, mindless, fluffy way. So I gave it a shot.

Afterward, when I checked my review, I was surprised how much the movie kept of the book, at least superficially. I don’t remember if the specifics were the same, or even if the arc of the story was the same (I think the book covered a longer time span then the movie did and maybe events were mix-mashed), but honestly, I don’t think it mattered. The plot was still mostly non-existent: the movie (like the book) just being an excuse for people (some screwed up, some more or less together) to sit around discussing, and possibly learning from (and learning to like), Jane Austen’s books. Which is not something I can argue with. I liked it.

I liked Hugh Dancy as the computer/sci-fi geek the best. The women were mostly stereotypes (the eccentric, the divorced woman, the gay younger woman, the control freak, and the screwed up one), but he was refreshing in the midst of all that estrogen. As time went on, and he learned more about Austen (when he first started he thought they were all sequels, which cracked me up), he actually had some refreshing insights (or at least the screenwriters gave him some) into Austen’s work. Which makes me wonder what Hubby would think about them, if he ever got around to reading them.

Verdict: probably as good as the book. Maybe better because it has Hugh Dancy in it. 🙂

Ink Exchange

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by Melissa Marr
ages: 14+
First sentence: “Irial watched the girl stroll up the street; she was a bundle of terror and fury.”

Leslie has not had an easy life. With a deadbeat dad who drinks away everything she can earn, and a druggie brother who actually sold her body for drugs, things are not as cheerful as she makes them seem. She’s afraid, she feels out of control. Which is why she wants a tattoo: to do something to herself for herself.

But the tattoo that calls to her is a dangerous one: it’s the mark of the faerie Dark Court king, Irial. His court is barely surviving with the peace that has been established between the Summer and Winter courts. The Dark Faerie feed off of negative emotions: greed, lust, revenge, fear… and with peace there isn’t as many of those hanging around. And when Irial discovered that he was drawn to Leslie — as she was to him, even if she didn’t know it — he realized he could use their connection to feed his court: use Leslie as a conduit for mortals’ emotions.

This however has some unexpected consequences. First, Niall — advisor to the Summer King — is in love with Leslie, and even though he’s a Gancanagh (they’re addictive to women) he’s more than willing to do anything to protect her. Second, Leslie, while she’s attracted to the world at first, eventually realizes that this is no way to live.

It’s a dark novel, but less harsh than expected. Also, while it’s repelling in its subject matter, and the characters are not as likable as they could be, it’s an incredibly compelling read, as addicitive as Niall is to women. Which is a good thing, because it has a very satisfying and quite heroic ending. And that does much to help offset the darkness of the world Marr has created.

Buy it at Amazon, Powell’s, or your local independent bookstore.

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones

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by Brandon Sanderson
ages: 10+
First sentence: “So, there I was, slumped in my chair, waiting in a drab airport terminal, munching absently on a bag of stale potato chips.”

I enjoyed the first one in this series enough that I should have jumped at the chance to read the second, especially after Becky’s and Tricia’s reviews reminded me how much I liked these.

The book picks up where Evil Librarians left off, basically (it’s been more than a year since I read the last one, and I didn’t really feel like I was missing anything). This time, however, Alcatraz needs to find his grandfather who has gone searching for his father in the (dreaded) Library of Alexandria (you only thought it was destroyed). Teamed up with Bastille and having met his uncle Kaz and cousin Australia — oh, and being chased by a member of the Scrivener’s Bones, a half-human, half-Alivened machine-thing that’s pretty ominous — he heads down into the bowels to see what he, and his Talent of Breaking things, can do.

Going back and rereading my review for Evil Librarians, I found that my reactions were similar: while I liked the snide comments, the tongue-in-cheek-ness, it also simultaneously annoyed me. I did think quite a few times as Sanderson/Alcatraz took detour after detour in the narrative that maybe it was several times too many. That maybe the fish and shoes and other distractions were a bit much. But, aside from that, it’s still a very enjoyable journey, with lots of asides about authors and writing (The Honorable Council of Fantasy Writers Whose Books are Way Too Long — the good old THCoFWWBAWTL; or the aside about serial killers wanting to read these books because they have some vendetta about the author, in which case, the author is not Brandon Sanderson or Alcatraz Smedry, but rather Garth Nix, who lives in Australia) that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot, but are entertaining nonetheless.

At any rate, even though it’s not as good as the first one, I’m still interested in where the story will go. After all, Alcatraz, torturer that he is, left us with a bit of a cliff-hanger. Which makes me curious.

Buy it at Amazon, Powell’s or your local independent bookstore.

Library Loot #24

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Things I love about my library:
1. They catch books that we own that have mysteriously *cough* ended up in the library pile and get them back to me.
2. They commiserate with A, whose experiencing a bit of a loss because we got rid of our cats.
3. They chat with me about the books in my pile…
4. I can generally get everything I want, within reason, of course.
5. They’re just so danged nice.

