tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77080954265758476622024-03-13T12:42:09.151-04:00Escapism Through BooksGo [Read] then... There are other worlds than these...Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.comBlogger280125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-59427417989333452372016-02-13T19:43:00.000-05:002016-02-13T19:43:55.714-05:00Review: Ask A Queer Chick<br />
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<i>Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book free for review from NetGalley. </i><br />
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I've been putting off reviewing this book for five days now, which is pretty unlike my usual habits. I try to review everything as soon as I finish (unless it's like 2am and I have to get to sleep because I have work in the morning and need to actually use my brain for something other than filling the vacuum of my skull cavity), and it really <i>bugs me</i> to have unreviewed books staring at me every day from my Goodreads homepage. <br />
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But... I am a little daunted by this review. I have so much that I want to say and quote and point out... and I know that no matter how hard I try, all of that greatness is just not going to appear as part of this review. The longer I put it off, the less I'll be able to put into words all of the things that I want to say, and it might already be too late. Oh well, c'est la vie, right? <br />
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I just happened to be browsing NetGalley one day and this bright yellow cover caught my eye, as I'm sure, it was designed to do. Then the title hooked me, and I was instantly curious as to what this book might contain. I've never heard of The Hairpin, the site that contains the Ask A Queer Chick column. I had no idea what to expect, other than the obvious LGBTQ content. Would this be a lesbian manifesto? Or would it be a hilarious collection of questions and answers that, while funny, are relatable and insightful and meaningful? Would this just be another one of those blog-to-book conversions that just takes a bunch of the content of an existing successful project and re-publishes it in book form? Turns out, it was all of those things and more. <br />
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So… No, this is not just a book that consisted of "Export blog/Publish book". King-Miller mentions in the introduction that she decided to go for more of a narrative form than a question and answer form, which, I admit that I was a teensy bit disappointed by initially, because I thought that it might preclude possibility number two from existing, there being no questions to answer, after all. But it turned out to be the best of both worlds, the advice and answers to questions that could be asked, rather than just cherry picking interesting questions and answering them specifically. I feel like there was a lot more ground covered and information provided this way. <br />
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There was much of that relatable, insightful, and meaningful content, and quite a lot of humor as well. I really enjoyed it and found it entertaining as well as informative. There was a delightful tongue-in-cheek tone to the writing that had me giggling unexpectedly. I really enjoyed that. <br />
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However, some of the "humor" came about in the form of crudeness and vulgarity. I realize that the previous sentence makes me sound like I should put down the Prude Juice, but I promise you that I don't have a problem with it for the language or crassness itself (on the contrary, I'm the target audience), but rather for the image that it presents of the work, the writer, and the culture. Being a lesbian doesn't automatically mean that one is vulgar and crass, does it? <br />
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I believe that the author tried, and succeeded, at aiming this book towards the hip and cool people of her generation. The problem is that that's not the only type of person who might read or find this book useful, and the language and tone may turn away people who might truly benefit from it. <br />
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Part of what this book is about is inclusiveness and acceptance, yet I think that the casual crassness could alienate some readers. And that's the crux of my language and tone complaint with this book. I would expect this book to be a professional piece of writing, and for the most part it is - except when it isn't. It doesn't bother ME, but I can see some, perhaps older women who are figuring themselves out later in life, who have lived for decades in a heteronormative society, who are more traditional-minded, etc, reading this book for help and guidance through their questions - and feeling that this book really isn't for them after all. And that makes me somewhat sad. <br />
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Now I understand that the whole "accept me for who I am and who I present myself to be" argument is valid. But that's an idealistic, perfect world situation that doesn't exist right now (or ever) - and honestly I don't think that one's sexual preference or gender identity has anything to do with how professionally they present themselves in their work. And that's why I think that a book like this, one that's hoping to cross boundary and party lines, provide advice and guidance and support for everyone who may need or want it, should try to be as neutral as possible to include anyone who may potentially find it. <br />
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I only criticize for this because I think that this was a very informative, very interesting, and I think helpful book, and could benefit a lot of people who might be curious or struggling with how to deal with their sexuality or gender representation. I learned quite a lot myself, even though I'm not struggling with either of those things. This is a book that I think many, many people should read, regardless of their identification, and I want it to not offend them away by poor language choices. <br />
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Speaking of word choices, I did think that it was a bit strange that "elide" was used twice in place of the more common "omit" or "remove". Just seemed like a strange choice to me when so much of the book was straightforward, common language, and yet here's this uncommon word that just felt out of place. <br />
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Finally, and I know that this is perhaps not fair to bring up, but I am sorely disappointed in the version of the book that I got from NetGalley for review. At the end of the book, there's a whole slew of resources provided. The websites are OK, but the phone numbers are a horrible mess. <br />
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Examples: <br />
"GLBT National Hotline Hotline Hotline Hotline 4564): peer counseling, information, and local resources" <br />
"GLBT Youth TalkLine alkLine alkLine alkLine 7743): youthspecific [sic] (under twenty-five) peer counseling, information, and local resources"<br />
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There are six of those that are just like that. I really don't understand how that happens. It really seems like the number was formatted out or copied over or something. The little conspiracy theorist on my shoulder is whispering that it's to sell the book for the complete resource list, but that doesn't make much sense since anyone getting a NetGalley freebie would have access to the internet and could easily Google these resources for free. <br />
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OK, and just because I'm on a roll with the criticisms, there's no treasure map in The Lord of the Rings. There is one in The Hobbit, but only if one considers a regular map showing the way back to one's dragon-infested mountain home, and the way to get inside where there happens to be treasure, to be a "treasure map". (I don't… I think of pirates and The Goonies when I think of "treasure maps". But maybe that's just me.) <br />
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And since that now seems like a SUPER random comment, I'll provide the text that I'm referring to (bear in mind, that this is obviously an uncorrected edition, and this may have changed in the final copy): <br />
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"Some people will try to convince you that you have only one true identity, and that your job is to find it, possibly by acquiring and following some sort of <i>Lord of the Rings</i>-style treasure map."</blockquote>
You may now begin yelling "Nerd!" in my general direction.<br />
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And just ONE more, because this one really could have used some elaboration for me, but why is Google Chat and texting taboo as methods of coming out, when Facebook or Twitter status updates are A-OK? I just don't understand. I need more info than just "Girl. Don't." <br />
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OK, Now I'm really done with the negatives (I think). I really found everything else about this book to be pretty great. I think quite a lot of it, from the 'figure out who you are' and 'figure out what you want' bits to the 'don't settle for crap' and 'you're not alone' bits can all apply to everyone. But the segments that really do apply only to the LGBTQ community were great as well. Informative for me, at least, in how to relate to people in the way that makes them the most comfortable, and to see things from different perspectives than the one that exists inside my own head. It even validated some things for me that, I admit, I thought were just attention-seeking behaviors on Facebook. That's ignorant of me, and I'm glad that I read this because I've now had my eyes opened to a whole spectrum of possibilities. That alone is well worth the read. <br />
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So... all in all, I think that this is a book that everyone should read, even if you feel that you are open and accepting and forward-thinking. I thought that I was, but even I learned some new things from this book. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-78851625658822035132016-02-07T20:12:00.000-05:002016-02-07T20:12:52.473-05:00Review: The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7246413.Natalie_S_Harnett"></a><br />
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I picked up this book from Audible purely because of the setting and the fact that I'm somewhat fascinated by Centralia, Pa, which is what I thought it was based on. It's creepy, and I love the whole "ghost town" aspect of it, and the fact that it's been the basis for horror settings like Silent Hill just makes me even more fascinated by it. But I've never been there. I've lived in the Anthracite Coal region of Pennsylvania since 2004, and have visited some of the historical sites of that industry (<a href="http://www.itsveryeasytoremember.com/Pennsylvania/Concrete_City/History_of_Concrete_City/history_of_concrete_city.html" rel="nofollow">Concrete City</a>, the <a href="http://mauchchunkmuseum.com/" rel="nofollow">Mauch Chunk Museum</a> in Jim Thorpe, the <a href="http://www.anthracitemuseum.org/" rel="nofollow">Anthracite Museum</a> in Scranton, and used to drive past <a href="http://opacity.us/site193_ashley_huber_breaker_blue_coal.htm" rel="nofollow">this abandoned coal breaker</a> every day for work... etc), but though I only live an hour or so from Centralia, I haven't yet been to see the town, or what's left of it, for myself. <br />
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In fact, until right now, I thought Centralia was unique in being, you know, on fire. I came all gung-ho to this review to talk about how many liberties this author took with just setting towns on fire for dramatic settings for her book... You know, something like: "How much of the state did she think was on fire? Because it seems like 'all of it' is the appropriate answer - at least three different fire zones?? Come on..." and here is the point where I have to admit that, no. I'm the ignorant one. According to <a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/eight-local-coal-fires-still-burning-dep-records-state-1.1622232" rel="nofollow">this article from 2014</a>, there are currently 8 moderate to serious mine fires in my county and the neighboring county directly north of me, and if a comment on that article is to be believed, there are as many as FORTY-FIVE fires throughout the state. <br />
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Let me reiterate that in case you blinked and missed it. That's <b>2014</b>. Two years ago. <br />
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And Google, <i>EVER so helpful</i>, informs me one of those fires is just a few miles from me, in a town called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Run_mine_fire" rel="nofollow">Laurel Run</a>. That's been burning since 1915, and caused <a href="http://www.abandonedcountry.com/2015/05/12/laurel-run-pennsylvania-fire-on-the-mountain/" rel="nofollow">the entire town to be demolished and relocated in the 60s</a> until it was contained in the 70s. And I could WALK to it right now. I can practically see it from my house and ohmyshit IT'S STILL ON FUCKING FIRE. <br />
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Thanks Google. So much. Really. <br />
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Well, shit. On the bright side, since I'll never sleep again, I guess I'll get a lot more reading in. <br />
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OK, I'll stop being dramatic and actually talk about the book a bit. So, like I said, I picked this up because of the setting. I listened to a sample, and the first line hooked me, and the cover didn't hurt either. I REALLY wanted to like this book. I wanted it to be creepy because of the setting, and heartbreaking, because what else COULD it be? And I wanted it to be well-written and historically accurate (or at least close) because, even though I didn't grow up here and have no roots here, I love the history of the area and wanted this book to represent that history well. <br />
