The Awakened Mage

The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

With his entire family dead, magic-less Prince Gar must assume his role as weather worker of Lur, unaware of the coming storm and the man destined to stop it: his best friend, the lowly fisherman Asher.

Three words from this fan of epic fantasy: too damn slow. The mourning for the dead king, queen, and bratty Princess Fayne takes up a full third of the story, contraposed with the evil magician Morg's struggle for life inside of a broken body.

More interestingly, there is also a growing romance between Asher and Daphne, all the while the secret of the prophecy standing between them. And Asher and Gar continue to seal their fate together, taking steps that progressively lead to the breach of the kingdom's number one rule: Olken don't do magic.

When Asher at last learns of his destiny as the Innocent Mage, he is annoyingly pouty about it. It's that whole "You lied (for good reason) and now our love means nothing!" cliche that I hope never to see again. It's too bad to see an interesting main character blank out at the eleventh hour, which may be why he is given so little time to step up as the Awakened Mage.

This is the conclusion of two books that might have been better served as one, with some judicious pruning. Perhaps it simply isn't my cup of tea, since it's a character-focused fantasy that is light on the action and world-building. We do get to understand more of Doranen history, and more about the Wall, but the system of magic is pretty bland and unoriginal (especially compared to recent books like Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy). The story of Barl and Morg seems more interesting than the aftermath of their doomed love, and is told in the prequel A Blight of Mages.

There are plenty of books out there with hooded mages on the front, but let me help you cut through the fantasy dross to get to the best: try Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind and (a series that admittedly needs no recommendation), A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.

The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the final days of World War II, the 'Monuments Men' scoured Europe to preserve the most important art and buildings in Europe - priceless masterworks Hitler ordered destroyed if the Reich fell.

The Monuments Men were a group of art experts assigned the chaotic task of assessing buildings and art pieces for damage in the wake of two armies battling through historic cities. Doing their best with no backup, no special rank, and no transportation, the Monuments Men acted to preserve the great works of art the Germans had been looting in occupied territories.

Heartbreaking destruction, of not only human lives but also the history of Europe, followed the clash of Axis and Allies. Hitler and his cronies embarked on an unimaginably complex and widespread scheme to despoil the riches of the occupied territories. The Nazis burned modern art by Picasso, stole from Jewish families, and absconded with anything thought to reflect German heritage. War usually entails looting, but the scale of this plot is breathtaking.

The more I learn about Hitler, the more he seems like a maniac straight out of Saturday morning cartoons. He coveted great works of art, was endlessly embittered by the Treaty of Versailles, believed in grand symbolic gestures, planned on enslaving eastern Europe and playing in the rest, tried to exterminate entire classes of people, and named his new government the Thousand-Year Reich. He did everything short of strapping on a cape and cackling "I have you now!" to Superman.

The list of art the Nazis stole included Michelangelo's "Bruges Madonna", the massive and massively important Ghent Altarpiece, Vermeer's "The Astronomer", Rembrandt's enormous oil painting "The Night Watch", and the Bayeux Tapestry - plus thousands of other works of art, pieces of jewelry, statues, porcelain, furniture, and gold. These valuables were hidden in salt mines and other unlikely places throughout Germany, including the famous mine in Altaussee.

Against this seemingly unstoppable machine of destruction and theft stood the few lone Monuments Men, determined to restore order and put the art world to right again. It was a race against time, especially given the fact that many of his stooges interpreted Hitler's infamous Nero Decree to extend to the stolen art he had amassed for his dream of a Führermuseum in Linz, Austria.

Interspersed with tales of Monuments Men exploits are letters they sent to loved ones and colleagues (all a cut above the average soldier's letter), charting the excitement and then the increasing jadedness of the Monuments Men as they struggled to do their jobs single-handedly on the frontlines of a horrific war.

Edsel also tells the tale of the remarkable Frenchwoman Rose Valland, whose ferocious determination and subtle spycraft ensured that the patrimony of France did not simply disappear into the night. She is the only female member of the Monuments Men (and not an official one), and without her tireless efforts the impact of the war would have been even more devastating to the art community than it proved to be.

