Eona

Eona by Alison Goodman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Now on the run and trying to uncover the secrets of the spirit dragons to help heal the Empire, Eona must decide who to trust - and who to love.

How Eona feels throughout the book:


How I felt:


Maybe I'm just too old for all this angsty sturm und drang. Eona has so many feelings. (A lot happens in this long book, but to me it felt slow because of all the exhausting emotional beats Eona hits.) Still learning to be comfortable in her true identity as a woman after spending years disguised as a boy, Eona also struggles to balance the demands of her incredible power with her loyalty to the Emperor.

She feels the dark draw of the pleasures of power, embodied in Lord Ito (gag me), who is as rapey, unrepentant and manipulative as ever. Still, she is drawn to him and able to be honest in ways she does not dare with Emperor Kyto - even though Kyto has given her a position of supreme authority and trust. Her Mirror Dragon may represent the virtue of Truth, but Eona can't seem to stop lying even to the people she loves most: and her every misstep places those around her in terrible danger.

For those who loved Eon, this book definitively concludes the duology and deals with the complex emotions of power, love, guilt, and desire. For me, it could have been shorter.

Feed

Feed by M.T. Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

Titus and his friends are products of the Feed: a never-ending stream of advertising and information implanted into their brains. During an ordinary trip to the Moon, Titus meets the smart, beautiful Violet. When a protester hacks their minds, the teens lose contact with the Feed and for the first time get an inkling that there may be a better way to live.

As unsettling and soul-scarring as Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, Feed is one of those novels that will grow in your subconscious long after you've finished it. Titus is as self-absorbed as Holden Caulfield, but far less articulate. Titus's dystopia is much more Brave New World than 1984, where the affluent are lulled into lives of mindless consumption. Hairstyles change within hours, the oozing lesions everyone has developed become a fashion statement, and School is a trademark, not a place.

Stray observations:

• The pulsing red fields of filet mignon that Titus thinks are part of nature have never quite left my psyche. *Queasiness*
• TV show from the Feed: Oh? Wow! Thing!
• Song lyrics for a love song from the Feed: I like you so bad / And you like me so bad. / We are so bad / It would be bad / If we did not get together, baby, / Bad baby, / Bad, bad baby. / Meg bad.
• "That's one of the great things about the feed - that you can be supersmart without ever working. Everyone is supersmart now. You can look things up automatic, like science and history, like if you want to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit." - 47

Shade's Children

Shade's Children by Garth Nix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unless you escape, by age fourteen the Overlords will come to harvest you for parts. If you manage to survive the well-organized hunters, you just may find refuge with Shade and help him destroy the Overlords. And if Shade doesn't send you on a suicide mission, you may make it to adulthood. Maybe.

Fifteen years ago every adult over the age of fourteen vanished in the Change. Soon the world was crawling with creatures who locked up the remaining children to be farmed for parts. On their Sad Birthday, children are taken away and suffer a fate worse than death: they are transformed into creatures who fight in the Overlord's incomprehensible war games and hunt stray children.

In this hostile world, escapees Gold-Eye, Ella, Ninde, and Drum have to rely on each other to survive. They become guerrilla soldiers in fight they don't fully understand, pawns in the hands of the sole remaining adult: Shade, who has a plan for taking down the Overlords. But Shade isn't exactly human anymore.

Garth Nix wrote a completely chilling post-apocalyptic world with unstoppable foes and untrustworthy allies that completely blows The Maze Runner out of the water on every level. I read it with a knot in my stomach, which is a sign of good sci-fi horror. Fans of Nix's Abhorsen trilogy will be satisfied by this pitch-black story of survival in the face of inhuman enemies.

Coraline: The Graphic Novel

Coraline: The Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Story:
The Other Mother is a better version of Coraline's real mother, with one key difference: she has buttons for eyes, and she wants to make Coraline just like her.

Coraline is one of my favorite children's books: it's one of the most deliciously sinister horror stories I've ever read, and there is zero gore. Gaiman is the master of dark fantasy, and this book deserves a place with the classics. Coraline becomes a true heroine as her courage and ingenuity are tested by her attempts to outwit the Other Mother and return to her own world.

It's a short and apparently simple book, but it will haunt your dreams.

The Art:
To me, the images were too bright and clean for this dark story. I kept imagining the gorgeous animation of the 3D film and wishing the art here had a little more atmosphere to convey the extremes of delight and dread that Coraline experiences.

In the book the Other Mother is at first beautiful and charming enough to gain Coraline's trust, but in these images the effect of the button eyes makes her the clear villain when she is introduced. (Though the cat was perfect.) Admittedly, I hardly came to the story fresh since I've read the book and seen the movie so many times. It's the old problem of your own imagination supplying scarier images than any movie or drawing ever could.

Eon

Eon by Alison Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eon wants more than anything to be accepted by a spirit dragon and become a Dragoneye - but to do so he must hide his true identity: Eon is Eona, a girl.

Eon's life is dangerous and difficult enough: she suffers from a maimed hip and is seen as unlucky. It may hide her from the danger of discovery, but it makes her question her ability to complete the trials necessary to prove she is strong enough to commune with the spirit dragons. But getting what she wants plunges her into more danger than she could have imagined, and her inability to tell the truth may destroy everyone around her.

Goodman is doing some interesting things with gender identity in this book: Eon is befriended by Lady Dela, a transgendered woman who is at home in her identity in ways that Eon cannot afford to be. This fantasy world, heavily modeled after ancient Chinese and Japanese Imperial cultures, is also full of eunuchs (Eon pretends to be one to explain her girlish looks) and slaves. Maleness and femininity are key to to story, and are forces that change the balance of power in Eon's deeply sexist world.

It's a longish book, full of angst and political intrigue. (It's great to see an intricate fantasy world modeled on Asian culture, but the names feel like random fantasy names: there is Kyto, Ryko and Dillon. It's a bit jarring. Dillon? Goodman could have thought about that one a little longer.) Eon can be frustratingly thick-headed sometimes, but I definitely want to find out what happens in the conclusion to the duology.

