Saturday Review: The Hunger Games

I know you really don't need me to add to the mountain of reviews telling how great this book is and how much people loved it. However, it was great, and I loved it so much I'm posting this anyway, though I'll keep it brief. I read this book in 4 hours. 4 hours straight through. I started it at 12:30 AM (not my best idea) and went to bed at 4:00 AM this morning. The last book I stayed up later to read was, well, I really can't remember.

Since the reviews have already been more than numerous and praising, I'll just stick to listing the things I loved about this book and the things I maybe didn't love so much.

Love:

From page one, I was hooked. Every word was like a magnet that I couldn't pull away from. This was no dreaded "you just have to get into it, it gets better" book. No, The Hunger Games was more than good from the very first word to the very last. 

Not Love:

This is just a nitpicky thing, but I've never been able to truly enjoy books written in first person present tense. It has its pros and cons, I will admit. I feel as if I'm in the story and it drags me along for the ride. Still, I can't get over the nagging sense of, well, I really don't know what. It just bugs me. Don't think I'm criticizing the book or the author for it, it's just a comment.

Love:

Katniss's relationship with Prim. It's the kind of sisterly bond I've always admired. Katniss will literally do anything for her little sister, and we know she's never out for the glory or recognition of it. It's just for Prim, and only Prim, and everything else doesn't matter.

Not Love:

Nope, I'm out of Not Loves. The thing is, The Hunger Games is an excellent example of what I believe Young Adult novels should be. This may be dystopian and hundreds of years in the future, but Katniss and Gale and Peeta and the rest of them are dealing with very real issues that young adults can still relate to, even if in a less life-threatening sense. They're dealing with injustice, with family issues, with being young in a world where you can't afford to be young, or just being young in a world where the youth get told what to do and never have a say in the matter. Do as you're told and you'll be fine. 

Here's The Thing:

About dystopians. They represent, as far as I can tell, a distorted and exaggerated view of our society. There's a message in every good dystopian; it screams at you to look at the world and see it differently. It's interesting that the Capitol pits only the youth against each other to fight to the death. See, the youth are expendable. The ones that survive are lucky and they get to carry the weight of their families on their backs. The rest, it doesn't really matter. They're just extras. Katniss proves otherwise. She is the sole provider for her family. There is nothing expendable about her. So much depends on her very existence, she has to win the games. For Prim. For her mother. It is this that drives her on. I feel like I learned something when I read The Hunger Games. Not to be sappy or anything, but I truly did. For me, there is a huge amount of power in good writing, in good storytelling. It's the difference between Twilight and Pride and Prejudice. No, I'm not referring to vampires versus contemporary, or classic versus recent. No, it's good storytelling versus bad. The writing makes all the difference.

So there you have it, that's all the reasons why I liked The Hunger Games. I'm not going to bother to rate it because I'm tired and I really hate rating books. See, reviewing books is more about having a place to vent my thoughts on a book. The rating is just kinda like the thing that everybody does. I probably won't do it anymore. I don't know. I'm going to bed first. I'll decide later.

»»  read more

Wednesday Review: Primal

Our generation needs a reformation. 
But a single person won’t lead it.
A single event won’t define it. 
Our reformation will be a movement of reformers living creatively, compassionately, courageously for the cause of Christ.
 
This reformation will not be born of a new discovery.  It will be the rediscovery of something old, something ancient.  
 
Something primal.

It is my belief that there are two kinds of Christian nonfiction books. There are the read-it-in-one-sitting books and the break-apart-every-word books. There is nothing wrong with either, and both have pros and cons of their own. With the first kind of book, its easy to breeze through and miss some very important truths, but its much easier on the mind and often even on the heart. With the second, we might find that we are discovering deep spiritual truths that we needed here, all the while we could be missing the little things that are just as important. Some books balance the two very well, most miss it by just a little.

