BeSerene's Reads of 2011: The Next Chapter

Since the first thread of 2011 seems to have reached its limit, and begun attracting unwanted attention, I decided to start a second. If you wish to revisit the previous thread, you can find it here: BeSerene's Reads of 2011: the Beginning

Last year I read a total of 101 books (To see my masterlist from 2010, visit my second 2010 thread, BeSerene's Reads 2010, Part Two).

This year, as many of you know, I have hit a major reading slump and may not even make my modified goal.
2011 reading goal (revised): 75

I have already had to abandon my intentions as far as group reads. We'll see how the rest of the year goes.

I'm avoiding set categories this year, because they didn't really work that well for me last year, but I will keep a regularly updated list up here and will use some of my usual categories to keep that list organized.

Reads of 2011: 32/75

Fantasy
-- #7: Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo (children's)
-- #9: Reckless by Cornelia Funke (YA)
-- #10: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer (children's)
-- #13: Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact by A.J. Hartley (children's)
-- #14: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan (YA)
-- #15: Heartless by Gail Carriger
-- #17: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
-- #25: Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis (children's)
-- #27: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente (YA)
-- #31: So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane (children's)
-- #32: Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane (children's)
Science Fiction
-- #1: Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
-- #21: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
-- #23: Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Mystery
Historical Fiction
-- #18: Doc by Mary Doria Russell
-- #19: School of Night by Louis Bayard
-- #20: The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
-- #24: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
-- #28 & 29: True Grit by Charles Portis
Literary Fiction
-- #4: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
-- #5: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
-- #8: Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
-- #11: Very Good, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
-- #12: The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
-- #16: Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
-- #26: Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (YA)
Biography/Memoir
Non-fiction
Graphic Novels
-- #6: Harvey by Herve Bouchard
-- #30: Will Supervillains Be on the Final? by Naomi Novik
Miscellaneous
-- #2: Skellig by David Almond (children's; magical realism)
-- #3: Don't Let the Turkeys Get You Down by Sandra Boynton (humor)
-- #22: Animal Farm by George Orwell (satire; fable)

HEy, I'm first! Woo hoo!

Let's get things started on just the right foot, here on my shiny new thread...

#15


Heartless by Gail Carriger
I may have mentioned, one or two times here on LT, that I thoroughly enjoy this series. My dear friend David also may have mentioned, just once or twice, that he enjoys this series -- which I take credit for, since I was the one who put the first book into his hands, many moons ago, and I am never one for unnecessary humility -- and others who have heard our collective evangelism for this series may also have indicated their respective enjoyment once they themselves witnessed the sheer joyful ridiculousness that is the Parasol Protectorate. If you are not convinced by now, what can I really say?

Mind you, a lack of purpose will never stop me from speaking.

This, the fourth volume in Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, may not be the strongest installment, but this is not a series where strength is an object. Style and wit are much more significant in this steampunk-ish supernatural romance, and I must say that 'Heartless' contains more than sufficient of both. In this book, we all get more of what we've been wanting -- Lord Akeldama, of course -- as well as a good dose of the usual fun, with werewolves transforming and vampires plotting and octopus automatons shedding perfectly good gears all over the place, and naturally Lady Alexia Maccon, nee Tarabotti, bothering about everywhere in exceptionally awkward yet brilliant ways. This is not mention hats. Or tea. But there is also plenty of both.

(If you have not yet started the series at all -- and one does wonder what on earth could have stopped you -- you may wish to stop reading here, as the rest of this review does refer to things known only to readers who have already consumed the first few volumes.)

I was delighted to see that, though our favorite lord and lady are comfortably back together after the difficulties of the previous episode, their togetherness did not dampen the adventurous spirit as it sometimes did in #2, my least favorite of the series. The fact that Alexia is hugely pregnant during this particular book also grants us an additional dynamic to the witty interactions between the characters and it is particularly pleasant to watch how she uses that state to her advantage in various situations.

There were certain red herrings in the plot that I found a little over-utilized -- no, I shan't give anything away here -- but if you are looking for subtlety, you surely must have looked elsewhere by now. The whole package is a riotous romp, as we have come to expect, with not one but two especially intriguing twists to the road at the end of the book, sure to compel the reader into the next volume, when it arrives. One of those turns is a change unusual enough to make me wonder what direction the fifth book will take, and when a series can make a reader wonder such things this far in, that is a good sign.

Overall, this book was a delight, the kind of delight that rams into buildings when its clockwork legs won't work right but always does an impeccable job tying its cravat. If you need more of a recommendation than that, I simply cannot help you.

Roni, you delightful creature, you are faster than a professional speed-reader! How lovely to see you here! :)

I always keep close tabs on your thread, Sarah, and with good reason--what a wonderful review of Heartless! What can I do but to concur with you on all points and join you in our anticipation of Book Five?

I am looking forward to reading Heartless if I can get my hands on a copy. Glad to see you enjoyed it so much, Sarah!

>6 alcottacre:: I do hope you can find one, Stasia -- it is such a pleasant diversion!

>5 ronincats:: Roni, what can you do indeed? Except perhaps make some tea. Tea seems the only thing that will fortify us whilst we await the next installment. :)

Earl Grey, Lapsong Souchang, or Darjeeling?

Darjeeling or Earl Grey for me. I hate Lapsong Souchang :)

Earl Grey for me, please! Two lumps, if you don't mind. I'll bring the cucumber sandwiches. :)

Earl Grey it is! Fortunately I have plenty on hand, green as well as black.

Every time you all start talking about Earl Grey on here, I keep thinking someone is talking about Theodosia's dog in the Laura Childs tea shop mystery series set in Charleston.

>11 ronincats:: Green Earl Grey!? I don't think Lady Alexia would approve of such things.

>12 thornton37814:: I have the first two tea shop mysteries -- leftovers from my grandmother's bookshelves after her move a few years ago -- but have yet to read them. The dog's name is Earl Grey? That is excellent. :) How are the books?

It's my favorite of Childs' three series. It's one of my favorite cozy series. Of course, it's setting in Charleston helps because it's one of my favorite vacation spots.

So, tea and shopping aside, I have started reading Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman, which I believe is short-listed for the Man Booker this year. It's intriguing. Like Room, which I read previously, it tries to create a child's voice -- an older child, in this novel -- in the midst of change and trauma, but it also uses a mystery plot to frame the narrator's perspective. I'm having a hard time picking it back up on a given day, but I am enjoying it. Slow reading is not something I'm used to, but at least I am reading.

#15: Slow reading is not something I'm used to, but at least I am reading.

Go, Sarah, Go!

>16 alcottacre:: Thanks, Stasia. I'm moving along, bit by bit.

Something I came across through an email newsletter today made me think about who I am as a reader. Don't laugh, but I was nearly misty-eyed when I got to the end of this article, which is about teaching literature (my field) but also ultimately about those who are natural readers: click here

I thought some of you might appreciate it too, so there you have it.

It does make me think about what sacrifices I am prepared to make to get back to where and who I was -- an extreme reader, for whom "books are the natural and inevitable and permanent means of being absorbed in something other than the self".

Thanks for that article, Sarah. I enjoyed reading it!

Found your new thread, Sarah. I enjoyed all the discussions about The Doctor on your previous thread. My first Doctor was Colin Baker so he is the archetype for me, but I've enjoyed all three of the newest incarnations - some episodes more than others.

And I loved the article you posted in #17 - thanks for that.

I liked the article too, Sarah!

