Po(sey) Sessions

How I Turned a New Page

2012-01-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Fantasy novels have been the bane of my existence since the creation of my blog. Why is that? you ask. Well, maybe bane is a bit over reaching but when it came to fantasy novels I had a huge road block keeping me from reading them. For me fantasy novels are often challenging because of the level of trust a reader must leave in the hands of an author. The world can be so unknown with character names that are spelled weird and names of places that are insane to pronounce.

It is odd, because at it's core, there is something inherently appealing about fantasy concepts. What little girl doesn't go through the unicorn stage, or love fairies? But I often found that what I was reading didn't match the pictures on my wall. Or if they did, I couldn't read long enough to get to those parts. And since then I have tried to avoid fantasy books. I even resented when people recommended them because I was so convinced that these books weren't for me and never could be.

I can point to two novels that have significantly changes my views on fantasy fiction. Though I can't point to the things in myself that may have changed. I am sure it is a combination of finding the right book for my interests and maturing in some way and trying to be more open minded. Now that I am reading more science fiction and other speculative fiction, I have decided it may be time to expand my horizons a little more.

The first of the two transforming novels is Homeland by R. A. Salvatore. This book is by far the most fantastical book I have ever read. It wasn't some sort of crossover or fantasy book with an interesting premise that I could handle. Homeland was a pretty good amalgamation of many of the things that put me off about fantasy books. But the politics of this broken society made it easy for a love to dystopian to enjoy it. I also listened to this book as opposed to read it. I found that audiobooks may be the best way for me to deal with this genre of book. I still get the story without having to struggle over some of the words. Menzobarenzan was dark and brutal, and easy for me to fall in love with. Finally I found a place I knew well in a fantasy novel. Drizzt's journey, like many through dystopia, is about the search for hope. He has a deep desire fgor things to be different from what they are. I didn't read Homeland because I thought I would find these dystopian elements in it, I just happened and I am sure there are more fantasy books out there waiting for me to read them that will also surprise me in this way.

The second novel probably impacted me even more than the first. Partly because I actually read it, instead of listening to it, and partly because there was nothing dystopian in the novel. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon has been one of my favorite books for over a year now. Previous to that you would have never been able to convince me that one of my favorites was a fantasy book. The world of Silver Phoenix seemed more approachable by the Asian overlay for me. I accepted it was "foreign" and didn't resent it as a result. Even though Ai Ling was faced with situations that showed her weakness, she was not weak. She is one of the strongest female characters I have yet to read in young adult literature. Cindy Pon created a balanced character who was able to maintain her femininity. Even with the guidance of a magical force it is Ai Lings's bravery that is her real source of power. Silver Phoenix is a hero's quest laced with the whimsical elements that made childhood magical. This feeling has made me want to find more fantasy books and see if they can create the same feeling. For the first time in my reading life I am actually searching out fantasy books to read.

Since reading Silver Phoenix I have been able to talk often with Cindy Pon on Twitter. She is such an amazing person who is willing to share herself with her readers. She is generous with information and quick to answer any question or chime in on a topic that interests her. She also doesn't hesitate to share and talk about other books she has loved reading. I am using these books that she has mentioned both recently and in the past as the start to my fantasy TBR pile. It can be a slow process because my bias is still present, it just isn't a brick wall anymore.

Plum Wine Review

2012-01-27T12:42:00.001-07:00

Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner is a historical novel set in Vietnam Era Japan. Like the author once was, the main character, Barbara, is an English teacher at a Japanese university. An interesting aspect of the main character's situation is that she speaks very little Japanese. I could not imagine living in another country and not speaking their language, especially in the predigital age. I was lucky enough to share my reading experience with Carrie at Books and Movies after she read a post where I listed some books I wanted to try and read and she shared she had Plum Wine to read as well.

As the story begins, a wine chest is being delivered to Barbara that belonged to her friend Michi. Michi has recently passed away and left this wine and chest behind. Though Barbara loves the gift she isn't entirely sure why she received it. One of the main themes in the book is the revelation of different layers of meaning. After the chest had been delivered, Barbara looks around the room. "It was strange, she thought. how the placement of objects affected them. It was true for people too. She herself had never felt accurately place, had never taken root anywhere" (12). This aspect of Barbara's personality becomes the backdrop on which the story is built. I particularly loved this passage and thought it was a beautiful glimpse into Barbara's psyche. Part pf this lack of rooting is what cultivated the friendship between Michi and Barbara.

I liked seeing Japanese culture through the eyes of Barbara; the American perspective helped high light more intensely the differences between the two cultures. In this new and different place Michi seemed to be the most welcoming person Barbara had found. Later in the story we find that Barbara almost considers Michi like a mother. The relationships between mother and daughter is one of the major thematic overlays in the books. At times I think it may have been a little heavy heavy handed. I felt a very overt layering of story lines, each of varying complexity, pile up in a haphazard way. All of these story lines are supposed to reflect again on Barbara's place in the world and playing off the concept of going to Japanese as a way to fill the need to find her own mother, or some memory of her (even though she is very much alive), within the landscape of this foreign world.

Since reading Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix I have been eager to read more books about and inspired by Asian culture. I noticed that I had a gap in my cultural knowledge when it came to this area of the world and I quickly wanted to rectify it. Plum Wine has definitely been a good start in fulfilling that desire. It may not be the best or first choice but I like to take a meandering way through fiction; even if this story wasn't the most informative or the most well written, I really enjoyed it. I also found a mythology that became of particular interest. The Kitsune is a fox trickster archetype in Asian myths. Introduction to this character type may have been the most rewarding gift Plum Wine had to give me. For more on the Kitsune, please see my previous post.

Both Carrie and I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book. I particularly liked the references to literature and Barbara's classroom discussions. If the book had more of the classroom experiences woven through it Carrie and I would have been a lot more satisfied with the way the story went and the quality of the storytelling. But the whole second half of the book was a bit of a miss for both of us. We had similar complaints and similar desires for what we wished was different. I loved the romantic story line in Plum Wine but it did get to a point where it was a little repetitive and clunky. If the romance had been balanced out by more of Barbara's life, I think there would have been a more complete story told. Yes still the book seemed to win me over in a way it didn't for Carrie. This was probably a mix of my exposure to the Kitsune myth and how strong my desire was to connect with Asian related books.

Plum Wine feels like a coming of age story, but there were just too many pieces in the story for Barbara's personal journey to shine through. I almost appreciate this book for what I wish it was rather than what it ended up being. Carrie and I both would have enjoyed the books more if there was less piling up of back stories that didn't seem to have any resolve in Barbara's life or place in the world. Overall though, I would recommend this book. It really depends of what you are hoping to get out of it, but it was an enjoyable book and maybe would have been better as a one sitting kind of read. Breaking it up definitely didn't do the narrative any favors because it only high lighted some of the flaws in the narrative.

For more thoughts on this book please check out Carrie's post. I want to thank her again for reading this with me, it was a really enjoyable experience sharing this book with her, even if we didn't both love the book.

Kitsune

2012-01-26T03:57:00.002-07:00

One of the amazing things that a book can do is give you a glimpse of something that you desperately need to know more about. It might just be one little line or paragraph but your interest has been piqued. Plum Wine did this for me with its thread about the different fox mythologies in Japanese culture. The book is set in Vietnam Era when an American woman, Barbara, goes to teach English and Literature at a Japanese university.

I was fascinated about the superstition and mythology of foxes in Japanese culture as presented through the book. As always with fiction, I wonder where the facts end and fiction begins. But it was nice looking it all up when I was done with the book. I found these fox stories were mostly called Kitsune myths. There are many different kind of Kitsune myths but as Lafcadio Hearn wrote in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan "All foxes have supernatural power. There are good and bad foxes. The Inari-fox is good, and the bad foxes are afraid of the Inari-fox." The Inari fox is the fox most deeply rooted in the religious elements of the fox mythology and many of the other myths stem from Inari. Though many instances of these fox myth throughout the story, Plum Wine did focus on one type more prominently.

The fox theme runs in criss crossing patterns across the narrative of Plum Wine, but the one that compelled me the most was the story of Ko. Ko was believed to be a representative of one of the well known Kitsune myths about a fox woman tricking a man into marrying her. Seiji is a Japanese man helping with some translations for Barbara. He reads aloud the translations saying, "Mother-in-law said Ko had face of fox with broad cheeks and pointed chin and her eyes were pointed like a fox. Takasu family had been tricked. This was a fox trick and Ko herself was fox, mother-in-law believed" (p. 126, Plum Wine).

I wanted to find out more about the type of fox myth that Ko's mother-in-law was concerned with but I had a hard time pinning down definitive sources for the information I found. After finding one summary point to another summary I found an original source that much of the information seemed to be gleaned from. Kitsune: Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance and Humor by Kiyosho Nozaki looks like an in depth study of these myths published in 1961. While this isn't a contemporary book, the date of its publication is particularly relevant to the time period of Plum Wine, 1966. Though I was not able to read Kiyosho Nozaki's book, I was able to read some excerpts from it to give me a little insight into this aspect of Japanese culture. More contemporary interpretations of Kitsune seem to be more marginalized in comics and anime as compared to the deep beliefs in the reality of such being in earlier eras.

Nozaki wrote, "Japan's fox is an expert in changing itself into any form, and its specialty is assuming the shape of a charming and seductive woman, to captivate a young man and an old gentleman susceptible to female charms." This was the fox that Ko's mother-in-law was afraid of. A trickster who had seduced her son and find a way to damage the family.

Kitsune in Japanese simply means fox, but through a folklore from Chinese or Korean culture it became deep and meaningful part of Japanese culture. The quality of a trickster can be mischievous or it can be malicious, but either way there were times when the Kitsune was believed to be very real for the Japanese people.

In Plum Wine Seiji tells one Kitsune myth to Barbara after looking at the artwork on a Japanese scroll. The story is similar to the one we later hear about regarding Michi's grandmother, Ko. Barbara's mother was once a reporter in Japan and brought this scroll back for her daughter before World War II. Barbara begins by telling him her what her friend, Michi, saw when she looked at the scroll.

"Michi thought this picture illustrates the fox woman leaving her child. I don't know the story, do you?"

"We have many fox stories in Japan. Usually fox changes into lovely woman to trick man. Most popular one is fox wife. In the tale most schoolchildren know, a hunter spares the life of a fox. Next day a woman comes to his house and offers to be his wife. He agrees and they spend some happy years together wither their child. But eventually the true shape of the wife is revealed--perhaps as they pass by water. Always reflection in water wil show true thing, fox figure instead of woman. So she must leave him and also their child."

"What a sad ending."

"This is very Japanese ending--we call it aware, graceful sorrow."

This sadness becomes the legacy of Ko also. She is forced by her mother-in-law to leave after to is "exposed" as a fox wife. There is something so contrary to the expected roles of motherhood represented in this Kitsune myth. For any mother, the idea of leaving a child behind under any circumstances is horrifying. And the stories leaves a haunted quality.

Watts Martin writes, "Most kitsune in stories are female—women in Japanese culture and many other patriarchies are also often seen with the bane/benefactor duality, the lady to be venerated and protected from manipulation set against the dangerous, manipulative femme fatale." But this femme fatale is not the Kitsune of Plum Wine. The novel really utalizes the myth as one of loss, rather than one of power and its misuses. Martin's essay was one of the most compelling ones of the writing I was able to review in preparation for this post. The interesting part is that his statements reflect my experience reading Plum Wine, but not my experience in researching the topic. I found it increasingly hard to find out more information about the wife fox myth. In my quest to find out more about the wife myth of Kitsune, all I found was the same things explained in the novel.

It has been an interesting experience looking through many different websites and lists and types of foxes in Japanese myths, but when it come right down to the wife story, I had almost all the information from Plum Wine to begin with. There are definitely more opportunities to delve into this more in the future. And if you are also interested I have some links and books that might interest you. Watts Martin's essay, "Kitsune: Coyote of the Orient," is definitely going to be one of the first non fiction pieces I will go back to regarding this topic.

Short Stories

"Where Foxes Dance" by Wendy Hibbs
"Fox Magic" by Kij Johnson

"Cosmic Kitsune" by Tanith Perry-Mills

Picture Book

The Fox Maiden by Elsa Marston

Novels

Dark Sawn series by Richelle Mead
The Vampire Diaries: The Return by L.J. Smith

The Fox Woman by Kaj Johnson
Serrated Edge series by Mercedes Lackey
The White Jade Fox by Andre Norton
Others by Karen Kincy

Websites for Information and Resources
The Kitsune Page
http://academia.issendai.com/fox-japanese.shtml
Foxtrot's Research on Kitsune Lore

One last thing I found and loved was the following song called "Fox Woman" by Kathy Mar. I am also adding the lyrics of this song to the bottom of this post. Kathy's song is amazing and I am looking forward to exploring more of her music.

FOX-WOMAN
Mother falls on the mountain stairWild marauders footsteps fill the airFox appears drawn by moans and sighsReaching in despair the mother cries
Chorus: Fox-woman, sister, we are one Give me vengeance though my life is done Fox-Woman, sister, name your fee Grant that I may strike my enemy
Rebels stare silent at the foxAs the wild beast chained in them unlocksKillers flee fighting hard and wildAs fox-woman guards the one with child
Temple priest takes the mother inTells her that the vengeance will beginThough she knows she must pay with deathMother whispers with each passing breath
Chorus
Soft she comes to the temple doorRusset pelt a shadow near the floorDeep the drums in her gentle heartKeep the rhythm as the birth pains start
Russet gown, hem of snowy whiteNow a woman steps into the lightMakes her way to the bed of painReaches down with touch as soft as rain
As her touch melts into the fleshPain departs as fox and mother meshScreaming ends with one quiet breathAs the mother gives herself to death
And the priest raises up the knifeCarves a door to bring the child to lifeInfant born still without a soundFox and woman spirits have been bound
Chorus
Killers come seeking for the childTurned away by visions strong and wildAs they flee down the mountain stairVengeance, on fox footsteps, leaves her lair

Words and music: Kathy Mar
Copyright 1986 Kathy Mar

Lenore's Dystopian February - Coming Soon

2012-01-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

When it comes to books there are a lot of little milestones that happen every year, or a few times a year, that make me very happy. There is always the two book fairs at my local elementary school (especially the Buy One, Get One Free one in March) and LTUE - a symposium formally at BYU focusing on speculative fiction and featuring panels from some of Utah's best authors. But there is another semi annual event that is near and dear to my heart. And the best thing about it? You can be part of it too! It is happening right here on the interwebs and is hosted by Lenore from Presenting Lenore.

Do you know what it is?

OF COURSE!

IT IS DYSTOPIAN FEBRUARY.

Lenore and I first met through twitter shortly before she had her first dystopian month. I remember it quite clearly, someone started about dystopia and SUDDENLY the topic blew up for 40 minutes on my Twitter stream and I had made at least a dozen new friends. When Lenore had her first dystopian February I was beyond excited, this was in 2010 and believe it or not a lot of people didn't even really know what dystopia was. I spent a lot of time on twitter helping people define and understand the concept. Now dystopia is a (young adult) sensation. It is fascinating how dystopia has since become a large part of our shared lexicon. In the post Hunger Games reading world people are eager to find more books that show the possible futures of our existence.

I have eagerly followed Lenore's dystopian months ever since (Feb and Aug). It has been fun reading and reading about so many dystopian books. It has been a passion of mine for a long time and I love being able to see other people sharing in that interest. One thing about the past two years that is particularly exciting for me is that now Lenore has a forthcoming book, Level Two, which will definitely have some dystopian tones. This is pretty exciting for me as a fan of the genre to see a friend having a book coming out. I honestly cannot wait to read it.

There are many understandings of dystopia and this is often a surprisingly controversial issue. I want to preface this month of dystopian reviews by saying I am purposely taking a broad umbrella to the term dystopia. When it comes to reading enjoyable stories, I have used the term to help me find the type of stories that interest me. Though it is often quite clear that a book is not clearly dystopia, I still enjoy the book and was happy to be able to find it. Often times the opposite is true too. I find a book that a resent for not living up to its dystopian label. This is more about personal preference and personal bias than anything exceedingly concrete, but I am also opening over the month of Feburary to explore deeper the meaning of dystopian and what I want from a dystopian novel.

I hope you will considering sharing your dystopian reads with Lenore and myself this February. For a list of ideas here are the dystopian books Lenore has reviewed over the past few years. She has also posted a preview of what books she will be reviewing this upcoming month.

As for me, since finding a wonderful list of young adult dystopian titles, I have been slowly building my home dystopian library. Here are the majority of the books here on my dystopian shelf.

I have close to 150 books to choose from, plus quite a few on my Nook, and audiobooks from my library's digital collection. What dystopian books do you have on your TBR? I look forward to reading about the books YOU decide to read this dystopian February!

A Quasi Defense of The Hunger Games (book one)

2012-01-13T18:31:00.002-07:00

The back story:
It was late one night when Joanne and I talked about The Hunger Games on Twitter. She was expressing how much she disliked the details of the book, and though I really enjoyed reading it I wanted to hear her IN DEPTH reasoning. So she reread the book and wrote THIS POST. (Please read it first since my post, is in part, a response to it.)

Joanne Renaud, who earned a BFA in illustration from Art Center College of Design, has been writing, drawing and painting as long as she can remember. She currently works as both an author and a freelance illustrator. Her novel, A Question of Time, is due for release in November 2012 from Champagne Books.

My response to Joanne Renaud:

The Quasi Defense

In January 2009 I read The Hunger Games before most people had ever heard of it. But some book bloggers were eager to recommended it. I am different from many readers/book lovers/bloggers in that I don’t actually like to know much about a book before I read it. I think I knew that this book had at least some dystopian themes which I had been desperately looking for in young adult fiction.

I went to the library and checked out The Hunger Games. I got in bed with my pile of books ready to read the weekend away. Sometimes I switch between books when one gets slow or just doesn’t fit my mood. I will read a few chapters and then switch to another. Also proof of my attention deficit disorder. J

I remember feeling a lot of the same confusion about the world building in The Hunger Games that Joanne described in her review. How did the world get like this? Why is everyone so afraid? But I was willing just to accept the lack of details or fill them in myself because I really felt pushed by the desire to know more about this world. I was compelled to know what would happen next.

I had no idea where the story was going every step of the it. It felt so new and fresh to me. It has been suggested that The Hunger Games isn’t a particularly new idea, and I guess that is true, but in those late night moments of reading I almost felt like I was on fire, so filled with excitement to read something like I had never experienced before.

The idea of the Hunger Games, when you really think about it, of teens murdering each other year after year on TV while everyone watches in awe and wonder, like it is a soap opera, is really overwhelmingly horrifying. It is a future of our world I don’t feel comfortable thinking about. I guess I appreciated the less graphic nature of the games, and I don’t think I could have respected Katniss if she had been doing an overwhelming amount of killing.

When I read a book I have two standards. There is my adult standard and my young adult/middle grade standard. What I am willing to accept in an adult book is very different from what I am willing to accept in a book for younger readers. Somehow the world “adult” glosses over a lot of the real life issues that stir up in me. But with young adult novels some themes will disturb me beyond enjoyment of a book. So one person’s “too safe” is my “happy place.”

When I first read The Hunger Games I was ready for more books similar to it in story and tone. I found a review (I can’t find it now, have no idea where I read it) that suggested there were “so many other books with the same theme but better.” And I was EXCITED to find out what the tiles of these better books were. My eyes raced down the page looking for the promised titles. I wanted to read each and everyone. I liked The Hunger Games, better was going to BLOW MY MIND. But the author of the review only shared one single title. What do you think it was?

Battle Royale.

This brings up an issue of my resentment. I resent The Hunger Games constantly being compared to Battle Royale. Using this as proof that because Battle Royale existed and was entertaining, The Hunger Games never should have existed in the first place. I know many people will take issue with this, but I kind of feel like it is comparing apples and oranges even though the plot lines are relatively similar. Just because a book can be seen as a “lesser” version of something else doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist and isn’t entertaining in its own right. I should also state that I have not yet read or watched Battle Royale though I hope to do so very soon. As far as I can tell Battle Royale was never meant to be a young adult book. It may have crossed over due to the ages of the characters, but the level of violence was not, in fact, intended to be read and enjoyed by teens. (This goes to my previous types of reading, depending on the intended audience.)

Just because plot lines are similar does not mean that one of the two books should not exist. And every time I hear that The Hunger Games has been “done before, so many times” I feel so disappointed when I ask when and where the only answer I EVER get is Battle Royale. I am not doubting that it is a good book/story/movie/ect but done before once is not really OVERDONE at all, especially because I don’t consider Battle Royale to be particularly mainstream. Hell, up until The Hunger Games the word DYSTOPIA wasn’t mainstream.

The Hunger Games is not a particularly overwhelming piece of dystopian literature, but it can be a good introduction. It is too late for the book to take many people by surprise, like it did me. But it is still a good book for teen readers not really knowing who they are as readers. This book can help them find more books they like, or know that they didn’t enjoy this. It also brought forth an explosion of so called dystopian young adult books, a lot of which were poorly conceived. But it still kinds of excites me knowing there are so many options still left for me to read. And I will find more that I have a great reaction to again.

I love dystopian literature because it was one of the first types of literature to really connect with me on a deeper level. When I first read 1984, I started seeing the world a little differently. Since then I have been yearning for books that make me feel the same way. I have found a few, but most recently more have been disappointing than not. The whole experience has me questioning the function of young adult books combining with the concept of dystopia. Here is the issue: a lot of the themes and feelings that a main character in a dystopian world goes through are essential to understanding the horror of the world. But the average teenager feels alone and different in the world. They feel naturally that the world does not function the way that it should. So when you take that and oppose it to the dystopian force the whole reading experience can get a little dulled out.

To EVERY TEEN, or at least most teens, the world is a “bad place.” And the concept of a bad place is the most fundamental element of dystopian literature. When you take that angsty teen experience and lay it over good world building the world loses some of it’s terror. And good world building has often been a very rare treat when it comes to young adult dystopias. And while I think there is an inherent flaw, I also think there is a way around it. I can think of titles that worked really well for me. The one that comes to mind most easily is The Giver (but don’t get Joanne started on THAT book.) So I continue to search for the type of books that resonate through me and make me see the world in new ways. I love it when I know a young adult book will make readers look at and question the world around them.

As a die hard fan of dystopia looking for something new, YEARNING for something new, The Hunger Games came across as a shining beacon of perfection for me as I raced through the pages late into the night. I see now that partly I was just drinking the Kool Aid. I agree with A LOT of what Joanne has to say about the weaknesses of this book, but when I read it I didn’t think about any of these things. When I read it I felt excited.

Two things have happened since that night in January several years ago when I first read The Hunger Games. 1. The excitement has worn off a bit, but I still respect a book that can create it in the first place. And 2. The two follow up books were published and overwhelmingly disappointed me and put a tarnish on the first book.

When I think about The Hunger Games I try to think about how I felt when I was reading it and not all the thoughts I have had since. There are a lot of people who normally don’t read who will and have read this book. And that, more than anything, means the most to me.

Mobile Future

2011-12-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Just watched this and found it fascinating. I think I have more to say than this is awesome/scary but I am not processing more thoughts than that right now. Hope to find some time to ponder on this more at a later time. For now, would love to hear your thoughts!

The Challenge of Culling Books

2011-12-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to cut down on some of the books that I own. I have A LOT of books and I would like to continue having LOTS of books, but I am trying to be realistic about how many books I can have and how many I will actually read. I have identified adult contemporary and historical fiction as being a little low on my reading totem pole. I have decided to sort through those types of books and discard any of the ones I feel l am pretty unlikely to read ever/any time soon. Some books I know will be readily available in ebook format at the point in which I do decide to read them. Other books I know I will never read, that they were an error in judgment to get in the first place. A lot of time I am lured in more by the price of a book than by its contents.

