52. Dog On It by Spencer Quinn 7/9 (Woot! 52!)
Pick:
We wanted to give this book to my mother-in-law, so I had to read it first to make sure it was acceptable. Since it was my pick for her Book of the Month Club and all.
Thoughts:
This was very cute. The story is that Bernie Small is a private eye, and his best friend and partner, Chet, is a dog. Chet is the narrator, and the hero, of course. It was interesting because Chet is not a superdog; this is not The Unscratchables, with its anthropomorphic animal hero. Chet's just a dog. He's a good dog, strong and capable and fiercely loyal to his person, but no more and no less.
It's an interesting mystery because Chet finds out what's going on much sooner than Bernie does, and the course of the book is Bernie trying to figure out what Chet already knows but can't tell him; we the readers are curious because while Chet knows who's behind all of it, we have no idea why -- human motivations not being Chet's forte. I liked Bernie a lot, because I have trouble accepting that there are still such things as private eyes and they still get work in this day and age, but he seemed realistic to me, and it was fun to read it from the perspective of a dog who was also a partner in a PI firm and loved his job. It was great reading Chet: he barked, he sniffed, he ate anything he could and chewed up everything else; he was not cognizant of his own injuries and such, which I thought was realistic, since my own dog doesn't seem to feel pain, much of the time. So in a scene when Chet is stuck without water for a day or more, he describes simply that his tongue swells up and he feels tired; he doesn't do the human thing of pining for water and wailing about his impending death. Just his tongue swells up and he wants to sleep. I liked that, too: the urge to sleep came on him all of a sudden, in the middle of whatever he was doing, and he was likely to just lie down and snooze. I think it's a good system.
It was a very nice book, and well done. I plan to read the next one.
53. Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer 7/12
Pick:
Yarrrr! Bloody Jack Faber turns pirate! I had to read this one to get to my birthday present, which is the next book in this series.
Thoughts:
This one was great, though since I'm coming to expect that from Jacky Faber, it was less surprisingly great than the last one -- which was also more impressive because it was not in any way nautical. In this book, Jacky heads back to England, having been betrayed, she thinks, by her best friend at school, Amy Trevelyne. Jacky goes straight to Jaimy's house, where she is entirely spurned by Jaimy's mother, who definitely does not feel this little guttersnipe-turned-ship's-boy-turned-charm-school-dropout is good enough for her son -- a feeling that is only increased by the new book that has become all the rage, which tells the story of Bloody Jack Mary Faber -- the first novel in the series, having been written by Amy Trevelyne based on Jacky's stories during their school days together. It was a nice conceit, to have the books actually coming out during the story. Anyway, Jacky takes it too hard, and goes home to Cheapside; she eventually learns of an opportunity to catch Jaimy and she goes for it -- but sees him kissing another girl and runs away.
Where she runs into a press gang, and being dressed as a boy at the time (in order to sneak up on Jaimy), she gets pressed and dragged off to a Royal Navy ship on duty on the blockade of Napoleon's France. She announces she's a girl -- at which point the captain, who is a remarkably appalling scumbag, decides he's been given a golden opportunity for some depraved ravishing on his own ship, and decides to keep her on board. Though at her request, he does give her the midshipman's rank she earned before, in the first book.
From there, a series of events (All quite realistic, by the way, which was impressive), Jacky ends up taking command of the ship and capturing several smugglers as prizes. One of these she keeps for herself, and turns into a privateer on her own, as the startup of Faber Shipping, Worldwide, her only dream now that she thinks Jaimy is lost to her. Things go well for a while -- until she finds out that the British government has found out that she kept a ship she captured while commanding a British naval vessel, which therefore belonged to the Crown, and she is named a pirate for real, since they retroactively revoke her permission to capture enemy ships. Which sucks. She gets caught, and goes to the Battle of Trafalgar, and takes part in that -- and is then released by her captors in gratitude for her brave assistance during the battle, and their prior admiration for her.
It was a great plot, and a rollicking good pirate story, and Bloody Jack. I loved it.
54. Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger 7/13
Pick:
I loved the title, and the concept. I actually started reading this before I got the Vine books, Temeraire and Darren Shan; I put it down to read those, and then got caught up in others, like the dog mystery for Jo and my new Bloody Jack book. But I figured hey, why not finish it?
Thoughts:
The main insight here was not terribly insightful. Here's the best part of the book: if you draw an arc of simplicity to complexity, with one end being the most simple possible system and the other end being the most complex possible system, the best system is generally in the middle, halfway between simple and complex. There you go. Now you know everything there is to know about simplexity.
The book touted the new science of studying simplicity and complexity, which sounds real interesting, but the science is, I think, a bit too new to have really reached any major breakthroughs, so there isn't that much to say about it. Basically each chapter talked about a specific artifact of our culture -- modern medicine, how babies learn to speak, economic meltdowns like the Great Depression -- and tried to go through how the causes and forces that run through this thing are either simple, complex, or both, and it isn't always what you'd expect. It was interesting, but the problem is, without some large concept to tie it together, it just seemed like a long list of "Isn't that neato?" kind of observations. Look! The mind of a baby learning to speak is incredibly complex; isn't that neato? Look: the forces that control Wall Street are actually quite simple, largely based on the wisdom, or the madness, of crowds (Which I already read a MUCH better book on); isn't that neato? There wasn't a whole lot of there, there.