The Convenient Marriage

The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Horatia is not the Beauty of her family, but when wealthy Lord Rule asks for her sister's hand in marriage, Horatia makes him an offer he can't refuse and enters a loveless marriage of convenience to save her family from ruin.

Horatia is no shy beauty, in spite of her stammer and the fact that she is only seventeen. The scene where she basically proposes marriage to the male lead is funny and classic Heyer. Once wed, Horatia makes good use of Lord Rule's fortune, racking up gambling debts and buying outrageous hats and gowns. She's soon the Talk of the Town, and slowly her honesty and charm begin to woo the heart of her faithless husband.

Unfortunately, Horatia doesn't realize that her marriage has created new enemies and stirred the interest of Lord Rule's oldest foe: the suave Lord Lethbridge, who sees a way to get revenge on the husband through his new bride.

This Heyer book rarely disappoints, and provides duels and trickery worthy of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas or The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. There is one duel in particular that is exciting and atmospheric (though given the villain's truly awful crimes I wish it had ended more lethally).

Unfortunately, there is so much plot that we get very few scenes between the unfortunately nicknamed "Horry" and Lord Rule, so I found the chemistry lacking a bit. It would have helped me buy the romance between a naive 17-year-old and a jaded 35-year-old.

Horry's ne'er-do-well brother Pelham and his bumbling attempts to help her recover a lost piece of jewelry reminded me of a drunker version of Bertie Wooster (which may have been what Heyer intended since she named the brother Pelham, which is author P.G. Wodehouse's first name).

In short, there is enough romance, action, and humor to appeal to the most discerning reader!

(And yes, that is the ridiculous cover of my book. Oh 1975, you have a lot to answer for.)

Little Brother

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the aftermath of a devastating terrorist attack, Marcus and his friends are scooped up by the Department of Homeland Security and reemerge into a world where freedom is a thing of the past. Angry and determined to take back his country, Marcus organizes an underground protest movement with one goal: take down the DHS.

Cory Doctorow is the Ayn Rand of the Creative Commons movement, and if you're interested in arguments about the future of copyright law you should check out his writings. This novel is a thinly veiled attempt to portray Doctorow's idea of a worst-case scenario with an out-of-control American government that trades civil rights and privacy for the illusion of security.

Instead of "going Galt," Doctorow's hero Marcus Yallow "goes M1k3y" and orchestrates a protest movement against the DHS's encroachments on civil liberties using his tech know-how and a group of plugged-in allies. It's a great David verses Goliath setup, and the title refers to Marcus's desire to create plenty of Little Brothers who monitor the government.

The story moves along quickly in the first half and runs out of steam halfway thanks to some heavy-handed moralizing against a few cliched black hats.

My favorite parts came near the beginning, when Marcus explains a "web of trust" and other basics of cryptography. The story touches on Alan Turing, anarchist Emma Goldman, Kerouac's On the Road, Yippies, the Declaration of Independence, the Beats, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (where Doctorow worked for four years), the Pirate Party, TOR, and much more. (There's a great afterward/bibliography written by Doctorow that the curious should check out even if you decide not to read the novel.) I do wonder how relevant this book will be in twenty years, since its tech and cultural references are very au courant.

Final observations:

• "Don't trust anyone over 25" is a stupid motto.
• The press: everyone's whipping boy!
• In light of an entire American city going on lockdown in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, it seemed like a good time to read this book and think about security and privacy issues.
• Fans of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline may enjoy this book!

The Amulet of Samarkand

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When a young apprentice magician summons the djinn Bartimaeus to steal a magical amulet, both djinn and boy discover that revenge is often more trouble than it's worth.

Nathaniel lives in an alternate, contemporary London where ambitious, and selfish magicians are the ruling elite. Someday he'll be one himself, and he's made a good start: at age twelve, he's made an enemy and feels a burning desire for revenge. His life is harsh, but Nathaniel is clever and he knows just how he wants to get even. He's also a lonely boy starved for attention and affection who takes refuge in amassing power and becoming every bit as touchy and self-important as the magicians around him.

Bartimaeus is a jaded, 5,000-year-old djinn who lives by his wits and sees human masters as temporary annoyances until he can figure out a way to pull the rug out from under them and get a little revenge of his own. He is surprised to see how young his new master is, but that doesn't make the boy any less able to order him around - to the proud djinn's irritation. Bartimaeus' side of the story is told in first person, and he's a hilarious narrator who makes frequent asides that make his scorn for humanity and his pride in his own cleverness apparent.

It's been a while since I read a fantasy book that pulled me in like this one. The characters are deeply flawed but still likable, and I have high hopes for Nathaniel's future character development (where I hope his personality will be leavened under the snarky guidance of the djinn). There are hints of a much-needed revolution happening in London, possibly led by a mysterious girl whose power even Bartimaeus doesn't understand. It's an intriguing world, and I can't wait to see more of it!

Negro League Baseball's Unsung Heroes

We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the untold story of the Negro League, which for thirty years before integration not only drew bigger crowds than the all-white major league baseball teams but also had stars every bit as gifted as Babe Ruth (possibly more gifted, but we'll never know for sure).

Kadir Nelson tells the story with an Everyman narrator and through his vivid paintings. Nelson explains in the Author's Note: "I chose to present the voice of the narrator as a collective voice, the voice of every player, the voice of we. Under the leadership of Rube Foster, who declared the leagues' independence from major league baseball by saying, 'We are the ship; all else the sea,' the owners and players formed and sustained a successful league, demonstrating the power of the collective."

This quote also explains the terrible name of the book, which certainly doesn't scream "Baseball" at potential readers and seems to guarantee that interested kids won't find it unless a parent or teacher hands it to them. As an object the book is also awkwardly large and square to accommodate the illustrations. Sadly, there are no period photographs, just Nelson's paintings. Don't get me wrong - the paintings are lovely, but based on those alone I doubt I would recognize the major Negro League stars in real life photos. The illustrations are simply not nuanced enough, and after looking up some of the stars I don't think Nelson got the resemblances very well.

