2/24/15 - A Funny Book

And we come to the last week of February, and wrap up with a very weighty, very academic choice for the category of A Funny Book.

picture credit

Texts From Jane Eyre, by Mallory Ortberg, was yet another coincidental find. This isn't a book, per se - it does exactly what the title says. It presents texts from various characters from famous literature. One of the very best examples is Medea's texts to Jason's new wife ("it's Glauce right?? that is such a pretty name I am so crazy about how pretty your name is 'Jason and Glauce' sounds so good together").

Ortberg runs the gamut of fictional characters, from Gilgamesh to The Hunger Games. It's sort of like a collection of short stories, in that there are some amazing ones (Achilles!) and some good ones (Gone With The Wind) and some eh ones (Agatha Christie). I can easily say, however, that the amazing ones make up for the eh ones. I must have read the Achilles, Medea, and Coleridge texts at least ten times each, and almost cried over them every time. 

It's pretty modern humor, and the method of humor doesn't really change - the syntax of what makes the first few texts funny is pretty much what makes all of the others funny, so if you want your favorite authors' voices over-adapted into humor, this probably isn't your book (except for maybe "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"). But the method works, really really well. Especially if you're in-tune with the kind of passive-aggressive humor that Tumblr specializes in.

Get it from the library. I dare you to read Achilles's text in public and keep a straight or at least an un-embarrassing face.

2/18/15 - Written By A Woman

Ah, yes, my very least favorite challenge has been fulfilled! To be honest, A Book Written by a Woman was kind of a free square for me. My reading tends to be split pretty evenly down the middle as regards to authorial gender, so I was saving this category for a week whose reading list got completely away from me. As it so happens, the week of February 18th was just such a week.

And so, a review of The Witch's Boy, by Kelly Barnhill.

picture credit

The Witch's Boy was a chance encounter, much like All The Bright Places. It happened to be a newcomer on display in the kid's section of the library, the cover was good, and the synopsis included a dead twin. Why wouldn't you pick it up?

And it delivered! I'm a bit used to being deceived by good middlegrade possibilities (not so much as by good YA possibilities, though) but I am pleased to say that The Witch's Boy never slowed down, though the eerie mysteriousness that made the first twenty-odd pages so good went away - necessarily, I think.

I hate to say too much about it - I think you need to go into it knowing nothing more than what's on the inside flap. Suffice it to say that the two main characters are delightful, the world is familiar yet with enough twist to make it interesting, and the magic system! The magic system is so wonderful, and the backstory behind it... definitely one of the best I've ever read, especially in the middlegrade category.

Also, since it is for A Book Written By A Woman, I should, I suppose, point out that, for those of you who care, the female characters are fantastic. Áine is great. Sister Witch is awesome. The Queen is so much fun! As much as I loved Ned and Tam, even I have to admit that the ladies stole the show, for all the book is called after Ned. 

So if you're looking for a light but not necessarily light-hearted low fantasy romp through a great world with great characters, I would definitely recommend The Witch's Boy.

2/11/15 - Graphic Novel

As the title says, this week I read a book for the challenge of Graphic Novel! The book chosen was Jerusalem, by Guy Delisle.

picture credit

I am a huge fan of graphic novels, and when I saw this sizable little book with the simple, rather quirky artwork, and set in Jerusalem, no less, I was really excited! To see Jerusalem through a visual medium, experience complex and controversial culture, maybe get some insight into the city's religions--

It wasn't... quite what I expected. Or wanted, really.

I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like about it. Maybe it was just... too simple, though that's what was attractive about it at first. It's very centered on the author's experience of Jerusalem, rather than on Jerusalem itself. And you get the feeling that Delisle didn't actually have that much respect for Jerusalem itself. 

Most of the panels were taken up with a vague feeling of judgment, or disapproval, or disrespect, or flat-out annoyance. It was distracting, and it made the whole progression of the slice-of-life story feel uncomfortable. Almost as if Delisle was taking out his frustrations with the difficult situations in Jerusalem on his portrayal of the city.

There were some good panels, of course, and it's not like Delisle is a bad artist. It's just that he's not a fantastic one, and that coupled with an uncertain attitude about his city-subject made Jerusalem a lot less impactful than I had hoped it would be.

Note: Jerusalem was originally published in French under the title Chroniques de Jérusalem.

2/4/15 - Nonfiction / January Book

(Lets pretend that I haven't missed nearly a month of reviews, shall we?)

