Current read: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Current listen: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
It's been awhile AGAIN. Apologies. Last weekend I performed at Carnegie Hall AND finally saw Hamilton on Broadway. Things have been CRAZY. I've had time to read books, but not that much time to tell you about them. TRYING to get back into the habit of just doing it every time I finish a book. SO...I thought over the next few days I would tell you about some things that I've read over my teacher fall break.
First, I finished Timekeeper by Tara Sim. This was an advanced reader's copy given to me by my lovely friend Laura who is super legit and is Tara's literary agent. This is the first in a new YA fantasy trilogy that takes place in an alternate Victorian England--steampunk in the best sense. In the world of Timekeeper, clock towers literally keep the world running. If something happens to a clock tower (a misplaced gear, a cracked glass clock face, etc.), it could seriously endanger the citizens in a tower's domain. The main character, Danny Hart, is a young, talented clock mechanic, who learned all he knows from his father, Christopher, who is stuck in a Stopped town.
While Danny attempts to figure out how to save his father, he begins to take mysterious assignments in Enfield, where a clock is repeatedly having strange problems. It quickly turns out that these Enfield assignments will alter Danny's destiny, and much adventure ensues.
There are many things I loved about this book. First, I felt the world building was very well-integrated into the story and was both ambitious and believable. There is a really neat mythological set up to explain the power of the clock towers and the mechanics who control them that is just really interesting and well-written. I also felt that the writing of the characters in the novel is very well done. There was a lot of attention paid to secondary characters that gave the story a lot more meaning, and Tara Sim does not shy away from making her main characters flawed (which I REALLY appreciate). The suspense and mystery writing in this book is also VERY well executed.
My favorite thing about this book, though, is this. Danny Hart is gay. There is a gay romance element to the novel, and I find this to be incredibly significant to the future of YA as a genre. This novel has shown that gay romances do not have to be their own separate genre, nor do they have to be a cute, throw-away side story in a story with mainly heterosexual characters. The romance in this book is written just like any other romantic element of a YA fantasy or dystopian novel. They just happen to be gay characters. GOLD STAR, TARA SIM. I loved this book and look forward to reading the next in the series.
Well. Originally was going to talk about a couple more books, but I would probably ramble on about them as much as I did for Timekeeper. No one wants to read that much at once. I'll be back in the coming days with more reviews, and until then, that's all she read!
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Illuminae and BookTube-A-Thon News
Current Read: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Current Listen: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Let's talk about Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
Kady and Ezra have just broken up. Very theatrically. Both are moping happily when their planet, the site of an illegal mining operation, is attacked by a rival interstellar corporation.
All hell breaks loose. Kady, Ezra, and the thousands of escaping refugees from the planet are evacuated onto the only three available ships: a commercial vessel from the planet, a science research vessel, and a United Terran Authority battle ship. The three damaged ships must make it out of the wilderness of space to a UTA check point with the evil corporation BeiTech hot on their tails.
To make matters worse, it soons become clear that one ship's AI system, AIDAN, might have been damaged to the point of...insanity. And BeiTech may have released some sort of chemical agent onto the refugees on one of the othe ships. Kady and Ezra must overcome their differences. They might be the only hope the fleet has.
OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A BOOK. If that plot seems a little complicated...it is. It's much more complex than your average YA, and it made it a MUCH better book. On top of that, the format of the book is a "casefile" compiled by one of the corporations to document the whole mess after the fact. So many pages are in the form of email correspondence, IMs, or descriptions of video surveillance. Any of this could have been mediocre to the detriment of the book. FORTUNATELY, it was just...perfectly executed. Kady and Ezra are very well written characters, and Kady is about as far from damsel in distress as you can get. AIDAN, the damaged AI, is almost more intriguing than she, the AI system struggling with the idea of his own consciousness, trying to determine how to best "protect his fleet." Here are some samples of some of this REALLY NEAT art in the book:
This book, which comes in at 599 pages, is a little intimidating. Please don't let that stop you from reading it. It goes by quickly, and it's SO WORTH IT. The sequel, Gemina, reportedly comes out in October. 5/5 stars.
In other news, I've decided to participate in BookTube-A-Thon this year! This is an annual event from July 18-24 that is a whole week of reading. There are reading challenges and video challenges posted every day. I figured that, as a teacher, I don't have much of an excuse not do it. Hopefully it will get me more interested in making videos again! Which is scary, but fun. Here's a link to my "TBR" video, where I go through all of my picks for the different challenges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTDWQ6dGWys
There will definitely be at LEAST one blog post, but I would count on more. Lots of reading happening in the next few weeks before school starts again. I should get back to it. That's all she read!
Current Listen: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Let's talk about Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
Kady and Ezra have just broken up. Very theatrically. Both are moping happily when their planet, the site of an illegal mining operation, is attacked by a rival interstellar corporation.
All hell breaks loose. Kady, Ezra, and the thousands of escaping refugees from the planet are evacuated onto the only three available ships: a commercial vessel from the planet, a science research vessel, and a United Terran Authority battle ship. The three damaged ships must make it out of the wilderness of space to a UTA check point with the evil corporation BeiTech hot on their tails.