Considering this there are still books I really feel like I want to read, but I need to get to them soon. So I have a pile of about 20 or so books that I am setting aside with the caveat that any that do not get read in the next 6 months have to be donated. I have LOTS of books that I am keeping just because and some of these I may change my mind on. It is weird how the cover of a book can have sentimental value.

Today I am posting 6 of the books I have set aside to read first. There are a lot of books on the pile and they are all adult. Considering that I only read about 4 adult books a year, it is pretty unreasonable to think I will get though even this pile of 6. Part of that is the point of this whole exercise, teaching me to be realistic about the books I need and want to keep. I would love your suggestions on what to read first and also if you see any books that you think belong in my permanent collection, I would love for you to make a case for them.

Without further ado, here are the books:

I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn

Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner

Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

And there we have it. I few books that I am thinking about reading before June. What do you think? What books do you like? Out of the 20 books in the pile I tried to pick some that I wanted to read the most first. I would love any input you have on these books OR your experience getting rid of books, especially those you haven’t read yet.

Reading in 2012

2011-12-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

Every year as it draws closer to the next I start to reflect on what I have read and what I want to read. I always make a lot of goals but I am not very good at following through with them. This year I am trying to make some easier goals that fall more in line with my natural reading, rather than expanding out to read something new. In the past I have tried to read more book with characters from diverse ethnic backgrounds and while I now have used that experience to help inform future reading choices I don’t want to worry about focusing on reading a certain number of books in a year. Also diversity is hard to find when it comes to science fiction specifically, there are very few books that really deal with race or show other cultures and it is even harder to know which ones those will be going into the reading.

This year I know I am going to be reading a few more fairytale retellings than I have in the past few years. This has been an interest of mine for a while, but recently I haven’t been making point to read these type of books. Ever since I heard about Ashley from Basically Books dedicating 2 weeks in April to these types of stories I haven’t been able to get the idea of reading them out of my head. There are so many to choose from it is definitely going to be hard to decide what to read, but it is also fun to use these readings as reason to research the original folk and fairytales. I have a lot of these books already and here are some I am thinking about reading.


Fairest by Gail Carson Levine	East by Edith Pattou	Briar Rose by Jane Yolen	Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce	Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

What fairytale retellings have you enjoyed reading? What do you think it is about these types of stories that is so appealing? I think we like stories that surprise us and fairy tales are often such a part of our ingrained culture it is fun to see how they can be changed.

Two of my favorite times of the year blog wise are February and August because these are the months that Lenore dedicates the WHOLE month(s) talking about dystopian novels and interview authors and having amazing giveaways. As most of my readers know I am a HUGE dystopian buff. I have a huge pile of dystopian books to read here, especially young adult ones. Here are few I am thinking about reading.


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury	Grace by Elizabeth Scott	The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist	The Line by Teri Hall

I was having a great discussion on Twitter that reminded me how much I love books that tie In with music some how. I can really only think of two books that I have read that tie in with contemporary music. Audrey, Wait! and Getting Over Jack Wagner were both particularly fun reads. After reading them close together I went on a book buying spree to get any music related book I could. Unfortunately the spree didn’t last that long and I only ended up with a handful of books. Here is a list of some of the books I already have to read that are related to music.


I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert	Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning	Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

Do you have any reading goals or books you would like to focus on reading? I hope that I get a lot of reading done in 2012. Coming off the back of one of my worst reading years ever I need a lot of change in my life. Even as I type this I am finding it hard to motivate myself to read. What do you do when this happens to you?

Do you have any books in these categories that I definitely should not miss? Please make sure you let me know in the comments and I will see what I can do!

The Sunday Salon–Holiday Reading

2011-12-04T11:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I have had another bad reading week. Before this week I have been steadily reading and finishing books but I think Thanksgiving threw a wrench in everything and I haven’t quite recovered yet. As fun as it is to get together with friends and family during the holidays, it sure does cut into my reading time. We were out of town for a few days before Thanksgiving and I actually read more late at night while we were staying with family than I have since we got home. There is something about night in a quiet house that isn’t your own that makes you want to seek out comfort in a book.

When it comes to the holidays do you read different types of books? I think sometimes I am a little bah humbug about it all because I am a bit of a minimalist when it comes to holidays. I don’t want a lot of what I am reading to reflect what is going on in my real life, though I am considering reading Let It Snow if I have time before the end of the year. I really feel the time ticking away on the year and I always try and make sure I get my goal books read. So there is very little holiday reading going on.

Today I am going to finish up If I Stay by Gayle Forman. So far it has been interesting but a little underwhelming. When I am done with it I am finally going to dive into Crossed. I have been putting off reading it so I could come to it ready to read and I think I am finally there. Last night I also started In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker which I am really enjoying so far. Do you have any books you want to make sure you read before the end of the year?

Virtual Advent - O Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Christmas tree is one the most standard traditions of Christmas. Yet, it is interesting to think about all the variations that each family can make on a single tradition. There are age old questions like real or artificial? When and how to decorate? What is the right size? Growing up I had the opportunity to see a whole variety of traditions even within a single Christmas.

Christmas Tree Tradition One

As a child we always had friends over while we decorated the tree. We would put on music and serve lots of great finger foods. For some people this may be more of a day spent with just family, but since it was just me and my mom we loved having everyone come over and visit. My mom had about a million Christmas ornaments. Some I had made through various school projects over the years, some she had brought home from her travels in other countries, some were antiques, and other were gifts. Every year we had a live tree. We would usually go to a tree farm in the next town over to cut down a tree and bring it home. Since moving to Utah, I found that tree farms are not common everywhere, though. There are times when this, and people not having a party to trim the tree, feel very different to me. Here in Utah the traditions are totally different.

When it came to our tree my mom always spent a lot of time finding the right size and shaped tree. I remember walking down row after row of trees and saying “This one’s good!” Just to have her find what felt like one branch that was too short. She was constantly saying no to trues that had “bare spots” I couldn’t see. Not that these spots ever would have matter because the first thing my mom would do after the tree was up was cover it with about 25 strands of all different kinds of Christmas lights. There were white lights, and colored lights, and blinking lights, and faster blinking lights.

We usually put the lights on before our tree decorating guests arrived. My mom and I would wear nicer clothing and have plates full of appetizers ready. The boxes of Christmas decorations sitting open by the side of the tree. My mom had one layer of ornaments then tissue paper then more ornaments ect. going about 12 layers deep. We would put 2-3 ornaments per branch. I always got to put the star or angle on the top of the tree. (Which do you use?) For years our was a star of David I made out of popsicle sticks at school. At the end of the night the tree was an explosion of color and light. It sparkled and glistened. And that was even before my mom brought out the tinsel which my friends and I would grab by the handful and toss all over the tree.

Christmas Tree Tradition Two

There are tree traditions you experience and some you only hear of in legends. One thing I can tell you for sure, my father’s mother had the biggest Christmas tree I had ever seen in someone’s home. EVER. For much of my father’s childhood and all of mine there was a 12 foot tree in the corner of the living room on Christmas morning. When and how it got there changed between generations. But the one thing that never changed was that in this house SANTA was the one who decorated the tree!

Before bed you would gather around in the tree in your pajamas, someone would put out milk and cookies, the grown ups would pull out the boxes of the ornaments and we would put them right at the base of the tree. Considering how festive the tree decorating had always been at my mom’s house this tradition ALWAYS baffled me, but also added an extra level of excitement. We would head off to bed and the large doors going into the room with the Christmas tree would be closed behind us. Early in the morning we would get up and they would still be closed. We would wonder what toys were there for us, we would wonder how the tree looked now, I think we even worried occasionally what it would be like if Santa didn’t come.

We always went to church first thing. When we returned we sat down to breakfast and opened our stockings. This part was my favorite. The stocking were three feet long and STUFFED with amazingness, but I would always wonder still what was lingering behind that closed door. It was not until everyone was done eating and opening their stocking that we could open the door to the living room. I don’t think it really mattered how it looked when it did open because all the built up excitement made it a wonderful moment no matter how many presents were under the tree.

The interesting part of the tradition was that for my father, Santa brought the tree and presents and decorations ALL on Christmas night. That had to have been such an amazing experience for him and his siblings. I could not imagine going to bed with nothing and waking up with EVERYTHING. They even had those 3 foot long stocking when he was a kid!

SPOILER: I found out later the reason behind the tradition and it is interesting to observe how it was still semi kept in tact even though it didn’t need to be. When my father and his family first moved to Connecticut they were poor and struggling. They could not afford a Christmas tree. After the kids went to bed my grandfather would go and poach a Christmas tree in the middle of the night, knowing that no one would be there to catch him. I cannot imagine going out and getting a tree, putting it up, decorating it, and putting presents underneath it all in a single night. Even though it wasn’t exactly right, the idea seems like such a sacrifice to me, and such in the spirit of the wonder of Christmas for a child.

Christmas Tree Tradition Three

While the Christmas tree tradition at my dad’s housing wasn’t anywhere near as festive as the others, it was very touching. It is a little hard to explain, I think, without my dad maybe coming off looking bad. When I was really young we always did Christmas with my grandparents, but when I got to be about 9 or 10 my dad started ordering his Christmas trees. Yep, out of a catalogue that just delivered it right to his back door. My dad owned his own business and was very busy. Especially around Christmas time because it was important to him for his employees to get time off. He would work double or triple as hard to make sure all the work got done in his office without asking them to work more. The idea of getting and decorating a Christmas tree felt like a lot of work to him. He knew when he ordered one it would look PERFECT and be easy to put up since it already came in a stand.

When it came to decorating the tree he would just give me the box of decorations and let me do it. I liked working on decorating the tree by myself. I knew it was important to my dad that Christmas was special for my half sister and I but I think he always quite sure about how to do it. My dad was always very generous and while he loved giving gifts on Christmas, he loved giving them all the time. I think Christmas never felt special to him, it felt like a time when he was busier and working harder. But there was no way he was going to let us down by not having a tree. So even though this third tradition isn’t as fun and festive as the other too, I still remember it fondly.

What are your Christmas tree traditions?
How have they changed over the years?

The Sunday Salon–Books Glorious Books

2011-11-27T13:12:00.002-07:00

Today I am examining myself as a reader and book buyer. I was thinking about writing a Sunday Salon post today since it has been a while since I contributed. Even though I am in the middle of a few good books I wanted to post about something with a little more substance. I didn’t have any ideas so I pushed the post to the back of my mind and got on with my chores for the day.

I am rearranging and reorganizing all the things in my family room. This room has become a bit of the junk collection room over the past few months. Also I have decided (for the first time EVER) that I have too many books and I need to get rid of at least SOME books. I already went through one book shelf on a surface level and boxed up some questionable purchases from my college years that were clearly not worth the time or effort any long.

What inspired this book culling? Even though I have long been AGAINST reading ebooks, I am now faced with the fact that I have well over 5000 books with more I want to read being published every week. Mr. X got a Nook a few years ago and he used it quite a bit at first, but is now back into paper books or reading with his phone. While he was, at first, completely against reading ebooks on a backlit screen, he has now found that he enjoys it more than he thought he would. So the Nook is now mine and I might as well utilize it. I love reading out of paper books. Love the look and feel, their weight in my hands. BUT I am coming to accept that they aren’t always convenient or comfortable to read. AND TAKE UP A LOT OF SPACE.

When I was pondering I realized that there were a lot of books on my shelf that I had no intention of reading any time soon. Every year more books come in, but none ever go out. That equation mostly equals out to disaster. Even though I have plenty of shelf space at the moment, how much longer will that last? And then what? New shelves? For the past 3-4 years I have almost exclusively been reading young adult novels, yet the majority of books on my shelves are adult ones. I always bought them (cheap) with the intention of reading them “someday” but what if that day never comes?

This question and others like it got me thinking about my personal reading trends. I have always loved young adult books and been adamant about their literary value to all types of readers. Post Harry Potter and Twilight it is a lot like I am preaching to the choir now that so many more adults read (or admit to reading) young adult books. But what other books have I read, purchased, and enjoyed over in the past? After my first daughter was born I only read non fiction books, then I was mostly reading books related to writing, then general young adult books, then only science fiction and dystopian young adult books, then all speculative fiction books adult and young adult.

So where am I now? I just came off a HUGE 6 month reading slump. Since the slump ended I have finished 12 books. Which is half of all the books I finished this year. Looking at these 12 books, I would not consider them representative of how I *think* I am reading right now. I feel like I mostly read dystopia, with a few romantically driven young adult breaks here and there. But the books I read tell me that I only read 2 dystopian books and a LOT of other types of speculative fiction and NOTHING non genred (or more romantic in feel without being paranormal).

Out of all the books I read this year the most realistic one is Babymouse! And I haven’t read a single adult title. Have I found my reading niche? Or is this just a trend that will fade later? I can’t decide and this makes it exceptionally hard to decide what books to get rid of. There are some obvious choices that I simply know I will NEVER read, no matter what I am into. And even if change my mind on some of these, I am pretty sure I will be able to find them in ebook in the future. Or even buy them again without all the years of them sitting around collecting dust and taking up space.

Today I piled my adult fiction books up on the table. Some I want to keep no matter what. Authors I love or authors I may need to read in the future for school. Authors that I told myself I am going to read before I die! Also, I read almost NO nonfiction. And I want to try and change that. I am not sure if I will, but I have so many great/interesting books here that I continue to buy. But in the adult fiction pile there are books that I am putting an expiration date on. If I don’t have them read in 6 months, they are leaving my house. I think this is a perfectly acceptable goal. I also realize that I probably won’t read these books either. Trying to decide if they should get a special shelf or box so I can be more proactive about following through, or just mix them in with the rest.

Are you reading the same kind of books you were 5 years ago? What book genres are you reading that you weren’t before? What types of books did you read and now don’t?

I have told myself to stay focused and only read one book at a time for a little while, but I am in the middle of Perks of Being a Wallflower (paper), Perfect Chemistry (audio), Jane Eyre (ebook w/ Chelsea), and The Butterfly Clues (ebook). Also will be starting Their Eyes Were Watching God and If I Stay for readalongs very soon. And the audio of The Tempest, since I have been meaning to read it for a LONG time.

What are you reading? What book that you read this year would you most recommend?

Thankful

2011-11-23T23:56:00.001-07:00

This holiday season there are so many reasons to be thankful.

I am thankful for my two wonderful children who bring so much joy
and have so much love to share with me.
They are getting to an age when we can share more of our reading
experiences with each other.
My 6 year old is right on the verge of reading on her own and my 8 year old reluctant reader is helping me
find the keys to unlock her joy of reading.
Besides these wonderful moments we have reading together there are
other moments of laughter and togetherness that could never be described in words.
Moments, smiles, and hugs that mean more than words could every say.

I am thankful for books which entertain and enrich me.
This year I have not read as many books as I usually do
but I still love the idea of reading them. Of talking about them. Of buying them.
Of meeting authors. And sharing books with people I care about.
Stories and books have such an amazing ability to transport through space and time and through every fold
of the imagination. I also love the way they feel and smell.
And the joy of finding a book you have been looking for at a great price.

I am thankful for all the bookish friends I have found through twitter.
Those especially who get on late at night to talk about the books they love.
The books that stayed with them, that changed them.
And that they hope will change me.

I am thankful for Chelsea who is my oldest bookish friend.
For all the late nights we chatted. All the books she has sent.
The stories we have shared, the stories we have read.
And the way that she knows FOR SURE if and how much I will like a book,
and THAT is one of the most priceless elements of our friendship.

I am thankful for Cindy Pon for writing a book I adore and being so generous to her fans.
Silver Phoenix is one of my favorite books of all time.
It changed me. It transported me.
It left me wanting more.
Cindy is kind and funny and addicted to twitter.
These are all the things I look for in a friend and author.

Thank you also for ALL the blog follower who stick with me through thick and thin. We follow despite me not posting, and who are excited when I do.
Thank you to everyone of you that have ever commented it.
Thank you also to those who never have, those who have just taken the time to read what I post here.
Thank you SO MUCH to those who ENCOURAGE me to post more. I hope to do more posting soon!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Curse of Twitter

2011-10-18T03:08:00.001-06:00

One of the reasons why I haven’t been reading or blogging is that I have way more to read than I could ever get around to and sometimes this overwhelms me. And other times LIFE overwhelms me. After spending a little bit too much time sitting around and watching TV I decided it was time to get back to reading, and to my friends on Twitter.

But like I was saying, I am not lacking for books to read. The thought of them definitely does something beyond overwhelm me, but after just a few days back visiting with my friends on Twitter, that TBR list is growing even more.

I have always been interested in Blood Red Road and even downloaded it from Galley Grab but I didn’t get to start it before it expired. Of all the electronic books I didn’t get to review this past year, this on is probably the one I think I might have missed out on the most. But when I heard @ReadingFever praising it on twitter the book quickly jumped back on my radar. I really hope I can find some time to read it soon. @ReadingFever seemed particularly impressed with Moira Young’s writing style and that is very important to me. I have always been more impacted by the quality of the writing than by the quality of the story. Of course good prose is not going to save a plotless story, but it is still worth stating.

I saw Anna Dressed in Blood in a Goodreads update and the title jumped right out at me. I had to find out more about it. The little bit that I read about it was enough to get me to keep an eye out for it at the bookstore or library. The first line of the summary is really what got me. “Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.” The cover is also interesting. (And oddly similar to Blood Red Road in both coloring and with the blowing of the dark hair.)

Then I was looking at my friend’s blog, There’s A Book, and she had a review of a book that I also felt really strongly I needed to read. Carrier of the Mark has a lot of elements that I really enjoy reading. (Also quite a lot of gray in the cover. Must be a new trend or a reflection of my soul.)

What books peaked your interest lately?

2011-05-19T17:21:00.000-06:00

The Sunday Salon–The Ick Edition

2011-03-13T11:05:00.001-06:00

It is true. I have caught a case of the Ick, just a short while after getting over a stomach thing I now have a cold thing. And for the past few days I have felt like death warmed over. But whether I feel 100% or not my invalid time is almost over since soon I will have to pick up my girlies and do my ever important mommy time. Which doesn’t particularly mix with invalid time. But don't feel too bad for me because the week was filled with book shopping and I have some author events coming up I don't plan on missing.

I love Scholastic book fairs. I always have, and I hope I always will. In the fall there is a regular priced fair that acts like a fund raiser for our school. Now that I understand the workings of this better I can appreciate buying a few full priced books. But it will not surprise many people that I love the buy one get one free fairs even more. This fair we got more books than we ever had before. Unfortunately for me, I already owned a good majority of them. I did end up getting a lot of books, but most were for the girls and not the thrilling selections that make your heart skip a beat on your way to the checkout line. Which is why I headed over to the middle school fair to see what they had to offer. And there, mostly in one case were a bunch of books off my wishlist just waiting for me.

Dark Life by Kat Falls has been on my radar for longer than I like. I almost bought it during the fall fair but decided I just may not get it read in time for it to be worth full price. Since then the book had intrigued me even more. There is something I really like about the cover and how it feels different from other dystopian books I have been reading.

Surprisingly, when I got to the book fair nothing really caught my eye. Fearless has been on my list for a while but my eyes just passed over the cover a few times and it was one of the last books that I found. When I came home I had Mr. X read the back and he said it sounded like The Declaration, and that makes me even more excited for it.

In all truth the last thing I need it more young adult dystopian novels. I found Amy Sturgis’s YA dystopian list a while back and it has been my map through the genre ever since. Her latest iteration of the list went up late last month. This list is particularly good for finding new authors and tracking down forth coming titles. I have also used it to help make many book purchases over the past year and the books are piling up around me. There is something both comforting and daunting about this. I like knowing I have a good selection of YA dystopian novels but I also know I am not reading them as fast as I would like. As much as I love dystopian literature you can only read so many of them before you get burnt out. No mater how vastly different they can be from each other they often boil down to the same concepts in a way that fantasy novels and science fiction novels don’t.

When I went to the Utah Book Blogger’s Social I was excited to hear more about Fire and Ice Photo’s first book trailer. I hear about it originally on Twitter and I was really excited to find out more about it. The trailer is for the third book in the Prophecy of the Sisters series by Michelle Zink. This isn’t really a book I am clamoring to buy and read, but since we were just talking about it I figured I should probably try it out. I am very excited to hear more about the book trailer as we get closer to the book release date.

I am challenging myself to read Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink (book 1) before the third book releases.

Although there is nothing particularly appealing about the cover of The Comet’s Curse it became an impulse buy to match with another book of the same price at the book fair. For weird book lovers and deal finders like myself, I would rather buy more books than not match price for price on the books I do get. Because it is more about the price spent per book than the total price spent. It sounds insane but my friend is the exact same way which makes me feel more okay about the situation. When Mr. X looked through the books I bought he picked up The Comet’s Curse and said “This looks terrible.” It is amazing how much we identify books by cues that are on the covers and how we might pretend that we don’t but it is an extremely vital part of understanding what a book is about.

I like to know as little as possible about books before I buy them and I love having Mr. X around to read the back of books and see if I would like them. He always sigh before he does, but he will tell me if I will like and occasionally he finds one that maybe he would like too.

One of the middle schools in our town was having a regular fair, not a buy one get one free fair, but I did find one title that I just couldn’t live without. The Gardener by S. A. Bodeen has been interesting me since I finished The Compound. It is interesting because I didn’t really like The Compound very much. It was pretty well written and a definite mind bender but something about the ending negated the whole book for me. It went under the category of too crazy to believe. Despite that it did leave me eager to read another book by Bodeen. It is relatively slim and that makes it a great candidate for a new read for me. Every day it feels like there is more piled up on my plate and I often wonder why I am taking on so much. I definitely need a new balance in my life, now it is just a matter of finding the time to sort everything out.

This is just a sampling of some of the books I got. The part that is the most fun for me is running away from my current book fair with my friend for an hour and going to check on the middle school fair, which have a few more books in the age range we like. I like all kinds of books for all kinds of age ranges, but there are honestly only so many picture books I really need. I buy new ones at every book fair, but I have so many already. And picture books are inherently more readable, and kids clomp onto certain ones.

Did you buy any good books this week?

Hazardous Universe Book Launch

2011-03-06T23:13:00.001-07:00

I had never heard of author Julie Wright until LTUE 2010 (last year and my first time attending). She kept talking about this one book that I could not wait to read called Hazardous Universe. I remember clearly even now Julie’s bubbly personality and I loved hearing what she had to say about writing. I knew I wanted to read a book by her. But as it usually goes for me, I never did. Now I am going to get my chance because Hazardous Universe will be here in just a few days. There is even a launch party that I wish I could go to, but just because I can’t doesn’t mean YOU can’t!

The book launch is at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Murray UT. On the corner of 5300 S and State St on Wednesday, March 9th from 6-8 pm.

Julie and coauthor Kevin Wasden will be there to sign books and be part of other wonderful festivities. I am super excited that the book is here. It is the first in a series and I think it has a pretty fabulous cover.

I have said it before and I will say it again, here in Utah we are so very lucky to have so many talented local authors. It is great to have opportunities to celebrate their books with them. I hope that Kevin and Julie have a wonderful night. If you end up going to the book launch please let me know and take a few pictures for me.

Silver Phoenix Contest Update

2011-03-06T12:34:00.001-07:00

I am so happy that there have been so many entries into my giveaway for Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. Unfortunately these entries also broke my commenting system on the entry post. But not to worry, I have email copies of all the entries. I did want to clarify a few points of the giveaway and add some other details.

