BOOK POST
I have been savoring the latest book on my list, so my previous plan of waiting until I was done with it to start my other reads, well, is looking like an increasingly dumb plan. So! Books I Read Last Month!
The Grandmothers, by Doris Lessing
Look, she won the Nobel Prize, and I'm trying to practice reading books not on the YA shelf (it is HARD), so I said, why not?
There was a quote on the back of the book, from...oh, Amazon.com, are you going to fail to have the quote? Do I have to go grab the book from where it sits in the "seriously overdue" books pile? Sigh.
Ah yes. It is a quote from the Evening Standard's review of the collection, and it says, "Thank goodness for Doris Lessing. While the rest of us flounder about noisily in the muddy waters of life, she never fails to expose with startling clarity the essential folly of our dreams and good intentions."
This is an apt summation of the book. It's four novellas; the first one is about the lives of two grandmothers, and was all right, if depressing; the second one is about a poorish black girl from London who has the child of a rich white boy and was quite excellent (especially in the way it described the options she had, before she got pregnant, and just the general--well, let's just say, working in a school only slightly better than the one described as her own, I recognize a lot of my students in her story). The third one is all about the demise of a made-up society and would have made an excellent interesting fantasy series if it hadn't been written by a Nobel Prize Winner who must instead be Making Some Sort of Statement or something. The fourth novella is the longest, and also excellent, if REALLY SOUL-CRUSHINGLY DEPRESSING.
So, overall, I'd recommend it? It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but so much of it was spot-on and precise and cleanly true, so. I suppose I enjoyed it.
Tears of Pearl, by Tasha Alexander
Another foray into the non-YA fiction section, this one picked up because it was set in Constantinople (one of the things I am trying to read is more books set not-in-Europe/the U.S.) and written by an ND English alumna. I WOULD SUPPORT MY FELLOW DOMER'S FORAY INTO FICTION.
Unfortunately, it turns out this is not the first book about Lady Emily, the daughter of an...earl, maybe? in fin de siecle England who solves mysteries and drinks port and strays dangerously close to Mary Sue territory, but the author does try to balance the whole societal-expectations thing. It's not as well done as, say, Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (GOD, THE WAY SHE DREW LATE VICTORIAN SOCIETY, ALSO HER DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SEWERS BY THE THAMES, SO GOOD), but the effort is made, and Emily is likeable enough. Apparently the series balances murder with personal growth--and personal growth does happen--which is the sort of thing I appear to be attempting with my NaNo/world I've created/characters I know I'm going to play around with. It's also a newlywed novel, and when I realized that I was reading the newlywed novel before reading the courting novels, I was a little sad, but I want to write a newlywed novel, so I thought I would see how this one worked.
So basically, I read mediocre-to-good writing (although seriously? I figured out who the murderer was on page twenty-two, which, by the way, is the page on which the murder is revealed. Twenty-two. Out of 306. And I am not a mystery reader; it was just freaking obvious; again, see: personal character growth was interesting to read) for the sake of seeing how someone else did it, and while it did drag on and involve an extra unnecessary murder, it also had a really good running theme of pregnancy and duty and limitations and so overall I would recommend reading the books that came before it first? To see if you like the characters? Because I liked them all right, and I think I'd read the earlier ones--again, for the characters, not for the mysteries--if only to trace how they grow.
p.s. re: Constantinople: there's a lot of harem-stuff that's treated fairly realistically, as far as I can tell, but I think I would like to read a novel written by someone actually from that culture.
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George
This is based on a Norwegian fairy tale (and the author's note in the back of the novel includes some adorable geeking out about Scandinavian Studies) that's somewhat similar to Beauty and the Beast and Cupid and Psyche, only with trolls and polar bears. It is a very very cold novel, and I read it mostly curled up with a blanket because THERE WAS SNOW, SO MUCH SNOW, EVERYWHERE. The writing was vivid and lovely, although the plot was a bit unbalanced--mostly I felt the romance was a bit underdeveloped, which was a shame, because the heroine was awesome and while I got the impression the love interest was also really great, we did not hear from him so much.
I don't have much else to say about this one--it's definitely a solid fairy tale retelling, and it's a fairy tale I didn't know (two or three fairy tales, perhaps, woven together), and again the heroine is awesome and the journey she takes is wonderfully adventurous. A quick, good read.
