What It Is Versus What It Appears To Be

“We’re all just in the muck trying to believe we’re capable of greatness, but closer to breaking than we want to admit.” Truth

“The story you walk in to, he has learned, is always more complex than it first appears.” Truth

23.14 S

I loved this book:

This is a book lover’s dream – an old library book whose author is being researched by two students who write all of their notes in the margins as they go.  I have always dreamed of finding a mystery in a book, keeping notes.  It is an amazing piece of work, and quite honestly baffling to think of the process it took to put it all together. I truly loved every page.

I didn’t like the story:

Maybe I read it wrong.  Maybe I should have read the original “book” and then gone back to the marginalia.  Maybe the other way around.  But I know for sure that I generally read as a way to escape the feeling that everything I am doing in life is wrong, so to read a book and feel that way was just no fun. I truly hated very page.

So, what to say?  It’s beautiful, and adventurous, and tedious and frustrating.  In the end it will sit on my shelf to be looked at and never read again.  I will tell friends I loved it but not to read it.  So what’s the point? Not real sure myself.  But it kind of sums up 2013 for me – some huge changes for me and mine coupled with a very strong feeling of what the hell am I doing.  Things looking good on the outside but kind of all over the place on the inside.  So, how about in 2014 we just keep it simple and get back to basics.  I think I’ll start with Longbourne, because if the Bennets can’t get me back on track no one can.

Too Much Cuckoo

“When you are young, and beautiful, you can be very cruel.” Truth.

23.13 The Cuckoo’s Calling

This book took me far too long to get through. I picked it up thinking a well-written mystery would pull me in immediately, and once it was the hottest headline that JK Rowling was the actual author behind the story I jumped on it.  And then I floundered.  Seriously floundered.

It took me weeks to read, and I found myself trying to avoid it.  There was something about the whole thing that was very sad.  Of course, a murder mystery isn’t the most cherry of subject but that wasn’t all.  Everyone here was sad.  Lying about who they were or what they wanted.  Refusing to ask help from the ones they should trust most.  There was just something about it that made me feel even more shut in and lonely – and that was the last thing I needed when I picked it up.

Is it well written? Absolutely. Rowling can paint a character with words better than anyone else.  I guess I just needed her to paint someone a bit more happy to be living the life they were.

Rough

“‘Boss,’ he says. ‘I need to do something.’

‘So go on then,’ she says. ‘What?’

‘I can’t tell you.’”   

Luther’s Truth.  And once you know him, you know he means it.

22.13 Luther: The Calling

Luther is a BBC show that I totally stumbled on, and I was completely mesmerized.  Idris Elba IS Luther. He embraces the character in a way I have never seen before.  I stood up clapping and crying when he won the Golden Globe.  And yet, Luther is awful.  In the way Tony Soprano is awful.  In an I-totally-want-that-guy-on-my-side way.  In an I-feel-like-I-should-be-embarrassed-to-admit-my-adoration kind of way.  In fact, I don’t recommend this show to many friends because while I love it so much I also think it is probably a bit too real and too rough to be admired by too many.

Luther’s life is a mess.  His marriage, his career, his mind… All of it is falling apart and yet he manages to get the bad guy – generally with the help of some other rather shady guys – because he believes in justice.  Every single episode of the show is emblazoned on my brain in a way I can’t explain, partially because they are plain and simple rough to watch.  All of it is really violent, really realistic, and really rough. It reminds us how there is a bad side to everyone and maybe the ones who hide it more are really the worse ones in the end. Again, it is really rough and so is this book.

I am not sure you should read it if you haven’t seen the show, it is written by the creator of the show so it evokes the characters flawlessly, but if you didn’t already know them I am not sure it would work.  I am not going to talk about the plot but I will say any fan of the show needs to read this because it is a case you want to know more about.  Apparently there will be more books, and they take place before the events in the show, which is an interesting choice especially because he chose to write about immediately before those events.  I twas expecting to see a Luther pre-breakdown, but no – he is still a mess, and while that is completely compelling I was hoping to get a bit more insight into why he is the way he is.  Although, maybe it is better not to know, maybe I have no idea what rough really is.