To make matters worse, it soons become clear that one ship's AI system, AIDAN, might have been damaged to the point of...insanity. And BeiTech may have released some sort of chemical agent onto the refugees on one of the othe ships. Kady and Ezra must overcome their differences. They might be the only hope the fleet has.
OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A BOOK. If that plot seems a little complicated...it is. It's much more complex than your average YA, and it made it a MUCH better book. On top of that, the format of the book is a "casefile" compiled by one of the corporations to document the whole mess after the fact. So many pages are in the form of email correspondence, IMs, or descriptions of video surveillance. Any of this could have been mediocre to the detriment of the book. FORTUNATELY, it was just...perfectly executed. Kady and Ezra are very well written characters, and Kady is about as far from damsel in distress as you can get. AIDAN, the damaged AI, is almost more intriguing than she, the AI system struggling with the idea of his own consciousness, trying to determine how to best "protect his fleet." Here are some samples of some of this REALLY NEAT art in the book:
This book, which comes in at 599 pages, is a little intimidating. Please don't let that stop you from reading it. It goes by quickly, and it's SO WORTH IT. The sequel, Gemina, reportedly comes out in October. 5/5 stars.
In other news, I've decided to participate in BookTube-A-Thon this year! This is an annual event from July 18-24 that is a whole week of reading. There are reading challenges and video challenges posted every day. I figured that, as a teacher, I don't have much of an excuse not do it. Hopefully it will get me more interested in making videos again! Which is scary, but fun. Here's a link to my "TBR" video, where I go through all of my picks for the different challenges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTDWQ6dGWys
There will definitely be at LEAST one blog post, but I would count on more. Lots of reading happening in the next few weeks before school starts again. I should get back to it. That's all she read!
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Travel Reads
Current Read: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Current Listen: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Hey there. If you didn't know, I just got back from the magical land that is Peru. Learned a lot, grew spiritually as a person, hiked 27 miles through the Andes, etc. And then I had a birthday! I'm now 26. Closer to 30 than 20. Crazy. BUT. Now that I'm home and recovered (and avoiding a deep clean of my apartment that desperately needs to happen), I thought I'd share with you what I read when I was traveling!
First, my travel philosophy is this: With long trips especially, the idea of running out of things to read just HORRIFIES me. Like nightmares forever. And even though the rational part of me knows that I could, you know, BUY another book if I ran out of things to read, this doesn't generally compute while I'm packing. So for this 17 day trip I brought...8 books. Which is too many. I only bring paperbacks, and obviously only things that I own. And even with virtually no reading happening during the four day hike, I still got all the way through four books and halfway through a fifth. Also, unless I really, really love a book, I leave it in whatever hostel we happen to be staying in. So I did come back a few books lighter. Here's the rundown:
1) The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. This one had been on the shelf for a long time, since I didn't want to read it until I finished all the Austens (all the COMPLETE Austens, anyway). This is the story of a group of women (and one man) at various points in their lives who participate in a book club that is exclusively for Jane Austen novels. The story follows their lives as they read, and I think one is supposed to see the parallels between their lives and those of Jane Austen's heroines. This book was kind of a letdown, to be honest. The characters were compelling, and I thought some of the language she used was really clever and very Austen-y, but it didn't keep my attention as much as I thought it could have. I did like that it is full of dynamic, mostly female characters, most of whom are not driven SOLELY to fulfill a romantic story line. And their discussions of the books did make me want to go back and read all of the Austens again. Gave it 3/5 stars. Left it in Cusco.
2) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. THIS BOOK. I did not leave this one in South America. About 20 pages in I started writing notes in the margins. My travel companion was probably tired of hearing excerpts by the time I finished it. I grabbed it off my shelf because I have owned it for YEARS, but it was accidentally the perfect book for the trip. The book begins at a birthday party being held in a third world South American country. The party is for a Japanese CEO who might invest in the struggling country, and his favorite opera singer has been brought in to sing at the party. After her last aria, the party is hijacked by a group of terrorists who are searching for the president of said country. The book, though, is not a traditional thriller. It is a beautiful, beautiful character study of both the hostages AND the terrorists. The prose is just magnificent, especially when Patchett writes about music. Long example, but I couldn't stand to cut it down:
"They each had a task, extremely specific instructions. The lights were to be cut off after the sixth song, no one ever having explained in their lives the concept of an encore. No one having explained opera, or what it was to sing other than the singing that was done in a careless way, under one's breath, while carrying wood into the house...When a girl in their village had a pretty voice, one of the old women would say she had swallowed a bird, and this was what they tried to say to themselves as they looked at the pile of hairpins resting on the pistachio chiffon of her gown...But they knew this wasn't true. In all their ignorance, in all their unworldliness, they knew there had never been such a bird."
MAGIC. Also, the further along in the book I got, the more convinced I became that it is meant to take place in Peru. References to Lima, to Quechua, to pisco...it just made it that much more magical to me. As you can imagine, this sort of scenario can't end happily. So brace yourself. But READ IT. 5/5 stars.
3) Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I may be the only person in the universe who had not read this book. So I figured it was about time. I read it all the way through during our massive travel day, when we had to go from Puno, at the southern tip of Peru, to Lima, then Lima to Tarapoto, then Tarapoto to Iquitos, way up north at the Amazon River Basin. I did stay up to finish it despite the tiring, stressful nature of that day, so that says something. This very, very famous book is an imagining of the circumstances behind the creation of one of the most famous paintings in western art history, Girl With a Pearl Earring. The novel does a great job of imagining not only Vermeer's life, but the lives of his family and the other citizens in the town of Delft. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but a very entertaining, compelling read. Hopefully someone else in Lima gets to enjoy it. 3/5 stars.
4) Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. BECAUSE IT WAS TIME. Though I think that I have sadly missed my opportunity to see the movie in theaters. This was much more than just chick lit. I love how this book takes the boy meets girl story and has it star the quirky best friend character and a douche bag quadriplegic. Will Traynor has lost his will to live after an accident leaves him unable to continue his daredevil lifestyle, and Louisa is hired to be his companion and wants to show him that life is still worth living. OH MAN. The crying. All the crying. The sequel is hopefully coming from the library soon. 4/5 stars.
5) The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. You guys already know how I love me some World War II historical fiction. Marina is an elderly woman struggling with Alzheimer's disease, and though she has trouble remembering her children, she is increasingly recalling what she has tried so long to forget: her time as a tour guide at the Hermitage museum during the siege of Leningrad. The most powerful aspect of this novel is how young Marina must use her memory of the museum as it was before the war to cope with her present circumstances, which is then contrasted with her frustration with Alzheimer's. I enjoyed the flashback sections of this much more than the present day material, but I am generally just not a fan of Alzheimer's/dementia related plot lines. I have to stay disengaged or I will just become a complete emotional wreck. I saw the movie Still Alice by myself for a reason. Though it wasn't a perfect book, it was very enjoyable and moved Russia much higher up on my list of places to travel. 3/5 stars.
And now here we are. I'm home and back to reading more library books than books I already own. But I guess that's better than reading books that I own because I bought a bunch of new ones. More to come soon because yay summer! That's all she read.
Current Listen: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Hey there. If you didn't know, I just got back from the magical land that is Peru. Learned a lot, grew spiritually as a person, hiked 27 miles through the Andes, etc. And then I had a birthday! I'm now 26. Closer to 30 than 20. Crazy. BUT. Now that I'm home and recovered (and avoiding a deep clean of my apartment that desperately needs to happen), I thought I'd share with you what I read when I was traveling!
First, my travel philosophy is this: With long trips especially, the idea of running out of things to read just HORRIFIES me. Like nightmares forever. And even though the rational part of me knows that I could, you know, BUY another book if I ran out of things to read, this doesn't generally compute while I'm packing. So for this 17 day trip I brought...8 books. Which is too many. I only bring paperbacks, and obviously only things that I own. And even with virtually no reading happening during the four day hike, I still got all the way through four books and halfway through a fifth. Also, unless I really, really love a book, I leave it in whatever hostel we happen to be staying in. So I did come back a few books lighter. Here's the rundown:
1) The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. This one had been on the shelf for a long time, since I didn't want to read it until I finished all the Austens (all the COMPLETE Austens, anyway). This is the story of a group of women (and one man) at various points in their lives who participate in a book club that is exclusively for Jane Austen novels. The story follows their lives as they read, and I think one is supposed to see the parallels between their lives and those of Jane Austen's heroines. This book was kind of a letdown, to be honest. The characters were compelling, and I thought some of the language she used was really clever and very Austen-y, but it didn't keep my attention as much as I thought it could have. I did like that it is full of dynamic, mostly female characters, most of whom are not driven SOLELY to fulfill a romantic story line. And their discussions of the books did make me want to go back and read all of the Austens again. Gave it 3/5 stars. Left it in Cusco.
2) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. THIS BOOK. I did not leave this one in South America. About 20 pages in I started writing notes in the margins. My travel companion was probably tired of hearing excerpts by the time I finished it. I grabbed it off my shelf because I have owned it for YEARS, but it was accidentally the perfect book for the trip. The book begins at a birthday party being held in a third world South American country. The party is for a Japanese CEO who might invest in the struggling country, and his favorite opera singer has been brought in to sing at the party. After her last aria, the party is hijacked by a group of terrorists who are searching for the president of said country. The book, though, is not a traditional thriller. It is a beautiful, beautiful character study of both the hostages AND the terrorists. The prose is just magnificent, especially when Patchett writes about music. Long example, but I couldn't stand to cut it down:
"They each had a task, extremely specific instructions. The lights were to be cut off after the sixth song, no one ever having explained in their lives the concept of an encore. No one having explained opera, or what it was to sing other than the singing that was done in a careless way, under one's breath, while carrying wood into the house...When a girl in their village had a pretty voice, one of the old women would say she had swallowed a bird, and this was what they tried to say to themselves as they looked at the pile of hairpins resting on the pistachio chiffon of her gown...But they knew this wasn't true. In all their ignorance, in all their unworldliness, they knew there had never been such a bird."