But there were some interesting parts, and I liked the analysis of some of his subjects, so it was worth reading. A businessperson might find it more useful, since that was largely his goal, to show how your business plan should try to identify the simple and the complex parts of your intended industry, and treat them both appropriately. For me, for instance, that simplexity arc comes down to this: since I am a writer, the complex side is to do with different offerings I could create and send out, different fields I could try to break into. The shotgun approach, then, at the complex side of the arc. On the simple side of the arc is my single strongest writing approach; I could focus only on that and just keep honing it until I have it just right. The advantage of the complex side is that it gives me the most chances to be noticed, the most opportunities to reach potential readers, who have different tastes and needs; the simple side limits my opportunities to reach my audience, since only the people who want to read modern dark fantasy novels will be within my grasp. On the other hand, if I branch out into short stories and editorials and blogs and reviews and greeting cards and graphic novels and everything else under the sun, I won't be able to hone my craft very much, and my work, while it will reach more people, will not be as good, and won't inspire the ones I reach -- or is less likely to, at least. So the best situation for me would be halfway in between: focusing on a single novel, which gets most of my energy, but also doing several small writing projects in between and around the novel writing, in order to get my words out there and catch people's attention.
But see, I already knew that without knowing it. And that's the problem with this book, and why I say it lacks insight. But it wasn't bad.
55. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon & Georges Jeanty 7/14
Pick:
We had to get this because it's Buffy! By Joss Whedon! And we love graphic novels, too! I read it now because Toni pointed out that I should, so we could know whether this series is something we want to pursue, before we head back to Powell's where we could buy more -- or not.
Thoughts:
We'll buy more. This is the show, all the best parts of it, in comic book form. The art is great, excellent demons and nice combat, and the characters look like themselves without being parodies or caricatures. The coolest part was that it sounded like them -- naturally, since it was written by the same guy. That was great fun, though it could sometimes be hard to follow; there are some Buffy-esque conversational tidbits that you really don't get the first time around, which I had forgotten from the show since we've now watched the whole series three or four times.
The tough part about this is that Buffy tends toward the cliffhanger. Whedon always has several story lines going on at the same time, and one of his favorite things to do with a new season is drop us into the middle of them -- look at the third season of Buffy, when we come upon Buffy in the middle of her life as an LA waitress, and the guys back home have been slaying without her, and Willow has been learning to become a witch; and then in short order, Angel comes back from Hell and Faith appears, and then we find out the Mayor is actually a bad guy and has been for more than a century -- all things that were working behind the scenes without us knowing about them. That's Joss Whedon, and that's this comic. But the solution here is to do what we did with the TV show: now that we have cleverly waited until the entire run is out, we just have to get the whole thing and read it all several times, so that we can understand all of the stories and not have to wait anxiously for our answers. Simple. Perfect.
56. In the Belly of the Bloodhound by L. A. Meyer 7/16
Pick:
My birthday book! Bloody Jack! Yay!
Thoughts:
So in this one, Jacky goes back to school in Boston, since she is now wanted in England as a pirate. The story takes a BIG twist when the girls head out on a field trip for the day, to one of the many small islands out in Boston harbor (And reading these books makes me want to go back to Boston and really explore, like I never did while I lived there. Sigh. Stupid missed opportunities. Stupid childhood stupidity.), and they get kidnapped by slavers, who intend to sell them as harem girls in Egypt -- that's the title, because The Bloodhound is the ship that carries them. The story is the girls trying to effect an escape before they reach their destination. It's a hell of a book, again, with a very different plot line and emphasis from the past ones -- and yet, it is still Jacky being resourceful and determined and brave and figuring out how to handle the seemingly impossible situation she finds herself in. And I loved this book, too. I want to read more -- but now I fear the end of the series! Or at least the end of the currently published books. Man, I hate when I hit that wall.
Fantastic birthday book. Loved it.
Unfinished: A Traveler's History of Russia, Third Edition by Peter Neville
Pick & Thoughts:
I got this from the public library, because I'm thinking of doing a unit next school year based on Communist Russia and I don't know jack about it. Besides, Toni wanted to do photo research, and I went along for the ride. I like riding in the car.
I had to put this book down, after getting a little more than halfway through it, because: the author treated the history of the country as a history of the rulers, which was okay but not a great perspective; he seemed to assume that I already knew much of the rest of European history, which I don't -- he'd make passing reference to something that I know nothing about like I had already done my dissertation on the Franco-Prussian war -- and it was getting boring and repetitive. Okay, Russia had a lot of fucked-up rulers; I got it. Can I hear something about how the peasants, the regular folk lived, since that came to play such a major role in the course of Russia's evolution? Guess not.
And then there were the typos, of which there were many -- and normally I don't care too much about typos, except this was a third edition. Shouldn't those have been weeded out by now? And then the biggest problem came when the author made a snide reference to Lincoln freeing the slaves -- pointing out that Lincoln wasn't so very abolitiony, since he only freed the slaves in the Southern states, which people forget (snide snide). Fine and good, except he said that Lincoln freed the slaves with the Gettysburg Address.
Which made me lose faith in his expertise as an historian. So: away with the dull book from the stupid man, and we'll look for something a little more to the point.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
So I let them pile up. It was my birthday last week.