Hi, Sarah. I'm not sure that I ever visited you before, but this was the perfect time. I enjoyed the reading article! It spoke to me both from my perspective as a former high school English teacher and as a reader. Back in the late '60's the goal of the English teacher was defined as helping one's students develop a permanent reading habit. That certainly shaped the way I taught even as I watched readers disappear. By my last year of teaching, I "required" my students to read a novel independently every 9 weeks. In a class of 30, I'd typically have 3 or 4 who had actually read a book. The vast majority went for the shortest thing on the shelf whether it was interesting or not, and of course, it was mostly not, so they didn't read it. Well, that's one sad little anecdote. The other is that it took me much longer in my retirement to immerse myself in a book than I thought it would. I was accustomed to reading mysteries and science fiction in 15 or 20 minute nibbles. I'm thankful to be reading more widely now and more deeply and for longer periods. It is possible to make a come-back!
And I'm back because in all that I didn't really say what I meant in response to the article. People need a way to process information. My kids didn't do it by reading; the article says that readers of any kind are in a minority. Since "we" know that most people are not auditory learners, and I know that in my school nobody much gave kids an opportunity to develop their auditory learning skills, that leaves ----- ? You tell me. How are we going to know anything 50 years from now? I throw up my hands and go back to my lovely book.

#16


Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
Toward the end of this novel, I started to feel like I knew what was coming, but I still wasn't prepared for the ending. I won't spoil anything here, but this is an emotional experience from first line to last and one has to pay attention to see what's happening. Kelman has given us a child-narrator through whose eyes we see the immigrant experience; Harri, the narrator, is a boy from Ghana, living in tower (project) housing in London with part of his mother and sister. He interacts with his local family, his father and other family members back in Ghana, and his friends and enemies in London while we, the readers, watch from inside Harri's head. The paths of the narrative are often as random as conversations with 11-12 year old kids can be -- Harri's mind jumps from murder to tennis shoes to pigeons and back to death without warning or transition. Some reader's will not care for this narrative style -- as with Emma Donoghue's Room, it takes some time to get used to how this book 'reads', not only because of the narration but also because of the African-English dialect terms (hence, pigeon english) and slang patterns that may be unfamiliar -- but those who make the effort to pay attention will be engaged and intrigued.

On the surface, this appears to be a murder-mystery, but the mystery doesn't last all that long and the story becomes much more about life, about family, and about one child growing up in one particular summer in one particular place. As with many coming-of-age stories, there are familiar patterns followed -- fights, discoveries, kissing, etc. all come in to play at one point or another -- but nothing in this novel feels stale or trite, even in those moments when things feel familiar. Those looking for a cozy, resolved story should keep looking, but for others, this sometimes rambling, sometimes plotless, but always quick and interesting novel is well worth the time. Let this one get under your skin a little.

Thanks and a thumb! I'll keep this one in mind.

Thanks, Lizzie. And thanks too for your thoughtful reaction to that article I posted above. As an instructor of literature and mythology, I too have spent a lot of time trying to inspire my students to read in a genuine and deep way. It doesn't always stick. Okay, most of the time it doesn't, actually. Sometimes I have to content myself with students making even a shallow connection to the literature I am teaching.

And it's funny, because I just don't understand it -- because, to me, reading is as natural as breathing (well, until recently) and the literature I teach is also the literature I love -- so I struggle to relate to my students who simply don't read.

But I think you made a fair comment about varied learning styles. As much as teachers say we are aware of this variety -- auditory learners, visual learners, etc. -- how much are we putting that into practice? I try to engage multiple levels through media, etc. but I am only one teacher, and by the time they get to me, their study and absorption patterns -- good and bad -- are pretty well ingrained. But many teachers at the lower levels simply don't have the time and resources to create the kind of varied pedagogy that encourages diverse learners. What do we do about that? I have no idea.

The article saddened me but also made a lot of sense to me. I don't think we should necessarily throw up our hands and tell students to be content with skimming everything, but I do think we need to reconsider our expectations and acknowledge that as much as we (the minority) treasure the kind of reading that we do, it isn't ever going to be the way of the masses. Not really. Of course, as one of those who has lately struggled to maintain her reading patterns -- and I teared up at the end of the article when the author spoke of similar issues -- I can see firsthand how even a deep reader can get pulled from her path in the current cultural environment. How much more difficult must it be to develop that reading habit from scratch in this climate?

Anyway, I've rambled enough. :)

I'm glad you all found the article as interesting as I did.

Good news! Apparently being on vacation is a good way to start getting back to my old ways. I read an entire book today:

#17


Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
I thoroughly enjoyed this Regency-style fantasy novel. I sped through it in just a few hours -- the style, while reminiscent of Jane Austen, is much simpler and faster than those nineteenth century classics -- and I found myself quite caught up in the fates of the main characters.

The heroine, Jane Ellsworth, is one of the best Austen-redux characters I've ever read -- she is plain, first of all, but very talented in "the womanly arts", including the use of magical glamour (there is the fantasy twist) and, of course, dashed clever and sensible. I find this combination of traits to be a perfect transformation of the typical (I use that word reluctantly) Austen heroine into a realistic twenty-first century heroine -- retaining the most admirable characteristics, but turning the physical emphasis on its head, so that we -- the generations of the perpetually self-doubting, thanks to our culture -- can relate in a genuine and complete way. Jane Ellsworth struggles with the way people treat her due to her plainness, but she is also blind to the genuine regard that some people feel because she dismisses herself in a similar way; her journey toward true self-awareness is a significant part of this novel's emotional meaning.

This is, naturally, a romance. The fantasy here is light -- no wizards or dragons or big special effects scenes -- and, like the novels that inspired it, this book focuses on the minutia of everyday. At least, everyday in a world where magic is sort of like glorified needlepoint. The interplay between the characters is the real delight here and one thrills as the various figures are revealed for who they truly are and as the romantic entanglements get sorted. I won't spoil who ends up where and with whom, of course, but I will say that this novel contains one of the better proposal scenes I've read in a Regency-style novel. I found it charming.

Charming, in fact, really sums up the entire package. Some readers will be frustrated by the simpler aspects and the occasionally uneven pacing -- the end comes all at a gallop, but I am reminded that it often happened that way in Austen too, and Kowal is entirely forthcoming about the fact that Austen was the key inspiration for the novel. If one goes into this expecting the level of detail and brilliance that Austen's own work consistently displayed, however, one may be disappointed. No redux can approach that level, but Kowal's originality and fresh elements -- including the limitations of the magic, which make everything more plausible -- make this a wonderful read in and of itself. Approached as a bright, entertaining homage to a favorite writer and light, clever read in its own right, this novel shines.

PS: Many thanks to those LTers who recommended the Kowal book in the first place! And there is soon to be a sequel! Hooray!

Hi Sarah, I think I have been a long-time lurker on your thread and rarely commented but thought I would pop up today to say hello. Really enjoyed your reviews of Heartless, Pigeon English and Shades of Milk and Honey as well as the discussion around reading and teaching.

Sarah, I'm glad the reading slump is abating. I enjoyed Kowal's book too, although the finale seemed almost more Heyer farce than Austen. Still, it was a worthy effort and enjoyable read. I agree that she channeled Austen's style very effectively for most of the book.

I am a little leery of reading books that 'channel' Jane Austen, especially since I did not care overmuch for The Magicians and Mrs. Quent that was supposed to do that. Have you read the Beckett book, Sarah, and if so, what did you think of it?

>27 souloftherose:: I am delighted that you popped up and especially pleased that you are enjoying the posts and discussion, souloftherose. Reading and teaching are, obviously, central to my existence, so anytime anyone wants to discuss such topics further, I'm in.