Summer Reading

“What a thing to go through life without books.”  Truth

What is it about summer?  You think there is nothing to do but be hot and thus lounge by the pool and read, right?  That is what I thought I was in store for this summer, but no… I had to move, and visit family, and socialize.  Not much reading going on, and so I have managed to finish a whooping six books this summer.  Of course, it doesn’t help that the last two were kind of stinkers and so I was left wanting to do anything other than reading.

21.13 Etiquette & Espionage

Great Cover! Great Title! Great Blurb!  Not such a great book. 

This YA should have sucked me in and lasted about two days - a perfect summer read – instead it became a total chore for two weeks.  It reminded me of summer reading for school, at times honestly doing nothing was more entertaining than reading some of that dredge.  The main character is interesting and the school seems wonderful but I felt like I should have cared much more about it all by the end of book one.  We will just have to see how the series progresses.

20.13 Ratlines

This was a dude book disguised as historical fiction.  There was far too little history, and far too many fisticuffs and too much torture and killing.  Blah.  Not good.

As I said, it was a sad summer reading season, but right now I am going to pick up a book based on the Luther series, and on September 3^rd BBC will start showing Series Three.  So summer be damned! Bring on fall, Luther, and, let’s not forget, Alice.  Yippee!!!

The Other Side of the Tunnel

“But everyone also lives in the world inside their own head. An inscape, a world of thought.” Truth.

19.13 NOS4A2

I just read a 690-page book in a week!  Who-Hoo!!! I’m back baby.  Thank you Joe Hill for the right book at the right time – and for scaring the crap out of me!!!

Joe Hill, much like his dad, takes something everyday and makes it totally creepy.  Like IT becoming morphing into whatever the individual is scared of, or like The Shining where you are locked up inside the place that is literally making you crazy, and in NOS4A2 where Hill takes on Christmas. 

You know when you walk around Target at Christmas time and there is music playing, and trees everywhere, and it is fun for about 15 minutes?  That is what Christmasland sounds like to me, so fun for a little while and then I would want it to be over, but for a kid? Heaven.  Just yesterday, Darren was asking when Santa was coming again.  No thought to the fact that a creepy old man coming down the chimney into our home is totally freaky!  Anyway, Charlie Manx likes to take little children to Christmasland, a place he has created in his mind.  And maybe the best part of the book for me was when Hill reminds us that many things that are now reality were once just imaginary.  See… Taking something that we all do, daydream, and making the reality totally reasonable.  That for me is scary and enticing at the same time.  So the story drew me in, and I was finally able to get lost again, but I have to say that when I found myself humming a Christmas carol during breakfast on Saturday I almost came out of my skin.

On The Fence

“It was time to let go.” Truth.

18.13 Shadow and Bone

So I loved parts of this as I read but after sitting with it a few days there are more and more things I didn’t like – and I hate (as usual) that it is another unfinished trilogy and so lost all of its steam at the end.

Characters –

The Good:

I love that Alina feels a sureness in her power – not like it is natural or outside of herself, but a thing she feels right about.  

It isn’t really clear who is good or bad, and it totally works.

The Bad:

Everyone is far too concerned about how they look.  This is a fantasy for goodness sake, can’t we leave the reality out?  Essentially she gets plastic surgery and this is skeevy for me.

I wanted to know more about the royal family. *To be fair, this may come later.

World Building –

The Good:

Original.

I like that it is allowed to unfold naturally instead of being explained ad nauseam to the reader.

Not a lot of back story.

The Bad:

Not a lot of back story. *Yes, this is both good and bad. 

There are a lot of different places mentioned but I don’t know why I should care about any of them.

I need a bit more about how the Grisha rankings work.

The Plot –

The Good:

The endless travel scenes plugged right along and I didn’t have to hear about every berry they tried to eat or fire they started.

The Shadow Fold seems like a genuinely scary thing and the bad guy is pretty bad and yet a bit logical.  Intriguing.

The Bad:

I read it two days ago and haven’t thought about it since, or thought of picking up the second book.

I finished reading the book and the story isn’t over.  I am honestly so tired of this.

Overall, I will be back, but I may wait until it has all been published.  Curses to the trilogies and my OCD to finish things I have started.  *See, I always bitch about it but also end up buying all the books – damn you capitalism.

It Is What It Is

“We don’t have access to private jets for authors of tomes about religious history. If you want to write Fifty Shades of Iconography, we can talk.”  Truth. And yes, this really is in this book. My gawd. 