In fact, the aftermath of World War II is still with us, in lost lives and destroyed artworks. As proof, I offer two recent articles about hoards discovered more than 70 years later. This story is so vast it almost seems unbelievable. The book begins slowly, but soon picks up, with the author's passion for his subject showing through on every page. (He points out, rightly, that we could have used a Monuments unit in Baghdad after the 2003 invasion.) Essential reading for anyone interested in art and war.

There are a few other books on the topic of art theft, including The Rape of Europa by Lynn H. Nicholas, also about WWII, and Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World by Sharon Waxman that shows just how tricky the provenance of art objects can be. Finally, Stealing the Mystic Lamb by Noah Charney illuminates one of the works most mentioned in The Monuments Men: the peerless Ghent altarpiece by Jan van Eyck.

Quotable:

"Hitler knew it was impossible to steal renowned masterpieces [...] without drawing the condemnation of the world. While he had the conqueror's mentality - he believed he was entitled to the spoils of war, and he was determined to have them - Hitler and the Nazis had gone to great lengths to establish new laws and procedures to 'legalize' the looting activities that would follow. This included forcing the conquered countries to give him certain works as a term of their surrender." - 150

"The Germans had used the [Dampierre] library's renowned Bossuet letters for toilet paper, but after they left, the caretaker found the letters in the woods, cleaned them off, and returned them to the library. Now that was dedication. That was service!" - 202

"Just seeing the warehouses the Nazis had filled with 'confiscated' items brought home to him the size and complexity of their looting operation. This wasn't accidental damage or angry retaliation, but an enormous web of deliberate deceit that stretched all over Paris and down all the roads back to the Fatherland and all the way to Hitler's office in Berlin." - 239

"To save the culture of your allies is a small thing. To cherish the culture of your enemy, to risk your life and the life of other men to save it, to give it all back to them as soon as the battle was won...it was unheard of, but that is exactly what Walker Hancock and the other Monuments Men intended to do." - 321

"No age lives entirely alone; every civilisation is formed not merely by its own achievements but by what it has inherited from the past. If these things are destroyed, we have lost a part of our past, and we shall be the poorer for it." - British Monuments Man Ronald Balfour (qtd. on page 465)

The Hoarder in You

The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life by Robin Zasio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dr. Robin Zasio, known for her work on A&E's Hoarders, reveals the keys to uncluttering your mind and life, exposing the truth about anxiety, compulsion, and hoarding tendencies.

This is a self-help book, so expect plenty of helpful lists, mantras, and words of encouragement. Zasio is very compassionate toward people struggling with this disorder, but firmly believes it can be conquered.

She discusses issues from degrees of clutter to the emotional cost of clutter in relationships, collecting verses stockpiling, and the key to defeating our acquisitive impulses; illustrating with fascinating stories from her patients' lives.

There are many great books out about this topic. Dr. Zasio mentions another researcher by name often, so definitely check out his book: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. Sam Gosling's book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You isn't about hoarding per se, but it is about the meaning of the objects we surround ourselves with. You may never look at your bedroom the same way again. Finally, another A&E alum, Matt Paxton, has a book out called The Secret Lives of Hoarders.

Quotable:

"In our consumerist society, even minimalists have countless catalogs from which to order streamlined accessories to decorate their spare spaces, and of course own far more than they need to survive." - 19

"While non-hoarders do not typically put their loved ones in danger by creating fire hazards or unsanitary conditions, living with someone whose mind is cluttered in part because their life is cluttered can be exasperating." - 58

"Out of habit, some people save bits and pieces from most every experience, not just the meaningful ones, and still others equate holding on to an item with holding on to a memory or a feeling - it's as if they didn't have the experience unless they keep the item. It's easy to see how your space can get so filled with stuff from your past that it's hard to live in the present." - 85

"A home doesn't become hoarded overnight: the process is gradual, and thousands of small decisions and in decisions about what to keep ultimately lead to a home so filled with stuff that it can become hazardous to one's health." - 141

The Innocent Mage

The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When fisherman Asher escapes to the big city to make his fortune, the brash young man little suspects that he is destined to be the center of earth-shattering events that may destroy his homeland.

