Time Lapse...

I haven't been on here much and have no good excuse.  I
haven't had much to say I guess!  I've mostly been reading books for my 2013 book challenge.  Here are the latest...

Are you There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.  By Chelsea Handler.

I listened to this one to fulfill my humor genre.  I maybe snickered once through the entire book.  It is basically about Chelsea's drinking and partying.  Chelsea read it and she annoyed me.  I'm not a fan.

Convergence by Sharon Green

This fulfilled my fantasy genre.  I chose it hoping to find a new "epic fantasy" world to be immersed it.  This isn't going to cut it, I'm afraid.  She writes from five characters point of views.  Most scenes are repeated to get the view point of another person.  It could work but the characters are not quite interesting enough for to hold my attention.  I found myself thinking "yeah, yeah, yeah, get on with it" A LOT.  The story line is a lot like Hunger Games but for adults.  Nothing really interesting happened though.  It felt like one long introduction.  The second book might be better but frankly, I have so many books on my to read list that I'm not sure I will give it a chance.

And now I have a confession.

I'm not proud of myself.  And I accept none of the blame.



I read all of these.  

And no, they don't get any better.  You know how Stephanie Meyers uses the prefix "un" in front of any number of words instead of developing her vocabulary?  Cassandra Clare uses "half" in the same way.  As in "she half smiled."  I'm sure there are no other words that could be used for a half smile.  Also, she writes books full of presumably unhealthy people since someone "goes pale" at least 5 times a chapter.  Painful.

This is what is taking up ALL OF MY TIME currently:



I might never be the same.

I should have known better.

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare

I read this book as part of my 2013 reading challenge.  I will read 24 books from different genre's this year.  This fulfilled the paranormal category.  I've heard good things about Mortal Instruments and they are making a movie that will be released this summer.  I balked at the cover.  Wow.  If it doesn't say ridiculous teenage romance, I don't know what does.  And then there was an endorsement by the one and only Stephanie Meyers.  She happens to be 4th on my nemesis list.  I should have turned and run then.  I know better!  Here is the general idea of the book.  There are demons, there are half demons, there are mundanes (which is  a stupid name for normal humans) and there are shadowhunters.  You guessed it, the shadowhunters kill demons and keep half demons in line.  Jace is one such hunter (we hate him), as are Alec and Isabelle (we don't care either way about them).  In walks Clary (bleh).  Turns out, a demon seemingly kills or abducts her mother.  In an effort to be more positive, I'll start with the good.  I like the idea of shadowhunters.  They keep alluding to the concept that most stories are real.  Cassandra Clare (from here will now be referred to as CC) borrowed mythology and demonology from many different cultures and religions.   That seems really interesting.  The bad:  CC managed to ruin the one interesting aspect of the book.  It was like a 485 page information dump.  Demons, vampires, faeries, werewolves, angels, silent-mind-reading-monks, glamors, angelic touched instruments, steles, ruins.  Most of it isn't explained.  I think that CC would have done better if she would have focused on a couple of those areas for the first book.  And then there are her characters.  I'm reasonably sure they caused me physical pain.  Clary, obviously named after Cassandra Clare (lame) is a ridiculous, insipid girl.  She has an immediately and inexplicable crush on Jace but refuses to admit it to herself.  She has a best friend named Simon that is in love with her.  She doesn't know how beautiful she is.  I sense a love triangle coming in future books.  Jace is your typical YA pretty boy.  He has a troubled past, he has an urge to protect the poor mundane, Clary, with his life if necessary, he has a hard exterior that Clary is trying to soften, blah blah blah.  I've heard this story before.  If you are planning on writing a YA book, please attempt to be original.  And the bickering!  It is so irritating and forced.  Jace and Clary are constantly snapping at each other,which is fine if you can make it sound natural.  CC apparently doesn't have that ability.  It just sounds absurd.  And the writing!!!!  She used the phrase, "he half pushed-half pulled me along" so many times I lost count.  HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT?!?!  And "he turned his finely chiseled nose to the side."  Just his nose, or the whole thing?  And what am I even reading, a dime store bodice ripper?  A friend of mine recently expressed that it seems like YA books are just being written with the hope of a movie deal.  That might be so.  This certainly has the feel of it.  Poor writing, poor characters, poor world building, with a good screen writer, could be a good movie.  We'll see, I suppose, in August.  In the mean time, probably have not learned my lesson.  I'm a sucker to the promise of a good story.

The dangers of being a red head.