17.13 Inferno

I have hit the post move funk and all I can come up with to tell myself is that: It is what it is.  We have left that place and are now in this place, and even though it is a place we have been before it isn’t the same.  Because life rolls along and time passes, people change and some stay the same. I may need to adjust where I go and what I do but really, in many ways, it stays the same because it is what it is.

If there is anything that is said over and over about Dan Brown is that he is what he is, and is said almost like an excuse.  His books aren’t great literature but they are generally great page-turners, so while they are ok for being one thing they aren’t treated as another by many.  So while Inferno is what I expected to be, I also feel kind of over it.  (Much like Reno; it is much like I expected it to be but I also already feel kind of over it. And that PISSES ME OFF!!! Get over it Karen, it is what it is.  It isn’t what it was, or what I imagined it to be, or what I need in every way; it is what it is, and it is my fault for not choosing to make that positive and fun instead of sad and lonely.)  Anyway, back to the book, it felt just like a rehash of the other Langdon books and even less interesting.  Maybe it was because there have been so many really well done homages to Dante and Inferno.  Honestly, what this book did most was make me want to go back and re-read The Dante Club – now that was fun!

Often in my life I have found myself reading the perfect book at the perfect time. But this time I didn’t find the perfect book but the perfect movie.  The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel.  It is wonderful, and happy and sad.  And while I am sure it was marked as overly sentimental by some I was so happy to watch it, and to learn from it.

“There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it.” The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  Truth.

Feeling Old

"A senior moment."

"You can't remember your own birthday?"
"No," said Gabriel, punching in the code. "I just cant believe it was that long ago."  Truth.

16.13 The Fallen Angel

We just moved – again – and I have never felt so old.  One day of moving boxes was followed by one day on the couch with a knee swollen to the size of a grapefruit. One trip to Home Depot was followed by three others because I can’t remember everything I need.  One goodbye to a neighbor was followed by hysterical crying because I never thought this would happen again, and now I have my heckles up anticipating what will come next.  Needless to say, I am a mess… but I finally made it through a book and it only took 4 1/2 weeks. Grrrrr.

It seems that life is catching up with Gabriel Allon as well, even though the formula of the books remain the same.  Now everyone knows his name and his face.  They know he is an art restorer and a spy.  They know who he works for and with.  And they know all about his friends in high places.  And maybe I know too much as well, because usually I fly through these books dying to know how it will end but this time I just didn’t care.  I don’t know if it wasn’t as exciting because it wasn’t so undercover, or because I just didn’t have the energy to make anything exciting.  I love Gabriel and I love reading my yearly Silva, but this one just didn’t do it for me.  However, that certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be back for the next one though.

Time Suck

So yeah… Still can’t read.  Not even Gabriel Allon can seem to rescue me - so obviously something tragic is going on but I am trying to not give it too much energy and let it resolve itself.

So what, pray tell, have I been doing with my time – I have become a cross-stitching fiend!  Finishing off projects that have been set aside for years, buying more projects than I can ever hope to complete, and even reading(!) a bit about the craft.

“Domestic arts were equated with virtue because they insured the woman remain at home and refrain from book learning.”  Ha Ha – I can’t even…

The Subversive Stitch

I am not going to pretend like I read this whole thing.  It is basically a PhD thesis on embroidery and feminism and if I can’t get my mind to focus on a Gabriel adventure then I sure as hell can’t get into this.  But the bits and pieces I did get through were interesting:  How stitching was considered a hobby of the rich and well mannered, and then became a kind of trade for the lower class; then the push back against the idea that the “craft” is for the idle or pious woman, or as I hear a lot “women’s work.” How the designs have changed from a young woman’s “casket” of work to show off to possible suitors, to the more modern subversive designs that try to break down barriers.  Speaking of…

The project I am working on now is from a book called Twisted Stitches.  I was originally drawn to it because it is written by a man who very unapologetically thanks a family friend for teaching him to stitch but also laments the fact that each finished piece is sent to live out its days in the bottom of a drawer somewhere like many of my past projects.  I love the Sugar Skull pattern but admit that the gun shot wounds, road kill, and voluptuous female vampire patterns lost my attention.  I have to think there is a way to be off the beaten track without beating that track to a pulp with your irreverence.  If only I was creative enough to come up with my own designs.  