In the last week of January, I said that I had two books for my challenge: Unapologetic by Francis Spufford, going under the Nonfiction slot, and The Sweetheart by Angelina Mirabella, for my January Debut book. I have good news and bad news and ish news. I finished Unapologetic for that week and it was pretty good! Bad news is that I did not get through The Sweetheart, instead putting it on my DNF list. The ish news is that I read my January debut book after all, even though the author has been published before.

But first, Unapologetic.

picture credit

This book was written by a British chap a few years back, and its subtitle is Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense. Christianity is, if Spufford is anyone to believe, very different across the pond, and so some of what he says about the American church would probably badly offend a good portion of us over here. Still, the meat of what Spufford says carries out the stated message of the subtitle fairly eloquently (though with a lot of F-bombs - something that I'm sure we'd also get our feathers ruffled for.)

Nevertheless, Spufford has a strong sense of self-awareness, and I think that's a valuable commodity that a lot of the American Protestant church lacks. But he never lets up on the utter respect and awe of God, which makes for a realistic yet deeply spiritual little book that I desperately need for my shelf.

9/10 would recommend to anyone interested in Christianity and what it means and how it works emotionally.

And now, onto my January Debut book: All The Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven.

picture credit

If you're anywhere on Goodreads or probably any of the other various online book catalogue systems, you've probably seen this. It's not the kind of book I usually go for. It's got JUST LIKE JOHN GREEN! JOHN GREEN STYLE! BASICALLY THE NEW FAULT IN OUR STARS! DID WE MENTION JOHN GREEN!-esque marketing, an immediate turn-off. I'm not a John Green fan (Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska can both be found on my the-stupid-it-burns GR bookshelves). Not to mention this just isn't my genre. And it's got such a hipster title. 

To be honest, I don't know why I put this on hold at the library. Maybe because I just couldn't get past The Sweetheart's length and its second-person POV, and this was the only January release-date book that the library had that looked any good.

I'm really glad I picked it up.

I can see the appeal for John Green fans. It's that kind of book. But it's not John Green, and it garnered five stars from me. The funny thing is that a lot of people hate it for the same reasons that I tend to hate John Green books (except for TFiOS, I liked that one moderately). This means that I am, in all likelihood, a hypocrite. But moving on to All The Bright Places! (Ugh. I can't get over that title still.)

It's a suicide book, like TFiOS was a cancer book (so if that's a touchy subject for you, please stop reading). Unlike cancer, suicide is kind of a topic I know a bit about, at least from the inside out. I've never been affected by losing someone to it, thank God. So the stuff that Violet and Finch go through - mostly Violet, though Finch to some degree, too - is a subject pretty close to me. Maybe that made me blind to whatever unapologetic [see what I did there] pretentiousness it has, but even if it didn't, it made me connect with this story to a degree that I don't think I ever have in a "real-life" sort of book.

I will admit that the ending had the kind of dragging, emotionally exploitative ending that I loathed in Looking For Alaska. I stuck out this one because I actually loved both Violet and Finch, and, while a little bit trivializing, this one had more punch. And it was worth it at the end.

Reading some of the more negative reviews, I find I can't argue with most of them. Especially when I say the exact same things about John Green! It's a very frustrating position to be in, forced to see myself as the curmudgeonly, spiritually-fifty-four-years-old fun-sucker that I am, hating on young cancer love and dead author quoting. (At least Niven had the decency to force her characters to Google Virginia Woolf quotes to keep up their facade, for gosh sakes.) 

However, there is one area I want to defend ATBP on: the idea that it gives no hope for kids who are suicidal. I saw at least one reviewer who said something to this effect. While no one person is the same, I can't say that I found this true for me. I wouldn't go shoving this book into every suicidal or borderline kid's hands, because it made me feel a lot of things and not all of them were positive, and it might be too much for some. Still, there was hope to be found. It's called All The Bright Places for a reason. It was even, dare I say it, inspiring.

So, while I did cheat a little bit - on the first month, no less! - by not reading a true debut, I can't say that I regret the choice. ATBP is a new favorite and I need a copy as soon as possible.

1/30/15 - Back in action

After a rather dismal couple of weeks of being way off-schedule, I am back to almost-punctual reading plans!

I've got a couple challenges to complete this week. One is The Sweetheart, which is the January checkmark for the "Read One Debut Book Every Month of 2015" challenge. (I'm not sure how to shorten that.) It's the story of a female wrestler in the 1950s, all of which sounds pretty fascinating to me. Not to mention the cover is gorgeous. Excited for this one.

The next is a book for my Nonfiction slot, Unapologetic by Francis Spufford. As far as I can tell, Spufford is a British religious writer; Tullian Tchividjian has quoted him a few times in his sermons, and the quotes are nothing short of awesome. So I'm also looking forward to this one, even though my success with religious nonfic has been almost purely negative outside of C.S. Lewis's nonfic.

