I keep track of the books I read every year, because I do forget and I like to remember at the end of the year, "Oh yeah... I forgot about that one.". I rarely write thoughts about the books that I read though, so I thought I would shortly discuss some of the books I've read so far this year. Title: The Diviners (book 1 in a 3 book series) Author: Libba Bray Genre: YA Fiction I've read another of Libba Bray's series'; The Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Twice in fact. Thought I'd give this one a whirl when I saw it at the library. I found it difficult to push through. I don't mind spooky and I kind of like the 1920s, but it was really slow & I was thinking that I wouldn't be picking the next two books up. Then it picked up and I couldn't put it down and thought, "Well, I guess I will read the other books!" until the last page when the older ladies that live in the apartment killed their cat and drained its blood and removed its entrails to do some divining. Nope. I don't think so! For one thing, in story tropes, people who own cats and do divination work don't use their cats in the work. They use other animals, like birds or bats or mice or something. So, that didn't fit in with the story. The main reason though is that if cats are harmed in film or books I wash my hands of it. End of discussion. So, I will not be reading any more in The Diviners series. Title: The Man in the High Castle Author: Philip K. Dick Genre: Adult Fiction/Sci-Fi I'd been wanting to read this book for a while, then when Amazon came out with the telly show, I'd wanted to watch that for a few years. Was able to watch it while house sitting, then figured I should read the book. It's not that the book was bad and it was a slim novel, but it was slow and drudgery reading. I wanted to finish to see how the book and telly series compare because I like seeing the differences or things that are the same. It's good for the time period in which it came out, but the telly show is far better, I found. Title: Ghost Wall Author: Sarah Moss Genre: Adult Fiction This one was also a rather short book and held some promise from the description on the dust jacket, but it turned out to be a completely different story. I don't know what I was thinking it would be (perhaps I read the dust jacket wrong?), something about people doing anthropological work and re-creating ancient times and things get weird. Literally. It turns from uni students re-enacting the way of life of Iron-Age Britons to abuse. Basically the dad knows all about Ancient Britons so is on the expedition to help with things like how to prepare food a certain way or erect shelter. But, the dad is a bully who beats his wife and daughter. And if the professor says something against the dad's greatest passion (this crazy hobby of Ancient Britons) he then smolders and goes off to beat his wife or daughter. In the end, with a madman's voice of persuasion he gets the professor and one of the male students to ritually sacrifice his daughter to the bog. She gets away in the end and her dad is locked up forever, but I felt side-swiped that this was simply a story about abuse. It was like another book I read that was about this girl whose best friends family owned a funeral home. Turns out the entire story is about how the dad (not the funeral dad, the other one) messed around with all of his daughters. It was a story about incest and abuse, instead of the wacky antics of two girls growing up in a town with funerals in it. Title: How To Be A Good Creature (A Memoir In Thirteen Animals) Author: Sy Montgomery Genre: Adult Non-Fiction This was actually a pretty cute book. The author is a naturalist who has gone on many expeditions to scientifically track, observe, and record animals. All of the stories are personal, about how such and such animal taught her such and such thing. Some are animals from those expeditions, some are her own pets. Surprisingly my favourite was the pig, Christopher Hogwood. It's a tad bitter-sweet as some of the animals die, because that's what animals do, but no one was killing them (like in the first book up there). This is the first one on the list that I'd actually recommend to someone to read. Title: How Do We Look (The Body, The Divine, & The Question of Civilisation) Author: Mary Beard Genre: Adult Non-Fiction This book was really interesting. She basically updated the documentary show Civilisations, to include women, then wrote a book about the updated show. The original show highlighted art and figure thoughout history, but mainly focusing on men or the artistic discoveries of men. So she broadened it to include the female form in ancient and historic art, as well as females who discovered art. Read this, then watched the show and it was practically verbatim. However, the book covered just a few things the show did not. Title: Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow Author: Faïza Guène Genre: YA Fiction This book was strange. It's reminiscent of Brick Lane to me in the feel of it. I'm not too big on the real and everyday lives of