Changes

“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.”  I really hope this is the Truth.

The past few months have been crazy in my life and thus I have not been reading or blogging.  While planning a ten day vacation to Germany, my husband got a phone call asking him to come back to the job he left almost seven years ago and it threw us for a huge loop.  We took our trip, the following weekend he flew down to interview for the job, last weekend we drive down and put an offer on a house, and this weekend we have started to pack up our house here.  I am pretty devastated to be leaving Oregon and never imagined raising my son in Nevada, but it is happening no matter how much I push back against it.  But honestly, I am scared and sad.  So my mind isn’t in a great space and while I wish I could read I probably should just give up because even the reading I have done hasn’t been done well.

15.13 A Death in Vienna

This audio book was an absolute lifesaver on the 8 hour drive to Nevada one day and the 7 hour drive back two days later.  I have read all of Silva’s books but my husband just won’t try them out (probably because I say he should) but we both enjoyed this and it made the time fly.  Plus, Gabriel is truly the best.

16.13 The End of the Wasp Season

This is the second Mina I have read, both featuring DCI Marrow, and while I like her character and find her intriguing, the format of shifting between the investigators and the criminals just kills the mystery for me.  Since we know everything and everyone as it happens I just can’t get invested in watching Marrow solve it.

17.13 The Twelve

I started this on the plane to Germany and was so excited to really tuck into it on the ten hour flight – but oh my god! You now have your own TV on those flights and it has been years since I watched an adult movie of my own choosing so instead of reading I watched: Anna Karenina, Jack Reecher, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Hitchcock, The Help, Twilight – somethingridiculous, and The Hobbit.  Do I feel guilty?  Kind of, but such is life.  Honestly, I haven’t even finished this one but I do plan to, I just figure I won’t be very qualified to write a review by then so I am including it here.

They Are a Rotten Crowd

“Americans, while willing, even eager, to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.” Truth.

14.13 Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby

I am usually not a fan of film adaptations of books, especially those I taught at school, but I have always have a soft spot for Redford and Farrow as Gatsby and Daisy; the foggy lenses, and over acting.  Showing it in class was always hilarious.  The kids eagerly anticipating the gruesome ending and instead laughing out loud at the almost comedic scene.  It isn’t a perfect movie, but it was pretty perfect for what it was supposed to be.  The Great Gatsby is all about what we see instead of who we are, what we imagine instead of what we have, so the over acting was just right because these people were always pretending about everything.  And now we have a remake coming, and I am sad that this original version will be relegated to the classics section.  The remake is being directed by Baz Luhrmann of Moulin Rouge fame so is destined to be gaudy as all get out, but will that take away from the story, from the truth of the book – that in America it isn’t about who we are, but instead about who other people think we are.  I really wasn’t sure, the casting seemed off to me and rumors of the soundtrack sounded crazy but…

Then I saw this:

The pink suit, the pool, the car.  The back-story, the pearls, the green light. All the pretty, and yes, all the gaudy.  But, oh my gosh, I am in – like totally in (except maybe not the 3-D part, can we just kill the 3-D part please.)  And this Tom Buchanan is the perfect Tom Buchanan – am I right? 

So I wasn’t excited about the movie and now I can’t wait and because of this I found out about Trimalchio.  It is an early version of Gatsby that was written in 1924 but published in 2000, along with some of the letters Fitzgerald’s editor sent him in regards to revisions.  For me, it is also the superior book.  It seems to me it is a lot more messy than the original. It feels more obvious to the reader and the characters that Gatsby and Daisy will never have the future they both have imagined, in fact, none of the them will.  All I could think about while reading was how much I wish I had had this edition when I was teaching Gatsby years ago because it seemed a bit more realistic in the end, and maybe this movie will be the same.

Lose Ends

“Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and implied there were endings when in reality there were no ending, everything just went on and on and on.” Truth.

13.13 Case Histories

It feels lately like every time I tidy up one lose end at least ten more unravel, and this month the ends are out of control!  I can’t even focus my mind on reading a book, which kind of made Case Histories perfect. 