The giveaway is for 5 copies of Silver Phoenix. While I am excited for the release of Fury of the Phoenix, I do not have any copies of the book to giveaway at this time.

As long as Book Depository ships to your country this giveaway is open internationally. While at least one copy of the book will be awarded through random drawing, other copies of the book can be awarded at any time for any reason.

Here is a list of the entrants so far, if you think you have entered but don’t see your name on the list, please go to the original post and comment again using the blogger comment system. If you would like to be entered into the giveaway and have not entered previously please comment on the original post. Not this one.

Pam from bookalicio.us
Kylie from The Creative Geek
Charlie from The Worm Hole
Tabatha from Inspiring the Dawn
@DotHutchison
Rachel email rachelg1630
@JazzyJay673
Lorie Matteson
Cathie email lovemybabysquid
Karen from Maunderings of a Manic Reclusive
Manu email mahnoor
Carrie from Books and Movies
Bernadette Do email KairaKara
Mariska email uniquas
Ashley Holt from Bookcase Siren
Llehn email lesly7ch
Mia from Girl About Books
ReaganStar from Star Shadow
Jessica from Shut Up, I’m Reading
Sophia from Sophia the Writer
Kim – I don’t have any contact information for you
Harley from Starlet Reviews
FaeFever from faefever25
Travis from Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm
Minas from Minas
Chersti N. and her blog
Fire and Ice from and her blog
Megan from Library Showgirl

This are the entrants (unless I missed one, which is very possible). As of Noon Mountain Time on Sunday, if you entered before this time and you don’t see your name, again please comment again on the original post. I had a big spike in entries after the Utah Book Blogger Social. Thanks especially to all the local(ish) people who entered.

Guest Review of Silver Phoenix

2011-03-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

It is a pleasure to have my first guest review of Silver Phoenix come from someone who I personally pushed to read the book. I bet Gail $5 that she couldn’t finish Silver Phoenix before the weekend was over, and she came through. I also still owe her the $5. Gail blogs at Ticket To Anywhere, where you can find great reviews, fragment fridays, contests and more. You can also find her on Twitter, @Irisheyz77. Thank you, Gail, for letting me repost your review on my blog.

Publisher: HarperTeen

Source: Purchased

Publication Date: 28 April 2009

Series or Standalone: Series

ISBN: 0061730211

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 338

Websites:

Cindy Pon - Official Site
(be sure to check out the amazing artwork on her site!)
Cindy Pon - Blog

Cindy Pon - Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: The Kingdom of Xia (based on ancient China)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First Line: The eunuchs said the windows were ceiling height to allow the concubines their privacy, but Jin Lian knew it was also a way to keep them trapped.

Related Posts: Fragment Friday // Book Trailer Monday

Series Order
Book 1 - Silver Phoenix
Book 2 - Fury of the Phoenix (29 Apr 2011)

I first heard about Silver Phoenix on Twitter right before it was released but even if I hadn't I'd have instantly been drawn to the cover in stores. The cover on the hardcover is absolutely GORGEOUS and I bought it the day it was released. I had every intention of reading it shortly thereafter as well but fates conspired against me and it sat on my shelf, neglected, along with so many others. Then recently on Twitter I was struggling through a book and saying how I'd need something really good to read afterwards. I don't recall the exact way things feel out but in the end PoseySessions was betting me $5 if I could finish Silver Phoenix up by the end of the weekend. (This all happened on a Thursday I believe.) Not one to walk away from a challenge I accepted. I then despaired that I would do it as it took until Saturday to finish the book I was reading and I had a family even more of that day.

I despaired about being able to finish as the beginning of Silver Phoenix was a little slow. The prologue had me a bit confused (I'm slow sometimes) as I was immediately thrust into this foreign world. From there we jump forward 19 years (or so) and I have to readjust on what I think I know. In Chapter 1, we meet Ai Ling the heroine who is being sent off to potential betrothal meetings as all good Chinese girls in this time are destined for marriage and a life behind walls. But Ai Ling's family is tainted with a bit of scandal and she is a bit too tall and she struggles to fulfill her duty and remains unwed. When her father disappears, Ai Ling does a very brave and unusual thing and decides to set off in search of him. It helps that Ai Ling isn't your ordinary girl but she has special gifts that she's only just begun to understand.

From the moment Ai Ling leaves the sheltered walls of her home the book really pick up in pace. It becomes this action packed roller coaster and I found it hard to catch my breath. Around every corner there is peril and beasties that are trying to kill Ai Ling. Some of who might have succeeded if it wasn't for Chen Yong and his brother Li Rong. I LOVED the interaction between Chen Yong and Li Rong as well as that between Li Rong and Ai Ling. Li Rong is witty and fun and just makes a person laugh. Which is great because Chen Yong is just way to serious for his own good. Granted he has his reasons for holding himself aloof from the world but there is just this naturalness about Li Rong that makes you instantly like him. Based on characters alone Silver Phoenix was a win.

But even great characters need a good plot and Silver Phoenix has that in spades. Its a bit supernatural and a bit mystery with wonderful undertones of friendship mixed with a dash of romantic tension. I became so invested in this story that I lost track of the world around me and essentially devoured this book in just a few hours. This is such a rarity for me these days as I'm easily distracted by modern technology and the telly. Ai Ling is such a strong character and she kept facing all these creatures that I couldn't stop turning pages to learn why it all was. Throughout the book Pon leaves little breadcrumbs and hints as to what is to come but never enough to make the story predictable. Can you guess the outcome of the book, yes, or at least I could for the most part. But Silver Phoenix isn't really about the how it ends but the journey to get there.

I have to admit my readings of books based in China (even loosely as this one is) so I don't know a ton about the rituals and culture. Cindy Pon does a great job of weaving in all the histories and expectations of the time without bogging the story down in details. So you can learn without realizing that you are learning something. I loved the history and how Pon wove in the various myths and legends from the east in a really seamless way. While reading the book it all felt real and I was able to push reality aside and imagine myself in Ai Ling's world. Although one tradition I'm glad Pon didn't explore was footbinding....ouch! I read one book (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) a few years back that had long descriptions of the process and my feet STILL ache.

My one regret is that it took me so long to read Silver Phoenix. Although a small part of me is glad because now I have only a short time to wait until its sequel, Fury of the Phoenix, is available. I am DYING to get my hands on this book. I need more of Ai Ling and Chen Yong as I did not like how Pon left things at the end of Silver Phoenix. Not that it was a bad ending, because it wasn't. It was a very good ending and perfect for the story. But for me it wasn't enough. I wasn't ready to leave their story so I am glad that it will be continuing on in another book. You can be sure that as soon as I get my hands on a copy that I will be reading it! Just as I strongly suggest for all of you to run out and grab a copy of Silver Phoenix and read it. Its well worth the time especially for all of you out there who love mythological based stories. I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one. I know I wasn't.

Silver Phoenix Giveaway

2011-03-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

Never in my adult life have I read a book that immediately made me want to go out and meet the person who wrote it. Never until I read Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. Honestly there are so many things not to like about Silver Phoenix for me. That may seem like a harsh thing to say, but I have blogged quite a bit about how much I dislike fantasy and find it unapproachable. I also particularly dislike historical fiction. Cindy described Silver Phoenix as faux historical and instead of hating that fact about the book I LOVED IT. The fantasy, the history, and the mythology all weaved together into a perfect story for me.

In honor of the forthcoming sequel entitled Fury of the Phoenix, I am giving away 5 copies of the paperback edition of Silver Phoenix so you can have a chance to read this remarkable book before the next one releases on March 29, 2011.

To enter just leave a comment on this post saying you would like to win the book. Make sure there is a way for me to contact you if you are a winner!

Throughout the month of March I will be posting guest reviews from various bloggers of Silver Phoenix and stay tuned because there may be ways to earn extra entries!! And of course I still have to struggle to put into words my own experience on reading and falling in love with this book.

Enter to win one of five paperback copies of Silver Phoenix.

P. S. In case you missed it, I did get a chance to meet Cindy and it was amazing. Thanks Cindy for being such a generous author!

Finished in Feb. 2011

2011-03-02T22:00:00.001-07:00

Well my goal was to read a lot of dystopian books in February for Lenore’s Dystopian month. But, as so many things that I plan, that never actually happened. I did START a lot of dystopian books including: The Scorch Trials, Eva, Those That Wake, Rage, and The Dispossessed. I actually finished all of…two.

1. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (audio) - young adult, dystopian
2. Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton - young adult
3. The Dark Divine by Bree deSpain (audio) - young adult, paranormal
4. The Legend Of Spud Murphy (audio) - children's, humor, Ireland

That’s right. I only finished 4 books total and three of them were audiobooks. I need to find better ways of coping with reading while traveling. I usually can’t read in the car, but have found that I can now read at night on my phone (back lit) since I can’t see the motion outside. For whatever reason this doesn’t make me sick to my stomach. I started reading Dreaming Anastasia out loud to Mr. X and what I did find is that even the slightest mention of food will make you insanely hungry!

The best book of the month was Inside Out. The best book of the year so far is STILL Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon.

What was your favorite read of February? Let’s keep our fingers crossed that March is a better reading month for me.

The Sunday Salon–The California Edition

2011-02-27T13:20:00.001-07:00

It is sunny this morning in the desert of California. You would think the desert part implied the sunny part, but yesterday southern California was covered in snow!! It was a very weird experience as we drove in and out of San Diego to be faced with a small but surprising amount of snow. I have already had two cups of coffee; it always tastes better when someone else makes it for you!

On the spur of the moment Mr. X and I decided to escape in the dark of night! We ran away to San Diego to go to a science fiction and fantasy convention called Condor. It is a three day convention, so there are some people having an amazing time there right now, but we only had time to go for about half a day. We left Utah and stayed overnight somewhere around the halfway point. We made it to San Diego just in time to get to the first panel I wanted to go to.

I am so lucky Mr. X is willing to drive me around to all these types of author events. Especially because we decided this at the last minutes and by his own admission he isn’t very spontaneous.

Ever since I read Silver Phoenix I have really wanted to meet Cindy Pon. It has been a long time since a book has effected me so much and I really wanted the chance to meet someone face to face who had wrote such an amazing story. Luckily through twitter I have been able to communicate with Cindy in the past and also let her know I was coming to this event. Priority one was to highjack Cindy and make Mr. X take a picture of us together! As you can see that went very well. I was really excited to meet Cindy and get a chance to talk with her for a few minutes before her panel.

The interesting thing about me is that for years and years I thought I hated science fiction. It was only about 4 years ago that I realized I actually love it. Since then I have been working on reading more fantasy, but it has been a struggle for me. Mr. X is a big fan of fantasy novels and he has been slowly exposing me to fantasy novels I have really enjoyed. But despite that I didn’t expect to love Silver Phoenix anywhere as much as I did. Cindy really created a magical and fantastic novel.

One of the surprises of Condor was getting to meet and chat with Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy. Especially after hearing her talk about striving to make Paranormalcy funny, her book shot right up to the top of my TBR. Kiersten talks about books and writing in a very approachable but insightful way and I was eagerly taking notes at the panel she was on with Cindy Pon, Nancy Holder, and Kevin Gerard. But like I said, I am really eager to read her book.

I also think it has a pretty fantastic cover. I should be ashamed, but I’m not. I judge books on their covers all the time. We have covers on books for a reason, though with ebooks that culture may change quickly. But covers tell us a lot of information about a book and at least make up pick it up and check the summary on the back.

Condor was a really great experience. I do have one complaint! All these author events are really cutting into my reading time. I am going to try my best to get at least one more book finished this month, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for two!

What are you reading this weekend?

Condor, Cindy Pon, San Diego

2011-02-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to Condor. I made an unexpected trip to San Diego in order to be able to meet the AMAZING Cindy Pon. I haven't blogged yet about how much I loved Silver Phoenix, but know that I loved it enough to drive many hours (actually Mr. X is driving) in order to have Cindy sign my copy of the book.

There were too many panels at this science fiction and fantasy convention to be able to pass up. I decided at about 4pm last night that we needed to be in San Diego by 11am. Mr. X was apprehensive but we went for it. My main priority this morning is The Killer Bs plus V and L: Four greats of hard science fiction sound off - David Brin, Gregory Benford, Vernor Vinge, Larry Niven. Then a panel with Cindy and some signings. I think this is going to be a blast and something you just need to fly by the seat of your pants.

Even though I haven’t posted picture of LTUE, they will be up soon. Also expect some pictures of Cindy and my review of Silver Phoenix. Silver Phoenix recently came out in paperback and the second book in the series Fury of the Phoenix releases on March 29th!

2011-02-26T00:39:00.001-07:00

Please check out my dystopian mash-up over at Lenore’s blog. Thanks Lenore for letting me stop by again.

Check Out My Guest Post

2011-02-24T01:12:00.002-07:00

Today I have the pleasure of being a guest over at Dreams and Speculation where I am reviewing Orson Scott Card’s latest young adult fantasy The Lost Gate.

Thanks so much to TJ for letting my stop by and share my thoughts with her readers.

The Passage

2011-02-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

When I first heard about The Passage this was the cover I connected with it. The cover is so stark and haunting to me. Knowing that the story is dystopic tells you already that there is nothing good in store for this girl on the cover.

As a fan of dystpoian fiction, I am always on the lookout for new titles. I don’t care how dystopian they are, if they have one dystopic element they are usually interesting to me. Other than that one classification I don’t want to know anything else about the book before I read it. Once I have decided to read a book or see a movie I want to know nothing more than the information I needed to decide.

So I was curious about The Passage merely on principle and the fact that one person somewhere suggested that is may be dystopian. Then people started reading it and I started hearing how bloated and LONG it was. I started to worry that it was a not a good book for me. And yet I was still curious. I don’t think I would be the first to admit that negativity towards something I was interested in only makes me more interested. I put off reading it, I considered buying it buy decided not it.

Finally I tracked down the audio version and decided if I am going to read a book this long audio is the only way I am going to get it done. The audio version had a new and different cover. I don’t like this cover as much because it doesn’t start telling my brain a story the moment I see it. I don’t start postulating what it is about. To me this cover has a very generic feel to it. The story inside could be one of many types of stories. And in a way The Passage is many stories. It embodies many different genre classifications. It changes in time and perspective, yet it tells one story of our country in the future.

The Passage starts with two interweaving stories, one of a little girl and one of prison inmates being shipped off to an underground lab to undergo some weird experiment. The audio version of this novel made the story both attainable and confusing to me. I resented how many details there was. But on the other hand, there is something unpredictable about an audiobook. You can’t count how many pages until the end of the chapter, or section, or book. You never know where the story will twist and turn.

The Passage dealt with a lot of interesting ideas. Many of them dystopian in nature, but when it came down to it, there was just too much going on for me. Too many story lines, perspectives, and elements. There is something to be said in the craft of a story that keeps it from being straightforward, but this sideways and circular storytelling demanded too much of me for the length of the novel. And maybe it would have been easier to follow all of this if I was reading the book in paper, but it becomes a bit of a catch-22 for me. I know that the length of this book would discourage me and I would have never have finished it. Even though it did have some quality that seemed to really push me forward through the storyline, overall it didn’t really work for me.

But it kept me curious and it continues to keep me curious. Where will the story go now? I will probably delve into the second book following The Passage at some point, especially if I am able to find the audio version at my library. But when it really comes down to it, this book just wasn’t dystopian enough for me. The Passage resides firmly in the Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic classification. It didn’t really hit on the dystopian issues that really interest me, though there were various ones throughout the novel.

Have you read The Passage? What did you think of it? I have heard a lot of positive responses since I started reading the book. I think it ends up being popular or general fiction with an edge. Compared to a lot of the popular fiction out there, this book has a lot more depth, but it didn’t have depth in the areas that I wanted.

Why Wither Is Fantastic

2011-02-23T00:15:00.001-07:00

There are so many things to like about Wither, it is hard for me to pick just one. One of the amazing things about it is THE COVER. I don’t even know exactly what it is that I like about it, but it has something to do with the colors for sure. The colors, the geometry, the dress!

Wither is a young adult dystopian novel by Lauren DeStefano forthcoming from Simon & Schuster (March 2011). And one of the fantastic things about the novel is its easy comparison with The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood’s novel is one of amazing balance and splendid storytelling and it was a joy to read a book that reminded me so much of it without trying to be the exact same book. Wither, while playing on a lot of themes that are similar to contemporary dystopian novels, felt completely unique to me. The novel deals with very intense and dark issues but DeStefano writes with such a delicate hand the book is verging on addictive. I wanted to know what will happen next and felt a connection with the future of the main character, Rhine.

Rhine lives in a world where women die at the age of 20. Women live with a death sentence; they are aware of their mortality for practically as long as they are aware of themselves. This concept by itself is completely terrifying to me and Lauren DeStefano does such a great job of making the story approachable and human. I think it could be too easy for readers to end up not connecting with the characters because of what they knew about their futures. Polygamy is common place as family try to access as many possible options to achieve an heir in a short time allotment.

A fantastic element of Wither is the series name. The Chemical Garden caught my attention from the moment I first heard it. I like it more than the title of the book and it instantly got my mind swirling around the possibilities of this future world. Technology is one of my favorite elements of dystopia and the series name connected with those interests.

Lauren DeStefano is fantastic because she is from my home state. No matter where I live Connecticut will always have the quality of home and it is neat to find an author of exactly the type of book I want to be reading and have them be from the same place as me. Compared to Utah, Connecticut is like one big home town! I was excited to read Wither because I really felt like being from around the same area we would have a similar view of the world. I don’t know if that is really the case, but it is definitely interesting to think about. She also has a quirky, fun sense of humor and I highly recommend following her on Twitter. @LaurenDeStefano

Rhine is taken to a mansion to be the wife of a young man, Linden. In DeStefano’s world women life to be 20 and men live to be 25. Wither is the story of Rhine’s existence within the constraints of this future world. As she explores her new surrounds we find out more about the history of the world she lives in. One fantastic thing about Rhine is that I don’t feel like she is weak and mindless like many of the female characters that have been trending in young adult literature lately. I feel like Rhine is very deliberate in her actions and I really appreciate that.

And a fantastic line from page 172 in the novel:

“And I see it, far, far in the distance. Like a whisper. Like a timid little suggestion. “

A friend of mine suggested that in Wither there is far too much of nothing happening. But to me this is all a fantastic part of the world building. "And I wonder if the wives’ floor is the only part of the house without a staircase, and if there’s a fire and the elevators stop working, Linden’s brides will be burned to a crisp. We’re easy to replace, after all” (p. 60). This quote speaks perfectly to Rhine’s place in the world. She feels trapped and she feels helpless. This existence for Rhine seems hopeless. Yet, we have hope. For hope is an essential part of the success of a dystopian novel. Without hope there is no reason to push through the darkness, the tragedy, and the despair. DeStefano does a great job being able to balance out this story, letting it move forward, while at the same time Rhine is going nowhere.

And now in fantastic summation Wither is a unique addition to the realm of young adult dystopia. The care that is taken with the writing is essential to the story’s progression. Although the writing is very good, it did leave me wanting more out of the flow and word choice. And I felt that the ending was really, really rushed and a bit forced. But those things are not fantastic enough to worry about! Young adult dystopias had taken a down turn for me and Wither really restored my faith in their ability to be unique and go beyond the inner thrashing on teen angst that can exist as easily outside the dystopian world as within. I would like to thank Lauren for writing a story I connected with and really embraced the meaning of dystopian fiction.

Matched by Ally Condie

2011-02-18T12:32:00.001-07:00

I was nervous starting Matched. A dystopian young adult novel by a local author does put a little pressure on me. Though, I didn't like The Maze Runner very much and I don't make too much of a secret about that. When you know you will have a chance to meet the author, look them in the eye, and tell them how you liked their book it can be a little daunting.

From the moment I first saw the cover for Matched I completely fell in love. I heard about Matched originally when it was sold and I was really excited, but then I sort of forgot about it. A lot of people were getting Matched at BEA and it just didn't sound that good to me. I know you think I sound crazy right now, but without knowing the concept I thought it was a book about arson or something. But the moment I first saw the cover I absolutely fell in love with it.

I find it increasingly hard to put into words all the things that I love about Matched. I guess the most overwhelming part of the book was the world building. I appreciated how much I knew about the world that Cassia lived in. I have talked about this a lot in the past, but to me, dystopian fiction is more about the WORLD than anything else. Without a good base a story can be told in any time period or setting and have the same effect. A truly successful dystopian novel fuses together the world and the story so that one element cannot live without the other. Matched completes this fusion to perfection.

When I met Ally Condie face to face it was an honor to tell her how much I loved the book. Over the past few years I have read a lot of young adult dystopian novels, and I was starting to feel a little disheartened by my experience. Especially the newer ones were not providing the kind of world building that I have already expressed is essential to a successful dystopia. As a fan, this was very frustrating to me. I was excited that so many books were being released but disappointed with the quality of the books. Ally’s book was so different and so deliberate. I liked how her words and her story really meshed together for me, the plot and the craft were important to each other.

I am struggling to push through this review. I don’t know what I want to say. I keep bouncing my thoughts off of people on Twitter trying to understand the difference between the people who have enjoyed Matched and the people who have found it lacking. And then in a moment the exact words for how I feel about Matched came to me. I found it subtle and perfect in a quiet way. To me the style and the characters and the slowness of action all connected with the quality and sluggishness of the brainwashed society. What is so terrifying about Matched is that people know that they are censored, and they are thankful for it. It is this thought process that is beyond double think. Beyond knowing the world is wrong but convincing yourself that it isn’t. This is one of the many elements that makes Matched work for me, and definitely one of the most significant.

I have really enjoyed being able to share with various different people all the things I enjoyed about the book. I love hearing with other people have to say about it, though I can’t always see where they are coming from. It is very rare that a book gives me blinders and Matched definitely has. I am very eager for the second book Crossed, especially since 2nd books in series have not held strong favor with me. I also heard that like Matched, Crossed will have a poem that is strongly connected with it. I loved the way that Ally dealt with literature in this novel, I like how my knowledge was connected with this future society.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas

A Year Ago

2011-02-18T12:02:00.001-07:00

Last year I went to LTUE by myself and had a great time. I am here again at this BYU symposium and this time with Mr. X! It is interesting to have these things in my life come together. Last year, shortly after attending LTUE. I dedicated a month James Dashner. I took some notes from Brandon Sanderson on how one should treat James Dashner, just so you know! This year Brandon wasn’t at LTUE to fuel the fire AND Dashner has achieved his dream of being on the New York Times Bestsellers list. I wanted to repost my first little introduction to Mr. X because I happened to talk about Mr. Dashner quite a bit in it and it seems here we are again at LTUE. Well James and I are here again, Mr. X is here for the first time.

First of all, what is LTUE? LTUE stands for Life, the Universe, and Everything and it is a symposium that has been going on for years at BYU. They offer great panels, presentations, readings, and signings. Today I got to go to a James Dashner reading and yesterday I went to a panel on Dystopia. There are lots of different types of things to listen to and learn about. There are panels on writing, reading, drawing, character development, the industry. You just pick what sounds and interesting and go and listen.

Last year I had a really great experience and though Mr. X and I are both disappointed that Brandon Sanderson didn’t make it this year, it has been great to share this experience with each other. I have been taking a lot of pictures and a few notes and I should be getting some nice posts together shortly.