The Negro League played baseball that was swift, thrilling, and "tricky" according to Cool Papa Bell, a legendary outfielder. The descriptions of the rough-and-tumble League are enough to make you wish for a little of that old spirit and excitement in modern baseball. The narrative style conveys this excitement well, making the story zip along and feel authentic. Even those who know little about baseball will find it a quick and fascinating read, and may be inspired to pick up some of the books listed in the bibliography to learn more about the larger-than-life personalities of the Negro League's best players. (Or to watch the film 42, about Jackie Robinson.)

Team Human

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When her best friend falls for the hot undead guy in their class, Mel desperately tries to keep lovestruck Cathy from becoming a vampire herself - a decision that could be Cathy's last.

How can you not love a book with the tagline "Friends don't let friends date vampires"? For everyone who feels guilty about reading Twilight and its sequels in two days, do yourself a favor and try the Team Human antidote: a story about female friendship, free will, and how being smitten doesn't necessarily mean you've lost your mind or given up who you are.

There are a few stories at work here: that of Cathy and her new boyfriend who is about a century too old for her; Mel's other best friend Anna, who has asked Mel to help her find out more about her father's decision to run away with a vampire; and Mel's own romance with a funny, charming guy who happens to live with vampires. When she meets Kit, who has been raised in a vampire shade, Mel find her prejudices challenged and her own romance developing.

Mel is a little confused about boys, but who doesn't make bad romantic choices in high school? She also has to overcome her anti-vampire prejudices (except thankfully not the reasonable ones, like being nervous around apex predators) and figure out what she wants in her own life, too. She's fiercely loyal and not afraid to speak her mind or act when she thinks her friends are in trouble. In short, she's the anti-Bella: a funny, feminist ABC (American-born Chinese) who cares about her friends and has definite opinions on why it might suck to become a blood-sucking immortal.

Larbalesteir and Rees Brennan take a spoofy idea and weave it into a surprisingly moving story that has a lot of heart.

Larbalesteir has several other books with awesome female protagonists, including Liar, which was recently part of a controversy that had to do with a whitewashed cover (more at her blog. She's also married to fellow author Scott Westerfield, whose sci-fi dystopia Uglies is a best-seller, along with the steampunk Leviathan trilogy.

Sarah Rees Brennan is the author of The Lyburn Legacy trilogy, which begins with Unspoken.

The Color of Earth

The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ehwa becomes a beautiful young woman under the kindly eye of her widowed mother, whose words of wisdom teach Ehwa about love and the physical changes of growing up.

The tone of the prose is gentle as Ehwa discovers the joys and pains of first love. The art in this book is undeniably lovely, but after a while the many extended poetic metaphors went from pretty to cloying.

I appreciated the loving and frank relationship between Ehwa and her mother, but I can also understand why parents may object to the nudity and sexual content of this book. At the same time, I think that The Color of Earth could help parents talk to their children - particularly daughters - about the physical changes that come with puberty, changes which can feel overwhelming (and be an embarrassing subject to discuss).

The Trouble With Books...

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Jeanette Winterson's adoptive mother used to claim "The Devil led us to the wrong crib." It mostly got worse from there, culminating in the author leaving home at 16 because she was in love with a woman.

Why do I dislike this book? I think it's because it is written in present tense, and that technique always irritates me with its melodramatic breathlessness. Also, I think I am suspicious of memoirs in general, and creative nonfiction ones in particular. They are so personal, so subjective.

It is also difficult to tell your sad story without sounding self-pitying, and difficult to tell of your triumphs without being self-aggrandizing. Winterson misses the necessary tone to avoid these pitfalls, and I feel a bit cheated because I went into this book hoping it would be humorous because of the title and cover art. (Which goes to show the truth of the maxim about judging books by their cover.)

Parts of the author's life are fascinating: growing up in a working-class family in Manchester; a youthful project of reading the books in her library alphabetically because she knew so little about literature she couldn't think of a better way to do it; and of course, the difficult, damaged woman who adopted the author as an infant.

I liked the early flashes of defiance she mentions when Mrs. Winterson (which is how she refers to her mother) was cruel: when her mother locked her outside all night, Jeanette would drink all the milk and leave the empty bottles on the stoop. When Mrs. Winterson burned Jeanette's carefully collected hoard of paperbacks, Jeanette answered "Fuck it, I'll write my own" and did.

When Mrs. Winterson disappears from the narrative halfway through the book, the story loses much of its appeal. Jeanette's madness after breaking up with a girlfriend and her search for her birth mother are much less interesting (and veer into oversharing) than the maxims of her adoptive mother, which include "The trouble with books is you never know what's in them until it's too late."

Consider yourself warned.

April: Books Read

Books Read, with links to my reviews:

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jean Birdsall
East by Edith Pattou
Embassytown by China Miéville
Wonderstruck by Brian Selzick
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
Team Human by Justine Larbalestier
We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

April: Books Bought

Nook Books:
Watership Down by Richard Adams -  I reread this every year, and I've been itching to get it on my Nook. Now I have it! Not that I'm getting rid of my physical copy or anything crazy like that....
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - Deeply funny, and even though I read it years ago I smile every time I think about Ignatius J. Reilly's unique filing system. Nearly time for a reread.
Something About You by Julie James - Recommendation from my cousin, Beth, who increased my list of romance books by a lot during her too-short visit.
Hit Man by Lawrence Block - A hit man with a heart of gold? Perfect.
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton - His books are unlike what I normally gravitate toward, but the way he creates characters is so extraordinary that I am back for more. Awkward courtships? I'm in!
Redshirts by John Scalzi - You cannot call yourself a Star Trek fan if you don't know about the many tragic sacrifices made over the decades by eager young redshirts.
Feed by Mira Grant - It was so cheap! It's been on my list for a while! - and the third book in the trilogy was just short-listed for the Hugo, which was my tipping point. (Not to be confused with M.T. Anderson's Feed.)
The Duchess War by Courtney Milan - According to my friend Caitlin, this book is "scrumtrelescent"! How could I miss that?
The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan - Because who can beat the price of FREE?
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick - I loved the movie, and even Kirkus admitted that the book was charming.
Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann - Some friends of mine love this book, and I got it for 99 cents.
Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame
by Zev Chafets - So cheap! Yay, Barnes and Noble!
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - Again, another steal from a favorite author!
How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier - Great title, should be fun!
Liar by Justine Larbalestier - Unreliable narrator? Check! Controversial original cover art? Yup.
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer by Sarah Bakewell - A Nick Hornby recommendation
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie - Y'all, I love my fantasy revenge novels.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan - What about this title isn't great?
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - I decided to read this for a class, but found that I had loaned out my copy! Curses. So I bought it again on Nook. Yes, it's that good.

