The Spice Necklace

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by Ann Vanderhoof
ages: adult
First sentence: “This time, I bring my rolling pin to the Caribbean.”
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I read, and fell in love with Vanderhoof’s book of her first trip to the Caribbean,
Embarrassment of Mangoes, nearly five years ago. I didn’t even know there was a book about a second trip until a few months back, when someone pointed it out to me. Of course, I had to read it! And, unsurprisingly, I had much the same experience with this one that I had with the first book.

Ann and Steve returned to Toronto, to their “land-based” life, but after a couple of years, they realized that they missed the easy-going, food-saturated life they had in the Caribbean. So they did what they could to put things in order, got out their boat, Receta, and headed south again.

In many ways, this one covers much of the same territory as the first one did: there is food and friends and sunshine. But, knowing that, Vanderhoof was smart: the book (as evidenced by the title), is mostly about the spices native to the islands, and the many, many uses they have in everyday life. And because I don’t know much about the spices I eat, I learned a whole lot. Like how nutmeg is grown, and the fact that mace and nutmeg comes from the same plant. And that the islanders (especially on Trinidad) love their peppah HOT. I also learned a whole lot about rum (I had to turn to a friend to explain proof, just so I could understand why the 151 proof Saba Spice was so difficult to get down), and the ways in which rum really does permeate island culture.

My favorite island this time was Trinidad; Vanderhoof made it come alive, and made me curious about the African/Indian blend of cultures and cuisine they have there.  They also spent a lot of time in the Dominican Republic and Dominica, both islands would be fascinating to visit. Mostly, though, I envied their approach to seeing the world: parking in one spot for months at a time, soaking up the culture and the cuisine, meeting people, and learning about a place rather than just seeing it. I would (still) love to travel that way.

But the next best thing to a vacation is a well-written, food-heavy, travel book about an area. And this one is just the ticket.

Fake Mustache

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by Tom Angleberger
ages: 10+
First sentence: “You may remember seeing me on TV when Jodie O’Rodeo saved the world.”
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One mustache to rule the world.

(Seriously.)

One kinda nerdy seventh grader to stop the evil master plan (spurred on by his ex-best friend) from happening.

(Granted, he had help from a teen TV singing sensation.)

Will they be able to do it?

(Stop Fako Mustacho, the evil genius, that is. Though they also fall in luvvv along the way. Possibly. Keep in mind that this is a tall tale, though.)

Will I find this book to be as funny as others have?

(No.)

Will it be as epic as it sounds?

(Possibly for some.)

M and C both thought the idea sounded quite awesome, however. For what it’s worth.

(It means that my sense of humor just didn’t jive with this one.)

And while I’m sad that I didn’t like Fake Mustache as much as I’ve enjoyed Angleberger’s other books, I am in no way hindered in my enjoyment of his books.

(Mostly.)

Gilt

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by Katherine Longshore
ages: 15+
First sentence: “You’re not going to steal anything.”
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When I first saw this one at the store, I dismissed it as yet another paranormal romance. I mean, really: doesn’t that cover scream paranormal romance??

Thankfully,  Liz B. read it and loved it, enough to make me want to pick it up. Because there was no way I would have guessed from the cover that this is about one of my favorite periods in English history: the Tudors.

More specifically, it’s the story of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s sixth wife. How she came to power, and how she fell from it as well. However, Longshore does us the favor of not making Catherine (or Cat, to her friends) the center of the story (even though she often wanted to be the center of attention!), instead making a friend of Catherine’s, Kitty Tylney, our eyes and ears. In this way, we get to see the corruption and the power grabs from the outside; Kitty is close enough to be affected by the power, but not so close that she succumbs to it.

In many ways, this is Phillipa Gregory-light. And I say that with all the affection I can muster. I love Gregory’s Tudor books (even if I can’t get through the Other Boleyn Girl) for their sweeping dramatizations of history. Longshore did much of the same thing: giving us sweeping vistas, beautiful dresses, corrupt men and women using girls as pawns in their elaborate games. (And all the sex was off-screen.) I also liked, much like Liz, that this was a side of Henry VIII that we don’t often get to see. Many stories have been written about his earlier wives, but I knew next to nothing about Catherine Howard. Granted, it’s fiction, not history, but I felt that Longshore did her research and did an admirable job weaving the history into the story.

It was captivating, engaging, and all those other words people use to gush over books. I’m looking forward to the next book that Longshore writes.

Code Name Verity

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by Elizabeth Wein
ages: 14+
First sentence: “I am a coward.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Things this book is:
A World War II book.
A book about friendship, between two young women, specficially.  Funny.
A book about torture.
A book about the Resistance.
A book about women pilots.
A book about things a person will do to save their skin.
An amazing example of voice. Seriously, the characters leap off the page.
Unputdownable. (Yeah, I know. Still, it fits.)
Freaking awesome.