44. (NTY) Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison 6/12
Pick:
Utterly bleak depression, followed by utterly depressing stupidity and shallow egotism -- can I read something nice now?
Thoughts:
This book reiterated why I like the Hollows books, but not as much as I like all of our other paranormal favorites. This one had a little bit less of the good stuff, because there weren't really any new creations in the mystical world, which is Harrison's strongest point -- she has fantastic ideas about demons and witches and elves and gargoyles and pixies, and the world they inhabit, and those are great fun to read about -- but there were some great parts with our favorite characters, which made up for much of the bad parts. The bad parts: I hate many of Rachel's habits and proclivities. I hate her whining and attempts to avoid trouble, all the way up until it crosses her personal moral line, and then she makes a stand even if it kills her and everyone around her -- which I admire, I suppose, but I can't help thinking that she could have prevented the problem from getting that bad if she had handled it better in the first place. I don't know, maybe this is my own self-criticism coming out through Rachel, but it seems like she takes that whole enjoying-danger thing so far that she lets problems come to a head before she tries to deal with them. I don't like that.
Let me be specific. In this one Rachel has to deal with her shunning by the witch world, which happened at the beginning of the last book and which Rachel didn't do anything to try to fix, just resented it and tried to live with it (Yup, sounds like me.), which I could accept if there wasn't a clear path to fix it -- but there is, because this book introduces (It's been mentioned before, but now we meet them) the Coven, the governing body of the witch world and their ultimate police force. Now granted, these people suck, but the worst part is having them come after you, which they do, because Rachel has tried to ignore the problem. And then there's Nick, who she can't trust and shouldn't trust -- but keeps fucking trusting, because she used to have feelings for him and she can't resolve the problem. And then, of course, there's her absolute refusal to cross the line into what she considers black magic -- which again, would be admirable, if she would take enough action in the first place to avoid being pushed into a corner and forced to cross the line. This time when she doesn't cross that line, Matalina dies. Now we were expecting that, but man, it was hard to read.
I liked the witch prison on Alcatraz, I liked the exploration inside Jenks's stump, I actually liked the fairies and I hope they turn into regular characters. Al and Jenks were the best, of course; Trent was interesting but frustrating, as was Rachel; the book started slow and didn't need Ivy really at all. But the ending was great, and hopefully things are looking up in the Hollows world.
45. (15) Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville 6/13
Pick:
I needed something off the shelf, but not too much thinking, please -- school's almost over.
Thoughts:
This book was very sweet.
What's that, you say? You question how a book about a Millennial cult trying to escape Armageddon, and dragging two unwilling teenagers (whose parents are willing cult members) along with them into the wilderness, where they struggle with truth and faith and self-doubt until it all ends in a massacre can be sweet?
That's the interesting part. It's sweet because it's a romance, and the romantic parts are very sweet; I thought Marina fell in love with Jed a little quickly, but I suppose that's par for the course when you're talking fourteen-year-old girls without much experience of boys. I really enjoyed Jed's chapters (the point of view switches between them) because I liked his struggle between trying to do the right thing, and thinking everyone around him is a jackass and a religious nut -- and often being right. I liked the way the preacher/cult leader came off as a reasonable man who just happened to have some unreasonable beliefs, and the way both Jed's father and Marina's mother came off as dangerous crackpots who are trying to escape some larger problem by believing in this hooey about the end of the world, and are obviously wrong to drag their kids into this rather than dealing with their problems (which seems to be a theme in the reading, of late. Heh.). The action at the end is great, though brutal and very surprising. You see, the cult believes the end of the world is at hand, and God will wipe everyone out with a rain of fire, except for his 144 Chosen, who will be preserved on their mountaintop. So the faithful gather until they reach exactly 144 (With a nice bit of theater when the preacher's long-lost son wanders in to be their final member -- staged, maybe?) and then they blockade the road in and string an electric fence around the perimeter. And then a few more members of the church show up, which is a problem because they want to be saved, too; and the father of a kid who is in the compound with her mother shows up, and isn't allowed in to see his daughter, which is a bigger problem, since he calls the police. The book ends when the people outside the gate break in, and the people inside the gate use guns to defend themselves -- thereby proving, once more, that the right to bear arms is the single most useful and civilized and reasonable right, regardless of the changes in society and reality since the Constitution was penned -- and it all goes to shit. Which is funny, because the only place that gets washed in blood and cleansed in fire? The mountaintop where the Chosen were waiting to be saved. And if that isn't a non-subtle message about exclusivist religious extremism, I don't know what is.
Sweet book.
46. (NTY) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman 6/17
Pick:
I was looking for some sociology, a little non-fiction at Powell's, and I remembered this guy because a student I actually liked read this book, thought it was hilarious, and said I should read it. I picked it up now because -- essays. Short reading good. End of year, brain numb.