Physical Books:
The City & The City by China Miéville - An author who is known for his complexity and originality. My first foray into his works was Kraken, which I enjoyed well enough to seek out more.
The Scar by China Miéville - see above
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester - My love for Master and Commander has made this one an inevitable read, though I don't think anyone can top Patrick O'Brian's incredible series.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - I cried actual tears when reading this book, which is unusual for me. And it's set near my hometown, where Alexie grew up.
The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison
The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge
The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett

A Fantastic Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When the brutish Boggis, Bunce, and Bean decide to kill Mr. Fox and his family, the fantastic fox faces sure starvation if his wits aren't wily enough.

Nasty people are truly nasty in Dahl's books, and the three farmers are no exception: Bean is deaf because "his earholes were clogged with all kinds of muck and wax and bits of chewing-gum and dead flies and stuff like that." (Although my favorite Dahl villains are the Twits!) Quentin Blake lends his usual marvelous illustrations to complete the story.

If you've never read a book by Roald Dahl, you're missing out! If you love silliness on par with Shel Silverstein's poetry, Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona or Betty MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, you'll love every one of Roald Dahl's children's books.

The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Holling Hoodhood knows that his seventh grade English teacher Mrs. Baker hates him with a heat whiter than the sun. His evidence: when he gets stuck with her every Wednesday, she assigns him Shakespeare's plays as extra reading.

Holling tells his story of growing up during the Vietnam era, when Mickey Mantle played for the Yankees, Robert Kennedy was running for president, and schoolchildren practiced hiding under their desks in case of nuclear war. But Holling has other things on his mind: fresh-baked cream puffs, a pair of embarrassing yellow tights, and being forced to read Shakespeare every Wednesday.

Holling narrates the humorous and heartbreaking events of his life with the same slightly baffled tone, proving that no era is easy to come of age in. His relationship with his family, friends, and the inscrutable Mrs. Baker are the core of the story, and they often develop in unexpected ways. Holling has to take bewildering world events, tribulations at school and trouble at home in stride, and he does it all with helpful insults from the Bard of Avon.

I may have rated this book higher except I think Schmidt fails in his portrayal of Holling's parents - particularly Mr. Hoodhood, who never does the right thing and is image- and money-obsessed. He's an unlikable caricature without a single redeeming moment. And Mrs. Hoodhood is a near nonentity in the story. It's unfortunate that these characters are given short shrift, especially in light of the well-developed characters at Holling's school, particularly the prickly Mrs. Baker.

Still, this book was a Newbery Honor book in 2008, and it's sweet without being cloying. For fans of historical fiction and realistic fiction, The Wednesday Wars may win you over.

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An undercover police officer struggles with losing his own identity as he investigates a dangerous new drug to which he himself has become addicted.

Philip K. Dick himself struggled with schizophrenia, and the book is dedicated to the friends he lost to drug addiction. That said, it's a fantastic science fiction ride that will leave you feeling sad and thoughtful by the end.

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When an evil Witch transforms Sophie into an old woman, the meek shop girl finds that old age becomes her. To find a way to break the curse, Sophie hires herself as a cleaning lady for the Wizard Howl, a rogue who has a reputation for stealing hearts.

This is one of my favorite fantasy novels by one of my favorite fantasy writers. Sophie is hilariously liberated by being an old woman instead of a young one, and finds she has more power than she knew. Howl is an irresistible leading man - even his vanity is somehow appealing. The supporting characters are lovable, too, from the fire demon Calcifer to the wizard apprentice Michael. Almost everyone in the story is cursed or in disguise, and all these secrets lead to a chaotic and rapid denouement.

There are several sequels, including Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways, but they only have cameos by Howl and Sophie. For more of a character who is every bit as charming as Howl, try the Chrestomanci series. Chrestomanci is an incredibly powerful magician who is also something of a dandy. (Try Charmed Life first, it's wonderful.)

I can’t end without mentioning the gorgeous animated adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle by director Hayao Miyazaki, which is one of my all-time favorite films. It's true to the spirit of the book, and has a magic of its own.

Invading the Outback

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A group of teens goes camping in the Australian bush for a weekend, and upon their return everyone they know has disappeared.

When Ellie and her friends return after a week of camping, they find that their families are missing and their empty town is being patrolled by strangers with machine guns. The teens are independent and capable (Ellie's family raises sheep and cattle, and her greatest contribution to the group's survival is being able to drive just about any kind of vehicle) and they quickly understand the stakes and make a plan to stay free and strike back.

Ellie realizes that she and the people she's known for most of her life are capable of more than they ever imagined. The jokester Homer becomes a capable leader, her friend Robyn proves heroic when she is most needed, and Ellie herself discovers that under pressure she has the necessary courage.

There are tense moments, romantic ones, and a few philosophical interludes that frankly bugged me (I would be considerably less understanding of a people who staged a violent invasion aimed at stealing my homeland, and less worried about killing people who tried to kill me - but maybe I've seen Red Dawn too often). Worst of all, there are sequels, which means I'm going to have to read six more books to find out what happens next!

I listened to this on audiobook, and the narrator was an Australian woman whose accent was great to listen to, and whose voice acting embodied Ellie just right.

For anyone who loved Z is for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien (namechecked by the teens of the book) or Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The first of the Tomorrow series.

The Robot War

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When the omnipresent robots begin slaughtering their human masters, a small group of survivors scattered across the world use their wits to fight back.

Cormac Wallace is a soldier who saw the war firsthand: from Zero Hour when smart cars began running people over in the street to the final battle to destroy Archos (Robopocalypse's Skynet). Wallace finds an archive of records made by Archos and pieces together stories of the people who ensured human victory over "Old Rob" (soldier slang for "robot"). This frame didn't always work logically, and the stories rely on a great deal of coincidence, but that didn't stop me racing through the pages.