>28 ronincats:: Roni, this vacation has been great -- I've been reading more in the last few days than I had in the past few months. As for the Kowal novel, having never read Heyer, I couldn't make the comparison, but the finale was definitely swift and even flirting with silly. But by the time I got there, I was ready to enjoy it. And I was awfully fond of "Mr. Vincent" by that time -- kind of my type, to be honest. :)

>29 alcottacre:: Stasia, I absolutely hate the supposed sequels that suck financial blood from Austen's good name, but sometimes I do enjoy those books that are fully up front about what they are -- homages, glorified fan fiction, but with better editors -- and Kowal is refreshingly honest in her author notes regarding her inspiration. That said, you are pickier than I, so you may not care for the novel's unevenness and -- as Roni mentioned above -- shades of Heyer in the end. I have not read Beckett's Mrs. Quent novels yet -- I have at least the first one and would like to -- so I'm afraid I can't offer a useful opinion there. The one thing I can say about Kowal for you, though, it that it's a VERY quick read -- and the way you read, you would only waste perhaps an hour or two, if you wanted to try it. :)

#18


Doc by Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell is an extraordinary writer and researcher. I had the privilege of hearing her speak during her promotional tour for this novel and was incredibly impressed by her depth of knowledge, her fastidious sense of fairness and accuracy, and above all her passion. All of these things are showcased through the quality of her novels. Though they are sometimes difficult to read -- my experience of The Sparrow was one of both wonder and horror -- Russell's novels are always worth the effort. This particular novel -- a piece of historical fiction centered on one Doc Holliday (you may have heard of him) -- tends to be overly prosy, particularly in the beginning and toward the end. The reader can definitely tell that Russell did enough research to write the definitive biography on Doc Holliday, if she'd wanted to.

Once the story gets moving -- and that happens right about the time that Holliday meets his equally famous confederate, Wyatt Earp -- the pace and prose pick up and one is carried into the American West of the 1870s. The novel -- unlike almost every story ever told about Holliday -- does not focus on the gunfight at the OK Corral, or any time spent in Tombstone. Instead, it builds the reader's understanding of Holliday and his unusual pack of friends by starting with their early histories and the initial days of their friendship. We learn about Doc and Wyatt, sure, but also Wyatt's brothers and -- even more unusually -- the women in their lives, who form key connections and motivations.

The primary narrative plot itself is a bit of a murder mystery, believe it or not, but that mystery is often forgotten as the reader meanders through the fields and plains of the characters' lives. Ultimately, the novel is very much about humanity -- about bonds, about love, and about what humans beings are in spite of what society expects or asks them to be. Perhaps for the first time in fiction, John Henry Holliday comes across as a real person, with real feelings and reasons, real beauty as well as those oft-discussed flaws. Wyatt Earp and his brothers are also fleshed out here -- not just as steel-jawed lawmen with guns, but as people -- men who are sometimes at a loss with their women, boys who remember the abuse of their father, friends who are trying to do right by their fellow men. There is a particular delight in the way that Russell has fleshed out these historical figures. What makes this novel even more special is that you can rely on Russell's detail and accuracy (she even lists all the characters at the beginning of the book and carefully denotes the few who are not actual historical personages), and can therefore feel -- at the end of the novel -- that you truly have learned something.

Though this sometimes reads too much like a biography -- and that may be an issue for some fiction readers -- I can unreservedly recommend this novel to anyone fond of meticulous historical fiction as well as to readers of historical non-fiction. The depth of understanding and realism here are well worth the patience it may take to get through the opening pages. A rewarding experience.

This was an Early Reviewers book (though the review is very late).

#19


The School of Night by Louis Bayard
It was interesting to read this piece of modern/historical fiction immediately following Mary Doria Russell's novel, because the styles are very different. While Russell pulls together a tightly detailed and factual novel that could almost be a biography, Louis Bayard plays with the holes in history, taking inspiration from fact and fiction and utilizing the open mysteries of the past as much as the verifiable records that we actually have. The result, particularly in this case, is a quicker, looser novel that has a strong modern sensibility. Of course, that pace and tone are also influenced by the dual narrative of the text. I have been a fan of Bayard since reading his Mr. Timothy a while back, but this is the first time I have seen him weave together modern and historical narrative lines. The first line takes place in the first decade of the 21st century, while the second goes back to the 1600s, the time of Thomas Harriott (a contemporary of Christopher Marlowe and Walter Ralegh).

The plot concerns a document from the 1600s that was recently "obtained" by one antiquities collector and subsequently "stolen" by another (the particular verbs depend on the perspective from which one is viewing the event); that document and its movements lead to suicide, murder, and even treasure hunting as the novel unfolds. Bayard has done the mystery/thriller story before and is a deft hand at shaping it, but this most recent novel also has elements of adventure which work well, though a few of the twists fit a bit strangely.

And there are twists. Twists galore, in fact. The best reveal -- at least for those of us who appreciate Bayard's literary sensibilities -- is at the very end, of course, but the novel has more than enough reveal and counter-reveal throughout to keep everyone on tip-toes. One thing to know about Bayard's books, however, is that they rarely wrap up on a happy note. Those who like their mysteries cozy and their thrillers straightforward in the end may not like the heavy irony and even melancholy notes that dominate the final pages of this book. But then, we can't all have happy endings, can we?

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable historical-literary mystery-thriller (can we fit any more genre descriptors in there?) that successfully balances its dual narratives and thoroughly engages the reader right to the bitter end.

This was an Early Reviewers book (though, also, a very late review).

#20


The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
So, have I mentioned that I really like Louis Bayard? Yeah, I sure do. I read this earlier novel of his immediately after his most recent one (above) and found myself on more familiar ground. This is true historical fiction, emphasis on the fiction. Bayard picks a time and location -- West Point academy in the 1830s -- and a few key historical figures -- including, in this case, one Edgar A. Poe, West Point cadet fourth class at the time -- and runs with them, creating a mystery-thriller that twists up some of the metaphysical horrors Poe himself would write about. The narrator is a fictional figure, made all the more interesting and endearing by the commonalities he shares with our friend Poe. Poe himself is a dramatic, Romantic soul here -- quite true to the young man he must have been -- and part of the fun of the novel is watching Bayard stitch in some of the bits and pieces that will someday form Poe's opus.

The process of reading this particular novel is sometimes odd -- for reasons that I cannot reveal here, since there is a significant twist at the end, which changes the way the reader looks at the entire novel, and I do not wish to spoil it -- but eventually the jumbled bits that seem off the point make sense. Once again, Bayard has crafted a novel that encompasses suicide, murder, sacrifice, and other dangerous themes, but does not attempt to tie things up in an upbeat, redemptive ending. As a reader, I feel some satisfaction about that, because the novel's ending is quite perfect for the tone and path that Bayard has built, but I mention it because I know that many readers prefer to walk away feeling a bit more chipper.

Overall, I heartily recommend this for those who want beautifully written historical thrillers. Bayard is a master of phrasing and his literary sensibility serves the reader well. Head and shoulders above the usual thriller fodder, this novel will give you the simultaneous thrill of elevated intellect and elevated heart rate.

Well-written, stimulating reviews, Sarah! Thank you.

Have you read Territory by Emma Bull? You might like it, after liking Doc so much.

#21


Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler was one of the most extraordinary science fiction writers of the modern age, and one of the least known. Though not as prolific as many of the 20th century sci-fi authors, she did leave a body of work that is consistently excellent; thoughtful and unabashedly political, Butler's novels offer up a rare perspective in the genre: that of the African-American woman. In this particular novel, as in most of her novels, the main character and narrator is a young black woman in a not-so-distant future. This particular future is bleak and terrifying; citizens with jobs in this future America must blockade themselves inside walled neighborhoods and try to fend off the thievery, murder and mayhem committed by the masses of "street poor" -- homeless, jobless, drug-addicted gangs stripped bare of sense and humanity. The very rich abide in well-defended compounds, but those less affluent must hold back the tide as best they can with what little they have. Our narrator, Lauren, is in this latter position -- she and her family are struggling to keep their community together.

SPOILER (sort of) ALERT:
It should surprise no one, despite the above warning, that Lauren's community cannot last forever, and the second part of the narrative begins on the eve of loss and destruction. The novel then becomes a post-apocalyptic road novel, as Lauren walks the path toward a better place, as well as the path to true adulthood.

