Book Twenty-nine: Babylonne
Finished: May 31
Pages: 384
Okay, I'll be honest. I picked this up on a whim, when I was looking for the second book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy at the library. Since they didn't have the book that I was looking for, I decided to go with a random book that had intrigued me for a while. Since it's my last week in the library at school for three months, I've been picking up a lot of these books since they are fast reads and generally entertaining. Besides, if they aren't entertaining, I don't feel bad about just taking them right back downstairs.
So, I didn't realize that this book was part of a series when I first picked it up. It certainly stands on its own, but I will say this, it probably would make more sense if I had read the others first. The story is of a young girl named Babylonne who lives during the 1200's in France, and her travels of discovery, both of herself and her absent parents. My hope is that if I had read some of the other books I would have a better understanding of the culture and characters. Babylonne is a member of a sect of Christianity called Cathars, and knowing nothing about either that faith, or the politics of the time, I was lost for a vast majority of the book. The style of writing also takes some getting used to, as most of the book is written in a stream of consciousness style that interrupts itself interrupting itself. Very hard transition to make from the more straightforward narrative I had been reading the past few books. To be sure, Babylonne's voice is very apparent, and she does seem to come alive once you get past the first few chapters and get into the swing of things. She has an entertaining and sarcastic view of the world that certainly does not fail to amuse. For example, when describing her grandmother's snore she says "She has a snore like an armored corpse being dragged across dry cobblestones" (11). I mean, can you really be more descriptive?
I have many questions about her father, Pagan, who apparently is the main character in all the previous books. I think that these questions would be answered already had I noticed that there was a particular order to them. Whoops. Perhaps I will hold off all further judgment of the narrative and its plot holes until I have read the other books. After accustoming myself to the style of prose, I had a good enough time, but we shall see. I certainly enjoyed it enough to read the rest of the series.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Monday, May 31, 2010
Book Twenty-eight: Catching Fire
Book Twenty-eight: Catching Fire
Finished: May 28
Pages: 391
Okay, so I might have been less than truthful about The Hunger Games in my last post. It might seem that I was a bit ambivalent about my enjoyment of the book. I checked out the sequel before I left work on Friday, went home, and finished Catching Fire before I went to bed Friday night. I couldn't put it down. I had to know what was going to happen with the main characters, Katniss, Peela, and Gale, not to mention their families. I wanted to know what would happen to the games themselves, and where the author was going with this world and the people in it. This book certainly delivered. This second chapter fleshes out the consequences to the actions taken in the first book. I like that the book doesn't pull its punches. When violence is called for, violence happens. You can love characters and then watch them hurt and maybe even die. If your government is willing to hurt the public, then the public does get hurt. The author gives brilliant descriptions of costumes, scenery, and technology that really help the reader to get a foothold in a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Having a sequel allows the author to flesh out the details that had been left fuzzy: the government, the other districts, and everything else that wasn't really explained well in the first one.
I'm not going to lie to you, these books are a real thrilling read, and I hope that more people will go read them, if only to be able to recommend them to their students, or their children. They are better written than Percy Jackson, but obviously the world is much less developed than either that world or Harry Potter. While I still wouldn't highly recommend this book to those who don't like science fiction, they're totally worth it if you do like science fiction.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Finished: May 28
Pages: 391
Okay, so I might have been less than truthful about The Hunger Games in my last post. It might seem that I was a bit ambivalent about my enjoyment of the book. I checked out the sequel before I left work on Friday, went home, and finished Catching Fire before I went to bed Friday night. I couldn't put it down. I had to know what was going to happen with the main characters, Katniss, Peela, and Gale, not to mention their families. I wanted to know what would happen to the games themselves, and where the author was going with this world and the people in it. This book certainly delivered. This second chapter fleshes out the consequences to the actions taken in the first book. I like that the book doesn't pull its punches. When violence is called for, violence happens. You can love characters and then watch them hurt and maybe even die. If your government is willing to hurt the public, then the public does get hurt. The author gives brilliant descriptions of costumes, scenery, and technology that really help the reader to get a foothold in a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Having a sequel allows the author to flesh out the details that had been left fuzzy: the government, the other districts, and everything else that wasn't really explained well in the first one.