Alphabet of Dreams, by Susan Fletcher
From a book about the freezing north I went to a book about the desert, and instead of feeling pleasantly warm I just felt thirsty. This one's set in Persia and tells the story of Mitra and her brother Babak, exiled royal children whose family has hopefully fled to somewhere safe. Babak has the power to dream true dreams, and this leads to them getting picked up by a magus, and somehow I missed the fact that on the inside flap the phrase "on the road to Bethlehem" was involved, thus leading to me going BUT BUT BUT I ALREADY KNOW THAT STORY, I WANT TO READ ABOUT NEW AND DIFFERENT THINGS.
Side note: I love how whenever people want to talk about a different culture, they tend to go straight for the food. They never really talk about the food, other than to say what was eaten (and, you know, whether it was sweet or sour or whatever); it's like a default HERE IS SOME FOOD THAT IS ALL BELONGING TO ONE ETHNIC GROUP SO YOU WILL KNOW WHERE WE ARE. Sometimes it flows naturally, like in The Thief, and sometimes it is rather obviously a placemarker. But food doesn't happen in a vacuum; if it's a traditional dish, then it's probably something the character has had a lot, so do they have memories associated with it? Do they know how to make it? Do they have memories of standing around their grandmother's stove while she taught them how to make it?
(these last few questions are something that just occurred to me as something I should pay attention to in the future.)
Anyway, the story is about Mitra, not Bethlehem, and that whole subplot/main plot is really very well done--it's incidental to what Mitra and Babak go through, although it's of utmost importance to the magi around them. Mitra's journey in particular is very well-done, if a bit heavy-handed in a few places; she grows from being a girl to young woman while having to disguise her gender and care for her brother, and deals with the usual problems that go along with it without any feminine support and with the added confusion of multiple religions and religious practices swirling around her.
It really is a very good book, with a very satisfying conclusion; not a must-read, perhaps, but definitely recommended on all accounts: plot, characters, setting, and sentences.
The King's Rose, by Alisa M. Libby.
The Thames is a messenger of fortune, rippling smoothly beneath the prow of this barge. The curtains flutter in the cool spring breeze; silver moonlight filters through their thin silk.
...I came to court last autumn to serve the new queen, and awaited her winter arrival with the rest of her ladies-in-waiting. But by early spring the gift of the sapphire made the focus of the king's affection clear for all to see. At fifteen years old, I am on the brink of gaining great wealth and great privilege for my family. Or so I have been told. I had best act properly, I am often reminded, or else squander all of our chances. The king is forty-nine and not as well as he once was. Time is precious, fleeting.
The Thames is a messenger of fortune, be it good or ill.
How do I love this book, let me count the ways. Plot: Preset, and yet perfect. Characters: So heart-achingly well-drawn you can't help but be completely sucked into the trials they face. Setting: Masterfully drawn without being heavy-handed with the details. Sentences: FLAWLESSLY GORGEOUS.
Seriously. I picked up this book based on title and cover, only to discover that it's about Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII. Well, I thought, I'll give it a try anyway, expecting to find something between Carolyn Meyer's Tudor books and The Other Boleyn Sister, which is fairly good but also my go-to book for "no, we do not have an obligation to historical figures when writing about them, STUPID GIRL IN MY CREATIVE WRITING CLASS."
And instead I got a wonderful, heart-rendingly beautiful character study of a fifteen-year-old girl set up for power and failure in one dance, carrying her family's ambitions on her shoulders and striving to achieve the perfection her king believes she has. (I have a cold. My ability to make things sound pretty is weakened.) As someone who's always thought, "Ah yes, Catherine Howard, she dropped her handkerchief at the wrong time and lost her head," I was taken aback by how thoughtful and incisively insightful this novel is; as someone who works with teenagers, I suddenly saw the entire story in a whole new light. And consider this:
"I am tired," I blurt, suddenly near tears. "It's wearying, having all of these people to please, not knowing what they might do or say against me."
The duchess moves forward. For a moment I consider trying to embrace her, but as much as I may desire it, it is impossible; the duchess is unyielding. She grasps me by the arms and shakes me so vigorously that I gasp in fear.