Thoughts:
That kid didn't know the half of it, because some of these things would have gone totally over her head. Like the argument Klosterman makes (And this was only one essay in a whole book full of interesting essays) comparing Pamela Anderson to Marilyn Monroe -- not because both were bombshell blondes, and not saying that the plastic Anderson was as attractive as the human Monroe (Though to be honest, if you've seen the pre-surgery Anderson, she was really lovely; and since her post-surgery face and figure simply reflect what Americans men seem to prefer in their women, with her absurdly disproportionate breasts and lips, there's a case to be made that Anderson is indeed just as attractive as Monroe, within her paradigm. Klosterman makes that argument.), but because both had similar acting abilities, with Monroe becoming overrated posthumously because of her attractiveness and her early death, and, more importantly, because both of them represented the sexual ideal of their time, both as individuals and because of who they had sex with. Monroe was unattainable, and so even though she married or slept with the greatest men of her generation (DiMaggio, Miller, Kennedy), she was still too miserable to live; it gives the feeling that nothing on Earth could have kept Marilyn happy, and since she was so overly sexual, it made it seem like no man on Earth could satisfy her, and this was the ideal of sex in the 1950's -- fabulous and unattainable. And Anderson, with her inhuman proportions lathered over a really attractive young woman, and her -- how do I put it -- in your face sexuality considering her sex tape with Tommy Lee (whom Klosterman uses to represent the cult of celebrity in our era, which is entirely fitting because Tommy Lee is famous for -- what? Not really the Crue any more, since they weren't any more than a mediocre hair metal band; no, Tommy is famous for being famous, for being Tommy Lee -- and led to the wonderful statement that Pam Anderson fucked celebrity itself, confirming this with her move from Tommy Lee to Kid Rock), is just as much the epitome of sexuality in the 90's: unrealistic expectations that sex could look like porn, but feel like love. The point Klosterman should have made, but didn't, was that much of this desire to have non-genuine or at least non-emotional sex with plastic people with unrealistic proportions -- and I include Tommy Lee's schlong in that description -- was directly related to fear of AIDS. Seems to me that people were combining the sexual freedom of the 70's with the sexual repression of the 80's and AIDS, and coming up with this: the desire to have appallingly vigorous sex with someone who didn't even seem human, to release all of that pent-up desire in a single encounter, and then leave that person behind entirely so as not to risk a real relationship, which maybe felt too dangerous.
Anyway. I loved the book, which made me bust out laughing several times ("I mean come on -- you just know Rodney Rogers is sitting in the locker room before every game reading Nietzsche, and he's totally thinking to himself, 'If Ron Artest tries to step to me one more time, I'm gonna slap jack his brisket, Philly style.'") and gave me much to think about other times. It's a little sad that Klosterman knows so much more than I do and writes good essays because of it, because once again it makes me feel too much like a generalist and an ignorant duffer to write really well, even though I don't think that's actually true, but I loved the book and I want to read more.
47. (Re-read) Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris 6/19
Pick:
Toni finished reading the Sookie books, and I felt like reading something fun.
Thoughts:
I forgot that this one was a bit less fun than most of the Sookie books. This is the one with the fairy war that spills over into Sookie's life, between her great-grandfather Niall and the fairies led by his son. This one features several bad things, death and torture and sadness. Still great books, though, and fun to read. I'm glad for the end, in a way, because it seems to wrap this fairy storyline up, and I don't like it as much as the vamps or weres.
48. (NTY) Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 6/23
Pick:
Had to catch up with the series, didn't I? That was the point of reading the last one, so I could read this one. We got this book because my friend Amber Horn very kindly bought it for us as repayment, since I loaned her every book leading up to this one. Which I thought was a good deal.
Thoughts:
This book was not any lighter than the last one; not that I expected it to be, considering where the last one left off. It did have more to do with Sookie's life and less to do with the supernatural struggles, which I thought was good; not that there are no supernatural parts, because of course there are. We are starting to see more conflict over the shifters' public announcement, which comes home for Merlotte's a little; Bill is still trying to recover from the silver poisoning he suffered in the last book -- and Sookie may regret what she did to help with that, but I'm glad for it; I want Sookie's love life to move on, not get stuck on the revolving hamster wheel of past boyfriends and current boyfriends going round and round and round; Claude moves in with Sookie, which is amusing; and Eric's sire shows up with his crazy vampire child. Those two were annoying, but interesting, like most of the powerful vampires we have seen. There is less fighting, and only a little bit of sex (Unlike freaking True Blood -- good lord, that show turned these books into violent vampire porn, which they bloody well aren't, and these books are so much better than that), but Sookie has changed in ways I think I like, and that I would certainly expect considering the trials and travails of the last few books of this series. I am curious about where this book leaves the fairy elements, and I definitely sense a change in Sookie's love life a-coming. I just hope she doesn't go for Sam.
49. (NTY) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik 6/29
Pick:
I had to get this one so I could read the next one, which I got for Vine.
Thoughts:
I love these books, I loved this book, but it was kinda hard to read; Temeraire and Lawrence are suffering because they did the right thing in a time of war, which of course makes them low-down dirty traitors. That pissed me off. Though I was very impressed that Novik managed to make me see both sides of the issue; sure, their choice to prevent the plague that the English would have unleashed on the French dragons was the right thing, because using germ warfare to wipe out potentially every dragon in Europe and beyond would be the most hideous of crimes, and of course Lawrence and Temeraire had to prevent that -- but then again, maybe they could have done it differently. And more to the point, because they prevented it, Napoleon invades England successfully, and now the entire country has to suffer because of that, which makes it harder to turn up the nose at the accusation of treason. Their country really is worse off because of what Lawrence and Temeraire did.
