More Books in March

18.  Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
I don't know, you guys.  My issues with Pretties are actually quite similar to the ones I had when I read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - in both cases it felt like the author was basically rehashing the first book in the series with some superficial plot changes.  I'm also struggling with the likability factor of the main character; I find Tally kind of...tiresome?  Plus Westerfeld is failing to really convince me that his dystopia is a terrible thing.  I mean, OBVIOUSLY the world has some problems, but they never seem...totally evil, I guess.  I also feel like the divisions between the novels are kind of arbitrary - like, Westerfeld sat down and wrote one EPICALLY LONG story and split it into four even pieces, and then tidied up the ends so they'd have their own individual story arcs (except they don't really).  IN SUMMARY: I AM NOT CONVINCED.

I'm taking a break from these for a while so I can read Behemoth.


19.  Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool
My Children's Literature class is doing historical fiction this week, and this was the last book I read for the unit - getting myself to read it was like pulling teeth for reasons I don't really understand.  I don't know why, but I was incredibly resistant to reading it (even though it's required reading) but once I started I packed it in pretty quick.  It's a fun, tangled knot of a book, about Abilene Tucker, a young girl, coming to the small town of Manifest, Iowa, to wait for her dad.  It takes place in (I believe) the early 1940's, and while Abilene is stranded in Manifest she starts unearthing the town's recent past.  The town, everyone who lives there, her father, a mysterious boy named Jinx that Abilene reads about in a handful of letters, and the town fortune teller, Miss Sadie, make up that knot I mentioned, and unraveling it with Abilene was more enjoyable than I anticipated.  It's a solid young YA or older children's novel.

20.  Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld
More fun alternate history lessons with Westerfeld.  It was weird to read a couple of the Uglies books in between Leviathan and this one, because the Leviathan books are SO MUCH BETTER.  Like, it was hard for me to hear Westerfeld's voice in Uglies.  I think the Uglies books came out before Leviathan?  I think that's right.  So maybe Westerfeld's just getting better the more that he writes.  But I'm itching to read Goliath now, and I honestly don't know if I care to bother with Specials and Extras.  But anyway:  Behemoth continues into World War I with our heroes from the previous novel.  There's a gigantic genetically engineered squid that eats ships, a Tesla cannon, some robot elephants, and a loris that imitates human speech.  Also an anarchist rebellion in Turkey.  Love it.

March, pt. 1

15.  The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
This book was rough, you guys.  But extremely well-written and well put together.  I think what I appreciated about it most was that nothing is easy, especially for the main character - Amir, a native of Afghanistan who is forced to emigrate to the United States with his father after the Russian occupation, is not a likable guy and he does some pretty awful things, especially to Hassan, the servant's son who grows up with Amir.  The bulk of the story is about Amir making things right and atoning for the sins of his childhood.  I admit to not knowing very much about Afghanistan, the horrible violence that happened (and continues to happen) there, and the politics of it all, and this novel deals with it in an emotional, sensitive, raw, and ultimately satisfying way.

16.  Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher
We read Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher in my YA lit class last semester and it was a truly quality literary experience.  Then Crutcher spoke at a literary conference I went to about advocating for young adults' rights to choose what they read and to combat censorship and book banning.  And it was a deeply moving experience.  Crutcher worked for a long time as a child therapist, who worked mainly (I think only?) with children from broken and abusive homes.  He's seen almost every tragedy that can happen to a child, and brings the weight of that knowledge to his work.  His books are serious meditations on the lives of teenagers, on what they deal with that adults can't remember or imagine, and addresses real problems (Sarah Byrnes deals with everything from bullying, child abuse, religion in schools, parental pressure, and being on the swim team).  His books are illuminating and his dialogue is inspiring.  Please read, if not Sarah Byrnes, SOMETHING by this man.

17.  Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
The first of my Westerfeld party!  I REGRET NOTHING.  I read this one before Behemoth because it was in the library when Behemoth was not (I'm waiting for my interlibrary loan RIGHT NOW) and because you can't be involved in the YA lit scene and NOT have heard about the Uglies books.  It was...ok.  Leviathan is better written, and more interesting in my opinion - Uglies is pretty standard dystopian fare (Equilibrium + Brave New World x Libba Bray = Tally and Uglies).  There's a huge point of convenience at the end that I actually kind of hated, but it's the set-up for the sequel so maybe after I read Pretties I'll hate it less.

Still looking forward to Behemoth (and then Goliath), though.

February, part 2

12. The Man In the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Very cerebral and kind of a downer, but since I've read Philip K. Dick before I kind of knew what to expect.  This book showcases pretty excellently how Dick excels at world-building; not only is his alternate reality where the U.S. lost World War II fully realized, but so is the alternate-alternate reality of the book-within-a-book, where the U.S. won the war (but not with the fallout we're familiar with).  And if that made sense to you, you should probably read this book.

13. White Cat, Holly Black
Holly Black is super fun - way darker and grittier than Melissa Marr, while still maintaining that thread of wish fulfillment that's kind of the hallmark of supernatural YA.  I found this one a little predictable, but still quite exciting; in this particular fantasy world, certain people have natural abilities to work magic on others (called "curse workers," or just "workers") and they come in different flavors - some can work luck, some emotion, some death, and so on.  Cassel, the main character, comes from an entirely worker family - except for him.  There's mobsters, con artists, and assassins, and the whole thing is pretty delightful.  (Except it's written in present tense, RAWR.  At least this one is first person.)

14.  The Reapers, John Connolly
I like John Connolly a whole lot.  He writes mostly crime noir, about a private detective named Charlie Parker (the first Parker book is Dark Hollow - I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who likes crime fiction or gritty supernatural stuff); his stories are typically gripping and suspenseful, he has a nice subtle supernatural element, and his side characters are entertaining and rich.  But I had trouble with this one.  It focuses on Parker's two most notorious cohorts, Angel and Louis, who typically provide a nice dose of banter while being ruthless killers.  Having a whole book focused on them (mostly on Louis, the professional assassin) might be too much of a good thing.

February, part 1

9.  Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
Can't stop, won't stop.  Tiffany Aching is one of Pratchett's most likable characters and I'm going to be sad when I've finished everything that he's put out about her.

10.  The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a good book that I ultimately didn't care for.  Part of the issue is how nihilistic it is - and if I'd known that going in, I would have been better prepared for it.  It's pretty seriously depressing, which in and of itself isn't a deal breaker for me - but that combined with other elements that didn't work for me (3rd person, present tense narration, a seriously chaotic prose style) added up to a final product I wasn't crazy about.  It's a seriously dystopian story about the dying days of a city, and there's a lot to like here (if Bacigalupi had introduced his epidemic subplot sooner I would have been more on board, I do love a good disease story) but it wasn't for me.

11.  The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor
This was a whole lot of MEH.  It's kind of an interesting concept - a retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story, where Alice (or Alyss) is a princess of Wonderland and heir to the throne, ousted by her evil aunt Redd and escaped into our world for a time.  The second half involves Alyss returning to Wonderland to lead a rebel army against Redd and reclaim her throne in the name of White (good, as opposed to the evil Black) Imagination.  But the writing is not good, you guys.  All the exciting moments, of which there are many: assassination attempts, chase scenes, epic battles; they all fall flat due to a lack of description.  Apparently this is the first book of a trilogy, but I won't be reading the others.

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.