Mortal Engines
Mortal Engines, by Phillip Reeve
I read this one for my YA Book Group (they do two books a month), and would never have picked it up otherwise. I’m glad I did, though – this book was innovative and interesting, but not one I’d usually be attracted to. It’s the story of a boy named Tom who lives in London, but a London of the Future that is constantly on the move. The cities of the future are mobile (called Traction Cities), with huge wheels taking them around the world in search of other cities and towns to devour, in order to power their city.
Tom, an apprentice Historian, is jolted into reality when his hero, Valentine, throws Tom out of the city after he discovers a deadly secret about Valentine. Left for dead, Tom must struggle to survive with only Hester Shaw, a disfigured orphan out for revenge, for a companion. Although the two get off to a rocky start, the development of their relationship is one of the major strengths of this book.
With an ending that takes some surprising and admirable risks, this is a book that could have been cutesy but ends up quite poignant. The commentary on nuclear is an obvious undercurrent, but it is never overdone. It is high praise to say that despite the hefty pile of books waiting for me at home, I immediately put the sequel to this on hold. (Also, proof that this book log is useful – I didn’t know there was a sequel until I looked up this one to double check the author’s name. Woo! I love it when that happens.)
High Country Fall
High Country Fall by Margaret Maron.
I occasionally read books by Margaret Maron despite the fact that I am usually not much for mysteries. I like them well enough, but they’re not my first choice and with so many books to read all the time they tend to fall to the bottom of the pile. Margaret Maron is a favourite of my mum’s, though, and so I used to periodically steal hers when I was still living at home.
I haven’t read any in a while (due to the no longer living at home), but one came through the library the other day and I picked it up, in need of a fairly mindless read. I am particularly fond of her Deborah Knott mysteries – I like reading mysteries with familiar characters, as I find it makes them easier to get into. This one was pretty standard – but then, that’s what I was looking for.
It’s good, I think, to occasionally read outside my box. Usually I stick to a pretty predictable collection of genres, although my horizons have expanded considerably in the last few years. Working at the library is great for that – I don’t feel I have to make such a decisive commitment to a book, since I never buy books any more. (Hardly ever, anyway.) These books are not exactly high literature, but they’re an amusing enough read and one that at least gives me some sense of other genres, which is useful when I’m asked for recommendations.
Phew
So far, not including the books I have undoubtedly forgotten to write about here, I have read 82 books this year. 42 of them still need writing about. Eeesh. Maybe I can treat it as NaNo warmup.
I think I've got almost enough on hold right now to bring me to 100, so that shouldn't be hard at all. Whee!
Rodzina
Rodzina, by Karen Cushman.
This is the story of a twelve-year-old orphan who gets put on a train to go West at the beginning of the twentieth century. (Or, uh, thereabouts.) She is Polish, and she is one of the oldest children on the train. This is the story of the people who try to adopt her, and how Rodzina manages to survive the brutal conditions of the train trip.
It's based on the actual orphan trains that went out west, and it's kind of a depressing story in a lot of ways. Rodzina's life is hard and sad, and she's often totally in despair. But she is a very likeable character who perserveres despite the challenges, and she's the type of main character I really like in a book. Spunky, tough, but thoughtful and considerate. (Even when it is kind of deep down.)
This book was an easy read in a lot of ways, but I know a lot of people were very troubled by some of the content. I think kids will brush right over it, but I spoke to one person who was actually quite disturbed by one section of the book, and I can definitely understand that. It has almost a Series of Unfortunate Events feel to it, with the repeated doom and gloom, but it's a much more compelling story (helps that it's based on reality) and a somewhat more optimistic story.
Karen Cushman is a frequent visitor to the YRCA list, and this is a well deserved nomination. I enjoyed this book and it was also one I would have enjoyed when I was in the intended demographic. (Which is often not the case - my tastes have changed quite a lot in the last 12 years or so.)
A Complicated Kindness
A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews.
This is a book that I read for the new book club I’ve managed to talk my way into. It’s a Young Adult Book Club (meaning they read YA books but are adults), and they always have excellent taste in books so I’ve been looking forward to reading them. This is actually an adult book, but it was nominated for an award (by…somebody, I dunno) as best adult book for young adults. It’s one that’s been consistently popular in the library for the past year or so, and I’ve been meaning to read it so it was nice to have the impetus.