Things this book is not:
Trite.
Another Holocaust book.
Boring.

In other words: if you haven’t yet read this story about Maddie and Verity, and been captivated by their story, you are missing out.

And yes, it really is just as good as “they” all say.

Time Snatchers

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by Richard Unger
ages: 11+
First sentence: “I can’t stop crying.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by my place of employment.

Caleb steals things.

Not just anything: artifacts from history.

See: he works for Uncle as a time snatcher, someone who goes through history procuring important artifacts for clients.

On the one hand: this is way cool. The idea of time travel for theft is a clever one, and Unger comes up with some pretty neat technology to make it happen. In addition, Unger finds some great minor moments in history to feature in the book.

The hitch: Caleb doesn’t do this by choice.

He and all the other snatchers in Uncle’s employ — including Caleb’s love-interest, Abby, and his arch-nemesis (we need a nemesis?), Frank — are orphans, and Uncle is, shall we say, less than a kind benefactor. Caleb and his fellow snatchers are there until death, pretty much. There is no way out. 

And this is the other hand: it all sounds quite grim and hopeless. This book is one bit of drama on top of another: Frank is stealing Caleb’s snatches out from under him, he’s being groomed to be the next Uncle, and then he kidnaps (for Uncle, of course) a kid — Zach — Caleb befriended on one of his snatches. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Caleb thinks that Abby like-likes Frank. It’s not a happy book. It’s not a light book. And while the premises is a good one, it’s not even a fun book.

So, of course, Caleb has to risk everything to get Zach back to his family. It’s the only human thing for Caleb to do. And here we come to my real problem with this one: it just petered out. I’m not sure how it could have done anything else, but a good third of the conflict that was introduced wasn’t resolved. Which I don’t mind, generally speaking, but it kind of seemed pointless.

And in the end, I didn’t like this one as much as I hoped it would.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

The Books of Elsewhere: The Second Spy

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by Jacqueline West
ages: 9+
First sentence: “If you believe that death is about to spring upon you at any moment, you won’t spend much time watching television.”
Others in the series: The Shadows, Spellbound
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Hm… how to do this without spoiling the other two? Well, first go read the other two! (Seriously: you won’t regret it. This is one fine middle grade series.)

Olive has managed to thwart the evil McMartins so far, a little bit by chance and luck, and a little bit through skill. However, thwarting is not the same as getting rid of. And, so Olive has been creeping around, hoping that Annabelle McMartin doesn’t kill her. That, and she’s starting sixth grade, and middle school, which is its own beast. Granted, the two — being afraid for your life and starting middle school — aren’t necessarily compatible. But, thankfully, Olive has the cats and Rutherford on her side.

Or does she??

Another fine, deliciously creepy, intriguing, fun addition to this clever series. I liked that West used trust and friendship as the backdrop for this tale, exploring this pretty traditional and mundane (though important) topic in such a unique way. But, beyond that, every book is well plotted, and wraps up nicely (my favorite thing!), while leaving room for yet another adventure with these fun characters.

And now that I’m all caught up, I have to wait for the next one to come out.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.) 

Sunday Salon: State of the TBR Pile 9

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It’s high summer. And this is what I have on my stack….

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke (I had this one on my stack, then I took it back. And now I’ve checked it out again. Maybe this time I’ll even read it.)
Breaking Stalin’s Nose, by Eugene Yelchin (the only Newbery honor book I haven’t read)
Circus Galacticus, by Deva Fagan (it looked interesting)
The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander (because I need to revisit Prydain)
Wonder, by R. J. Palacio (for a paid review)
Second Thyme Around, by Katie Fford (it’s my fluff)
With a Name Like Love, by Tess Hilmo (recommended by a blog reader; I just can’t remember who! If it was you, let me know so I can give you credit)
Froi of the Exiles, by Melina Marchetta (because I NEED to read this)

The one that’s missing (because it’s downstairs on the shelf) is Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt (because it’s been too long since I’ve read it, and it’s for a paid review as well).

What’s on your pile this July?

The Sherlockian

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by Graham Moore
ages: adult
First sentence: “Arthur Conan Doyle curled his brow tightly and thought only of murder.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It’s 1900, three years after famed author Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his most famous character, when he receives a box with a pipe bomb in it. It doesn’t kill him, but it does set him on a trail: someone murdered an innocent woman, and Doyle’s going to figure out who it is.

It’s also 2010, and Harold White has become the newest inductee into the Baker Street Irregulars, the most prestigious of the Sherlockian groups. While at the conference, he discovers the murder of the group’s most illustrious scholar, Alex Cale, who had recently found a diary of Doyle’s that had gone missing 80 years before.

Both men will find themselves knee-deep in mysteries that will confound them, and have them asking the ultimate question: What Would Sherlock Do?

