Wintergirls

Title: Wintergirls

 

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Publisher: Penguin Group (2009)

 

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Realistic Fiction

Length: 278 pages

Synopsis:  Lia is frozen, caught on a path she can't escape and can't control.  Her family seems to have fallen apart: her parents are divorced and preoccupied with their own lives and her stepmother is too busy shuttling her own daughter from violin lessons to soccer practice to see what is happening.  Lia finds a brittle strength in watching the numbers of her bathroom scale tick downward.  One hundred and ten pounds.  One hundred.  Ninety.  Her bones stretch out from pale skin, but the number is never low enough.  One night, her one-time best friend, Cassie, is found dead in a local motel after calling Lia more than thirty times.  Lia never picked up, but Cassie isn't willing to let it rest.  Now Lia sees her everywhere, stretching out icy wintergirl fingers so thin the light shines through.  Cassie stands at the end of the path Lia is walking.  How far will she go?

 

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: Having previously read Anderson's Speak, my initial reaction to another book about the plight of a teen girl in a desperate situation was "Really?  Again?"  Could she really tell another story in that vein with the same kind of impact?  Could she do it without being trite?  Then I opened the book and never questioned her again.  This book is a horrifying window into the world of disordered eating.  It's not about beauty.  It's about strength and control.  I've worked with kids with eating disorders.  I've seen some of the ways they try to trick the scales.  I've seen their matchstick arms and hollow ribs and straw-like hair.  I understand the need for control, the power that comes with self-denial, the triumph over pain.  Anderson captured it all.  Lia and Cassie were dancers, yes, but they weren't driven to be thin by their need for the spotlight.  Cassie was interested in theatre, but she didn't purge to get the lead in a play.  For these girls, it's not about getting attention.  It's not about being beautiful.  It's about being strong.  It's about having power in a world that has conspired to rob them of it.  The public health professional in me cringes when Lia logs onto a support blog for anorexics-- not a blog to support recovery, but about how to hide one's symptoms, how to cut calories and burn more.  These exist.  They're not hard to find and they're hard to remove, and every time someone logs on, it gets harder to change the mindset about disordered eating.  Life for Lia gets harder and harder and worse and worse.  As the book draws to a close, she hits rock bottom.  In a way, I'm glad to see this.  For people struggling with problems like these-- addiction, disordered eating, domestic violence-- it's not easy to make a change.  This book isn't about Lia's recovery.  It's about making the decision that she wants to.

The Knife and the Butterfly

Title: The Knife and the Butterfly 

Author: Ashley Hope Pérez

Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab (2012)

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Mystery, Crime

Length: 204 pages

Synopsis:  Azael knows he's fallen in with bad company, but the MS-13 gang is as close as he gets to a real family.  His aunts and uncles have written him off, his dad's been deported and his mother's dead.  Now it's just Azael and his brother and the boys of MS-13.  Azael's girlfriend Becca wants him to clean up his act, and he agrees.  Time to turn over a new leaf.  When the gang heads out to deal with some members of the Crazy Crew gang, Azael figures once more can't hurt, right?  But when he wakes up after the fight in lock-up, his troubles have only just begun. 

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: This was a quick read, though not one I would usually have picked up.  I've been working through a stack of young adult high-interest reads to build a database of reviews for a classroom library.  I stacked them up, promised to read them in order, and away I went.  This one was next, so I zipped through it.  It's gritty and sour, and though I don't know a thing about Salvadoran gangs and my Spanish is rudimentary, it feels real.  I understand where these characters are coming from, even if I can't imagine myself in their shoes.  There's beauty and gentleness in their lives too, whether it's in the sketches Azael draws in his black notebook, or in the love these kids have for friends, family, and even pets.  I think this is a group of people and characters whose stories aren't often told, and that Pérez has done so with compassion and truth.  This story is a sad one, full of knives, but even in that sharp, ugly, dangerous world, there are butterflies.

The Ask and the Answer

Title: The Ask and the Answer

Author: Patrick Ness

Publisher: Candlewick (2010)

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Length: 519 pages

Synopsis:  New World was settled by space-faring refugees a generation ago, though when the settlers arrived, they had no idea that the planets unique environment would soon cause men and animals to uncontrollably broadcast their thoughts telepathically.  Women, though able to hear the Noise, are themselves silent.  It is against this backdrop that the story of Todd and Viola, begun in The Knife of Never Letting Go, continues.  Now they find themselves captives of the former Mayor of Prentisstown, the leader of the army they fled across New World to escape.  The Mayor has overthrown the town of Haven by intimidation alone and set himself up as the President of New Prentisstown.  Though some residents are hopeful that the bloodless coup will result in a better life for all of them, the President's new policies have the women of New Prentisstown nervous.  Separated, Todd and Viola will have to make their own decisions about where their loyalties lie.  Will they ever be reunited?  And if they do find each another, will the person they find be the one they lost?