Primal is the second kind of book. Mark Batterson is a brilliant author and a great pastor. He quickly cuts to the heart of the issue at hand: Christianity at it’s heart, what it really is, what we really are, and we really have the potential to be. I read this book in several sittings, but only because I didn’t have time during the first couple. It’s easygoing as far as the writing goes, though don’t get me wrong; Primal is a convicting read. It really makes me think about the Christianity I know, the Christianity that was, and the real significant differences between the two. As Batterson said himself in the book, there is nothing inherently wrong with Christianity today. Worship must develop to suit culture. There is, however, a primal nature of Christianity – and, essentially, of God – that we are missing in our culture, and this is one Primal is all about.

The essence of the book is best summed up in the first chapter, “I couldn’t help but wonder if our generation has conveniently forgotten how inconvenient it can be to follow in the footsteps of Christ. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have diluted the truths of Christianity and settled for superficialities. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have accepted a form of Christianity that is more educated and less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate, more acceptable but less authentic than that which our spiritual ancestors practiced.”

Mark takes Christianity and disects it into four parts: its heart, its soul, its mind, and its strength. He discusses the importance of each, referencing the Greatest Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” [Luke 10:27] Even in the midst of hundreds of different denominations and disagreements over theology, this is the primal core of Christianity, this is what we all believe and know to be at the heart of our faith, so it is absolutely appropriate that it is this verse that is used as a basis for the book.

There’s a feeling I get at the end of many Christian books that I read. It’s a feeling of pity, of fear, and absolute confusion. I know what I’ve been messing up or not doing and I know what I need to fix it, or where I need to be for it to be “right”. However, I have absolutely no idea how to get there or where to begin. The suggestions are vague and understated, always as if the author himself only knows the end result, and not the path there. This is the biggest issue I had with the book. Primal is enlightening, convicting, and fascinating. It calls to a deeper part of me that wants what it offers. The end, however, left me wanting and wishing for more.

But, then again, maybe that’s what it was supposed to do.

Review copy obtained from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers through Blogging For Books. 

Recommendation: Older teens and up. For those with a strong - or stable - foundation looking for a deeper understanding, or just needing encouragement for a faith that seems a bit stale (as was the case for me).
It's surprisingly hard to rate a Christian book on the typical scale. It just doesn't work. My heart feels heavy and wants a low rating, but my mind feels revived and wants a higher one. It's awkward and I don't know what to do with it. So, for the future, for my new Wednesday Christian non-fiction book reviews, I'm instituting a recommendation system. It makes more sense, since more often than not, my ratings are judged on the quality of writing, characters, plot, and so on. There is none of that to base it on here, and so no reason to follow the same pattern.

»»  read more

Last Dragon

The debut of a brilliant new voice that will change the fantasy genre forever.

An intricate web of stories weave together to tell a tale of revenge, justice, ambition, and power. Zhan has been sent to find her grandfather, a man accused of killing not only Zhan's family, but every man, woman, and child in their village. What she finds is a shell of a man, and a web of deceit that will test the very foundations of a world she thought she understood.

A tale of revenge that grows into something more, Last Dragon is a literary fantasy novel in the tradition of Gene Wolf and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. J.M. McDermott brings the fantasy genre to new literary heights with a remarkable first novel that will leave critics and readers alike in stunned awe.

I've been talking about Last Dragon practically since I started this blog. It's taken me a much longer time to finish it that I originally anticipated, often spending weeks on the floor of my car, underneath my coffee table, hidden in my bedroom. I was avoiding it because I was avoiding reading. 5 days a week of working in a bookstore, I wanted nothing to do with books. Fortunately for me, Debris renewed my love for books, and, as it turns out, Last Dragon renewed my love for reading.