people. I'd much rather read books about historical events, instead of daily living. So Brick Lane was about a Bangladeshian woman who lives isolated in an apartment in London. She's married a man and moved there and then has his kids. She's bored and doesn't like her life and almost takes up with another, younger man, but doesn't and continues in her existence. This reminded me because the people in this book are Arabs from Morocco, who now live in Paris and their apartment block is only themselves & they stay to it and are stuck in this life in this new city (& their lives aren't great). This one was better though because the story is about a teenage girl and with the help of a social worker her mom gets a better job and she can actually go to university. (The title is a hodge-podge of the Arabic kif-kif (same old, same old) & the French kiffer (to really like something); the book starts off as the same old, bad things day after day, to expectant hope that elements of the daily that are routine are looking up.) Title: From Here To Eternity (Traveling The World To Find The Good Death) Author: Caitlin Doughty Genre: Adult Non-Fiction I'd not read any of her books before, but I'd seen her mini web shows. They had this at the library, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It reminded me of a book I'd read once before (I don't remember the name) that basically dealt with death culture from around the world and through history. This is similar as there are some non-US places where she witnesses their particular death culture, but it all ties in with her being a funeral director and having options for people to have the death they want & how some places have changed with what's needed and how others have changed with what's not needed. So some places are doing their same old thing, but maybe slightly updated in a fashion, where others are doing the opposite of what they used to do and it's not really all that better (for the environment, the bereaved, or the deceased). It was pretty interesting because only a couple of things I knew from documentary shows and most I hadn't heard of. I'd recommend this book and I highly enjoyed it. Title: An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good Author: Helene Tursten Genre: Adult Fiction / Mystery This is a tiny book with several short translated Swedish stories about this old lady murdering people basically. She's lived in this building her entire life and when it was divvied up into apartments she got to keep the prime location (with lots of space) on the ground floor. People try to swindle the apartment from her? She takes care of them. People try to swindle her things from her? She takes care of them. She's basically the anti-hero. Everyone did deserve their come-uppance and it's like a Swedish Golden Girl killing off bad people, you're rooting for the Elderly Lady. I enjoyed it and would recommend it. (The stories contained within are: An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems, An Elderly Lady On Her Travels, An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace At Christmastime, The Antique Dealer's Death, & An Elderly Lady Is Faced With A Difficult Dilemma.) Title: Miss Buncle Married Author: D. E. Stevenson Genre: Adult Fiction This book I got for free on Dad's Nook about seven years ago. Every time I tried to read it, he'd insist on having his Nook back (but wouldn't use it). I'd probably only gotten 2/3rd through it, when this year I tried to read it again and Barnes & Noble had taken it away, so luckily they had it at the library. I thought this was the first book in a three book series, but it isn't. Miss Buncles Book is the first one & then the third is The Two Mrs. Abbots. So, I'll have to go back and read it (& see if my library can get the third one. She was a Scottish Authoress and really wrote these back in the thirties (the third one in the early forties) among other books. It was kind of slow, but wasn't too bad. It's basically that Miss Buncle in the first book wrote a book about people in her town. They found out, didn't like it and she had to leave. But, in the midst of that book she met her husband. So, in this book, they're married and have moved to a new little village in England and she's setting up house and meeting the villagers and basically makes a love match with her nephew and a woman living in the village and saves the day. Title: A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series) Author: Ransom Riggs Genre: YA Fiction / Sci-Fi This is the fourth book in the series with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City, & Library of Souls as books 1 - 3. If you enjoy these books, then you will have gotten this far. I don't know many people who have enjoyed these books. Mostly they complain about the writing. I've read far worse books. Sometimes Riggs will find one word and stick with it way too long, overusing it to death, but otherwise it reads well to me. I like the whole idea of time travel, which is the basis of these books, in a round-about way. The Peculiar people