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: For such a lengthy book, this is an amazingly fast read.  Ness has a unique ability to write good people into bad situations and to let the reader watch humanity twist under pressure.  The prequel to this book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, was something I stumbled into quite by accident, but, just like this one, it had me staying up to all hours just to read a little more.  And a little more after that.  The characters range from sweet to horrifying, but all of them have a motivation and their actions make sense.  Watching these conflicting motivations clash in all out war is both intriguing and horrifying, and the parallels to both historical and current events are eerie.  It's one thing to write an allegory about past genocides or current revolutions, but to see the very same scenarios develop out of an entirely foreign series of events... it makes for serious food for thought.  Though this is a book geared toward young adults, I think that the lessons it holds are important for all ages.  Moreover, I think that its method of teaching is important.  Rather than laying out a clear cut path of right and wrong, Ness has characters on both sides of an ideological divide.  Who are the revolutionaries and who are the terrorists?  When is violence necessary?  Who is right?  What is the answer?  Ness doesn't have it, and neither do his characters, but in posing the question, he makes the first step for all of us.

The Boilerplate Rhino

Title: The Boilerplate Rhino

 

Author: David Quammen

Publisher: Scribner (2000)

 

Genre(s): Non-Fiction, Essay

Length: 245 pages

Synopsis: Quammen spent fifteen years as a magazine columnist, writing "Natural Acts" for Outside.  Selections from the resulting essays, hundreds all told, have previously been collected and published in book form.  Now, twenty-five essays unpublished since their appearance in the magazine have been brought together in a new offering.  From beetles to black holes and rattlesnakes to rhinoceros, these essays explore nature in all its glorious facets.

My Rating: 3 Stars

My Opinion: Quammen is a skillful writer.  He's well trained and clearly knows what he's doing.  He's done the research and seems to be at least moderately interested in the subject matter.  What these essays lack is passion.  I don't mean to that to be a personal statement on Quammen's writing style.  I doubt the greatest writer in the history of language could write a nature column for fifteen years and have each and every essay ring with the kind of devotion that would leave readers starry-eyed with wonder.  Some of these do have a spark to them, though these tend to be the pieces that focus on writing or literature as much as nature.  The voice is sometimes distractingly cynical, and the essays occasionally seem to miss their target.  It's a difficult style-- these are not anecdotes; there's little to no narrative structure to bring the reader along.  Moreover, these pieces collected from a large body of work with no underlying thematic structure.  Though the pieces selected for this collection were grouped intentionally within the book, each is designed to be taken out of context and read without consideration of the pieces before and after.  Unfortunately, having been published together, it becomes difficult for a reader to separate them.  Some of these resonated with me more than others, but I found that those I didn't like as much seemed to dampen those that did.  It took me longer than normal to finish this book as I tried to space out the essays and gain perspective on them individually, but still, they lacked the kind of spark I've found in other nature writing and essays.  If Quammen were to research and write a full length book, I'd certainly like to read it, but I would recommend other essayists ahead of him.

Neverwhere (Audiobook)

Title: Neverwhere (Author's preferred text)

Author: Neil Gaiman 

Read by: Neil Gaiman

Publisher: Harper Audio (2007)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Audiobook

Length: N/A

Synopsis: Richard Mayhew lives a perfectly normal life.  Perhaps it's a bit predictable.  Perhaps his fiancee is a bit demanding.  Perhaps there's something more... but Richard's perfectly happy where he is.  Or so he believes, until a girl stumbles out of a door that isn't there and collapses, bleeding, on the pavement.  Suddenly he's tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole into a world beneath London where Blackfriars refers to an actual order of monks and a floating market sells everything from trash to treasures at location one can only find by asking someone who already knows.  But all is not well in this strange land.  The Lady Door, the girl Richard rescued from the sidewalk, is being pursued by a pair of assassins who have already murdered her family.  With the help of the knowledgeable but capricious Marquis de Carabas and the aloof and capable woman known only as Hunter, Richard joins Door on her quest for answers, a quest that leads them far into the dangerous depths of London Below.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  I've read Neverwhere in text form before (though quite a long time ago), and even then I gave it a five star rating.  I've always found, however, that reading a book for oneself and hearing it read aloud are two entirely different experiences.  I bought this audiobook when I was planning for a 14 hour road trip, and I was very glad I did!  It's always interesting to hear authors read their own works, and in my opinion, Gaiman is particularly good.  He creates an entire cast of characters without being over the top in his characterizations.  The plot moves quickly through narrow twists and turns like the maze of alleys and passages in London Below while the characters' web of loyalties grows ever more tangled.  Despite the complexity, it's still easy to keep track of what's happening, even without the visual signposts provided by text.  Though I hate driving in general and road-trips in particular, I found the hours and miles flew by with the voices of Gaiman's characters drowning out the hum of tires on pavement. 