I will be talking about Bree DeSpain, James Dashner, Elana Johnson, Robison Wells, Dan Wells, Tracy Hickman, and a few more. Before I went to this event I wanted to try and read The Scorch Trials and The Dark Divine, but as usual life got in the way and so far I am only 50 pages into The Scorch Trials and none of the way into The Dark Divine. I am going to be reading The Scorch Trials more today and I am enjoying it quite a bit.

What are you reading? Have you been reading any dystopian fiction?

Repost - Mr. X

2011-02-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Megan, you disappeared off the face of the Earth and abandoned James Dashner and all of your loyal readers. What happened?

Well, faithful audience, I am not entirely sure what happened to me, but I blame Mr. X and maybe you should too.

It seems like every spring or pre-spring time speeds up for me and I move through the world in slow motion. I get nothing done but the world races around without me. Days pass, then weeks pass, and it is months later and I am still sitting on the spot on the couch.

It isn’t like I completely abandoned my life, but I definitely did not accomplish everything I wanted to for James Dashner month. See after I asked my social life to calm down, well it kind of listened and I guess I wasn’t prepared for that so I started feeling really bored and set out to find my social life again. I really want to thank all the great contributors to James Dashner Month. They really help the illusion that James Dashner is worthwhile in some way. I hope he wasn’t paying attention though cause he might go and get big headed.

Please check out my guest posts if you haven’t. I know my contributors put a lot of time into them.
Pussreboots Guest Post – Exploring the Maze
Carrie’s Guest Post – James Dashner and the Male Reader
Guest Review of The Maze Runner from The Calico Critic
Reasons Why – James Dashner Month Day 8
James Dashner Month – Day 4 – Guest Review

Then head on over to their blogs and say, thanks for your genius.
Books and Movies
Chick Loves Lit
http://bookalicio.us
Puss Reboots
The Calico Critic

Then head to James Dashner’s blog and say, thanks for your stupidity.

Then ask Mr. X why he was bored by my blog when the whole month was dedicated to James Dashner and it didn’t make any sense because he didn’t really know who James was and he didn’t really care. And who is Mr. X anyway. Well, the truth is I can’t tell you. If I could tell you I would be using a name instead of just a letter to identify this man in my life. Mr. X pulled me into a time warp, made time bend into next Tuesday and made every single one of my readers disappear. Yes, Mr. X is THAT powerful.

Mr. X also single handedly allowed for the publication of each of James Dashner’s books even though he had/s no idea who James is, some how it is only through Mr. X’s existence that Mr. Dashner has achieved even a minimal amount of success.

Okay, the previous paragraph was a complete fabrication.

Also, supposedly, some day Mr. X is going to stop by the blog for a guest post or two. See, by calling him out on the blog he cannot refuse me. By protecting his identity with an amusing code name, I will fail in creating shame when he doesn’t follow through.

Goodbye my readers!
Until we meet again.

Triumph of the City

2011-02-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

Edward Glaeser is the author of Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us richer, Smarter, Greener, and Happier and is also a Professor of Economics at Harvard. And just a few nights ago he was a guest on The Daily Show. It was very exciting for me to be reading and reviewing a book and then get a chance to see the author of that book on TV. It kind of makes me feel a little bit like I am in the know. Glaeser showed a great amount of passion on the show and made me happy that I tracked down Trish from TLC Book Tours to get the opportunity to review this book. Of course Jon Stewart does give Glaeser a bit of a hard time, but that is to be expected. You can see the interview with Stewart by clicking here.

In both Triumph of the City and on The Daily Show, Glaeser shows his ability to make economics and the history of cities interesting and beyond the dry and bland analysis one would stereotypically expect. The recent Penguin non-fiction books I have read (including Reality Is Broken) have astounded me with both their readability and their overwhelming amount of interesting and digestible information. It seemed like at least once a paragraph I was pausing to read a part to Mr. X that I just couldn’t keep to myself. A great non-fiction book really lends itself to sharing and discussing and Triumph of the City is a great example embodying that quality.

As I mentioned earlier it is thanks to TLC Book Tours that I had the opportunity to read and review Glaeser’s book. My draw to it was understanding what this man had to say about cities and why people are drawn to them and how they will continue to be a benefit to society. One of my interests was in seeing how what he had to say would tie in to what I know about both dystopian and utopian societies. In a lot of futuristic fiction both the city and the government are the symbols of what is wrong. They control and brainwash the people who follow their rules, obey their laws, and accept their teachings. This book was particularly interesting in seeing how an ideal quest could turn into something much darker. With all of the positive reasons people are drawn to the city for the reasons Glaeser presents it could be easy to see them going a negative way. But my thoughts rarely strayed away from the positivity that is presented in Triumph of the City and I found myself buying in to so many of the topics he brought up. While I definitely want to go over this book again with a comparison contrast view between cities, the future, and dystopias, I really enjoyed reading this book for it’s own ideas.

This last weekend Glaeser was also on NPR talking about his book. Triumph of the City seems to be a book people naturally want to question and I think that is one of the strengths of it. Edward Glaeser takes these questions and skepticism in stride, he even seems to welcome them as a way to continue to prove his case. I think it is easy to jump to the conclusion that this book is wrong without really giving it a chance, but I think Triumph of the City has a lot to say and so many interesting factoids that it would be worth the time of almost any reader. Whether you are interested in this book or not I highly recommend you check out Glaeser’s NPR interview for a taste of what he has to offer.

I would like to conclude my thoughts about this book with a quote from page 122 of Triumph of the City that caught my interest. The section is titled Scale Economies and the Globe Theatre and it caught my attention because theatre has long been a passion of mine. I found it interesting to see what Glaeser had to say about it.

“Live performance is connected to the spread of innovation in cities because the first stirring of new artistic phenomenon are almost always performed live long before they are distributed electronically.”

This quote makes me think of the allure of Broadway, the way that seeing a play in the city can make you feel like you are part of something. A movie will never be able to make my heart race in the same way as live theatre and the amazing experiences I had from the time I was a child all the way to this summer when I saw Phantom of the Opera with Mr. X in New York City. I believe strongly in the ability for art to move people, to influence them, and I think influence and action can best be seen and felt in metropolitan areas.

Most Exciting Author at Teen Book Fest

2011-02-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

It has been way too long since I attended the Teen Book Fest and there is so much I still want to tell you. I am hoping over the holidays I will get a chance to catch up on my intended posts. Today I am going to talk about the author I am probably still the most excited to have met.

Part of the excitement of meeting this author was not knowing she would be there and just the sheer coincidence of it. This author has written a dystopian novel, lives in Utah, and even went to the same college as me. She attended the Teen Book Fest as an audience member, like me, and happened to sit three rows directly in front of me.

The author I am talking about is none other than Elana Johnson, author of the forthcoming Possession. Her book has the MOST AMAZING cover and I seriously cannot wait to read it. Possession releases June 7th, 2011, so mark your calendars!

Here is the cover.

I love the white space, the butterfly, the tagline “control or be controlled.”
You may not know this about me, though I have talked about it previously, I don’t like to know anything about a book before I read it, besides genre and a one sentence summary.
Not knowing what to expect is essential to the enjoyment of my book reading experience.
All I need to know about Elana’s book is one word, dystopian.

Here is the visual proof that I was in the same (crowded) room as Elana Johnson. Actually, I didn’t even know that she was there yet.

Mr. X happened to see @ElanaJ tweet “I got in!” And he asked me if I thought she was at the festival. (There was a standby line.)

Ah, once again the power of Twitter. I have never connected with someone at a live event like this and it was a weird experience. Especially when I told Elana that I was sitting right behind her and she had to look over her shoulder and check.

Via Twitter we set up a photo op after the keynote address by Scott Westerfeld, which was very entertaining and will hopefully get a future post. Poor Mr. Westerfeld playing second billing to Elana Johnson. But it was great just knowing there were two dystopian authors in the same room, in the same picture even! Though, that does reveal my obsessive side a bit.

Here is the picture Mr. X took of us!

I am on the left and Elana is on the right in a super awesome shirt. And Mr. X definitely deserves a special thanks for being my personal photag for the Teen Book Fest. Meeting up with Elana was great because it was so unexpected. I love how many dystopian authors there are based in Utah. I ever got to touch an ARC of Possession. I was so excited I just wanted to run away with the book. I took a super blurry photo of the book in my hands before giving it back. And honestly it felt like a huge honor just to get to touch this book. Butterflies are an image that have connected with me for a long time, and they have been trendy for almost as long. I can say, for the most part, I don’t really get tired of seeing them on covers, though I think this one is particularly exceptional.

Holding Possession happened very early on in the festival and I just kept thinking, if I run now I won’t get to meet Ally Condie and Scott Westerfeld. But another part of me thought it would be totally worth it.

In the end I decided to possibly do the right thing and not steal. Also not miss my opportunity to get my ARC of Matched signed and a pile of other books by lots of amazing authors. Basically still regretting that decision!! One of the advantages of talking to Elana was that I hadn’t read her book yet and I could just talk to her like a real person. Authors, I am told, are real people, but I can’t seem to act that way when I am around them. Especially if I have read and enjoyed their books.

I stood in line behind Elana to meet Ally Condie. Condie was basically the reason why I HAD to go to Teen Book Fest. Sure, she is a local author, but I didn’t know when I would get another chance to meet her. And there I was standing just a few feet away from TWO dystopian authors and listening to Elana talk to Ally like a real person and thinking maybe I could do it too.

I was so happy the line was short to meet Ally because I knew I wanted to get a few moments to talk and not have to worry about rushing. I was also shaking a little because I loved her book so much. I was on overload after meeting Elana, holding Possession (I was still grasping it while taking this pictures), and seeing Ally.

Look at this great picture of Ally and Elana together! It is pure dystopian bliss. They both look great and it was beyond neat for me to be standing there taking this photo.

Thanks to Elana for being a fan of young adult literature just like me and for writing the type of book I like to read. It was a treat beyond treats to be able to meet her and I am looking forward to meeting her again.

You can find Elana online:

Twitter: @ElanaJ

Blog: elanajohnson.blogspot.com

Website: www.elanajohnson.com

Official Possesion Website

Fansite

The League of Extraordinary Writers

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

2011-02-10T00:12:00.001-07:00

Ever since I first heard about Inside Out I really wanted to read it. One thing you may remember about me is that I like to know as little about a book as possible. I read just enough to find out if I’m interested and nothing more. This can be good and bad. It can be bad when a assume a book is one way and it ends up being absolutely nothing like my assumption. I am not really sure where this first idea came from, maybe a review or something, but I thought that Inside Out seemed somewhat similar to one of my favorite dystopian novels The Declaration by Gemma Malley. I was hoping this book would be just the kind of dystopian fiction I enjoyed but I worried it would be too light or too romance driven.

A lot of dystopian novels deal with ideas of class. Class in the future is almost like the new race, and different books deal with this in different ways. Orwell has the proles, Malley has the surplus, and Snyder has the scrubs. I think setting up the dynamic of upper and lower class in dystopian societies is extremely fascinating. It is one of the best ways to suggest the dark side of utopia. For most dystopias are meant to have a utopian root. And what we see in this utopia is the haves. You can see an often socialist system taking on the capitalistic view of the haves and the have nots. And how often the have nots only purpose in a society is to serve the haves.

Each book deals with their classes in a different way. In the end of the 1984 I tend to have a feeling that the party members and the proles are separate but equal. One might think that they are better than the other but when it comes down to it each class of people lives their life independently yet alongside each other. In The Declaration one can see that the surplus are truly victims of the greedy upper and older class. And in Inside Out the two classes end up being equally miserable and misinformed about the other class. Each of these story lines is integral to the story being told. They bring both balance and disharmony to each of these books.

The relationship between the classes in Inside Out one of the more realistically balanced ones I have read. Snyder is able to build in a variety of interactions between classes. This is essential to the world building element of any dystioian or fictional story because there are always different types of people no matter what kind of world they live in. Especially in dystopian fiction people can get a cookie cutter feel, sometimes that feeling is extremely intentional, but other times it is a result of poor world building and a lack of understanding for the struggles of each individual characters. Within the pages of Inside Out there are characters who are caring, compassionate, silly, stupid, ignorant, violent, and irrational. But not one of those words would be used to describe one class as whole but not the other.

While Inside Out does not have the overwhelming psychology that made me fall in love with The Declaration, it did have many other elements that made it a very successful and enjoyable novel for me. When the two classes, the uppers and the lowers, meet face to face they see they are not that different from each other. Trella and Riley find what they understand about each other is mostly grounded in fiction. This equalizing moment is very different from anything I have ever read in dystopian fiction before. Dystopia is so much about the rivalry between the haves and the have nots. Usually it isn’t about money or food, but it is about those who have power and those who don’t. To see this moment that isn’t about fighting each other but understanding each other that is a really nice element. This does hinge partly on the fact that the scrubs misunderstand who has the power. This element of misdirection also builds a great dynamic in the story.

The scrubs in Inside Out have a secret hope. That hope is called Gateway. Scrubs are sick of the rules and the work and they want to be free from it all on the outside. But as the story goes on it is apparent that a lot of people have an interest in Gateway, no matter what their class. It is only the population police who seem to be concerned with it not being found and the rest of the population looking for it.

This book worked for me in so many ways it surprised me. The world building was great. Snyder created a great way for the different characters to interact with each other. Everything had a nice flow it and nothing felt particularly forced. There were a few moments I was confused on character motivations, but I am willing to accept or dismiss that. One of the best parts of Inside Out was definitely the ending. It makes me very, very eager for the second book Outside In.

Understanding Preschool

2011-02-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

While I was pregnant with my first child, who is now 7, I dreamed of being a wonder parent who gave her child every artistic and educational experience under the sun. And that said loving child would embrace every moment of every effort toward the betterment of her mental edification. But the realities of parenting are quite different from the expectations I set up for myself before I had a baby who would cry, have demands, and even worse, learn the word “no”.

My husband left me when I was pregnant with our second child. My first daughter was not even two at the time. And though I had planned out many toddler time activities for the months that she was inside me, I found it harder to execute them as consistently as I would have hoped. Then my world was flung into chaos and the way that I decided to cope with my misery was to devote myself to creating even more educational material for my almost 2 year old. I would print and color and laminate while she played on the floor at my feet.

She really liked the puppets that I made for her and also some of the books. She liked the fact that mommy made them for her. But other than that she wasn’t much into learning. I always thought that teaching her would be as simple as making it fun. But she was on to me, and she didn’t want to learn. I found a few ways around her road blocks, usually through music and movement. So many of my efforts became too much of a struggle I decided this wasn’t the kind of mother daughter nurturing that needed to be going on.

I decided that despite my best efforts I would be leaving my oldest daughter’s education up to the paid professionals. I didn’t know what to expect with my second daughter. I can admit that I felt a little dejected about the whole experience with my reluctant older daughter. But as it ended up, my younger daughter is beyond eager to learn and make use of all the materials I had gathered for her sister. She is 5 now and will be one of the oldest kids in her kindergarten class when she starts next fall. I have a renewed interest in trying to capitalize on the pre school years to establish basic skills, habits, and principles.

All of this is a very long way of saying that I was thrilled when I found an edition of The Write Start by Jennifer Hallissy on NetGalley a few months go. I immediately requested it, but I haven’t been able to squeeze in time to read it. I have been beyond busy running the Accelerated Reader program at my daughter’s elementary school. Literacy has been a passion of mine for many years and it feels great to be making even a minor difference in the reading lives of students. And now I can use some of the suggestions in this book to impact the writing life of my younger daughter.

Or at least I was hoping to. I adore The Write Start blog and I was really excited when I sat down with the book ready to apply some of the ideas. But I didn’t find it approachable enough because every section seemed to go over all the writing stages when I was only dealing with one. There was a lot of explaining why a practice was helpful, when I cared more about suggestions, examples, and projects. I was expecting to be able to sit down with my daughter and work on something directly out of the book. The major issue I had with The Write Start was that it was far too didactic and went into much more detail than I needed. I think if it was reorganized in a different way it could have been more approachable. I did skim through the book and it had a lot of great information, but it just what I was expecting or looking for.

Summary from The Write Start blog: 52 playful activities are presented as ideal ways to invite your child to write. Each activity offers specific suggestions to meet the needs of Scribblers (pre-writers), Spellers (emerging writers), Storytellers (beginner writers), and Scholars (more experienced young writers) -– providing the just-right combination of fun and functional skill development.

I felt when I was reading the book there was too much focus on the type of writers and I couldn’t focus on the fun part. Also compared to the content I had seen on the blog previously, I honestly felt a little uninspired by the supposed playful activities presented in the book. Honestly, it is hard for me to both share and feel my disappointment in this book when I feel like the author has always been an inspiration to me. But when I read her blog my mind is always shooting off into new ideas and figuring out ways to adapt her ideas to the needs of my children. But the way that the book was broken down stifled that for me quite a bit.

Another issue was simply that I did not see my daughter within the pages of this book. I wasn’t clear on how to classify her and what she would enjoy doing. She is clearly still a Scribbler but she desperately wants to be a Speller. And I think being in between those two places made it hard for me to find the activities that were right for her. But what The Write Start did do for me was start me on the process of working with her more. So I am grateful for that. It started me down the road and I went into a different direction. We have started working on beginning letter sounds and she has shown a very high interested in reading. This week I introduced her to her first sigh words and started a word wall. We printed out a book and assembled it together. I had her write a title for it and I was stunned at how easy it was. How eager she was, and how much fun she was having.

Maybe The Write Start was the right book for the wrong time. I would definitely consider looking at it again some other time. I will also continue reading the blog and other educationally related ones. I not only have many months before my younger daughter starts school, but my older daughter is still a reluctant learner. I am excited because my 7 year old loves it when she gets to be a teacher and I think this may be a way to make headway with her and refine some of her skills.

Can You Survive?

2011-02-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

I love Simon and Shuster’s GalleyGrab program. I have been able to get the opportunity to read some great titles, and check out books I never would have tried before. On a whim I decided to grab Can Your Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? This book releases today, make sure to track down a copy.

Ever since LTUE last year I have had a growing interest in zombies.

I am pretty much a wimp; I don’t do anything that’s scary. Zombies for me are parts of horror films and not in the type of books I like to read, but when I went to the LTUE panels about zombies I loved hearing how they have transformed over the years. Now Zombies are deeply rooted in ideas of dystopia and the end of the world.

This book by Max Brallier is pretty awesome because it is just like those choose your own adventure books you loved as a kid but this one is for adults. I was excited to see an adult choose your own adventure because I have been secretly longing for the opportunity to read such a book, even a kid’s one again. The zombie apocalypse is a perfect background for a choose your own story structure. I also really enjoyed the quality of the writing.

Do you want to know the best part about Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? I survived a lot longer than I ever did as a kid. When it comes down to it, no, I cannot survive. And while that may be a little disappointing living longer than 5 page turns has it’s perks too. The unique part about the path that I took was that it was the government that ended up taking me out, in true dystopian style. I was able to ward off the zombies just fine, but I made the mistake of trusting the government and they killed me for it.

I think that zombies are the perfect type of story to use the second person perspective with. Even in my writing above you can see how engrossing reading the story feels. The writing is so attainable, realistic, that I don’t feel a disconnect that I often felt when I read these stories as a kid. I couldn’t taste and smell those worlds.

The story sets up pretty well, telling you who you are and how you normally act. You are a 20 something at a job you don’t like when a zombie outbreak takes over Manhattan. You stand in horror in your New York City office. But that is just where the fun begins. There are 150 paths, 75 endings, and the best part, the countless references paying homage to zombie culture. I also especially liked the great illustrations that really brought me back to my original choose your own adventure experience.

Reality is Broken Tour Stop

2011-02-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

I need to first of all thank Lisa of TLC Book Tours for forgiving me about forgetting to post my review of this remarkable book last week like I was supposed to. When I first heard about this book on Twitter I was immediately interested. Jane McConigal has created a work that in title alone grabs my interest: Reality is Broken – Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. For me, the interest is two fold. The title connects with my dystopic sensibilities. If reality is broken, what does that mean for us who think they are content living in it? As far as the subtitle goes, I have always been a little bit of a closet gamer myself. I have played a fair share of hours on various RPGs and MMOs.

If all that wasn’t enough there is something very striking about the cover to me. When it first showed up in the mail my senses started tingling because of all the ways that this book looked interesting to me. Of course books are so much more than their cover, but it still doesn’t stop me from getting excited about them.

First line: “Gamers have had enough of reality.”

This first line of this book seems appropriate enough. Isn’t gaming a lot about escaping for a little while. It is the same reason why we read and watch movies. I think a lot of people have had enough of reality. But gamers seem to be a special breed of escapists.

“Who are they? They are the nine-to-fivers who come home and apply all of the smarts and talents that are underutilized at work….” To me this is one of the essential ways that reality IS broken. The way that as a society we have failed to find a way to take advantage of the mental resources of many individuals who are forced to support their family with mindless, menial work. These are only one type of gamer that McConigal writes about but she continues, “as they devote more and more of their free time to game worlds, the real world increasingly feels like it’s missing something.”

McConigal makes a strong case that this need to escape is a symptom we shouldn’t ignore. We can even use the ideas of gaming to boost productivity in homes and in school. Yesterday Reality Is Broken was reviewed in the L. A. Times. Reviewer Janice P. Nimura said of the book, “I was skeptical about the message in ‘Reality Is Broken.’ But Jane McGonigal is worth hearing out — her point in this provocative manifesto is that the energy and devotion that gamers pour into video games is a powerful force and that we are fools if we fail to harness it.” What McConigal brings to the table is a new perspective. I am pretty sure that anyone who reads her book could take something useful and motivating out of it, even if they weren’t buying into the concept.

Reality Is Broken does a nice job of balancing out approachability for both gamers and non gamers. If you game already you can find a little bit of yourself on the page, but if you don’t there aren’t a lot of references and jargon to confuse you. While the book may be a little over simplistic about the realities of life, the little fixes that McGonigal suggest throughout the book could easily be applied in different areas of many people’s lives.

If you think you would enjoy Reality Is Broken then you are in luck! The Penguin Press is offering one of my lucky readers a copy of the book. Leave a comment saying you are interested and you will be entered into the giveaway. Be sure to check out Mr. X’s review and enter HIS giveaway. Both contests end 2/12/2011 and are open to the US and Canada only. Be warned that if I don’t have a way to contact you I will not be able to pick you as a winner. Thanks again to Lisa, TLC Book Tours, The Penguin Press, and of course Jane McGonigal.

Lenore Presents Dystopian February

2011-02-07T05:29:00.000-07:00

Two times a year Lenore focuses on dystopia on her blog. And I find it overwhelmingly delightful. Well, it feels wrong to find dystopia anything delightful, but that is just how I am. Every time Lenore focuses on dystopia it just gets better and better. She does some really amazing author interviews. Here is what Lenore has in store for her readers:

Here's what I have on tap:

Reviews of over 20 dystopian novels, past, present and future - complete with my infamous Zombie Chicken Ratings. (Refer to my index of dystopian reviews for latest updates and past reads)

Interviews with authors of dystopian fiction.

Dystopian Mash-ups - These are fun posts where readers imagine their favorite characters dropped into other books. Could Elizabeth Bennett survive THE HUNGER GAMES? Would Katniss be best buds with Frankie from THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU BANKS? You tell me!

Previews of dystopian fiction coming out later this year and beyond.

Contests and book giveaways and more!

I always love to hear what Lenore has to say about the dystopian novels I have read. I admire her focus to be able to blog so well and so consistently. She always does a great job. I really hope you stop by and leave a comment or two for Lenore and maybe win some awesome prizes. If you get really lucky, you may find some dystopian reviews from me here on the blog, fingers crossed.