make time loops to keep themselves safe from other, more evil Peculiars, and while the normal people in those time loops are more like watching a film (as the real people died long ago), they're certainly real enough to hurt you if they wanted to. Which most of the places they visit are simply time loops. However, when their loop is broken in the first book (continued into the second book) in 1942, they are actually venturing out into 1942. Besides it is pretty ingenious to make an entire story around pictures. He may write for shit, apparently in a grammatical sense, but I've not been left wanting with the actual flow of the story. I seem to not like the books enough to own, but I've re-read the first three a few times. I did not like the film version though. At all. Title: Egg & Spoon Author: Gregory Maguire Genre: YA Fiction This book was weird, but highly enjoyable. It's set in Russia at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on two girls; one poor and one wealthy who end up accidentally trading places. The poor girl believes in magic, the wealthy one does not. But they both end up in the realm of magic by hitching a ride with Baba Yaga (yes, the witch with the chicken footed house that eats children) in order to save Russia (because that have to save her magic; her as in mother Russia). My only complaint is that it's set during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II (yes, the last Tsar of Russia) and he's written to be a tyrant, though I've done a lot of research on him and his family and his reign and I feel that while yes, he is the supreme ruler of all of Russia that he is portrayed as too tyranical - & that bit isn't historically accurate in a completely un-historical novel). Otherwise I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. Title: The Hollow Girl Author: Hillary Monahan Genre: YA Fiction I really enjoyed this book a lot. It was slightly spooky, kept me engaged, I liked that it wasn't modern times (I'm thinking late 19th century or early 20th century), I liked that it dealt with magic but wasn't too magical. I also don't enjoy revenge stories, but I like that this is a twist. Revenge must be enacted because its simply what is done and to save a life, so it's just a ritual and not really blood thirsty revenge. I would recommend it. Title: Dread Nation Author: Justina Ireland Genre: YA Fiction / Historical Fiction - Sci-Fi What's not to like about a book that says it's set right after The Civil War, that zombies are everywhere and that African Americans were trained as zombie fighting mercenaries (so, are in fact, totally badass!). It's a little more complicated than that, but it's why I chose the book to cheque out from the library. There's a second book, Deathless Divide, coming out in February and I'll read that when the library gets it in. Obviously I really enjoyed this and recommend it. Title: The Stranje House Novels (A School for Unusual Girls, Exile for Dreamers, Refuge for Masterminds) Author: Kathleen Baldwin Genre: YA Fiction / Historical Fiction/ Romance I don't mind historical fiction (in fact it's one of my favourite genres) and I don't mind historically set boarding school novels or ones about weird kids, so it seems like I would go for this. However, I am not a fan of the Regency Era (I know, it's blasphemy for all those Austen Superfans, Janeites) & I don't do romance. Yet, I ended up reading all three books and am eagerly awaiting the fourth, Harbor for the Nightingale, comes out in a few days, so I'll read it as soon as the library gets it. Basically, yes it is Regency Era Britain, and young ladies from fine homes (the aristocracy) who don't conform to societal standards for a lady are sent to the Stranje House Boarding School; their parents thinking they'll be beat into submission and formed into proper ladies. But, they're basically all badass, intelligent spies. Each book centers around a specific girl, the first book about the red headed chemist who is the newest addition to the school. The second about the runner, the third about the cartographer, & the third will be about the girl who is half Indian (Hindu) & half British. She hasn't played a major part in any of the books, except being described as soft spoken and her voice is like a spell. So, I'm hoping her book with feature more of who she really is and what she's good at and how badass she is (because honestly, she's just a background feature in the other books except for thinking some guy is charming and them singing together at a dinner party). And the romance is weird. I'm glad it's not ROMANCE like an adult romance, but it's soppy because each girl is basically being paired up with her "prince charming" and there's some swooning and it's kind of funny, but could also have been left out and and the books would still be good. Title: Willa of the Wood Author: Robert Beatty Genre: Juvenile Fiction This book came out last year. The Sister and I were in Barnes & Nobles and there was display for it and a map card thing that you could take. We liked that it was set in The Great