MAGIC. Also, the further along in the book I got, the more convinced I became that it is meant to take place in Peru. References to Lima, to Quechua, to pisco...it just made it that much more magical to me. As you can imagine, this sort of scenario can't end happily. So brace yourself. But READ IT. 5/5 stars.
3) Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I may be the only person in the universe who had not read this book. So I figured it was about time. I read it all the way through during our massive travel day, when we had to go from Puno, at the southern tip of Peru, to Lima, then Lima to Tarapoto, then Tarapoto to Iquitos, way up north at the Amazon River Basin. I did stay up to finish it despite the tiring, stressful nature of that day, so that says something. This very, very famous book is an imagining of the circumstances behind the creation of one of the most famous paintings in western art history, Girl With a Pearl Earring. The novel does a great job of imagining not only Vermeer's life, but the lives of his family and the other citizens in the town of Delft. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but a very entertaining, compelling read. Hopefully someone else in Lima gets to enjoy it. 3/5 stars.
4) Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. BECAUSE IT WAS TIME. Though I think that I have sadly missed my opportunity to see the movie in theaters. This was much more than just chick lit. I love how this book takes the boy meets girl story and has it star the quirky best friend character and a douche bag quadriplegic. Will Traynor has lost his will to live after an accident leaves him unable to continue his daredevil lifestyle, and Louisa is hired to be his companion and wants to show him that life is still worth living. OH MAN. The crying. All the crying. The sequel is hopefully coming from the library soon. 4/5 stars.
5) The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. You guys already know how I love me some World War II historical fiction. Marina is an elderly woman struggling with Alzheimer's disease, and though she has trouble remembering her children, she is increasingly recalling what she has tried so long to forget: her time as a tour guide at the Hermitage museum during the siege of Leningrad. The most powerful aspect of this novel is how young Marina must use her memory of the museum as it was before the war to cope with her present circumstances, which is then contrasted with her frustration with Alzheimer's. I enjoyed the flashback sections of this much more than the present day material, but I am generally just not a fan of Alzheimer's/dementia related plot lines. I have to stay disengaged or I will just become a complete emotional wreck. I saw the movie Still Alice by myself for a reason. Though it wasn't a perfect book, it was very enjoyable and moved Russia much higher up on my list of places to travel. 3/5 stars.
And now here we are. I'm home and back to reading more library books than books I already own. But I guess that's better than reading books that I own because I bought a bunch of new ones. More to come soon because yay summer! That's all she read.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Updates On My Audible Habit...
Current read: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Current listen: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hey all! Finished some things, but they weren't all that exciting. I'm trying to be consistent.
First, I finished Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass. This was a series of novellas and extra scenes from the Selection series. I read it in an afternoon pretty easily. I did find them very enjoyable even though it has been several months since I read the first three books of that series. It was a good combination of things that could be called prequels, some that were other perspectives of events from the books, and some that took place after the first three. That whole series is just SLIGHTLY trashy. Which is not to say that I don't love them. I definitely love them. Don't let anyone ever tell you that trashy books aren't worth your time. You do you.
Second, I finished the audio book version of The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. Whoa. What a journey this book was. I contemplated stopping several times and picking it up later, but not because it wasn't interesting. There was just A LOT packed into this book. It begins with the circumstances that led up to the crowning of Henry II and ends after the deposition of Richard II. That's 300ish years of English royal history, which I knew next to nothing about going in. I learned a WHOLE lot (not that it is really relevant knowledge to my life, but whatever), but it was almost overwhelming with no context at all. I had heard of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart, but other than that, I had nothing. NOT ANYMORE. Lots of fun drama and scandal in addition to, you know, wars with France and Scotland and whatnot. I will eventually read the sequel, The War of the Roses, but it will be awhile before I take that plunge. I wouldn't recommend this book in the audio book format, since it is one of those where you might want to go back and reference things. Lots of different people named Henry and Richard and Edward and John. Overall, though, a very worthwhile read if you are into history.
I also wanted to catch you all up on what's been going on in my audio book life during my little hiatus. Here are some favorite audio books I've listened to on Audible in the past several months:
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
A bitter widower runs a bookstore on a small, close knit island. His life is turned upside down when a young girl is left helpless in his store and he decides to take her in. LOVED this. Great for book lovers, but also really just for everyone. Many feels.
The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
Another one that I wouldn't recommend on audio book, but it was on sale. An in depth guide to all the plants used to make alcohol, mixers, and other ingredients/garnishes. Lots of fun tidbits and trivia in addition to the basics. I will never be able to drink cheap tequila again.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Great performance by reader Cassandra Campbell. The story of a Chinese American family (Chinese dad, white mom) and their struggles in 1970s small-town Ohio. At the beginning of the story, their golden child, Lydia, is found dead in the town's lake. The story of this death and its aftermath is told very well through the perspectives of father, mother, sister, and brother. Great dramatic read, but very sad.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Narrated by the author. WHAT A READ. Will listen to again. Amazing, amazing, amazing stuff.
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
A very interesting look at the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where most of the material used in the first atomic bombs was enriched--mostly by young women who had know idea that the small, repetitive tasks they did each day would change the course of history. Not as good as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but a similar style.
