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?

Don’t Call Me a Crook!

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by Bob Moore
ages: adult
First sentence: “It is a pity there are getting to be so many places that I can never go back to, but all the same, I do not think it is much fun a man being respectable all his life.”

I thought this one sounded interesting — the memoirs of a Scotsman — Glasgowian — who traveled the world, being, shall we say, less than respectable. So, when I was offered a review copy, I said yes.

But. Call it timing, call it mood, call it I’m not too into less-than-respectable characters, but three chapters in — after he’s gotten thrown off a ship, was disappointed that he couldn’t fly planes and kill people in WWI, stolen a bucket load of diamonds, married and all but abandoned his wife — I decided that Bob lived much too much of an adventuresome life for me. And I wasn’t all that interested in it, anyway.

Go see Suey’s husband’s review for a more positive outlook on the book, though. Maybe it’s just a guy book. 🙂

2009 Challenge #3: Once Upon a Time III

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One of the side effects of the 48 Hour Reading Challenge is that I finished this one. I don’t think I’ve ever done that this far before June 20th though…

I read:
Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
Aurelia, by Anne Osterland
Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones
The Ordinary Princess,
Here Lies Arthur, Phillip Reeve
The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan

And, amazingly enough, I had a banner year: there was not a bad book in this bunch! Yay!

Thanks, Carl. As always, this was a blast.

The Chosen One

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by Carol Lynch Williams
ages: 13+
First sentence: “If I was going to kill the Prophet,” I say, not even keeping my voice low, “I’d do it in Africa.”
Review copy sent by a publicist, I think.

This one first hit my radar back in February, when Sarah reviewed it. Since then, it’s been popping up here and there, and always with the same result: people love it.

It’s tough to read, it’s disturbing and unsettling, but it’s beautifully written, and ultimately hopeful. In short: it’s one of those books that won’t leave you alone even after you’ve finished.

Thirteen-year-old Kyra is part of The Chosen Ones, a community of polygamists in an unspecified desert. She’s not been an especially happy member of the community — she loves her family, but isn’t quite sure about the Prophet — and when the Prophet tells her that he’s had a vision of her marrying her 60-year-old uncle and that the wedding will take place in 4 weeks, Kyra knows she has to get out. Except that getting out is much, much harder — and will cost more — than she can realize.

It has a premise similar to The Patron Saint of Butterflies — exploring the boundries between faith, belief and control and the effect religious communities have on children — but The Chosen One takes it to a new level. Sparse and effective, Williams writes a novel that reads like poetry. And every word, carefully chosen, adds to the tension of Kyra’s plight. The book grips you, sticks with you, and leaves you hanging in its wake.

And then you will get up and gush about it, too.

Promise.

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

48 Hour Book Challenge Final Post

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Last year, I got all musing and reflective and said that I wasn’t sure I’d do it again.

But, when Mother Reader announced it, I found myself wanting to be a part of it, and looking forward to it, and planning for it, and in the end, having a good time.

What changed?

First of all, this year, Hubby helped out. He took A & K for hours, managed to get laundry done, and while I had to help motivate the kids into cleaning yesterday, he mostly ran the show. I couldn’t have done it without him.

Also, I’ve learned to be a faster reader. Not fast-fast, but faster than I was last year. I’ve learned how to plow through books that aren’t gripping (even though all the books I read for this managed to be quite gripping). And I’ve learned that taking breaks is just fine. Weeding the garden, giving blood, puttering around the house energized me.

So, this year I read:
Poison Study
Magic Study
Fire Study
Here Lies Arthur
A Hat Full of Sky
and about 1/3 of Wintersmith (I’ll finish it tomorrow and put up a review then)

I read/blogged for 23 1/4 hours (two hours and 45 minutes more than last year!), with a total of 1958 pages. I’m rounding up and will give $20 (which isn’t that much, so maybe I’ll convince Hubby to give more) to First Book.

I’m out of introspective and interesting thing to say, and I’m going to go outside and enjoy the sunny day (why can’t this fall on a weekend when it rains!) while it lasts.

Thanks, Pam, for all the effort and work you’ve done. 🙂 It was a blast.

48 Hour Book Challenge Update 3

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Well, I have a conundrum. It’s now 10:20, and I just finished (well a half hour ago) my last book. My time is up at 8 a.m. Do I want to stay up latelatelate and read one more book… or do I want to throw in the towel (I should total up my time first and see if I’ve made 20 hours yet) and call it a two days?

Hmmm…

Totals since I last posted:
Reading time: 5 1/2 hours
Blogging time: 50 minutes
Pages read: 746

A Hat Full of Sky

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by Terry Pratchett
ages: 12+
First sentence: “The Nac Mac Feegle are the most dangerous of the fairy races, particularly when drunk.”
Book 5 for the 48 HRC

There are different sorts of books that make you happy. The swooning book, the hilarious weird book, the slapstick snort-out-loud book. And then there are the ones that have a bit of elements of all of those, and get under your skin to make you unquestionably, utterly happy.

This was one of those books.

The plot is really immaterial: Tiffany (from The Wee Free Men, which is also delightful, but in a different way) is off to learn how to be a witch, except it’s nothing like she thought it would be. That, and she’s hunted by a… thing… that lives off of ambition. Unfortunately, because it can’t be killed, it’s really up to her to learn how to defeat it. In her own special Tiffany way. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, of course.

There’s so much to love about this book: Tiffany’s strong will and the hilarious Nac Mac Feegle, of course, but there’s also Miss Level, and Jeannie the new kelda, and Miss Weatherwax, and Petulia… and…

I could go on. But it’d be simpler if you just read the book.

