Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

A Discovery of Witches

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by Deborah Harkness
ages: adult
First sentence: “The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Although I liked this one quite a bit — more than I was expecting, actually — by the end of it, I was quite torn. So, let’s just say, up front, that my enjoyment of this one was tempered by some hangups.

The good:
I loved the world that Harkness created. It’s basically our world, except it’s inhabited by vampires, witches, and daemons. They’re generally brilliant, generally long-lived, and generally go unnoticed by humans. Our main character, Diana, is a witch who, ever since her parents’ deaths when she was 7, has shunned her magic. She’s a historian of 17th-century science, which means she dabbles in Alchemy. She’s pretty content with her life. Until she meets Matthew. Who is a vampire.

Which brings me to good point number 2: Harkness has a debt to owe to Stephenie Meyer, but she one-ups her. Matthew is 1500 years old, which makes him incredibly fascinating. (And I suppose it’s kind of creepy that a 1500 year old would fall in love with a 37 year old?) There’s a lot of history in this book, and no accident that Diana, as a historian, is fascinated by Matthew.

The bad:
It’s still True Love, and while it’s not as stifling as Edward and Bella’s love, it’s still pretty sappy. (What is it with vampires and a reluctance to have sex?) There’s also that element of over-protectiveness that drove me batty in the Twilight series. The only difference is that Diana can — and does — hold her own as a witch, though it takes her most of the book to do so. She also struggles against Matthew’s edicts, which helps with the whole damsel-in-distress thing. That, and the fact that she’s in REAL danger as opposed to supposed danger helps temper Matthew’s irritating behavior.

The good:
The plot is intriguing and complex: there’s a lost manuscript that all the “creatures” (as they call themselves) are longing to get their hands on. But, more importantly, there’s the forbidden love (really?) between Diana and Matthew: it seems the creatures aren’t suppose to cross-mate because of an age old (like centuries) covenant that the creatures made with each other. This leads to a lot of things, the most important being an impending “war” between the creatures who are okay with Diana and Matthew’s love and those who are not.

The bad:
On some levels, the idea of anyone being able to love anyone they want is a good story. But my main complaint with this book is that it’s 576 pages, and they don’t get to the point until the last 1/4. The plot pacing is bad as well: it’ll be interesting, then Harkness will divert into pages and pages of wine, food and romancing (M contended that if she cut out all the bits about wine, she would have lost about 75 pages…), none of which had anything to do with the plot. More than once, I nearly lost patience with the book.

That said, I’m invested now, and I’m interested in where Harkness is going to go with the sequel. Hopefully, it won’t be nearly as long. (Then again, she’s a historian, so I’m not really expecting a more tightly written book. Just hoping.)

The Mighty Miss Malone

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by Christopher Paul Curtis
ages: 9+
First sentence: “Once upon a time…”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Deza Malone has a pretty good life in Gary, Indiana. She loves school, she has the best big brother in the whole world (so what if he can’t spell or write? He has the most beautiful singing voice), and her mom and dad love her to pieces.

Sure, it’s the middle of the Great Depression, and her dad is out of work, but they’re making it. It’s tough, but they’re making it.

Then her dad decides to go on a fishing trip to Lake Michigan, and everything changes. Her dad goes missing for a few days, and when he comes back, he’s different. Then, he decides that what he really needs to do is go to Flint, Michigan, to look for work. He takes off. And because families are supposed to stick together, Deza, her mother, and her brother uproot themselves from wonderful Gary and head to Flint to find him.

There are many good things about this one (there’s a reason Curtis has a Newbery and an Newbery Honor to his name), but chief among them is Deza’s voice. From the opening pages, you get a sense of this girl, and I dare you not to love her. She’s a smart girl, observant, and creative. She’s fiercely loyal to her family and her friends, and yet she can adapt and make new friends pretty easily. Sure, the book brushes on darker issues of poverty, of homelessness, of racism. (I was disappointed at how racists the Michiganders were. Seriously. What good is integrated schooling if you are just going to write off the black kids? Ah… and that’s the crux of the situation, isn’t it?) But even though it deals with some heavy issues, the book is never heavy, depressing, or down. Deza’s interminable spirit lifts the whole book and lets it soar.

Which makes it a pretty good read.

And Now… A Giveaway!!

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I feel kind of silly doing this for a couple of reasons. 1) Because I haven’t read the book. Yet. And 2) Because I won the opportunity to do this from the Little, Brown Publicity department… not that there’s anything wrong with them (*waves*), it’s just that I’ve never done a publisher-sponsored giveaway before.

BUT.

I do adore Wendy Mass (*waves*), I love her writing, and I’m willing to support anything she does (within reason. I mean, if she wanted to sell my children, I may have issues with that.)

That said: I have the lovely opportunity to give away this:

and this:

Cool, no?