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
Again, narrated by the author. I love Mindy Kaling with all of my soul. Just under the great Amy and Tina on my list of favorite female celebrities. I really appreciate her honesty and her perspective as a woman who looks more like the average American woman.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Narrated by the great Bryan Cranston. This is one of the best books about Vietnam ever written, and Bryan Cranston made me feel like I was there. Another amazing book.
Lock In by John Scalzi
I highly recommend any audio book narrated by Wil Wheaton. The man has a gift. He did both of Ernest Cline's books (Armada and Ready Player One), and this one was also great. A detective novel, but set in a time when millions of people have contracted a disease known as Hayden's Syndrome, which causes people with fully functional minds to be locked into their paralyzed bodies. A really cool premise, interesting characters, and a decent mystery.
WOW. I've been busy. If you want anymore details about a particular audio book, please let me know. For now, that's all she read!
Current listen: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hey all! Finished some things, but they weren't all that exciting. I'm trying to be consistent.
First, I finished Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass. This was a series of novellas and extra scenes from the Selection series. I read it in an afternoon pretty easily. I did find them very enjoyable even though it has been several months since I read the first three books of that series. It was a good combination of things that could be called prequels, some that were other perspectives of events from the books, and some that took place after the first three. That whole series is just SLIGHTLY trashy. Which is not to say that I don't love them. I definitely love them. Don't let anyone ever tell you that trashy books aren't worth your time. You do you.
Second, I finished the audio book version of The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. Whoa. What a journey this book was. I contemplated stopping several times and picking it up later, but not because it wasn't interesting. There was just A LOT packed into this book. It begins with the circumstances that led up to the crowning of Henry II and ends after the deposition of Richard II. That's 300ish years of English royal history, which I knew next to nothing about going in. I learned a WHOLE lot (not that it is really relevant knowledge to my life, but whatever), but it was almost overwhelming with no context at all. I had heard of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart, but other than that, I had nothing. NOT ANYMORE. Lots of fun drama and scandal in addition to, you know, wars with France and Scotland and whatnot. I will eventually read the sequel, The War of the Roses, but it will be awhile before I take that plunge. I wouldn't recommend this book in the audio book format, since it is one of those where you might want to go back and reference things. Lots of different people named Henry and Richard and Edward and John. Overall, though, a very worthwhile read if you are into history.
I also wanted to catch you all up on what's been going on in my audio book life during my little hiatus. Here are some favorite audio books I've listened to on Audible in the past several months:
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
A bitter widower runs a bookstore on a small, close knit island. His life is turned upside down when a young girl is left helpless in his store and he decides to take her in. LOVED this. Great for book lovers, but also really just for everyone. Many feels.
The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
Another one that I wouldn't recommend on audio book, but it was on sale. An in depth guide to all the plants used to make alcohol, mixers, and other ingredients/garnishes. Lots of fun tidbits and trivia in addition to the basics. I will never be able to drink cheap tequila again.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Great performance by reader Cassandra Campbell. The story of a Chinese American family (Chinese dad, white mom) and their struggles in 1970s small-town Ohio. At the beginning of the story, their golden child, Lydia, is found dead in the town's lake. The story of this death and its aftermath is told very well through the perspectives of father, mother, sister, and brother. Great dramatic read, but very sad.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Narrated by the author. WHAT A READ. Will listen to again. Amazing, amazing, amazing stuff.
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
A very interesting look at the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where most of the material used in the first atomic bombs was enriched--mostly by young women who had know idea that the small, repetitive tasks they did each day would change the course of history. Not as good as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but a similar style.
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
Again, narrated by the author. I love Mindy Kaling with all of my soul. Just under the great Amy and Tina on my list of favorite female celebrities. I really appreciate her honesty and her perspective as a woman who looks more like the average American woman.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Narrated by the great Bryan Cranston. This is one of the best books about Vietnam ever written, and Bryan Cranston made me feel like I was there. Another amazing book.
Lock In by John Scalzi
I highly recommend any audio book narrated by Wil Wheaton. The man has a gift. He did both of Ernest Cline's books (Armada and Ready Player One), and this one was also great. A detective novel, but set in a time when millions of people have contracted a disease known as Hayden's Syndrome, which causes people with fully functional minds to be locked into their paralyzed bodies. A really cool premise, interesting characters, and a decent mystery.
WOW. I've been busy. If you want anymore details about a particular audio book, please let me know. For now, that's all she read!
Monday, May 30, 2016
The Rose and the Dagger and My WWII Book Binge
Current read: Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass
Current listen: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Hello again. I'm a little embarrassed that it's been so long, but I guess this blog is mostly for me, so I'm not going to make excuses. I'll write here when I feel like it.