I enjoyed the book quite a lot, more than I expected to. (My sister thought it sucked, but she and I often have diverse opinions in books. We passionately love a lot of the same books, but there are a lot of books one of us likes but the other hates.) It’s the story of a girl in a very small town in Manitoba, and the entire town is Mennonite. This girl (a teenager) is desperate to fit in, but simultaneously doesn’t want to be like everybody else in the town. Her mother and sister have both left, and she’s left alone with her dad, awkwardly trying to raise her when he doesn’t understand her.
It reminded me a lot of Margaret Laurence, who I also really like (and who my sister, not surprisingly, really hates), particularly the protagonist, who I thought really resembled the main character in
A Bird in the House. (I haven’t read it since high school, so goodness knows what her name was.) I thought the story was interesting and well written, the concept worked really well, the characters were believable even if they were absent characters, and the plot moved at a great pace. Thumbs up to this one, although I can understand why some people don’t like it.
The Tale of Despereaux
Tale of Despereaux, by Kate diCamillo.
Being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread.
That’s a great subtitle right there. Although talking animals often bug the crap out of me (See
Into the Wild, Mayor of Central Park), this one was cute, funny, touching, but never cutesy. It is a fine line between cute and cutesy, but Kate diCamillo is one who often manages to skirt it quite successfully. Despereaux was a totally adorable and likeable character, and the format of the story was very accessible. (It has a very active narrator as a character in the story, which I often enjoy, even though it’s sometimes overdone, LEMONY SNICKET.) It was exciting without being overly dramatic, and the princess was quite cute as well. Clearly this is not a book that I’m going to wax poetic about for hours, but it was cute and well done and enjoyable. I’m just concerned that it’s not going to do well in YRCA because it’s not out in paperback, so lots of kids won’t have read it.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter. First of the
Warriors series.
Well, this book gets the dubious honour of being the YRCA book that I hated the most. (Although
Mayor of Central Park is not winning any medals in my book either.) It’s about these warrior cats who live in four clans in a forest, and this “kittypet” (ie housecat) that goes to join one of the clans. It is full of cats “purring” and “mewing” and “hissing” everything they say, and if you’re going to have talking cats, then just have them TALK, for god’s sake. Throw in a “He said” once in a while and I will be much less tempted to throw the book across the room. But as it was, you were constantly, relentlessly reminded that these were CATS! But they were acting like PEOPLE! Isn’t that WACKY?
Bleah. But, again, they seem to be insanely popular with the crowd they’re intended for, so maybe I’m just old and grouchy. Although I’m fairly sure the 12-year-old me would have hated this book too. And I like cats! Stupid warrior cats.
Eragon
Eragon, by Christopher Paolini
This book was written by a fifteen-year-old. And while I’m extremely impressed that a fifteen-year-old could write a book this complicated, it kind of feels like a…book that a fifteen-year-old wrote. Don’t get me wrong, there are elements of it that are interesting and actually quite compelling, but it kind of reads like a guy who thought, hmm, I like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dragons, so I’m going to write a book about that! Nothing wrong with that – and it’s certainly immensely popular with kids – but it’s not really my kind of book. It was definitely the YRCA book that weighed most on me, despite the intimidating size of some of the other ones, and it was one of the last ones I read. It took me nearly a week to read, which is very unusual for me, but eventually I finished it. I’m not terribly motivated to read the sequels, but I can definitely understand why kids like it so much. I can rattle off the book talk quite well now, and it’s a great book to excite kids with, between the fairly decent plot and the fact that a kid their age wrote it, but it’s not one that I’m going to be rushing to the sequels for. (For which I will be rushing for the sequels? I don’t know.)
Generally, though, this is not my style of fantasy. Big epic stories, incredibly (and overly, in my eyes) complicated worlds, dozens of characters with Obvious Fantasy Names, and a little too derivative of a lot of other things. (Eragon, you are no Aragorn, try though you might.)
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge.
This is a book of poetry, which is something I would generally avoid if it weren’t on the YRCA list. I’ve never been much of a fan of poetry, but this one surprised me. It’s the story of a kid with mono who’s therefore off the baseball team, and to pass the time he turns to poetry. The poems are in the form of him figuring out poetry as he writes it, and it’s kind of a neat setup that I enjoyed (again) more than I expected to. (Clearly I should be expanding my horizons on what I expect to like.)