Daniel H. Wilson is a roboticist who wrote How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion, so he's got killer robots on the brain. This solidly written novel pulls you into an iron grip and moves fast - I finished it in a day and my attention never flagged. There is a real tension as the survivors recount the eerie first days of the war, when trusted machines became the Enemy - parts of this could accurately be labeled horror.

The style and construction of the book are reminiscent of Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. (And strangely enough, Brooks wrote his own survival guide for his particular brand of apocalypse: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. I guess great minds do think alike.)

And lest you think that Wilson is a complete anti-robot alarmist, the last section of the book has a surprise element that the robot-loving Asimov would have approved of (and in fact wrote about in the short story "Robot Dreams").

Redshirts

Redshirts by John Scalzi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When Ensign Dahl is assigned to Intrepid, he quickly realizes that there is trouble on the Universal Union's flagship - something that has raised the mortality rate on Away Missions, but only for newcomers....

This spoof of badly-written TV science fiction follows a group of ordinary crewmen who quickly figure out that their lives are cheap and that being on an Away Mission (or decks 6-12 during a battle) might mean their brutal and meaningless deaths. For those of you living in a cave, a "redshirt" is the term coined by geeks to describe disposable crewmen who die on Star Trek away missions to raise the stakes for the heroes.

Redshirts has its moments of humor, but plot-wise it feels lightweight. No real surprises here. As a fan of several Star Trek shows, I appreciated the many inside jokes aimed at lazy TV writers, but I wish the solution found by Scalzi's redshirts had been cleverer and less lazy.

The biggest problem for me was the challenge of keeping track of the main characters, who are referred to by their last names and remain two-dimensional.There are few descriptions, and everything about Intrepid and its crew feels too generic to justify the characters' insistence that they are real people, too.

If you like your sci-fi sardonic and meta, you may also enjoy Year Zero by Rob Reid.

Oh, and as for ice sharks being completely ridiculous, Scalzi should have read this Wikipedia article.

Just sayin'.

The Bravest Traitor

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before his name became synonymous with traitor, Benedict Arnold was one of the heroes of the American Revolution, and without his reckless courage the Colonies' rebellion may have ended at Saratoga.

George Washington once wrote of Arnold "The merit of this gentleman is certainly great. I heartily wish that fortune may distinguish him as one of her favorites." He was once a byword for bravery, the quintessential American patriot and man of action - but Arnold had his enemies, and earned every one of them with his narcissism, social ineptitude, and quick temper. He was a man with great gifts and fatal flaws.

Sheinkin knows just how to tell a story, and he paints a vivid portrait of this notorious general. If we are not exactly sympathetic to Arnold's treachery, at least we understand what led up to it by the end of this compelling history, which ends with this story:

"If you visit the Saratoga battlefield, which is now a national park, you may see a very strange monument, one that perfectly symbolizes Arnold's place in the United States. It's tucked away off the main path, near tour stop number seven, the spot where Arnold led his final charge as an American general. It's a small stone sculpture of a lower left leg. No person, just a tall boot.

"A plaque reads: 'In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot, the sally port of Burgoyne's Great Western Redoubt 7th October, 1777, winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution.'

"Nowhere does the monument mention the name Benedict Arnold."

- p. 306-307

Theodicy

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Father Sandoz, the sole survivor of a Jesuit mission to an alien planet, grapples with his faith as he reluctantly confesses the disastrous consequences of meeting "God's other children."*

This is a book you have to allow to sink into your brain and heart, where it will certainly take root. It is a character study of Father Sandoz and his closest friends as well as a chilling first contact story of the impossibility of entering a truly foreign culture without suffering from dangerous ignorance and misunderstanding.

I admit to feeling impatient with Sandoz as he mopes and avoids telling his story (which is recounted VERY slowly in parallel flashback chapters, told in third person), but by the revelations at the end I was completely on his side - the horrors he suffered are every bit as soul-shattering as his reticence suggests.

Russell sees no conflict between religion and science, and for this I am profoundly grateful: her characters encompass a range of belief (from priests to atheists), but each person is educated, intelligent, and articulate. The Jesuit mission on Rakhat is to learn, not to proselytize, and the portrayal of the priests is human and sympathetic.

There are no other books quite like this one, but science fiction does have more than its fair share of thoughtful books about first contact by brilliant writers: Contact by Carl Sagan, China Mieville's Embassytown, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin...I could go on.

SPOILER(ISH)

P.S. There are traces of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine here, too, for anyone who remembers the Eloi and the terrifying Morlocks.

* This annotation was a joint effort by students, created in class for "Adult Reader's Services" taught by Nancy Pearl (Spring 2013).

Three Free Books

The Book of Snobs by William Makepeace Thackeray
This is a collection of weekly columns for Punch, written in 1848. Thackeray takes on the social issues of his day in these satirical pieces, looking at every class of snob. One of my favorite books is Vanity Fair, and I think you could see the themes of skewering the self-important there, too. (Seriously, I heart Becky Sharp.) Some of the references he's making are obviously based on his own day's gossip and news, so an acquaintance with Victorian England would serve a reader well.

No Name by Wilkie Collins
Two young women are suddenly orphaned, disinherited, and driven from their home. Forced to make their way alone, one sister opts for the hardships of a governess' life and the other for revenge - her only weapons her beauty and wits. Collins wrote some of the first-ever detective novels, and I have high hopes for his Victorian revenge novel starring wronged women making tough moral choices. It was considered immoral in its time - but then again, so was holding hands before marriage.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
This is the account of Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole, as told by one of only three men who survived the journey. (The perfect companion to Francis Spufford's I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination.) Cherry-Garrard uses excerpts from his diary to puzzle out the reasons for the failure and joins the search party to recover his companions' bodies.

The Superfluous Man

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pechorin is the kind of bastard you can't help but have a crush on. These five short stories provide a glimpse into the character of the "Superfluous Man", a kind of bored, over-educated and privileged dilettante (shades of Dorian Gray) who had nothing to do but torment others.