What is life besides a series of memories? And, really, do you remember the order your memories belong in? Which part came first, what happened most recently? Some of it is clear, but most of it is a jumble, things coming back in pieces, a little bit of everything at a time. This is how Zhan tells her story. It is a series of letters written by a dying women. She is trying to remember, only, "...it's all mixed up in my head. I [Zhan] can't separate lines from lines, or people from people. Everything is in this web, Esumi. Even you. Even me. .... The ghosts all fade the same way. They fade together." In the method of this story telling, there was a different POV besides first person, second person, etc. It wasn't your normal sort of narration. The letters were private, earnest, and honest. They were sent expressly to one person and we are simply privy to that honesty. In this, we see a different narrator. You feel for her, you know her, you see inside her and you begin to really know her. This wouldn't work so well in simple first person narrative, I don't think, and that's the genius of the way the story is told.

There is something incredibly beautiful about this novel. It weaves a story that can maybe be compared to a dance. Back and forth it goes, over and over, back to the same places it had been, but with different things to say, different things to do. Perhaps I've spend too much time reading and I've begun to talk like the novel was written, but there is truth in that statement. The farther into the novel I progressed, the more beautiful I found the book to be. I felt like I knew Zhan, like I was Adel's friend, like Seth had betrayed me, that I wanted Esumi to understand, to come back. I was drawn into the story in a powerful way, and I loved every minute of it.

The narration itself is inconsistent at best, jumbled at worst. The first time, I stopped reading it at around page fifty because the book required a certain amount of concentration I couldn't give it. However, when I picked it back up again, I was able to give it the concentration it deserved, the concentration it required, and I was immediately sucked back in. Focus is required for this book. It is not your "light beach reading" sort of book. It's an honest portray of a journey that wasn't all good. It's confusing if you're not paying attention. The way it is written makes sense, in a nonlinear sort of way. The story is a like a spider web, as she says herself in the very first page of the book. It weaves back it forth. It's a tangle, and it doesn't always make sense, but that's life. Life doesn't always make sense. It's not always linear and manageable. It's confusing, it hurts. It's not always a happy ending.

The one thing that bothered me was that when the narrator switched, you couldn't tell. The thing about switching narrators is that it needs to be obvious, the separate personalities must be reflected in the tone of the words, otherwise it doesn't work. More than half the time, Zhan was the narrator and that was fine. When it switched, the only clues were what was being said. The voice was exactly the same.  I'm not sure if it was intended to be Zhan's voice explaining their words, or if it was just bad writing. If it was supposed to be Zhan's voice explaining their words, that's a whole separate problem; I couldn't tell. The voices merged together too much and in the case of the narrator, too much was left unexplained and I was left more confused than I would have liked.

This book reminds me why I like reading. It's a challenge that you have to accept. It's an invitation to a world that you can only temporarily belong to, but that little bit of time is an epic adventure that you don't want to end. It's a journey that you take with the main character, not one that you sit outside of and watch. This book is different, and difficult. It's not meant to be easy. Throughout the entire novel, I never hoped for a happy ending. I never hoped for a sad ending, either. The book simply was. The events in this book all happened outside its pages. Every word carries the weight of the words before it and after it. It is a story wrapped in itself. Almost from the beginning, I knew I wasn't going to be delighted at the end of the book.  Again, it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. It's a little bit creepy, sometimes way too honest, and seriously hard on the brain.

Whether all this is good or bad, that's for you to decide. For me, it was a very good and extremely impressive first novel. J.M. McDermott has serious talent in the way of storytelling. He wrote a second book, Never Knew Another, and I'm thinking I'll just have to read that one, as well.

Rating: 9 - Near Perfect
This book was really hard for me to rate. There was so much that I absolutely loved about it, and enough that bothered me that I couldn't give it a 10. I wavered between 8/9, but I settled for 9 because I really loved it. It was a great, engrossing story. I would say its the kind of book that everyone should read, but I'm not sure that it's the kind of book everyone would enjoy. If you're looking for something different or a challenge, definitely give this one a shot.

»»  read more

Debris

She can control pions, the building blocks of matter, shaping them into new forms using ritual gestures and techniques. The rewards are great, and she is one of most highly regarded people in the city. But that was before the “accident”.