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In other words, I set myself up for disappointment.<br />
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It's almost not fair to rate this book because of the high expectations I had. (Though when has that stopped me before?) In this case, it just fell short for me. I think, possibly because of the interest I had in the setting, it is almost like this should be rated on two different levels. The setting, and the story plopped down on top of it. <br />
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So let's talk about that. I live in this area, and so, perhaps, I have a bit of an advantage when it comes to picturing it. I could see the mountains and the valleys as I listened, and I know many of the actual real-life towns mentioned (Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Allentown, etc), though I can't say that I know how they'd have been in the 60s. I know the way the light shines through the trees, and how the snow falls, and how different the area looks in each of the seasons. (Not so pretty now, mid-winter with no snow to cover the brown and dead trees, but in a few weeks, or in the fall, it will be one of the prettiest areas you could find.) <br />
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I know the pride that people have in their homes and land here, so it's not hard for me to imagine people staying despite the ground beneath them burning, despite poisonous gases seeping up through their basements and homes, despite the risk of cave-ins and sinkholes, etc. <br />
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The setting, I think, was OK... but it still felt like it was given short shrift. I wanted area and the time and the peril to be a character on its own. I wanted it to feel alive and real... And to a point it did, but I think that much of that was me projecting my knowledge of the area and its history onto the info given in the book. I brought more to it than it offered me, if that makes sense. <br />
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The story felt detached from the setting. Which is odd because it was tied so closely with the mines, specifically THESE mines, and tried to be more meaningful than it was. Brigid, the main character and narrator, knows quite a bit about mining because her daddy and uncle and grandpa were miners, and she's grown up in it. Her grandpa is dying of the Black Lung, and her uncle died in the mines during a cave in - one in which her father was also injured. <br />
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But the story around the family and its secrets felt like it was separate from the area. I wanted a profound tie, something that would be unique here, something poignant and interesting, and instead it was the same kind of story I've read a thousand times before, only set in the Pennsylvania Anthracite region. It felt... cheap. I wanted the story and the setting to meld, to be parts of a whole... but if you take the setting away or change it to anywhere else, the story wouldn't change that much. Just the details. I was disappointed by that. <br />
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That being said, the family story was well-written. I liked the characters and feel of the story, even though it was massively predictable. As I listened to this while driving to Pittsburgh and back, I called events and revelations well before they were revealed in the book. <br />
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I did like the circularity and the familial themes in the book, though. I liked how the title can both refer to the literal ground, and also familial foundation. I liked that it was somewhat realistic in that things don't always work out to be a happy ending. <br />
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Also, I liked the writing, for the most part. This is a beautifully descriptive book, though maybe a bit too much so, given the fact that an 11 year old girl is narrating it. It just felt a bit too... precocious. Especially given the way the brother is depicted. He seemed to be somewhat mentally or developmentally disabled, seemingly unable to form full sentences even at nearly 7 years old (and actually, the only things I remember him actually saying are "No!" and "Want home."), yet here's his sister describing things like this: <br />
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<i>Through the kitchen window came this light, the color of swallowtail or goldfinch wings. I've never seen a light like that again. It felt like it shot through the slats of my ribs, searing me with a kind of happiness maybe all kids feel 'cause they don't know any better. But then deep in Brother's plump little throat formed this squeal of delight. Within seconds he was up, standing all on his own, and charging toward us with his first steps. <br />
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Ma turned, spreading her arms, cooing like a mourning dove. But when he fell into her, sobs shot from her mouth like the fire itself had flamed up through the floor and singed the skin from her bones.</i></blockquote>
And this: <br />
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<i>When I woke that February morning, the morning that changed our lives, the pinkish air pushing in the opened window told of snow. I snuggled closer underneath the covers toward Auntie and pictured the mine fire flaming along the veins of coal beneath our town, veins as numerous and intricate as the blue ones on Auntie's legs. </i></blockquote>
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What eleven year old thinks or talks like that? I get that she's smart, and reads historical romance and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (a book I've seen this compared to - I see what you did there.), I still don't think that THAT kind of descriptiveness fits. <br />
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I'm a little ambivalent about the mystical aspect of this book. This is an Irish Catholic family, and they believe they are cursed. Brigid also becomes friends with a Puerto Rican girl who believes that she can see spirits. This is interpretable as being superstition and mysticism, or you could take it literally, if you were so inclined... I wasn't. I thought that it was a little trying on my patience. I would have liked the story to live strictly in the realm of the real. This aspect of the story felt out of place and distracting. It was almost like, because the main character is a young girl, the story didn't know what it wanted to be, and kept losing itself in this "fantasy" realm. So for the most part, I just rolled my eyes and waited for the story to move on.<br />
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Finally, because I need to wrap this up... I did not like the reader of the audiobook. She did that "little girl" voice that I freaking HATE. It annoys me that audiobook producers think that stories narrated by young girls (or teens, or young women) have to sound like they are 8 years old. The voice doesn't match the personality. Brigid is strong, independent, intelligent, and insightful. She's not a vapid little girl, so I found it annoying as hell that she was read that way. I didn't like the way that some of the adults were read either. All of the grandmother aged women sounded alike. All of the mother aged women sounded alike, except for Ma, and that was only because Ma was given so much description of her tone and expression and personality that to read her in the way the other women were read would be completely out of character. But all of the other women sounded "southern gentlewomanly". Makes sense, because the reader, Luci Christian, is from Texas. But that's not at ALL how accents around here sound. Aggravating. I really wish that they'd have gotten someone from the area (or at least who would understand the dialect) to read this. <br />
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Anyway... Overall, I liked this. I'm not disappointed that I spent an Audible credit on it, but I did want a bit more out of it. I think that, for the right kind of reader, this could be a great book. And for a debut, it's definitely not the worst I've read. (Well that sounds like a shining endorsement, doesn't it? LOL) <br />
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OK, in summation... I have a fair amount of complaints, but when I wasn't able to listen to this, I was thinking about it, so that's a good thing, right? I'm going with 3 stars for that, but if I drop it down to two in the coming weeks or so, I think that would be fair, too.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-84173511631221645772016-01-13T14:39:00.000-05:002016-01-13T14:39:26.270-05:00Review: IT by Stephen King Howdy strangers! I think I've decided to begin updating this blog again, tentatively. I think I'm going to mostly limit my posts just to reviews for a while and see how that goes. :) <br />
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So, to kick things off with a bang, here's one of my reviews of IT, by Stephen King. I recently re-read this for my NJ Stephen King bookclub, but this is the review that I had written during my last re-read - the one previous to this readthrough. However, I feel that it's the better review so I offer it up here instead. Enjoy!<br />
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<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355696147m/644173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355696147m/644173.jpg" width="135" /></a>When I mentioned to a friend that I was re-reading IT, he replied with "Ehh, It's just Stand By Me with a monster. It's overrated." It should be noted that this friend is a movie person (if that wasn't apparent by his use of the movie's title, and not the story's title "The Body"), and I am a book person. It's like we're speaking different languages when we talk about King, because his books, in my personal opinion and with a few exceptions, do not good adaptations make. And since my friend is likely basing his comment on the movie, well... then we're talking about two very different things. <br /><br />There are similarities between The Body/Stand By Me and IT - each has a group of kids inspired into action on behalf of a dead kid, and there's a bullying theme, as well as a main character that grows up to be a writer. Though I'd argue that these themes are not necessarily uncommon in King's writing in general. Writing about kids is something that King does remarkably well, especially kids who aren't necessarily strong or popular or conventionally "normal". He writes outcasts and kids who are different in one way or another, and where there are outcasts, there are bullies. <br /><br />But IT is more than just a story about some kids who fight a monster. It's a story of finding the people who complete you, your Ka-tet, if you will. It's a story of bravery and imagination and belief and sacrifice and resilience, of the loss of childhood's innocence, of the necessity at times to recapture the essence of childhood in adulthood. <br /><br />And IT's about a monster. What the monster is doesn't actually matter. It's like a boggart - it will be what you fear. The monster feeds on pure emotions, fear and chaos and anger and pain, and uses those things to create more. It's influence is a part of Derry, and Derry itself is monstrous in its indifference. <br /><br />There are many little stories related in Mike Hanlon's interludes about how Derry residents participated in (or sat by and watched, or just ignored) horrible events... beatings, arson, murders, child abuse. The adults in Derry are too far gone in their Grown Up Minds to imagine that there's a source behind this mass violence and indifference... and so it's up to some children to stop it. <br /><br />I loved watching these kids come together to form the Loser's Club. Honestly, it was a little heartbreaking for me at the same time, because I would have gladly been friends with every one of them, and it hurt me to see them so alone before they found each other. It hurt me to see Ben exclude himself automatically, on the assumption that the fat boy won't be wanted, in an attempt to prevent his own hurt in being excluded by others. It hurt me to see Bill's parents so horribly, <em>selfishly</em> excluding him from their grief and love and lives. They push him away at every turn, never once thinking that he might be hurting as well, never once thinking that he might be blaming himself or need help or support or just his parents. It hurt me to see Mike hurt and hated for simply being black. And Stan for being Jewish. And to see Eddie so cruelly limited and kept apart by his mother whose idea of love is wrapping the poor kid in bubble-wrap and never letting him experience anything at all. And Beverly, whose father's "worrying" leaves her black and blue... And Richie whose mouth runs away from him and gets him into trouble. <br /><br />There was a bit, toward the end of the book, when Stuttering Bill is standing against IT, that almost brought me to tears despite it being a simple throwaway line in the middle of a dozen empowering realizations: "[...]no more Losers, no more cowering in a hole in the ground and calling it a clubhouse". This was cushioned on each side with powerful emotional images, but THIS line stood out to me, because even though it was just a hole in the ground that they called a clubhouse, the fact that they were together to inhabit it actually made it one, and I was so <em>proud</em> of them for just the simple act of friendship and inclusion that made the place special and safe for them. <br /><br />And so it hurt me again when their friendship was a sacrifice. It just struck me as so unfair that these 7 kids who found comfort and safety with each other were not able to keep their memories of each other. That in itself is monstrous to me, because the friendship had meaning to them, even if they couldn't remember what they did with it, and for that to be taken was cruel. But IT, and life, I guess, just takes and takes. <br /><br />I really liked the way that this was written, as well. How the past and the present wound together toward a central point of impact, and the duality of the story, rather than being hard to follow, was perfectly done and made the story. I loved learning about the Losers' childhood experiences as their adult versions' memories returned in increments. I liked seeing how the characters ended up, and how their lives were influenced by their childhood experiences - both positively and negatively. <br /><br />I particularly respected Mike for his role as the one to man the lighthouse. Big Bill might be the leader, the one galvanized into action against the monster who murdered his brother, but Mike stayed and remembered and watched. And that takes a huge amount of courage in light of what he knew they were up against, and especially on faith that his now adult friends who have forgotten everything about IT will return to help him fight it again. What if they'd just said "Mike? Mike who? Got the wrong number, buddy." and hung up on him. Would he have tried to beat IT on his own? I think he'd have tried, because he alone knew that it would just keep killing kids, cycle after cycle, and that it meant to spread. I don't think that he could have lived with himself if he didn't do something, even if his effort was for nothing.