What colors and structures the novel most is the idea of "Earthseed", the religion that Lauren is constructing and disseminating as she walks her road. The story unfolds in a sequence of journal entries, but each section is headed with a passage from "The Book of the Living", which Lauren is also writing as she travels. The central belief of the religion is that "God is Change" -- and this idea sits uncomfortably with some of the characters, as it may sit uncomfortably with some readers. For myself, I enjoyed the philosophical element that these religious excerpts added to the text, as well as the critiques of corrupted religion that emanate from the frequent religious discussions within the story itself. Though some readers may grow frustrated with this focus, I feel that the beauty of the spiritual and social ideas elevate this beyond the typical post-apocalyptic road narrative and allow the reader to feel more connected to the characters and their future.

Though some of the novel's social and racial perspectives are a little dated, many -- I must admit, with some shame -- are just as pertinent today as when the novel was written. So too are the warnings inherent in Butler's vision of a future America, where that oft-discussed gap between the haves and the have-nots has engulfed the entire nation. Many of the details of Butler's world will resonate with painful familiarity. As with many of the genre, this book is not always easy to read, but it is fascinating and, I believe, still incredibly important.

The novel ends openly, facing the future and the sequel the Butler eventually did write. I am planning to read the sequel almost as soon as I am finished writing this review. That might tell you something about this novel.

Butler is awesome, isn't she?

>33 ronincats:: Thank you for the compliment, Roni! Very kind of you to say. Territory is yet another novel that I have had for a couple of years and have been wanting to read for ages but have never quite gotten around to. I hear great things about it. And, if you enjoyed it, perhaps that will bump it to the top of the TBR/SRTL (To Be Read, Sooner Rather Than Later) pile when I get home. :)

>35 ronincats:: Ah! You are so fast! And yes, she is awesome. I recommend her to people all the time and am always amazed how few have read her stuff. An extraordinary writer.

Almost forgot that there was one more vacation book! (All this reviewing is cutting into my second-to-last reading day, by the way. I need more vacation time!)

#22


Animal Farm by George Orwell
Hands down, this has got to be the most depressing book ever written. It is also extraordinary, vastly important, and amazingly engaging (given its topic). What can I really say about this novel -- this "fairy story" -- that has not already been said a hundred times? If you haven't read it, do so. If the only time you read it was freshman English class and you didn't really read it then, read it again (it will take you all of two hours). The idea of inevitable tyranny is hard to face, but the novel is a good reminder for all people and all times that one must be aware -- self-aware, politically aware, educated, informed, etc. -- and that only active, aware citizens can prevent the corruption that opportunistic leaders, and society itself, will follow unless directly prevented. Though the lesson Orwell had in mind concerned the corrupted state that Communism had already reached in his time, the message resonates across eras and social systems. These are the thoughts that bring me out of the terrible mire at the end of the story. It's the kind of book that makes you think such things. Read it.

I have only read one of Butler's books - Kindred. I really liked that one, and your review makes me think I will like Parable of the Sower, too, so onto the list it goes!

Great review of Parable of the Sower! I love Octavia Butler. The Xenogenesis trilogy is really good too. Kindred is on my to-read list.

Some great reviews Sarah. Mary Doria Russell and Octavia Butler are both on my 'authors to try' list (which is a long list). I'm considering adding Louis Bayard.

>39 JanetinLondon:: Yay! I like it when people decide to read more Butler. Her short stories are magnificent too, if you ever get a chance. :)

>40 DorsVenabili:: Thank you for the compliment. I have the Xenogenesis books in one of those omnibus editions that were done right around the time of Butler's death, but I haven't gotten to that series yet. I'm excited to read them, though.

>41 souloftherose:: Thanks very much. I hope you do try Bayard. He doesn't really believe in happy endings, as I mentioned, but his prose is just wonderful and he has a gift for pacing, most of the time. I wouldn't start with School of Night unless you are a modern thriller fan already, because it's not really typical of his style -- try the others.

On a general follow-up: I just came across an essay that rebuts the theory of readers that was put forth in that article I to which I linked above, in message 17. This one isn't as thoroughly thought out -- it's more of a personal reaction -- but I thought the final paragraph made a strong point. And the author seemed like a nice guy. So, here it is: http://www.themillions.com/2011/08/making-room-for-readers.html

Enjoy.

Oh, and I did finish Parable of the Sower as well as a cute little book called Kat, Incorrigible before I left my vacation spot. I'll add reviews of those later. And I think there was one more... oh, yes, I read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress too. Mind like a sieve! But at least I got to read. Now, if I can just continue that trend now that I am home again.

I need to get to Butler soon. I purchased a couple of her books last year and have not managed to read them yet.

I hope the reading trend continues for you, Sarah!

>44 alcottacre:: Stasia, you should definitely pick up Butler soon. She really is, or rather was, an amazing talent.

Alas, the reading trend did not last past vacation, but I am trying to tell myself that it's the chaotic start to the semester and not my brain that's causing the problem. On the way home from vacation I started A Superior Death by Nevada Barr -- the sort of best-seller-list fodder that I don't usually read, but it is set on Isle Royale and I wanted to support the bookshop up in Copper Harbor, so I picked it up -- but stalled out at Chapter 4 and haven't picked it back up, nor any other book. I have some good ones in the stack that I really want to read, I just can't seem to get started again.

I'll keep trying. In the meantime, I think I owe y'all some comments on the last of the vacation reads...

#23


Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
This sequel to 'Parable of the Sower' reads differently than the first; instead of only seeing the world through Lauren Olamina's journal entries, we have the added voices of Lauren's daughter and even some section from Bankole, her husband. The shift between these perspectives is sometimes jarring for the reader, but I do think that the multiplicity and the family dynamic both serve to open up the narrative in a productive way.

Once again Butler brazenly approaches ideas of religion and politics, but this time the novel is less hopeful, less spiritual in tone. The sections from the daughter's perspective are touched with bitter flavor, as the character struggles to come to terms with her mother's persona and the religious relationships that she has no part in. Ultimately, this is a novel about suffering, from multiple viewpoints, and about reality.

That reality angle may seem a hard sell when one considers that this is a science-fiction-post-apocalyptic-near-future novel, but the way Butler has framed both the circumstances in which the characters find themselves and the extreme attitudes of some of the people they face will ring eerily true for 21st century readers, at least those who have been paying attention to the religio-political rhetoric that has been flying around in this country recently. For a novel published in the nineties, it feels impeccably timely.

This is not an easy novel to read. The characters are harder -- life's experiences have made them that way -- and the events are even more horrific to witness, but as with any good future fiction, there are important messages to comprehend here. Perhaps even more importantly, there are vivid people and complex ideas to face -- the sheer magnitude of Butler's skill never fails to impress. There were some frustrating moments in the process, but this is absolutely worth reading. Recommended.

#24


Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Oh, how I wanted to love this book! And, oh, how I simply did not by the end! This short novel starts out with two young men who have been sent to the Chinese countryside -- to a small village halfway up a mountain, in fact -- for "reeducation" after the rise of the Communist party. Their parents and families are considered too Western, or too liberal, or just not Communist enough, and therefore these two lads must learn to be good workers and good citizens, in the eyes of the regime, before they are allowed to return to their homes. This sounds like an inauspicious beginning, but from the moment we meet these two characters -- as they charm the village headman with the power of an alarm clock -- the novel's light touch and almost fairy-tale-like atmosphere enchant us.

The first three-quarters of the novel offers up, essentially, a love letter to youth, to forbidden love -- of both literature and women -- and to the individual. It is, in many ways, a coming-of-age novel -- though the figure who truly comes of age here isn't necessarily the one you expect -- and the story is touched with nostalgia even when it describes hardship.

It isn't until almost the very end that the wonderful balance of the book starts to disintegrate. Were I still in grad school, I might argue that the break down is intentional -- and indeed it might be. Dai Sijie inserts three seemingly random interludes toward the end that describe a scene of emotional significance; while the grad student in me wants to see these passages as homages to the poetic interjections of ancient Chinese novelists, for the leisure reader the effect is jarring. Each interlude breaks away a piece of the spell that the reader has been happily wandering in the midst of for most of the book. When the narrative resumes, the gloss is lost and nothing quite feels the same.