Hopes for this week: that Prophecy of the Sisters will be not-sucky as I fear it will be, that Unapologetic will be as inspiring in whole as the snippets were in part; that The Sweetheart won't be your typical navel-gazing uber-feminist debut attempt; that Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love will be as spectacular as it sounds; and that I will be able to get the taste of Paper Towns (not shown) out of my mouth really, really soon because I don't like it.

Joyous Reading!

1/26/15 - A Book With Magic / A Book That Scared Me

I've been slacking pretty horribly, haven't I? Last week, I did not actually meet my goal; I had other reading assignments that crowded A World Without Princes from my schedule.

Fortunately, I have rectified that mistake, and I also just crossed off another challenge from my list!

picture credit

Title: A World Without Princes
Author: Soman Chainani
Challenge: A Book With Magic
Date: January 25, 2015

I read The School for Good and Evil back at the tail end of 2014 and I absolutely adored it. The friendship between the two main characters are truly at the center of the story, which is something I have a huge soft spot for; the world, while not wholly original, was neither wholly derivative, and the blend of originality and familiarity made it a lot of fun.

AWWP shakes things up a little bit more. It's not as good as the first book - when are second books? - but it's still pure fun... with added emotional trauma! Yay! Suffice it to say that the book doesn't end on a happy note, and that I anxiously await the third book. Hopefully that'll set everything straight.

Sophie and Agatha are some of the strongest female characters I've encountered in middle-grade fiction, and I don't say that lightly. They're complex and multifaceted, and they screw up. A lot. And they pay for it. Poor things. I anxiously await the third book.

If you love fractured fairytales, friendship, and fun(ereal levels of pain), I highly recommend the School for Good and Evil books.

picture credit

Title: The Island of Dr. Moreau

Author: H.G. Wells

Challenge: A Book That Scares Me

Date: January 26, 2015

I read this book for my 400-level Secondary Worlds course, as an example of early science fiction. H.G. Wells was familiar to me, of course (we also read The Time Machine), but I'd never heard of Dr. Moreau. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest.

And instead I got the absolute crap scared out of me. It's always the ones that I don't expect.

I can't really reveal anything about what's so scary about it - I have a strict ethical law that prevents me from spoiling key story elements - but... wow. It's not a horror story or even a thriller, really, but it examines the absolute darkest side of human nature. And what happens when that human nature is distorted... through various means.

Shiver.

It's dated writing, but there's something about Wells's way with words that makes the story feel immediate and very personal. That's what makes some of it so horrible, to me - it's so real and clearly-described that you can't help but feel an overwhelming nausea of wrongness. It's terrifying, really. Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I also recommend this book if you need to be kept awake at night by nightmarish images and unanswerable moral questions.

That's it for me, for both this week and last week. I'll chime in on Thursday for next week's reading lineup. Joyous Reading!

1/15/15 - A Book My Mom Loves

Guess who got lazy about writing reviews during the first week of the semester?

I finished Goodbye, Mr. Chips on the 9th. It was a pleasant, very short read - it took me about forty minutes - and I get the appeal. It's very third-person omniscient, going over the anecdotal incidents of a very popular English professor that, in a longer book, would have been tedious in the extreme. But since this is a novella, with a distant, thoughtful air, it's much more entertaining. Mr. Chips sounds like the kind of professor I'd like to have. He also reminded me of such professors as Professor Keating - kind of like their more conservative prototype. I'd like to know Mr. Chips's influence on other "life-changing teacher" stories.

I finished three of my five books last week. A little sad, a little good. Improvements can always be made (unless I won like last week) and hopefully this coming week will be better!

The War That Killed Achilles and Hannibal are crossing over - I just didn't get to them soon enough. (I did, however, finish The War today and it seemed like a well-researched analysis of a few of the broader aspects of the Iliad. A good beginner-level book, which I am. A beginner, not a beginner-level book. That's also why it's not in the picture - I had to return it today.)

I splurged and bought the book I've chosen for the category of A Book With Magic, to wit, A World Without Princes, because it'll probably take my library system a year and a day to get it. I don't want to wait a year and a day for it because I am very excited for this book. So expect either a deliriously pleased review or a deliriously disappointed review sometime between tomorrow and next Wednesday.

Hopes for this week: that Paper Towns isn't as eye-stabbingly painful to slog through as Looking For Alaska, that Hannibal is even better than Red Dragon, that The One isn't as upsettingly drab as The Elite was, and that A World Without Princes is as beautifully characterized and drawn as The School for Good and Evil was. Lots of sequels and lots of expectations for this week!