Stripped of her powers, bound inside a bizarre powersuit, she finds herself cast down to the very lowest level of society. Powerless, penniless and scarred, Tanyana must adjust to a new life collecting “debris”, the stuff left behind by pions. But as she tries to find who has done all of this to her, she also starts to realize that debris is more important than anyone could guess.

Debris is a stunning new piece of Science Fantasy, which draws in themes from Japanese manga, and classic Western SF and Fantasy to create this unique, engrossing debut from the very exciting young author Jo Anderton.

The world of Debris is a fantastic place. I think the author did a fantastic job of creating this world without overloading us with information all at once. I did take it upon myself to look up the definition of a pion. For the record, a pion is:  a meson that is a combination of up and down quarks and antiquarks, that may be positive, negative, or neutral, and that has a mass about 270 times that of the electron (from Merriam-Webster). Basically, it’s a really small bit of energy, which is what you get from the book anyway.

The entire book is very cleverly imagined. It’s the most original sci fi/fantasy story I’ve read in a long time. It’s a world where energy – little bits of energy – is everything. The worldbuilding elements are all there. There is a lot of description in a lot of points, but it is not burdensome. We see the world as Tanyana does; we follow her every step up of the way from her fall and the lost of her power. When Tanyana loses her ability to see or manipulate that energy, the world goes dark, to a certain extent. Things like paper and gas lamps are nearly unheard of among higher circles. Only those who can’t see the energy – can’t see pions – use those sorts of things. While there is a lot of description in certain parts, there are sometimes where there is not enough description. I think it was a bit unbalanced, there were chapters where I wished the circumstances were better described, and still other chapters where they were described far too well. It was well done and clever enough that this didn't bother me as much as it might have in another book.

I’m going to assume that Tanyana was not supposed to be likeable in the beginning. Sometimes, I would feel sorry for her and I would wish her better luck, but then the very next page and I’d change my mind. She’s selfish and she believes she deserves better treatment than the entire rest of  the population. Tanyana was skilled, she was the best there was, and she lost it all. She was used to being treated better for what she could do, now she has to learn how to prove herself for who she truly was. She grows toward the end of the book, just as a character should. At the beginning, she is insistent that no one could possibly know or understand her. I mean, how in the world could these people possibly know what happened to her? I wouldn’t suppose that there’s something like gossip in her world? If there is, she seems to think she’s above it. By the end, she is more willing to understand. By the end, Tanyana has formed a bond with the people she never would have looked at before and was willing to fight for them, as we see in the final pages of this book. I found that I enjoyed watching her journey from rich snob to understanding debris collector. She learns throughout the book, exactly as a good character should. At the end of the book, I appreciate her journey and I'm excited to see her grow more in the next one.

The book was captivating. It not only bought my attention but it also earned it. Except for the slow beginning, there wasn’t a moment where I didn’t want to flip to the next page. Most of this book was read during my breaks at work. I hate taking breaks because I hate not doing anything, it’s just a character flaw, but this book made me look forward to my breaks. It made me wish they were longer so I could read more. I loved that there was no dumping of information in the book. There were things in the book that were never exactly explained, they simply had to be discovered or inferred. Other things were explained later as they were explained to Tanyana. It was very well done, though, and I never really felt confused or lost in the book.

There were a few things about the book that bothered me. First was the unanswered questions. So many questions were raised in the process of this novel and only a few were answered or sort of explained. I suppose thats what the sequel is for, but now I'm concerned that this will turn into an infodump in the next book. I felt like the promise of this novel wasn't particularly fulfilled within the pages of this book, but I guess I had originally assumed it was standalone. I guess we'll see with the sequel. Part of me wishes it was a standalone novel, if simply for the fact that I generally tend to prefer standalone against series. I also didn't appreciate the abundance of sex scenes in the novel. Ok, so I use abundance a bit liberally, but my point remains: there was no point. They served no purpose and did nothing to push the plot along. Nevermind the moral issue of it for a minute, there was no reason for them. Even the romance itself approached too quickly for me, although that was a little more forgivable. The romance itself helped to push the plot along, it made sense for Tanyana and where she was at that time. The sex didn't. I think it was just an unnecessary plot point and could have very well been excluded.

