Drop Dead Healthy

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by A. J. Jacobs
ages: adult
First sentence: “For the last few months, I’ve been assembling a list of things I need to do to improve my health.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by my place of employment.

The thing I love best about A. J. Jacobs is that he’s insane enough to try things that normal human beings don’t even consider. I mean, really: who would read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica? Or spend a year living the Bible to the letter? Or going undercover as woman? (Actually, I haven’t read that one. Yet.)

Or how about spending two years becoming the healthiest man alive?

If anyone can go from intellectual, indoor-loving couch potato, to a lean, mean machine, it has to be A. J. Jacobs.

He organizes this one roughly chronological — giving us check-up updates from month 1 to month 25 — but also by body part. He spends a month on his eyes, his ears, his brain, his fingers, his stomach, his heart, his testicles (yes, you read that right), and right on down to his feet. He’s game to try just about everything — from cave man exercise (and diets!) to going OCD on toxins to BluePrintCleanse, though he didn’t go as far as plastic surgery — there really is no stone he leaves unturned. It’s a fascinating way to approach health, but also a trivia-inducing one. If I have become insufferable with “Did you know…” and “I read in Drop Dead Healthy…” statements, it’s only because this book is packed with so. much. information. And all of it interesting. It helps, I think, that his books are so readable: he’s self-deprecating, but not to the point where it’s annoying. He’s funny. And his wonderful, long-suffering wife (and adorable boys) play a role as well; he really is devoted to them, and they really are wonderfully tolerant of his insanity.

So, did I learn anything? Yes. There was possibly too much information thrown at me, but some did sink in. Will I incorporate anything I learned in my life? I don’t know. Perhaps. Was it an enjoyable way to spend my time? Most definitely.

Oh, and for the record: I think A. J. would be proud that I read this book entirely while on the elliptical at the gym. I hope so, anyway.

Bitterblue

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by Kristin Cashore
ages: 13+
First sentence: “When he grabs Mama’s wrist and yanks her toward the wall-hanging like that, it must hurt.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Graceling, Fire

First: If you haven’t read Cashore’s previous two books, you should. Seriously. Like, right now.

I’ve been waiting three years for this book. Three years of following Kristin Cashore on her blog, waiting patiently, hoping that Bitterblue will be as wonderful as Graceling and Fire are. So, obviously, my expectations were high.

It’s eight years after the death of Bitterblue’s (completely insane, cruel, wicked, evil, horrible, terrible, there-isn’t-a-word-strong-enough-to-describe-his-atrocities) father’s (justifiable) murder. She’s been queen since she was 10, surrounded by advisers that her uncle (the king of Lienid and Po’s father) picked. She’s been moving paperwork, treading water. And now, she’s beginning to wake up, for lack of a better word. She wonders what goes on outside of her castle, and starts sneaking out at nights. There she learns that she’s not the only one who is having trouble putting Leck’s atrocities behind her. It’s all over the kingdom: her people are not well people, and those who are searching for truth are being harassed and murdered. However, realizing this is not the end of the story: it’s only the beginning. This book is very much one of healing, of getting past a tyrant (a mild way to put it) and his terrible past, and finding a new path of Truth and Justice, while acknowledging that the abusers were in so many ways victims, too.

When I logged that I read this one on Goodreads, I started scrolling through the reactions of people there, and I discovered two things. One: you’ll either love or hate this book. Two: It seems to me that the complaints boil down to just a couple things.

First: there isn’t enough Katsa and Po, and they’re different. True, Katsa and Po aren’t the main characters of this book, but they do play a role. (Also: of COURSE they’ve changed. It’s been eight years people!) In fact, sometimes I felt that Po was too much of a fallback for Bitterblue, and I was actually glad the times in which he wasn’t around, and Bitterblue was forced to do things on her own. That said, there are really two storylines going on here, and our heroes from Graceling do play a major part in the second one. Also: Bitterblue’s romance isn’t full of chemistry, but is rather a slow one, in which they are friends first. However, it’s also not one that can go anywhere. That said, my favorite character was Giddon. I don’t remember him well from Graceling, but I adored him in this book. He was such a rock, such a kind, good-hearted individual, that I couldn’t help like him.