Joyous Reading!

The Second Week

The first week of January was massively successful, not only in my 2015 Reading Challenge. Aside from that, I also have a generic reading journal. It's a goal-keeping mechanism: for every week in which I read five books, I get to buy one full-price book. In no other case do I get to buy a full-price book (bookstore sales and used bookstores are highly discouraged; library sales are less discouraged but still frowned up). Since I started this system back in September '14, I have not been able to allow myself a full-price book.

Until the first week of January. Which I think is a pretty good omen!

(The line-up for last week, if you're interested, was Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney, Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, The Gates by John Connolly, Showdown by Ted Dekker, and The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare et al.)

So I was able to satisfy a long-lasting lust for this book, Antigoddess by Kendare Blake. I've heard nothing but good things, Blake's writing was quite nice in Anna Dressed In Blood, and this synopsis so up my alley it might as well be the alley. So I'm excited to read this.

I have a couple items I could check off this week - nonfic, graphic novel, thriller, female author - but the one I'm going with is A Book My Mom Loves, which in this case is Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. I have absolutely no idea what it's about, but the cover looks cute and it's pretty brief so it should be enjoyable! (My mom also says I remind her of Mr. Chips. We shall see.)

So that's the upcoming week in literature. I doubt I'll make my quota this week - first week of the spring semester and all that - but here's hoping!

Joyous Reading!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We made it to 2015. Huzzah. Cheers. I spent the Eve in front of the fire with sparkling white grape juice and a short marathon of The Twilight Zone. Not bad, all things considered.

Today, however, on this most auspicious beginning to the Best Year Ever (crossed fingers), I have met the first of my Reading Challenge Goals, and I am here to tell you about it.

picture credit

Title: Burial at Thebes

Author: Seamus Heaney

Challenge: A Book I Can Finish In A Day

Date: January 1, 2015

I have a very soft, squishy spot for Antigone. Two months of memorization in order to act in it should, by all accounts, have made it revolting to me. Instead, I'm a little obsessed. 

The basic story is that Antigone's two brothers have killed each other in a battle for the control over Thebes. One brother, Eteocles, was defending Thebes; Polyneices was attacking it. At their deaths, Antigone's uncle, Creon, took over; he gave Eteocles a hero's burial, but left Polyneices' carcass to the dogs. This, in Antigone's mind, goes against the laws of the gods, and she defies Creon's edict and buries her brother after all. 

It's a wonderful, terrible story, and still very relevant. Antigone is my favorite literary Greek female - she's desperate and headstrong, wild and defiant, stringently moral and deeply romantic. I don't know how you couldn't love her, and it's not too hard to understand why Haemon follows her into death. 

And it's not that Creon is a villain - it's just that he and Antigone are complete opposites in belief, while being completely alike in determination and pride. It's the most volatile of personality clashes that culminates in the most violent of body counts, on par with Hamlet and King Lear. 

Heaney's translation isn't my favorite. It's a "modern" take on Antigone, but the modernization of the text only goes so far. The sentence structure is simplified, and the word choice is simplified, and some monologues are simplified... Like I said in my Goodreads review, it feels like a simplification, rather than a modernization. There's no modern slang or diction - it doesn't read like the dialogue of today - which was what I was hoping for. Instead, the simplicity just feels stiff and uninspired.

I will say that he made an interesting choice in meter. Rather than sticking to one type of verse, Heaney adapts the verse for whoever is speaking. Antigone and Ismene begin speaking in short, three-beat lines that flow smoothly and quickly. The Chorus tends to speak in a kind of Old English verse, generally with line alliteration and a matching number of beats on each side of the caesura. Creon and Haemon speak in iambic pentameter. It's often inexact, and Antigone slips into iambic a few times, herself, but overall the effect is a good one. The Chorus never fails to sound ominous, even when their word choice is questionable. 

It got four stars from me on Goodreads, even though I wasn't a huge fan of some of his artistic choices. It's Antigone; the story is always good. It's a good choice for my first read on this first day of 2015.

Joyous Reading!

New Challenge Addition!

As I threatened, I've decided to turn my 2015 Reading Challenge into a composite one. The new addition: read one book the month it was published every month. Honestly, the hardest thing about this challenge will be finding it at my library. (I may have to get the nerve up to actually ask them to order it. Verbal face-to-face communication - fun.)

The rules are simple:

• It can be from authors I've read before.
• Sequels are acceptable but not preferable.

And that's it. Check my PRL for the new additions - hopefully I get them up tonight!

Joyous Reading and Happy New Year!