I'm not going to lie to you, these books are a real thrilling read, and I hope that more people will go read them, if only to be able to recommend them to their students, or their children. They are better written than Percy Jackson, but obviously the world is much less developed than either that world or Harry Potter. While I still wouldn't highly recommend this book to those who don't like science fiction, they're totally worth it if you do like science fiction.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Friday, May 28, 2010
Book Twenty-seven: The Hunger Games
Book Twenty-six: The Hunger Games
Finished: May 28
Pages: 374
The Hunger Games is one of those books that so many people have talked about that I wasn't really sure whether I even wanted to read it or not. Books have a hard time living up to the expectations that others give. But, since it's the end of the school year, and one of the alternative end-of-year assignments was a book study over the book, I thought "what the heck" and checked it out of the library yesterday afternoon. I finished it in about 5 hours, if that is any indication of the quality of the narrative. It's not the best young adult novel out there, but the idea is interesting, and well written.
Here is the basic plot: America has been destroyed and rebuilt into 12 districts and a capital. The Capital keeps control over the districts by having the Hunger Games each year, where a boy and a girl from each of the twelve districts engage in a fight to the death on live television, and there can be only one winner. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen takes her twelve year old sister's place in the Hunger games, and then must prove to herself and the world whether she can survive.
The idea of The Hunger Games in general reminds me of a few other things, this Japanese book that I can't remember the name of, and "The Lottery." It was a good read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian novels.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Finished: May 28
Pages: 374
The Hunger Games is one of those books that so many people have talked about that I wasn't really sure whether I even wanted to read it or not. Books have a hard time living up to the expectations that others give. But, since it's the end of the school year, and one of the alternative end-of-year assignments was a book study over the book, I thought "what the heck" and checked it out of the library yesterday afternoon. I finished it in about 5 hours, if that is any indication of the quality of the narrative. It's not the best young adult novel out there, but the idea is interesting, and well written.
Here is the basic plot: America has been destroyed and rebuilt into 12 districts and a capital. The Capital keeps control over the districts by having the Hunger Games each year, where a boy and a girl from each of the twelve districts engage in a fight to the death on live television, and there can be only one winner. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen takes her twelve year old sister's place in the Hunger games, and then must prove to herself and the world whether she can survive.
The idea of The Hunger Games in general reminds me of a few other things, this Japanese book that I can't remember the name of, and "The Lottery." It was a good read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian novels.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Book Twenty-six: City of Bones
Book Twenty-six: City of Bones
Finished: May 27
Pages: 485
Okay, so I've seen these books on the shelves at the library and the bookstores for a few years now. Many of my students have recommended them to me, but I've never gotten around the actually reading one of them until now. To be perfectly honest, I was concerned that it would turn into another Twilight fiasco. I just don't see that much in the way of decent fantasy written these days, much less written for young adults. It tends to be either horrible trite or overly juvenile. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I am not going to tell you that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread or anything, but definitely not as bad as the covers would perhaps make you suspect.
Although the premise (teenage girl discovers that she is "different" is drawn into a world where nothing is as it seems/discovers her secret past/powers/family she's never known) is as old as fantasy itself, the writing is interesting and humorous when it needs to be, and the description is vivid and appealing. If you like fantasy you wouldn't completely waste your time this summer reading it by the pool, but don't feel like you'd be really missing out if you read something else instead.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Finished: May 27
Pages: 485
Okay, so I've seen these books on the shelves at the library and the bookstores for a few years now. Many of my students have recommended them to me, but I've never gotten around the actually reading one of them until now. To be perfectly honest, I was concerned that it would turn into another Twilight fiasco. I just don't see that much in the way of decent fantasy written these days, much less written for young adults. It tends to be either horrible trite or overly juvenile. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I am not going to tell you that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread or anything, but definitely not as bad as the covers would perhaps make you suspect.
Although the premise (teenage girl discovers that she is "different" is drawn into a world where nothing is as it seems/discovers her secret past/powers/family she's never known) is as old as fantasy itself, the writing is interesting and humorous when it needs to be, and the description is vivid and appealing. If you like fantasy you wouldn't completely waste your time this summer reading it by the pool, but don't feel like you'd be really missing out if you read something else instead.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Book Twenty-five: People of the Book
Book Twenty-five: People of the Book
Pages: 372
Finished: May 23
This novel, written by Geraldine Brooks, tells the story of a haggadah, a Jewish prayer book, and the various people whose lives have intersected it in some way. While the novel is inspired by a true story, our fictitious frame story is that of Hanna, the Australian rare book expert who is called in to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah. She collects evidence from the book itself, pictures, stains, the binding, the clasps, even a butterfly wing, and uses this evidence to piece together the forgotten history of this book's travels across Europe. Each clue is then given a voice in its own chapter that addresses what "really" happened that caused that stain or picture to appear. The narratives fit together seamlessly, and travel backwards: beginning with the most recent stories and traveling back to the time to when only the pictures had been made and the book was not even a book yet.