Smoky Mountains and wanted to read it. Finally did this year. Apparently it ties in with his Serafina series, but my library doesn't have that, so I only read this. It was good. It was a little sad, but overall I really enjoyed the story. I recommended it to my family members, but even The Sister didn't read it. Title: A Study In Charlotte (A Charlotte Holmes Novel) Author: Brittany Cavallaro Genre: YA Fiction These are modern retellings of Sherlock Holmes stories, but instead of being about that Holmes & Watson, it's about their great-great-great grandchildren. So, there's a girl Holmes and a Boy Watson. But they pretty much have the same characteristics as the originals and pretty much a Holmes & a Watson have come together and paired off to solve crimes since the original two, so Charlotte & Jamie just had to follow suit because, the Universe, I don't know. In this first one they meet at some fancy Connecticut boarding school in the states & someone is setting them up and killing people in similar fashion to the original stories, so while they wanted to meet anyways, now they've banded together to clear their names and find the killer. It's an interesting idea and it wasn't a bad read, but I just couldn't push through the second one, perhaps another time, as there are four books in the series and I did want to read them all. This is the book I'm currently reading and am almost finished with. Title: Love Stories of English Queens Author: Elizabeth Villiers Genre: Adult Non Fiction This is a book you probably won't be able to find easily as it's been out of print awhile. This was one of my maternal grandmother's books. It was published in England in 1924. It seems soppy and romantic from the title, but it is a historical book on how the early English queens actually became queens. Villiers does supply a short bit of story, but it's only a small bit on conjecture, a supposition, and she lets you know the facts that were written down or that this tomb does exist, etc. Really, I love this book for the paper that it's printed on. Thick, nice paper that feels wonderful when turning the pages. The stories are interesting and I find that she's more concise in the beginning (perhaps there is less information on those queens?), because by the latter half of the book and she's come to The War of the Roses, I can't get Villiers to shut up. There was either so much information supplied (which I'm sure there was) or that's her favourite time in history, because there is information there that could have been left out altogether or shortened considerably. This is my second time reading it (I read it last almost twenty years ago) and now that I'm into this section I'm remembering how long-winded she is. But I'd still recommend this book if you're interested in history and specifically early British rule. These books are my re-reads of the year (there might be others). I read them in January and February and they're about my fourth go-round for them. I adore them (especially The Lord of the Rings), but that second one is a very, very, very long book to get through, so I don't re-read it often. Title: The Hobbit (Or There & Back Again)
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy There's not much to say about either of these books since they've been turned into films, so I'm sure anyone would know what these are. But, Peter Jackson took a lot of liberties in stretching this not so long book out to be three films; which doesn't negate to having experienced the book if you've seen the film. If you've never read it, then I suggest that you do. Just be prepared as there's a lot of songs and poems penned into Tolkien novels. The only fault I really found in the film was that in the book, after The Battle of Five Armies, Fili & Kili are found side by side on the battlefield, dead. To me, that equates that they died fighting side by side. In the film, Fili is captured and killed in a way that is not heroic, so I think it tarnishes what can be surmised by his real death. I have found no one else who thinks that's an issue. The Sister hated that Bard had children to worry about in the film (Bard does not have children in the book), but I didn't think it took away from the story. Mainly, I found that the character of Albert took away from the story and was not needed. Other people hated that Orlando Bloom reprised his role as Legolas, since Legolas is not in the book, but this didn't bother me because Lord Thranduil is his father and The Woodland Realm is where Legolas would live, so even though he's not in the book, he more than likely would have been there. I just found it amusing since The Hobbit takes place about 60 years before The Lord of the Rings (or that council session in October with Lord Elrond) and so Legolas should be younger and thinner in The Hobbit. But since Orlando Bloom can't age backwards and he's now filled out, it just looks like Legolas had a small weight problem (ya know, was a chubby kid) & then grew out of it to look more Elfish by the time of the council meeting. It makes me laugh. No one else