Books Read in January 2011

2011-02-06T14:30:00.001-07:00

1. The Passage by Justin Cronin (audio) - dystopian, post-apocalyptic
2. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (audio) - dystopian
3. Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block - young adult
4. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin (audio) - historical fiction
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 - graphic novel, steampunk?
6. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon - fantasy, young adult
7. The New Policeman by Kate Thompson - fantasy, Ireland, young adult

My favorite was Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. It is the most amazing fantasy novel I have ever read. I think this is the type of novel that could make a fantasy lover out of anyone.

Every year I promise myself that I will make sure to blog a monthly list of what I read, and every year I convince myself it will be too boring and that of course I will be able to remember. Which I can’t. So here it is!

To Read List 2011

2011-02-05T17:09:00.001-07:00

Since mid December I have been working on a reading list for the upcoming months. My intention was to post the list just for personal record. And time has passed and I never did. January is a lot like the month of never dids. As I mentioned in my last post, I did turn 30 and I do go on a book shopping spree but other than those things when I think back on the month it feels like the month of not happening. The last week has been the same way for me too. Where has all the time gone? Why is time folding in on itself and I am left wondering where it went? In a way it is almost haunting because in The New Policeman, the last book I finished, time really disappear and was being sucked into the fairy world.

There are so many things I want to do, and there are so many things I want to say. And I haven’t done it. I have set some mental goals for 2011. Among them are reading more, blogging consistently, reading one book from each challenge I have joined a month, and starting every book I acquire so that moment of initial excitement doesn’t escape into the ether.

In January I did not read all the books that I brought in like I had hoped. I also realized that maybe I was bringing in a few more than I should. So I am doing something I said I would never do. For the month of February I am banning myself from buying books. I have too much to read here. I have more review books than ever and so much I have been telling myself I would read. Looking at this list all ready I didn’t finish any of the books in the December list. I have been promising myself I needed to read Fahrenheit 451 and then another year passes and I still haven’t read it. I also did not read any of the books on the January list and I am VERY behind.

I hope to catch up soon. The titles with * are specifically for review. Wish me good luck because clearly I need it.

December
*The Write Start
*The Preparation of the Novel
*Trickster Girl
Inside Out
Fahrenheit 451
Harry Potter
Soulless
20 Years Later (audio)

January
~~Dust by Elizabeth Bear (audio)~~
*The Lost Gate
Graphic Women
*Angelfire
*Outside In by Maria V. Snyder
Irish Lit Dystopian Thesis
One for the Money
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
The Time Machine (audio)
“The Last Flight of Doctor Ain”
“The Screwfly Solution”
Black and White
*Vesha

February
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Two for the Show
Obris #1
Those That Wake
The Time Ships
Exile (audio)
The Dispossessed
V for Vendetta
*City Book
*Emily Dickensen – Feb 26th book tour stop

March
Ireland
*Awaken
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Islandia
The Healing Spell
Grace by Elizabeth Scott
*A World Without Heroes
The Queen of Everything
*UF book

April
’Tis
Dooms Day Book
The Limit
What Would Emma Do?
Miss Match
Lilith
13th Reality 2

What?

2011-02-03T21:17:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed that it has been entirely too long since I have posted. I was planning on starting 2011 really strongly but so far it has just been a lot of fizzle. Fortunately I AM reading more, but other than that, not much to report. I should be reviewing, researching, and blogging other things of interest and basically I am just sitting here wondering where January went. Here are some of the things I have failed to tell you about; these are also things I hope to tell you more about, but that probably isn’t likely.

I turned 30.
I went on a major book shopping spree in Las Vegas.
I became addicted to Good Reads.
I met Ally Condie, author of Matched (again).
I ate some yummy food.
I did the assembly and reading points store for the reading program.

Here are some books I read:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1
Wasteland
Alice I Have Been
Shades of Grey
The New Policeman

Here are some books I am currently reading:

The Lost Gate
Reality is Broken

Here are some books I should be reading soon:

Inside Out
Black and White
Triumph of the City

What have you been reading? What have you been doing? Don’t forget to leave me all the details!

Short Story Saturday–Tweetie Sweet Pea

2011-01-01T21:26:00.001-07:00

Even before I read The Waters and the Wild I have been fascinated by Francesca Lia Block. Every summary I had ever read from one of her books sounded like something I wanted to read. Though many of her books graced my wishlist, it took me a long time before I read one.

Francesca Lia Block has a simplistic style reminiscent of poetry. Sometimes, for me, the writing is a little too straight forward, a little too sparse. But there is something about her prose that connects with one’s understanding of magic that keeps me going back. Block writes something beyond urban fantasy; she calls it urban fairy tales and the genius of it is the way a reader can connect with moments of their own past through her writing. And thanks to Goodreads Swap I will soon be the proud owner of many new books by Block. The first one to show up was Girl Goddess #9, a collection of short stories published in 1996.

Today I sat down and read through the first story “Tweetie Sweet Pea” and I enjoyed it. First line: In the morning, her mother helped her put on the bathing suit with the cartoon bird baby on it. This story tells of a summer day in the life of Tweetie. A very young girl with “tufts of white hair, big blue saucer eyes, a little round tummy and skinny arms and legs.” She is at the age when she can absorb so much about the world around her, yet has little to say to add to it. Throughout the whole story Tweetie never says more than three words in a row.

I love the feeling of observation that this narration style created. I may have one complaint, the voice and word choice didn’t seem to fit with that from which the third person perspective is being viewed. I know it is not Tweetie’s voice we hear in the story but it is still informed by her voice, thoughts, and vision. There are a lot of places where Tweetie’s magical innocence is perfectly connected with the language used, but the moments when it doesn’t fit tend to stick out for me.

The short story is the highest form of literature in my eyes. When writing a short story you need to be the most economical with your words with out being ambiguous. I have also been known to be highly critical, and with this in mind, I find that some of the young adult short stories I read don’t live up to the quality I would like to see from these authors. I know they can write and I want to see more craft in the young adult short stories I am reading, and less thrown together stories that work and flow, but are missing that creative splash and tight style that has brought me to my love of short stories.

“Tweetie Sweet Pea” shows the combating forces we can feel in childhood, when we believe in magic but are told it doesn’t exist. When people tell us fairy tales but make sure we don’t believe in them. And the same in opposition, that even if we are young we understand the negativities of life. In the story Tweetie sees the world, understands it, but cannot express herself within it.

“Tweetie didn’t want to get out of the bucket where she fit so perfectly. Her father had to pick her up, kicking and wiggling, and deliver her into a chair that was too big. She missed her bucket. She might not fit in it so well in a few days.”

Ireland Reading Challenge

2011-01-01T01:35:00.005-07:00

Though I am American through and through, I do connect a strong part of my heritage and culture with the Irish. I have always admitted that were are more Irish in celebration than we are in blood, but I do have the name to back me up. I am planning on going to Ireland with my two daughters within the next year or two. I am looking forward to connecting with my past and my future through the reading choices I explore over the next 11 months.

Carrie at Books and Movies is hosting this challenge again. Sign up here. Details following:

~ The challenge runs from January 1, 2011 to November 30, 2011.

~ Any books read for this challenge can also apply to other challenges you are working on.

~ Re-reads are allowed.

~ Any book written by an Irish author, set in Ireland, or involving Irish history or Irish characters, counts for the challenge – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, audiobooks, children’s books – all of these apply.

~ Choose your commitment level:

Shamrock level: 2 books
Luck o’ the Irish level: 4 books
Kiss the Blarney Stone level: 6 books

Even though I am apprehensive about joining challenges this year I am going for the gold (at the end of the rainbow) and Kissing the Blarney Stone. Growing up my grandmother had a series of pugs. They had names like Murphy, Malarkey, and Blarney. It seems only like the only option to make the best of this reading opportunity. I am not sure where I am planning on starting but I do know I am going to read How the Irish Saved Civilization with Carrie and I am really looking forward to it.

1. The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
2. The Legend of Spud Murphy

2011 Graphic Novel Challenge

2011-01-01T01:21:00.003-07:00

I am thrilled that my friend Vasilly is hosting the Graphic Novel Challenge this year. We have had many great discussions on various types of books and I hope more will follow! For the past few years I have had a growing interest in graphic novels and manga. Much like how I felt about science fiction for a long time, I mainly wrote off graphic novels as something that just weren't for me. A friend of mine encouraged me to read Watchmen and that changed everything. I fell in love with the depth of Alan Moore, so expect to see me reading more of his titles in 2011. I already have V for Vendetta here and The League of Extraordinary Men Vol. 1 on its way to me. I have never been a huge fan of manga in the past, but I am using this opportunity to explore these type of books more. I recently received a box full of manga titles and I hope to find something I really connect with there.

Intermediate (3-10 books)
1. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1

Books Finished in 2011

2011-01-01T01:17:00.018-07:00

In the past I have joined a challenge to keep track of how many books I have read, but never officially because I keep track of when I finish books, not when I start them. This year I am going to do my best to simply keep up a list of everything I end up finishing.

1. The Passage by Justin Cronin (audio) - dystopian, post-apocalyptic
2. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (audio) - dystopian
3. Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block - young adult
4. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin (audio) - historical fiction
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 - graphic novel, steampunk?
6. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon - fantasy, young adult
7. The New Policeman (audio) by Kate Thompson - fantasy, Ireland, young adult
8. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (audio) - young adult, dystopian
9. Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton - young adult
10. The Dark Divine by Bree deSpain (audio) - young adult, paranormal
11. The Legend Of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer (audio) - children's, humor, Ireland
12. The Lab by Jack Heath (audio) - young adult, dystopian
13. Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund (audio) - young adult, science fiction
14. Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (audio) - young adult, zombie
15. The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth by Eoin Colfer (audio) - children's, humor, Ireland

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

2010-12-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
ISBN: 9781442412323
Grades: 9 and up

Thanks to the great Simon & Schuster Galley Grab Program I was able to get an eGalley of this collection of short stories by Holly Black. (Along with some other great books.) One of the hard things I have with short stories is that I don’t want to sit down and read them one after another. While this it is a challenge, it is also a joy. But it does make it hard to review a book that collects together so many various types of stories. So far I have only read the first story, “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.” I enjoyed it so much I almost don’t want to read any more stories for fear that this one will escape me.

Besides The Sipderwick Chronicles, I have never read one of Holly’s books. Even though there was no expectations “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” took me by surprise. The story is available to read in full online at BSC; I highly suggest you check it out. This story caught my attention for many different reasons. One of the reasons was that this story appears to be about one thing and sudden morphs into something else. Go, read it! I don’t want to spoil anything.

***Review from this point on may contain spoilers***

I have talked about it before but that isn’t going to stop me from talking about it again. I never know what I should or shouldn’t say about something that I have read. As a reader I don’t like to know anything about a book before I read it. Sometimes I feel like even knowing the genre tells you too much! On the other hand I want to be able to talk about this “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” in an in-depth way, thus the need for spoilers.

“Matilda was drunk, but she was always drunk anymore.” This is the first line of the short story and honestly I was a little unimpressed. I was kind of thinking we were going to get this whole little after school special feel going on. But that isn’t what is going on. What Holly Black is doing is writing one of the most interesting vampire stories I have read since Scott Westerfeld’s Peeps. In middle school The Vampire Diaries was my favorite series of all time. It was the Twilight of my generation without the mass hysteria. But like many things that dissipate with youth, so did my passion for the vampire story. What I realized then, as many soon will realize for themselves, was that I wasn’t enamored of the vampire story, but the romance of it all. I think what I loved the most about Peeps was it’s lack of romance, how it felt new and fresh and did vampire in a new way.

“The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” does new vampire in an even newer way. It takes some of the sensuality that draws us to the idea of vampires and makes a mockery of it. The idea of Coldtown, a walled city where they keep the vampires, has a dystopian vibe to me. And it won’t surprise you that this is one of the elements I enjoyed about it.

“She filmed the Eternal Ball, a party that started in 1998 and had gone on ceaselessly ever since. In the background, girls and boys in rubber harnesses swung through the air. They stopped occasionally, opening what looked like a modded hospital tube stuck on the inside of their arms just below the crook of the elbow. They twisted a knob and spilled blood into little paper cups for the partygoers.”

The Eternal Ball inside Coldtown is appealing and appalling at the same time. It reminds me of visions of hell, where you can live endlessly in sin and how it could get old very quickly. Yet from the outside looking in, part of you feels like you are missing out. Part of you feels like you wish you were there.

I also thought Holly took a unique view on the process of turning into a vampire. I always love fresh takes on old concepts. Matilda is an interesting, unique, and strong female character. I never quite new what was coming next with her. It all combined together to make this story feel so genius.

Now that I have gotten a chance to blog about this first story before my thoughts about it disappeared, I am feeling very eager to read more stories in the collection. I think the variety of stories will be a nice change for me and expose me to new types of stories. If you read “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” please share your thoughts with me!

Book Wish List

2010-12-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about Christmas is telling everyone about all the books that you want and having it be semi reasonable that a few actually make it your way. I am trying to do a really light Christmas this year. My girls will be spending the holiday with their father and I don’t think it is good for them to be swimming stuff after we double up on the holiday. So I have decided to make the best of the pre holiday time and get them just a few gifts. I have also told Mr. X that I am not planning on exchanging gifts with him. We will be getting some gifts for other people in our lives, but I already have too much STUFF in my life, and I really want to cut back.

Mr. X has already informed me that he no intention of following my suggestion. This combines me with a mix of guilt and excitement. Though I should consider it, I have decided not to waver on not getting him any presents this year. Christmas gifts for me have been very sparse over the past few years, excluding last year. My girls were really upset the year before last that I didn’t get more presents, so I made sure there was more than enough for me under the tree. This year I hope they won’t mind if there is less for everyone.

But despite all that, I can’t help making my book wish list anyway.

The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
Really great cover on this one. The snippets of summary I have read on this books makes it sounds like it is right up my alley.

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony
Again it is all about the cover, though I am starting to think this makes me a little shallow. Also I saw this listened on a dystopian novel list, though Joelle herself isn’t entirely sure she agrees. Even the suggestion of dystopia is enough for me. I think we use the term as an umbrella term because it helps us find the types of books we like to read.

Storm Thief by Chris Wooding
Recently read a review of this though I don’t remember hearing of it previously, it sounds like my kind of book.

The Returners by Gemma Malley
I adored The Declaration and I think that both Mr. X and I would love this book. I almost bought it when I was on my road trip and I really, really wish I had.

YA Dystopian Challenge Wrap Up

2010-12-19T20:12:00.001-07:00

I finished in the nick of time. I hoped to read twice as many books as a listed here within the timeframe of the challenge. As much as I love dystopian fiction I worry a little that I am getting burnt out on it. I definitely need to read something that isn’t related to science fiction in any way. I am just not sure what or when!

For this young adult dystopian challenge I read:
Hunger
Matched
Wither
The Hole in the Wall
Delirium

I finished Delirium at about 3am this Sunday. It may have been cutting it close but it felt good to get it done.

The Sunday Salon–Reflections

2010-12-19T05:05:00.001-07:00

I have probably said it enough here on the blog and on twitter, but this was not a good reading year for me. Life just got in the way and reading has slipped out of the priority position. I am working to remedy that. When you find yourself reading less do you push yourself to read more, or just go with the flow? Reading is a habit, like many of the things we do daily. I worry that if I stop reading I will fill up that time with a different habit. On the other hand, I want to read for fun, sometimes if I force myself to read that feeling is minimized. I think it is yet another catch-22 and I don’t really have a solution. When I want to watch TV or relax in another way I try not to feel guilty for not reading. But I also want to make reading a habit again. I think one of the best things I can do right now is really search out those books that are a perfect fit for what I want to be reading right now. This year that has definitely been a struggle, but I am determined to work on it more.

I am still trying to get more reading done before the end of the year so that I have some momentum going into the new year. A lot of people are reflecting on some of the books they enjoyed the most this year and I am going to take this opportunity to do the same.

When Going Bovine won the Printz award early in the year I drove straight to the library and checked it out. Even though I read it almost 12 months ago, its humor and quirkiness have stuck with me throughout the entire year. It was definitely a standout book. The majority of the other books I read I cannot say the same for.

One of the major highlights of my reading year was the young adult dystopian novel by local author Ally Condie. I could gush in a rambling, kind of senseless way about how much I loved this book. I don’t think it would help you very much because Matched is one of those books that is so good it takes all your words away. I really hope you get a chance to read it soon.

This year I have had the overwhelmingly exciting opportunity to read more ARCs than I ever have before. I am now a huge fan of eGalleys and their ability to aid me in accessing some of the upcoming dystopian works and other speculative fiction selections. One book in particular I was beyond excited to read was Wither. Like Matched I have a bit of a biased connection with the author. While Ally Condie lives in the same state as me now, Lauren DeStefano lives in the same state that I grew up in. So both authors are my current hometown heroes when it comes to dystopian literature. Wither was a highly unique and dark portrait of the future that I highly enjoyed.

There were two other surprise books for me this year that I really enjoyed. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson was a great read for me by another local author. I worried when I started reading his book that Sanderson would be too much fantasy for me, but Elantris was the perfect book for me to start with. I loved the politics that were weaved throughout the book. The other surprise book was Homeland by R. A. Salvatore. I asked Mr. X his favorite fantasy book and Homeland was his choice. Soon I will need to read the next book in the series entitled Exile and I am also waiting for the publication of the second Elantris book.

I see a lot of people suggesting it is too early to pick the best books of the year. What do you think? I won’t post an official list until I am done with my reading for the year, but it does get tricky to read as much as one would like during the holidays. I think it is a good time to start thinking about the books that you enjoyed this year. Especially when you take the time to consider things you read earlier to in year.

Today I will be working on the audio of The Passage again and I am hoping to finish some other book this weekend, though I have no clue which one. I assume the one that I pick up that manages to distract me away from the internet. I am enjoying some guilt free quality time with myself.

The Hole in the Wall

2010-12-17T03:05:00.001-07:00

The Hole in the Wall by Lisa Rowe Fraustino ended up being a very challenging read for me. I enjoyed it right from the beginning but the story began to lose my interest as it continued. This was unfortunate because it seemed to be written in a style that I enjoyed but the book lacked a driving force that pushed me through the book. The hardest part was the more I got into the book the less interested I became. I kept thinking I was just going through a bit of a rough patch and the story would pick up. But I became more and more disconnected with the events of the story. Nothing felt pressing or relevant.

This was by no means a horrible book, it just didn’t connect with me. It has some unique elements, interesting storytelling, and a strong voice. The story opens with a young boy sitting in his special place in the world. A hideaway he called the hole in the wall. The boy is seeing some beautiful, vivid colors swirling around him. The image is striking and compelling. The rest of the story could not evoke the same level of interest from me.

Summary from NetGalley:

Eleven-year-old Sebby has found the perfect escape from his crummy house and
bickering family: The Hole in the Wall. It’s a pristine, beautiful glen in the midst of a
devastated mining area behind Sebby’s home. But it’s not long after he’s found it that
his world starts falling apart: His family’s chickens disappear, colors start jumping off
the wall and coming to life, and after sneaking a taste of raw cookie dough he finds
himself with the mother of all stomachaches.

I read this book hoping that it would have dystopian elements. And maybe there were some dystopic themes, maybe in the vein of Holes. The story is based on control and lies, but the themes get muddled with so many other details. There was a lot going on and a lot of characters passing in and out, You could classify it as a big adventure. And if I were a kid and this story happened to me it would feel pretty grand.

At the end of the day I am not really sure what genre this story falls into and maybe that is part of the problem I had with it. It didn’t feel like it was grounded in any one thing. What I can say about The Hole in the Wall is that is a unique book, if you are looking for something different than what you have read before, this would be a good choice.

The Sunday Salon–Rambles

2010-12-05T14:37:00.001-07:00

Good morning fellow bloggers and blog readers. It isn't technically morning anymore, but Sundays tend to have that morning all day kind of feel. Also, I haven't been up for very long. :) I started my morning off with a bath and a cup of coffee. I started Silver Phoenix there, which I have been meaning to read for a few months now, or maybe since I got it for myself sometime around last Christmas.

I am totally overwhelmed by all the house cleaning I have to do and how every single year I procrastinate on getting the tree up. I said I would do it on Dec. 1rst and it is 4 days later and it still isn't done. Sure, 4 days doesn't seem like a lot but then it blooms into more and more, and I am putting the tree up on Christmas Eve again.

I am doing an very small Christmas this year. There is very little anyone in the house needs and I have been desperately trying to declutter for the last few months. And decluttering is what I should be doing right now.

I was reminded to take part in The Sunday Salon after reading a great post by Vasilly earlier today. And then I got to talking to her on Twitter and now two hours have passed and I only have a small portion of my post done. Vasilly and I had a fascinating talk about reading and writing in the public school systems and what we currently observe and what we would like to see change. This has been a passion of mine for many, many years and it was refreshing to find someone willing to let me blather on about the subject. One of the things we talked about was writing poetry with young children and I was reminded of one of my favorite writing books of all time. It is called Starting with Little Things and I highly recommend it. A few years ago I even wrote a little post about it.

I would recommend this book, along with Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine, to ANYONE interested in writing, but especially to parents, teachers, and kids. I was overwhelmed with how much this little book improved my writing.

Vasilly and I also discussed some great books that kids can read to connect with poetry in a new way. Two of our favorites were Love that Dog by Sharon Creech and Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and I also loved Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. I love books that are about connecting kids with their creative voice. Do you have any books to recommend like that?

My reading life has slipped, once again, into something weak at best. I seem to go in trends when I want to do more audio or more paper, but lately I have been wanting to read the majority of my books on ebook. I have been pushing through The Hole in the Wall from NetGalley for way too long now. My goal was to finish it over Thanksgiving break at the latest. But that didn’t happen. Thanksgiving was more stressful than I even imagined and I am still recovering from it.

Last night I started a few more ebooks but I am struggling to really connect with something. I did start The Silver Phoenix this morning and I have mixed feelings about it, though it does look promising. In some ways I am looking forward to next year as a way to kind of renew my reading experiences.

What are you looking forward to about 2011?

The Sunday Salon–Thanksgiving Thoughts

2010-11-21T12:25:00.001-07:00

It is a snowy Sunday morning here in Utah and Mr. X has just left to return home. He has quite a bit of preparations to do before Thanksgiving and I am getting excited to have a holiday. I will be heading with my girls to celebrate our first holiday with his family on Tuesday. There are a bit of nerves involved too. I am sure all will go well.

I am making my girls an activity kit in case they get bored while we are away. I don’t really know what to expect but I want to set aside some quality time with them anyway. This is the first Thanksgiving I have had with them in 4 years. To me, Thanksgiving is about family. I don’t have any family nearby, so I always let them go with their dad who was born and raised in this town. So this is all kind of new and I have a scavenger hunt and a few crafts in mind. I hope we find time to do at least some of them, but if we don’t need them all it means things are going well.

Do you have any special Thanksgiving traditions? What time is your Thanksgiving meal? With my dad’s family we always had a Thanksgiving breakfast and a very late Thanksgiving dinner. It is interesting how much the day can vary from family to family when the general centerpiece stays mostly the same. Does your family have any special foods they always serve? I think now that my family is transitioning, I am more curious about these things. I think family traditions make things extra special. And as the girls are getting older than can be more involved in helping and making the best of it.

Holidays always end up being a catch-22 for me. I usually really want to read and relax but the visiting and festivities take up more time than I expect. I will be away for about 5 days and I think I should be able to get a balance of both. One book I will definitely be reading is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For whatever reason I still haven’t read the last book in the Harry Potter series though excluding the first one, I really enjoyed the rest of the series. I didn’t dislike the first Harry Potter, it just didn’t hit anything inside of me. Mr. X desperately wants to go and see the movie and I told him not until I’ve read the book. Luckily he has it there waiting for me.