The book that inspired me to continue this blog was The Rose and the Dagger, by Renee Ahdieh. Ahdieh made her debut last summer with the magical The Wrath and the Dawn, a retelling of Scheherazade. I read it soon after it came out and might have even blogged about it, and I have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting the sequel. Props to the Indianapolis Public Library who got it to me without even fully processing the book. I don't want to give too much away with a full review, since there would be some spoilers from the first book, but it was a GREAT sequel. Everything I want in a sequel was there. More character development for Shahrzad and Khalid as well as the supporting characters from the first book, with some new really compelling characters thrown in. Ahdieh continued the theme of women fending for themselves rather than relying on being saved, which I really appreciate in a fairy tale retelling. There was some death and sacrificing, of course, but I REALLY appreciate that Ahdieh didn't feel the need to, for example, kill her heroine (I'm looking at you, Veronica Ross. I'm not over that yet). I bought The Wrath and the Dawn when it came out in paperback, and I will probably buy the sequel and reread them. The first book was just as compelling the second time.
Now I thought I'd give you a BRIEF little rundown of some of the things that I've read in the past few months. Please let me know if you want more in depth reviews of anything.
My World War II kick: During February and March I read three well regarded books covering various parts of the world during WWII. It is amazing to me that so many authors continue to write such compelling literature about a topic that has been HEAVILY covered, but all three books were exceptional. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah follows two French sisters during the German occupation. One lives in rural France and must contend with German soldiers billeted in her home, and the other lives in Paris and ends up playing a role in the French Resistance. I was skeptical that this could be as good as All the Light We Cannot See, but I think I liked it even more.
The second book, Anna and the Swallow Man, was a much more magical take on the war. A debut from author Gavriel Savit, the book followed Anna, a young girl whose father is taken during a purge of intellectuals in Poland at the beginning of the war. She is taken in by a mysterious figure she refers to as the swallow man, and the two of them wander the Polish and Russian countryside for the duration of the war. Though at points the story was difficult to understand, this author shows a LOT of promise, and some of his prose was just GORGEOUS. A favorite quote: "Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to break bread without the help of yeast."
Finally, I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, an author who very much enthralled me with her first two books, Between Shades of Grey and Out of the Easy. This book was no different. It shed light on one of the most unknown tragedies of the war, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise ship filled far over capacity with refugees fleeing Germany at the end of the war. Told in short chapters from the perspectives of four teens from different countries, it is simply great storytelling. My only real criticism is just that it wasn't long enough.
The more I think about it, the more it seems very unlikely that I can write about EVERYTHING ELSE I've been reading without writing a novel myself. I'll write a little bit more in my following entries on things of note. Thanks for reading, and that's all she read!
Current listen: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Hello again. I'm a little embarrassed that it's been so long, but I guess this blog is mostly for me, so I'm not going to make excuses. I'll write here when I feel like it.
The book that inspired me to continue this blog was The Rose and the Dagger, by Renee Ahdieh. Ahdieh made her debut last summer with the magical The Wrath and the Dawn, a retelling of Scheherazade. I read it soon after it came out and might have even blogged about it, and I have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting the sequel. Props to the Indianapolis Public Library who got it to me without even fully processing the book. I don't want to give too much away with a full review, since there would be some spoilers from the first book, but it was a GREAT sequel. Everything I want in a sequel was there. More character development for Shahrzad and Khalid as well as the supporting characters from the first book, with some new really compelling characters thrown in. Ahdieh continued the theme of women fending for themselves rather than relying on being saved, which I really appreciate in a fairy tale retelling. There was some death and sacrificing, of course, but I REALLY appreciate that Ahdieh didn't feel the need to, for example, kill her heroine (I'm looking at you, Veronica Ross. I'm not over that yet). I bought The Wrath and the Dawn when it came out in paperback, and I will probably buy the sequel and reread them. The first book was just as compelling the second time.
Now I thought I'd give you a BRIEF little rundown of some of the things that I've read in the past few months. Please let me know if you want more in depth reviews of anything.
My World War II kick: During February and March I read three well regarded books covering various parts of the world during WWII. It is amazing to me that so many authors continue to write such compelling literature about a topic that has been HEAVILY covered, but all three books were exceptional. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah follows two French sisters during the German occupation. One lives in rural France and must contend with German soldiers billeted in her home, and the other lives in Paris and ends up playing a role in the French Resistance. I was skeptical that this could be as good as All the Light We Cannot See, but I think I liked it even more.
The second book, Anna and the Swallow Man, was a much more magical take on the war. A debut from author Gavriel Savit, the book followed Anna, a young girl whose father is taken during a purge of intellectuals in Poland at the beginning of the war. She is taken in by a mysterious figure she refers to as the swallow man, and the two of them wander the Polish and Russian countryside for the duration of the war. Though at points the story was difficult to understand, this author shows a LOT of promise, and some of his prose was just GORGEOUS. A favorite quote: "Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to break bread without the help of yeast."
Finally, I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, an author who very much enthralled me with her first two books, Between Shades of Grey and Out of the Easy. This book was no different. It shed light on one of the most unknown tragedies of the war, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise ship filled far over capacity with refugees fleeing Germany at the end of the war. Told in short chapters from the perspectives of four teens from different countries, it is simply great storytelling. My only real criticism is just that it wasn't long enough.
The more I think about it, the more it seems very unlikely that I can write about EVERYTHING ELSE I've been reading without writing a novel myself. I'll write a little bit more in my following entries on things of note. Thanks for reading, and that's all she read!
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Where Have I Been?
Current Read: Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
Current Listen: The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
Hey there, Internet! It's been a minute. A lot of minutes. My bad.