Seraphina

Title: Seraphina

 

Author: Rachel Hartman

Publisher: Random House (2012)

 

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

Length: 451 pages

Synopsis: Seraphina has spent her life on the fringes.  She's an embarrassment to her father and a walking cultural taboo... or she would be, if anyone found out her secret.  Now that she's earned a place as the assistant music mistress for the royal family, it's harder than ever to stay in the shadows.  But being invisible in the castle does have its benefits.  In less than a week, the leader of the dragons will arrive to celebrate forty years of peace with the kingdom, but lately relations have been anything by peaceful.  The prince was murdered on a hunting trip in a suspiciously draconian manner, and now the anti-dragon league known as the Brothers of St. Ogdo is wreaking havoc in the streets.  Only Seraphina is positioned to see the plot underlying it all.  Trapped between two cultures and used to avoiding the spotlight, Seraphina knows that she can't remain silent with the entire kingdom at stake.  But to stop a war, she'll have to risk revealing her own secret.

 

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: This book is delightfully clever.  Seraphina's voice is unique and real, and her passion for music rings particularly true.  Hartman's dragons, capable of folding themselves into human shape, provide a surprising commentary at what it means to be human.  In fact, that's the real basis of this story.  What does it mean to be normal?  What are the qualities we have deemed culturally acceptable?  And for those who don't meet that standard, how can they make a life for themselves that's really worth living?  Seraphina's story is an intriguing framework for these questions, but it doesn't come across as moralizing.  It's a mystery and an adventure, all told by a singularly fascinating narrator and an innovative author.  This doesn't read like your average fantasy novel; despite the dragons and re-imagined medieval setting, it borders on science fiction.  The dragons (and their cousins the quigutl) are technologically advanced and (if I may reveal my inner nerd) as emotionally disciplined as Vulcans.  Despite its genre-bending qualities, Hartman seems to have drawn on the best of both worlds.  The result is a smart, pleasantly complex, and thought-provoking new read that's worth your time if you enjoy either genre.

Falling Kingdoms

Title: Falling Kingdoms

 

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Publisher: Razor Bill (2012)

 

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy

Length: 412 pages

Synopsis: The land of Mytica was once a peaceful place.  Its prosperity and harmony were maintained by the power of the Kindred, four crystals uniting the power of the four elements, but the crystals were lost long ago.  Now the land and the people are divided, separated into three kingdoms with no love lost between them.  Tensions are rising, and soon war seems inevitable.  The king of Limeros to the north is prepared to make alliances with the chieftain of Paelsia, ready to march on Auranos in the south.  Princess Cleo of Auranos, however, has concerns of her own.  Her elder sister Emilia is dying, and nothing short of powerful magic can save her.  She's prepared to brave hostile territory and her father's wrath to find the cure, but there are powers even greater at play in Mytica, powers that were prophesied more than sixteen years ago...

 

My Rating: 2 Stars

My Opinion:  I knew that I was not going to like this book about ten pages in.  I found myself rolling my eyes at the situations and dialogue that early, and while I hoped that it just needed some time to get up to speed, it never did.  The characters' speech has a tendency to sound out of place in this supposedly high-fantasy world, and while there does seem to be a solid skeleton of plot beneath this story, it's clad in spiderwebs rather than flesh.  The characters are marched through the story, told where they're going and how they feel by the plot, rather than letting their unique traits dictate their actions.  I was immediately put off by the "Cast of Characters" listed in the front of the book... the cast is really quite small, and if the reader can't be expected to remember even that scant list... well, if that's the case, I'm not sure how anyone ever got through a work by Tolkien.  I do read a lot of fantasy, both good and bad; while my expectations are high, I also understand what makes a good fantasy and where they fall short.  This one, sadly, had all the latter qualities.