Over all, a great debut novel from Jo Anderton. I’m looking forward to seeing more from her in the future – especially a certain book two coming out next year – and I definitely think she has a lot of potential as a science fiction author.

I received a eBook review copy of Debris from the publisher, Angry Robot. Debris comes out in October 2011. See the publisher site for more information.

Rating: 8 - Excellently Done. I wavered on the edge of 9, but settled for 8. There was enough that bothered me that I couldn't give it a 9, but the novel was great and the series definitely has potential.

»»  read more

Tiger's Curse

Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing 17-year old Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

Oh goodness, where do I start? I'm not sure that this book as a single redeeming quality, and I don't mean that to say that I simply didn't like the book. No, it truly was that the writing, the characters, the storyline - all were done terribly and I seriously wonder what the author was trying to get at. The book initially drew my attention when the bookstore I work at began promoting its sequel, Tiger's Quest. The menacing black tiger on the front cover caught my interest, and upon researching it, I found it was the second in a series. Naturally, I decided to start from the beginning. I did read a few of the reviews on goodreads.com, so I definitely did not go into the book with high expectations. That being said, I was severely disappointed in the novel.

We begin with Kelsey, an 18 year old who has just graduated high school and is now looking for a summer job. She finds a job at a circus where she fills in doing a bunch of odd jobs, including feeding the white tiger the circus keeps. Naturally, as is custom in recent fiction works, Kelsey immediately becomes obsessed with the tiger. You don't even need to read the back-of-the-book blurb to know that something's up. The tiger is being taken to India by someone with a rich employer and this man asks Kelsey to help transport the tiger to the other side of the world. She agrees, and adventure ensues!

I don't think I need to tell you why this book got me interested in the first place. The captivating cover, the interesting blurb. This book had serious potential that I really believe it wasted. The plot feels contrived and loosely strung together. I feel like there were so many ways for the events in this book to happen, and everything seems to follow a over-used, unoriginal formula that barely keeps me entertained. There is no emotional pull to anything in the novel. I feel no connection to Kelsey or Ren. It's like reading a string of facts, one after another. There was no reason for me to want to connect to it. It lacked any sort of voice beyond what you might find in a history book.

I know I pick on writing a lot, but there are some things that just shouldn't be done. One of those things is writing a character's thoughts in past tense. It only makes sense to write a thought in past tense if they are thinking of something that has already happened. Just because the book is written in past tense, that doesn't mean you have to continue that through to thought processes. If I was in the middle of eating a piece of cake, I would not think, "That piece of cake tasted really good." It doesn't make sense. People don't think in past tense all the time. Also, overexplaining everything the character comes into contact with does not reassure me that you did your research. Every time I finished a paragraph the detailed the exact type of plane they were in or exactly what was in the food she was eating, I only found myself completely annoyed and I still wondered if she really did her research.

And does nobody else find it creepy that while in tiger form, he keeps licking her? I mean, first of all, I don't think it's normal tiger behavior. I know that he's not a "normal tiger" but I feel like the author is trying to push it across as if that just him behaving as a tiger. It doesn't feel like that way at all. I feel like Ren-as-tiger could find so many better ways of comforting Kelsey than licking her. It's creepy and weird. Also, even if she was supposed to be the one to break the curse, Ren's behavior is oddly uncharacteristic of the society he grew up in, and even still of the society he would belong to today. I don't see any of his princeliness or proud heritage or upbringing in his behavior. You could count it toward 300 years as a tiger, I guess. Still, it's strange to me.

One redeeming thing, though small, was that she certainly got the traffic situation down. While I don't know how Kelsey managed to drive around with a tiger in her car and have no one ask question, the way the roads in India were described were perfectly accurate. It made me remember my own time in India. It would be nice to go back one day.

In the end, not the greatest book I've ever read. However, I will call say that toward the end, it got a little bit more entertaining. Once I let go of any expectation whatsoever, I found myself enjoying the mindlessness of it. Though, I think I might have enjoyed it more when I was younger and more unwise to the ways of the world. Ha.