Hanna's story is interesting; she meets and has an affair with the man who rescued the haggadah during the bombing of Sarajevo, deals with a distant and unloving mother, uncovers mystery upon mystery, both about the novel and about herself.
I was reminded most often of The Red Violin, a movie that came out in 1999. The idea is similar, a frame story of an expert trying to uncover the truth about a priceless artifact, and not all is as it seems. The ending of the book is quite a bit different, but there is certainly that air of mystery that pervades the novel as well. Many of the stories are heartbreaking, and it is remarkable that the real Haggadah survived similar circumstances.
The most poignant part of the story, to me, is that the real book, just like in the novel, is rescued under dangerous conditions not by a Jew, but by a Muslim librarian, who snuck into the library at night during intense shelling to reclaim and hide the haggadah in a bank vault until the violence ends. It seems a miracle that the manuscript could survive so much, and tell the story of so many different people.
I am really looking forward to finding and reading other books by Geraldine Brooks, especially March, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel inspired by Little Women. Her prose is excellent and hard to put down. I can only hope that her other novels are as good.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Pages: 372
Finished: May 23
This novel, written by Geraldine Brooks, tells the story of a haggadah, a Jewish prayer book, and the various people whose lives have intersected it in some way. While the novel is inspired by a true story, our fictitious frame story is that of Hanna, the Australian rare book expert who is called in to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah. She collects evidence from the book itself, pictures, stains, the binding, the clasps, even a butterfly wing, and uses this evidence to piece together the forgotten history of this book's travels across Europe. Each clue is then given a voice in its own chapter that addresses what "really" happened that caused that stain or picture to appear. The narratives fit together seamlessly, and travel backwards: beginning with the most recent stories and traveling back to the time to when only the pictures had been made and the book was not even a book yet.
Hanna's story is interesting; she meets and has an affair with the man who rescued the haggadah during the bombing of Sarajevo, deals with a distant and unloving mother, uncovers mystery upon mystery, both about the novel and about herself.
I was reminded most often of The Red Violin, a movie that came out in 1999. The idea is similar, a frame story of an expert trying to uncover the truth about a priceless artifact, and not all is as it seems. The ending of the book is quite a bit different, but there is certainly that air of mystery that pervades the novel as well. Many of the stories are heartbreaking, and it is remarkable that the real Haggadah survived similar circumstances.
The most poignant part of the story, to me, is that the real book, just like in the novel, is rescued under dangerous conditions not by a Jew, but by a Muslim librarian, who snuck into the library at night during intense shelling to reclaim and hide the haggadah in a bank vault until the violence ends. It seems a miracle that the manuscript could survive so much, and tell the story of so many different people.
I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it. I wanted it to be a gripping narrative, even suspenseful. So I wrote and rewrote certain sections of historical background to use as seasoning between the discussion of technical issues. I tried to give a sense of the Convivencia, of poetry parties on summer nights ain beautiful formal gardens, of Arabic-speaking Jews mixing freely with Muslim and Christian neighbors. Although I couldn't know the story of the scribe or the illuminator, I tried to give a sense of each of them...I wanted to build up a certain tension around the dramatic, terrible reversals of the Inquisition and the expulsion. I wanted to convey fire and shipwreck and fear.
I am really looking forward to finding and reading other books by Geraldine Brooks, especially March, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel inspired by Little Women. Her prose is excellent and hard to put down. I can only hope that her other novels are as good.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Monday, May 10, 2010
Book Twenty Four: The Chosen One
Book Twenty Four: The Chosen One
Finished: May 10
Pages: 213
I read this book because the author, Carol Lynch Williams, is coming to school tomorrow and Lydia told me that I should read it. Now, I understand that Mrs. Williams writes young adult literature (emphasis on the young) so I am giving her some leeway about this book, The Chosen One.