I love my library. 🙂

For A/K:
Maisie Moo and Invisible Lucy, by Chris McKimmie
Boomer Goes to School, by Constance W. McGeorge/Illus. by Mary White
The Bravest Knight, Mercer Mayer
George and Martha, James Marshall**
Adele & Simon, by Barbara McClintock
Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls, by Emily Arnold McCully
Just a Minute, by Bonny Becker/Illus. by Jack E. Davis
Tea for Ruby (Paula Wiseman Books), by Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York/Illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser (A book that belongs on the BACA list instead of requisite Dora book…)
A Tree for Emmy, by Mary Ann Rodman/Illus. by Tatjana Mai-Wyss**
Lazy Little Loafers, by Susan Orlean/Illus. by G. Brian Karas

For M
City of Bones (Mortal Instruments), Cassandra Clare*
City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments), Cassandra Clare*

For me:
I have decided that July is going to be ARC and Challenge month, so I’m going to lay off on checking books out, since those usually get precedence. Hopefully. At any rate, both of these are for challenges…
Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr
Echoes From the Dead, by Johan Theorin

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

That Summer

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by Sarah Dessen
ages: 13+
First sentence: “It’s funny how one summer can change everything.”

I figured the best way to tackle the Sarah Dessen Challenge is to start at the beginning and work my way through to her most current one (Lock and Key excepted, of course.) And since this was her first book, I figured it was the best place to start.

There has been a lot of change in 15-year-old Haven’s life in the last couple of years. First, her dad — sportscaster Mac MacPheil — cheated on her mom with the weather woman — in one of those horrid name instances, Lorna Queen — and then they got divorced. Her older sister Ashley, who has spent her life bouncing from one boyfriend to another, and her have had a strained relationship for years. And the fact that Ashley has settled on boring Lucas (at least I think that’s his name), and is getting married in 29 days doesn’t help. On top of that, her mother is talking about going to Europe with a group of friends for an extended trip, and thinking about selling the house.

The only thing real in Haven’s life, it seems, is the past. And she remembers one of Ashely’s boyfriends — Sumner — best. He was the light in their life. He was what brought their family togehter. And it was after Ashley uncerimoniously dumped him on Halloween that Haven’s life started falling apart around her.

So, when Sumner shows back up in Haven’s life (right before Ashely’s wedding), she knows its Fate, a Sign.

The book follows Haven as she comes to terms with the changes in her life. And while it’s enjoyable, it’s not as fun or as engrossing as the other Dessen book I read. I wonder if she’s the type of author where the first book you read is your favorite… At any rate, it’s not a bad story, and at times I felt like Dessen captured a 15-year-old absolutely perfectly. It’s a difficult, awkward age, and to throw so many changes at the poor character… lets just say I was rooting for it all to come out okay. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Buy it at Amazon, Powell’s or your local independent bookstore.

The Talisman Ring

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by Georgette Heyer
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Sir Tristram Shield, arriving at Lavenham Court in the wintry dusk, was informed at the door that his great-uncle was very weak, not expected to live many more days out.

For about a year now, I’ve seen reviews of Georgette Heyer’s books floating around the book blogs, and I’ve thought to myself that I ought to give one a whirl. But it wasn’t until Becky’s review of this book that I hit upon the perfect Heyer book to start with.

Think of Heyer this way: one part Jane Austen, one part P.G. Wodehouse, and one part Oscar Wilde, with some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Alexandre Dumas thrown in for good measure (and adventure). In short: absolutely delightful.

There’s an incredibly complex plot and a huge cast of characters, but all you really need to know is there are three cousins: Sir Tristram, severe and definately unromantic; Eustacie, young, French, silly, and desiring of an Adventure; and Ludovic, the heir to the Lavenham’s fortune, yet wrongly exiled for a murder he didn’t commit. Everyone at some point or other ends up at an inn where they meet Sir Hugh and Miss Sarah Thane, there is many Adventures (daring and otherwise), they flush out the Real Bad Guy and everyone lives Happily Ever After.

The real charm is in the sheer silliness of the novel. It’s a book about some of the silliest people I’ve ever “met”, which (of course) makes it absolutely hilarious and charming and plain fun to read. It’s not high literature by any means, but it’s definately worth the time.

Of course that means I’m going to go find another book of Heyer’s to read. Any suggestions?

Buy it at: Amazon, Powell’s or your local independent bookstore.

Geeky Challenges

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This week’s geek (it’s been a while, but there hasn’t been one I’ve felt an urge to participate in… sorry…) asks us about Reading Challenges:

Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you’ve failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I’ve picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favorite reading challenges?

Breaking it down…

Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented?
I started doing challenges a couple of years ago because I realized it was a way to knock books off my TBR list. Which is my #1 rule with challenges: all the books have to come off of my TBR pile/lists. (Which isn’t always possible, depending on the challenge I choose to join.) Also, I’m very deadline-oriented, and so having a finish date to work towards helps me finish all the books that I’d like to read.

As a result of some reading challenges, I’ve picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Actually, I’m pretty terrible (*blushes*) about reading other people’s reviews for specific challenges. That is, except for the one I host. (Which is part of the reason I started hosting the challenge… that, and I like feeling a part of something bigger than myself.) And, yes, for that challenge, I am amazed at the books people pick out, and I have gone on to read some amazing books that others have recommended.

Do you have favorite reading challenges?
I really only join ones that I know I’ll like — I’m pretty bad about expanding my reading circle, though I did to the RIP challenge last year…), but out of those, I like: Carl’s Once Upon a Time (the only challenge that I can say I’ve participated every single time in). I liked Leslie’s Armchair Traveler challenge a couple of years ago. And Becky’s YA Romance last year. Trish’s Classics Challenge is helping me work through books that I’ve needed to reread for a while. And Mother Reader’s 48 hour Book Challenge, is an immense amount of fun. (Should I be self-serving and say I liked how the Well-Seasoned Reader challenge worked this year?)