Again, it could be a crafted point -- the end of the novel, which I will not reveal here, is not a fairy-tale ending (though it is symbolically satisfying), so perhaps it is for the best that the golden light in which the first portion of the story basked is gone, in order for the reader to appreciate what is happening more clearly. Still, I think I would have liked the ending more had I not lost the connection that had sustained my interest and appreciation for the bulk of the book.

I say "bulk of the book", but in truth there is no bulk to speak of. This is a slim, swift story, barely a novel at all, and its size and pace invite a quick reading, but perhaps I would have been better off to slow down and savor each piece of the story carefully. That might have insulated me from the effect of the interludes, but one only perceives such things in hindsight. With things as they stand, I can only offer this warning for future readers: enjoy this book more slowly than you want to, and prepare to be frustrated near the end.

#25


Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis (also known as A Most Improper Magick)
I received an ARC of this novel ages ago -- I think the ex-bookstore-BF might have given it to me, actually -- but didn't get around to reading it until practically the last day of vacation. Frankly, I wish I had read it sooner, because it would have gone a long way toward cheering me up.

Cheer is exactly what this little children's fantasy novel is made of. It is one of those homage-to-Jane-Austen types, but instead of worrying about being imitative, it simply swipes her era and sensibilities and then runs rollicking away with them. The writing is a bit loose, bordering occasionally on the sloppy, and the characterizations are often ri-di-cu-lous, but that is largely the point: this is simply laugh-out-loud fun.

If ever you wondered what Jane Austen might have been like as a twelve year old girl who could, by the way, do magic, this will satisfy your inner child. Those looking for respect, accuracy, attention to detail, or elaborate romance should look elsewhere, but I can heartily recommend this to those who want to giggle madly while reading about floating teapots and inconvenient highwaymen. A jolly playground romp, in crinolines.

I've had Kat, Incorrigible on my wishlist ever since stephxsu recommended it last year. I have GOT to find it.

I found the setting of A Superior Death interesting when I read it several years ago. I really want to visit Isle Royale sometime. I do believe the mystery was not quite as good as some of hers. She revisited the park later, and that book was not as good as the first one. I haven't managed so far though. I've got Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress waiting to be read sometime. I hope I like it better than you did.

>49 ronincats:: Roni, you can borrow my ARC if you like. That's the only copy I've got. Or, have you tried searching under the alternate title? That may help.

>50 thornton37814:: The funny thing is that I really want to visit Isle Royale myself -- and every summer for the last ten years I've spent two weeks in Copper Harbor, which is where the IR Queen ferry launches from, so you'd think I'd have done it by now. But these things happen in their own time. I am glad you gave me some context on the Barr mysteries -- though I suspect that I won't bother with much of hers.

And it isn't that I hated Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress -- it was just so frustrating that the first 3/4 of the book was so lyrical and simple and lovely, and then the end fell so flat for me. You might not have the same experience, and I do hope you like it, but it is definitely worth reading for the first 3/4 of the book even if you don't. :)

Ooh! Just saw that Renegade Magic, the sequel to Kat, Incorrigible, comes out in April 2012! Too long to wait, but at least I have a deadline. I could use another shot of that good cheer again. :)

Since Kat, Incorrigible was such fun, I decided today to read another Jane-Austen-related kids' book...

#26


Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
This modern YA novel cleverly honors Jane Austen, not by aping her style or pretending to be a sequel, but simply by showing us modern girls who are... enthusiastic... about Austen's work and who have no trouble getting into romantic twists and turns, like Austen's characters. The entire novel is a friendly homage, not only to Austen's novels, but also to the many editions, retellings, films and other manifestations that have sprung from Austen fandom over the past two hundred years. By presenting us -- the likely readers of such novels -- with, essentially, echoes of ourselves (for some of us, our MUCH younger selves) as the main characters, Polly Shulman has created an instantly affecting novel.

The two main characters are indeed a couple of Everygirls, with just a little more of the socially acceptable, positive traits than most of us have at age 15. The narrator, Julia, laments that she is too tall, too gawky, while her best friend, Ashleigh, is short and curvy and bouncy, on many levels. Ashleigh is the Enthusiast mentioned in the first line of the novel -- "There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast" is a clever little homage in itself, of course -- and when she discovers Pride and Prejudice, a book that has long been quiet Julia's favorite, she decides that they both must start living the novel, as much as might be possible in 21st century New York. What ensues is a fun, sweetly romantic adventure between friends. Boys are, of course, involved very quickly, and become the source of trouble between these two friends -- though the trouble is not so dramatic nor so over-the-top as in other teen literature currently oiling the shelves.

In fact, much of the trouble comes, as with Austen's work, from misunderstanding and miscommunication; in using those themes delicately, Shulman has created a kinder, gentler YA novel -- one that feels refreshingly light and even more refreshingly empty of zombies, vampires, fallen angels, or, in fact, anything trendier than Austen herself. There are a few points where the adult reader must roll her eyes, of course, since much of the novel is completely predictable -- teenage girls, fictional or not, have acted much the same way for many generations and it isn't hard to guess who likes who or who will end up with who -- but the experience of the story is pleasant, often funny, and satisfying. In addition, Shulman's characters occasionally express themselves in literary forms and through literary references, so English majors of all stripes will chuckle at the charm of the oft-silly but always entertaining allusions.

While there is nothing exceptional about the writing, nor anything unusually brilliant about the plot, I still must express a hearty recommendation for this charming novel. It is especially perfect for Austen fans who might enjoy a flash of pleasant nostalgia -- a reminder of what it was like to first discover Austen's novels, as a young person -- as well as for young ladies who would like a modern pathway to their own such discoveries. In short, Enthusiasm is quite satisfactory.

Thanks for the offer, Sarah, but since I last checked, my library has acquired Kat, Incorrigible. Both it and Enthusiasm have now been placed on hold for me. And may I say, that is such a nicely written review of Enthusiasm!

Thank you for the compliment, Roni. I am glad to see that you will be able to obtain both the books.

I did see some other reviews of Enthusiasm that complained about the "boy-crazy" story line -- and claimed that too many modern authors are using Jane Austen as an excuse to write boy-crazy stories -- but it strikes me that teenage girls are, well, boy-crazy, much of the time, and pretty much always have been. That's even a point Austen makes. So, if you can handle a "boy-crazy" story, I think you will enjoy 'Enthusiasm'. :)

I'll be looking up Kat, Incorrigible for sure. :)

My library has A Most Improper Magick which sounds delightful. I'm sorry to say (well, happy for me, sorry for you) that book 2 is already out in the UK as A Tangle of Magicks...

>57 souloftherose:: Grrrr, now I am jealous! Or perhaps I should have prefaced that with an "arrr" since it is pirate day. Anyway, you will have to tell us all about it -- without spoilers -- when you get a chance -- before me, not that I'm bitter -- to read the second installment. :)

>56 dk_phoenix:: Yay! Gotcha! Book bullets! (Ooh, sorry! Pirate revision: Argh, it's struck by the tome-ball ye be! "Tome-ball" -- yeah, I don't think pirates had a word for book bullets.) :)

I did read another book myself (hooray!) -- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente. It was wonderful, in all senses of the word. I am still pondering my review (which will not appear in pirate-speak, FYI), but if you have not read this book yet GO GET IT. It's one of the best, strangest, and most fascinating modern fairy tales I have ever read. Also, there is a companion story on Tor.com which makes the whole experience even eerier. So totally recommended! And I haven't even composed the review yet! Oh, wait, I just sort of did, didn't I. Well, more about it later, then. :)

Will do. :)

Oh, Sarah. I don't know how I lost you, but I'm vastly happy to have found your thread again. I also have skipped away from it to order Mr. Timothy from PBS as my first L. Bayard. AND I am set to read Parable of the Sower just as soon as I can finish my great Harry Truman blitz for a study club program next month. I need to come back and read more carefully. Like Stasia, I'll be interested to see what you make of Mrs. Quent and the Magicians when you finally read it.