Do you get much reading done over the holidays? Sometimes I resent being an adult. I don’t like having to plan things; I don’t like being the one in charge. When I was younger holidays were always about reading time. I would read until the food was ready or until we had to head somewhere else. But now I am the one cooking and prepping and there isn’t time to read. I still emotionally connect holidays with reading time and feel a little sad when I don’t find time to do it.

Today I am getting some reading done too. I have been struggling finding the time and the inclination to read lately. Unfortunately this seems to be a sort of theme for the year. I am trying to not feel too bad about this since life changes or at least shifts and we have different focuses at different times. The irony of it all is that while working hard to motivate kids to read I have some how robbed myself of the privilege.

Today I will be listening to the audio of The Passage. I have heard mixed things about it and I feel mixed things about it myself. Overall I think it was a great audio choice for me. The book does feel a little bloated and I am a slowish reader anyway. I think I would have felt pretty frustrated if I was trying to read it in paper.

The book does have some unique elements but is a little too vast for my tastes. It switches perspective a little too much and especially on audio it can be a little difficult to piece together. That and I am just over 10% done with the book. I know I would be totally overwhelmed looking at all the pages I had left to read if I had the book here with me.

There are two other books I am switching between in ebook format. It is interesting because I got more serious about NetGalley and other ebook/egalley options when we got our Nook, but I have yet to read one of my NetGalley selections on the Nook. Ebooks on the computer are both a blessing and a curse. It can be easier to fit in time to read while you may be doing other things, but it is also incredibly easy to be distracted away from them. I like to read on my netbook with the lights off before bed. I disconnect the internet and read a few pages. Last night I read about 50 pages of Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann before bed and then when I was done I just close the netbook. It works really well for me, though I have heard a lot of people complain about reading on backlight screens. I figure I do enough of it for blogs, twitter, and chatting, for some books I don’t mind either. I will be reading more of Cryer’s Cross today. I want to try and get half way through before the weekend is over. I am really enjoying the book so far. Has anyone else read it?

I was a huge fan of the book Wake, but I didn’t feel like Fade showed any growth in writing or character. I was really disappointed in it. I still want to read Gone though I am not racing out to buy it.

Considering all that I was honestly a little apprehensive about Cryer’s Cross. I didn’t have to be though. It surprised me with how much I like the details of the character and the inclusion of the quirky little moments we have almost every day that make life ours. I have no clue where the story is going and I am really enjoy that aspec t of the book.

Finally I hope to make some more progress in The Hole in the Wall. I am reading this book incredibly slowly for as much as I am enjoying it. I don’t know if it is the book’s fault or my fault that I can’t seem to return my attention to the book. When I am reading it I feel fully engaged, but there is nothing really drawing me back in when I stop to do something else. Not yet at least. It is odd because there is nothing turning me off about the book. I like so many of elements, characters, and themes. I guess that means it is me after all. My goal is to get this book finished by midnight the day after Thanksgiving. Do you think I can do it?

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

2010-11-15T09:07:00.001-07:00

“Normal people didn’t perceive the otherworldly that hover in this world. It’s a Darwinist safety switch in the mind, something to help keep humans from screaming at shadows. But deep in our souls, or our collective unconsciousness, we know those things we hesitate to define are there, walking among us. We know, even if we don’t see.”
– Page 114 of Hunger

The concept of Hunger is like no book I have ever read before. It is genius and basic at the same time. The idea of the apocalypse has slipped from the pages of the Bible into common knowledge and while people know varying details of what they expect to come, there seems to be a sort of acceptance, if only on a mythological level. Jackie Morse Kessler has found a way to tap into our basic understanding of the apocalypse to create a unique and compelling story. With all the dystopian fiction I have read, it feels quite refreshing to find something that is different. Hunger feels new and refreshed from the same out dystopian story.

The line between apocalyptic and dystopian has blurred and both type of fiction have become popular under the single idea of dystopia. It may not be surprising that we have become obsessed with the horrors of the end of the world, and the possibility that hope will follow. As we approach 2012, more and more speculation about the end of days comes to a head. How is it that the Mayans have so much power over us now? As a society we like the fear of place markers in time, it was about ten years ago when Y2K was on the minds of everyone, had people sitting on the edge of their seat watching the news.

No mater where you drawn your lines in the sand of speculative fiction Hunger is interesting. It hinges on the concept of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death seen within the pages of the Bible. There horsemen are seen as harbingers; they foretell the coming of the apocalypse.

“We destroy,” Pestilence says. “That’s all we’ve ever done.” p. 147

Kessler pushes these Horsemen beyond mythology into reality and takes us on a surreal adventure. “Lisabeth Lewis didn’t mean to become Famine.” And thusly the story begins. We learn that Lisabeth has an understanding of hunger, for she is anorexic. And the irony of this is the wash of the story. The personal battles of such a disorder juxtapose well to the human consequences of famine and the other negativities of the harbingers. But the book is quite slim for dealing with so many issues. Especially trying to deal with the scope of the end of days, there is a lot of meat lacking.

Hunger does capture many of the dynamics between teens and the other people in their lives realistically, but I think there may be too much going on in this novel for the number of pages contained in it. This could be a really well written story about the effects of anorexia on relationships, but the author wanted to push beyond that. And ends up a little over extended. The Horsemen are such a dense and interesting topic to focus on, yet the details of this are not fleshed out enough. Part of this is intentional, for Lisa knows no more about the experience of being a Horseman than the readers do. The author has tried to let the reader explore and discover in the same way as the main character, but unfortunately too much is left out.

Despite all this Hunger was an enjoyable read and I was excited to be able to review it thanks to NetGalley. There is something exceptionally exciting about reading a book before it is released and I was lucky enough to be able to do this with Kessler’s book. Unfortunately, life got in the way a little and I wasn’t able to get the review up before the release date. But as more time passes I feel I more impacted by the book than I initially thought I was. It is interesting how sometimes it is only the passing of time that makes a book bloom. This doesn’t erase the issues I had with the book, it just makes them less significant.

Unfortunately, even with the time that has passed the whole story of Hunger seems a little emotionally stilted. It focuses too much on the forward progression and not on the reality of the moments. But while the book may have too many elements and not enough detail, it does have a lot of unique details. They can continue to blossom in your mind, as they fail to do on the page. In a way, the story becomes more alive in the mind of the reader than it is on the page.

Hunger is the first book in series and I am very eager to read the forth coming books. Kessler has a worthwhile voice that brings depth to young adult fiction.

In closing I would like to share one of the most compelling aspects of this novel, the Thin voice. This was the inner voice that Lisa hears, her eating conscience, that counts her calories, reminds her she’s fat. It reminded me very much of the voice that many teens have to face when dealing with body image and issues of self worth. This voice was almost haunting in quality and really brought a unique dimension to this story.

A diet is temporary, the Thin voice said knowingly. Being thin is forever.

The Sunday Salon– Animal House

2010-11-14T03:52:00.001-07:00

Well, I am extremely pleased with the events of my weekend. Besides an unfortunate migraine or two, it was all pretty amazing. I had a very busy week at the school working on my reading program. The Accelerated Reader program is finally off the group and people are starting to get excited about it. All last week and this upcoming week I am going into the classrooms and reading the students How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.

This book is absolutely adorable, ties in with our theme for the year, and has an AR quiz. The kids seem to be enjoying sharing it with me. I am starting to build a relationship with them and many students will come up to me and tell me what they are reading or how many points they have earned. After prepping and distributing all the supplies and reading to 7 classes I was ready for a relaxing weekend.

Well, relaxing wasn’t really what I got. On Saturday I got up early to go to a swap meet. It was a blast, but it meant that I didn’t get to sleep in. Later in the day I also went to the pet store and got a free kitten.

I would like you to meet Murray. He is a 2 month old alien/yodaish looking kitten that looked very lonely all by himself at the pet store and therefore needed to come home with me. Mr. X named him Murray after one of the characters in Flight of the Concords.

I am not exactly sure what I was thinking but now that Murray and the other animals are having a hard time adjusting to each other at 3am, I am pretty sure this wasn’t a good idea.

You see, Murray isn’t the first pet I have gotten recently. It seems that getting second hand pets are a bit of trend for me.

My daughters have been begging for a kitten ever since the new pet store opened and Mr. X took them in there and mentioned that maybe we should get a kitten.

I have been wanting an orange kitty for about 3 years now. So I finally told the girls that if they had an orange kitty at the pet store we could take it home. We checked a couple of times, but no orange kitty. Until Murray of course. But here’s the thing…

Meet Milo. I brought him home from my ex’s house last Sunday. Here we are in the car driving home. I went to pick up my daughters after their time with their dad and a little kitten greeted me at the door. Milo, you might not be able to tell from this angle, is a very handsome cat. He has some amazing markings. Ends up he was looking for a new home, so we decided to try him out.

Here’s the thing though…. a few months ago I got a call from my ex offering me this little critter.

Meet Coco a one year old miniature lab mix. She is a bit of a trouble maker but pretty good as long as I keep an eye on her. My ex had gotten her as a puppy but realized he couldn’t give her the kind of attention she needed. So she came to live with me. How could I say no? Otherwise the girls would lose their puppy.

Coco came to live with me and a grumpy guy named Guss.

The interesting thing about Guss is that he is a white cat. You can see that clearly from this picture of him!

Okay, you can’t see it clearly, but really he is a white cat with black stripes, you can see some of his white under fur on his neck. Guss is one of the most grumpy cats you will ever meet. He hates other animals, so how do you tink he is feeling right now?

It may not surprise you that a few years ago I got a call from my ex saying that Guss wasn’t getting along with the rest of his animals and would I want him. I left it up to the girls and they said they wanted him to come live at our house with me. After all that though, he seems almost content to have all these visitors here now. He reminds them to stay out of his way, he likes keeping to himself.

A few people asked to see pictures of my new kitty, so I thought I would share with the class. Milo and Murray have been fighting all day, but finally they are curled up quite near each other. Murray doesn’t not like to be alone, up until now he has been curled up on me the whole time.

In the middle of all of this I have been reading Wither by Lauren DeStefano. It has been a great treat to get the opportunity to start this YA dystopian novel before its release date. I have been eager for it since I first heard about it and so far it isn’t disappointing. Isn’t the cover amazing? And the concept is unique and I am curious to see where the book and the rest of the series will go.

The best thing about Wither is that it reminds me of one of my favorite dystopian novels of all time, The Declaration by Gemma Malley. Yet it goes in a totally different direction. I hope to find plenty of relaxing time to read as much of Wither as I can.

What have you read or will you be reading this weekend? Are you starting to think about getting reading done for the end of the year? Do you have any challenges you still need to complete?

Green Book Campaign and 2017

2010-11-10T15:08:00.001-07:00

My day was a lot busier than I had expected and I have not been sleeping well, all of this makes for a late review and I need to apologize to Raz at Eco-Libris for that. I was supposed to have this review up several hours earlier but sometimes life just gets in the way. I was supplied with The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd by the publisher for the 2010 Green Book Campaign. I am honored to be a part of this event in the blogosphere (even if I did mulligan my portion of it.) I was excited to read a dystopian book for this campaign because many environmental issues go hand in hand with dystopian fiction. The environment is a major cause for many dystopian societies. Reviewing a book in a series can be difficult because I never know exactly how much I want to say. There is almost no way to talk about this book without spoiling the first one. I am going to talk about some of elements of the Carbon Diaries series as a whole.

The concept of the series is that carbon rationing has begun in Great Britain. Through both books we are able to see the impact of this. The interesting things about these books is that 2015 (the time period for the first book) isn’t that far away. In ways it is easy to relate with the books and see how their events can relate to us. In other ways the books are so close to NOW, it just feels a little bit off base. Or maybe that is just our own wishful thinking. In the opening pages of The Carbon Diaries 2017 the author shares with her readers an interesting story about what inspired her novels.

“About three years ago I walked past a newspaper stand and the lead story in one paper was all about how we are going to fry, and in another how we are going to freeze to death unless we tackled climate change. I remember thinking ‘Whoah! Which on is it?’ before stepping about a roller-coaster research ride of heart-stopping bad news about how we’re messing up the world. But the strange thing was, the more I found out, the less scared I got and the more I wanted to start fighting for the future.”

The fight for the future is really prevalent in Llody’s books. There is a realism in The Carbon Diaries 2015 and The Carbon Diaries 2017 that really rings through. The voice is extremely authentic. And I don’t think there is any better way to connect with the realities of in a teen than in diary format. One of the most striking elements about The Carbon Diaries 2017 is the unique diary/scrapbook feel it has to it. These added visuals really added depth to the story.

Green book are probably you don’t think about very much, but maybe you should. If you are a book lover like me do you consider the resources that are being used to create this thing you love to possesses? I also love that Saci Lloyd’s story goes beyond the pages of her book. Through her author note and the production of the book we understand her personal dedication to the environment. On the back flap of the book it says “This book is printed on environmentally responsible paper, FSC Natures B19, 30% post-consumer waste. In addition, the printing process and ink reduce VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions and use less energy. The paper meets the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. FSC is widely regarded as the best practice in forest management, ensuring the highest protections for forests and indigenous peoples.”

Teen Author Festival

2010-11-02T00:26:00.001-06:00

From the moment I found out about the Teen Author Festival I knew I would be going. Provo is a bit of a far drive for me, so we sent a friend to the library when the tickets for the Scott Westerfeld keynote became available. Unfortunately, he was told the tickets to the free event sold out in 2 hours. So no guaranteed seats for us, we were told there would be a stand by land and we planned on parking our butts into it an hour or so before show time.

Saturday morning came and I wasn’t feeling a 100%. Mr. X and I scrapped our early departure plans for a more relaxed morning. We were running late but weren’t entirely sure we would have made it into the keynote address so we weren’t particularly worried. It was going to be a fun day and there were lots of authors to meet, and I had a bag full of books waiting to be signed.

Somehow Mr. X and I were both under the understanding that keynote started at 11am, but we were both blatantly wrong and arrived just in time to stand in the line for non ticketed attendees for a nominal amount of time.

The other people in line seemed pretty excited too. There were a lot of teens, which was the whole point of the event, though it did make me feel a little on the old side. We watched a few authors walk by us and check in at the table in front, it was also where we found our maps and schedules. Mr. X and I were trying to plan out our schedule for the day, but a lot of the others waiting were chilling out, reading. Just like any good book festival attendee should do!

This was the first time the Teen Book Festival was held and the Provo City Library did a great job with it. They had a nice offering of panels; one for each hour after the keynote address of the festival. They were Fantasy, YA Lit, and Romance. If I had one complaint it was that there wasn’t a listing of who was on each panel but you had to see what panel an author was on by what time they would be on one and cross referencing it with the times of the panels. It wasn’t difficult but there ended up being a lot of page flipping while I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my day.

Ally Condie and Robert Frost

2010-11-01T01:01:00.001-06:00

The almost-snow reminds me of a line from a poem we studied this year in Language and Literacy: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” It is one of my favorites of all the Hundred Poems, the ones our Society chose to keep, back when they decided our culture was too cluttered. They created commissions to choose the hundred best of everything: Hundred Songs, Hundred Paintings, Hundred Stories, Hundred Poems. The rest were eliminated. Gone forever. For the best, the Society said, and everyone believed because it made sense. How can we appreciate anything fully when overwhelmed by too much?

- Matched, page 29

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
--
Robert Frost

Hey Guys!

2010-10-31T00:02:00.004-06:00

Long time, no blog! I know, but life has been super busy. And I am considering that a good thing.

Today was a very good day. There are so many things to tell you about that I just don't have time to explain them all right now. One of the highlights of my day was definitely meeting Jennifer A. Neilsen. Have you ever heard of her? She is a Utah author whose middle grade book recently released. She explained the book to me as Series of Unfortunate Events meets The Spiderwick Chronicles, and really that sounded right up my alley. I have some great pictures that I took of her, but for the moment they are stuck on my camera.

I guess it would help if I told you the title of this book, wouldn't it? First, go get a pen and paper. Really....go!
*waits*

Okay the title of Jennifer A. Nielsen's book is Elliot and the Goblin War. This book is the first in a series and has some amazing illustrations by Gideon Kendall.

There is so much more I want to tell you about my day. For now it will have to wait. I am horribly behind on all my blogging and I hope to rectify that fact soon. Sometimes when I get behind I feel a little bit too much like I am drowning though. You ever feel like that?

In the meantime, ponder this:

"When he was eight years old, Elliot Penster started and interspecies war."

Great first line isn't??? Hope you are all doing well. Leave me some comments and let me know you stopped by.

Yours Truly,
Thwizzle

The Sunday Salon – Dystopian Diet?

2010-10-17T05:52:00.003-06:00

My sleep has gotten a little bit wacky over the past few days. I have not been getting enough sleep at night which leads to weird nap times and then staying up too late again. So here I am, basically wide awake at 5:30 in the morning. The only saving grace is the fact that it is Sunday and not a more active day of the week. I have a lot of stuff to get done this week and I am trying to relax and be productive at the same time. I think that may be a conflict of interest.

The silver lining to this sleeplessness is that I have been steadily making my way through the audio of The Windup Girl. After it’s recent success and all the interest from many of my friends, I was beyond eager to read this book, but now I am trying to read it and I cannot get into it. The book is different from what I expected, though I am not sure what exactly it was that I was expecting. Usually when I am reading dystopian/science fiction books they connect with my own world. There are a lot of science fiction books where that isn’t true, but I tend to read books that connect with out world. And even though The Windup Girl is very much in our world, using names of places that I know, yet the whole thing feels so intensely foreign.

I have heard from a lot of people that this book is hard to get into. But on the other hand most of these people seem to think it is worth it. But for me, a book that takes so long to get into, no matter how wonderful almost isn’t worth it. A book that is hard to get into is failing in craft in some way.

It is definitely frustrating when you can’t get into a book you were excited to read. Not to mention that it took about 40 pages before the windup girl came into the story. After restarting and restarting the book because I couldn’t grasp much of anything that was going on, I finally decided to just push through the words. Now that I have made some progress, I really want to go back and review some of the earlier parts of the book.

Have you read The Windup Girl? What did you think about it?

The Lost Entwife is hosting a read-a-long for 1984 and we are supposed to be done discussing part one of the book (88 pages in my edition) later today. I still have quite a bit of reading to do, though I am loving re-reading this book. This book is so essential to the understanding of dystopia and is one of the most common books that is help up as an example, and sometimes even a definition, of dystopia. Re-reading 1984 is an exceptionally slow experience. I am trying to record note, thoughts, and research for each chapter so that I know I have a firm understanding of the details of the novel. I have also decided to try and do a post for the blog for each chapter of the book. I am worried about it getting a little tedious for my readers, so I am trying to brainstorm the best way to do this without being completely mind numbing.

Since the last time I posted I was able to finish two books. Both of these will count for the YA dystopia challenge I joined. I finished Matched, which was amazing. For now I am waiting to review it because I was hoping to head to an event with Condie but it seems like I may not be able to make it. Look for my comments towards the end of the week either way. The other book I finished was Hunger. Originally I wasn’t going to use this towards the challenge because I started it before the challenge started, but it took me so long to finish I decided to include it anyway. The book was good though, that wasn’t the issue with finishing it. Life was the issue! A review of Hunger will be up very very soon because the book will be released on Tuesday! I found it to be a unique book and was surprised with how much I liked it.

Do you make the best of your Sundays or do you already feel like the weekend is slipping away? I have a lot of reading and housecleaning to get done today. But I also have a lot of sleep to get in too. I better slip into dreamland before the sun comes up now. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and a super relaxing Sunday.

Stuck in the Middle Again

2010-10-10T21:14:00.001-06:00

I am once again stuck in the middle of several books. Some of them are even the same books I was in the middle of last time this happened. I definitely need to schedule myself some computer free reading time from now on. I have too many books I want to read, too many reviews I want to write, too many challenges I want to participate in.

I have been doing a lot of book lists to see what I have been reading and what I should be reading. Here is one I write a few weeks ago.

~~Rae by Chelsea Swiggett (currently reading)~~ FINISHED
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (started)
Book I haven’t finished yet (Cherry Heaven, ~~Never Let Me Go~~, The Iron Heel) FINISHED Never Let Me Go
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre (need to track down)
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (audio, saving for steampunk challenge starting Oct. 1)
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (started)
Epic by Conor Kostick
Exile by R. A, Salvatore (audio)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (group read/steampunk, waiting until Oct. 1)

I still really want to read most of these books I have not made process in any of them besides finishing Rae. In the next few days I really want to finish Matched and Hunger, both dystopian YA. I would like to finish Mississippi Trial, 1955 and The Clockwork Three, both by Utah authors. And there are many more books I would like to be starting and challenges I would like to be working on. Like before I think that getting a book finished will really help motivate me some, unlike before I am not in a rut, I have just been super busy. It is up to me now to find the time to read even though my life is busier than ever before.

Do you have to set aside time to read or does it just fall naturally into your life?

Matched by Ally Condie

2010-10-09T21:45:00.001-06:00

“Now that I have found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?”

Matched, first line

The book fair is over and I feel like I have a few moments to myself. For more than a week I have been dreaming about reading Matched by Ally Condie, but I haven't been able to find the time. I have set this weekend aside as a way to recover from the hours of work I put into the book fair. I am at a cabin on the lake to relax for a day or two. It is nice to feel apart from the world, to feel like I am getting away. Especially since my dystopian reading has fallen to the wayside for a few moments while the rest of life frantically demands my attention.

It is interesting to be at a place like this and think about concepts like utopia and dystopia. When there are just a few people set apart from the world like we are here, it is easy to believe that utopia is attainable. Both utopia and dystopia play with the idea of hope, they both try an conceptualize hope for the future, one through the possibility of growth and change and the other by modeling this.

Scholastic Book Fair – Day Two

2010-10-06T06:24:00.001-06:00

Well, I had a set budget for the book fair and I kind of splurged a little. All I can say for myself is that it IS a fundraiser so I it is going to a good cause. The hardest part about working at the book fair is that all the book lovers congregate around the cases and start reading the backs of books. You hear, “This sounds good!” “Did you see this one?” No, no, no! My budget doesn’t want to hear that!

My co-chair pointed out two books to me that I would have definitely looked over otherwise. We both love to read, especially YA and MG books, but we mostly focus on different genres. Which is nice, because we tend to fill in each other’s gaps. She like fantasy, ghost stories, and other Halloween/horror type books. I, on the other hand, focus on science fiction and more general fiction than she does. Overall, we generally end up looking at most of the books and know what they are about. The two books in particular that she pointed out to me caught my eye as well, but looked a little too fantastical for my interest. I didn’t even bother reading the back of them.

This is not the cover that the Scholastic book fair has. The cover we saw just has a feather standing upright and some mist. It is definitely more eye catching for me than this cover. This cover has almost no appeal to me.

My friend picked up Kandide and the Secret of the Mists and started reading the back to me. It instantly connected with me. With ideas of dystopia, identity, vanity, self worth, and other elements of fiction that are interesting me right now.

“When a tragic accident leaves her less than perfect, her own mother casts her away to a treacherous world where strange beasts roam the dark, lifeless forest and even stranger Fae rule the land. Kandide must battle hideous creatures, as well as her own internal repulsion for the 'Imperfects' she is now like, if she is to survive.”

This world of the Imperfects fascinates me and definitely reminds me of some of the dystopian themes I have seen explored in other books. And even though this book wasn’t remotely close to being on my wishlist, it ended up in the stack of books I intended to buy. I often struggle with fantasy books, though I have been pushing myself to try and read more of them and I really think this one is a perfect fit for me. I hope that the book ends up being as interesting as the premise sounds.