To enter: fill out this form anytime between now and Sunday, March 11th. I’ll have random.org select a winner and let you know. Unfortunately, it’s open to U.S. residents only.

Audiobook: The Spellman Files

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by Lisa Lutz
Read by Ari Graynor
ages: adult
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I first heard about the Spellmans through Jen Robinson who blogged about them a few years ago. She mentioned that they’re for people who love quirky characters, and since I’m all for that, I stuck it on my TBR list and let it sit.

One of the things I’m doing through my audiobook listening is going back through my age-old lists and finding ones that have been sitting there forever to listen to. This one definitely qualifies.

Twenty-eight year old Isabel Spellman grew up working in her parent’s PI buisness. Which means that she’s excellent at stakeouts, can pick a lock with the best of them, and has absolutely no respect for the privacy of others (yes, she really did run a credit check on ex-boyfriend #6). However, when she meets Daniel (ex-boyfriend #9), things get a little, well, sticky. After he breaks up with her, she decides she’s had Enough. But, before she’s allowed to quit the family buisness, her parents give her a 12-year-old cold case to “solve”. And, before that’s solved, a case closer to home pops up, one that may be the most important of Isabel’s life.

Okay, that makes it sound all dark and dangerous, and honestly: it’s not. This book is mostly an introduction to the Spellmans and all their quirkiness (why, yes, Mom does hire out someone to stake out Isabel, not to mention bugging her apartment). Mom and Dad don’t really play much of a role (except as ominous yet loveable background players); the more important figures in Isabel’s life are her lawyer brother David, her Uncle Ray, and her teenage sister Rae. Between the four of them — and the back-and-forthing they do — they drive what plot there is.

And there really isn’t much of one. It didn’t seem to matter, though: I was captivated by Isabel’s voice (and Graynor’s reading of her), her observations of her ex-boyfriends, the cases, and her family. It was a lot of fun to listen to.

That said, there is one glitch: I didn’t realize until the very end (when the credits said “adapted by”) that this was an abridged novel. Nooooo! Now I’m going to have to get the book and read it: I want to know what I missed!

In spite of that, it was quite an entertaining way to spend my time.

Anya’s Ghost

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by Vera Brosgol
ages: 14+
First sentence: “What’s for breakfast?”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

When you pickup a graphic novel that has a blurb from Neil Gaiman on the front (“A Masterpiece!”) and has been getting a lot of buzz, you invariably have high expectations.

And in many ways this graphic novel lived up to my expectations. Dealing with issues of inclusion, it tells the story of teenage Russian immigrant Anya Borzakovskaya, . Sure, she’s been here since she’s 5, and sure, she doesn’t have much of an accent, but she does have the baggage that many children of immigrants have: parents who can’t speak English well, traditions that are held over from the old country, a funny last name that she’s embarrassed about. She’s struggling at her private school; her mom wants her to be friends with the other Russian kid, Dima, who’s just the world’s biggest nerd. All she wants to do is skip and hang out with her one friend, Siobhan, and smoke.

Then she falls down a hole and meets a ghost. Not just any ghost, but one that wants to stay with Anya, and help her, and experience life. Creepy, no?

Well, yes. It’s a ghost story after all. Which is what disappointed me. I wanted more creepyness. I wanted to be scared out of my skin, and while I got a little bit of my wish near the end, I was disappointed that it wasn’t as scary as, say, Coraline.

That’s not to say it doesn’t work: it does, as one of those good-girl-at-heart-finds-her-way-back-into-the-fold books. Just not as a ghost story.

At least, not for me.

2012: February Wrap-Up

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Happy #ExtraMagicBonusHappyLeapYearDay (as per @neilhimself)! If you could take any author out to dinner, who would it be? (Me? I’d have Maureen Johnson, John Green, Mo Willems, Varian Johnson, Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce over for a party.)

My favorite book this past month:

Ready Player One

Hands down. I still smile over it… not the “best” book, but really: the most fun.

The Cybils Middle Grade shortlist:

Nerd Camp

The Friendship Doll

Kirby Larson commented on this post! I still get a little *squee* moment when that happens!

Ghetto Cowboy

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
Warp Speed

Audiobooks:

Bossypants

Everything else:

Breadcrumbs

Why We Broke Up

Kat Incorrigible 

Midnight in Austenland
Outcasts United

Kat, Incorrigible

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by Stephanie Burgis
ages: 10+
First sentence: “I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy, and set off to save my family from impending ruin.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Before I get started, I ask you: how can a first sentence be more perfect than that? It doesn’t.

What it does, however, is give you high expectations that this book will be 1) charming and 2) have some adventure in it. Throw in a little bit (or a lot at times) of magic, and you’ve got a pretty good winner.