I really liked the Inglorious Basterds sort of plot element -- or maybe I should reference The Patriot, since I haven't actually seen the Basterds movie yet -- when Lawrence and Temeraire fight dirty for their country, and though I liked the big battle at the end, the final result of that was a total let-down, since the victory was not complete. Though I suppose that's historically accurate. Still an anti-climax. Good book, though, as all of these are.
50. (Vine) Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik 7/2
Pick:
I got all titillated when I saw this one on the Vine, because I LOVE these books -- I love the dragons, I love the alternate history, I love the war and the world that Novik has created. I even went so far as to buy the book before this one, which I had never read, so that I could order this from Vine and read it for free. I love the Vine.
Vine Review:
Assuming that nobody is looking into this book that hasn't yet read the entire series (Which, by the way, is outstanding and I highly recommend -- it starts with "His Majesty's Dragon," then "Throne of Jade," "Black Powder War," "Empire of Ivory," "Victory of Eagles," and then this one), I'll just skip the background. This one came as a bit of a surprise after the last, because this book has nothing to do with the Napoleonic Wars -- well, there is a connection, but it is very tenuous; something to do with the possibility of the French trying to disrupt English trade in Asia.
The series seems to be following this pattern: war book; exploration book; war book; exploration book. First the beginning of the war story, with Temeraire and Lawrence learning to fly and becoming part of the Corps; then we explore China. Then back to the war, with the battles over mainland Europe; then we explore Africa. Then back to the war, with the invasion of England; now we move to Australia. This one is not quite as interesting as the other two exploring books, but it's still good; the journey through the Australian outback tends to drag on, since there's just so much outback to cross, and the traveling companions that Temeraire and Lawrence are stuck with are just unfortunate -- though I am very interested in the new dragons who appear in this, especially the hatchlings -- but the plot twists and the new type of dragon, the Australian natives, are excellent, as always. The book ends with Lawrence and Temeraire seeming to settle into new roles on this new continent, and so I wonder if we are moving away from the final years of the Napoleonic empire; which would be fine, since that would probably be a little anti-climactic. The book has less combat than many of the other books, though there is an outstanding fight scene at the end; frankly, I found the lack of fighting appropriate, since Lawrence and Temeraire have had to suffer so much for the war. I expect them to be tired of it, and to be ready for some peace. Which they probably won't find here, because it probably couldn't be found anywhere in that world at war.
The book reconnects to China, and the next book will probably continue in that vein, simply because of the proximity of Australia and the new plot line that opens here; personally, I'm just bummed that Temeraire and Lawrence didn't go for the whole pirate idea in this book -- but maybe they will in future. I hope so. Because dragon pirates would be sweet.
51. (Vine) The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan 7/6
Pick:
I'm curious about Darren Shan, who wrote the Cirque du Freak books, and this one sounded very interesting -- both the idea of a quest to become the executioner, and the connection to Huck Finn.
Vine Review:
This book was certainly an interesting journey. I picked it because I was curious about Darren Shan, since I have heard much about the Cirque du Freak books but have never read them, and because the description said it was inspired by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- and since I'm a high school English teacher, I have taught that book to my classes, and it is one of my all-time favorites among the classics.
But it arrived while I was deep in another book, and so by the time I got started reading this one, I had forgotten it was connected to Huck Finn. That turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me to enjoy the beginning: the main character, Jebel Rum, is a young boy who desperately wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but unfortunately he has two older brothers who are much more likely to do so -- and since their father holds the honored place of Executioner for their city, only one of the three can take his place when he retires. The father shames Jebel, leaving him out when speaking in public about which of his sons will take his place as Executioner, so Jebel decides he will take on an impossible quest in the hopes of eliminating the shame of his father's dismissal.
The quest is an interesting idea, and Shan has built a very interesting world, full of disparate groups and varied philosophies and worldviews and ways of living: there are the slavers, the slaves, the Spartan warrior race; there are the people who live deep in a swamp and worship the alligators who surround them, and another race that do the same with vampire bats. There are peaceful people and violent people, religious people and earthy people. Jebel Rum is fairly annoying at first, but he is supposed to be. I didn't think as much of the other main character, Tel Hasani, but he isn't too bad.
The problem came around the middle of the book: first of all, it is too long. Jebel gets sidetracked from his quest and held up by circumstance, which is fine, but the sidetracks take almost as long as the quest itself, and not all of them are interesting. With all of the detail that Shan puts into the various groups that Jebel meets, it feels like the book meanders too much. The second problem was that I happened to remember the connection to Huck Finn. Once I remembered it, I couldn't help but compare the two -- and of course, since I love the original, this book just didn't measure up. I didn't like the way Shan re-created some of my favorite characters and scenes from Huck Finn (The Duke and King were a mistake, especially the names - this is not a political satire, and so they didn't fit at all); I particularly didn't like that he changed the most important elements of the plot, only keeping the idea of a long journey with a young boy and the older slave who takes care of him and misses his family back home. It's not that this book is bad, it's just that any book is going to pale in comparison to a classic that I happen to love.
But then I got to the end, and it was fantastic: there was a great twist, a really great twist, and the message was sound and well-done, since we got to watch Jebel's entire experience along the way. I really loved the way the book played out.
So in the end, the story may drag some in the middle, but the imagination that went into it, and the excellent ending, make it worthwhile. But don't get this book if you loved Huckleberry Finn and you can't forget about the comparison: because this is a good book, but Darren Shan is no Mark Twain.