<br /><br />I also really liked seeing a lot of the references to the Dark Tower series (though they may actually be IT referenced in the Dark Tower books), and some other books as well. It took me a little time to place some of them, like the sunflowers at the Neibolt Street house saying "Our boy?", and I feel like there are still others that I didn't recognize, but it was fun to stumble over these little Easter Eggs. <br /><br />I did find a few things a bit disappointing, though. I would have liked for there to have been more closure with Tom. I feel like he got off incredibly easily. And I thought that it was a little implausible that the spreading I mentioned would have taken as long as it did. Based on Richie and Mike's vision of IT's pre-historic arrival to the Derry valley, what took so long? <br /><br />But overall, I loved the book this time around - much more than the first time I read it. I think that the format had a lot to do with that. Steven Weber read the audiobook for this one, and it was fantastic. His reading of IT, the giggle, the gurgling chuckle, the evil good humor fading into menace, and then to a towering rage were all enough to give me goosebumps. His reading of Tom and Bev's father were fantastic as well. He did the voices, but in a subtle way that felt right and not cartoonish or over the top (except when that was called for). <br /><br />This is a book about children and a thing that lives in the sewers, so there were of course a fair few examples of toilet humor, but if you dig just the tiniest bit, there's a powerful story underneath. And I'm quite happy to say that I wholeheartedly recommend it. <br />
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-68058886159890860702015-04-06T09:07:00.003-04:002016-01-13T10:17:04.722-05:00Plagiarism update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-37499488645716860672015-04-05T14:29:00.002-04:002015-04-06T08:59:59.333-04:00Plagiarized!My review of Gone Girl, written and posted both on Goodreads AND my blog in February 2013, has been stolen and reproduced, almost entirely, here: <a href="https://optates.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/book-review-2/">https://optates.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/book-review-2/</a><br />
<br />
Shameful that someone needs to steal someone else's words. Mine must be super special that she'd steal them and claim them as her own.<br />
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The fact that she begins her "review" with this quote is just mind-boggling to me:<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 23.0399990081787px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">“My mother had always told her kids: if you’re about to do something, and you want to know if it’s a bad idea, imagine seeing it printed in the paper for all the world to see.”</i></div>
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Well there you go, person who stole my shit. Now your thievery is out there for the whole world to see.<br />
<br />
Links to both my review posts:<br />
Goodreads: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/458213055">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/458213055</a><br />
Blog: <a href="http://escapismthroughbooks.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-gone-girl-by-gillian-flynn.html">http://escapismthroughbooks.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-gone-girl-by-gillian-flynn.html</a><br />
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<br />Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-52816988009131607232013-06-30T12:53:00.005-04:002013-06-30T12:55:02.672-04:00Review: The Concubine by Jade Lee ★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5830585-the-concubine" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Concubine" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1255857950l/5830585.jpg" /></a>I feel like I've been reading this book forrrreeeeevvvveeeerrrrr. It's short. On my Nook it was less than 200 pages. But I just really could not work up any interest in the romance aspect of this book. I just find romances, at least those I've read (which is admittedly few) to be predictable in the worst way. I knew from the moment I learned who the dude in the palanquin was what would happen - it was just a matter of the details. I probably would have known before then if I'd read the book description... but I don't read those, usually. <br />
<br />
Anyway. I actually thought that the Chinese political situation and process of finding an empress were the most interesting parts of the story, and I wish that these aspects comprised a bigger portion of the book. For all Ji Yue's abilities in observation and "being a political wife" - the political stuff was extremely limited. Saves room for talk of "jade stalks" and "dragon organs" I guess. You know, the important stuff. (Psst... Those are euphemisms for "penis".) *wink*<br />
<br />
I also was bothered by the whole OMG-it's-so-amazing deflowering scene. These girls have guarded their virginity like their lives depended on it (which, I guess, in a way, was the case), haven't even SEEN a penis, let alone know what to do with it, and then Ji Yue, after having learned to give a blowie just the day before... "sits" on Bo Tao's Dragon rod or whatever like it ain't no thang. No pain, not even discomfort, and she just goes to town. I mean, it just rubs me the wrong way (geddit?) when fiction portrays the first time as this wonderful, amazing experience, especially for the girl. It's not. It is not a rainbow sunshine daisy unicorn experience. Usually it's painful, then uncomfortable, then messy, and then it's just over. And then there's the second time, which isn't much better. It takes time and repetition and practice to get to the OMGYES sex. It don't just happen when that hymen breaks. <br />
<br />
Anyway. This was OK. Predictable, cliche, unintentionally humorous at times, but nothing special. I wish the history and politics were fleshed out more, as well as the characters' personalities. Their euphemistic sexy times parts were fleshed out quite enough.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-2282059433551150102013-06-30T12:50:00.000-04:002013-06-30T12:50:42.475-04:00NetGalley Review: Helium by Jaspreet Singh<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16059423-helium" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Helium" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361640190l/16059423.jpg" width="211" /></a>Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book for review from NetGalley. <br />
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I was recently browsing around on NetGalley after, oh... Two years of inactivity there, or so. I saw this book, and it looked really intriguing to me. I loved the cover, and the book description sounded fantastic - a story about India's turbulent recent history, the assassination of Indira Gandhi... Intriguing stuff. <br />
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I really wanted to love this book. I was hoping that it would speak to me and allow me to learn something of what it was like to live through such things. I was hoping for this book to be beautifully written and expertly told. But unfortunately, almost immediately, I struggled with this book. <br />
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I ended up giving up on this at 20%. I just couldn't get into the story. I couldn't follow the narration - it jumped around, not only in time and memory, but between random, unconnected thoughts and observations. There are sentence fragments, sentences that seem out of order, and jumbled phrases that just don't make sense to me. <br />
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The writing and the style just didn't work for me. It's told in first person narrative, and I found it extremely hard to get into the main character and narrator's head. In fact, I didn't even know his name until around the 19% mark. (It's Raj.) Not that that's a requirement for me, but it does help to get to know the person I'm supposed to be closest to in the story. It also felt distant and cold, as though Raj's own history meant nothing to him. He describes witnessing a mob of men throw a tire over his teacher - his friend - and set him on fire as though it was nothing. He tells the story as though he's describing paint drying. <br />
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And intermixed in all of this is information about Raj's work in rheology - the science of flow. <br />
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But there seems to be no flow to this story. It's not fluid or smooth - it's choppy and jumps around seemingly without rhyme or reason. There are many words, and it's possible, even likely, that they'd come together in the end and form a cohesive whole, but even getting to 20% was a struggle for me. <br />
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Here's a quote to illustrate, from 8%: <br />
<blockquote>
"I shall never forget my last visit to his office. The 19th of October, a faultless day like any other. The laburnum quivered in the sun, I recall, so bright they hurt my eyes. I placed the borrowed item on his heavily cluttered desk; sheets and memos spilling over, glacial mountains and ice fields of exam papers and clogged lava flows of lab reports. Still weak, recovering from jaundice, I was in a way rediscovering the world; everything around me felt new and alien. Even the smells I took for granted in the past, and the dewy brilliance of objects. Without wasting words he checked if I had the energy to walk back to the hostel. I nodded. But he insisted on driving me in his white Fiat, which he drove slowly for my sake. On the way we talked about Maxwell's demons, he was also curious about my recently formed opinions and thoughts on Levi. I was unable to express myself properly. I said something about Levi's dark sense of humour. How he made use of snake droppings once to manufacture lipstick! Then we discussed briefly the chapter that left a huge impression on me. How the author had dealt with hunger. What really happened inside the 'concentration' camp. Up until that day the words 'dilute' and 'concentrated' were simply connected to the density of molecules in solutions (and not human beings). The writing had disturbed me, pushed me out of my comfort level. Those pages were set in a world I did not know."</blockquote>
This paragraph is just all over the place. It's random, and vague. It left me confused and didn't add anything to the story. <br />
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I'm sure that this book is amazing, or could be amazing, for the right reader. I don't think that I'm that reader. I no longer have the patience to wade through jungles of words to try to piece them into a story. I need more cohesion. <br />
<br />
It's also possible that this is not the final copy as well. I am not able to find anything saying for sure whether this has been corrected yet, so it is likely it has not. If that's the case, further editing may resolve some of the things I struggled with. But as it stands, I just don't think this book is for me.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-33190291955167375972013-06-09T10:06:00.000-04:002013-06-09T10:06:44.819-04:00Library Sale... AKA: I DON'T Have A Problem!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, yesterday, after breakfast, The Boy spotted a library sale. And then told me about it, which was his first mistake. He then had to wander around after me, bored, for not nearly as long as I would have liked, but out of consideration for him I cut it short to just an hour. </div>
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It was $3/bag day. I got all of the above books in that bag. I would have gotten more, obviously, but almost all of the paperbacks were romances or Dean Koontz, or... Ones I already owned. *cough cough*</div>
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Here's my haul: </div>
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<a href="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/c2ab8425-1121-4c28-8156-277dceba1500_zpsc2bb1c01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/c2ab8425-1121-4c28-8156-277dceba1500_zpsc2bb1c01.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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The Thief of Always by Clive Barker</div>
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An ARC edition of Vurt by Jeff Noon (on of The Boy's favorites! Imagine that- he CAN read!)</div>
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As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner</div>
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*A Van Vogt Omnibus, containing Planets for Sale, The Beast, and The Book of Ptath</div>
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Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak</div>
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The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds</div>
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Beware of the Dog by E.X. Ferrars</div>