The next book that was pointed out to me is The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki. The interesting thing we discovered about this book was that it would really appeal to both male and female readers, but we felt like the cover would really alienate boys and keep them from even reading the back cover. We both love the cover of this statue girl holding a book, but it is too soft and feminine to appeal to readers of both gender.

It can be frustrating knowing that boys generally will not even glance at a book that looks like it is for girls, while girls seem more interested in a broader spectrum of books. Connecting with male readers seems to be a continuing struggle in education and with parents. There are lots of great books out there that would probably interest boys if they were just packaged a little bit differently.

“Eddie Fennicks has always been a loner, content to lose himself in a mystery novel by his favorite author, Nathaniel Olmstead. That’s why moving to the small town of Gatesweed becomes a dream come true when Eddie discovers that Olmstead lived there before mysteriously disappearing thirteen years ago.”

My co-chair kept saying, “This is a boy book, this doesn’t look like a boy book. Why doesn’t this look like a boy book? Oh look! There’s a dragon on the front. You can’t even see it until you read the book. How am I going to get people to know this is a boy book?” She is the mom of a now grown reluctant male reader, so she really connects with the need to find books that will not only interest boys, but will have the type of cover art that appeals to boys.

Michael Buckley, the author of the Sister’s Grimm series, has a new book series out that is very male oriented and appeals instantly to the majority of male readers. I am honestly surprised that we haven’t seem more books from this series in the checkout stand, but I heard of boys really enjoying them. The Nerds series starts with the aptly named NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. And we are selling both books 1 and 2 at the book fair. Although I have been trying to stick firm to my budget, I couldn’t resist the urge and both books ended up in my buy pile today.

These books look really fun to me. When I was flipping through them I loved the artwork done at the headers. It is similar to the circuit board motif you can see in the Nerds title on the cover. This reminds me of another book I bought at a fair last year, Cyberia. It also reminds me that despite my best intentions, I haven’t finished it yet. I even saw that Cyberia was nominated for an award recently. Hopefully I will get Cyberia, Nerds, and my other book fair selections finished in a timely manner. It is something I need to work on!

Would any of these books make it into your buy pile? I hope Wednesday ends up being another great day at the book fair!

Happy reading!

Scholastic Book Fair – Day One Favorites

2010-10-05T14:05:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here at the book fair before another long day of work. We are having a very successful book fair so far this time and it is really exciting to see people buying books for their children. I just wanted to write a quick post talking about some of our best sellers. One of the best thing about book fairs is being exposed to new books and having conversations with other book lovers.

One of our teachers loves the Missing series and we have been able to use her endorsement to sell quite a few of the books in the series. The Scholastic book fair has the first three books in this series all in hardback. People seem to be

excited about buying them, but also about sharing the experience of reading with others. I haven’t gotten to read Found yet, I have been wanting to and this book fair has made me even more eager to do so. Haddix is a really popular author around here and we spend a lot of time recommending books that aren’t even available at the book fair.

Of course I have been pushing The Clockwork Three by local author Matthew Kirby so we are sold out of those. It is nice to see that people are interested in the books I have to share with them.

I adore the cover to this book. The Scholastic book fair edition doesn’t have the three characters on the front. I think I like this other cover a little better, but the artwork is striking on both covers. Today we even brought in an article about the author and how he came to write the book. Haven’t had a chance to glance at it yet, but hopefully I will soon.

Every year we have a new “There was an old lady who…” book out. At first I thought they were cute but they are getting kind of old to me, but not for the other people around here. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves has been flying off the shelves. I can see the appeal of teaching with these kinds of books, but I am not dying to have them for my personal collection. I like the type of books that you can sing rather than read. My girls really love it when I sing them books. But it seems like the more Old Lady books there are the more lax they get about making the words fit into the original tune. Do you like these kinds of books?

Do you know what scanimation is? Even though one of my daughters got Gallop for their birthday, I did not know the moving images within had a special name. The best thing about Gallop is how durable the scanimation is to prying little fingers. Well, we have an amazing book at the fair this year and the expense isn’t keeping people away! “Twas The Night Before Christmas is our new holiday themed scanimation book. Unlike Gallop, this book has colored scanimations. The book is $18 but still flying off the shelves. People seem so excited to buy it that the price isn’t concerning them at all.

The Sunday Salon – Challenges

2010-10-03T14:54:00.001-06:00

It is being another lazy Sunday here for me. I have so much going on right now I am having a really hard time relaxing. Even when things are lazy it doesn’t mean they are relaxed. I finally reached a true state of relaxation last night while catching up on some episodes from the last season of Bones. As nice as that was it also ate up a huge chunk of reading and cleaning time. Now Sunday is here and the weekend is headed out the door. I have so much left to do!

I am also trying to plan for the rest of my reading year and look at what I have already read. This year I joined more challenges than I ever have before. I am taking today to check in on my progress with them and think about what I need to read before the end of the year to accomplish them.

The first challenge is the Support Your Local Library. I will definitely not meet my goal of reading 50 library books this year because I have barely read 50 books TOTAL in 2010 so far, but also, I have decided to take a break from going to the library because I have so many wonderful books to read at home. I have read more books than I have listed on that post, so I would like to go back and update it. But I don’t expect to finish this challenge this year.

There is still a slim chance that I will read 100 books this year, but it doesn’t seem likely. As the year gets closer to ending I am putting more intentional focus on making time to read and sticking with my goals. It has been a bit of a meandering reading year for me. I spent a lot of time picking up books and not finishing them. I spent a lot more time away from home than I ever do. And I also ended up changing a lot of my other habits which made it harder to listen to as many audiobooks as I usually do. Of course, all the book I finish this year will be added to the list.

The Cybils Award Challenge is probably another impending failure! Why did I join so many challenges in 2010? I really thought that these challenges would refocus my reading and add some variety to my book choices, but life ended up getting in the way of all that! I joined the Cybils challenge at a level where I have to read 1/4th or 3/4th of the books nominated and I joined for two categories. That ends up being A LOT OF BOOKS!! There are about 140 books on the young adult science fiction and fantasy 2009 Cybils nomination list. To read a quarter of those would still be 35 books. If I count the books I read previous to the challenge starting and considering what I have on my TRB I *might* be able to make that by the end of the year, but I doubt I will be able to do it for BOTH young adult AND middle grade. Though, this challenge, more than any other, really did push me to read different books than I would normally select. Still to read for this challenge:

Middle Grade
- Skeleton Creek
- (possibly) Softwire #3 (have it and the previous books, but I would have to read all 3)
- Sent (same as above, would have to read first and second book)
Young Adult
- Bones of Faerie
- The Carbon Diaries 2015
- DupliKate
- Fire
- The Hunchback Assignments
- Sacred Scars
- Silver Phoenix
- Zenith

Have you read any of these books from my TBR? Which one would you read first?

I joined the Terry Pratchet challenge and have not read a single book for it yet. Of course, in theory, there is still time. But how I am going to fit it in with my other intended reading, I am not quite sure. I was supposed to read 10 books written by Pratchet and unless something drastic happens I don’t seem me accomplishing that. I am also struggling with what Discworld book to read first. One person says this one, another says that one. I wanted to try and read them in order another person wasn’t sure that was a good idea. I am feeling a bit wishy washy about the whole thing.

The 42 Challenge was an exciting challenge for me to embrace. I have finally accepted that I love science fiction and this challenge was about just reading/viewing 42 separate pieces of sci fi. Originally I wanted to try and stick with books on this but I may have to include movies as well if I don’t get to my total by the end of the year. This is going to take sitting down with a notebook to really figure out what I want to list for the challenge.

The Young Adult reading challenge is an easy one for me since the majority of books I read are young adult. It is just a matter of going back and listing all the books that qualify for this! And most of my TBR for the rest of the year will fall into this category.

I was really excited about the PoC Challenge when it was first announced. But I kind of lost steam with it, as I did with reading in general and I really hope to finish strong and meet my minimum goal to read 7 books in 2010. So far I have read 2 books that classify and that leaves me with needing to read 5 more.

Mississippi Trial, 1955 (currently reading)
Green Boy
Silver Phoenix
Un Dun Lun
Nancy Farmer book, maybe The Ear, The Eye, The Arm

It is starting to occur to me that maybe I joined a few too many challenges this year. Does that happen to you? The worst part? I am not even done listing all the challenges! Do you ever join a challenge and wish later that you hadn’t? I am not sure I can think of a single challenge I wish I didn’t join but I do wish I joined a few less. Next year I am going to try and join fewer challenges and focus on those with a specific focus or smaller time frame.

The final challenge I have to focus on this year is the YA D2 challenge which focuses on young adult dystopian books. Considering my recent book purchases, this should be easy for me. Now it is only a matter of finding the time. I only have to read 5 books for this challenge and some of them overlap with other challenges I am participating in. Even though this challenge has just started I have enjoyed it so much. I love going around seeing what everyone is reading and what they are excited about. I love how much exposure challenges like these bring to dystopia. Here are some of the books I have to read:

Bones of Faerie
Matched
Dead-Tossed Waves
Crashed
Green Boy
Clone Codes
Ransoms’ Revenge
Zenith

I have so many books for this challenge in my personal library it is insanely hard to choose what to read. I figure I can pick anything I want to read, I just have to stick with it and not jump from book to book as I have been prone to do lately. Going around and seeing other people’s lists has made me realize I forgot some books I really should have listed and are reminding me of other books I have been wanting to read. It is going to be a fast and furious few months when it comes to reading these books and visiting the blogs of the other participants.

The final challenge I joined this year is the Steampunk Challenge. It is less of a concern at this exact moment because it is a year long challenge and I have until next October to get everything read. But there are some books I want to get read this year! Here are some of the books I will be focusing on:

Boneshaker
The Windup Girl
Soulless
Clockwork Angel

As you can see I have TONS of reading to do. What about you? Are you planning on taking it easy for the rest of your reading year? It can get a little hard to find all the time that you need around the holidays. I am hoping to power through and get back to reading over 10 books a month until the end of the year. It is going to be a challenge for me, but I was there before and I can be there again. Sometimes it is hard to adapt your life to include all the things you love AND reading.

Today I am going to try and finish up The Clockwork Three. The title and cover are great and I heard rumors that this book can classify as steampunk. I am not quite sure if that is the case or not but I will decide by the end of the book and it looks like an enjoyable read either way.

Anachronistic

2010-10-02T12:59:00.001-06:00

There are some people who are struggling to understand exactly what steampunk is. To understand it is pretty straightforward but to try and explain it gets a little more convoluted. The basic concept of alternate history is relatively easy to explain, but once you start getting past that people tend to get lost. Wikipedia let me to the word anachronism to aid in the understanding of steampunk. I think it perfectly encapsulates what makes steakpunk fiction unique.

a·nach·ro·nism
[uh-nak-ruh-niz-uhm]

–noun

something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, esp. a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.

an error in chronology in which a person, object, event, etc., is assigned a date or period other than the correct one.

You want to read steampunk, share your opinion and reviews with like minded people? You want to get recommendations from others because you have no idea where to begin? Join the steampunk challenge and share the experience!

The challenge runs from October to October and there are no obligations other than to have fun discovering a genre and let other participants know about what you find.

I was thrilled when I found out about this challenge from Carin. I ran right over and signed up! Honestly, steampunk culture and art interests me more than the fiction, but I am willing to give it another try. My issue with steampunk is that it is rooted in historical fiction, which bores me beyond belief. You know, I really don’t WANT to be bored by these types of novels, but I am. It’s just the way things work sometime. But there are so many books I have been wanting to read anyway that would classify as steakpunk I am excited about the whole thing. This challenge is nice and easy bcause it is a long time frame and minimum commitment. I have been encouraging as many people as I can to join, simply because I think it would be fun. I also want to make sure I thank Rikki for hosting this challenge. Head on over, you still have time to sign up. Already have a lot of enthusiastic participants making suggestions and sharing links.

Just like normal there are a lot of books I want to read for this. Unlike normal, I seem to have plenty of time to actually get them read. This challenge is also adding quite a few books to my wishlist, so if I get any of those they will be added to the pile! :) The list for now is as follows, in no particular order:

Boneshaker
The Windup Girl
Perdido Street Station
The Difference Engine
Mortal Engines
Soulless

These are the titles I am definite on and there are a few more that I am considering. Since I have struggled with this subgenre before I am worried about planning ahead to read too many books and then not being able to get into them no matter how hard I try. But this is a good starting place.

Are you a fan of steampunk fiction? What would you read? What would you recommend?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-10-01T16:57:00.001-06:00

What, you ask, is the most wonderful time of the year? Is it Christmas? Nope! Is it Thanksgiving? NOPE! My favorite time of year is better than any holiday because it comes TWICE every year. Do you know what it is? It’s our book fair!!!

I am thrilled to be doing another Scholastic book fair at my daughter’s school. We managed to get more books than we ever have before and I am very excited. In case you were wondering, here’s a picture that basically give you the whole idea of how our book fair is set up this year.

You can kind of see the other book fair lady in this picture and all that really does is make me happy that I was the one taking the picture. There are so many reasons to love the book fair. There are the books. And the….books. And more important than that is getting these kids excited about books and reading. At our school we work really hard to find the right book matches for people, especially ourselves! No, we love helping the students out whenever we can and with the re-launch of our Accelerated Reader program we are focusing on really having the parents come in and buy quality books for their children.

But you’re right, I probably do have my eye on one or two books this time. I even already have one home by a local author to preview and recommend to all the students, teachers, and parents who come through here. That book is called The Clockwork Three and it has a pretty amazing cover.

I really hope that I get to meet Matthew Kirby sometime soon. I love finding Utah authors in our Scholastic book cases and this book sounds really amazing. I have already been pointing it out to the teachers and they are eagerly my response to it.

The pressure to enjoy this book is a little high right now but I am pretty sure it is going to be fantastic. So maybe Mr. Kirby will get a pass this time. *grin*

The only unfortunate thing about this book is that I am really trying to push the AR books and this isn’t one. But I GUESS we can make an exception this time. Hopefully it will be wildly successful and have a test soon.

The next book on my list has been interesting me for about a year. I haven’t heard very many good things about it, mostly about too many authors in too small of a book but it is still peaking my interest so I will soon be a proud new owner of The Clone Codes. Have you read this book? I would love to see some of them and share them with my readers. Also, I talked about how great The Clockwork Three cover was, what do you think of The Clone Codes cover? The one thing I noticed is that where it is on the cart and the art doesn’t really pop at the book fair. Even though I was looking for it my eye passed over it a few times.

Unfortunately I there doesn’t seem to be much interest in this book so far from the teachers. The advantage it does have is that it is an AR book and it is worth a decent amount of points. Our quarter is coming to an end pretty soon and every student’s points will reset. I am hoping to see them achieve as much as they can over the next 20 days so we can start this program off successfully.

I am pretty excited about this new series by Michael Buckley, the author of the Sisters Grimm series. So far there are two books out in the NERDS series and I would really like to have both of them.

I was flipping though these books and the details in the headings really caught my eye and made me feel like they were my kind of thing. They seem like they will have at least a little bit of technology in them. Have any of you read these books? I would love to see some reviews.

Do you go to book fairs? What kinds of books do you generally by?

YA-D2 LV3

2010-10-01T01:26:00.001-06:00

It is no secret that I like dystopian fiction. You know, like isn't even a good word. I adore it! I am researching dystopia from two sides, fictionally and academically. Each informs the other in my quest to better understand what dystopia means and how to classify it. My interest in dystopia started later than most. I don’t ever remember being exposed to dystopian young adult or middle grade fiction in middle school. The closest example would probably be The Wave which I read in middle school. The scariest thing about The Wave was that it was based on true events. One of the interesting distinctions in some dystopian definitions is that the story must be imagined and not be based on actual events. Do you think this is always the case? (To find out more about The Wave please check out this review.)

The first dystopian book I read was in high school when I was 15. We read 1984 and I remember it forever changing the way I read and the way I saw the world. Ever since I read this novel there has been a hunger inside of me to read more books like it. Often it could be hard to track down books that were dystopian, especially before the prevalence of so many online lists. When many online lists started emerging I would see the same titles over and over again. I wanted something new and fresh. I think that is part of why young adult dystopias are so intriguing for me. For the most part, they have no other option but to set forth new and fresh ideas, not to mention that more and more of them are being published every year. Somehow the strong young adult dystopia tradition has passed under the radar until recently. But luckily all those books of the past are not gone and can still be devoured by our new interests.

And considering all this, it would seem that joining a dystopian fiction challenge would be a no brainer. The only problem is? The last dystopian challenge I joined, I failed. *gasp* I know, I know. I hope to do better this time, to learn from my mistakes. With about 60 young adult dystopian books on my shelves that I haven’t read yet I have plenty of books to choose from. Collecting these books has become a passion of mine and I have recently been on a lucky streak finding the right prices.

I hope that the books I choose to read for this challenge will help me further explore issues that I considered in The Problem with Dystopia. I love how many different facets of dystopian fiction there is. I am excited every time I pick up a book to see where this one will take me. And there is always the hope that a book will take me to place I have never been before. That happened with Unwind and The Hunger Games.

I am excited to once again join Darren’s young adult dystopian challenge. He has made it super easy with different levels so you should head over there and join! I have joined several dystopian challenges in the past, but honestly I am the most eager for this one. I have been in such a reading slump I am hoping to get pushed right on out of it. There are so many great books piled up waiting for me to read, and so many more still to be purchased and published. The surge in dystopian young adult literature is fascinating to me and also very convenient, given my interest in it!

Although I have the fabulous Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children and Young Adults, so much of the academic research of dystopia is centered around the adult sphere. I am hoping by exploring everything there is to explore I can get a better understanding of dystopia in general and then apply that to young adult novels.

Have you found there is a particular type of dystopian novel you enjoy? I really like the novels that feature a lot of technology. I think technology was part of what first drew me to dystopian literature, but I love how sometimes low tech books can take me by surprise with the depth of their world.

The challenge has 3 levels and despite my recent failure, I am not going to take it easy on myself. I will join at Level 3!

Level 3: Is for the dystopian die-hards! Minimum requirement for this level is five young adult dystopian novels, between the 1st October and 19th December. There is, however no maximum cap, you can keep reading for as many books as you like!

Listing your reading choices is not required, but I would like to suggest to myself some of the books I am thinking about reading. With so many books here it can often get hard to focus. The challenge spans a relatively short amount of time and finishing books has been my weakness. I hope with some dedication I can power through some of these books and really end my reading year with a bang.

Matched by Ally Condie
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
Crashed by Robin Wasserman
Green Boy by Susan Cooper
Shift by by Charlotte Agel
The Clone Codes by the McKissacks
The Lost Art by Simon Morden
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
Witch and Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonne

Are there any books you have found out about since you joined the challenge that you are now planning on reading? I would love to know the titles that look too good to pass up.

Anna Scanlon

2010-10-01T00:06:00.001-06:00

I love Anna Scanlon. She is a generous and amazing person. Do you want to know why I love her? Well, let me tell you. She may have not chosen me personally to receive an ARC of Matched but random.org did and Anna was the one who was generous enough to offer up my top wish list book item in a contest and now I am a proud owner. It showed up today and it is so shiny and I love the cover and it’s MINE MINE MINE!

Today Anna Scanlon is my hero. And she can be your hero too. I am not sure how exactly but maybe you will find a way unless she is your hero because of the pure joy I am feeling right now at owning this wonderful book by and author I hope to meet very soon.

I may seem a little excited but I am more than excited and I just wanted to let everyone know how wonderful Anna Scanlon is for being a part of this. And thank you random.org, you are my new best friend.

Reading Lists

2010-09-27T21:50:00.001-06:00

I don’t know why I do it to myself. It is a strange form a torture, yet at the same time I am having the hardest time pushing from one book to the next right now, so maybe it is needed. It is inevitable.

There is something to be said about listing your intentions and then following through with them or not. Not too long ago I listed my tentative list of the next 10 books I would like to read. And I just wanted to check in to see what kind of progress I was making.

Rae by Chelsea Swiggett (currently reading)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (started)
Book I haven’t finished yet (Cherry Heaven, ~~Never Let Me Go~~, The Iron Heel) FINISHED Never Let Me Go
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre (need to track down)
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (audio, saving for steampunk challenge starting Oct. 1)
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (started)
Epic by Conor Kostick
Exile by R. A, Salvatore (audio)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (group read/steampunk, waiting until Oct. 1)

So, out of the ten books I decided I would read a few weeks ago I have finished…ONE. Though, I guess it could be worse…somehow. Then for the Read-A-Thon I added a different list, some books stayed the same, and others didn’t.

~~Feed by Mira Grant~~ (finished)
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (started, but not far in. May reserve for YA dystopian challenge)
Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (started, staying on list)
~~Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro~~ (currently reading)
Framed by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (currently reading)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (thinking about saving for steampunk challenge)
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (haven’t started, staying on list)
Cherry Heaven by L. J. Adlington (desperately need to finish this)
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (may save for dystopian challenge)

Despite these lack lust numbers, I will 1. finish Rae soon and 2. have had a fairly successful reading month compared to those of months past and I am happy with efforts that I have made and there are still many, MANY books that I want to read and so many of them are not even listed.

My life is about to get even more busy but I know that I will carve out some time for reading here and there. I am especially excited to read Hunger since it is my first Net Galley ebook. I also need to make up my lists for my challenge posts. I feel like all I have been doing lately is listing books and then I decided to do it again, for almost no purpose. But I wanted to push through this blogging block I felt settling around me. So what if I feel like listing books for a week?

Revised Fall Catch-Up Read-A-Thon

2010-09-22T19:50:00.000-06:00

I am freaking out a little because when I made my original list I forgot and over looked some books that I need to be reading and I will be joining a few challenges that I think I want to save some books for. So I am going to try this again, though I am not sure it maters much. Sometimes change weakens your dedication. I hope that is not the case this time.

Books I am planning on reading/finishing:

Feed by Mira Grant (finished)
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (started, but not far in. May reserve for YA dystopian challenge)
Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (started, staying on list)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (currently reading)
Framed by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (currently reading)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (thinking about saving for steampunk challenge)
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (haven’t started, staying on list)
Cherry Heaven by L. J. Adlington (desperately need to finish this)
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (may save for dystopian challenge)

NEW ADDITIONS:

I would like to read Mississippi Burning for a book club meeting I have with author Chris Crowe tomorrow. Once I finish Never Let Me Go it will be my next priority. Also, my list is lacking in audiobooks, so I will be picking a new on to listen to before bed (and while traveling) ~~just not sure which one yet~~. I have decided that I am going to start A Secret Kept which I won from McMillan Audio, THANKS GUYS!

I also failed to remember that Book Banning Week is coming up and I have been promising myself I would read Fahrenheit 451 for a while now and it just hasn’t happened. So I am now adding this to the to read list.

Now I just have to get reading and stop worrying about what IS and ISNT on my list! *phew*

Feed by Mira Grant

2010-09-22T13:59:00.001-06:00

“No one gets cold or cancer anymore. The only issue is the walking dead.”

Feed is a zombie story with heart. Mira Grant combines perfectly the traditional, almost campy tropes of zombie stories, with emotions and politics. It is the near future and a virus, from a vaccine gone wrong, is turning people into zombies. This isn’t the zombie apocalypse though. This is the story of a community of people coping, or trying to cope with the situation around them. The world has been safe guarded against those who are or may have become infected. There are endless amounts of blood tests to make sure a person isn’t going to convert into a zombie.