Asher leaves home hoping to make a better life for himself, and on his first day in the city he seems to have succeeded with startling dumb luck: he is soon employed by Prince Gar, son of the Doranen king of Lur. Asher isn't one you'd peg as a champion; he's outspoken, rough-mannered, and highly opinionated. He's also completely unaware of the plans others have for him from the moment he sets foot in the capitol city.

Prince Gar lacks the magical gift of the Doranen race and is regarded as a cripple by his people. His powerful younger sister, Princess Fayne, is the next heir to the throne because she has the ability to work the weather magic the kingdom relies upon. The weather magic has kept Lur safe from external threats for centuries, feeding a huge wall that blocks off the former Doranen homeland. Shunted aside, Gar is placed in charge of the concerns of the Olken people, magic-less natives of Lur who have been ruled by Doranen for centuries.

Gar and Asher soon become friends in spite of differences of background and temperament. But there is a cloud on the horizon that neither is aware of: a prophecy of end times is coming true, and both Gar and Asher are destined to play a part.

A group of Olken conspirators, scheming to to preserve their unique, hidden brand of magic and prepare for the coming of the prophesied 'Innocent Mage' (who is apparently Asher), merely lurks, seemingly without a real plan. Only their goal is clear: help the Innocent Mage, and manipulate him if necessary, to save Lur.

The Innocent Mage feels like a long ramping-up to the real story. Since neither of the two main characters are magic-users (there is a powerful - though seemingly nonsensical - taboo against Olken use of Doranen magic, backed by the death penalty), the magic of the Wall and the shadowy threat beyond remain well in the background. We instead get a slow introduction to the various characters as they get to know each other and bicker.

Anyone expecting a Game of Thrones-like intensity and complexity won't find it here, though I think Asher is an amusing and compelling character - even if the supporting cast and setting don't quite measure up in terms of inventiveness. Fortunately for completists who don't have time to wait for yet another fantasy series to finish (looking at you, George R. R. Martin), this is part of a completed duology and concludes with The Awakened Mage. (There is also a prequel that tells the story of Barl and Morgan: A Blight of Mages.)

For other epic fantasy stories, try Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind or Brandon Sanderson's excellent Mistborn series.

Carnivores

Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When misunderstood predators lacking self-confidence meet weekly, strange things are sure to happen.

If your kids thought Bruce the Shark was screamingly funny in Finding Nemo, then Carnivores is a bedtime story for them. It has the same wicked sense of humor, and can go right next to This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (if you haven't seen its book trailer, do yourself a favor).

Kids who start here will be reading Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket in no time. Mark my words.

Heeere's Brucie!

Fortunately, the Milk

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Going out for milk turns into an adventure of epic proportions for one boy's father.

So much depends on a white bottle of milk. At least, that's according to our young narrator's tale-spinning father, who goes out for cereal milk and returns with a wild story of hot air balloons piloted by a time-traveling stegosaurus, pirates, aliens, volcanoes, and one very important breakfast condiment.

The illustrations, provided by Skottie Young, are as wild and manic as this tall tale. It's one kids will enjoy and parents won't mind reading, with all the calculated silliness and fun of classic stories like Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan.

For more tall tales, check out American Tall Tales by by Mary Pope Osborne and Michael McCurdy (illustrated by Michael McCurdy), or this list from Goodreads.

The Hidden Gallery

The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

On a visit to London, the mystery surrounding the wolf-children of Ashton Place deepens when their young governess, Penelope Lumley, receives warnings of danger at every turn.

Things have barely settled down after the disastrous Christmas party when renovations at Ashton Place make a visit to London highly desirable. The three wolfish Incorrigible children are thrilled to be in a new place, but their governess worries about how their squirrel-chasing and growling tendencies will play in a big city.

It's the least of her worries, as it turns out. Miss Lumley must cope with her Hixby's Guide, the most uniquely worthless guidebook to London ever written, invitations to tea, the troubles of the querulous Lady Ashton, a chance meeting with a handsome stranger, postcards to squirrels, and eerie warnings from fortune-tellers. Her excellent upbringing at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females serves Miss Lumley well as she learns to navigate a crowded and unpredictable city.

This sequel to The Mysterious Howling has the same attractions and flaws as its predecessor: too many mysteries, not enough solutions. Miss Lumley remains charmingly eccentric, but there is a lack of a cohesive story here in this overly serialized book. Perhaps the sequel, The Unseen Guest, will hold more answers?