Her Last Book

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Andrew's grandfather leaves him a house, he also inherits other, unexpected responsibilities: querulous servants, a magical territory, and the care of Aiden, a young boy who shows up one day in desperate need of protection.

For fans of Chrestomanci and Howl, Andrew is a magician professor with as much on his plate as either of the other magicians Wynne Jones writes about. And what kid wouldn't want a dog like Rolf or a friend like Groil?

I have always enjoyed Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy stories, and this book is no exception. Funny and charming, the characters are uniquely likable creations, prickly in all the right ways. The ending felt unexpectedly rushed, and I feel sure that if the author had lived longer, she would have written a sequel.

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As a boy in Minnesota in 1977 and a girl in New Jersey in 1917 both search for a place to belong, their quests take them on parallel paths to New York City.

Ben's story is told in words, while Rose's story is conveyed through beautiful pencil drawings. The drawings are the strongest part of the story, the written sections are only so-so. The parallel plots felt contrived because of the reliance on dreams and coincidence.

That said, there are interesting references to the American Museum of Natural History, cabinets of wonder, and American Deaf culture - plus a great bibliography and the author's story at the end. Unfortunately, Wonderstruck just doesn't hold up to its promising style and subject.

Fans of E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will find hidden references in the text! And of course, fans of Selznick's style should most definitely check out The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was made into the movie Hugo by Martin Scorsese.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Embassytown by China Miéville
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Avice Benner Cho is a human from Embassytown, a frontier outpost inhabited by Ariekei, whose singular Language can only be spoken by genetically modified Ambassadors. When a new Ambassador is sent to the Ariekei, his attempts to speak the perplexing Language results in devastating consequences for the entire planet.

This book takes about half of its length to warm up, but once the groundwork for the complex universe has been laid out the plot zips to its tense conclusion.

A basic knowledge of the language theory of sign/signifiers may be helpful to understanding the plot - but then again, maybe not. The alien Language, looked at too closely, is completely impossible but must be accepted at face value for the machinery of the plot to turn. There are plenty of puns and linguistic quirks (Avice's initials are ABC, after all), which is fun. I especially liked the way Language is written (like fractions, since it must be spoken by two mouths simultaneously), the naming convention for the Ambassadors (CalVin is an Ambassador made up of two perfectly identical people: Cal and Vin), and the idea of "biorigging"(basically all Ariekei tech are living machines).

There are plot points that don't quite pay off - Avice's friendship with a mysterious autom (a computer intelligence), and her odd relationship with her husband seem half-baked. Characters don't drive this science fiction story: ideas do, and the mystery of how the new Ambassadors could possibly eff up an entire species just by speaking their own language to them. The Ariekei are appropriately alien (I imagined them as giant praying mantises), but - like most of the characters - difficult to empathize with.

If you're into big-concept science fiction and don't mind struggling with disorientation as you try to figure out the rules, I think the ideas are interesting enough to carry you through. There is real horror and dread as Embassytown falls apart in the last half, and Avice's sense of the world ending is not an understatement.


(SPOILER)

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

East by Edith Pattou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a white bear offers to help her family if she will come away with him, Rose finds herself traveling farther than she ever expected to go - all the way to a cold place east of the sun and west of the moon.

This is a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." Rose's journey to the enchanted castle and then to the frozen north retains the fairy-tale simplicity and strangeness of the original while being grounded in the real world of 16th-century Norway. I love polar journeys, and Rose's travels in Gronland with the Inuit woman Malmo was my favorite part (and a scaled-down version of the journey in the science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin).

There are plenty of YA fairy tale retellings to choose from, and authors like Donna Jo Napoli and Marissa Meyer are easy to find and will satisfy anyone seeking readalikes for East.

I would also encourage anyone who enjoys the folk tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" to check out one of C.S. Lewis's less-known works, Till We Have Faces, which is a beautiful, moving retelling of Psyche and Cupid.

The Penderwicks

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The four Penderwick sisters descend on the estate of Arundel for their summer vacation and find friendship and adventure around every hedge.

The sisters are each distinct and lovable; although they sometimes squabble their bond is unbreakable. They easily welcome Jeffrey Tifton, the lonely son of the estate's owner, into their group--though the same cannot be said for Mrs. Tifton, Jeffrey's snobbish and distant mother, who seems intent on ruining everyone's fun.

For fans of light-hearted family adventures or nostalgic summer vacation tales like Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome or Joan Aiken's Armitage family stories (collected in The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories).

The Love They Sought

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At the Midnight Bell, a quiet struggle embroils the hearts of three people: Ella the barmaid loves Bob the waiter, and Bob is hopelessly in love with Jenny--a prostitute with worries of her own.

This is a trilogy comprised of three novellas: The Midnight Bell (Bob's story), The Siege of Pleasure (Jenny's story), and The Plains of Cement (Ella's story) as these three unfortunates struggle against their fate in the backdrop of 1930s London. Hamilton has a gift for characterization, and each of the three vertices of the failed love triangle display his virtuosity at getting into the heart of each character.

Hamilton's side characters are something to behold: the denizens of the bar where Bob works, the two spinsters who employ Jenny, and Ella's pushy suitor feel like people Dickens might have written about, and the humor they bring relieves some of the bleakness of the main stories. His writing is gorgeous, witty, and sympathetic to these anguished souls.

Summaries:

March: Books Bought, Books Read

Continuing my Hornby "Stuff I've Read" emulation, I'm keeping a list of all the books I read in a month, and the ones in progress, as well as the ones I purchased. Considering how long it's gotten, it may be a better idea to break it up by week when it's this busy!