Pick:
Utterly bleak depression, followed by utterly depressing stupidity and shallow egotism -- can I read something nice now?
Thoughts:
This book reiterated why I like the Hollows books, but not as much as I like all of our other paranormal favorites. This one had a little bit less of the good stuff, because there weren't really any new creations in the mystical world, which is Harrison's strongest point -- she has fantastic ideas about demons and witches and elves and gargoyles and pixies, and the world they inhabit, and those are great fun to read about -- but there were some great parts with our favorite characters, which made up for much of the bad parts. The bad parts: I hate many of Rachel's habits and proclivities. I hate her whining and attempts to avoid trouble, all the way up until it crosses her personal moral line, and then she makes a stand even if it kills her and everyone around her -- which I admire, I suppose, but I can't help thinking that she could have prevented the problem from getting that bad if she had handled it better in the first place. I don't know, maybe this is my own self-criticism coming out through Rachel, but it seems like she takes that whole enjoying-danger thing so far that she lets problems come to a head before she tries to deal with them. I don't like that.
Let me be specific. In this one Rachel has to deal with her shunning by the witch world, which happened at the beginning of the last book and which Rachel didn't do anything to try to fix, just resented it and tried to live with it (Yup, sounds like me.), which I could accept if there wasn't a clear path to fix it -- but there is, because this book introduces (It's been mentioned before, but now we meet them) the Coven, the governing body of the witch world and their ultimate police force. Now granted, these people suck, but the worst part is having them come after you, which they do, because Rachel has tried to ignore the problem. And then there's Nick, who she can't trust and shouldn't trust -- but keeps fucking trusting, because she used to have feelings for him and she can't resolve the problem. And then, of course, there's her absolute refusal to cross the line into what she considers black magic -- which again, would be admirable, if she would take enough action in the first place to avoid being pushed into a corner and forced to cross the line. This time when she doesn't cross that line, Matalina dies. Now we were expecting that, but man, it was hard to read.
I liked the witch prison on Alcatraz, I liked the exploration inside Jenks's stump, I actually liked the fairies and I hope they turn into regular characters. Al and Jenks were the best, of course; Trent was interesting but frustrating, as was Rachel; the book started slow and didn't need Ivy really at all. But the ending was great, and hopefully things are looking up in the Hollows world.
45. (15) Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville 6/13
Pick:
I needed something off the shelf, but not too much thinking, please -- school's almost over.
Thoughts:
This book was very sweet.
What's that, you say? You question how a book about a Millennial cult trying to escape Armageddon, and dragging two unwilling teenagers (whose parents are willing cult members) along with them into the wilderness, where they struggle with truth and faith and self-doubt until it all ends in a massacre can be sweet?
That's the interesting part. It's sweet because it's a romance, and the romantic parts are very sweet; I thought Marina fell in love with Jed a little quickly, but I suppose that's par for the course when you're talking fourteen-year-old girls without much experience of boys. I really enjoyed Jed's chapters (the point of view switches between them) because I liked his struggle between trying to do the right thing, and thinking everyone around him is a jackass and a religious nut -- and often being right. I liked the way the preacher/cult leader came off as a reasonable man who just happened to have some unreasonable beliefs, and the way both Jed's father and Marina's mother came off as dangerous crackpots who are trying to escape some larger problem by believing in this hooey about the end of the world, and are obviously wrong to drag their kids into this rather than dealing with their problems (which seems to be a theme in the reading, of late. Heh.). The action at the end is great, though brutal and very surprising. You see, the cult believes the end of the world is at hand, and God will wipe everyone out with a rain of fire, except for his 144 Chosen, who will be preserved on their mountaintop. So the faithful gather until they reach exactly 144 (With a nice bit of theater when the preacher's long-lost son wanders in to be their final member -- staged, maybe?) and then they blockade the road in and string an electric fence around the perimeter. And then a few more members of the church show up, which is a problem because they want to be saved, too; and the father of a kid who is in the compound with her mother shows up, and isn't allowed in to see his daughter, which is a bigger problem, since he calls the police. The book ends when the people outside the gate break in, and the people inside the gate use guns to defend themselves -- thereby proving, once more, that the right to bear arms is the single most useful and civilized and reasonable right, regardless of the changes in society and reality since the Constitution was penned -- and it all goes to shit. Which is funny, because the only place that gets washed in blood and cleansed in fire? The mountaintop where the Chosen were waiting to be saved. And if that isn't a non-subtle message about exclusivist religious extremism, I don't know what is.
Sweet book.
46. (NTY) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman 6/17
Pick:
I was looking for some sociology, a little non-fiction at Powell's, and I remembered this guy because a student I actually liked read this book, thought it was hilarious, and said I should read it. I picked it up now because -- essays. Short reading good. End of year, brain numb.