The short explanation of my absence is that it's Oscar season. My life becomes trying to not become SO behind with work that people notice while seeing two to three movies every weekend and maybe finding one (or two or three) that's on demand to watch during the week. It's basically impossible to see EVERY Oscar nominated film when you live in Indiana, but by Sunday I will have seen all but three foreign films and three short documentaries. (Side note: The fact that HBO has purchased the distribution rights for those three short documentaries and has not released them is driving me UP THE WALL. It's fine.) I'm just as passionate about books, but the Oscar fever is only for about three months of the year and helps combat that winter blues.
ANYWAY.
I have been reading. Many things. I decided I would just give you short run downs of what's been happening in my reading life, and then I'll start writing longer reviews shortly.
1. The Selection series by Kiera Cass. I pretty much devoured these at the very beginning of this year. After the Thomas Hardy I needed something a little lighter. These are basically dystopian YA meets The Bachelor. Which sounded very silly to me. But I had heard a bunch of people talking about them (they're pretty highly rated on Goodreads), and they were all sitting there on the shelf at HPB for like three bucks a piece. It happened. They were not deep or super well written, but the main character, America Singer, is quite strong willed and not a doormat, which I liked. And the love interest is dishy. I enjoyed them a lot and will probably read the new series she's written that takes place in the same universe. These would be great for a summer read or just when you need a reading brain break.
2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I FINISHED IT! It took about a month and a half of listening, but I did it! There are still sections that I don't understand (a lot of the setting up of the national bank and consolidating state debt was beyond me), but I thought it was a great listen overall. Alexander Hamilton was a really cool dude who "doesn't get enough credit for all the credit he gave us." The fact that someone who was born into such crappy circumstances was one of our most influential founding fathers is astounding, and it was fun to fit his role into everything I already knew about that period in history. DEFINITELY recommend if you're into the musical Hamilton, since there are many direct quotes from Hamilton's writings that appear in Lin-Manuel Miranda's lyrics. (Best of wives and best of women...) Recommended for musical theater nerds and history nerds.
3. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. WHOA NELLY. This one knocked my socks off. I was not expecting such a gripping book. It's more than a typical alien invasion book. The reader gets a lot of varied perspectives from different sorts of biased narrators, so it was really fun to piece together what was ACTUALLY happening through combining their narratives. Twists and turns and action and adventure and feels all over the place. Pretty much a perfect modern adventure novel. I will read the next book, but probably not for a while. The to-read list keeps getting longer and longer...
4. Stars Above by Marissa Meyer. Lunar Chronicles fans everywhere, rejoice! This is a short story collection set in the Lunar Chronicles universe. The stories are not long (the longest is about 50 pages, and they're all quick reads), but you get some fun accounts of things that were only alluded to in the book. Most of it takes place before the events of Cinder, but she makes sure to include everyone's favorite characters in some way. The last story, though, takes place after the events of Winter, and it made my life. No spoilers. Read it if you've read the others.
I'm going to stop there for now. I have two other blog posts that will be written (SOON, I PROMISE), about the other things that I have been reading that fit together more thematically. Also just don't want to overwhelm you. Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you want to hear anything about anything! A tag you think I'd like, or even more info on my movie nerdiness. That's all she read!
Friday, January 1, 2016
Year's End - Four Final Reviews
Current Read: The Selection by Kiera Cass
Current Listen: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
"We learn that it is not the rays which bodies absorb, but those which they reject, that give them the colours they are known by." - Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
With Far From the Madding Crowd, my literary 2015 has ended. And what a way to go. I had heard that Thomas Hardy was one of the more difficult authors to read, so I was very nervous about binge reading this book. I had seen the movie beforehand. I know that I "cheated," but I had never heard of the book until seeing the trailer and didn't even contemplate reading the book until AFTER I had seen the movie. So no hate please :-P
That being said, it was a great book. I was able to get through the majority of the book in about three days. It was nice to read something in the public domain, since that meant I could have a copy of the e-book on my phone as well as the physical book for ease of reading at the gym. The book chronicles the life of Bathsheba Everdene, a young, headstrong woman attempting to manage a large farm in male-dominated rural England. It's a pretty straightforward 19th century English romance, but it is the first one I have ever read written by a man. I've read all the Austens, plus some Gaskell, Eliot, and Charlotte Bronte, and this one did seem a bit different. There was a lot less social commentary on the role of women in society and in English courtship. Bathsheba said things regarding being a woman that would have made Elizabeth Bennett cringe. But I did appreciate that it was darker in tone than anything I've read of this genre, which seems typical from what I know about Hardy and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. More poverty and death made for what is probably a more realistic picture of rural England than Sense and Sensibility, and the characters were a few rungs lower in the social order as well. I'll definitely read more of him.