I have to admit that I’m not a Sherlock buff. Sure, I like the new BBC series (and even the old one, with Jeremy Brett), but I’m not really a fan. And nowhere near the fanatic that the characters in the book are. And yet, I found myself strangely compelled by this mystery. Partially, I think, it was having Conan Doyle (and Bram Stoker!) be a character. I found his inner life interesting (even if it was mostly fictionalized), especially his loathing of his most famous detective. Harold, as well, was a fascinating character; smart not because he was brilliant, but because he was well-read and able to connect the dots.

But the mystery left a little to be desired. I felt that for all the build-up that we were given, the solution to the mystery was, well, a bit lame. Perhaps that was the author’s intent: the fun was in the journey, but not in the resolution.

And if that was the case, then he succeeded: because getting to the end was a lot of fun. Even if the end was a bit, well, lame.

Stickman Odyssey: An Epic Doodle

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by Christopher Ford
ages: 11+ (though my 8 1/2 year old read it and quite enjoyed it)
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Wrath of Zozimos

Admittedly, I read these backwards, this one being the first in the series, and Zozimos’ backstory. So, if you’re going to do this right: you need to read this one first. But, even if you don’t, it’s still quite a fun read.

I’m gathering from the title and the back that this is basically the story of The Odyssey in simplified graphic novel form. In his quest to return to Sticatha, Zozimos washes up on the shore of a country where a beautiful princess is being protected by her father from a horrible prophecy. Zozimos ends up in the dungeon, before going on several adventures to prove his worth. Along the way, he meets a couple of people — the frog man, Atrukos, and the strong man, Praxis — who help him. Actually, that’s the big Lesson to be Learned: that even though Zozimos is all sorts of awesome (well, not really), he needs his friends in order to Get Things Done.

The good news: you don’t have to know the original epic in order to enjoy this one. It’s one adventure after another, with lots of sword fighting, humor, a wee bit of romance, poop jokes, and friendships. I’m sure boys will love this one, but I have to say that both C and A really found it to be all sorts of fun.

As did I. Here’s to more Stickman adventures.

Shadow of Night

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by Deborah Harkness
ages: adult
First sentence: “We arrived in an undignified heap of witch and vampire.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Discovery of Witches

How about this for a brief teaser: if you liked Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, you’ll probably really like this one.

The long explanation is a lot more complicated, however. There were elements of Shadow of Night that I really liked. And there were some that I didn’t. But my major problem with the book — and this is one I have with many works of “adult” fiction — is that I thought a good third to half of this book was wholly unnecessary.

Because of the conflicts set up in Discovery of Witches (which I won’t go into, but partially are caused by the love Matthew and Diana have for each other; witches and vampires aren’t supposed to mate.), and because Diana needs help figuring out what kind of witch she is (and to control her magic), they end up in the past. In England, circa 1590, to be exact. Which brings me (so soon?) to problem number one: too often, I felt Harkness was using her status as a historian to show off. I got the sense that she set the book in the past not because it best served the story (though in some ways, it did), but because she KNOWS STUFF and wanted to share. Too often I was pulled out of the story because of some name dropping (though Diana has a moment of exasperation, wondering out of all the people in England in the past, how come Matthew knows all the famous ones. That kind of helped.) and historical elements. It was hard for me to enjoy the past because she kept pulling me out of it with details about clothes, food, the weather, and blasted Christopher Marlow.

Anyway. Matthew and Diana aren’t in England very long before they cause a ruckus and get sent to Sept Tours, Matthew’s ancestral home. Where his dead father is still very much alive. And who forces them to get married. (In way too many pages. Followed by many, many more pages of [not graphic, or even titillating] married sex.) Back to England they go, where (in some of the best passages) Diana begins to figure out that she’s a unique sort of witch, and gets a handle on her magic. Oh, and manages to get pregnant by the vampire.

Before you think that Harkness went all Breaking Dawn on us, she didn’t. Oh, sure, there are influences there: Matthew is just as protective and oppressive as Edward; apparently it’s in a vampire’s “nature”. The difference is that rather than being pushed around, Diana takes him on. Thank heavens for that; in many, many ways, Diana as a character is the best part of this novel. She’s strong, interesting, clever, inquisitive, and plain fun to be around as a character.

There’s more, of course: It’s a nearly 600 page book, and Harkness finds ways to fill them out. And it’s not a bad book, per se: I did finish it. Because even with all the extra historical stuff, and the poor plotting (for my YA-saturated brain), I am invested in Matthew and Diana’s story. Which means, I’m already asking when the next one will be out.

If you’re still interested in this one after all that, I’m offering a giveaway of this book. I’ll even throw in a set of five pins, and a temporary tattoo. Maybe you’ll like it more than I did. You have until Friday, July 13th (ooooh, auspicious) to enter.