Why did Grant write this book? In an interview with SFX she explains:

Initially what I came up with was an ecology book. I am a zombie fan but all of the zombie stories I’ve enjoyed started when the dead rose and ended three days later with everybody looking exhausted. I was thinking, “What happens in 20 years?” So I set up a functional ecology where we are still faced with the zombie threat but are beating it back and living with it.

I love finding out her motivation in writing this book. I can really see the work she did on the world to make it function. And it is this detail that really makes the story different. This concept of “What happens in 20 years?” could really drive a lot of fiction and brings a lot of depth to Feed. The novel blends together intellect with action. And I can honestly say I am loving reading about chasing zombies with some intelligence behind it.

Grant shows us a wrecked world, a wrecked United States. It is ruled by the fear of zombie but also by the hope that humanity will endure. One of the most unique features of this book is the use of blogging juxtaposed against more traditional news outlets. Already, in our current state we question the legitimacy and bias of the news, but in Grant’s future bloggers have celebrity status, though they are still competing with tradition news sources. I think this hits a cord with many reviewers. Other authors have broached the subject of the value of the common man on the internet, but never before have I read a book that utilized the same terminology we are so deeply connected with today. The word blogging is more than just words on our webpage. To those who work hard to create content the word is deeply rooted in our emotions and sense of self.

“When blogging first emerged as a major societal trend it was news rendered anonymous…you trusted things because they sounded true….These days bloggers don’t just report the news, they create it and sometimes they become it.”

But in our future, there is only 3 types of bloggers. Newsies, Irwins, and Fictionals. Most of these stem around the interaction with zombies. Newsies report what does happen, Irwins poke things till thing do happen, and Fictionals just make stuff up. The best news organizations rely on all three to provide complete coverage. And Georgia Mason is head of one of the best new blogging organizations there is. When the president announces he wants bloggers with him on his campaign tour, Georgia and her team barely hesitate to apply.

“All we could do was make sure the truth was getting out, and getting where it needed to be.”

Georgia Mason takes her job very seriously. She coordinates her fictional, Buffy, and her brother, the Irwin, into a news reporting symphony and they work together as a team to gather and edit footage. Traveling with a presidential candidate is a unique honor but it also presents challenges. The people of the United States are in a weak point. They are concerned about the future state of their country. What will happen with the zombies? Will they ever feel safe again?

Mira Grant weaves together action, politics, and genuine emotion to create a very compelling story. As it went along the story line got a little too outlandish for me, but even considering that, my interest was high. Feed compiles a lot of my interests into one book. Dystopian elements from the creation of the zombies, striving to find the truth, and issues with the government. To call this book dystopian would definitely be using the wide umbrella understanding of the term. It is also a fresh and engaging zombie story, which are peaking on my radar right now. It is also one in the long line of well written young adult book. And I was able to track down the audio book for ease of multitasking. The narration and production of this book is some of the best I have heard.

Georgia is a strong female character. She is dedicated to the truth, to being a good leader. She wants to keep the people she cares about safe. She cares so much about her job as a journalist.

“I wanted to be Hunter S. Thompson, ripping the skin off the world. I wanted the truth and I wanted the new. And I would be damned before I settled for anything less.”

Dystopia, zombies, strong female character, and much more. If I haven’t sold you on the book I need to give the author a chance to try and sway you. The book in Mira Grant’s own words:

The Newsflesh Trilogy is a story about blogging, politics, medical science, espionage, betrayal, the ties that bind, the ties that don't, how George Romero accidentally saved the world, and, of course, zombies. It's thoughtful horror, and horrific science fiction, and I'm very fond of it.

P. S. Mira Grant is also known as Seanan McGuire

Read-A-Thon – First Book Completed

2010-09-21T23:26:00.003-06:00

It is 11:15 pm and I am listening to the last minutes of Feed by Mira Grant. When I woke up this morning I thought that I would be putting in some hard core reading hours, but that isn’t exactly how it happened. I am a little behind on my read-a-thon goals, but that’s OK! There is still plenty of time. I am also considering amending some of my intended reading due to some upcoming challenges I have decided to join. No official decision on that yet, though. Will keep you updated, I promise.

I definitely feel some pride in being close to finishing my first book and am eager to push through Never Let Me Go.

Both books have been classified as dystopian or having dystopian themes. And this makes it a double triumph for me. I am happy to be continuing my intended reading within this fiction classification.

If you haven’t already, check out my post The Problem with Dystopia and look for follow up posts coming soon. I know a lot of us love these type of books and I love reading all of your thoughts and comments. As dystopia fiction emerges into popularity it is interesting to see how we all understand it and the terms that we use and when.

I think we will continue to struggle to understand both dystopia and utopia but it is my goal to work on finding a unifying voice through all the articles, criticism, and opinions that I wade through. Thank you for any of the thoughts that you have shared with me in the past and will share with me in the future.

Look for my review of Feed to be up soon.

Indigara is Where?

2010-09-20T08:35:00.002-06:00

Indigara by Tanith Lee is a fast, fun read. I got it at Half Price Books for $4.98 when I met The Page Flipper on my cross country road trip. Although it is a slim hardcover, almost $5 is a pretty high price for me to pay for a book. A lot of the books I got that day were from my wishlist or recommendations from Chelsea, but Indigara was a pure impulse buy.

The cover of Indigara really appeals to my interest in cyberpunk and technology but for the most part, the book did not live up to all that the cover promised. I am still trying to figure out if it was just lacking something or if I had false expectations. I love books that play with concepts and warping of reality. This book has the main character, Jet, falling into some sort of old movie and getting stuck there.

The first half of the book was really fresh and funny. But the second half of the book really lost me. One of the dangers of playing with the reality of the main character is not giving the reader anything to grasp onto. Indigara didn’t build up enough depth for the chaos to hold up. “’I believe when a real living person. such as Rena Kimber, or Bennet Ash. enters Indigara. they leave a sort of echo—a sort of shadow of themselves behind them, outside, in the real world.’”

In a way Indigara is a bit like an Oz or Wonderland. But in another it isn’t anything like it because it lacks the sort of charm that compels the reader to return. Confusion simply swirls into more confusion as Jet tries to understand the world she is stuck in and how she got there. Jet’s struggles to get out Indigara don’t connect with her struggles in her real life.

I don’t really know why but this book really reminded me Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker. I guess there is something in a whimsical quality of the storytelling that is similar. In the end, Indigara came together for me a bit more than I expected. Unfortunately for me it wasn’t enough to redeem the weird and confusing middle of the book that I had a really difficult time connecting with.

It is interesting because as I was close to finishing the book I started reading some of the blurbs on the back. They make the book sound amazing. They make the book sound like something I would love. Did I miss something? Am I mistaken? I often wonder if sometimes my reading experience had more to do with my frame of mind than the reality of the story and the writing. I am not sure if there is really any definitive way to explore this. But I have found that anytime I have go to reread a book I didn’t enjoy, I tend to have a similar reaction, though possibly combined with a better understanding of its positive qualities.

“Tanith Lee has given us a map to the outer limits of imagination.” – Washington Post

“Shows how brilliantly a write can incorporate poetiic fancy with skillful plotting and characteriation. Lee is a master of lyricism.” - SFReader

In Indigara Jet finds herself on a movie set, but not just a set, stuck inside some sort of reality that used to be a movie. There are lots of great books that play with a similar concept but in a more unique and successful way.

Books:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Sylvie Cycle by Roderick Townley
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Dreams:
Wake series by Lisa McMann
Choices by Deborah Lynn Jacobs
Dreamhunter series by Elizabeth Knox

Imagination:

The Black Book series by Jonah Black

Have you read any books that played with the concepts of reality? Which of these types of books have you enjoyed?

The Sunday Salon – Reading Zombie

2010-09-19T07:14:00.000-06:00

For months I have been struggling with finishing books. Well, I finally got 3 done and what happens? My glasses disappear off the face of the earth. In an emergency effort I had to put in my trial contacts and my eyes have been miserable ever since. Of course now that I have met my goal and can pick up any new book I want my eyes bug me too much for me to be able to read.

But let’s try and celebrate the good things! Here are the three books I finished.

Mockingjay
Grass
Indigara

Grass has been reviews, Mockingjay got a quasi review and I am trying to decide how I want to go about doing a full fledged post or if maybe I just want to skip it. The Indigara post has been written and will be up in a few days.

But now what? Well luckily, and oddly, Mr. X and I have the same prescription in our right eye. He has a pair of glasses I am going to try out for in house and reading use and save my contacts for outings. I am hoping this will help my eyes from getting quite so irritated.

Last week I listed some goal books that I would like to read soon, but unfortunately I haven’t even picked up one. (Okay, you caught me, I DID start the audio to The Windup Girl.) Yesterday was supposed to be the day I really delved into a new book, but it didn’t happen. So here is hoping today is the day. I am planning on reading The Dead-Tossed Waves, but honestly, i am scared. Why? Well, I loved The Forest of Hands and Teeth and I tend not to love the second book in a series. I am worried The Dead-Tossed Waves won’t be as amazing as I want it to be. The one thing it does have going in it’s favor is that it isn’t a direct sequel and hopefully this will be an easier transition for me.

I know a lot of people really love series, and I can understand their draw. But I think it takes a special kind of author to pull magic through all the books in the series and have the characters stay true. Do you like to read books in a series back to back or do you leave a little time in between readings to let them breathe?

In an act of reading spontaneity, I have decided to rip off the band aid and pull my copy of The Dead-Tossed Waves off the shelf and just start reading right now.

First line:

“The story goes that even after the Return they tried to keep the roller coasters going.”

Oh! I think this was a good move. This line alone has sparked my interest in the book and I am slightly less fearful that I am not going to love what lies ahead.

Are you currently reading any books in a series?

Elantrians as Zombies

2010-09-18T16:42:00.001-06:00

I never did review Elantris after I was done listening to it on audio. Now that Mr. X is reading it, my interest is renewed. It has been fun hearing him speculate about various outcomes of the book. I started listening to Elantris shortly after I met Mr. X and throughout the experience I continued to recommend the book to him. Brandon Sanderson has created a unique world both inside and outside of the city of Elantris. When I heard Sanderson talking about the book at the LTUE symposium he said that Elantris is essentially a city of zombies. Once of city of power and strength, the inhabitants are now weak, endlessly hungry, and subjected to endless suffering.

Though to call them zombies would not be apparent from the outset, having this as a lenses through which to view the book provides a unique perspective. Because while many in Elantris act like zombies, we are able to hear a story from the inside. Zombie books are always written from the point of view of the human and I have always been curious about the mindset of the zombie. The characters always seem to speculate about their lack of thought and individuality. But it is curious to read Elantris as seeing into the mind of a zombie, or perhaps into the mind of a person the moment before zombification.

When discussing this issue with Mr. X, he seemed to think there was a definite case to be made for at least on of the gangs within Elantris. They had total disregard for almost everyone and were mindless and thoughtless. All the people in Elantris are somehow dead and alive at the same time. And this struggle is the core of zombies.

For more about this book, please check out Mr. X’s excellent review.

Sci Fi by Women

2010-09-18T13:53:00.001-06:00

It has been over a year since my interest in science fiction by female authors was peaked. And honestly, I haven’t don as much with it as I would have liked to. Throughout my online exploration certain names tended to come up a lot. Atwood, Willis, Tepper, Tiptree, Norton, and Cherryh. I know there are tons of other great writers, but these are the ones that came up the most and stuck in my brain. Yet, I failed in following through with this by mostly only reading books by Margaret Atwood, who was already one of my favorite authors. I read D. A. which was a really interesting novella by Connie Willis. But these names did stick in my mind, and when I found a book by them in a thrift store I tended to buy it. Also, Andre Norton’s name shows up on the young adult dystopian list a few times.

I feel that female authors bring a unique quality to the science fiction world. They often have more attention to the details of WRITING than often see in science fiction. I continue to struggle with reading adult books, they tend to have so many pages and science fiction takes this to extreme. I always try and encourage myself to read in a more balanced way. Lucky for me TJ from Dreams and Speculations has my back! In 2011 she is hosting an amazing book club featuring various science fiction novel by female authors.

There is an interesting assortment of book selected. I say interesting because I haven’t heard of most of them. I own 3 books from the book club list, one of which I have already read. But after checking out the list and having some great general discussion with TJ via Twitter, I decided to take advantage of a great sale at Better World Books to track down a few more titles. The best part about this book club is that you can participate for one month or twelve. It isn’t particularly rigid, so you don’t even have to decide ahead of time which books you will want to read. After my new books arrive, I will have the opportunity to read at least 6 books for the book club, but I never know when life will get in the way. I am sure when I do participate it will be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.

The books:

January - Dust by Elizabeth Bear
February - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin*
March - Darkship Thieves by Sarah Hoyt
April - The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis*
May - Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson
June - Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
July - Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
August - China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh*
September - Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon*
October - Farthing by Jo Walton*
November - The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood*
December - City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

The books marked with * are the ones I already owned or recently purchased. I still think there are one or two more books I would like to buy. Have you read any of these? What did you think?

The Problem with Dystopia

2010-09-14T22:51:00.001-06:00

The struggle with understanding and categorizing dystopia stems from the multiple attempts to define it. There are dictionary definitions and literary definitions, yet it seems that will all the definitions we are left with very little as a single common denominator.

First of all we can say we know that dystopia, in the end, is a bad place. It may not appear to be so at all times, but through control or destruction the world is bad and can now be defined as a dystopia. The definition vary on when and how this bad world is discovered. Some focus on constant destruction and war, other definitions focus on governmental control. Some definition focus on the element of dystopia having to be imagined, while others call Nazi Germany a real life dystopia.

Dystopian literature is gaining momentum, especially in the young adult market, yet no one seems to have a grasp on what words to you use to define, understand, and categorize dystopia.

In some ways it seems like it would be easier to go back and look at the TYPES of dystopian worlds and from that make a conclusion on how we can most accurately define the genre, world, and classification.

Let's start simple.

Lenore suggested to me once 3 classifications:

· environmental

· governmental

· technological

I like this. It is easy and to the point but it doesn’t help with the understanding of dystopia, just with the classifying of it. Also to me there would be another category that would be biological. Though some of the things that classify under that would fall under environmental or technological depending on the type of biology. (Virus or DNA testing/modification.)

In order to help us understand dystopia we use movies and literature that we classify as dystopian to help us come up with a classification for the genre. This micro examination continues to fragment our ability to understand dystopia in one fail swoop. Dystopia is not an umbrella term, it is another word you can use to describe a book in a certain genre. When we try to set dystopia apart we end up trying to pull all these books into it.

The Exploring Dystopia web site tries to create distinct classifications as types of utopia as follows:

totalitarian
bureaucratic
cyberpunk
tech noir
off world
crime
overpopulation
leisure
alien

apocalyptic
post-apocalyptic
machine
surreal
pseudo-utopian
feminist
time-travel
capitalistic

This is an overblown list that is so specific it doesn't help anyone get a grasp on the understanding of dystopia. Governmental, economic, criminal, technological, biological, and off world would be an adequate over simplification of these terms. But the issue isn't simplification. The problem is that anything has the ability to become dystopic, so utilizing this type of classification system will simply cause our understanding to become out dated as new forms of dystopia emerge.

One of the other struggles is that a handful of definitions are coming from a group of select individuals making there own judgments on the understanding of the concept of dystopia. There are very few experts in the field. And there is the fragmentation between the study of Utopia and Dystopia.

Example definitions of dystopia:

a bad place

a wretched place

people live dehumanizing lives

a world worse than our own

exploration of worst case scenario

You can see how the difficulty to define dystopia could arise, because all of these understandings are based so subjectively. We each have our own understanding of a bad place or the worst possible world. We are being required to use the judgments of others or ourselves to definite a word in common use. Even academic works on this topic struggle with wish washy understandings of the word or just pick one and use it as absolute while leaving out vital aspects.

Through this blog I hope to bring you insight into this issue and more as I explore both academic and non academic venues to better understand the word dystopia and discover if there is a commonality among all the opposing ideas that are out there. I would love to hear any additions you have to add to this conversation. Especially if you know about other bloggers who are talking about this subject or know of other articles.

Zombies Love My Brains

2010-09-14T03:03:00.003-06:00

Today/yesterday kicked off Tor.com’s Zombie Week, and I have to admit that I am more excited than I expected. Ever since going to the LTUE panel on Zombies I have had a particular interest in exploring the world of these creatures. Combine this with the glorious writing of Carrie Ryan in The Forest of Hands and Teeth and I am verging on being a hardcore zombie fan.

On my recent book buying splurge (if you missed it I ordered almost 100 books in a span of a few weeks) I also become the proud owner of a handful of zombie books. With great zombie books coming out by authors like Max Brooks, it seems that the interest in zombies is being pushed out of the fringes into the main stream. The only Max Brooks book I have started so far is World War Z and I have to admit it is pretty amazing.

New acquisitions to my zombie library are:

Zombie Blondes by Brian James first and foremost has an amazing cover. The book caught my eye previous to me finding it on the Better World Books website. The cover and concept had me thinking this was some variation on high school Stepford Wives. All I really know about this book is the words on the cover. It may be totally worthless but I figured for $2.50 my interest in it was enough to give it a try.

From the publisher:

From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.
A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders—the most popular girls in school.
The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.
But Hannah wants desperately to fit in—regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: If she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead—just like all the other zombies in this town. . . .

The Ultimate Zombie is a collection of short stories. Considering that I essentially haven’t read very many zombie stories. And I am not entirely sure where my interest in zombies really stems from. After the panel at the symposium, I started connecting with the more political aspects of zombie stories.

I guess I never really took zombie stories seriously. And in part that is the beauty of them. They make statements in such a subtle way in can read as pure entertainment.

For me it once again boiled down to the budget issue. This book may not be the best but the price was right. This 391 page volume has 23 stories from a variety of authors, including some I’ve heard of. Anne Rice, Kevin J. Anderson, and Gene Wolfe along with a bunch of authors that I don’t recognize.

I am looking forward to exploring zombie fiction in these bite sized pieces. Like I said, I am not really sure what has originally brought me to zombie fiction, and I am interest in breaking down that interest and seeing where it stems from. For your own exploration of zombie short fiction, check out Zombie Week’s Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman.

Mr. X also got me The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. This is definitely my most exciting new zombie acquisition. The Forest of Hands and Teeth was an amazing read. I was surprised and overwhelmed by my reaction to it. I am hoping that this book is going to be one of the very rare times when I am satisfied with the second book in a series.

Have you read this already? Do you feel like it is a good follow up novel?

I have been eager to have Mr. X read The Forests of Hands and Teeth but having him buy me The Dead-Tossed Waves will do in the meantime.

From Booklist:

The Forest of Hands of and Teeth (2009) spliced classic zombie mythos into a world that was one part postapocalypse and one part colonial America and drove the plot with a healthy surge of teen hormones. This companion piece, which features some returning characters in minor roles, involves another discontented young woman, Gabry. Life within her walled town is shattered when a group of her friends step past the border and are attacked by the Mudo (that’s zombies to you and me).

This week I am shuffling around my reading list a little bit to try and include a few more zombie reads. Are you currently reading anything zombieish?

Also check out

2010: The Year of the Zombie

Grass by Sheri S. Tepper

2010-09-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

I was first exposed to Sheri S. Tepper when I was searching for female science fiction authors. There was a bit of debate online about the quality of her writing. But after talking to some of the people I trust most, I have come to believe that while some of her work can be hit or miss, overall she is an asset to the science fiction genre.

The first thing I noticed when I began the audio of Grass was how striking the language was. I have criticized science fiction writers for not being diligent enough in their writing process to really craft words together. Many times science fiction authors rely on the ideas of their work to drive the piece rather than the quality of their story telling. Tepper’s telling of Grass is definitely an exception to this. Grass was nominated for a Hugo for best novel in 1990 and was included in Millennium/Gollancz’s Masterwork collection. The novel opens with a vignette of the surface of a planet called Grass. It was sweeping an elegant. I was both excited and worried about these opening lines. They were beautiful, but if the rest of the book was written in such a manner I was afraid it would become bloated.

Grass!
Millions of square miles of it; numberless wind-whipped tsunamis of grass, a thousand sun-lulled caribbeans of grass, a hundred rippling oceans, every ripple a gleam of scarlet or amber, emerald or turquoise, multicolored as rainbows, the colors shivering over the prairies in stripes and blotches, the grasses—some high, some low, some feathered, some straight—making their own geography as they grow.

Through these words, the world of grass is painted before me. Especially through the audio narration I was able to feel like I was standing before the vast plains of multicolored grasses. Being overwhelmed by their splendor. I was also reminded of C. S. Lewis’s depiction of Malacandra on Out of The Silent Planet. I remember when I was reading it I fell so in love with the landscape of the planet. It was in a very similar way that I was drawn to Grass.

After my initial reaction to the description of Grass, I was soon drawn in by other interesting elements of the story. I was really intrigued by the politics of Grass and the whole galaxy. Now previous to meeting Mr. X, I would have considered myself apathetic to politics. But it ends up that I really love seeing the dynamic of interaction on a political level. The book starts out with the upper class population of Grass, called Bons, discussing what to do about some inquiries that are being made to further explore the planet. The people of Grass are very protective of their planet, their rituals, and their life. They moved to Grass to be free from many of the religious movements happening on Earth and across the human worlds. After much discuss that brought much of the dynamics to light, the elite citizens of Grass decide to allow a sort of ambassador to come previous to any sort of scientific or medical exploration team. But one of the particularly unique things is that this is only ONE of the many political dynamics in the book. All of which held equal interest to me, especially early on in the book.

Although many authority figures, especially on Earth, are denying its existence, there is a plague threatening to wipe out the whole of humanity planet by planet. Grass is of particular interest because it seems to be the only known planet that had not been afflicted by anything resembling the plague. A ambassador is sent with his family to Grass to subtly find out if it is true that no one on the planet has ever suffered from the plague. There is worry that somehow people on Grass have found a way to hide the results of a plague, as some other planets have been doing. But the evidence is very strong against this as there have even been rumors of people with the plague being magically healed after a visit to the port town on Grass.

In an interview with Locus Magazine Tepper said:

"I know I continually pound on the same themes, because they're things I care about deeply. Those are the soapboxes. But when the stories get too similar, begin to feel like the same book, that is when I am dissatisfied. I want to be sure it's something at least a little fresh and new, in approach or idea."

It is through Tepper's passion that Majorie, the wife of the ambassador, is able to function in a political capacity on Grass. Majorie is a very smart woman who seems to understand the political dilemma even more than her husband. She is continually striving in her purpose on Grass to learn more about the people there and to discover if the plague is hiding somewhere uncover. Majorie is a very strong female character and it was refreshing to see her presence in the story. She also has the softness that can be lacking in a strong character. She is maternal, loyal, and extremely caring. It is interesting to see, that even considering this, the family dynamic that Tepper put her in.

Grass is a very long book and as it goes on more and more elements get weaved into the story. This is both a blessing and a curse. I love the way that Tepper explores so many different things through the different type of people who live on Grass, but it did get a little confusing, especially on audio. Although I would definitely recommend Grass to others I would dissuade them from listening to the audio version because the story was just a little too complex when you didn’t have the ability to glance back on previous sections. I think even if reading this book in paper the story had at least one too many elements for everything to connect together seamlessly.

Another interesting thing about Grass is that it is considered to be the first book in a series. The following stories are in the same world but not in a direct timeline with the first book. I think I would like to re-read Grass if I ever got the opportunity to purchase it and that I would also like to read the other books in this series.

What female science fiction writer would you recommend?