Next, a few brief reviews of some easier (but still great) things I've been finishing up during this winter break. First, I decided to take on the Holiday BookTubeAThon, which is a 3-day reading stint filled with challenges that many booktubers take part in. There's a longer version in October, but this one is more convenient since it's during a break from school. These were the three challenges:
1. Read a follow up to something else you read this year.
2. Read a book with white on the cover.
3. Read a book that was a gift (not necessarily from Christmas).
For the first, I read Winter by Marissa Meyer, which is the final book in her AMAZING Lunar Chronicles series. I read every book in the series this year and then proceeded to buy the first three since they're in paperback. These are fairy tale retellings with an awesome dystopian spin. They follow Cinder, a cyborg from New Beijing, who finds herself wrapped up in a conflict with Queen Levana of Luna. With each subsequent book three more major female characters, each representing their own fairy tale, are added to Cinder's story. The plot is inventive and well-constructed, and there are FOUR awesome romances. Me gusta mucho. Just please read them. They're awesome.
Secondly, I read Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. This fulfilled the "book that takes place during Christmas" portion of my reading challenge, and with this book I have officially read everything John Green has published to date. It was a sweet little book of three related short stories that take place during a Christmas Eve snow storm. My personal favorite story was Maureen Johnson's, entitled "The Jubilee Express." All three were sweet and easy to read, and I will probably read it every Christmas.
Finally, for the third challenge I read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is a book that was given to me by a fellow teacher, and it was much more impactful than I was anticipating. It is a middle reader book written in short free verse poems. It is a fictionalized account of a real gorilla, Ivan, who was kept in a cage in a mall in Washington state for 27 years. You read that correctly. 27. The coolest part of the book is that it is written from Ivan's perspective as a gorilla with memories of growing up in Africa and then being raised more or less like a human child. It was heartbreaking in places and really funny in others. It will take you only an hour or two to read, so I highly recommend it.
Well, with that, this year is done. It was a great one. Stayed tuned very soon for an overview of my 2015 in reading and some reading resolutions for 2016. For now, that's all she read!
Current Listen: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
"We learn that it is not the rays which bodies absorb, but those which they reject, that give them the colours they are known by." - Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
With Far From the Madding Crowd, my literary 2015 has ended. And what a way to go. I had heard that Thomas Hardy was one of the more difficult authors to read, so I was very nervous about binge reading this book. I had seen the movie beforehand. I know that I "cheated," but I had never heard of the book until seeing the trailer and didn't even contemplate reading the book until AFTER I had seen the movie. So no hate please :-P
That being said, it was a great book. I was able to get through the majority of the book in about three days. It was nice to read something in the public domain, since that meant I could have a copy of the e-book on my phone as well as the physical book for ease of reading at the gym. The book chronicles the life of Bathsheba Everdene, a young, headstrong woman attempting to manage a large farm in male-dominated rural England. It's a pretty straightforward 19th century English romance, but it is the first one I have ever read written by a man. I've read all the Austens, plus some Gaskell, Eliot, and Charlotte Bronte, and this one did seem a bit different. There was a lot less social commentary on the role of women in society and in English courtship. Bathsheba said things regarding being a woman that would have made Elizabeth Bennett cringe. But I did appreciate that it was darker in tone than anything I've read of this genre, which seems typical from what I know about Hardy and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. More poverty and death made for what is probably a more realistic picture of rural England than Sense and Sensibility, and the characters were a few rungs lower in the social order as well. I'll definitely read more of him.
Next, a few brief reviews of some easier (but still great) things I've been finishing up during this winter break. First, I decided to take on the Holiday BookTubeAThon, which is a 3-day reading stint filled with challenges that many booktubers take part in. There's a longer version in October, but this one is more convenient since it's during a break from school. These were the three challenges:
1. Read a follow up to something else you read this year.
2. Read a book with white on the cover.
3. Read a book that was a gift (not necessarily from Christmas).
For the first, I read Winter by Marissa Meyer, which is the final book in her AMAZING Lunar Chronicles series. I read every book in the series this year and then proceeded to buy the first three since they're in paperback. These are fairy tale retellings with an awesome dystopian spin. They follow Cinder, a cyborg from New Beijing, who finds herself wrapped up in a conflict with Queen Levana of Luna. With each subsequent book three more major female characters, each representing their own fairy tale, are added to Cinder's story. The plot is inventive and well-constructed, and there are FOUR awesome romances. Me gusta mucho. Just please read them. They're awesome.
Secondly, I read Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. This fulfilled the "book that takes place during Christmas" portion of my reading challenge, and with this book I have officially read everything John Green has published to date. It was a sweet little book of three related short stories that take place during a Christmas Eve snow storm. My personal favorite story was Maureen Johnson's, entitled "The Jubilee Express." All three were sweet and easy to read, and I will probably read it every Christmas.
Finally, for the third challenge I read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is a book that was given to me by a fellow teacher, and it was much more impactful than I was anticipating. It is a middle reader book written in short free verse poems. It is a fictionalized account of a real gorilla, Ivan, who was kept in a cage in a mall in Washington state for 27 years. You read that correctly. 27. The coolest part of the book is that it is written from Ivan's perspective as a gorilla with memories of growing up in Africa and then being raised more or less like a human child. It was heartbreaking in places and really funny in others. It will take you only an hour or two to read, so I highly recommend it.
Well, with that, this year is done. It was a great one. Stayed tuned very soon for an overview of my 2015 in reading and some reading resolutions for 2016. For now, that's all she read!
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