Books Bought in March

From the UW Bookstore's Spring Sale:
Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker - I love books about language, reading, and writing.
Mantissa by John Fowles - Ever since The French Lieutenant's Woman I've been meaning to read everything he ever wrote.
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - Never heard of it, but it's the story of a woman trying to solve a murder in the Northern Territories during the dead of winter - in 1867. Yep, it's hitting all the right buttons.
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry - Magical realism, and I'm there! I still haven't found anyone to compare to Borges, Garcia Marquez, or Calvino, but I keep trying.
Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature by John Mullan - History of literature, check. Jane Austen first published anonymously, and there were conjectures about her sex when her books were reviewed.
About A Boy by Nick Hornby - I liked the movie, I liked Hornby's essays, so I'm going to try his fiction.
The Del Ray Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy ed. Ellen Datlow - Short stories and science fiction - I grew up on Golden Age scifi short stories, and I keep looking to reclaim those reading experiences.
Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda - Another history of literature. I sense a theme.
The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun by Lisa Jardine - A slim book that promises an intriguing take on history.
That Mad Ache by Francoise Sagan (trans. Douglas Hofstadter) / Translator, Trader by Douglas Hofstadter (a two-in one book, with half being the story translated from French, and the other half the story of the translation)

Nook Books:
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy - One of my all-time favorite films, so I decided I might love the book. Noir is awesome.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones - I love Wynne Jones, who is unparelleled at creating unusual fantasy worlds, with tricky rules that move the story in unexpected yet satisfying ways. I've heard this is a good one.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons - I've read it before, and it's stuck with me. Time to read it again.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - I gave away my last copy, but now I need to prepare for the MOVIE version, with Harrison Ford as Graff, who now officially has a monopoly on awesome adventure/scifi roles!
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - The first of a science fiction trilogy about the colonization of Mars that sounds amazing.
Trouble in Texas by Katie Lane - Why yes, that is a shirtless cowboy on the front! Romance is a bad habit to get into.
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Neverfall by Brodi Ashton
Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor
The Essential Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill (Golgatha Press) - Reading The Wordy Shipmates got me interested in reading Churchill's histories, and this was a cheap collection at B&N.
Dunkirk: A Retreat to Victory by Julian Thompson - Another Vowell book that I purchased for its cheapness and my sudden interest in reading about Dunkirk.
Larklight by Philip Reeve - Steampunk space travel? Okay, you've got me.

And since I have NO self-control, from the indie used bookstore Magus Books:
The Box by Richard Matheson - remember the movie? There's a short story it's based on (by the guy who wrote I Am Legend, which is scifi/horror) - and for me short stories aren't that interesting unless they're science fiction.
The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J. Cherryh - I've been searching for a cheap edition of Downbelow Station for a while now, to get into Cherryh's voluminous oeuvre, but no luck. It's not even digital! Shocking - you would think that all science fiction books would automatically converted to digital, just by virtue of their genre. Silliness aside, this trilogy will have to do as my intro to her work. It's about a dying race of aliens searching for their homeworld after human beings (! but yeah, sounds like us) have nearly wiped them out.
On Basilisk Station by David Weber - the first of the Honor Harrington series, which I hope I like since it features a strong female protagonist
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - In case I need some literary fiction at the end of the day.
Midshipman Bolitho by Alexander Kent - I picked this up hoping it will be like Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series, which I love.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - so cheap! And steampunk! I couldn't resist, and the woman who rang me up told me she loved the trilogy.
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia by Janet Wallach - A bio of a strong woman? Yes please!

Books Read in March (reviews at links):
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See ed. Bill Shapiro
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

Three Free Books

Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments by Edmund Gosse (1907)
This is one of the books Nick Hornby writes about in The Polysyllabic Spree. This book is the story of Gosse's relationship with his marine biologist father, who was also a member of the Plymouth Brethren. Hornby writes that his "fierce, joyless evangelism crippled his son's childhood." Why am I so interested? I read Claire Tomalin's lovely biography of Jane Austen on Hornby's recommendation, and I hope he won't steer me wrong this time!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)
I read Gaskell in college, and recently watched a BBC adaptation that reminded me how romantic this book is. I recently did a booktalk on this novel, and the best way to describe Gaskell is this: she is Jane Austen with a social conscience, like Charles Dickens without the rambling. Plot: A genteel country woman is uprooted to a grimy industrial town, completely alien to everything she knows and loves. Her ideals of what it means to be a good neighbor clash with the ideals of a local factory owner, Mr. Thornton, a self-made man who is her equal intellectually but not socially. If you love Austen, the Brontës, and Dickens--or pretty much any great Victorian author--do yourself a favor and try Gaskell.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird (1879)
Isabella L. Bird was a well-known Victorian travel writer, and this book is probably the best-known of her works. I came across a description of this particular book in Barbara Hodgson's No Place for a Lady, a book about fearless female travelers. Bird was a woman who couldn't stay at home, and so of course I put this on my list!

Botanical Beasts

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An alphabetical compendium of destructive, painful, irritating, offensive, illegal, intoxicating, dangerous, and deadly plants. They sting, poison, explode, and invade - and some of them are in your own home.

A fun read that gives me even more reasons (besides laziness) to never go outside or take up gardening. There are some great anecdotes here about ordeal poisons, suicide trees, trees that create zombie ants to spread their seeds, and of course the villain that took the life of Lincoln's mother - by poisoning the family's milk. Even a few friendlier plants can be toxic in the right circumstances - a few are phototoxic: "using sap that burns the skin when exposed to light" or making you more susceptible to sunburn after you eat them (limes! celery! mokihana, used to make leis!).

Read this all at once or a little bit at a time, if you're timid. My only complaint is the lack of an index, though there is an alphabetical table of contents, a good bibliography, and a list of poison gardens where you can visit to see many of the plants mentioned in the book.

Amy Stewart has also written Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Wicked Bugs, which sounds even more skin-crawly than this book!

Fairy Dust

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When Prilla arrives in Neverland, it is clear she is different from the other fairies - she doesn't know what her special talent is. But when a terrible storm injures Mother Dove and puts the ageless residents of Neverland in danger, Prilla is called upon to perform extraordinary acts of courage.

This adventure story, written by Gail Carson Levine, hits all the familiar Neverland beats - Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Hook, and the mermaids - while adding a few others - a wicked dragon, Mother Dove and her one precious egg, and the idea that each fairy comes into the world with a special purpose that she loves to do above anything else (and yes, there are male fairies - but they are known as Sparrowmen).

Great for young children who love Disney's Tinker Bell movie and its sequels and want to hear more about Neverland's fairies.

Seraphina

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dragons and humans have maintained a fragile peace for years, but the murder of a human prince and the arrival of a dragon ambassador threatens everything--and court musician Seraphina, desperate to protect her own secrets, is caught in the middle.