Rating: 5, Mediocre
Recommendation: Eh. Could go either way. Don't waste your money, get it from the library or borrow it from a friend. Don't expect anything of it, bad or good.

»»  read more

Leviathan/Behemoth

It's the brink of World War I and in different parts of the European continent, two young people are making decisions and doing things that will change their lives. They are convinced to do so my circumstances that are beyond their control, and by the decisions and things, they are tossed right into the middle of what would become a global war. In this alternate history, Alek is heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and Deryn is a girl who has disguised herself as a boy to join the fight. It is Darwinist versus Clanker, fabricated beasts versus advanced technology.

I'll give two thumbs up for an interesting premise. And if I had two more thumbs, I'd give it four thumbs up for the excellent illustrations. Leviathan and it's sequel, Behemoth, are definitely fun reads. The intricacy and detail are amazing to me, it's a world that I definitely would not mind living in. The writing is also done very well. I was a little worried at the beginning of Leviathan with the second-person POV switching between characters, but I like the way it was done. Both Alek and Deryn have their own voice, enough so that when we got to a point in the books where they were in the same place at the same time, the chapters would switch and I felt like I would know whose POV it was immediately, without having to look for clues as to who is currently "speaking." 

My only little quibble with the characters is that they were written much younger than we are told they are. When I read the book, I feel more inclined to think of thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds, not sixteen-almost seventeen-year-olds. I know this isn't an issue with Scott Westerfield's writing ability, because I read his Midnighters series and the Uglies series, and both of them contained characters written to the age they were intended to be. I suppose, in some way, we get to see a little bit more of their maturing throughout the books this way. Alek started as a spoiled young prince who had nothing to gain but also nothing to lose. Deryn began the story as a girl whose dreams of flying made her dress as a boy, though her ideas were of glory and adventure, and nothing could have prepared either of them for what would follow. So I guess, in some ways, they matured as a result of their young writing. Even so, they still seem a little young for the age they're intended to be. 

That's only a little thing though, and it definitely didn't detract from the story. I wouldn't say that the story is one that I took super seriously, or really took anything away from it when I was done. It's also not a story that I will probably remember forever, though I do want to read the third one when it comes on this year and I probably will buy the series for myself once the third one comes out. Over all, it was a good story, fun to read, and very well written. Definitely another good series for Scott Westerfield, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA authors.

Last thing, I can't believe I almost forgot to mention it, is the illustrations in both books. There are almost 50 illustrations in each book, both full-page and smaller drawings. They're beautifully illustrated by Keith Thompson and definitely make the book just that much better. I absolutely adore books with illustrations, and I wish authors used them more often than they do these days.

So overall, very good series. Not life-changing or anything, but certainly worth reading and enjoying for yourself.

Rating: 8, Excellently Done
Recommended For: I'd say it is a must read for steampunk and fantasy fans. It's a fun story,  nothing serious, I think, but it is beautifully written and takes place in a world where I would certainly like to visit, sans World War I. 

»»  read more

Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories

Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories is a short fiction anthology, and let me tell you, I was so excited for this book. I checked it out of the local library, and if it's any indication for how excited I was for it, I immediately went to find its section. Out of a list of 12 wanted books, it was this one that I made a beeline for. I was stoked. As I am currently writing a short fiction anthology, it was this book that I looked forward to reading, to get an insight on short fiction and anthologies. I craved this book in a weird sort of way, and this made it all the more disappointing when I actually read it.

Lauren Groff is a fantastic storyteller. She weaves stories of heartbreak and pain, making your own heart break for the characters within a matter of pages. She's a master at what she does, and it impressed me. However. This is where you learn a little more about me. I'm steadfast in my beliefs. Not even master storytelling can make me waver in what I believe, and that's exactly where this story falls short for me. I'm not one for reading of people's sexual endeavors. In my opinion, that is something that is private and should remain so. Real or fake, I don't feel the necessity to read this in detail, great or minor.