Hi Sarah, finally stopping by--I always get such great "must reads" from your threads. Glad to see you're active and reading again as that is going to help me get back on the communication wagon myself. It's been a year where I've closeted myself with books and craft projects so that I could focus on things. Only recently have I started "lurking" again to see what's happening in the group.

Ah, so--really glad you enjoyed the Octavia Butler novels--I went on a spree a while back checking them out of the LA main library. One of the librarians told me that Butler read all the time and every sort of writing as a regular patron before she moved northwest. I love her work. I've also added five of your reads to my list of recommended books. I just have to avoid another book store, book sale, or giveaway--as if that was possible! LOL!

>61 LizzieD:: Ever so delighted that you've found me! Sorry that I haven't been terribly entertaining of late. (See below.) But do tell me what you think of the Butler novel. Can't wait to hear more opinions on it. :)

>62 Prop2gether:: Welcome back, my dear! So glad to see you, and not just because you love Butler too! I wish I could say that I AM still active and reading -- I started Evan Mandery's Q: A Timeless Love Story and promptly stalled at chapter 3, where the bookmark still sits a month later. I got the darn thing from the Early Reviewers program, so I feel obligated to finish it, but it's just so darn hipster!

Maybe I'll read some nice, silly teen books while I gather the strength to approach the Mandery again.

In the meantime, I did read some picture books, among them A Sick Day for Amos McGee, which is sweet and gently told and all sorts of good things. :)

Well, Sarah, I just finished Enthusiasm and enjoyed it a lot as the gentle little story it is. I like Kat, Incorrigible even more. I didn't enjoy The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making as much as you. There were some things that I found very disturbing, especially in her actions near the end--I am still unsettled about this book.

Hope all is going well with you.

Roni, I am glad that you enjoyed the two little Austen-style fantasies. They are such fun.

I should have written a full review on the Valente novel, I am sorry. It is definitely an unsettling sort of book, but that was one of the things that I loved about it. I think Valente captured the fact that fairy tales -- and I mean the old ones, of course -- are full of people who, if we contextualized them in reality, would be deeply disturbing. And, even more, I think she presented the idea of what damage a magical realm could do to a person... to have one's dreams all come true, and then to have them taken away... I think the book is designed to get under our skin and make us rethink our sometimes too-cuddly relationship with fairy stories. Perhaps I will write that review after all. :)

The short story just makes the whole thing even more eerie and unsettling, as I mentioned previously, so if you did not enjoy the book, never mind about the story. Or, perhaps, it might give you some context for that particular character at the end. I don't know. But I do apologize for not being specific enough in my comments so that you would know what to expect.

Things are going pretty well. A fair few changes are in the wind here, so I am up in the air in many ways. And reading has been nonexistent. But I picked up several books this week and am tempting myself with some fun things, so hopefully.... :)

Oh, what's that? What did I get? Well, since you asked... ;)

Yesterday, picked up brand-new copies of:
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (about which I have heard great things)
Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (which I am quite excited to read -- perhaps this will be next!)

Today, in a fit of poor fiscal judgement, I bought a stack of used books, including:
Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin (I just love her stuff)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin (again, good things heard)
So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry by Diane Duane (been wanting to read them for years)
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones (just seemed like fun)
Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan (which may not be great, but the premise is intriguing)
The Solitudes by John Crowley (his Little, Big is always spoken of with fascination, so I took a chance)

There you have it! And now I shall go have soup for dinner, because I sure did spend the grocery money on books. :)

I have officially given up on Q: A Timeless Love Story. This is all I have to offer as a review:

Since this is an Early Reviewers book, I keep feeling compelled to finish it, but quite frankly, I don't think I can. I've picked at it for over a month and have no desire to continue. The novel thus far is just so... hipster. From the impossibly clever and "amazing" Q -- for whom the narrator feels an overwhelming and irritating gush of love -- to the over-the-top inclusions of oh-so-ironic pop culture twists, such as the Communist themed mini-golf locale, and even on to the narrator himself -- whose excerpts and idiosyncrasies cry out with false humility for ill-concealed admiration -- every paragraph I've read drips with post-modern self-consciousness and narcissism.

I am doubly disappointed because, to be honest, a story about one's future self returning to warn against a relationship seemed to me to have both narrative and philosophical potential. I wish that the author had focused on telling the story, rather than bedazzling it with "do you get it?" nonsense.

Perhaps someday I will return to the novel, but this is all I can offer as a review at the moment.

And since I've been copping out on these things, here at last is a real review of the Valente novel. Better late than never?

#27


The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
It's a little difficult to explain exactly what this novel is. There is something very personal yet elusive about it, and (obviously) it might not be for everyone. There is a lot to grab hold of in the novel, but equally as much that cannot be grasped, that can only be felt in the gut as it passes through. This story, like its topic and its characters, will not be pinned down.

Catherynne Valente is a fantasist of rising reputation who, like many, takes folk and fairy tale as her inspiration. Unlike many, however, Valente does not shy away from the twisted, frightening, or disturbing elements of old folklore. I am not referring to a mere stomach for violence -- many modern tale-tellers have eagerly restored the foot-cutting, eye-gouging gore of old stories with no more than a blink; Valente, rather, looks steadily at what is really disturbing: the reality of what a human might become if ever he/she actually got a chance to interact with the realm of the fairies.

Valente's fairy land is not the oversexed rock n' roll realm of post-modern fantasy, nor is it the gently magical land-of-the-ever-young that softer stories present; instead, her magical world is one of true temptation, of trial, of blood sacrifice, of bravery. In Valente's world, there are bones beneath the fairy gold that only a sturdy child can see, there is bitterness to the magic that enchants objects, there is a tang of melancholy and a hint of anger behind the smile of the fairy queen -- or, in this case, Marchioness.

Do not misunderstand -- this is a story that seems old, and older, and these are characters that feel barely controlled, only just contained -- but even so, even among winds that are great cats and velocipedes in mid-migration and small children stolen or tempted or invited to taste magic... this is a story that feels real.

Perhaps that is what allows it to get under your skin. The reality -- not in the literal, "ah, yes, that could happen" sense, but more in the line of "oh, god, that really would be what it's like" -- is the part of the book that we don't want to face. We look away. (And it is always dangerous not to keep an eye on such things.) We -- the readers -- might not wish to know that, if there was a fairy land, it would not be quite friendly. It would not be quite contained. It would not be quite clean or bloodless. It would not be quite polite. And it would not be concerned with our happy endings.

This, one can believe, is exactly what Catherynne Valente wants her audience to realize.

Along the way, of course, there is much to admire. The details enchant. The language stirs the marrow and raises the echoes of old and older tales. The characters -- each unique, each just a little bit not what he/she seems -- make one almost believe that happy endings are possible... almost.

But the true end will break the skin. Or the heart.

Read it anyway.

That's a great review, Sarah. The thing that bothered me was the decision she made in the machinery at the end of the world--I hope that is accurate enough to pinpoint it, as I don't have the book here for reference. I think that much of the rest of it is edgy but interesting, but that one particular thing I thought, I'm not sure I want any child of mine reading that. But then, I'm a wuss.

Thanks, Roni. I understand what you mean -- there were a couple of things in that ending that really got to me. The part that got under my skin most was the reveal about what she (the other she) had originally been trying to get away from, and there Valente shows us a fairyland in which the rules are just so casually cruel -- that really struck me as a weird sort of realism, which is what I refer to in the review.

But, of course, there are also the lovely, charming moments and characters. Who doesn't love the Wyverary? And I thought the construction of the "ship" -- not just the act itself but the details necessary -- was such an extraordinary moment, something where September is genuinely heroic but in a way that reminds the reader how uncomfortable that role can be... just wonderful stuff.

There is definitely a lot to say about this novel. :)

It does sound intriguing.