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The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates</div>
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Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather</div>
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Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote</div>
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Tinkers by Paul Harding</div>
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* I picked this up purely on a whim. I never heard of any of these stories, but it looked well read, and I always think that I should read more science fiction, and for about $.14, you can't beat the price. ;) </div>
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<a href="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/b193ed95-f93b-417e-98de-1c116bbecaaf_zps35a09105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/b193ed95-f93b-417e-98de-1c116bbecaaf_zps35a09105.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
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These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner</div>
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The Rainy Season by James P. Blaylock</div>
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The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin</div>
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Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin</div>
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Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke</div>
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn</div>
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The Crisis by Winston Churchill</div>
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The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton</div>
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After the First Death by Lawrence Block</div>
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Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow</div>
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Obviously, a lot of these books are ones that I wouldn't have likely ever read, or even heard of, otherwise. But getting 21 books for the price of a half off mass market paperback is a good incentive! </div>
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After leaving the sale, we ran a few more errands, and stopped at one of my favorite discount stores, where I bought... yeah, more books. (I <i>SAID</i> I don't have a problem!)</div>
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I picked up The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which contains 37 short stories and a full novel. I also got The Haunting of Granite Falls by Eva Ibbotson, because a friend loves her, and I've never read anything of hers. And finally, an apparent steampunk book about Jack the Ripper called "Ripper" by Stefan Petrucha... because why not? </div>
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... Now I just have to find a way to fit them onto my shelves. O_o</div>
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-12585982444173900342013-05-11T12:23:00.000-04:002013-05-11T12:23:00.500-04:00Review: Rain And Revelation by Therese Pautz ★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16123626-rain-and-revelation" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Rain and revelation" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353706244l/16123626.jpg" width="210" /></a>I received a copy of this book from the author for review. <br />
<br />
I haven't been accepting many books for review lately, because I dislike the feeling of obligation that accepting a book for review brings with it, especially the past chunk of time, with my reading so erratic and all. <br />
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But Therese emailed me, and I checked out the book and it intrigued me. The cover drew me in, and the description left me wondering, and both are good things. So I accepted a review copy, but then all that erratic reading happened again, and I sat on this one for over a month. <br />
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I picked it up last night, and I'll admit that right off the bat, I was a little apprehensive. This is written in 1st person present tense, which is honestly my least favorite narrative style. I thought right away that I was going to be constantly distracted by the narrative. I will admit that there were a few times that repetitive wording or phrasing jumped out at me ("If there's a choice, I don't see it" and "If I have a choice, I don't see it" both showed up within 9 pages of each other, for example), but once I got into the story, I was engrossed, and read the majority of the book in one sitting this afternoon. Which is pretty impressive, since, as I've mentioned, I have Erratic Reading Syndrome (ERS). <br />
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I am pleasantly surprised by how much I actually did enjoy this story, considering my first impressions last night. I thought that the characters were all well done, and understandable, if a bit frustrating. I truly felt as though I was trying to figure things out with Eliza as she went along - not just about the mystery, but also who Eliza is, or wants to be.<br />
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I got the feeling that Eliza had done a lot of growing up in a short time, even before the start of the book, and didn't yet realize it. Her interactions with Fiona just held that awkwardness of friends who are drifting apart but are unsure why or how. This is one of the things that I liked best about the book. We're not in Eliza's head a lot - just when she's actively questioning or piecing things together - but it never feels like there's any narrative missing. She is understandable and relatable, even if I don't always necessarily agree with her reactions, so it's easy to keep up with her moods and changes. <br />
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The story itself is interesting, and kept me reading through to the end to find out the answers to the questions, but also to find out what the repercussions of the answers would be. <br />
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I felt for Annie, after learning what she had gone through, and though the subject matter was grim, the writing was never manipulative or overly sentimental. I liked that quite a bit. Let the story speak for itself. If you've written a good one, it will. This one did. <br />
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Overall, I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to someone looking for a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-71761868370644229672013-05-10T19:53:00.000-04:002013-05-10T19:53:47.970-04:00Review: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill ★★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15729539-nos4a2" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="NOS4A2" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356058016l/16065552.jpg" width="212" /></a>I have a feeling that this is going to be a rambling kind of review full of leg-humps and drooling. <br />
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You've been warned.<br />
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But first, I want to get the non-leg-humpy stuff out of the way. Technically, I'm giving this 4 1/2 stars, because there were a couple things that just... didn't feel right to me. Forced, one might say. They were little things, in the grand scheme of the book, but they just didn't really work for me, and took me out of the story. I know why they were there, but knowing why someone painted their house fluorescent orange doesn't make it easier to look at. Appreciating a style of art doesn't necessarily mean one has to LIKE it. <br />
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So my first issue is with the carryover sentences from the end of one chapter, to the header of the next. These are abrupt cut-off sentences hanging in the middle of a page, and the header of the next chapter finishes them. <br />
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It took me quite a while to get used to this, and it had a tendency not to stick. I don't read chapter headings. This hinders me a lot at times, because, in a book like this, the chapter headings are vital to keeping up with the story. They tell the reader where, and when, we're at in the story. But I find that chapter headers are often times spoilery, or hinty, and this annoys me. I don't want the chapter saying "Hey, watch out for this thing to happen... it's gonna be good!" I just want to read the story and get to the thing when I get to it, and be surprised. I especially dislike the cutesy ones like "Chapter 7, In Which Character A Has Things Happen To Him And Then Learns A Valuable Lesson". Ugh. <br />
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So I stopped reading them quite a while back. Sometimes it means that I get a little lost in the story and backtrack, and sometimes it means nothing because the only thing I've skipped is "Chapter 3". <br />
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Back on point - As I mentioned, it took me a long time to get used to the end of the sentence being the beginning of a chapter thing here, but I also said it didn't really "stick". What I mean by this is that there would be gaps of several chapters that ended normally, no carryover, and so the next time I'd see it (usually when it was supposed to be suspenseful) I'd have to pause and remind myself to read the next header. And not only read it, but read it as part of the previous chapter's last sentence. <br />
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Anyway... Needless to say, it took me out of the story. I've now written more about this carryover thing than some of my full reviews, and I feel like I'm starting to sound like I disliked it a lot more than I did. I actually didn't really mind it so much except that I just had to take that moment and remind myself how to continue. But it DID serve the purpose it was intended to serve, which was to make the reader pause, to wonder where things would go... to create some suspense. And it worked well in my case, for all the reasons mentioned already. Probably better than intended, actually. I tend to... skim. Especially if I'm anxious for characters and need to know what happens. <br />
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I know that this seems to go against everything that I hate about spoilers and hints, but I don't see this as spoiling myself, because technically I am reading the page - twice. One quick skim to find out what happens, and then a rescan to pick up anything I might have missed on the first pass. I don't do this with every page, or even every book. But the ones that grab me, that have hooked me and know it, they are the ones that I'm likely to skim because I just <em>have to know what happens</em>. It seems contrary - you'd think that the ones that I don't like would be the ones I'm most likely to skim... but no. Those my cause my interest and desire to read to fizzle out and die, and they eventually are just abandoned. Or abandoned quickly depending on how hard I hated it. <br />
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Moving on... The second thing that took me out of the story was the unlikely relationship at the end. I'm not going to give anything away here, but it just didn't seem realistic to me. I feel like I understand it, but it felt forced and... wrong, somehow. Tacked on, perhaps. And that's all I'm going to say about that. (See, I can be brief!)<br />
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Moving on to the things I loved about this book... Oh, there are so many. It will be much, much harder to specify these, and much harder to explain just why I loved it... at least without giving anything away. <br />
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First, I'll just say that this book was not at ALL what I expected. One expects, with a title like NOS4A2 (Nosferatu, if you don't speak license platenese) that it's a vampire story. And it is, but it isn't. It's so much more than that. That sounds trite, but I don't know how else to describe it. It's a book about the mind, and the power of belief, and in belief in oneself, and parenthood, and the nature of innocence... It's really so much more than I expected, though I feel like I should have known better, considering how much I loved Joe's last novel, and the reasons I loved it. <br />
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To date, I've read everything that Joe Hill has published, with the exception of his Locke & Key series, which I'll be getting to very soon. I started reading him, obviously, because he's Stephen King's son, but I've KEPT reading him because he's an amazing author in his own right. His voice is unique from his father's, he has his own style, his own way of using words and images and music to bring a story to life, and I love that about him. <br />
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But in this book, there's a distinct shift. Joe's no longer striving to separate himself, it seems, but is now incorporating... There's a kind of linking of the universes. I absolutely LOVED stumbling across the references to other books (The knife Maggie mentions was one that I thought fit perfectly into this story, though not very subtle. :P), but especially from Stephen King's. I highlighted a lot of passages - ones that Constant Readers will recognize immediately. There were a surprising number of them. <br />
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In addition to that, I felt like this book felt more like one King would write, especially post-2000 King. Don't get me wrong, Joe Hill's hand is alllll over this book, and it's incredible, but I can see an influence here, that's all. One of the major contributors to this is how Joe writes children. Stephen King is known for writing children with perfection, and it's abundantly clear that the apple did not fall far from the tree in this aspect.<br />