Which brings me to point number two: Cashore is so heavy on women that she doesn’t cut men a break. (Though one person said they didn’t like the way Cashore treated women, and to that I have no answer… REALLY?) I don’t understand this. There are strong women in this book, strong men and weak men and traitorous women. It’s all there. One of the things I think Cashore does best is portray the spectrum of human possibility: it’s possible for people to lie for good reasons. It’s possible for people to be in love and fight. It’s possible to trust people and then be betrayed. It’s possible for healing. It’s possible to find good women and men to surround oneself with.

Complaint three: it’s long, boring, complex, confusing. Well, yes. I think that’s done on purpose: Bitterblue is confused — warped by her father’s actions, which still have a hold on her, her advisers, and the country — trying slowly to work things out, and we see events through her eyes and memory. It’s not an easy process, and therefore to have a straightforward book would not do Bitterblue and her story justice. It’s very much like Chime in this: Bitterblue is not always the most reliable narrator, because she doesn’t have all the pieces, but to tell the story any other way would lessen the impact of the revelations at the end.

I’ve blathered on too long. The short version of all this: Bitterblue is excellent. One can only hope that Cashore doesn’t take three years writing the next book. I need her stories.

Sunday Salon: State of the TBR Pile 7

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Which is hopeless, as usual. I’m also reading Ilium, by Dan Simmons. I think reading YA fantasy has killed me for the adult stuff: there’s about a third of Ilium I like, a third I think I get, and a third that I’m completely lost with. And I’m losing patience as to how all three relate to each other…

At any rate, on the nightstand:

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth (of course!)
Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sarah Pennypacker (because it’s Sarah Pennypacker)
Purity, by Jackson Pearce (for curiosity)
My Life and an Experiment, A. J. Jacobs (because I haven’t read this one!)
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, by Wendy Mass (I’ll get to it… eventually)
Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, book 3: The Unseen Guest, by Maryrose Wood (because I like the series, though I’m finding a lack of enthusiasm to read this one… It may go back unread.)
Spy School, by Stuart Gibbs (Because I liked Belly Up.)
Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (for the Once Upon a Time Challenge)
She Walks These Hills, by Sharyn McCrumb (for my in-person book club)
The Sherlockian, by Graham Moore (Sherlock starts tonight; I wonder if that will make me more interested in reading this one…)
Fables, by Bill Willingham (for the Once Upon a Time challenge)

Phew. What’s on your TBR pile?

True Sisters

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by Sandra Dallas
ages: adult
First sentence: “The two sisters leaned forward, their hadns flat against the rear of the handcart, waiting, fidgeting, impatient.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

When this book came into the store last week, they all looked at the jacket flap copy, said “It’s Mormon,” and then looked pointedly in my direction. I took a look at the book, said “It’s the Martin Handcart Company,” and took one home.

See, my ancestors — my grandmother’s grandmother, I think — came over with the Martin Handcart company. I listened to my grandmother tell me stories of hardship and survival. It’s part of my heritage. And even though I’ve never picked up a Sandra Dallas book in my life (um, she’s popular, right?), I needed to see what this woman — someone who is outside of my “tribe”, for lack of a better word — was going to do with my heritage.

The basic story is that of the Martin Handcart Company — a group of immigrants from Great Britain (and Scandinavia, something which she omitted much to my disappointment), who for economic reasons made and pushed handcarts across the plains from Iowa to Utah. It was an ill-fated trip from the start: the handcarts were made of green wood, and weren’t very sturdy; they left late; and winter in Wyoming came early. Out of the 650 that started, more than 100 died before making it to Salt Lake City.

Dallas focuses on four women: Anne, whose husband is a member but who has refused to join the church; Jessie, an unmarried woman with two brothers making it over on their own; Ella, a pregnant woman who is crossing with her husband and sister; and Louisa a young wife of one of the company’s leaders. Their stories never really intersect — I kind of was expecting them to, given the title — but, rather, the narrative switches to follow each one as they cross the plains and experience trials and hardships and setbacks and miracles.

