we'll dive no more for pearls
I meant to do this at the end of the summer, but never got around to it. But I'm mostly caught up on my reading for next week, so I figured if there is to be a time, then it is now.
Recommendations from my summer reading:
What Was Lost, by Catherine O'Flynn
I read this off a recommendation from joonscribble, and it was probably the best book of my summer. The story is set in a small, suburban English town called Green Oaks, and it revolves around a shopping mall. Ten-year-old Kate is determined to be a detective, and she goes to the mall daily to take notes on suspicious behavior and attempt to solve a crime. The first half of the story is told in a sweet, almost childlike manner, as Kate makes friends with Adrian, an older boy who works at his father's shop, all the while planning her detective career.
The second half of the story picks up twenty years after Kate's mysterious and unsolved disappearance, for which Adrian was the main suspect. The narrative mostly follows Lisa, Adrian's younger sister, who is now working at the Green Oaks mall, and Kurt, a security guard at Green Oaks. I don't want to give away the story and I can't possibly convey all the subtleties, but the story becomes an exploration of the way Kate's disappearance affected everyone else. After Kurt believes he sees Kate on his security monitor, he and Lisa begin investigating the disappearance themselves, and start to unravel the reality of the mall at Green Oaks.
It sounds like a mystery, but it's not, really - though it does contain, perhaps, a subtle commentary on mystery stories for children - but really, it's all about character development. From Kate, who is developed wonderfully in the first section, to Lisa and Kurt, who are both caught in unsatisfying jobs and stagnating lives, to all the other characters who wander in and out, the author has a brilliant sense of character. And it's all brought together in the idea of loss: the heartbreaking loss of a child, but also the loss of other things over the course of the characters' lifetimes, hopes and love and self-respect. The setting of the shopping mall works perfectly, as a place people go to wander around and try to replace what they're missing - and if you've ever worked in retail, you should read this book, because it captures the frightening monotony of the shopping mall perfectly. The story is tragic but hopeful, because it's not just about things lost, but things found. This is the book at the top of my Christmas wish-list, and if I were to recommend to you one book from my summer, this is it.
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
I think it was bornofstars who recced this to me originally, though a lot of people immediately agreed. And I really enjoyed it. Cassandra's narration is lively and original, and all of the characters captured me. The story revolves around seventeen-year-old Cassandra, who lives with her older sister Rose, her father (who wrote one brilliant book and never published again), and her stepmother Topaz, in a house built onto the side of a castle ruin. All the characters are engaging (though I did get fed up with Rose at points); I particularly enjoyed Topaz, who is an unabashed romantic who likes to wander around finding beauty in things and baring herself to the elements. The plot takes a stock arrangement and plays with it; two American brothers inherit the nearby castle, and their arrival is an opportunity for change for Cassandra and Rose, who have up till now led a very quiet and private life with very little chance for anything more, as they grow increasingly poor and their father retreats into his study. Smith takes what could have been a very predictable plot and keeps it interesting. Rose struggles with the prospect of staying poor or marrying for money, and yet manages to be a sympathetic (if sometimes slightly annoying) character. I knew it was a romance before I started (two brothers, two sisters), but I was never sure which way the pairings were going to play out, which was very well done on the part of the author. I kind of wish that Cassandra had never fallen in love, which seemed to me the weakest part of the storyline; I would have preferred seeing her external view of Rose's position, and her sudden realization didn't have a particularly strong foundation, IMO. That said, the book did keep me guessing, and just as I was starting to think it was getting a mite too predictable, everything got shaken up again.
In summation, I loved the narration, I loved the characters, and I would definitely recommend the book.
Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson
This was a 2008 Newberry Honor book, and easily the best children's book I read this summer (and yes, I did read kind of a lot of them). Set in the 1970s, the narrator Frannie and her friends are not quite sure what to do with the new student in their class: a white boy in an entirely black school. On the day he arrives he is nicknamed, "the Jesus boy", and the name sticks. If I had the book I'd quote a little instead of giving a review, because there's far too much going on in a very short book to do it any justice. It's the kind of book that you expect to have a single, strong theme: children coming towards an understanding of race, for example. But all the themes are complicated and interwoven, beautifully subtle rather than declaratory, which makes for wonderful reading and poor summarizing. There's Frannie's best friend, Samantha, who begins to think that maybe this new boy really is Jesus - because if miracles happen, why shouldn't Jesus appear in their classroom? There's Frannie's brother, who is deaf, and her mother, who has had two miscarriages and is pregnant again. It's about loss and belief and growing up, all bound up together by the new boy and the Emily Dickinson poem they read in class - hope is the thing with feathers. And it's subtle and interwoven and really, really beautiful, and now I think I have to go to the library and check it out again.
Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett
I don't have all that much to say about this book - I found a copy while sorting through books in the basement, and read it on a whim, because Neil Gaiman is always on my list. It's an apocalyptic adventure, of sorts, and it's snarky and irreverent and very, very funny if you're up for a bit of Biblical humor. If you know my reading tastes at all you know how much I love unlikely friendships, and Crowley and Aziraphale were loads of fun - and rather reminiscent of Remus and Sirius, to my mind. Both have been living among humans since the creation of the earth. Crowley is a devil who has grown quite fond of the better things in life - he enjoys music and cares passionately about his car, which has been kept in pristine condition since the 1930s. Aziraphale is an angel who owns an antique book shop and always pays his taxes on time. When the Antichrist is given into their keeping, they inadvertently misplace him, and then come to the decision that they're not ready for the end of the world. Meanwhile, the Antichrist grows up quite normally as a little boy named Adam, and he has some ideas about the end of the world himself. It's a very fun book, though not one that had me riveted; it took me about three weeks to finish it because I kept on getting distracted by other books, but I did keep coming back.
The Dreamhunter Duet: Book One: Dreamhunter, and Book Two: Dreamquake, by Elizabeth Knox
I did not read a lot of new YA fantasy this summer, which was unusual for me, but this is one I picked up randomly out of the library. The first book had me totally enthralled. Laura is the daughter of famous dreamhunter Tziga Hame; she lives with her father, her cousin Rose, and her cousin's parents, Chorley (a wealthy man of good family) and Grace, also a dreamhunter. The fantasy setting was wonderfully developed and also quite original: it takes place in an early 20th century world, like ours save for the existence of The Place. The Place is a mysterious aberration in the geography of their country; there is a precisely drawn border that most people cross without consequence, but which leads a select few into a strange, dry land where dreams can be caught. The dreams, once captured, are then performed, like operas; the world Knox created is wonderfully complex and detailed as to the way dreaming has become a profession. Even more fascinating than the details of the world, however, are the complex relationships between the characters. As I said before, I love complex relationships, and this book certainly provided. There's the friendship between Tziga and Chorley - the tortured dreamhunter, and the carefree dilettante - that pervades the background, but even more satisfying is the strong bond between Rose and Laura. There is not enough strong female friendship in fantasy literature, and I was afraid when I first began to read that it would soon take second place to romance, but it remained strong and complex throughout the book.
The beginning of the book is focused on leading up to Laura and Rose's "Try", the attempt they will make to see whether or not they can cross over into The Place. Rather predictably, one of them succeeds and the other fails, but I love the way Knox explored the ramifications of this, on each of the girls and on their relationship. Also fascinating is the idea that pervades the whole book - how the characters react to watching their friends go places that they cannot follow. More magic is introduced as the book continues, leading to the creation of Laura's sandman, Nown. Once again, the relationships here are fascinating, between a human and a creature of earth, and how they go from being a creator and a servant to being friends.