Among Others

Title: Among Others

Author: Jo Walton

Publisher: Tor Books (2010)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy

Length: 302 pages

Synopsis:  Mor's life has been turned upside down.  Her twin is gone, her mother mad, and she's been sent away from the only family she's known, a close-knit web of extended family in South Wales, to live with a father she's never met in England.  The only constant in her life are the books, science fiction and fantasy that brings her closer to her father and to new friends she meets away at boarding school.  But Mor has a secret as well.  For her the fantasy is just a touch more real, for hidden in the hedgerows and the sidewalk cracks, Mor can see fairies.  As told through her diaries, Mor's story is one of pain, acceptance, and more than a little magic.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  This was a remarkable book.  It's not quite like anything I've ever read before, and yet it's all at once incredible familiar.  Of course, this might just be because I've read so many of Mor's favorite books!  It's a very real fantasy, with hints that a story worthy of its own book might have occurred in the background, but it's only ever hinted at.  This is very much about what happens after the evil witch is conquered and the dragons slain.  Not everyone goes home to live happily ever after.  At least, not right away.  Among Others is sharply honest and delightfully conversational, but the audience for that conversation may be rather narrow.  Anyone without a vested interest in science fiction and/or fantasy might find the book largely incomprehensible, as the characters are wont to ramble on about the merits of their latest literary conquest... rather like myself, I suppose.  Readers looking for strongly plot driven books will also likely find this one wanting, though I found Mor to be a compelling enough narrator that I was willing to sit and listen to whatever she had to say, whether it was about magic, books, boys, or philosophy.  The book is set in the late seventies and early eighties, but it's very easy to believe that if Mor lived in the internet age, you'd probably be reading her blog instead of mine.  Without that option, I suppose you'll have to check out her book instead.  Walton's done an amazing job, and even if her audience is narrow, I expect that audience will be as delighted as I was.

My Book Addiction

So I finished off the last book in my latest stack of library acquisitions just over a week ago, and with the prospect of final exams looming, I decided it would be in the best interest of my degree if I refrained from another trip to the hallowed library halls for a bit.  While it may have freed up some time in my hectic graduate-student schedule to cram in all the lessons I should have been learning all semester long, it also left a gaping hole in my life that I hadn't quite expected.  It wasn't until last night that I realized that I am almost never without my next literary conquest.  Even if I don't have time to read it, I've almost always got my next book on hand, taunting me from shelf or nightstand, reminding me that it'll be waiting when I get my homework done or when I get home from work.  One week bookless was enough to drive me just a little more insane.

Oh, I wasn't entirely bookless, of course; in a pinch, I can make do with the well-read friends on my shelves.  But I am hopelessly addicted to storytelling, and there's something about the way a book sounds inside my head that nothing else can fill.  Believe me, I've tried this past week.  I've blazed through episode after episode of television series on Netflix, scrolled through pages of Pinterest finds, flipped through every page of every magazine in the house...which offered meager pickings given that I only subscribe to a weekly news summary and a monthly science and technology mag.  None of it worked.  Something was missing, even with all the stress of final exams, presentations and papers.  I wasn't whole without the banked embers of a story in the back of my brain.

I caved in today.  I was trying not to check out any library books that I'll have to remember to return over the summer, given my hectic new work schedule, but I figured "just one can't hurt, can it?"  I was so proud of myself when I walked out of the library with, yes, just one book.  I sat in the sun, enjoying a well earned chocolate and caramel tart from a local bakery (a true genius decided to put the farmer's market between work and the library... I try to avoid that walk on days when the market is running, since my relationship with baked goods is similar to that with books) and dove into a story.

I was trying to discuss this with my mother this evening.  She's a high school English teacher (whose students used my "Why I Read" post for a class exercise...thus all the comments) and in general she understands exactly where I'm coming from, but tonight I got so tongue tied I'm not sure even she understood what I meant.  I was describing the voice in this new book, Jo Walton's Among Others.  Not the voice of the narrator, per se, but rather the voice of the book itself, the way it sounds and feels in my head.  "Most fiction," I said, "feels very dense and layered and sort of furry, like velvet, or a tapestry with all these different threads woven together.  It sounds in my head like a soundtrack that's been expertly edited and balanced so that all the pieces fit together.  It doesn't sound like reality."  I went on to explain how my new read is different, but part of my brain fixated on that description.  I'd never realized it before, but it's true.  There's a place in my brain where stories play out, and though they all feel different or sound different, they're all staged in the same place.  To butcher some biochemistry, it's like books are their own special kind of neurotransmitter, and though I can try substitutes (television and movie stories, articles), my brain knows they're substitutes.  Eventually it starts craving the real thing.  I am addicted to books in ways I never even realized.  Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad.  Either way, it makes for an interesting finals week.