L. DeBard and Aliette is, in all honesty, what killed it for me. [Warning: Spoilers, though I don't believe that spoiling a short story is really a crime, but I digress.] I might have felt for the characters. I might have ached for their love and inability to be together. I might have been a little bit sad when they were broken apart or when Aliette never saw her son again. But the reality is, I didn't. Far too much time was spent being disturbed by the beginning. The story might have been a little bit more compelling had their been fewer - can I say, unecessary - details. Instead, it was, all-in-all, slightly perturbing, and left me with an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Let me just say, as a disclaimer of sorts, that I am not judging the entire anthology based on one piece of it. It's like saying the sandwich tastes bad because I didn't like the crust. My statement is merely this: I can't bear to own a book or a bit of a book that so clearly goes against my beliefs. There are stories in Delicate Edible Birds that I very much enjoyed, but I could not forget L. DeBard and Aliette for fear of its unabashed storytelling popping up again. So, then again, maybe I am judging the book based on one of its stories, but it's hard to only like part of a book. To give another cheesy analogy, its like trying to use a bit of cream cheese after ridding it of the moldy bits. It may be fine, but you just can't forget those moldy bits.

Lauren Groff is, as I said before, an excellent storyteller. I admire her writing and her ability to weave a story. Also, the cover is beautiful. In all, I can't bring myself to give it a lower rating as a book than I have done already. So, I merely settle for being ambivalent about this bit of literature. I probably will not recommend it to friends, and I will content myself with admiring it from afar.

Rating: 4, Could've Been Better 
Recommended For: No-one. Beautiful piece of literature, but not the kind of thing you want lying around your house. It feels a bit more like a guilty sin that a pleasurable read. I still love you as a writer, Lauren Groff!

»»  read more

Austenland

Jane is obsessed with Pride and Prejudice. It's unhealthy, and not normal at all. When her rich great aunt dies, instead of leaving Jane a fortune, Jane is bequeathed a three week vacation to Austenland. Austenland is the epitome of what every P&P-obsessed girl dreams of. Handsome men in Regency-era clothing, dancing, tea and games of whist. For three weeks, Jane Hayes doesn't have to be anyone. It's an escape like no other, and her chance to rid herself of her Darcy-obsession. Of course, nothing goes as we plan and Jane ends up with exactly what she wanted, just not in a way she expected.

Alright, it's an excellent premise. I am a self-proclaimed P&P obsessee. I love it. Especially the BBC version with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Awesome. Naturally, this book caught my attention. I checked it out of the Library yesterday and stayed up until 1:30 am reading it. There's a certain charm about the novel, something that draws you in and doesn't let you put it down until it's over. That being said, I do not thing that this novel lived up to its true potential.

The prologue drew me in. It was witty and well-written and gave me insight into the character I was about to spend three and a half hours reading about. The next two chapters were... enlightening, to say the least. I say that because I don't know how else to describe it. Slowly, I felt like I was finding myself in a different world than the one of the prologue. It was less witty and more trying-too-hard-to-be-witty. I kept reading hoping the witty narrator would come back, but alas, they did not. 

I'm a big fan of Shannon Hale. I love every novel I've read by her, and it was mainly this reason that I felt so disappointed in Austenland. Besides the potential the subject had, the author gave more reason to expect this novel to be wonderful, and it just never quite measured up. Instead of fresh and new, it felt stale and overdone. The main character was annoying, and she behaved much more like 16-year-old than a thirty-something woman trying to do something different. Maybe that was the idea, but somehow it just didn't quite work.

I'll probably read the second one that's coming out in Jan 2012, because I've never been able to start a series and not finish it, and I still believe in the potential of the idea and the author. If you're ever bored on a rainy day or have nothing to do on a summer afternoon, I'd give this book a shot. It's got a great happy ending, although while Jane found she didn't need a Mr. Darcy after all, it only reinforced my desire for a Mr. Darcy of my own.