While it wasn’t a great novel — she never really got much tension going, and it seemed as if she was just checking things off a list (mention Joseph Smith? Check. Polygamy? Check. Hardship? Check.) — it was a good one, and she did treat the Mormons sympathetically. I liked how she had characters along the whole spectrum of faith: men who were overbearing and overly zealous to men who were sympathetic and supportive; women who were doubters, ones who were strong (both physically and mentally), and ones who were blindly following their husbands. It gave a more nuanced picture of our faith — unlike books in the past, we are neither all always gung-ho about the edicts we’ve been given, nor are we all dissenters.

It’s not a great book, but it’s a good one, something which I wasn’t expecting.

Spell Bound

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by Rachel Hawkins
age: 12+
First sentence: “There are times when magic really sucks.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the  series: Hex Hall, Demonglass

I suppose it’s typical, but honestly: Sophie Mercer just can’t catch a break. Then again, when you’re 17, a demon (though not currently in possession of her powers), and facing down some of the most evil people on earth (the problem is that they always think they’re right), then there’s not many breaks to be had.

Then — after she discovers that her mother isn’t really who she thought she was (sounds creepy, but it’s not) — she mysteriously gets transported back to Hex Hall (thankfully, with BFF, boyfriend, fiance, and ghost-friend) to face down the evil demons once and for all.

There really isn’t much to be said about this one that I already haven’t said about the other two.

Swoon-worthing kissing? Check.
Snark? Check.
Awesome magic fighting? Check.
Cool vampire BFFs? Check.
Creepy ghosts? Check.
Kick-butt heroine? Check.

And a great way to end the series, as well. Hawkins wrapped everything up nicely, put a bow on it, managed the love-triangle thing without getting all weird on us, and gave us some fun, magical nonsense in the process.

What more can you ask for? Nothing.

Demonglass

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by Rachel Hawkins
ages: 12+
First sentence: “At a normal high school, having class outside on a gorgeous May day is usually pretty awesome.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Hex Hall


When we last left Sophie, she had figured out who was killing off the witches, but not in time to save Elodie, one of those popular girls/dark witches. (She wasn’t exactly the nicest person around, but she didn’t really deserve to die…) Oh, and she discovered that Archer Cross, love of her life, was actually a member of L’Occhio di Dio (aka, The Eye, an organization that’s out to eradicate the world of Prodigium), and they can never see each other again. In other words: life sucks.

So, how about summer vacation in England? (That makes everything better, right?)

She finally gets to meet her demon/warlock/powerful dude dad, who comes to Hex Hall to take Sophie away from the frying pan and into the fire. Sure, they place they’re staying (Thorne Abbey) is huge and gorgeous and English, but there’s trouble brewing. There are two demons staying at the abbey, which means someone is “breeding” them. Then, there’s an attempt on Sophie’s life. And, to make matters worse, Archer saunters back into her life. Just when she thought she was getting over him, and learning to like the guy she’s betrothed to (don’t ask), Cal.

This book is just as full of smart, magical nonsense as Hex Hall was. And I’ll have to add Hawkins to my list of people who know how to write a kiss, because there were some seriously swoon-worthy parts of this one. They are snarky fun, books that are meant to be read in one sitting, engrossing and hilarious, with pretty wicked twists and turns.

Awesome.

April 2012 Round Up

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This month, I played review catch-up. The funny thing is: I’m still about two weeks out for reviews. Perhaps I need to read less and get outside more… especially now that the weather’s warming up!

My favorite:

Grave Mercy

Hands down: the absolute perfect book for a fantasy lover like me. (That said, I can’t wait for Bitterblue…)

The review that was most fun to write:

Something Like Fate

Read for work (Grave Mercy counts here, too. Though none have sold at the store. WHY? I don’t understand…):

Crow

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — Detectives Extraordinaire

The rereads:

The Color of Water
Dealing with Dragons

The audiobooks:

Castle in the Air

Who’s Your Caddy

Didn’t finish:

The Final Four

Huntress

Middle Grade:

Caddy’s World

I want to buy this one, but I hate the cover. I wonder if they’ll do something more like the others for the paperback? I can only hope…

Clementine and the Family Meeting

Remarkable

YA:

Before I Fall

Blood Red Road

The Floating Islands

Hex Hall

If I hadn’t read Grave Mercy this month, this would have been my favorite. 