>70 gennyt:: Intriguing is a good descriptor for that book. :)

On a different note, I am unsure what to try reading next, now that I have given up on that hipster novel. I am sad this week (not that sad is all that unusual for me, especially this year, it seems) -- but this week I am sad because I am missing the ex-bookstore-boyfriend, or rather (since I don't actually want him back), just having someone else in this house. I am having friends over tomorrow for pumpkin carving, but even the anticipation of that event can't seem to lift the empty feeling from the place.

So, what does one read when one is feeling an absence -- or perhaps when one is feeling the presence of a person-shaped hole in one's life? Novels heavy in romance -- as so many of them are -- aren't appropriate for me at the moment, but to swing to the other extreme -- I could read about cannibalism and death on the high seas! -- does not appeal either.

Advice? Suggestions? Tired of me whining yet? :)

I suggest adventure stories about people we like and enjoy--like Bujold's Miles (not Komarr or A Civil Campaign) or the Chalion/Paladin sequence, or DWJ or Susan Dexter or Elizabeth Moon or Terry Pratchett.

Sorry you are feeling the 'person-shaped hole' - I hope some of Roni's suggestions worked for you: a good fantasy adventure without too many cannibals or deaths at sea might do the job.

You are entitled to whine as much as you want to on your own thread!

This may be backwards, but when I feel empty or lonely or depressed, I tend to read books with those themes. Anything active or upbeat just doesn't appeal. My personal choice is usually A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane.

>72 ronincats:: Thanks for the suggestions, Roni. Since I still don't have any of Bujold's SF books (I know, I know -- I hang my head in shame), I may have to reread some of the many Terry Pratchett novels on the shelf, even though rereading when I have so many unread books waiting makes me feel guilty. :)

>73 gennyt:: Thanks for the affirmation! I shall endeavor to keep the whining to a minimum, however, so as not to annoy roosting birds or other visitors. ;)

>74 bluesalamanders:: An interesting suggestion... I have not read that series yet, but I did just pick up the first three in used copies the other day (see above post regarding fiscal irresponsibility). Are the books of the series all very different in tone? I'm quite curious now... perhaps I will give those a try. Thanks!

On another note, my dear gentlemen of style and substance (including David, our own tapestry100) came over this weekend and helped me shift around books (which had been inhabiting the living room in rickety stacks for a couple of weeks), so the house looks a little less chaotic, and that makes me feel better. And it was quite fun to have a group of friends here on Sunday. So, when one has a person-shaped hole, I suppose the very best thing to do is put some people in it. :)

But I'm still going to read some of those books suggested. Off I go...

So, when one has a person-shaped hole, I suppose the very best thing to do is put some people in it. :)

You said a very wise mouthful there, Sarah!

I think you would really enjoy the So You Want to Be a Wizard series, and that would be a great new one to try. Yes, the books do vary in mood--the book that Blue mentions which is 6th in the series is dealing with grief. Balance it with a favorite Pratchett, and don't feel guilty. Old friends are just as important as meeting new people.

75 @beserene - @ronincats pretty much said it. It's a great series. While I love the whole series, the first three are actually my favorites, particularly book two - which might be my second pick for "books to read when I'm depressed". It is somewhat about grief, but more about hopeless situations. Among other things. There are really a lot of intertwining themes...

I look forward to your thoughts if you decide to read them.

I just did a lot of catch-up here. I was happy to see that my library now has a copy of Kat, Incorrigible as well, so I've just put in a hold request. I'm intrigued by The Girl Who Circumnavigated.... too, but I can't quite decide whether I want to read it yet.

I hope you've had a better week and that the prescribed reading helped lift your mood!

Sarah, have you read The Girl of Fire and Thorns yet? I just read a library copy last night, and really enjoyed it.

Roni, I have not read The Girl of Fire and Thorns yet, but I am even more excited to get to it now that you said you enjoyed it. I have heard many good things about it.

But I did read a book!

Look! Look at the next post! I read one! Wooooooohoo!

(This is so embarrassing that I am celebrating the completion of one book. Oy.)

#28


True Grit by Charles Portis
So, I don't usually read Westerns. That is important, I suppose, because it means that -- though I am generally familiar with the conventions of the genre, as most Americans are -- I came to this book with a fresh eye. The catch, however, is that I had watched and loved the recent Coen brothers film "True Grit" (2010) before I read the novel on which it was based, so that unjaded eye of mine was also eager to see some of the film's greatness in the book. And see it I did; from the flat, formal, yet richly comic narration to the subverted yet iconic characterizations to the elegaic tone of the ending, the novel absolutely lived up to my very high expectations.

I have, in fact, a great desire to read it again right now.

That desire might, however, have more to do with my state of mind than the quality of the novel. Take it with a (small) grain of salt. I am so in love with this narrative that I have watched the movie more than a dozen times in the past couple of weeks. I have it on whilst I am doing dishes, cooking dinner, etc. Thus, given how enamored I am of the film, I cannot guarantee that my love of the book will be a repeatable experiment for others.

But that should not stop you from reading it. The novel is very swift and, though comic, quite earnest. I enjoyed that it was not sly or ironic -- it captures (as does the recent film), without added mockery, the United States in a transitional moment, that movement from the frontier country to modern America. As with any text that looks at change, it casts an eye most strongly on the ridiculous, highlighting those aspects of past (and, the reader might infer, present) that linger longest because they are most tenacious or most beloved, even as they are stripped of the context that at one time gave them solemnity.

In many ways, this book, published in 1968, is more of a grace note than an elegy -- it does not long for simpler times or gloss the surface of its historical period -- rather, it captures the inherent caricature of reality. Its title accurately reflects the grit (and I mean that both in the sense of toughness and in the sense of plain old dirt) of its descriptions. This is not old Hollywood's west -- this is not the clean and careful scenery within which John Wayne, in 1969, reassured audiences that he could still play a cowboy -- this is not a place in which people fall in love... but it is a place that the reader will fall in love with.

Donna Tartt's enthusiastic and informative afterword reveals that, before John Wayne became the definitive Rooster Cogburn, Portis' novel was considered an American classic and was even featured on high school required reading lists. I look forward to the day when the novel reclaims that standing -- it was, and is, well deserved.

Okay, I have to confess here that I actually have lost track of how many times I have watched "True Grit" (2010). I got it from NetFlix maybe eleven days ago and watched it for the first time on Saturday, November 12. Then I watched it again that same day. Then I watched it twice the next day. Then I watched it three times the next day. Then I took a break, but a day later was back to watching the film, either all the way through or in pieces, every day (sometimes multiple times). Today, for example, I watched three or four favorite scenes while I was eating lunch. All told, I am pretty sure my total has got to be close to 20 viewings in ten days. And somewhere in the midst of all that, I read the novel.

And I keep saying to myself "I should go read such-and-such" or "I could watch this other thing" and then I just shake my head and push play again.

I think perhaps I might be a little too attached... is it wrong to be in love with a narrative and its characters? Am I the only one who does this?

I ask this in all seriousness -- the last time I was this enamored of a film/book was when Harry Potter #3 was in theaters, and in the space of 3-4 weeks I went to see the film something like 7 times and read the (then not-quite-complete) series all the way through at least twice and then partway through again -- so this is obviously somewhat of a pattern for me. I generally chalk it up to fixation, which sometimes precedes or follows a tough bout of depression for me, but I am genuinely curious as to whether it happens to anyone else.

Don't be shy -- I promise I won't tell anyone else that you have a secret obsession too. :)

I finished my second read-through of True Grit last night. Does that count as #29? And are the men in the white coats on their way yet?

It seems that two full weeks might be my limit -- I watched a different movie this evening ("X-men: First Class" -- it was entertaining). Perhaps by Monday I will even be ready to give NetFlix back its DVD of "True Grit". And then maybe, just maybe, I'll read another book.