"This is all your own doing, because you acted a child and a whore and spread your legs for some boy to enter you, with a whole host of women to witness your sin. You ruined yourself, Catherine." With one last shake she thrusts me upon the bed.
"You are still a child, but we found you a way to the throne of England. Now your past has come back to haunt you, as dark pasts generally do. And now we all must be wary of what messes you've made. I'll not be bothered with pity for you."
SHE'S FIFTEEN. FIFTEEN. My little heart broke. If I'd read the end of this novel in my room by myself, I would have cried until I couldn't see the page; luckily I had Lovie and Gingersnap talking programming next to me, to save me from myself. It heavily inspired this thing I wrote; I mention it because that fic is a little outpouring of my own heart, and this novel holds a place there too.
Even the tiniest details become important in this story; she manages to make descriptions of clothing essential to the plot, because everything matters, even all the mundane workings of life that books usually gloss over for the sake of larger things. I don't know if I would recommend this book to a young high schooler; it's incredibly dark and heavy. I feel like if I read it at that age, I would enjoy it, but I wouldn't necessarily appreciate it the same way. It is definitely worth rereading.
...and apparently Alisa Libby has also written a book about that one chick who bathed in the blood of virgins. I am sold forever.
Basically, this book is amazing and wonderful and everyone should read it and I loved it and did I mention you should read it? Because you should.
That wraps up the book reviews! I am currently savoring The Graveyard Book--I've hit the Interlude, and I just, just, Neil Gaiman, I love you. This book is so brilliantly crafted and put together and so unlike anything I would ever expect to win the Newberry--and yes, I know, The Giver won and other really awesome and somewhat different books have won, but this one--I just. Wow.
I could here talk about how blessed I am to be a reader, to be someone who reads, because through reading I've been introduced to so many ideas and concepts and phrases and sayings and grammatical rules and punctuation rules and a love of language, and how I see my students who aren't readers and who don't have these things and how I pity them and want to help them gain the same things I have because they are such wonderful, wonderful things, and oh look, I just did talk about it, a little bit, so.
I leave you with a bonus song recommendation: the middle section is a bit weak, but overall the lyrics are fantastic and the music builds as it should and yes, I am a complete Killers fangirl, deal. You can watch it with the lyrics, or watch the music video itself:
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
The Grandmothers, by Doris Lessing
Look, she won the Nobel Prize, and I'm trying to practice reading books not on the YA shelf (it is HARD), so I said, why not?
There was a quote on the back of the book, from...oh, Amazon.com, are you going to fail to have the quote? Do I have to go grab the book from where it sits in the "seriously overdue" books pile? Sigh.
Ah yes. It is a quote from the Evening Standard's review of the collection, and it says, "Thank goodness for Doris Lessing. While the rest of us flounder about noisily in the muddy waters of life, she never fails to expose with startling clarity the essential folly of our dreams and good intentions."
This is an apt summation of the book. It's four novellas; the first one is about the lives of two grandmothers, and was all right, if depressing; the second one is about a poorish black girl from London who has the child of a rich white boy and was quite excellent (especially in the way it described the options she had, before she got pregnant, and just the general--well, let's just say, working in a school only slightly better than the one described as her own, I recognize a lot of my students in her story). The third one is all about the demise of a made-up society and would have made an excellent interesting fantasy series if it hadn't been written by a Nobel Prize Winner who must instead be Making Some Sort of Statement or something. The fourth novella is the longest, and also excellent, if REALLY SOUL-CRUSHINGLY DEPRESSING.
So, overall, I'd recommend it? It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but so much of it was spot-on and precise and cleanly true, so. I suppose I enjoyed it.
Tears of Pearl, by Tasha Alexander
Another foray into the non-YA fiction section, this one picked up because it was set in Constantinople (one of the things I am trying to read is more books set not-in-Europe/the U.S.) and written by an ND English alumna. I WOULD SUPPORT MY FELLOW DOMER'S FORAY INTO FICTION.