Karma

Stupid Fast

Adult:

I, Robot

Rules of Civility

What were your favorites this month? 

Sunday Sundries (And Announcements)

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It’s time for Mother Reader’s 48 hour Book Challenge! Go here for all the info.  Sign up post with rules goes up tomorrow. For the record: I’m planning on donating a dollar an hour to RIF for this; I figure that gives me some motivation to go more than the usual 23/24… but we’ll see… At any rate, I’ve got it on my calendar, and Hubby says he’s more than willing to take that weekend to help out around the house so I can knock out some on my TBR pile. (Speaking of which, I’m due for another TBR pile post…)

I love it when two of my favorite things intersect. In this case: Nathan Fillion and Percy Jackson.*swoon*

And I’m tossing around the idea for a Tumblr: pictures of all the books I see at the store that make me do a double-take/laugh/scratch my head. Like this one:

I think if you need an idiot’s guide to being sexy, you’re already a lost cause.

Or, I could just do a dump-feature here, because I don’t know if I have enough pictures/time to justify a tumblr. Thoughts??

Happy Sunday!

Blood Red Road

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by Moira Young
ages: 15+
First sentence: “Lugh got born first.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This one took a while for me to get into. In fact, I read the first quarter, then put it down for a good week before picking it up again (and then, only because I didn’t want to return it to the library unread — since I had already started it — and I couldn’t renew it). But, once I got halfway through, I was in, hook, line and sinker.

It’s the future, and because of some undetermined event, the world as we know it has dissolved into chaos. Saba and her family, twin brother Lugh and little sister Emmi along with their father, live out in the middle of nowhere, going nowhere, basically existing. That is, until four men come and forcibly take Lugh away. Well, that doesn’t sit well with Saba, so after her father dies (which is pretty much right away), she takes Emmi and heads off to get Lugh back. Actually, she tries on several occasions to ditch Emmi, but the little girl is tough and won’t be left behind.

The world they discover is not a happy place. They spend a month in Hopetown where Saba is a cage fighter (which is as grim as it sounds), before they manage to escape. From there they have to make it to the hidden valley in the mountains where the king (who is certifiably insane) has Lugh hostage, preparing to kill him as a human sacrifice on midsummer day. Which, by this point, is right around the corner.

It’s a tough book to get into — there are no quotations marks, and it’s written in dialect, which always throws me for a loop — but I have to admit that Young knows how to write action (there are many intense moments) as well as romance (seriously). She’s given us a strong reluctant heroine, someone who leads without knowing it, inspiring greatness in both herself and those around her.

All of which makes me curious to see where Young is going to go in the next book.

I, Robot

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by Isaac Asimov
ages: adult (ish)
First sentence: “I looked at my notes and I didn’t like them.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This is one of those books that I’ve always heard of but never had gotten around to reading. I can’t really tell you why; it just never seemed like something I’d be interested in.

Thank heavens for book groups.

Framed as an interview with retiring robopsychologist, Dr. Susan Calvin, it’s a series of interconnected short stories detailing the evolution of robotics in the “future”. It’s an interesting look into what Asimov thought our future would be like, and the prevalence of robots in society.

I’m not quite sure what to say about the book other than I really, really liked it I thought it was fascinating to read about what Asimov though the future would be like. I liked the character of Dr. Calvin; she was an interesting person to frame the book around, smart and capable (if a bit cold), and gave the book a good grounding. In fact, the stories went down better for me than short stories usually do, mostly because they seemed like chapters in something larger.

That said, two of my favorite stories were “Liar”, in which a mind-reading robot just tells humans what they want to hear; and “Little Lost Robot,” in which a robot goes missing, hiding in the midst of a bunch of other robots that look exactly like it. I found it fascinating the things the psychologists and scientists go through to figure out which one is the missing robot.

But my favorite was one near the end, “Evidence,” where a man is running for mayor of the region, but there are allegations against him: he’s a robot. The point is to prove he’s not. It’s a fascinating look at the line between robotics and humanity, and the issues about whether or not it’s ethical for a robot to actually “act” human.

It’s a good work, one that stands up to the test of time, even if there were moments when I cringed at the 1950s-ness of it all. Even so, I’m glad I had the chance (finally!) to read it.