Thoughts:
That kid didn't know the half of it, because some of these things would have gone totally over her head. Like the argument Klosterman makes (And this was only one essay in a whole book full of interesting essays) comparing Pamela Anderson to Marilyn Monroe -- not because both were bombshell blondes, and not saying that the plastic Anderson was as attractive as the human Monroe (Though to be honest, if you've seen the pre-surgery Anderson, she was really lovely; and since her post-surgery face and figure simply reflect what Americans men seem to prefer in their women, with her absurdly disproportionate breasts and lips, there's a case to be made that Anderson is indeed just as attractive as Monroe, within her paradigm. Klosterman makes that argument.), but because both had similar acting abilities, with Monroe becoming overrated posthumously because of her attractiveness and her early death, and, more importantly, because both of them represented the sexual ideal of their time, both as individuals and because of who they had sex with. Monroe was unattainable, and so even though she married or slept with the greatest men of her generation (DiMaggio, Miller, Kennedy), she was still too miserable to live; it gives the feeling that nothing on Earth could have kept Marilyn happy, and since she was so overly sexual, it made it seem like no man on Earth could satisfy her, and this was the ideal of sex in the 1950's -- fabulous and unattainable. And Anderson, with her inhuman proportions lathered over a really attractive young woman, and her -- how do I put it -- in your face sexuality considering her sex tape with Tommy Lee (whom Klosterman uses to represent the cult of celebrity in our era, which is entirely fitting because Tommy Lee is famous for -- what? Not really the Crue any more, since they weren't any more than a mediocre hair metal band; no, Tommy is famous for being famous, for being Tommy Lee -- and led to the wonderful statement that Pam Anderson fucked celebrity itself, confirming this with her move from Tommy Lee to Kid Rock), is just as much the epitome of sexuality in the 90's: unrealistic expectations that sex could look like porn, but feel like love. The point Klosterman should have made, but didn't, was that much of this desire to have non-genuine or at least non-emotional sex with plastic people with unrealistic proportions -- and I include Tommy Lee's schlong in that description -- was directly related to fear of AIDS. Seems to me that people were combining the sexual freedom of the 70's with the sexual repression of the 80's and AIDS, and coming up with this: the desire to have appallingly vigorous sex with someone who didn't even seem human, to release all of that pent-up desire in a single encounter, and then leave that person behind entirely so as not to risk a real relationship, which maybe felt too dangerous.
Anyway. I loved the book, which made me bust out laughing several times ("I mean come on -- you just know Rodney Rogers is sitting in the locker room before every game reading Nietzsche, and he's totally thinking to himself, 'If Ron Artest tries to step to me one more time, I'm gonna slap jack his brisket, Philly style.'") and gave me much to think about other times. It's a little sad that Klosterman knows so much more than I do and writes good essays because of it, because once again it makes me feel too much like a generalist and an ignorant duffer to write really well, even though I don't think that's actually true, but I loved the book and I want to read more.
47. (Re-read) Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris 6/19
Pick:
Toni finished reading the Sookie books, and I felt like reading something fun.
Thoughts:
I forgot that this one was a bit less fun than most of the Sookie books. This is the one with the fairy war that spills over into Sookie's life, between her great-grandfather Niall and the fairies led by his son. This one features several bad things, death and torture and sadness. Still great books, though, and fun to read. I'm glad for the end, in a way, because it seems to wrap this fairy storyline up, and I don't like it as much as the vamps or weres.
48. (NTY) Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 6/23
Pick:
Had to catch up with the series, didn't I? That was the point of reading the last one, so I could read this one. We got this book because my friend Amber Horn very kindly bought it for us as repayment, since I loaned her every book leading up to this one. Which I thought was a good deal.
Thoughts:
This book was not any lighter than the last one; not that I expected it to be, considering where the last one left off. It did have more to do with Sookie's life and less to do with the supernatural struggles, which I thought was good; not that there are no supernatural parts, because of course there are. We are starting to see more conflict over the shifters' public announcement, which comes home for Merlotte's a little; Bill is still trying to recover from the silver poisoning he suffered in the last book -- and Sookie may regret what she did to help with that, but I'm glad for it; I want Sookie's love life to move on, not get stuck on the revolving hamster wheel of past boyfriends and current boyfriends going round and round and round; Claude moves in with Sookie, which is amusing; and Eric's sire shows up with his crazy vampire child. Those two were annoying, but interesting, like most of the powerful vampires we have seen. There is less fighting, and only a little bit of sex (Unlike freaking True Blood -- good lord, that show turned these books into violent vampire porn, which they bloody well aren't, and these books are so much better than that), but Sookie has changed in ways I think I like, and that I would certainly expect considering the trials and travails of the last few books of this series. I am curious about where this book leaves the fairy elements, and I definitely sense a change in Sookie's love life a-coming. I just hope she doesn't go for Sam.
49. (NTY) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik 6/29
Pick:
I had to get this one so I could read the next one, which I got for Vine.
Thoughts:
I love these books, I loved this book, but it was kinda hard to read; Temeraire and Lawrence are suffering because they did the right thing in a time of war, which of course makes them low-down dirty traitors. That pissed me off. Though I was very impressed that Novik managed to make me see both sides of the issue; sure, their choice to prevent the plague that the English would have unleashed on the French dragons was the right thing, because using germ warfare to wipe out potentially every dragon in Europe and beyond would be the most hideous of crimes, and of course Lawrence and Temeraire had to prevent that -- but then again, maybe they could have done it differently. And more to the point, because they prevented it, Napoleon invades England successfully, and now the entire country has to suffer because of that, which makes it harder to turn up the nose at the accusation of treason. Their country really is worse off because of what Lawrence and Temeraire did.