Unfortunately, it turns out this is not the first book about Lady Emily, the daughter of an...earl, maybe? in fin de siecle England who solves mysteries and drinks port and strays dangerously close to Mary Sue territory, but the author does try to balance the whole societal-expectations thing. It's not as well done as, say, Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (GOD, THE WAY SHE DREW LATE VICTORIAN SOCIETY, ALSO HER DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SEWERS BY THE THAMES, SO GOOD), but the effort is made, and Emily is likeable enough. Apparently the series balances murder with personal growth--and personal growth does happen--which is the sort of thing I appear to be attempting with my NaNo/world I've created/characters I know I'm going to play around with. It's also a newlywed novel, and when I realized that I was reading the newlywed novel before reading the courting novels, I was a little sad, but I want to write a newlywed novel, so I thought I would see how this one worked.
So basically, I read mediocre-to-good writing (although seriously? I figured out who the murderer was on page twenty-two, which, by the way, is the page on which the murder is revealed. Twenty-two. Out of 306. And I am not a mystery reader; it was just freaking obvious; again, see: personal character growth was interesting to read) for the sake of seeing how someone else did it, and while it did drag on and involve an extra unnecessary murder, it also had a really good running theme of pregnancy and duty and limitations and so overall I would recommend reading the books that came before it first? To see if you like the characters? Because I liked them all right, and I think I'd read the earlier ones--again, for the characters, not for the mysteries--if only to trace how they grow.
p.s. re: Constantinople: there's a lot of harem-stuff that's treated fairly realistically, as far as I can tell, but I think I would like to read a novel written by someone actually from that culture.
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George
This is based on a Norwegian fairy tale (and the author's note in the back of the novel includes some adorable geeking out about Scandinavian Studies) that's somewhat similar to Beauty and the Beast and Cupid and Psyche, only with trolls and polar bears. It is a very very cold novel, and I read it mostly curled up with a blanket because THERE WAS SNOW, SO MUCH SNOW, EVERYWHERE. The writing was vivid and lovely, although the plot was a bit unbalanced--mostly I felt the romance was a bit underdeveloped, which was a shame, because the heroine was awesome and while I got the impression the love interest was also really great, we did not hear from him so much.
I don't have much else to say about this one--it's definitely a solid fairy tale retelling, and it's a fairy tale I didn't know (two or three fairy tales, perhaps, woven together), and again the heroine is awesome and the journey she takes is wonderfully adventurous. A quick, good read.
Alphabet of Dreams, by Susan Fletcher
From a book about the freezing north I went to a book about the desert, and instead of feeling pleasantly warm I just felt thirsty. This one's set in Persia and tells the story of Mitra and her brother Babak, exiled royal children whose family has hopefully fled to somewhere safe. Babak has the power to dream true dreams, and this leads to them getting picked up by a magus, and somehow I missed the fact that on the inside flap the phrase "on the road to Bethlehem" was involved, thus leading to me going BUT BUT BUT I ALREADY KNOW THAT STORY, I WANT TO READ ABOUT NEW AND DIFFERENT THINGS.
Side note: I love how whenever people want to talk about a different culture, they tend to go straight for the food. They never really talk about the food, other than to say what was eaten (and, you know, whether it was sweet or sour or whatever); it's like a default HERE IS SOME FOOD THAT IS ALL BELONGING TO ONE ETHNIC GROUP SO YOU WILL KNOW WHERE WE ARE. Sometimes it flows naturally, like in The Thief, and sometimes it is rather obviously a placemarker. But food doesn't happen in a vacuum; if it's a traditional dish, then it's probably something the character has had a lot, so do they have memories associated with it? Do they know how to make it? Do they have memories of standing around their grandmother's stove while she taught them how to make it?
(these last few questions are something that just occurred to me as something I should pay attention to in the future.)
Anyway, the story is about Mitra, not Bethlehem, and that whole subplot/main plot is really very well done--it's incidental to what Mitra and Babak go through, although it's of utmost importance to the magi around them. Mitra's journey in particular is very well-done, if a bit heavy-handed in a few places; she grows from being a girl to young woman while having to disguise her gender and care for her brother, and deals with the usual problems that go along with it without any feminine support and with the added confusion of multiple religions and religious practices swirling around her.
It really is a very good book, with a very satisfying conclusion; not a must-read, perhaps, but definitely recommended on all accounts: plot, characters, setting, and sentences.
The King's Rose, by Alisa M. Libby.
The Thames is a messenger of fortune, rippling smoothly beneath the prow of this barge. The curtains flutter in the cool spring breeze; silver moonlight filters through their thin silk.