At the center of the plot is Jackson Brodie, a PI and father who is hired by various people to solve their various mysteries.  But it is much more complicated than that because all the stories over lap and intertwine is both insignificant and significant ways.  But really each story is about family, and how they look like one thing from the outside but are on the inside very different, much like the mysteries being investigated.  I have seen Atkinson’s name a lot in the book press lately and I can see why people read her books.  She is a true storyteller, but I am not sure she is a great mystery writer.  The cases are all solved off screen leaving very little for the reader to play with and so I felt less invested in the outcomes.  There are also point of view and time shifts that I found a bit jarring, but overall Brodie is a character that I would like to spend more time with since he seems to be the only one with more lose ends to tie up than me.

**Let's be honest, this is a terrible post - but I swear to you I cannot get my mind to focus.  I am leaving tomorrow for a ten day trip overseas and I haven't packed, and when we come back we need to deal with possibly moving to one place, or definitely moving to another when, truth be told, all I want to do is stay still.

False Advertising

“Maybe nobody ever saw themselves completely objectively.  Every self-image needs a flattering mirror or two.” Truth.

12.13 The Devil in Silver

This book is classified as literary horror.  Wrong. I suppose it is Literary because there are words, but there is no horror involved; suspense maybe but no horror.  Instead it is a social commentary on the woes of the mental health system.  In a lot of ways it felt like I was reading a fictionalized version of someone’s college thesis. Are there too many drugs being handed out like candy? Yes. Are there doctors who hands are tied by hospital boards who only care about making money? Yes. Are these huge issues that need to be fixed? Absolutely.  Does this book show us all of this? Yes.  Does it offer any answers? No.  And so I am left wondering what the point was.

Spoilers ahead!

The only answer suggested here is to run away, not to mention the fact that the over riding assumption is that all the patients in the hospital has been put there wrongfully.  So everyone is over drugged and everyone wants out.  One character does manage to escape and while it makes for a bit of a heart-warming moment for the story, I have to wonder what she will do now? She has no money, no job skills, and no network of support.  How can anyone manage that way? At the end of the book the remaining characters prove themselves to be literal savages and yet I am supposed to think that they are the good guys?  And our main characters, I never understood him in the first place.  So many of his actions, after being brought to this hospital under such odd circumstances, made no sense.  Why didn’t he call someone?  Why didn’t he ask the doctors or nurses for help?  Why didn’t he ask any of the visitors to help him?  And why, when he spoke to his family, did he act like he was calling from home?  How could he expect anyone to help him when no one knew anything about his situation?

Again, I have no idea what the point was, and if I hadn’t been reading the book for a group I never would have finished it.

Safe Travels

“Just dreaming it is nice… Even if it doesn’t happen. Just dreaming it is nice.” Truth.

11.13 Ask The Passengers

Whenever I am in an airport I can’t help but wonder where all those people are going.  Are the going towards something or leaving something behind?  Is it the end of their journey or the beginning?  And somehow it always feels both happy and sad to me.  In Ask the Passengers, Astrid looks up to those planes and sends her love to the travelers.  She sends it to them because she feels like she doesn’t have anyone else to give it to, so instead of not giving it at all she gives her love to strangers – isn’t that wonderful?  Isn’t it powerful?  Asking teenagers to not give up on it but to give it anyway.  Thank you AS King.  In a brilliant twist, King also shows those passengers receive Astrid’s love, right when they need it, and isn’t that the truth too.  Aren’t there moments when we all just need something from someone, anything: a smile, a hello, just a bit of positive energy, something to help us through.  In the story, Astrid is discovering something about herself and as she puts it out there she is desperate for those around her to give her some love back; some raise to the occasion and some disappoint in heartbreaking ways, but the important thing is that she keeps trying.

I keep wondering why I haven’t heard more about King’s work.  This is her fourth book; I have read one other and can’t wait to get my mitts on the rest. She is really great at writing stream of consciousness in a way that rings very true.  I keep wanting to compare her to John Green as their books share a compulsively readability trait, but while many complain that Green’s characters act older than they appear (a la Dawson’s Creek) King’s characters act more true to the reality (a la Friday Night Lights) and I would imagine that fact sends some parents through the roof – these kids cuss, have sex, and think their parents are idiots.  Let’s be real, that is real. I have to think that is what has kept these books off my radar, and that is a real shame because while her characters do those things that parents hate they are also to the core good.   They support their friends, search for who they real are independent of what other people want them to be, and they don’t give up on those idiot parents even though they have every reason to.  As a parent, I hope my son will do this for me and I thank King for showing him how.