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I want to say a little something about the characters... but I'm not sure what I could say without giving anything away. I'll go vague then. I thought all of the characters were perfectly done. Their lives and their hopes and fears were all handled perfectly and I felt like I'd known many of them for a long, long time. Vic especially. I felt like I knew her better than she knew herself. Or maybe I just had more faith in her. I'm not sure there's a difference. I loved her, her strength, her refusal to give in... she's one to admire, if only for her determination. Goodness knows there's not much else to admire there. She's flawed, hugely flawed, and that's what makes her beautiful. <br />
<br />
Lou was another one of my favorite characters. I was surprised at how important he became to the story, and by the way it happened, but I almost immediately came to love him. He's the perfect guy to have your back, no matter what it might mean for himself. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm not saying anymore. To say more will be to spoil. I highly recommend this one, as I do with all of Hill's books. They are all amazing, and should be read and loved forever. The end.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-78510958137085505332013-05-04T14:22:00.000-04:002013-05-04T14:22:52.228-04:00Booksies!I'm not sure if anyone's noticed, but I've been having a bit of trouble finishing books lately. Or, I will finish them, but it's either:<br />
<br />
A) Ridiculously short - lookin' at you, WeGiveBooks books & free Tor novellas...<br />
or<br />
B) Ridiculously slow - lookin' now at you, every other book...<br />
<br />
So apparently, my logic is, "If you can't read 'em, buy 'em!"<br />
<br />
I've pre-ordered and/or otherwise acquired these signed editions*:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="180" src="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/90cc445f-a632-49e8-96af-7c3d7bcd3698_zpsee166ca4.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346093862l/15802120.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351914778l/15783514.jpg" width="115" /> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327921403l/3217221.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328043955l/153025.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328666658l/384664.jpg" width="115" /></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>NOS4A2 by Joe Hill<br />
Double Feature by Owen King<br />
The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman<br />
Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill<br />
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill<br />
We're All In This Together by Owen King</b><br />
</div><br />
Special thanks to Kathy for getting Locke & Key, Heart-Shaped Box, and We're All In This Together signed for me! :D<br />
<br />
In addition to the above awesomeness, I bought some other books: <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348736120l/8387671.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344267958l/6505109.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367689244l/6658132.jpg" width="115" /> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309285488l/8600.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361726633l/156427.jpg" width="115" /> <img height="180" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288419l/239065.jpg" width="115" /></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds by Max Brooks<br />
Roses by Leila Meacham<br />
One-Act Plays by George A. Goldstone<br />
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss<br />
Psycho by Robert Bloch<br />
The Descent by Jeff Long</b><br />
</div><br />
<br />
*No author legs were humped in the acquisition of these titles... But not for lack of trying... *sigh* ;)Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-417687617241820022013-04-20T14:11:00.001-04:002013-04-20T14:11:35.836-04:00Review: Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia by Rachel Swirsky ★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15795217-portrait-of-lisane-de-patagnia" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Portrait of Lisane de Patagnia" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344755327l/15795217.jpg" width="212" /></a>This is the second short story that I picked up from Tor for free - again, I was drawn in by accolades - this was a Nebula Award nominee - but mostly I was hooked by the cover. I LOVE the cover... it's almost vampiric, like the taller woman is breathing the life right out of her victim. I love the haunted quality the woman in white has, and the way she seems to be basking in the theft of her. I love the kind of greedy sensuality of the cover. <br />
<br />
These are the things that I thought when I picked this up. I didn't notice the paintbrushes, and despite the title, I didn't really think of this book being about art. I don't really read book descriptions much, and I didn't read this one. I read it while I was reading the story though, and I almost wish I hadn't, because even the one sentence teaser of a description caused me to assume things about the story. Which is why I don't like to read them in the first place. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://escapismthroughbooks.blogspot.com/2013/04/review-swift-brutal-retaliation-by.html">I was not thrilled with the other free Tor story I picked up.</a> It told everything and showed nothing, it lacked substance and meaning and just did nothing but disappoint me. In comparison, <em>Portait of Lisane de Patagnia</em> had all of that. The writing was evocative and descriptive, and the story was interesting and compelling. I wanted to know where it was going. <br />
<br />
It seems like I've been reading a lot of stories about art as a method of creation, but not very many stories about art as a method of destruction. But really it wasn't so much about the art, this story. It was more about the relationship between this particular artist and her subject, between teacher and student, lovers. It was about the bitterness that can be created when hopes and expectations aren't met, and how that bitterness can create something new and powerful in its own image. <br />
<br />
I really enjoyed this little story, though there were times when I was a little confused, because the narrative jumped around from present day to scenes from the past, and there wasn't always a clear delineation between them. But it wasn't difficult to keep up with the story, I just had to backtrack a couple times. <br />
<br />
I can't say that I really <em>liked</em> the characters, but I could identify with them and I had no trouble understanding them. I am always a little impressed by this in short stories, because it seems to me that identifiable characters are hard for many to write even in full length novels, so to do so in only 32 pages makes me happy. There are only a few authors that I've seen write stories this short (or shorter) that have well-written characters, and they are among my favorite authors. I take this as a sign that I may need to search out more of Swirsky's books.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-27953908663360279552013-04-19T20:42:00.001-04:002013-04-19T20:42:33.412-04:00Review: Swift, Brutal Retaliation by Meghan McCarron ★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13169837-swift-brutal-retaliation" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Swift, Brutal Retaliation" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344074986l/13169837.jpg" /></a>I picked this ebook up when Tor was offering it for free a while back. Apparently this story was nominated for an award, and based on that, and the title, I thought that it would be the kind of story I'd like. Sadly, I am disappointed instead. <br />
<br />
I really don't know why this story would have been nominated for anything other than a re-write. It had potential to be really great, but everything that it could and should have been was missing, which is a shame. Everything in the story is just told to the reader: Ian died. Sinead did this to Brigid. Brigid did that to Sinead. Their mother cried. Their father stomped upstairs. Everyone was angry at everyone else, and most of it was misplaced. This last was literally told to the reader just like that. Cold. Distant. There's no reader investment in the characters, or the story, no emotional content at all, despite this being what could have been a really emotionally charged story of two sisters' relationship changing in the wake of their brother's death. There was no growth, no change, nothing was learned, there was no ending... this story just contained a bunch of things that happened and then ended as more things were happening. <br />
<br />
I don't even know what the point of this story was. I thought I knew, while I was reading, but it was like a square peg being jammed into a round hole. It just didn't fit. <br />
<br />
The more I think about it, the more disappointed I get. It's a shame, really. This honestly could have been a great story if there was just some spark of life in it somewhere. Some growth, something in the characters that made me feel for them. Instead it was just sad in a I-feel-sorry-for-this-book way, not in an emotionally sad way. <br />
<br />
Blah. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-34686169938152673762013-04-16T19:06:00.000-04:002013-04-16T19:06:36.864-04:00Review: The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons ★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104217.The_House_Next_Door" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The House Next Door" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1171509777l/104217.jpg" width="198" /></a>This was not really what I was expecting, but I liked it quite a lot. I was expecting something along the lines of a traditional ghost story, but, instead, I got something similar to Shirley Jackson's <em>The Haunting of Hill House</em>... but better, in my opinion. The two books share quite a bit of ambiguity, in that we're never truly sure if there is something going on, or if it's all just in their heads, but I felt like this story just worked a bit better for me. <br />
<br />
Almost from the start, I was kind of drawn into this book. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. Well, thinking about the house, anyway. I really liked the slow build-up of tension, the slow escalation of the situation to a breaking point. I liked the surrounding normality - the breaks in the narrative when Colquitt talks about going to the grocery store, or meeting with friends, or taking a trip. These things were described with a detail that really allows the reader to see the scene, so when the next house related issue is brought to light, it seems all the more troublesome. <br />
<br />
I loved the writing for that. The descriptions were perfect at walking that line right between showing the reader everything and allowing the reader to fill in some of the blanks on their own. We have a description of the house as being modern and beautiful, two stories at least, with a basement, a wall of windows in the back... but otherwise, we can imagine it for ourselves. <br />
<br />
Part of what I loved about the description of the house is how it seems so light, so bright and inviting. I kept seeing the house in an anthropomorphic way, at times with an innocent expression, and then others a kind of sly calculation and spitefulness. <br />
<br />
I know that a lot of this feeling is due to the story being related by Colquitt Kennedy. She seems so sure of herself, so sane and reassuring and honest - but her reliability is definitely in question. She hated the thought of the house from the very start. She wanted her lot, her privacy, her green-lit bathroom... and then when she sees the plans, she supposedly falls a little in love with the house, or at least stops hating it as much. (This can kind of be believed, given the epilogue.) But who's to say that she wasn't truly crazy as a shit-house rat and creating all of this in her head to justify the awful things that she did to sabotage those living in the house she never wanted to be there in the first place? <br />
<br />
Colquitt may be a clever liar, even lying to herself, or maybe not all there. Walter, her husband, seems to be so in tune with her that it wouldn't be all that hard to get him on board, as indeed it wasn't. Or maybe it was Walter who was the doting husband and caretaker - a model for Buck, perhaps?<br />
<br />
OK... I don't really believe that's the case - well, not ENTIRELY - I'm just making a point that events may not necessarily be as Colquitt relates them. There could be a rational explanation for the things that happened there. <br />
<br />
I did a quick search online to see if I could find info on the name Colquitt, because it's unusual. I found this description of the type of person who bears that name. It's probably complete bunk, but parts of it fit this Colquitt to a T: <br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<em>COLQUITT: You can be a writer, painter, musician, promoter, great salesperson, a lover of beauty, socially in demand, and sometimes extravagant spender. Your energy might be scattered, but you have the ability to bring an idea to completion. You might be psychic, but not know it. <br />
You desire to inspire and lead, to control other's affairs. You are giving, courageous and bold, action oriented, energetic and strong willed. You want to make a difference in the world, and this attitude often attracts you to cultural interests, politics, social issues, and the cultivation of your creative talents.</em><br />
<br />
Anyway, regardless - the story was unsettling either way. And I liked it for that. <br />
<br />
The end was a nice twist, one that I wish was just a bit better explained, honestly. So much detail went into some of the more mundane aspects of the story, and then the end was just glossed over. (I'll admit though, that rushed quality does help my Crazy Colquitt theory!)<br />
<br />
If I have any complaints about this one, it would be the dialogue at some points. It sometimes read like one of those therapy exercises where you have to verbalize your feelings and reactions: "When you do ____, it makes me feel _____." It was just a little bit stilted and awkward, and I don't think that people really talk like that. Even well-to-do upper middle classers. <br />
<br />