Wouldn't that be something?! ;)

*Whew! Guys, she broke out of the True Grit groundhog day--we won't have to do an intervention after all!*

Hi, Sarah. Welcome back to the world! ;-) Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Regardless of whether the men in white coats are coming, your love for True Grit has made me add it to my wishlist. :-)

>86 ronincats:: Thanks, Roni. :) My Thanksgiving was very pleasant, spent with family. I hope yours was good as well. And, though I did watch 'True Grit' yesterday at lunchtime, I have watched a couple of other movies over the past several days, including the 1940 production of 'Pride and Prejudice' which was enjoyably silly. It's all about balance, right? :)

>87 souloftherose:: My dear, I am so glad that you are planning to check out True Grit. It gives my heart joy. :)

This shouldn't even count, it's so short, but I am counting it anyway, because I am a rebel like that. :)

#30


Will Supervillains Be on the Final? by Naomi Novik
This, the first installment in a manga-style superhero comic series, was cute. And that's about all I can say. I like the clean art; even though black and white manga never gives me the visual satisfaction of a full color graphic novel, I think the youth of the characters -- students in a superhero prep school -- and their quirks are conveyed well. As for the story, it too is... cute. Our main character, a potential "big gun" superhero with awesome powers, has a VERY awkward first day, in which she causes chaos, property damage, and -- even worse -- reputation damage, all while developing crushes on both students and a teacher. There is, naturally, a conspiratorial plot against this young woman, the first steps of which are revealed, along with the identity of the (we assume) primary villain.

The story was interesting enough and the characters appealing enough for me to read the next couple of installments (if they are available) to see how it all unfolds, but I don't expect that I will be investing heavily unless subsequent volumes start to showcase Naomi Novik's more vivid writing talents. This was neither mind-blowingly awesome, nor mind-numbingly dull, but a good little 30-minute entertainment. (Did I mention it was short?)

Oh, I almost forgot to say... I have started reading So You Want to Be a Wizard. There are a lot of papers to grade this week, so I have not gotten very far (about 100 pages in, perhaps), but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks for the recommendations, all! :)

I haven't read the Duane books. I got them for my son when he was in high school and he loved them. I started the first one and really liked that there was a Hispanic character. One of these days...

>91 mamzel:: I finished the first one last night and have read the first several pages of the second -- I like the series very much already. Perhaps one of these days should be... oh, I don't know... tomorrow? :)

Speaking of that first one...

#31


So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane
I genuinely enjoyed this YA fantasy novel and, frankly, wished that I had read it years ago. There are so many tropes and images here that later writers seem to have picked up, yet this wonderful adventure not only predates them all, I would venture to say that it does many things better than its descendants.

Like much of children's fantasy fiction, this book involves wizards, wands, talking creatures, even a handy bit of time manipulation, among other familiar ideas, but there is much here that still feels fresh even more than a quarter century after the book was first published. The main characters, Nita and Kit, are eminently relatable -- they come from ordinary families with ordinary problems and neither has a secret closet full of gold, a convenient wizened old expert in the field, or anything similarly unlikely to make life easier. Magic itself, in this book, is not easy, as these two young folks discover once they are elbow deep in it.

What is more, there is a crucial awareness of sacrifice in the novel, which grows stronger as the story progresses; those who have lightly dismissed fantasy literature as "merely escapist" should read all the way to the end here, as Nita and Kit each lose, and gain, and lose again as they not only learn their chosen field of magic, but save the world on their first outing. Not a simple task, and Duane does not allow it to be such; each time the reader thinks that the problem has been solved, there is more to come. That makes for good, compelling reading.

There is a certain melancholy tone to the book that may not sit well with some readers, but for others that undercurrent of sadness will ring true with the realism (and, yes, I know I am describing a fantasy) of the novel's characters and atmosphere. All in all, I was so well pleased with this opening installment that I started the next book immediately -- and that is a recommendation in itself.

Wonderful review, beserene!

Thanks!

So glad you enjoyed So You Want To Be a Wizard!


Merry Christmas, Sarah!

Happy Christmas, Sarah!

Thank you! I hope you both had a merry Christmas as well! :)

I finished the second of Diane Duane's series, Deep Wizardry, last night and very much enjoyed it. Still thinking of what to say for a full review, but it was very good.

I'm afraid this year did not go at all as planned, but I have hopes for next year!

I'm glad you are continuing with the Duane series!

I agree with Roni. Deep Wizardry is one of my favorites in a series full of good books, and I'm glad you liked it too.

Hi beserene - popping out of lurk mode to (belatedly) say: the True Grit fixation phase is not unique - I have a Firefly fixation phase (or a Joss Whedon fixation phase, who can say?) and have watched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog upwards of twenty times (a very conservative estimate as I am also afraid of the white coated people) in the last six months. Also have watched my Serenity DVD so many times I had to replace it recently.

Also, Duane's Feline Wizard series, which I think starts with The Book of Night with Moon is amazing!

I'll go back to lurking now...

Making my final tour of the 2011 threads, before going to my own and posting yearly statistics and a Happy New Year to all, before creating my 2012 thread. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? Do you know that Richard already has over 100 messages over there?
I've loved reading your thread this year, SarH, and look forward to 2012.

Blue, thanks for the recommendation in the first place. I'll definitely be reading more in the series.

Princess, so glad you popped in for a moment and reassured me that I am not alone. :) And, hey, we may have fixations, but look what great universes we fixate upon! That must mean we both have excellent taste. Thanks also for the recommendation -- I will have to check out more of Duane's other books.

Roni, thanks to you too for that Duane recommendation. It was a very good idea. :) I am so glad you enjoyed reading my thread this year, patchwork and measly as it was, and I return the compliment -- your own thread has been a pleasure for me each time I visit. I wish you (and everyone) a very happy new year indeed.

I suppose I ought to finish off my last review and then start that 2012 thread, eh? Here's hoping that 2012 is a better year all around.

The last book read in 2011...

#32


Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane
This, the second book in Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard series, was an excellent follow-up to its predecessor but a strong story all on its own as well. One of the (many) nice things about the series so far is that, though you should read them in order, each book feels very self-contained, and so the reader can comfortably proceed through the series without the ridiculous cliffhangers typical of 21st century YA literature. This particular volume feels even more self-contained, since it takes place within the space of a beach vacation and mostly underwater. In fact, that more distant setting is part of the charm of the book -- Duane characterizes the deep and its denizens in wonderful detail, using the quirks of particular species of ocean life to flesh out non-human characters in realistic fashion.

The non-human characters are not only part of the fun, but also the foundation of both plot and metaphor in the book. Our series heroes, Nita and Kit, the young wizards we met in the first installment, are called to save the world again but must transform into whales in order to participate in the underwater quest. The way that these two humans begin to understand the nature of different species -- and the very idea that everything has its own nature and should not be forced into our personified or anthro-centric ideas of how animals are -- combined with the characterization of the non-human characters I mentioned a moment ago, creates a rich meaning in the novel that promotes ecological awareness and broader tolerance as well. And yet, there is not a moment in the book where the reader feels preached at. Certainly there are environmental messages -- strongest in the moments where Duane describes the foul state of the waters off Manhattan and the anger of certain hunted whale species toward human beings (remember, this series was written in the 1980's, before certain endangered species protections were in place) -- but they are a natural part of the novel's descriptions and very rarely feel unnecessary or overemphasized.

In fact, by the end of this intense and marvelously drawn adventure, the reader is so genuinely invested in the non-human characters that it feels almost impossible not to care about the ocean and its inhabitants in the real world. I cared already, but I suspect this novel could seriously nurture many a budding marine biologist. There is genuine connection and strong emotional context here between all characters, human and non-human alike, and that seems to be a hallmark of Duane's writing. We can relate to these characters, all of them, from the curious city kid to the angry mother sperm whale. That alone would make this book worth reading, but there is much more. So, read it. Better yet, give it to a young person who thinks whales and wizards might be interesting. Good things will happen.