The Rumor Mill

“I suppose villainy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.” Truth.

10.13 The Daughter of Time

Last month, archeologists found the skeleton of Richard III in a carpark in Leicester.  My first thought was why the hell are we spending money digging up carparks, and my second thought was The Daughter of Time.  Or simply put:  The Truth.

There were many rumors about King Richard addressed in Daughter of Time, and the discovery of his body has put a few to rest and confirmed another:

Withered arm – No evidence

Hunchback – Evidence of severe scoliosis, so not a hunch per say but he certainly would have appeared hunched over.

Born with full set of teeth – No evidence

His kingdom for a horse – Lots of carpark jokes

But one rumor remains.  Was he a murderer of boys?

The portrait Grant looks at in the book.

The facial reconstruction of his skull.

Daughter of Time sets out to answer that question; trying to consider the facts of history as opposed to the facts claimed by historians and other educated men of the time.  The book has a clear opinion that I won’t spoil here, but what I really noticed is how much we love a mystery that cannot be solved.  We go back again and again even though a solution can never be truly discovered. Why do we still wonder about Richard and the boys in the Tower when so many other rulers have been overtly awful?  Why are we still trying to unmask Jack the Ripper when so many horrible murderers, with many more victims, are found out and imprisoned? Where is Jimmy Hoffa and why do we care?  I don’t think it is because we actually want to know the answer, I think it is because we love to gossip and spread rumors, the more sordid the better.  Be damned the truth.

War – Huh - Good God Y’all

“Nothing made you feel so useless as another person’s grief.” Truth.

9.13 Days of Blood and Starlight

This is the second in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy and it shows that war truly is good for absolutely noting.  It also shows that the second book in a trilogy can be totally engaging and advance a plot in a totally meaningful way.

In the first book the war between the Chimera and the Seraphim is set up.  We see the history and build up and understand that it will be an all or nothing war – one side will cease to exist.  In Days, we see it actually happen.  And we see it keep happening because the killing never stops, even if you destroy one side another side appears.  This is a harsh book and I kind of loved it for that.  It doesn’t gloss over the hard stuff, or the grey area.  There are characters that we care for on both sides; we are shown that each side is justified and awful at the same time. 

Karou is still torn between sides no longer because of love but because of her constant questioning about what it right, and, because she is from the human world, she knows how much worse it could be.  They could have guns.  And as this story ends and we wait for the next to be written, both warring leaders now know what Karou knows and they are heading for the human world where we make gods of some and monsters of others, and arm them both in unimaginable ways.

I hate guns.  So much.

The Write Thing

"That the main lesson of literature is courage…"  Truth.

8.13 Woes of the True Policeman

 

For the past few weeks I have watched the neighbors across the street pack up the many belongings from their home.  After 40 years, it is time to move somewhere smaller;  somewhere safer, with only one level.  She is 86 and he is 89.  I knew that they needed to move, especially after he broke his arm last year falling down the stairs backwards, but it breaks my heart to see them dismantle the life they lived in that house.  I wish I knew them better and longer.  It is heart wrenching on one hand and on the other so clearly the right thing to do, but watching them decide what to take and what to leave at this stage in their loves feels sad.

Some people don’t get the chance to make these types of decisions.  Roberto Bolano died at age 50, he had been ill but was still very young.  Much of his popularity as an author came after his death and three books have been published posthumously, most recently Woes.  It was marketed as an addition to 2666, and it is, but it also felt like I wasn’t meant to read it.  It feels like a character study that he did for himself in order to better understand the characters he wrote about there.  It feels like a sketchbook that was set aside and not meant to be a part of anything.  If you haven’t read 2666, this story makes no sense (not that he is known for writing linear stories), if you have read 2666 you will eat this up with a spoon, as I did.  You will relish each new detail, you will want more.  But kind of like too much ice cream, maybe not such a great idea.  I love Bolano and I love his work, but I want to read what he wanted me to read and I am starting to feel a bit dirty as each new piece comes out.

Strike Two

“Nothing went exactly right. And yet it was perfect.” Truth.