For all I can understand the sentiment of being against the kind of fundamentalist mindset that is apparent within the first pages of the book. The black and white nature of the author's point of view and characterization of this group and these men was overbearing, and occasionally too preachy for me to handle. Although the book was written for 12/13 year olds, I think that is an appropriate time to kids to start seeing that not all the world is cut and dry.
These are the things that I really liked about the book: the format of the text, the voice of the main character, that the author didn't pull her punches as far as the violence and consequences. I did not get that the message of the book was about all cults, I really only focused on those crazy people living in West Texas, and in Utah.
Meeting the author did make me like the book a little bit more, knowing that it was partially based on true events, but not enough that I would really recommend them to anyone over the age of 13.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Finished: May 10
Pages: 213
I read this book because the author, Carol Lynch Williams, is coming to school tomorrow and Lydia told me that I should read it. Now, I understand that Mrs. Williams writes young adult literature (emphasis on the young) so I am giving her some leeway about this book, The Chosen One.
For all I can understand the sentiment of being against the kind of fundamentalist mindset that is apparent within the first pages of the book. The black and white nature of the author's point of view and characterization of this group and these men was overbearing, and occasionally too preachy for me to handle. Although the book was written for 12/13 year olds, I think that is an appropriate time to kids to start seeing that not all the world is cut and dry.
These are the things that I really liked about the book: the format of the text, the voice of the main character, that the author didn't pull her punches as far as the violence and consequences. I did not get that the message of the book was about all cults, I really only focused on those crazy people living in West Texas, and in Utah.
Meeting the author did make me like the book a little bit more, knowing that it was partially based on true events, but not enough that I would really recommend them to anyone over the age of 13.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Book Twenty Three: The Secret of Lost Things
Book Twenty Three: The Secret of Lost Things
Finished: April 30
Pages: 349
I must be on some kind of Australian kick. This novel is the story of Rosemary Savage's search for identity and her father, who leaves her native Tasmania after the death of her mother, and travels to New York City. She finds work at a mystical-seeming used and rare book store called the Arcade. The story revolves around a lost manuscript of Herman Melville, and if I was going to be honest with myself, I would not have read this book because I do not care at all for Melville or his huge crush on an author I dislike even more: Hawthorne. Rosemary seems to collect strange and unusual characters, her landlady who ran from Argentina after her son became one of the desaparecidos, "the disappeared" who protested against the corrupt Argentine government; the halfway-through-a-sex-change Pearl, who longs to be an opera singer; Walter Geist, an albino who falls in love with Rosemary, but only gives her the creeps.
It seemed as though the author bit off a bit more than she could chew, and each character suffered for not being exposed to enough light. Her prose was at times delightfully complex and at other times flat and lifeless, as if she were trying too hard.
Here is a quote I found delightful:
"The books housed in one's first adult bookshelf are the geological bed of who we wish to become. And when I think of my few acquisitions, I have to admit how fiercelythe autodidact struggles for her educastion, and how incomplete that education remains. How illusory is any accumulation of knowledge!" (106)
All in all, I wouldn't bother with it, unless you were interested at all in Melville.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
Finished: April 30
Pages: 349
I must be on some kind of Australian kick. This novel is the story of Rosemary Savage's search for identity and her father, who leaves her native Tasmania after the death of her mother, and travels to New York City. She finds work at a mystical-seeming used and rare book store called the Arcade. The story revolves around a lost manuscript of Herman Melville, and if I was going to be honest with myself, I would not have read this book because I do not care at all for Melville or his huge crush on an author I dislike even more: Hawthorne. Rosemary seems to collect strange and unusual characters, her landlady who ran from Argentina after her son became one of the desaparecidos, "the disappeared" who protested against the corrupt Argentine government; the halfway-through-a-sex-change Pearl, who longs to be an opera singer; Walter Geist, an albino who falls in love with Rosemary, but only gives her the creeps.
It seemed as though the author bit off a bit more than she could chew, and each character suffered for not being exposed to enough light. Her prose was at times delightfully complex and at other times flat and lifeless, as if she were trying too hard.
Here is a quote I found delightful:
"The books housed in one's first adult bookshelf are the geological bed of who we wish to become. And when I think of my few acquisitions, I have to admit how fiercelythe autodidact struggles for her educastion, and how incomplete that education remains. How illusory is any accumulation of knowledge!" (106)
All in all, I wouldn't bother with it, unless you were interested at all in Melville.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
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