I did enjoy this book quite a lot though, and I think it's one that I'll read again at some point. I feel like there are things that I'd understand better a second time around.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a><br />
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-61516740999797847692013-04-13T16:02:00.000-04:002013-04-13T16:02:29.186-04:00Review: The Devil You Know by Mike Carey ★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/663098.The_Devil_You_Know" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Devil You Know (Felix Castor, #1)" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176895901l/663098.jpg" width="209" /></a>Despite like 20 people I know having read (or wanting to read this), I'd never heard of it until discussing the best Urban Fantasy books and series... And then, because I'm half-demon myself, this one stood out from the crowd and sounded like it'd be something I'd really enjoy. To be quite honest, I'm a little tired of the vampires and the werewolves and whatnot, so demons and ghosts seemed like a nice change. <br />
<br />
And it was. <br />
<br />
I really enjoyed this book. I've been in a bit of a slump lately, and so it seemed like it took me forever to read this, but I got there in the end and I liked it a lot. I loved the kind of... gritty realism the book had. It felt less like fantasy than real life - if real life had ghosts and demons and those who were capable of seeing and dealing with them. <br />
<br />
This book seems to come with an intertwined recommendation: If you like The Dresden Files, read Felix Castor. And vice versa. (Again, odd, because last year I read EVERY SINGLE HARRY DRESDEN BOOK THERE IS and Felix was mentioned not one time to me... HMPH!) Anyway, I can kind of see why, because Felix and Harry both kind of have that snarky, just-a-guy-who-can-do-stuff thing going on. But, they were quite different, too. I've been thinking about it this morning, and it's taken me a little bit of time to realize it, but in SOME ways, I liked Felix more than Harry. (What? Like it's WEIRD to brood over fictional characters or something. Pfft.)<br />
<br />
I don't want this to be come off sounding like a criticism of Harry, because it's not. Some of the things that I'm going to mention are parts of WHY I love his character so much. But they work in HIS world - not so much the one that Felix lives in. <br />
<br />
First, Harry has this kind of (to use Hermione's words from The Order of the Phoenix) "saving people thing". He's chivalrous and kind-hearted with a dirty mouth and a quick temper. He has a lot of internal doubts about his ability to be the man -or the wizard- that he needs to be. Which is, of course, what makes him that man/wizard. Harry Dresden knows who he is and what his powers can do, and he has a kind of feeling of responsibility to use them to help people. I love these things about Harry, because the man that it makes him (without giving anything away) is one that I love and pity in equal measures. <br />
<br />
But Felix was... just a guy. And I liked that. OK - maybe just a guy who was slightly more in tune with the no-longer-alive than most other people. He didn't have the hero thing going on. He didn't really head out into the fray to protect "his" city or to do good deeds... he just got caught up in a mess. He has his own doubts, his own dark history, his own fears. I really hope to see more of this in the remaining books in the series. <br />
<br />
I liked the plot as well, and I think that it lent a good deal to the realism of the story. This was an already fucked up situation that went completely FUBAR, and then some. There are books (like The Dresden Files) where the fantasy is so entwined that to remove it would be impossible - and I wouldn't want to. But then there are books like this one, where the fantasy aspect is more... like an addition. Take away the ghosts and demons and whatnot, and you STILL have a really good story. With them, and you have a really good urban fantasy story. And I really liked that. But the fantasy aspects never felt tacked on or like an afterthought. They meshed perfectly with the story and the world, especially old city London with all its history, and I loved it. <br />
<br />
I will definitely be reading more of this series. <br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-79235535509618177992013-04-09T19:41:00.000-04:002013-04-09T19:42:47.416-04:00Review: Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare ★★★<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298438642l/768005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298438642l/768005.jpg" width="189" /></a>Romeo & Juliet; Or: How Verona High Society Was Devastated Due To Two Kids Who Couldn't Keep It In Their Pants for 24 Hours.<br />
<br />
This story is only a tragedy in the sense that, through their stupidity and selfishness, Romeo & Juliet caused others to suffer. <br />
<br />
When we meet Romeo, he's in the throes of grief over Rosalind, who he is "in love" with, but who is not interested in him. Oh, he's in a right tizzy over her. The sun shines out her ass and all that, and the world is just a pit of despair without her in his arms, yada yada yada. <br />
<br />
Then, OH HAPPY COINCIDENCE, he learns that she'll be at the Capulets' place for a party, so he can go stare creepily at her for a while, and just be in her presence. (Wonder if they had restraining orders back then?) Anyway, while at the party, Romeo blinks and forgets Rosalind completely, because pretty girl! And... is that...? Why yes. That IS the sun shining out of her ass. Someone must have just misplaced their flashlight at Rosalind's rear, because now that he's seen the true sun, there is OBVIOUSLY no comparison in the brilliance of the light. <br />
<br />
We're told in the beginning of the story that Montague and Capulet have this feud thing going on. I dunno why, they just do. Makes for a convenient conflict. Tybalt, of Clan Capulet, recognizes Romeo, and thinks he's there to start shit. Remember - feud. So, he makes to fight him, but is shouted down... so he just files it away for future reference. AIN'T NO MONTAGUE GON' COME UP IN DIS CRIB, YO!<br />
<br />
Romeo gets all kissy with Juliet. Juliet gets all swoony (it was her first kiss, being all of almost-14 and all), and within a few hours they are engaged. The next day they are married.<br />
<br />
Taking things slow. As a lovely wedding gift, Romeo kills Juliet's cousin Tybalt. Well, I mean, Tybalt started it! *stamps foot* He TOTALLY killed Mercutio FIRST! DANG! And so he's banished from Verona. <br />
<br />
Verona Death Count: 2 <br />
<br />
Juliet loses her shit. <br />
Romeo loses her shit. (That's not a typo. Even Friar Lawrence calls Romeo out for crying like a little bitch.)<br />
<br />
I would like to take a moment right now to talk about Juliet's moment of losing her shit. Because it is just a moment. Her nurse, who goodness knows needs to be slapped at the best of times, can't be trusted to relay a message accurately, and essentially mindfucks Juliet into thinking for a goodish chunk of time that it's Romeo who is dead. Understandably, Juliet is distraught at the thought that her boyfriend of 12 hours/husband of 3 hours is dead, and she didn't even give up her maidenhead yet (not making this up... she literally laments the fact that he'd not taken her to bed yet)... So, when Nurse FINALLY sets her straight that her boyfriend isn't the murdered but the murderer... Juliet is relieved, happy, and <em>sees this as a comfort</em>. <br />
<br />
She sees the murder of her lifelong cousin at the hands of a dude she's known for 12 hours and who previously was a sworn enemy... a comfort. <br />
<br />
And she didn't even know if the sex was good yet. O_o<br />
<br />
Anyway... So, like... They meet up that night, Juliet finally finds out how the sex is (apparently good enough - WHEW!) and in the morning, Romeo leaves town (banished), and Juliet's kindhearted father promises her to Paris (who I am sure is a nice man, but apparently he ain't no Romeo) and when Juliet refuses, he casts her out. Well, he leaves the option for her to be uncast her out if she agrees to marry Paris. He's a good dad. So accommodating and caring. <br />
<br />
She demands Friar Lawrence to help her, so he gives her a potion to allow her to fake her death. She lies to Mummy and Daddy that she'll marry Paris, and then fake-offs herself. Much sadness ensues. The Friar tries to tell Romeo of this plan, but his letter was waylaid, and he found out about Juliet's death through another messenger who didn't know it wasn't real, and he makes haste back to Fair Verona to real-off himself to spend eternity with his wife. Of two days, if my count is right at this point. <br />
<br />
Apparently Paris also had the thought of going to visit Juliet, and he meets Romeo, they fight, and Paris dies. <br />
<br />
Verona Death Count: 3<br />
<br />
Romeo offs himself. <br />
Juliet offs herself. <br />
<br />
Verona Death Count: 4 & 5<br />
<br />
The parents show up with the prince, who after about 5 minutes' investigation into the events, basically says "See what this stupid feud did? Everyone loses."<br />
<br />
So, unless I missed someone in my accounting, Romeo and Juliet caused 2 1/2 deaths per day of their marriage. Could you imagine the state of Verona had they NOT both killed themselves out of angst-ridden lust?<br />
<br />
The moral of this story: Just have sex and get it out of your system.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a><br />
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-23901217367450300162013-04-06T13:44:00.000-04:002013-04-06T13:45:49.247-04:00Review: Closure, Limited by Max Brooks ★★★★<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I really enjoy Max Brooks' stories. I love his insightful way of looking at the zombie culture, what it represents, what it means for us, what we would, or could, do about it if it were to occur.</div>
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I recently recommended Max's World War Z to a friend, and loaned him my copy so he could read it. (Don't worry, it's back in my possession now, and unharmed. :D) He returned it with the comment that it was probably one of the best stories about society in crisis he'd ever read, and that the realism was incredible. I completely agree, which is why I recommended it to him in the first place. ;)</div>
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So anyway, my point in mentioning this is that Max Brooks' books have been on my mind recently, and so when I was browsing Audible last night looking for something to listen to so I could clean the kitchen (What? Like you don't...), I discovered Closure Limited. I'd never heard of it before, so I was kinda excited by the thought of new material.</div>
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So, I downloaded, listened, and cleaned... in that order. Priorities, people. O_o</div>
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Overall, I liked this - maybe not AS much as Zombie Survival Guide or World War Z, but close. I think part of what detracted from this a bit was the format and the reading. For one thing, the reader sounded a lot like Max Brooks himself to me. I have heard Max read on the WWZ audiobook (the abridged one - I've yet to listen to the newer unabridged version), and I've seen him on that one zombie documentary show that I can't think of the name of... *IMDBs* "Zombies: A Living History". So for the intro, the reader's voice worked fine for me... but in the stories themselves... it wasn't the best match.</div>
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That's not to say that the performance wasn't good... It was good, but I am kinda picky when it comes to audiobook readers, and I wouldn't say that Christopher Ragland is among my favorites. The male voices were OK - but the females were... not. And three times he had to do accents: one from The Netherlands (if I remember right?), another from Vietnam, and then a woman from China. Oddly, the Chinese woman's voice distracted me the least, which was kind of contradictory to how I felt about how he read other women - maybe it was the more staccato way in which he read her that helped. Not sure.</div>
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Before I talk about the individual stories, I'll just mention one other thing that detracted from this book for me, with regards to the audio version. That issue is that each story is headed by a chapter. "Chapter One: Closure, Limited". I didn't actually NOTICE this, though, until midway through the 2nd story, when I was wondering what the hell the events I was listening to had to do with where I thought the story was going. I'm used to stories jumping around at chapter breaks. It gives a different perspective, and progresses the story, etc, so I heard, "Chapter Two: Steve & Fred" and didn't think anything of it being a NEW story, but a 2nd chapter in the story I was listening to already.</div>
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<div style="text-align: start;">
It was a little distracting, the be honest. Probably in print form, this wouldn't be an issue, because I'd know, getting to the next story, that it's not really "Chapter Two". Anyway, so when I eventually realized that it was a different story, it made a LOT more sense.</div>
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Moving on to the stories themselves, I really enjoyed them.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>Closure, Limited:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
Think about a zombie apocalypse... You know that the undead are everywhere, and that they are relentless killing, and turning, machines. Think about your loved ones, the ones that are now out of contact with you in your safehouse, or compound, or whatever. You don't know whether they are alive or dead or undead. You hope that they are alive, but the odds are... slim. After a while, the wondering starts to get to you... it starts to be harder to live with NOT knowing than it would be to just mourn. That's where Closure, Limited comes in - they allow you to end that uncertainty. They provide a service that gives just what their name says: closure. Granted, there's a certain amount of self-deception that's required, because, after all, you HIRED this company to give you closure... but if you just need the symbolic aspect, you're all set.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