7.13 Tempest

I hate when I read two stinkers in a row, it puts me off for a bit.  Plus, when both have been recommended by friends I have to also worry about gracefully navigating our next meeting.  If only I could go back in time and make a different choice…

Speaking of, Tempest is a YA about a boy who can jump back in time and while there the things he does do not change the present.  Then one day odd men show up and shot his girlfriend.  From there he goes back in time to change her future and figures out a big subplot about his abilities and where he comes from.  It is actually a pretty good and original premise, but so much time is devoted to explaining how the time shifts work (and I won’t claim that this is done very well either) that you never come to care about the characters doing it.  There are some interesting parts sprinkled through but I never felt like anyone truly cared about anyone else and there were so many lies being told I wasn’t sure what to believe in the end.

Of course, it will eventually be part of a trilogy and so it leaves off without a satisfying end.  I am pretty sure I won’t be reading on and rather sure it won’t effect my future in any way.

Fridgid B*$#h

“Don’t ever get old. With each year that passes, the old Viking idea of jumping off a cliff to one’s death looks better and better.” Hopefully not a Truth.

6.13 The Ice Princess

Blergh.  Bad book. 

The heroine was annoying, acting one minute like a competent girl and the next like a total idiot; stealthy breaking into houses to uncover clues while also worrying about weigh watchers points and what underwear will keep her tummy in line.  Or when she sits on her mittens so as not to get a UTI from a park bench (Seriously, maybe I should have stopped reading here.) Did I mention she is 35.  Plus, I am not even sure she is supposed to be the main character.  Was it supposed to be the police officer?  Because he seemed like he was new to this whole solving crime thing even though, based on his age, he should have been at this for at least ten years.  But you see, they knew one another as kids then moved away, and now they are in love.  Wait, is this a romance or a mystery, or is there a new hybrid? Romstery perhaps?

Spoiler Warning!

Anyway, the murder case was over done with too many plot lines meandering and big clues suddenly being revealed, and then it doesn’t even finish.  I mean, I think the guy did it, not his mom right?  I am pretty sure it isn’t good to have your reader come away not sure.  Also, I figured out the other big plot twist halfway through because I used to watch Days of Our Lives.

Other highlights include:

All men are bad.

All women are victims.

The none victim females are not complete until they find a man and once they do they stop doing anything interesting and just start cooking.

Plus, the writer is Swedish so lots of street names and meaningless car travel though the snow.

And shoveling.  Lots of shoveling.

Balls. Blergh. Bad Book.

Please Don’t Ignore Her

“The trick is remembering that change is as easy as you make it.” Truth.

5.13 Please Ignore Vera Dietz

This was a pretty gut-wrenching read.  It just rang so true, and so sad, for me.  It made the faces of many past students flash before my eyes, with the constant reminder that for some kids life will never be fair.  Some kids are failed by the system and by the people around them, by the people who know better.

As the story opens Vera is at the funeral of her best friend Charlie, or ex-best friend as the case may be.  We being at the end, as the rest of the story tells us, through flash backs, about their friendship, how it fell apart, and what really happened to Charlie. Meanwhile it is also a story about two kids, acting very much like teenagers – which I am sure has conservative parents in an absolute fit as the book won a Printz  Honor Award – and just trying to keep their heads down and make it through.  So many kids now a days do that.  It seems like they are literally holding their breath until the something better comes along, but there are also so many more ways to get in trouble than there used to be, and so many more people too bothered to intervene when they see wrongs being committed.  At the core, I think that is what this book is about:  Idly standing by, and how it has become really hard to push back against that new expectation.  I think both kids and adults would learn a lot about acting responsibly from this book.

The end is a bit tidy for me, but the core is very messy and very real.  And in many ways, very scary.

A Case of Fanfiction

“I’ve a rule about one-eyed yellow idols – and, indeed, idols of other precious hues with any number of eyes, arms, heads, or arses.  Simply put: hands off!” Truth.

4.13 Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles

I am so glad I had this book to read while I suffered through the plague.  I could barely read, much less make sense of particular details of a plot, so the fact that this is a collection of familiar tales was perfect.  This is a love letter to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, in which the Holmes role is played out by the dastardly Moriarty, and the role of Dr. Watson is filled by hired hit-man Colonel Moran.  All told from Moran’s POV, we revisit the adventures of Holmes from the side of the bad guy, all the way until the final fall, and it turns out to be just as much fun as you would expect.