There’s not much to the book – it’s one of the shortest on the YRCA list this year and definitely the shortest intermediate book – but in between the lines of the poetry lessons are some pretty well done elements about the death of his mother, the struggle to find things in common with his father, and the general trials of growing up. It’s an attempt to get boys interested in poetry, and although boys are interested in the cover (it has a baseball on it), they seem kind of disgusted when they discover it’s “just” poetry. Hopefully it’ll snag a couple of them before they figure out what it is.
The Conch Bearer
The Conch Bearer, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
First of all, how much do I rule? I typed that author’s name correctly on the first try without looking it up! Clearly I’m starting to memorize my spiels for YRCA book talks. This is an intermediate title for YRCA this year, and it’s one that I enjoyed far more than I anticipated I would. It’s set in India, and as a result has a mouthful of names that are a total bitch to discuss in book talk presentations. (Still better than going to a Polish immersion school with a book about a Polish girl and getting mocked for your lousy pronunciation, though.)
It’s about a magical conch shell (I know, it’s better than it sounds, I swear) and a boy named Anand. Part of what made it really appealing was the ending – it was very unexpected for the style of the book and even though I knew what would happen (the perils of not finishing all the YRCA books before you go to the workshop), it was still surprising and a good twist on what otherwise would have been a slightly formulaic story. (Of course, it also sets things up much better for the sequel.)
Some of the characters, especially the evil ones, are a little one-dimensional, and the wise wizard is a little too Gandalf for my liking, but the setting makes it different enough from all the other similar books that I’ve read, and I enjoyed the concept a great deal. (It also felt, at times, a little bit like an episode of the Amazing Race but with a magic conch shell. Which might be what TAR needs this season – it’s been a little slow.)
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Reptile Room and
The Wide Window, by Lemony Snicket.
There’s only so much you can say about A Series of Unfortunate Events. They are short – far shorter than I realised – and easy to read books that are obviously immensely popular. I like them well enough, and I can definitely see the appeal to kids, but I have to confess I’m mostly working my way through the series so I can see if the poor bastards get a happy ending. I’m also mildly curious about how long it’ll take before I get totally tired of the structure – I can see myself losing patience with the mysterious ways in which Count Olaf keeps showing up, and I’m only on the fourth book. I also have limited patience for the oft-overly-cutesy approach of the narrator (ie Lemony Snicket, who is a character in his own right.)Still, they only take about half an hour to read, and it will be useful to have read them (I think I might do a program on it for work), so I’ll keep slogging through. Even though they are really freaking depressing.
Plus, the dedications make me giggle.
No Fixed Address
It's a miracle! Actual book reviews! With content!
No Fixed Address, by Anita van Herk
This is this month’s book for my regular book club. It was chosen by my former roommate, and it’s a book she’s been bugging me to read for quite a while. Again, it took book club to get me to read it (I have so much to read these days that I often need some kind of external motivation to get me reading something)
It’s a Canadian author, one that has a very distinctly Canadian style. (I’d be hard pressed to define exactly what Canadian style writing is, but this is definitely it. Perhaps I should have taken a Can Lit course in University, but I dodged that with a couple of other CanCon courses.)
It’s the story of a traveling underwear salesperson and her unusual life on the road. Set in Alberta, it’s one of those books that works particularly well for locals. It’s always more effective in a book about the road when you know exactly which roads they’re talking about and what they look like. While I found the main character kind of off-putting and was not at all able to get into her head, I thought her story was interesting and unusual enough that I enjoyed the book almost despite the unlikable main character.
I found the bookending structure of the book to be kind of unnecessary and actually rather annoying, and I found the ending to be pretty unsatisfying. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book and I’m curious to see what other people thought of it on Sunday.
Not even a list, but a promise
Ok, I'm about to go to bed, but I've been looking over my log and discovered I've read approximately 72 books so far this year, not including the ones I haven't blogged about yet. (Of which there are a good 6 or 7, I think.) Thus, I am hereby declaring that my goal for the rest of the year is to make it to 100 books read this year. Because that would be kind of awesome.
(My next goal? To actually write about most of them. But, baby steps!)
I swear, I'll try to update soon.