---

Rating: 6 - Good; A Rainy Day Sort Of Book
Recommend For: Jane Austen lovers, or anyone who needs something to while away the warm summer afternoons or cold winter evenings.

»»  read more

The Book Thief

  

I am not sure exactly how to give a proper review for this book. It is, without a doubt, my favorite book of all time, and I doubt there is a single book that can or ever will replace it. So to say that my review will be biased is an understatement. That said, I hope you'll now forgive me for any bias you might find within the following review.

Here we find a book on a subject that can never be happy or good or nice. Liesel Meminger is a good girl with a sad fortune. Her mother is leaving her in the hands of strangers and her brother has died, leaving her with nothing left in the world but the book she stole from her brother's graveside. With the help of her foster father, she learns to read and write, all the while stealing books from wherever she can find them, including book-burning piles and the library of the mayor's wife.

Narrated by Death, who is at once an omnipresent narrator and a vulnerable character, we find ourselves in the middle of a subject that, on another occasion, might leaving you feeling very unhappy. However, there is something immensely beautiful and inviting about this novel, and it is for this reason that I love it. Instead of feeling depressed at the end of the novel, I found that I felt exactly the opposite: I wanted to pick it up and read it again and again, savoring every word and memorizing every line.

The writing itself is strange and sometimes feels stilted and awkward. It is the awkwardness that makes it feel real, and it's stilted character that makes it feel almost beautiful at times. This is the kind of book that I feel is practically written for book lovers. In The Book Thief, we find ourselves discovering the power of words, not just the power of books. We see the power of words when Liesel's foster mother calls her Saumensch again and again, or with Frau Diller and her insistence of each of her customers saying, "heil Hitler" as they enter her shop. Words have an important bit to play in this novel, and the way Markus Zusak uses them is extraordinary.

I don't know how much I can say without spoiling the novel for you, except to say that it's amazing, and I think it should be a must-read for everyone. The genre-type of "young adult" can often be so misleading to those of us who might not consider ourselves "young adults" or not even "old adults" or whatever. The "young adult" label often makes me shy away from books that I might very much enjoy, but I am afraid of, because they might be too young or too silly. This book is neither too young nor too silly. I read somewhere once that the main difference between "middle grade" and "young adult" is that the characters in "middle grade" books are 11-14 while the characters in "young adult" are 14-16 or somewhere close to those ranges. All I can say is if the age of our main character is the only thing keeping you from reading this book, you're most certainly missing out on an amazing piece of literature and a beautiful story.

---

I just want to share with you some passages from the book so you can appreciate the writing as I do:

p.4: "People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses, In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them."

-

p.129: "Certainly, something of great magnitude was coming toward 33 Himmel Street, to which Liesel was currently oblivious. To distort an overused human expression, the girl had more immediate fish to fry:

      She had stolen a book.

      Someone had seen her.

      The book thief reacted. Appropriately.

Every minute, every hour, there was worry, or more the point, paranoia. Criminal activity will do that to a person, especially a child. They envision a prolific assortment of caughtoutedness. Some examples: People jumping out of alleys. Schoolteachers suddenly being aware of every sin you've ever committed. Police showing up at the door each time a leaf turns or a distant gate slams shut."

-

p.391: "On Munich Street, they watched. 

      Others moved in around and in front of them. 

      They watched the Jews come down the road like a catalog of colors. That wasn't how the book thief described them, but I can tell you that that's exactly what they were, for many of them would die. They would each greet me like their last true friend, with bones like smoke and their souls trailing behind.

-

p.550: "A Last Note From Your Narrator:

I am haunted by humans."

Rating: 10 - Pitch-perfect

Recommend For: Everyone. It's the kind of book that not only challenges you and makes you think, but is also a literary achievement, as far as I'm concerned. I've never read another book written like it, and I doubt it can be rivaled in that respect. It's written off as "young adult", but as I said before, it's the kind of all-age-appropriate book that everyone can enjoy.

»»  read more