What I've been reading
"The Raven King" by Maggie Stiefvater, the last of the 4-book Raven Cycle. The final book wraps up many, though not all, the loose threads from the first three books. Each of our main characters finds something important out about themselves and each is put to the test as it seems Gansey's quest to find a magical dead king is almost at an end. In this last novel, I feel the theme is about what it means to be a "king," but really any kind of real, leader, what it means to take charge of your own life. There were moments where I could have felt let down that things didn't play out as a reader might expect, but other moments that surprised me, and ultimately, I did find this a satisfying and fitting end to the series. It doesn't surprise me that, in an interview I read with the author, she mentions being influenced by Susan Cooper's Welsh-inspired YA novels (The Dark is Rising sequence), which I loved as a kid. Stiefvater has caught magic on the pages of these books, and I feel I will be blathering on about them to anyone who will listen for a long time.
and
"Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel is a beautiful, lyrical near-future novel, going back and forth from approximately the present to about 20 years past a flu pandemic that kills off 90 percent of the population and consequently wreaks havoc on civilization. It opens with the death of Arthur Leander onstage the night people first realize how serious the pandemic is, and then follows all the people who touched his life who survive into the post-disaster world, including a traveling symphony and acting troupe that tours around Michigan, performing Shakespeare and classical music. They run into a Prophet who threatens to disrupt and possibly ruin forever the tentative peaceful routine the traveling symphony has managed to create in the two decades after the flu pandemic. This has gotten lots of raves and nominations for prizes, but it is not over-hyped. J. and I have a little two-person book club (The Infidels' Book Club) where we pick a book to read out loud to each other, and this was our most recent read. I loved it and recommend it.
My full comments on both books here: http://50bookchallenge.livejournal.com/13603009.html.
and
"Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel is a beautiful, lyrical near-future novel, going back and forth from approximately the present to about 20 years past a flu pandemic that kills off 90 percent of the population and consequently wreaks havoc on civilization. It opens with the death of Arthur Leander onstage the night people first realize how serious the pandemic is, and then follows all the people who touched his life who survive into the post-disaster world, including a traveling symphony and acting troupe that tours around Michigan, performing Shakespeare and classical music. They run into a Prophet who threatens to disrupt and possibly ruin forever the tentative peaceful routine the traveling symphony has managed to create in the two decades after the flu pandemic. This has gotten lots of raves and nominations for prizes, but it is not over-hyped. J. and I have a little two-person book club (The Infidels' Book Club) where we pick a book to read out loud to each other, and this was our most recent read. I loved it and recommend it.
My full comments on both books here: http://50bookchallenge.livejournal.com/13603009.html.