I really liked the Inglorious Basterds sort of plot element -- or maybe I should reference The Patriot, since I haven't actually seen the Basterds movie yet -- when Lawrence and Temeraire fight dirty for their country, and though I liked the big battle at the end, the final result of that was a total let-down, since the victory was not complete. Though I suppose that's historically accurate. Still an anti-climax. Good book, though, as all of these are.
50. (Vine) Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik 7/2
Pick:
I got all titillated when I saw this one on the Vine, because I LOVE these books -- I love the dragons, I love the alternate history, I love the war and the world that Novik has created. I even went so far as to buy the book before this one, which I had never read, so that I could order this from Vine and read it for free. I love the Vine.
Vine Review:
Assuming that nobody is looking into this book that hasn't yet read the entire series (Which, by the way, is outstanding and I highly recommend -- it starts with "His Majesty's Dragon," then "Throne of Jade," "Black Powder War," "Empire of Ivory," "Victory of Eagles," and then this one), I'll just skip the background. This one came as a bit of a surprise after the last, because this book has nothing to do with the Napoleonic Wars -- well, there is a connection, but it is very tenuous; something to do with the possibility of the French trying to disrupt English trade in Asia.
The series seems to be following this pattern: war book; exploration book; war book; exploration book. First the beginning of the war story, with Temeraire and Lawrence learning to fly and becoming part of the Corps; then we explore China. Then back to the war, with the battles over mainland Europe; then we explore Africa. Then back to the war, with the invasion of England; now we move to Australia. This one is not quite as interesting as the other two exploring books, but it's still good; the journey through the Australian outback tends to drag on, since there's just so much outback to cross, and the traveling companions that Temeraire and Lawrence are stuck with are just unfortunate -- though I am very interested in the new dragons who appear in this, especially the hatchlings -- but the plot twists and the new type of dragon, the Australian natives, are excellent, as always. The book ends with Lawrence and Temeraire seeming to settle into new roles on this new continent, and so I wonder if we are moving away from the final years of the Napoleonic empire; which would be fine, since that would probably be a little anti-climactic. The book has less combat than many of the other books, though there is an outstanding fight scene at the end; frankly, I found the lack of fighting appropriate, since Lawrence and Temeraire have had to suffer so much for the war. I expect them to be tired of it, and to be ready for some peace. Which they probably won't find here, because it probably couldn't be found anywhere in that world at war.
The book reconnects to China, and the next book will probably continue in that vein, simply because of the proximity of Australia and the new plot line that opens here; personally, I'm just bummed that Temeraire and Lawrence didn't go for the whole pirate idea in this book -- but maybe they will in future. I hope so. Because dragon pirates would be sweet.
51. (Vine) The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan 7/6
Pick:
I'm curious about Darren Shan, who wrote the Cirque du Freak books, and this one sounded very interesting -- both the idea of a quest to become the executioner, and the connection to Huck Finn.
Vine Review:
This book was certainly an interesting journey. I picked it because I was curious about Darren Shan, since I have heard much about the Cirque du Freak books but have never read them, and because the description said it was inspired by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- and since I'm a high school English teacher, I have taught that book to my classes, and it is one of my all-time favorites among the classics.
But it arrived while I was deep in another book, and so by the time I got started reading this one, I had forgotten it was connected to Huck Finn. That turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me to enjoy the beginning: the main character, Jebel Rum, is a young boy who desperately wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but unfortunately he has two older brothers who are much more likely to do so -- and since their father holds the honored place of Executioner for their city, only one of the three can take his place when he retires. The father shames Jebel, leaving him out when speaking in public about which of his sons will take his place as Executioner, so Jebel decides he will take on an impossible quest in the hopes of eliminating the shame of his father's dismissal.
The quest is an interesting idea, and Shan has built a very interesting world, full of disparate groups and varied philosophies and worldviews and ways of living: there are the slavers, the slaves, the Spartan warrior race; there are the people who live deep in a swamp and worship the alligators who surround them, and another race that do the same with vampire bats. There are peaceful people and violent people, religious people and earthy people. Jebel Rum is fairly annoying at first, but he is supposed to be. I didn't think as much of the other main character, Tel Hasani, but he isn't too bad.
The problem came around the middle of the book: first of all, it is too long. Jebel gets sidetracked from his quest and held up by circumstance, which is fine, but the sidetracks take almost as long as the quest itself, and not all of them are interesting. With all of the detail that Shan puts into the various groups that Jebel meets, it feels like the book meanders too much. The second problem was that I happened to remember the connection to Huck Finn. Once I remembered it, I couldn't help but compare the two -- and of course, since I love the original, this book just didn't measure up. I didn't like the way Shan re-created some of my favorite characters and scenes from Huck Finn (The Duke and King were a mistake, especially the names - this is not a political satire, and so they didn't fit at all); I particularly didn't like that he changed the most important elements of the plot, only keeping the idea of a long journey with a young boy and the older slave who takes care of him and misses his family back home. It's not that this book is bad, it's just that any book is going to pale in comparison to a classic that I happen to love.
But then I got to the end, and it was fantastic: there was a great twist, a really great twist, and the message was sound and well-done, since we got to watch Jebel's entire experience along the way. I really loved the way the book played out.
So in the end, the story may drag some in the middle, but the imagination that went into it, and the excellent ending, make it worthwhile. But don't get this book if you loved Huckleberry Finn and you can't forget about the comparison: because this is a good book, but Darren Shan is no Mark Twain.
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