seems to see that or think it's amusing. Other people have issue with the fact that Jackson created a new elf, in that of Tauriel. But she's badass and there aren't many females having leading roles in Tolkiens' books, (and that's a shame), so I think it's a great addition. If she's just been a lady in finery who was helpless, I would have had issue with it. I also like how Jackson changed the dwarves. They seem more like happy little gnomes wearing pointy hats in the book and they seem selfish and greedy. But they are more warrior like in the films and less greedy (more friendly) and I think that works better. But anyways, you do have a company of 13 dwarves and 1 Hobbit with Gandalf flitting in and out along their adventures to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, the Battle of Five Armies, and then Bilbo's return trip home. It is worth reading and is a much easier read than The Lord of the Rings. Title: The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, & The Return of the King) Author: J. R. R. Tolkien Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy You may find a one book edition, or else they'll be put into three books, which is why I've supplied the titles of each individual book. Most people I know couldn't get through this book (claiming that it was The Battle of Helms Deep that did them in). If they finished, they didn't go back and re-read it. I personally enjoy reading The Battle of Helms Deep (I didn't find it trying) and this was my fourth read through of the book. Where Jackson had to stretch out The Hobbit for a three part film (& add other things that aren't in the book but were happening at about the same time, like Dol Guldur); he had to leave a lot of things out of the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. It's a great film (& better than The Hobbit, because we didn't need a three parter for that, but that one's still a good film and far better than that 70s cartoon) & I get why things couldn't make it into the film, but there's SO much missing that it's worth reading the book for. Now there's a lot of songs and poems in this one (far more since it's a larger book) & I suggest reading them in your first read through, but they're not as important in re-reads). It's funny to me how people had a problem with Legolas being in The Hobbit film or the creation of Tauriel when Jackson took liberties with the characters in The Lord of the Rings. Did people not know? First, Pippin isn't nearly as clumsy or getting everyone into trouble as Jackson portrays. Secondly, Arwen has a much bigger role in the film than the book. This is the book where there are female characters (but barely), where The Hobbit has none. Eowyn has the biggest role in The Lord of the rings and it's only equal to that of Lady Galadriel (I think her role is slightly less). Arwen, however, is barely there in the book. She's described at the table at Imladris and then described at the wedding to Aragorn. I don't even think she has a line and if she does it's a tiny sentence; yet she's all over the film. Coming to Aragorn in dreams, having all sorts of dialogue. It didn't bother me, I like the addition in the films, but where where the fans of the film crying out that it wasn't "to the book" like they were for The Hobbit? My guess is that they'd actually never read The Lord of The Rings, or it was so long ago in their youth and they stumbled through it that they couldn't have told you what was the same and what wasn't. There's also the omission of the Hobbits' trek through The Old Forest (though it's briefly mentioned in the film) and their meeting of Tom Bombadil. Some people think he's a silly character and he kind of is because he bounces through the forest singing all the time and refers to himself in the third person. However, he's really important because he's the oldest person in Middle Earth and The One Ring has absolutely no effect on him. I like to read books and find the differences, even if they are small, it's like a treasure hunt. So while I'm a little upset that The Death Day Party didn't make it into the film version of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, it's like a secret bit to that entire Harry Potter story and you'll never find it unless you read the book. So a lot of omissions in The Lord of the Rings aren't all that important for a film adaptation, but they are secret little expeditions if you know where to look for them and to me it is fun. So, of course I highly recommend anyone to read this book, at least once. There's also a lot of references in the film version that you won't understand unless you've read the book. One is that they make mention of Merry and Pippin seeming taller. It seems out of place in the film without any other context, but if you've read the book then you know the full extent of Tree Beard taking care of them. He took them to his house and the drank the special Ent Water that Tree Beard drinks, which does cause them to grow about a foot or two taller.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
Categories |