Essentially, this is fanfiction.  In fact, Titan Books had published an entire series of what amounts to Holmes fanfic - made much easier by the fact Doyle is long dead and his works are part of the public domain.

There has been a lot of debate about fanficion in the publishing world lately as 50 Shades of Grey has become a certified hit (shudder).  EL James, the “author” has made millions off of her books that were originally published online as a Twilight fanfic. (They call it Pull to Publish as names are changed and all references to the original removed.)  My general opinion about fanfic is that it is great, as long as it remains exactly what it is.  Someone taking the characters and ideas of someone else and expanding on them, while giving all credit due to original author, actor, creator, etc.  I think it is great that so many people find a path to writing through inspiration from television, movies, or other books. I say use the characters, use their names, and be thankful for their origin, but please, don’t write it that way, then cut and paste in new names and say it is original in the effort to make a profit, it isn’t original and the authors (and now publishers) know it. 

A Royal with Cheese is still a Quarter Pounder, and Anastasia Steele is still Bella Swan, so just own it, and honor it, and if doing so means you pay royalties to someone else then write the check and be thankful.

A Bitter Pill

“Bacon improved things dramatically.” Truth.

3.13 Bitterblue

This is the follow up to Graceling, taking place eight years later and following the search for truth of the new queen we met as a girl in Graceling.  I honestly was looking forward to it, and while I liked being back in the world, nothing much happened.

At 500-some pages, there is just far too much bloat going on.  New characters are introduced who are all too similar to one another and many unnecessary, story lines that start out interesting but don’t have any structure or follow through, and a mystery that is intriguing until it is wrapped up nicely with very actually little resolved.  In the end, it didn’t even feel like a completed story, just one long tale that meandered nowhere. (But I did love that Bitterblue said, “Balls,” a lot.  It is a favorite of mine.)

This is a big issue for me with the new YA landscape.  Once publishers figured out that kids would take on a long book, scarf it down, and still want more, everyone started to write every little thing they thought of and not edit it well.  And yes, readers love a long book to escape into, but it needs to be worth it in the end.  Not every book needs to be over 500 pages and part of a trilogy.  Sometimes a story is short and tight, sometimes questions are left unanswered, and sometimes it is worth the extra pages, but not always and certainly not as often as the current YA publishers seem to think.

A Very Sad Story

“Every day I feel a change in my perception.” Truth.

2.13 A Kiss Before You Go

I didn’t know this would be my second book of 2013.  I didn’t set out to read it today.  In fact, I didn’t even own it an hour ago…

It is profound.  Profoundly sad.  Profoundly beautiful; its words and its pictures.  Profoundly hopeful. 

Danny lost his wife.  His son lost his mother.  Through pictures and words he shares his grief as he learns to live this new life that will never be the same.  The things he has to learn how to do, the things he needs to teach his son, the life left behind that he needs to both honor and leave behind.  It is a very sad story that is also beautiful.  It reminds us again that you just never know, so love the ones you’re with.

Write Me Well

“I immersed myself in books and rock ’n’ roll, the adolescent salvation.” Truth.

1.13 Just Kids

“Write me well.” are the final words Viola speaks to Shakespeare in the movie Shakespeare in Love.  They are the most romantic words.  To trust every bit of the truth of yourself to the person you love and ask them to write your story. To write the whole truth about you… Takes such an amazing amount of trust.  And that is what Robert Mapplethorpe asked of Patti Smith.  He asked her to love him, and stay with him, inspire him, and, eventually, write him.  And my goodness, did she write him well.

I adored every page of this book.  This is a love story that is really about friendship.  It isn’t overtly romantic or passionate.  It is instead honest and trusting.  Two people who needed and depended on one another as they changed and turned into other people.  Do I think she left out some of the dirty details in order to reinforce her poetic existence?  Absolutely.  And I do not care one little bit.  I think we could use a bit less of dragging up the ugly details of days gone by in favor of thanking those people who have touched our lives in some way.

I always wanted to be an artist.  I longed to be able to sketch out all of my feelings, or paint a scene that only existed in my mind. I have countless art supplies: paints, papers, tools. Sadly, I don’t have the chops.  This book has made me see that art isn’t about having the chops, or feeling you were born to do something, it is about living and creating until you find yourself where you are supposed to be.  In the next few weeks I vow to pick up some of those pencils and paper and see what happens.