As you can see, I was absolutely enchanted by the first book - I read it in about a day, and when it ended (on a cliffhanger), I chomped at the bit for the two days it took before I could get to the library and get the next one. Unfortunately, the second book turned out to be a disappointment. I loved the exploration of Nown, and the gradual discovery of the truth about the Place, but Laura began to increasingly make decisions which upset me. Rose and Chorley continued to be Awesome, but their Awesomeness was overshadowed by Laura's romance, which I didn't mind when I saw it coming, but when it happened completely squicked me. The governmental involvement and the bureaucratization of The Place was interesting, but then there were some unresolved subplots, most notably the conflict between the Church and the government's Dream Regulation Body, which never really got explained, much less resolved. And the ending was hugely rushed, an immensely complicated plot wrapped up in the space of a chapter. I finished the second book with a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction.
I'm including it on the list of recommendations anyway, just because I enjoyed the first one so much. It's a quick read, and I'd recommend it if you're interesting in intricate fantasy settings, or are up for enjoying characters without being too put out by poor endings (or if you don't mind skipping the second book entirely). But if the effect of the whole matters a lot to you, this might be one to avoid.
Those were the notable books of my summer, as I remember them; there were loads of others, of course, but none that particularly stand out in my mind - though it's very possible that in five minutes I'll be remembering something brilliant that got left off the list, and I'll have to come back and add it. But for now, those are my summer recommendations.
Summer books still unfinished:
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (I was enjoying it, but still haven't found it. I could check it out from the library, but have a heavy enough reading load at the moment, so it will probably have to wait.)
- Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (Halfway through, will finish as soon as I have time)
- Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (I got about halfway through while waiting in the ER, but then had to return it to the library. Fortunately, my mom found our copy and sent it to me, so, again, I'll finish as soon as I have time.)
Oh, and on the subject of reading: I picked up The King of Attolia as my breakfast book this morning, and couldn't put it down - I ended up reading the whole thing. Unexpected use of time, but I can't even beat myself up about it because I love that book so much. If I could write books like anyone in the world... well, that's a hard question. But Megan Turner would be high on the list. (So would Ursula Le Guin, I think.) But both The Thief and The King of Attolia come pretty much ahead of everything else in my mind when I want to look at an example of good writing in YA fiction. So... not a summer reading rec, but still a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED book. It's nice to see people on my flist gradually discovering it, so if you haven't yet... you should!
Recommendations from my summer reading:
What Was Lost, by Catherine O'Flynn
I read this off a recommendation from joonscribble, and it was probably the best book of my summer. The story is set in a small, suburban English town called Green Oaks, and it revolves around a shopping mall. Ten-year-old Kate is determined to be a detective, and she goes to the mall daily to take notes on suspicious behavior and attempt to solve a crime. The first half of the story is told in a sweet, almost childlike manner, as Kate makes friends with Adrian, an older boy who works at his father's shop, all the while planning her detective career.
The second half of the story picks up twenty years after Kate's mysterious and unsolved disappearance, for which Adrian was the main suspect. The narrative mostly follows Lisa, Adrian's younger sister, who is now working at the Green Oaks mall, and Kurt, a security guard at Green Oaks. I don't want to give away the story and I can't possibly convey all the subtleties, but the story becomes an exploration of the way Kate's disappearance affected everyone else. After Kurt believes he sees Kate on his security monitor, he and Lisa begin investigating the disappearance themselves, and start to unravel the reality of the mall at Green Oaks.
It sounds like a mystery, but it's not, really - though it does contain, perhaps, a subtle commentary on mystery stories for children - but really, it's all about character development. From Kate, who is developed wonderfully in the first section, to Lisa and Kurt, who are both caught in unsatisfying jobs and stagnating lives, to all the other characters who wander in and out, the author has a brilliant sense of character. And it's all brought together in the idea of loss: the heartbreaking loss of a child, but also the loss of other things over the course of the characters' lifetimes, hopes and love and self-respect. The setting of the shopping mall works perfectly, as a place people go to wander around and try to replace what they're missing - and if you've ever worked in retail, you should read this book, because it captures the frightening monotony of the shopping mall perfectly. The story is tragic but hopeful, because it's not just about things lost, but things found. This is the book at the top of my Christmas wish-list, and if I were to recommend to you one book from my summer, this is it.