This one really made me think... It is kind of awful in its way, and extremely risky, but could I really say that I wouldn't want something like this to exist if I was in the situation of needing it? At the very least, it would be cathartic to destroy the hope that just stubbornly hangs on and insists on tormenting us...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>Steve & Fred:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
When I listened to this one last night, I was... not impressed. It didn't help that I didn't realize it was a new story (as I mentioned above), but to add to that the story also has a shift of its own. So, to be fair, I listened to this one again this morning, and I've changed my initial opinion. This is a GOOD story. It's like a little polaroid of a story, one that is still working on developing toward the middle. There's not much to this one - it's 22 minutes long, so, maybe I'd estimate a similar number of pages if the reader goes through 1 per minute. Maybe double if he reads slower. I dunno. But either way, the way it expands to show the whole situation is impressive, and enormous in its capacity for dread. And the irony of the story-within-a-story aspect is not lost on me. This is good stuff. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>The Extinction Parade:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
This one is probably my least favorite of the lot, and oddly enough for the "unreality" of this zombie story containing vampires. Yes. Really. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
I mean, it's not that I'm against vampires and zombies in the same story; in fact, usually I'm good with that. But in Max Brooks' universe, zombies invade the normal, everyday world due to a virus. There's nothing paranormal about them. So the insertion of the paranormal here just felt... out of place. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
That being said, if I put that aside, the story is still a good one. It brings to light the concept of resources - that if suddenly a previously thought continually renewable resource suddenly starts to dwindle, would those who rely on the resource notice in time to stop it... COULD they stop it even if they did? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>The Great Wall: </b></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
This story, previous to my re-listen to Steve & Fred, was my favorite of the four. Now, I'd say they are tied. I loved this story for everything that it represented in terms of human resilience and stoicism and courage. It brought tears to my eyes, both of pride and sadness, and I loved every second of it. </div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
This one is definitely a keeper for anyone who enjoys zombie lit, or who is a fan of Max Brooks, or both. I definitely recommend it. </div>
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-80951042902872696442013-04-04T21:36:00.000-04:002013-04-04T21:36:25.543-04:00Review: The Biggest and Brightest Light by Marilyn Perlyn ★<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Another random WeGiveBooks read.<br />
<br />
This one was a little better than the last one, I think, but only in that it actually had a story. But honestly, I think it could have been much better.<br />
<br />
I know that this is for kids (the age range is 4-7), but I felt like there were a lot of issues with this one. Not only were there missing commas all over the place, but this was nothing but tell, tell, tell, and the story jumped around quite a lot.<br />
<br />
For example: The book starts out on the last day of summer, with 6 year old Amanda receiving a letter with her new teacher's name in it. The teacher's name is Dr. Malko (I just had to look it up, actually. And it was probably mentioned once a page for all 56 pages), and Amanda is worried that she might have to get a shot. Cut to the first day of school, when Amanda meets Dr. Malko and is immediately reassured that she's not that kind of doctor. She then asks the students to tell something about themselves, and Amanda immediately yells out about her iguana, her puppy, her family, etc.<br />
<br />
Nobody else gets a word in (not in dialogue anyway - it's said that they all wanted to hear more about Amanda's stuff though), and then Dr. Teacher is shutting down intro time to hand out schoolbooks.<br />
<br />
Then suddenly it's story time, Amanda's favorite book is read. Amanda guesses the hat from the hints given. And then suddenly it's Halloween... and Amanda is going to be a witch! Amanda Amanda Amanda. I know that this is supposed to be some sort of memoir about one little girl's caring when her teacher was in need... But that's not really the vibe I got from this. I kept feeling like she just needed to be the center of attention, the "It" girl in her class, teacher's pet. <br />
<br />
Anyway, so then when Dr. Malko's daughter got sick around Thanksgiving (because suddenly Thanksgiving!), Amanda decided to do something to help. <i>"She thought and she thought... and then she thought some more... until a great idea came to her."</i> She'd make Christmas decorations, sell them at $10 each, and raise money for her teacher. (Because suddenly Christmas now! There's literally no progression in time. It's just BLINK and it's a new holiday.) And just like that it was done. These cycles of Amanda thinking and thinking and thinking some more and then just great ideas coming to her happened two more times, and each time the great idea was over and done with in less than 2 sentences. Because, you know, the focus is AMANDA, not the kindness itself. We need to remember how selfless and caring Amanda is... it's not really all that important WHAT she did, or how she did it. She just did, OK!?<br />
<br />
This is all the more annoying since this is apparently based on true events. I didn't get anything out of this book. I wasn't moved, I wasn't impressed or inspired. I was kind of irritated. Not really the reaction they were going for, I bet.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-25670967934446010402013-04-04T17:15:00.001-04:002013-04-04T17:15:54.062-04:00Review: Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley ★★<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Another disappointing children's book. I'm beginning to wonder: Are books for children more about the pictures than the story?<br />
<br />
Let's consider:<br />
This book is about a bear who randomly comes across a three-leaf clover one day. His friend, Mouse, says "Hey, I heard that if you find one with FOUR leaves, you'll be lucky!" So, Bear goes in search of a four-leafer. He encounters a couple other unhelpful anthropomorphs: A monkey who says they don't exist, a turtle who says it'll take forever to find one if they do, an elephant who says he found one once, but doesn't remember where, a gopher who wonders aloud whether Bear will be unlucky if he never finds one...<br />
<br />
And then Bear gives up.<br />
<br />
But never fear! Mouse has stuck through the search with him, and while Mouse didn't find what Bear was looking for, exactly, he found something better: a FIVE leaf clover. I'm extrapolating here in the assumption that was in fact better, because that is literally the end of the story.<br />
<br />
So, the moral to this story is that if you give up on something, someone will just... give it to you. <br />
<br />
The artwork again is the saving grace for this one. It was adorably cute. Story? Not so much.<br />
<br />
<br />Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-75866255054416337462013-04-03T23:22:00.002-04:002013-04-03T23:22:44.207-04:00Review: You Can't Go To School Naked by Dianne Billstrom ★★I've set myself a goal of reading 150 books this year. I am not even close to being on target. I'm like 12 books behind.<br />
<br />
It's quite sad, really.<br />
<br />
So, when I remembered WeGiveBooks.org, I was like "Oooh! I can feel as though I've accomplished something almost like reading!" AND, even better, I have done something to tip the Karmic scales a little more toward the positive, since my spending 5 minutes to read this book has resulted in a book being donated to the Overbrook School for the Blind, in Philadelphia.<br />
<br />
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I picked this book almost at random. I am not much of a children's book reader, to be honest. I don't have kids, so I don't really have much reason to, other than to do a good deed. I have come across some cute ones, though, really enjoyable books with fantastic artwork and a really fun reading experience.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this one wasn't one of those.<br />
<br />
I think it tried to be, but my first, and lingering, thought as I read this was that it reminded me of Dr. Seuss's rhyming structure. The first few lines in the book were: <blockquote>
<i>"I must wear clothes? That's what you say?<br />I don't <b>LIKE</b> clothes! I say -- <b>NO WAY!</b>"</i></blockquote>
<br />
Sounds like Green Eggs & Ham, doesn't it?<br />
<br />
So the actual story is about a couple parents telling their little boy about all these horrible things that could happen if he went to school in ze buff. He could get dirty, or sunburned, he could freeze, he could get slime all over him in Show & Tell when he has to hold the frogs and snails, he wouldn't have any pockets for cool things that little boys pick up off the ground, etc.<br />
<br />
But the whole time I was reading this, (I mean, when I wasn't also repeating "I do not like them, Sam I Am") I was thinking: "That's not really a good way to get a little boy to want to wear clothes. Boys like to get dirty, they like gross things, they don't really care about sunburns or cold as long as they are having fun. These things sound like Little Boy Adventures, not 'consequences'."<br />
<br />
In the end, spoiler alert, the little boy doesn't go to school naked, because his parents traumatized him with all of their dire warnings of awful consequences of doing so.<br />
<br />
Me, I'd have just said, "If you go to school naked, all the little boys and girls will be able to see your noodle, and they won't want to play with you! *cough* ...Until they're older anyway.<br />
<br />
*distraction technique, engage!*<br />
Cookie? "<br />
<br />
I'm gonna be a great mom. :D<br />
<br />
Anyway, it was OK, if a little wishfully idealistic. The drawings were cute, but I think the story could have been better.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-88684651856449101122013-04-01T23:25:00.001-04:002013-04-01T23:25:32.625-04:00I Done Got Me A New 'Do!I was a little tired of the old look of the blog, and it was really starting to get on my nerves with some of the column width issues I was having. Adjusting the widths wasn't really doing much to improve matters either, so I said to myself, "Self, let's just do something different!"<br />
<br />
I agreed, naturally, and so... yeah. Here we are.<br />
<br />
What'cha think?Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-84067944982707884692013-03-30T01:21:00.000-04:002013-03-30T01:21:13.798-04:00Review: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera ★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9717.The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Unbearable Lightness of Being" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265401884l/9717.jpg" width="212" /></a>13% and I'm done. <br />
<br />
I have had a run of books that have bored me, or annoyed me, or just did nothing for me. This one is... You know, I don't even know how to describe this one. <br />
<br />
I pretty much hated it from the first page. I do not understand the high rating on Goodreads for this book. I can barely stand the thought of picking it up again and reading more of the words telling me things about characters that I could not possibly care less about. <br />
<br />
We have Tomas, whom we meet standing on his balcony and vacillating between whether he should ask a woman that he's "in love with" (read: met in a chance encounter and became infatuated with) to move in with him. He's saved from making any kind of fucking decision by her showing up on his doorstep (literally) with her bags packed and ready to move in. Which she does. And then she clings to him (literally) every night - to the point that he controls her sleep patterns. He even, charmer that he is, fucks with her partially-asleep mind and tells her that he's leaving her forever, so that she'll chase him and drag him back home.<br />
<br />
Tereza (that's the woman - I had to look up her name) begins to have nightmares that he's cheating on her and forcing her to watch after finding a letter from a woman in Tomas's drawer describing that very thing. So then, in the course of a sentence, we learn that Tomas has never stopped womanizing, then that he lied to Tereza about it, then tried to justify it, and now just tries to hide it from her, but won't stop. <br />
<br />
And she stays. He gets her a dog, because the dog will hopefully "develop lesbian tendencies" and love Tereza, because Tomas can't cope with her and needs help. <br />
<br />
So yes, Tereza not only stays, but marries him.<br />
<br />
Why? *shrug* The book said so. <br />
<br />
So then war comes, and they relocate... but after a while Tereza leaves Tomas (taking the female dog that they named Karenin and now refer to using male pronouns... Maybe to make Tomas feel as though Tereza has a lover as well? Who knows. This book is so stupid...). <br />
<br />
She leaves him, and I think, "About frigging time." There's no reason for her having decided to leave him NOW, as opposed to any day of the 7 previous years of dreading him coming home smelling of another woman, of fearing that every single woman she sees will be her husband's next conquest. She decided to leave now... because the book said so. <br />
<br />
And then he realizes that he can't be without her, and goes to her, and she takes him back, and then he realizes he feels nothing for her but mild indigestion and "pressure in his stomach and the despair of having returned". <br />
<br />