Hartman's vivid writing evokes the strange beauty of Seraphina's medieval world, where dragons take human shape and live among the fearful and distrusting human population.The characters (draconian and homo sapien) feel like real people, and Seraphina herself is every bit as smart and courageous as a heroine should be. I found the main love story aspect truly romantic because I admired both of the characters and liked their chemistry.

Hartman breathes new life into the medieval/dragon fantasy tales: this is not your typical dragon story. Language lovers should definitely read Seraphina, and might also try Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series as well as Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels.

We Return to Fairyland

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

September stumbles back into Fairyland again only to find that her own lost shadow, who is now Queen of the Underworld, is draining Fairyland of its magic.

September is a year older and wiser, but even her familiarity with the laws of Fairyland can't quite protect her in the Underworld full of runaway shadows. Her traveling companions this time around are at once familiar and untrustworthy, and the Queen's new servant the Alleyman has the Underworld's denizens shivering with fear. (Though personally I found the Onion Man more sinister.)

Valente plays with the traditional rules of magic (my favorite was her EKT field: Everyone Knows That), though some of the speeches when September visits a Questing Physickist might be above the heads of younger readers.

The Physickist tells September and her new friend the Night-Dodo: "A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world." All the intricate charm of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is back, making our second trip through this particular door as vivid and weird as the first.

Enter the Underworld

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie is powerless, the people she loves most are missing - and at Hex Hall someone is raising a demon army that will destroy the world. To stop them, Sophie may have to enter Hell itself.

The thrilling finale to the Hex Hall series! I enjoyed this trilogy, which got darker and darker with each book. Sophie is a smart and capable heroine, quippy and loyal. The return of a character I wanted more of from Hex Hall was satisfying, and the ending is bittersweet but most of the plot threads are neatly resolved.

My only wish is that the island of Hex Hall was more appealing (though it is an unfair comparison, the gold standards of fantasy settings are Gormenghast and Hogwarts Castle). I wanted to see more of the world of the Prodigium, but the breakneck plot only allows for occasional glimpses into the concealed world of witches, shapeshifters, faeries, and vampires.

As an aside, while I love seeing Lord Byron resurrected as a vampire, I think that any vampire in his or her right mind would really have turned Oscar Wilde. We've seen vampire Elvis, natch (Bubba from Dead Until Dark). Why no Wilde? The man was known for wearing green velvet capes! "Creature of the night" would have been a perfect fit on him. (Also, why is there a black cat in every U.S. cover of this book? There isn't a single familiar - unless you count slobbery werewolves - in any of the three books. I suppose a black cat symbolizes witches, but still. It's a stretch.)

There is a spin-off series that starts with School Spirits and follows one of the Brannick monster-hunters (I suspect that the unresolved plot points from Spell Bound show up there). Other series with some of the boarding-school spirit and strong female characters are Mind Games by Kiersten White and Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.

UPDATE: "A Boot Stamping on a Human Face"

Considering the disturbing threats coming out of North Korea lately, I though that this incredible TED Talk by North Korean refugee Hyeonseo Lee is especially timely and moving:

Her account accords perfectly with the story told in Demick's book, which I reviewed last month.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A journalist recounts the stories of defectors from North Korea in an attempt to understand what is happening in one of the most oppressive and regressive societies in the world.

The North Korean government stifles every aspect of its people's lives and the result is famine, death, and distrust between neighbors and family members. The Worker's Party rules over every human interaction with a brutal regime of brain-washing (I use the term intentionally), intimidation, and absurd demands that citizens demonstrate unconditional love for their dynasty of Dear Leaders and the communist ideals they claim to uphold. Going into North Korea is like traveling back in time, observers say.

In spite of this, people find a way to survive and connect with each other, and though it seems cliched the stories are a testament to the resilience of human beings. My favorite story--one with a bittersweet ending--is of two young lovers who secretly meet in nights made dark by constant power outages; who send letters through the tortuous mail system; who sneak train rides without travel permits to see each other for a few short hours.

Demick makes it clear that leaving North Korea is not necessarily the happy ending we might take it for. Defectors find that in spite of the wealth and plenty of South Korea, life is still a struggle as they learn to adapt and overcome the damage done to them by their totalitarian homeland. Many still have family members left behind in North Korea, and the grief of separation is difficult to imagine.

More than anything, Demick's final description of North Korea reminds me of the famous quote from 1984: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." How long will forever be, in this case? And if eventually the North Korea government does fall (as it has been predicted to for the past twenty years), how will a country as deeply impoverished as North Korea ever catch up to the rest of the world, even with the aid of their neighbors?

Demick leaves us with these questions, but I believe that the answers lie in the survival stories of the defectors she interviews: the strong family ties, willingness to work hard, and the ability to adapt to difficult circumstances will be the greatest assets North Koreans have once they are allowed to make their long march back into the present.

Update:

Demick's book ends before the death of Kim Jong Il and the rise of his son Kim Jong Un. Here is a recent article she wrote for the Los Angeles Times, detailing the continued insanity of this brutal dynasty.

Raising Demons

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To convince Sophie against her decision to have her powers Removed, her absentee demon father shows up and whisks her off to the Council's headquarters in England. There are unnerving developments there - deadly encounters, an unexpected fiance, and the reappearance of her old crush, Archer, who is still working for the very people who want Sophie dead.

Sophie is still reeling from the events of Hex Hall, which have upset her deeply enough to throw off her ability to control her magic. This sequel takes us out of Hecate Hall and into a gigantic mansion in England. I appreciated the portrayal of the difficult relationship between Sophie and her father - though it is obvious that they love each other, they both must learn to trust each other's judgment and talents. The third vertex of the love triangle finally shows up, too! The triangle remains lopsided, possibly because of its late introduction: even though the warlock Archer has now been revealed to work for The Eye, the new potential flame felt like a weak third (and not a real threat to the main love story).

There is more action than ever, and Sophie gets a chance to stretch her powers and exercise her habitual snark, which is fun and lightens this much-darker book. The cliffhanger ending will have you reaching for the third in the series, Spell Bound, right away.