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
I think it was bornofstars who recced this to me originally, though a lot of people immediately agreed. And I really enjoyed it. Cassandra's narration is lively and original, and all of the characters captured me. The story revolves around seventeen-year-old Cassandra, who lives with her older sister Rose, her father (who wrote one brilliant book and never published again), and her stepmother Topaz, in a house built onto the side of a castle ruin. All the characters are engaging (though I did get fed up with Rose at points); I particularly enjoyed Topaz, who is an unabashed romantic who likes to wander around finding beauty in things and baring herself to the elements. The plot takes a stock arrangement and plays with it; two American brothers inherit the nearby castle, and their arrival is an opportunity for change for Cassandra and Rose, who have up till now led a very quiet and private life with very little chance for anything more, as they grow increasingly poor and their father retreats into his study. Smith takes what could have been a very predictable plot and keeps it interesting. Rose struggles with the prospect of staying poor or marrying for money, and yet manages to be a sympathetic (if sometimes slightly annoying) character. I knew it was a romance before I started (two brothers, two sisters), but I was never sure which way the pairings were going to play out, which was very well done on the part of the author. I kind of wish that Cassandra had never fallen in love, which seemed to me the weakest part of the storyline; I would have preferred seeing her external view of Rose's position, and her sudden realization didn't have a particularly strong foundation, IMO. That said, the book did keep me guessing, and just as I was starting to think it was getting a mite too predictable, everything got shaken up again.
In summation, I loved the narration, I loved the characters, and I would definitely recommend the book.
Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson
This was a 2008 Newberry Honor book, and easily the best children's book I read this summer (and yes, I did read kind of a lot of them). Set in the 1970s, the narrator Frannie and her friends are not quite sure what to do with the new student in their class: a white boy in an entirely black school. On the day he arrives he is nicknamed, "the Jesus boy", and the name sticks. If I had the book I'd quote a little instead of giving a review, because there's far too much going on in a very short book to do it any justice. It's the kind of book that you expect to have a single, strong theme: children coming towards an understanding of race, for example. But all the themes are complicated and interwoven, beautifully subtle rather than declaratory, which makes for wonderful reading and poor summarizing. There's Frannie's best friend, Samantha, who begins to think that maybe this new boy really is Jesus - because if miracles happen, why shouldn't Jesus appear in their classroom? There's Frannie's brother, who is deaf, and her mother, who has had two miscarriages and is pregnant again. It's about loss and belief and growing up, all bound up together by the new boy and the Emily Dickinson poem they read in class - hope is the thing with feathers. And it's subtle and interwoven and really, really beautiful, and now I think I have to go to the library and check it out again.
Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett
I don't have all that much to say about this book - I found a copy while sorting through books in the basement, and read it on a whim, because Neil Gaiman is always on my list. It's an apocalyptic adventure, of sorts, and it's snarky and irreverent and very, very funny if you're up for a bit of Biblical humor. If you know my reading tastes at all you know how much I love unlikely friendships, and Crowley and Aziraphale were loads of fun - and rather reminiscent of Remus and Sirius, to my mind. Both have been living among humans since the creation of the earth. Crowley is a devil who has grown quite fond of the better things in life - he enjoys music and cares passionately about his car, which has been kept in pristine condition since the 1930s. Aziraphale is an angel who owns an antique book shop and always pays his taxes on time. When the Antichrist is given into their keeping, they inadvertently misplace him, and then come to the decision that they're not ready for the end of the world. Meanwhile, the Antichrist grows up quite normally as a little boy named Adam, and he has some ideas about the end of the world himself. It's a very fun book, though not one that had me riveted; it took me about three weeks to finish it because I kept on getting distracted by other books, but I did keep coming back.