<img class="escapedImg" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdop9oCQpZ1rtci4xo1_500.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<br />
I am a character reader. I need characters that I can identify with, that I can understand, maybe like... but these were none of those things. I don't know them, I don't understand them, I don't identify with them in any way... and I don't want to. <br />
<br />
I just want to stop reading about them. <br />
<br />
And so I did.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-81319482749542265832013-03-30T01:10:00.002-04:002013-04-06T01:54:00.739-04:00Obligatory Lamentation; or "WHY GOODREADS, WHY?!"<a href="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs29/f/2008/146/0/2/sadface_wallpaper_black_by_BloodFury99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs29/f/2008/146/0/2/sadface_wallpaper_black_by_BloodFury99.jpg" width="200" /></a>By now, I'm sure you've heard. It's old news, for the interwebz, anyway. <span id="goog_1710968919"></span><a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1801563&highlight=" target="_blank">Amazon</a> <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEIQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2013%2F03%2F28%2Famazon-acquires-social-reading-site-goodreads%2F&ei=AGlWUf2rC5TL0gGvs4DoBA&usg=AFQjCNEg93ahEmnkZAabIydp9ND7iSwJAA&sig2=XZ4YILYvxkobRh8pKHo7Pg" target="_blank">bought</a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/413-exciting-news-about-goodreads-we-re-joining-the-amazon-family" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><span id="goog_1710968920"></span>.<br />
<br />
*sigh* It's not that I have anything against Amazon... other than their predatory market practices, censorship policies, review approval requirements, proprietary attitudes, user content ownership claims... I mean, I use Amazon-owned Audible and love it, even more now that they'll refund me a credit if I dislike an audiobook, no questions asked. I was a member of Audible when Amazon took it over, and to be honest, the transition was virtually seamless for me. One day there was an Amazon sign-in, which I used (because I do have an Amazon account), and that was it. I can't say I noticed anything at all otherwise. Is the refund process their doing? Perhaps. If so, credit where it's due and all that: I love it. Thanks.<br />
<br />
But I don't review books for, or on, Audible.com or Amazon, except in the rarest of cases where I was asked specifically to do so. I've only ever reviewed consistently on Goodreads. Much more consistently there than even here - my very own blog.<br />
<br />
Because I consider Goodreads my online Book Home. It's where I go for everything book related. I find and discuss books there, I review books there, I catalog books there. But more than that, I made many book-loving friends there, people who are more than just "online friends" to me, but real friends that I love and would hate to lose. <br />
<br />
I love Goodreads. I love the community, the friends I've made, the groups I've created and moderate and helped to grow. I feel like I contribute to a whole there, as a participating member and a librarian. I loved their independence, and how Goodreads was neutral among booklovers - anyone was welcome, there was no bias, no perception of preference for a particular bookseller... And in fact, as little as a year ago, there was a distinctly anti-Amazon attitude there. Goodreads would not be dictated to by Amazon; they'll get their data elsewhere, thank you very much.<br />
<br />
I saved quite a few books during that time, and now it was all for nothing, it seems. But I'm not actually upset about that. I volunteered to help save books after Goodreads banned Amazon data sourcing because I wanted to, because I'm part of the community, and because the time I put in benefited everyone, not because I'm anti-Amazon. I can't say that, because I'm not. I buy from them (though generally not books), and technically I am an Amazon affiliate, though I've done exactly zero with that since signing up. I just don't think that Amazon is right for Goodreads, and I'm worried that Goodreads will lose everything that makes it... Good.<br />
<br />
I'm worried that the independence I loved about Goodreads is now gone, and that reviews and site content will now be perceived as biased toward Amazon because of this alliance. I'm just concerned about what this will actually mean for Goodreads reviewers. I am concerned how data will be used now that Amazon has access to it. I'm concerned with how policy may change. I'm concerned with how the site may change. Goodreads founder Otis Chandler has said that they have no plans to make significant changes to review policy or ownership rights, etc. And, probably naively, I want to trust that that's true, but Amazon didn't get to be the megacorp it is by letting the little guy run the show. So time will tell.<br />
<br />
I'm in Wait & See mode right now, and I have exported all of my books and reviews as a back up. Until I know more about how my reviews will be used by Amazon, I won't be posting them on Goodreads - I'll be posting them here.<br />
<br />
That's right, Goodreads and Amazon have teamed up in a conspiracy to ensure I start living up to my New Years Resolution to update this blog more frequently.<br />
<br />
It's quite devious, really.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-49981001608325312762013-03-02T10:38:00.000-05:002013-03-02T10:38:52.174-05:00Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green ★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11870085-the-fault-in-our-stars" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Fault in Our Stars" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360206420l/11870085.jpg" width="207" /></a>3.5 stars<br />
Ok, so a little background, just to get a base point for some of my reactions to this book. In late 2010, I read Green's "Looking For Alaska". I ended up liking it more than I thought that I would, but for a long time I'd avoided it based on incorrect preconceived notions regarding what the book was about. It wasn't until I'd watched some of John and Hank Green's Vlogbrothers videos that I decided to go for it. And that made a difference. I could see John in the story - in the quirky intelligent teen characters, in the irreverence, and I liked it. After that, I bought "An Abundance of Katherines" & "Paper Towns", but I haven't read anything but their synopses yet. <br />
<br />
So, flash-forward to present day. "The Fault In Our Stars" is chosen to be read among friends, and so I read it. And immediately, I'm struck again by the quirky intelligent teen characters, and the irreverence... But now, it's not so <em>different</em>, because now it seems like a pattern. A style. And that makes it less meaningful. When everyone is profoundly quirky and intelligent, it begins to seem a little trite. <br />
<br />
So here again we have quirky intelligent characters, including a host of 16 year olds with ridiculously sophisticated vocabularies, and including an "extremely sophisticated twenty-five-year-old British socialite stuck inside a sixteen-year-old body in Indianapolis". These are midwest teenagers who sound like they're members of the Intelligentsia. Everything is profound and has "metaphorical resonance". It just didn't feel realistic to me.<br />
<br />
Case in point: At one point there's correspondence with an author of a book that the main characters found profound, and I had a hard time differentiating between the voice of the Profound Author and the teens. <br />
<br />
That shouldn't be the case. Ever. When one of the teens mentioned rhetorically whether the other thought they'd made up the Profound Author's letter, whether it sounded like something they'd come up with, I thought, "Yes!"<br />
<br />
It's just too much for EVERYONE in these stories to be so quirky. Where are the average teens who just hang out with each other and don't use $10 words to say hi to each other? It was just unrealistic for me, especially in a book trying desperately to show that kids with cancer are just normal kids who shouldn't be treated deferentially just because they are sick. The problem here is that these weren't normal kids. These were extraordinary ones. Like everyone else. *sigh* <br />
<br />
It took about half the book for this annoyance to peter out. It was like, at this point, the quirkiness and $10 conversations took a backseat to the story, finally. And that's when I really started to love it. Coincidence? I think not. Extraordinary characters are great and all, when, as a friend put it, they have "an ordinary background to shine against". I couldn't agree more. <br />
<br />
I was far more affected and heartbroken by the simple, no-nonsense way that Hazel talked about her parents and how they were coping (or failing to cope) with her cancer prognosis than by her constant multi-syllabic conversations about the metaphorically resonant quality of... whatever. <br />
<br />
There was a line near the end of the book that kind of summed this up perfectly: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>"He wasn't perfect or anything. He wasn't your fairy-tale Prince Charming or whatever. He tried to be like that sometimes, but I liked him best when that stuff fell away."</i></blockquote>
I loved all the bits of this book that were in between all of the uber-profound stuff. The bits about loving and losing in terms of how much both hurt in stark terms of pure aching. Fancy words are fancy, but sometimes the beauty is in simplicity. When all the pretense fell away, and it was just two people wanting to spend as much time as they had left together, it became the story it always should have been. <br />
<br />
This ended up being a moving and heartbreaking book, but I think it would have been a much better one had it been written more simply. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1376766-becky">View all my reviews</a>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708095426575847662.post-81012197152551135712013-02-20T19:37:00.000-05:002013-02-20T19:37:33.520-05:00Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ★★★★★<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530788-gone-girl" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Gone Girl" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339601058l/13530788.jpg" width="211" /></a><img class="escapedImg" height="182" src="http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af312/escapismtb/HUH-Poe_zps23e1c331.jpg" width="320" /><br />
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That was my immediate reaction after finishing this book. Pretty clearly that's not how it ends. It doesn't <em>END</em> that way. Yet, when I tapped Shadow's screen to turn the page (Shadow's my Nook's name, FYI) - there were only acknowledgements. <br />
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And then I thought about it... I gave it just a few minutes' thought, and I decided that I thought the ending was appropriate. Fucked up? Oh my, yes. But fitting too, in a way. We do dig our own graves, don't we? <br />
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This book kind of reminded of Lemarchand's Box. Every time you try to figure it out, it draws you deeper in, and in the end, reveals the kind of depravity that seemingly knows no bounds. Ineffable. <br />
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And I kind of loved it. <br />
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I thought I had this book figured out so early. I even thought I was being clever, despite knowing, KNOWING, that I was being carefully, artfully led to these conclusions. I was creative though. I had it all figured out. All I was waiting for was the vindication when the book caught up with me. <br />
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And then WHATTHEFUCK?! The twist. Oh my. I never, never saw it coming. Despite having accidentally seen the table of contents, which kind of give it away. But, then if you know me, you know that I don't want to know anything - so I put it out of my mind. And I'm glad that I did. <br />
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The first line of the Chapter of the Twist floored me. I read it four times, and still felt sluggishly stupid. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I had never read Gillian Flynn before, only knew that her stories were dark, thriller types. But in that one sentence, I wondered if all along I've been reading a haunting story and not even realizing it. In a way that was right, but it's just haunting in the wrong sense. Or the right one, depending on your point of view. <br />
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This book kind of... resonated. It's easy to get caught up in it - or it was for me. I could see myself, my boyfriend, my friends and their significant others, pretty much ANY relationship, in this book. And that's disturbing. Everyone changes in a relationship. Everyone. I thought, early on, "Oh, this is a story of how relationships go bad when expectations aren't met - when people change, and grow lax in their status quo relationship..."<br />
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And it was, in a way. If the When-Relationships-Go-Bad-O-Meter goes to 11. Why not just make 10 more intense? Because this one kind of situation requires it go to ELEVEN. <br />
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The thriller aspect of this book was fantastic. It's not one of those non-stop rollercoaster thrill-ride books, where every page turn is another exciting development. This was like watching the water drain out of a tub, slowly, allowing you to see, little by little,what lies under the surface. And you realize that it's recognizable but stunted and deformed, horrifying, and clearly dead inside. But you can't quite stop looking. I loved every second of it. Learning about Nick and Amy's relationship, both how it was so right, and how it went so very wrong. The characters were real, disturbingly real. Every word was expertly placed to take the reader along on this journey, and it was brilliantly done. Loved it. <br />
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The moral of this story: Make an effort. It won't kill you... ;)Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629414165497524335noreply@blogger.com4