Strands of Bronze and Gold 

by Jane Nickerson

Strands of Bronze and Gold is a new, re-told fairy tale book.  It is based on the French fairy tale of Bluebeard.  I would like to come clean with the fact that I went into this book thinking that I was going to read a swashbuckling tale of pirates.  It turns out that is Blackbeard, not so much Bluebeard.  That did not put a damper on the excitement of this book!   Sofia goes to live with her godfather, Bernard de Cressac (that is partial to redheads) in this castle like estate in pre-civil war Mississippi.  She quickly develops a crush on Bernard, and that is when I start hating her.  Initially, she seems to be a cookie-cutter YA character that is tedious and vapid.  She wants to save Bernard from his tumultuous past, blah, blah , blah.  I've heard it before.  Then suddenly (around page 80), she witnesses his cruelty.  "Each lash was a death blow to the infatuation I had carried for my godfather."  Her illusions of Bernard are shattered and as she discovers more and more of his true character, she begins to search out ways to escape.  That's when I stopped hating her! She blossoms into a courageous and admirable character.  The first part of the book (while I was not a fan Sofia at the time)  was beautifully descriptive and well written.  The second part, was all that as well as exciting and suspenseful.  Any YA author that can quote Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott and poetry by Richard Lovelace is superb in my book!  I'm looking forward to more books from Jane Nickerson!  Marvelous.

Haunted by humans

The Book Thief

The Book Thief is a story about Leisel Meminger.  Death, the narrator, becomes aware of her when she is nine years old.  She was on the train to her new foster family's house in Molching, Germany during the Nazi reign, when her younger brother dies.  While he is being buried, the grave digger drops his handbook and Leisel steals her first book.  Death takes note of her.  The last line of the book is "I am haunted by humans."  Leisel is one of these that haunts him.  Leisel is a special little girl that is trying to survive the horror that she has to live through.  She begins stealing books before she could even read the words, knowing they would lend light to her dismal path.  As she learns to read, she clings to the precious few books she has to escape.  I find myself guilty of the same thing, though I do not steal the books.  How often have I turned to an old leather bound friend to briefly turn away from the troubles before me, emerging refreshed and able to tackle the obstacles.  Leisel focuses on the time spent with Papa and her books and makes it through the rest.

There are other really touching characters in the book as well. I quickly learn to love Mama, even while she is screaming and throwing things. There is a soft spot in my heart for Papa and his gentleness toward a struggling girl.  And then there is Rudy Steiner.  Death says "He does something to me, that boy.  Every time.  It is his only detriment.  He steps on my heart.  He makes me cry."  I can identify with that sentiment.  Every little girl needs a best friend like Rudy.  He took care of Leisel to his own harm in school and out of it.  He stood up for what he believed in.  He stood against teacher, leaders of Hitler Youth and Nazi's.  He gave bread to the Jewish people walking to Dachau and was beaten for it.  I laughed at Rudy's ridiculous adventures and cried with his suffering.  Mostly, I thought we all need someone in our lives that has as much substance as this kid does.  He stands out, he is remembered.  He steps on your heart.

Now that I am five, I know everything.

Room by Emma Donoghue


It is Jack's fifth birthday.  When he was four, he lived in Room, slept in Bed, ate on Table and played with Ma.  He had five book with pictures and five without.  He had a few various toys that were made of things such as cans and toilet paper rolls.  Ma is Jack's whole world and he is hers. When he is five, everything changes.  Ma has another name, many things he thought were just TV are real, outside Room and Skylight is not Outer Space.  He thought he know who he was and who Ma was but now everything is confusing.  He uses this quote from Alice in Wonderland to describe his confusion, "I hardly know, sir, just at present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
It is hard to review this book without giving too much away.  It is told from the point of view of a five year old boy.  The first part is Jack describing his life in room to us.  The last half is Jack's discovery of the outside world.  Through his eyes we make all kinds of discoveries, such as "bees and humans should just wave, no touching."  We get to feel his first encounter with wind and rain.  We get to feel the frustration as he tries to figure out stairs and pulp and all kinds of other things that were previously part of Outer Space.
It is a gripping, funny, disturbing, emotional, philosophical book.  At one point Jack thinks, "When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and outside being totally real.  Now I'm outside but it turns out lots of it isn't real at all.  Lots of the world seems to be a repeat."  It will make you laugh, cry and think.  I finished the book two days ago and haven't stopped thinking about it since.  I recommend it to all adults.