It’s Regency-ish time (never really got a date, but it felt Jane Austen-y to me), and Kat’s family is in a pickle: her older brother, Charles, has been sent home from Oxford in disgrace due to gambling debts that their father, a mere country clergyman, can’t pay off. So, one of Kat’s older sisters, Elissa or Angeline, is going to have to do the noble thing and marry for money (to save the family). Unfortunately: that means one of them will have to marry (the dastardly) Sir Neville, who is rich, yes, but around whom rumors of his first wife’s death swirl.

I promised a bit of magic, didn’t I? Well, it seems that Kat’s mother was a witch, something which Angeline has taken up (to find her True Love, of course), and something which Kat is becoming increasingly curious about. See, Kat’s mother died when she was a baby, and it’s always been her sisters’ policy to Protect Kat from Things. Except that Kat’s 12 now, and she’s no longer a baby.

Which means that she can take Things into her very capable hands.

That, in fact, what my favorite part of this book. Although it seemed to have a lot of set-up for not very much pay-off, the pay-off was brilliant. If you ever want a book where there’s a kid who takes control (and believable, capable control) of a situation to bring it to its Right and Proper end, this is it. Kat is a great character: fun, smart, and stubborn in all the right ways. This one made me eager (now that the background work is done) to have more adventures with Kat.

I can only hope there is more.

Sunday Salon: The State of the TBR Pile 5

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We’re doing inventory at the store this weekend, and because of that I don’t have much time to read. (Not to mention the Oscars tonight! We finally have TV, so I’ll be watching.)

As it is, I’m in a bit of a reading slump. I have a huge pile…. and I don’t know what to read. I threw it out on Facebook and Twitter on Friday, but didn’t get much response, so I’m throwing it out again. What should I read next?

Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver (because I ought to read something else by her)
Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld (because it’s about time)
Clementine and the Family Meeting, by Sarah Pennypacker (because I love Clementine)
Drop Dead Healthy, by A. J. Jacobs (ARC I begged for from work)
The Sherlockian, by Graham Moore(I wanted a mystery)
Kill You Last, by Tod Strasser (ditto)
The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, by Umi Krishnaswami (a MG book with an India connection)
A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness (because it’s in the brackets for SLJ’s Battle of the Books)
The Floating Islands, by Rachel Neumeier (because I’ve heard good things about it, and it finally came in at the library)
Huntress, by Malinda Lo (because it sounded good)
Stupid Fast, by Geoff Herbach (because it won the Cybils YA Fiction this year)
Blood Red Road, by Moira Young (because it won the Cybils YA SFF this year)

What’s on your TBR pile?

Ghetto Cowboy

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by G. Neri/Illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson
ages: 9+
First sentence: “We drivin’ into the sunset, the car burning up from the heat.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Living in Detroit, twelve-year-old Cole and his mom are scraping by. Sure, he doesn’t go to school that often, but he’s okay. Until the day he gets caught, his mom flips, and drives him to Philadelphia to live with a father Cole has never met.

Once he gets to Philly, angry about being abandoned (as he sees it), by his mom, he decides he will have nothing to do with his father, or the stables he runs in North Philly.

This is where you do a double take: horse stables, in the middle of the ghetto? Based on a true fact — there really are horses in inner-city Philadelphia — Ghetto Cowboy looks at how providing something for kids to do, something as simple as caring for an animal, can give that life a meaning. At the same time, it explores a blossoming relationship bewteen a boy and his father.

There are many good things about this book: that it’s a non-girly horse book; that it’s written in dialect, but not hard to read; that there are gorgeous illustrations. In many ways, it’s trite, yes: just how many stories of bad kid making good can we read? But, I love that there is something different — Cole’s connection not only with his father, but with his father’s livelihood as well — to make this one better than all the other inner-city bad kids books.

In other words: it’s worth picking up.

Warp Speed

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by Lisa Yee
ages: 11+
First sentence: “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Marley Sandelski is invisible. No, not really: it’s a straight-up middle grade fiction book, not science fiction. But, that’s the way he feels. He plugs through middle school, getting beat up by the kids he calls the “Gorn” (Marley’s a huge Star Trek Original Series fan), getting mostly good grades (except for P.E.), and hanging out with his fellow geeky friends in AV Club (now a class called Technical Services). After school, he hangs out in the basement of the Rialto Theater, a historical landmark that specializes in old movies that his parents run. It’s not a great existence, but it is one.

Then things start to change. It’s a bumpy ride, but maybe… just maybe… things will change for the better?

The best thing about this book, I think, is that there is honest-to-goodness conflict in it. Marley is dealing with bullies — both physical and emotional. On top of that, he’s dealing with all the regular middle school boy stuff: trying to fit in, liking girls out of your league, not giving up on friends, being “cool”. It’s a good story, and you really root for Marley to make it all work out, and still not give up on who he really is.

My only complaint is that Lisa Yee, whose blog I adore, is not nearly as funny in book form as she is in blog form. But that’s a minor complaint in an otherwise good book.