January, part 2

6.  French Milk, Luck Knisley
A cute little travelogue about the author's six weeks spent in France during college.  It's a graphic novel, and the art is totally charming, but I wish there had been more introspection involved - it parses down to a lot of lists ("I ate these things, I bought these things") without much analysis or reflection.  The moments that are there, such as Knisely recalling an argument with her mother, are touching and emotionally connective.  The book could have used more of those.

7.  A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett
If you like Terry Pratchett, you should probably be reading the adventures of Tiffany Aching, which starts in Wee Free Men.  These books are pitched more toward the YA crowd (Tiffany is nine years old in the first book, and is eleven in this), but Pratchett doesn't tone down his wit or wordplay. 

8.  Kraken, China Mieville
Whoo, this was a doozy of a book.  It's incredibly dense and chaotic, but totally enrapturing, especially because I find religion and weird shit to be totally fascinating.  If you thought about Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, re-imagined by HP Lovecraft, with a guest appearance by a Stephen King villain, you'd be close to this book. 

January 2012, part one

I have a few books to start off with because I went on vacation for the first weekend in January that was a.) international (long plane rides) and b.) took place partially on a beach, so I got a lot of reading done.  I have a buffer!  Yay!

1.  The Help, Kathryn Stockett
I wanted to read this mostly out of the desire to be part of the conversation everyone is having about it - it's clearly problematic for some people, but has also elicited quite a lot of praise, and I can't talk about things when I haven't been exposed to them.  Now that I have read it, I can definitely see the problematic elements; you can't ignore the fact that Stockett is white, and is appropriating the culture of a marginalized group of people in order to tell her story.  I also think it's true that The Help was written out of a certain amount of guilt, owing to the conditions that Stockett herself grew up on.  BUT, I think the book is very matter-of-fact about its own problems, and isn't embarrassed to point them out to the reader.  It invites the discussion, which is important.  And the characters are just so FABULOUS, all of these marvelously strong women, and Stockett does a great job getting that sense of community across.  I recommend it.

2.  Naamah's Blessing, Jacqueline Carey
Carey has written nine books set in her Terre d'Ange world, and while all of them are enjoyable reads the latest set of three are the weakest.  Naamah's Blessing is the most recent and concludes the trilogy about Moirin, who is (in my opinion) Carey's weakest protagonist; mostly she reacts instead of acts, and is more content than previous characters to simply take her destiny as it comes.  Additionally problematic is the fact that this volume is almost a complete mirror of the third book in the series, Kushiel's Avatar, but less good.  I read it, I enjoyed it, and fans of Carey's work will enjoy it as well.  But it could have been better.

3.  Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
Easily my favorite thing I've read so far this year (which is not saying much, as it's only been eleven days, but...), this book combines many things that I love: 80s pop culture, cyberpunk, geeks, adventure...it's super fun.  Cline incorporates a lot of fascinating ideas that are particularly relevant to our current cultural landscape, like social media, technology-based communities, and the difficulties of keeping secrets in an internet based society.  Wade, our narrator, is endearing and self-deprecating and it's easy to keep rooting for him, even when Cline gives in a little too much to hand-wavey hacker science near the climax of the book; he recovers with an exciting finale.  Everyone should read this.

4.  The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
The circus of the title is composed of multiple stand-alone tents, each containing its own dream-like beauty and experience.  The book itself is composed this way as well - the plot is nearly secondary to the imagery that Morgenstern employs, describing the tents and the circus and a handful of colorful characters.  Her scenes are rich and her language is singularly beautiful.  The story, a duel between two magicians, and the romance, are hung on the scenes like a gauze scarf: floaty and nearly insubstantial, adding a sheen of color to the black-and-white striped circus tents.  It's a lovely experience; not a strong story, but it doesn't have to be.

5.  Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
I...don't really know how I feel about this?  I appreciated the ending for reasons I won't go into (I'm employing a strong anti-spoiler policy on this blog), and it's certainly got a strong, quirky cast.  They wrestle alligators!  And...have sex with ghosts?  Maybe?  I'm not entirely sure what I read here.  It's written in a really interesting fashion, though - it takes place in the Florida swamp, and it reads like a swamp.  It meanders and oozes, takes it time and rolls around in its setting.  It's never in a hurry to get anywhere until the climax starts rolling, and it gives you a lot of time to contemplate the things that go on.  Which you need.

In Service of a New Year's Resolution

It's been a really long time since I've posted anything here (Blogger is telling me almost two years.  I'm a bad blogger, apparently.), but I'd like to change that!  One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2012 was originally to read 30 books that I've never read before, but I decided that wasn't nearly as difficult as it could be, and so have decided to undertake the 52 Book Challenge.  The rules are simple: read 52 books in 52 weeks.  My own caveat is that they have to be books I've never read before, so anything I re-read this year doesn't count towards my tally.

I'll be logging the books I finish here, with a number and a paragraph or two with my thoughts on them.  I'll also be recording them on my Shelfari page, so if you don't follow me there, you should!  You can find my user page here.