9 years later

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I like a book that grabs me from the first page. This begins with, “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.” It races on from there and never looks back. This book is incredible.  You understand within the first few chapters why Eugenides won a Pulitzer prize for it.  When I reached the end of this book, I was unhappy to bring it back to the library.  I felt I needed to keep it, study it.  To be honest, I only picked it up because it had a pretty gold star on it that announced it was a prize winner.  I had no preconceived ideas about it.  The last hundred pages or so really touch on the hermaphrodite issue.  Leading up to it is generations of family drama, heartbreak, success, fears and chromosomal defect.  As you are submerged in this book you realize quickly the enormous amount of work Eugenides put into it.  It starts in the early 1900's in Smyrna during the Western Front.  It follows the protagonist's, Callie or Cal, grandparents as they flee to the United States from the fires the Turks engulf the city with.  They settle with cousins in a Greek community in Detroit.  It is moves us through the Great Depression, WWII, Detroit Riots, the birth of the hippies and the sexual revolution.  It details the care of silk worms, struggles of immigrants, bootlegging, women's rights, the birth of the Motor City, the start up and running of a business, racial segregation, and finally the science behind and emotional struggles of a hermaphrodite.  The background and build up to the protagonist is extraordinary.  By the time we got to to Callie's story, I was exhausted.  I think this book is better digested over a period of a couple of months, not weeks. 
I've already explained why this is a history book, novel of emotional struggles and a family saga.  It is also philosophical.  With quotes like, “Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.” and “Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself.” you begin to believe Eugenides might actually be a genius. It is also vaguely political, touching on issues with Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
This book is a masterpiece and very deserving of its award.  I'll leave you with one final thought, that can be appreciated by most in the book world.  "I, even now, persist in believing that these black marks on white paper bear the greatest significance, that if I keep writing I might be able to catch the rainbow of consciousness in a jar."  No wonder it took him 9 years to write it.

Just might be doing it wrong...

I recently read this on John Green's web site, "A book is a conversation between a reader and a writer, but we both have to hold up our end of the bargain there. It’s possible to write a book terribly; it’s also possible to read a book terribly. (Witness, for instance, those who read Huck Finn as a defense of slavery.) "  It definitely made me wonder.  That is one of the goals of this book blog, to make me a better reader.  I've been fighting my way through "A Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  Everyone loves this book.  Apparently.  So what is wrong with me?!  I don't hate it, I'm just not into it.  It isn't riveting!  It makes me think I might be doing it wrong.  It seems that the stuff going on in our lives can determine how we interpret writing.  Have you ever read a magazine article that really offends you and the next day, you can't remember why you were so upset about it?  I have that sort of trouble with books.  I know, for instance, that when I'm pregnant I must revisit old friends.  New books will not hold my attention and reading time will be skipped.  That could be happening with Zafon's book.  I'm reading a few other books (that are more interesting), I don't get enough sleep and reading is the only hobby I have right now.  All those put together means the book has to be spectacular (or at least exciting).  I'm hoping is going to get better (or I become a better reader).

Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human? Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
This book starts out in the town of Wall in England.  The Faerie Market is about to begin just outside the gates.  Dunstan Thorn, a very ordinary farmer, meets a beautiful and beguiling slave at the market and she gives him a glass snowdrop. Dunstan marries and ordinary girl from Wall but receives a baby in a basket that he conceived with the slave.  He names the baby Tristran.  We then skip ahead 18 years.  Tristran is in love with the town beauty and pledges to find and deliver a fallen star in exchange for her hand in marriage.  The adventure begins.  Tristran takes off into Faerie to discover many new things.  Including, but not limited to, the star is a ethereal girl with the name Yvaine.  I love Neil Gaiman's stories and this is no exception.  I love that he includes nursery rhymes and interprets them literally.  The first we come across is "How many miles to Babylon?"

How many miles to Babylon?

Three score miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

If your heels are nimble and light,

You may get there by candle-light.

Tristran uses this rhyme and a candle to cover months worth of walking in just a few steps.  He also throws in "The Lion and the Unicorn."

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn all around the town.

We are introduced to the Unicorn that the moon sends to assist Yvaine and Tristran.  The lion and Unicorn were fighting and Tristran steps in as the lion goes in for the kill.  Incidentally, the rhyme is about the English Coat of Arms, so naturally I love it.  The adventure is a good one; filled with intrigue, faries, ghosts, poison, a race to get the "treasure" and a ship that floats.  The twist is a good, though foreseeable, one.  In any worthwhile fairy story, things are not what they seem and people are not who you think they are.  So, of course, she is not JUST a slave girl.  Tristran is not JUST a heart sick teenager, foolishly chasing rainbows (or stars).  If this were a story told around a campfire, I would have come away with a euphoric feeling of having just had a magnificent experience.  Since it was a book, I am left feeling a bit discontented.  I had a similar occurrence after reading Neverwhere.  I wanted something more out of it.  There were so many wonderful ideas!  I wanted to know more about the Lilim.  Who were they, what were they once?  What about this Castle Fellowship?  I understand they were protecting the heir but who are the others?  How did they know about him?  How did it start?  And Captain Alberic and the Perdita!!  An airborne ship that harvests lightening?!  Fantastic!  But I need more!  I was left wondering about the Stormhold and Una and wanted a bit of a back story there.  What happened with Madam Semele/Ditchwater Sal in her past?  And that strange  inclusion at the end about Tristran breaking the power of the Unseelie court?  More on that as well, if you don't mind Mr. Gaiman.  All in all, I enjoyed this book.  Would recommend it and read it again.  He is an amazing story teller and a talented writer.  An extra hundred pages would have made him a genius.

P.S. This is a picture of the Fairy Market by Charles Vess in a 2007 edition of the book.  Wish I would have read that one!!