...I came to court last autumn to serve the new queen, and awaited her winter arrival with the rest of her ladies-in-waiting. But by early spring the gift of the sapphire made the focus of the king's affection clear for all to see. At fifteen years old, I am on the brink of gaining great wealth and great privilege for my family. Or so I have been told. I had best act properly, I am often reminded, or else squander all of our chances. The king is forty-nine and not as well as he once was. Time is precious, fleeting.
The Thames is a messenger of fortune, be it good or ill.
How do I love this book, let me count the ways. Plot: Preset, and yet perfect. Characters: So heart-achingly well-drawn you can't help but be completely sucked into the trials they face. Setting: Masterfully drawn without being heavy-handed with the details. Sentences: FLAWLESSLY GORGEOUS.
Seriously. I picked up this book based on title and cover, only to discover that it's about Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII. Well, I thought, I'll give it a try anyway, expecting to find something between Carolyn Meyer's Tudor books and The Other Boleyn Sister, which is fairly good but also my go-to book for "no, we do not have an obligation to historical figures when writing about them, STUPID GIRL IN MY CREATIVE WRITING CLASS."
And instead I got a wonderful, heart-rendingly beautiful character study of a fifteen-year-old girl set up for power and failure in one dance, carrying her family's ambitions on her shoulders and striving to achieve the perfection her king believes she has. (I have a cold. My ability to make things sound pretty is weakened.) As someone who's always thought, "Ah yes, Catherine Howard, she dropped her handkerchief at the wrong time and lost her head," I was taken aback by how thoughtful and incisively insightful this novel is; as someone who works with teenagers, I suddenly saw the entire story in a whole new light. And consider this:
"I am tired," I blurt, suddenly near tears. "It's wearying, having all of these people to please, not knowing what they might do or say against me."
The duchess moves forward. For a moment I consider trying to embrace her, but as much as I may desire it, it is impossible; the duchess is unyielding. She grasps me by the arms and shakes me so vigorously that I gasp in fear.
"This is all your own doing, because you acted a child and a whore and spread your legs for some boy to enter you, with a whole host of women to witness your sin. You ruined yourself, Catherine." With one last shake she thrusts me upon the bed.
"You are still a child, but we found you a way to the throne of England. Now your past has come back to haunt you, as dark pasts generally do. And now we all must be wary of what messes you've made. I'll not be bothered with pity for you."
SHE'S FIFTEEN. FIFTEEN. My little heart broke. If I'd read the end of this novel in my room by myself, I would have cried until I couldn't see the page; luckily I had Lovie and Gingersnap talking programming next to me, to save me from myself. It heavily inspired this thing I wrote; I mention it because that fic is a little outpouring of my own heart, and this novel holds a place there too.
Even the tiniest details become important in this story; she manages to make descriptions of clothing essential to the plot, because everything matters, even all the mundane workings of life that books usually gloss over for the sake of larger things. I don't know if I would recommend this book to a young high schooler; it's incredibly dark and heavy. I feel like if I read it at that age, I would enjoy it, but I wouldn't necessarily appreciate it the same way. It is definitely worth rereading.
...and apparently Alisa Libby has also written a book about that one chick who bathed in the blood of virgins. I am sold forever.
Basically, this book is amazing and wonderful and everyone should read it and I loved it and did I mention you should read it? Because you should.
That wraps up the book reviews! I am currently savoring The Graveyard Book--I've hit the Interlude, and I just, just, Neil Gaiman, I love you. This book is so brilliantly crafted and put together and so unlike anything I would ever expect to win the Newberry--and yes, I know, The Giver won and other really awesome and somewhat different books have won, but this one--I just. Wow.
I could here talk about how blessed I am to be a reader, to be someone who reads, because through reading I've been introduced to so many ideas and concepts and phrases and sayings and grammatical rules and punctuation rules and a love of language, and how I see my students who aren't readers and who don't have these things and how I pity them and want to help them gain the same things I have because they are such wonderful, wonderful things, and oh look, I just did talk about it, a little bit, so.
I leave you with a bonus song recommendation: the middle section is a bit weak, but overall the lyrics are fantastic and the music builds as it should and yes, I am a complete Killers fangirl, deal. You can watch it with the lyrics, or watch the music video itself:
Click to viewI hope you have a wonderful weekend!