I almost forgot one of my favorite quotes from the book, because I totally and completely empathize:

It turned out that when Miss Level had asked Tiffany if she was scared of heights, it had been the wrong question. Tiffany was not afraid of heights at all. She could walk past tall trees without batting an eyelid. Looking up at huge towering mountains didn’t bother her a bit. What she was afraid of, although she hadn’t realized it until this point, was depths. She was afraid of dropping such a long way out of the sky that she’d have time to run out of breath screaming before hitting the rocks so hard that she’d turn to a sort of jelly and all her bones would break into dust. She was, in fact, afraid of the ground. Miss Level should have thought before asking the question.

There. Now go read the book.

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

Here Lies Arthur

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by Philip Reeve
ages: 13+
First sentence: Even the woods are burning.
Book 4 for the 48 HRC

I am a sucker for all things Arthurian. I love the myth recreated (but not the myth retold, as I discovered last year), the sweeping themes of loyalty and betrayal and unity.

Philip Reeve takes it all and turns it on its head, and I found that I still love it.

Gwyna is just a girl when Arthur — war-lord, Bear, and bully — ransacks her house, burning it to the ground because her lord Ban wouldn’t pay tribute to Arthur. She escapes, swimming downstream until she’s far enough away. Except she’s discovered by Myrddin, and taken into his service. From this point, the threads of the legends are there — the lady in the lake, Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot (though under a different name), the battles, Cei, the betrayal, Arthur’s death — but not in the way that it’s normally presented. Through Gwyna, everything takes on a different, harsher light, but really, that’s not the point of the book.

The real point, I found when I turned the last page, is all about stories. See, Myrddin’s job in this book was to go around trying to boost Arthur’s reputation by spreading stories about him. Which worked for a while, but eventually, it all fell apart. But, by that time, Gwyna was so — enraptured by? devoted to? sold on them? — the stories, she couldn’t let them die. I liked this quote from the end:

I didn’t tell what really happened, of course. At first I felt ashamed to be telling lies for a living, and it stung me that I could not tell the truth. But as the year ripened and our road wound west I came to see that it didn’t matter what the truth had been. The real Arthur had just been a little tyrant in an age of tyrants. What mattered about him was the stories.

And always at the end someone would ask, ” Is it true he’s not dead? Not really dead? Will Arthur return?” And I’d think, “Christ, I hope not!” But they weren’t thinking of the Arthur I’d known. It was Myrddin’s Arthur, the wisest and fairest and best king they had ever heard of. You can’t blame people for wanting to believe there’d been a man like that once, and might be again.

So. In the end, Arthur was just a petty tyrant, and all that’s left of him is glorified stories of days long ago. Then again, it’s the stories that really matter.

Right?

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

48 Hour Book Challenge Update 2

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Since I updated yesterday yesterday I have:

  • Read for 4 hours and 35 minutes
  • Blogged for 45 minutes (not counting right now, of course)
  • Donated blood
  • Weeded the garden
  • Slept a bit
  • Cleaned the kitchen (It was starting to bother me)
  • Went out to eat (there was nothing in the house!)
  • Managed to get my kids to pick up a bit
  • and finished one book (still wish I could read faster), adding 439 pages to my total.

I’m going trying to finish two more books before my time is up by 8 a.m. tomorrow. Crossing my fingers, anyway.

Fire Study

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by Maria V. Snyder
ages: 14+
First sentence: “That’s pathetic, Yelena,” Dax complained.
Book three for the 48 HRC.

First off, can I tell you how much more I like the paperback cover (over there on the right), than the hardback covers on the other two books. Much, much better. (Even though a woman’s feet doesn’t really have much to do with the story. And Yelena would never wear a dress…)

I have also decided that it’s easier to review a series as one whole rather than three separate posts, since the same things apply for this one as did the last two. Valik and Yelena are still awesome. The action is kicking, though it really doesn’t go much of anywhere until Valik shows up, unexpectedly on page 200 (exactly). And then, it goes in places I wasn’t expecting, which isn’t a bad thing. I liked the religion of sorts that Snyder developed for the world, and while she let political strings dangle, it did resolve in a way that wasn’t entirely unsatisfying. She also juggled too many characters for my taste, and ended up leaving many things unresolved. Maybe there will be more books?

At any rate, it was an extremely enjoyable series to read — fun, with a dark edge, action-packed, interesting world, and compelling characters and plot. It’s difficult to do all that in a fantasy series. And Snyder succeeded quite admirably.

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

Magic Study

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by Maria V. Snyder
ages: 14+
First sentence: “We’re here,” Irys said.
Book 2 for 48 HRC

When we last left our amazing duo of Valik and Yelena, she was exiled because she was a magician. The only hope for her was to head south into Sitia, the land of magicians, in the hopes that she could be reconciled with her family, and learn how to control her new found abilities, even if it means being separated from the love of her life.

Unfortnately, because she is Yelena, that also means trouble.

This one is as action-packed as the first in the series (and as dark; Snyder has a thing for bad guys torturing young girls/children… why is it less disturbing when it’s a fantasy novel than if it’s a “true crime” one?), but it’s more about Yelena and less about Valik. Which has its drawbacks, since Valik is well… awesome. (So, what did he look like for you? Me, he came off as Richard Armitage. Don’t ask me why. Could be that we watched Robin Hood last night…) And so, while the book doesn’t feel stalled, it lacks the certain sparkle that Valik brings. And, it lacks the tension of the first one — I think I like books with romantic conflict better than ones where the main characters are all lovey-dovey (even Robin Hood in season two has lost some of its sauciness… sigh.) — but that doesn’t mean it was bad. Far from it.

On to the third!

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