The Dreamhunter Duet: Book One: Dreamhunter, and Book Two: Dreamquake, by Elizabeth Knox
I did not read a lot of new YA fantasy this summer, which was unusual for me, but this is one I picked up randomly out of the library. The first book had me totally enthralled. Laura is the daughter of famous dreamhunter Tziga Hame; she lives with her father, her cousin Rose, and her cousin's parents, Chorley (a wealthy man of good family) and Grace, also a dreamhunter. The fantasy setting was wonderfully developed and also quite original: it takes place in an early 20th century world, like ours save for the existence of The Place. The Place is a mysterious aberration in the geography of their country; there is a precisely drawn border that most people cross without consequence, but which leads a select few into a strange, dry land where dreams can be caught. The dreams, once captured, are then performed, like operas; the world Knox created is wonderfully complex and detailed as to the way dreaming has become a profession. Even more fascinating than the details of the world, however, are the complex relationships between the characters. As I said before, I love complex relationships, and this book certainly provided. There's the friendship between Tziga and Chorley - the tortured dreamhunter, and the carefree dilettante - that pervades the background, but even more satisfying is the strong bond between Rose and Laura. There is not enough strong female friendship in fantasy literature, and I was afraid when I first began to read that it would soon take second place to romance, but it remained strong and complex throughout the book.
The beginning of the book is focused on leading up to Laura and Rose's "Try", the attempt they will make to see whether or not they can cross over into The Place. Rather predictably, one of them succeeds and the other fails, but I love the way Knox explored the ramifications of this, on each of the girls and on their relationship. Also fascinating is the idea that pervades the whole book - how the characters react to watching their friends go places that they cannot follow. More magic is introduced as the book continues, leading to the creation of Laura's sandman, Nown. Once again, the relationships here are fascinating, between a human and a creature of earth, and how they go from being a creator and a servant to being friends.
As you can see, I was absolutely enchanted by the first book - I read it in about a day, and when it ended (on a cliffhanger), I chomped at the bit for the two days it took before I could get to the library and get the next one. Unfortunately, the second book turned out to be a disappointment. I loved the exploration of Nown, and the gradual discovery of the truth about the Place, but Laura began to increasingly make decisions which upset me. Rose and Chorley continued to be Awesome, but their Awesomeness was overshadowed by Laura's romance, which I didn't mind when I saw it coming, but when it happened completely squicked me. The governmental involvement and the bureaucratization of The Place was interesting, but then there were some unresolved subplots, most notably the conflict between the Church and the government's Dream Regulation Body, which never really got explained, much less resolved. And the ending was hugely rushed, an immensely complicated plot wrapped up in the space of a chapter. I finished the second book with a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction.
I'm including it on the list of recommendations anyway, just because I enjoyed the first one so much. It's a quick read, and I'd recommend it if you're interesting in intricate fantasy settings, or are up for enjoying characters without being too put out by poor endings (or if you don't mind skipping the second book entirely). But if the effect of the whole matters a lot to you, this might be one to avoid.
Those were the notable books of my summer, as I remember them; there were loads of others, of course, but none that particularly stand out in my mind - though it's very possible that in five minutes I'll be remembering something brilliant that got left off the list, and I'll have to come back and add it. But for now, those are my summer recommendations.
Summer books still unfinished:
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (I was enjoying it, but still haven't found it. I could check it out from the library, but have a heavy enough reading load at the moment, so it will probably have to wait.)
- Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (Halfway through, will finish as soon as I have time)
- Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (I got about halfway through while waiting in the ER, but then had to return it to the library. Fortunately, my mom found our copy and sent it to me, so, again, I'll finish as soon as I have time.)
Oh, and on the subject of reading: I picked up The King of Attolia as my breakfast book this morning, and couldn't put it down - I ended up reading the whole thing. Unexpected use of time, but I can't even beat myself up about it because I love that book so much. If I could write books like anyone in the world... well, that's a hard question. But Megan Turner would be high on the list. (So would Ursula Le Guin, I think.) But both The Thief and The King of Attolia come pretty much ahead of everything else in my mind when I want to look at an example of good writing in YA fiction. So... not a summer reading rec, but still a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED book. It's nice to see people on my flist gradually discovering it, so if you haven't yet... you should!