If you want a somewhat more satisfying series for middle readers, I definitely recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. You might also try The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall.

Men at Arms

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A strange new plot is afoot in Ankh-Morpork's Assassin's Guild: one that threatens to draw the Watch and Captain Sam Vimes - on the eve of his retirement - into the path of a deadly new weapon.

Captain Samuel Vimes is soon to marry his dragon-loving aristocratic fiancée and give up his life as a beat cop. As Sam struggles with his impending wealth and union with blue-bloods, Sergeant Colon and Nobby Nobbs are in charge of training a diverse pool of Night Watch recruits: there is Detritus, a huge troll with a deadly salute, Cuddy, a dwarf with a grudge against trolls, and Angua, who is a shapely w - well, that would be telling.

The clear choice for Vimes' replacement is Corporal Carrot, a supernaturally likeable, huge and naïvely competent man raised by dwarfs. (I imagine him as a sort of ultra-charismatic Gary Cooper.) He becomes the lightning rod for an insane Assassin's plot to restore the monarchy.

Ankh-Morpork, the city with water dirty enough to walk across, is a character in its own right and a setting worth discussing. It barely manages its bubbling ethnic tensions without bloodshed. It is ruled by the cold-blooded Lord Vetinari, and contains Leonard da Quirm, the "most dangerous man in the world". It also can boast Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (the most dangerous purveyor of sausages in the world), guilds of (ahem) seamstresses, clowns, and thieves; plus various nonhuman citizens including zombies, vampires, trolls, and keenly intelligent dogs. Oh, and Death is sure to make an appearance in a city this riotous.

It's not strictly necessary to read the previous Watch novel, Guards! Guards!, though I certainly recommend it. Another of the best Discworld novels is Night Watch, also about Sam Vimes (one of my all-time favorite Discworld characters).

But if you love smarter-than-average fantasy with a razor-sharp sense of humor, you've probably read most of Pratchett already. Might I also recommend Neil Gaiman?

Quotable:
"It was hard not to notice Carrot in a room. There were bigger people than him in the city. He didn't loom. He just seemed, without trying, to distort things around him. Everything became background to Corporal Carrot." - 99

"The river Ankh is probably the only river in the universe on which the investigators can chalk the outline of the corpse." - 109

"Cuddy had only been a guard for a few days, but already he had absorbed one important and basic fact: it is almost impossible for anyone to be in a street without breaking the law. There are a whole quiverful of offenses available to a policemen who wishes to pass the time of day with a citizen, ranging from Loitering with Intent through Obstruction to Lingering While Being the Wrong Color/Shape/Species/Sex." - 148

The Radicalism of the American Revolution

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood takes a nuanced look at pre-revolutionary shifts in American culture, family structure, politics, religion, education, and economics. It's a complex re-envisioning that only occasionally looks at the lives of individuals - Wood does not subscribe to the great man theory of history, but is interested in the larger context. He asks, why did the American revolution happen? Americans were generally prosperous, free, and barely aware of the far-away king in England:

"By the late 1760s and early 1770s a potentially revolutionary situation existed in many of the colonies. There was little evidence of those social conditions we often associate with revolution (and some historians have desperately sought to find): no mass poverty, no seething social discontent, no grinding oppression. [...] there was a great deal of jealousy and touchiness everywhere, for what could be made could be unmade; the people were acutely nervous about their prosperity and the liberty that seemed to make it possible."

Something was different about the American Revolution, and it's fascinating to see Wood draw his conclusions from the broad sweeps of the history of ideology and economics. I found the chapter on "Patriarchal Dependence" especially fascinating for its look into the harsh and widespread system of slavery and indentured servitude. The only truly independent people were "large portions of white male society", but everyone was aware of the dark side of dependence on another's will: they experienced it in daily life, after all. The seed for universal suffrage was planted, though it would take centuries to mature.

Our current assumptions about human nature and human relationships stand out in clear contrast to the beliefs of the founders - the America of the Revolution really was another world. Their reshaping of the social fabric, reimagining the ties that held people together, led to the America of today in ways that the founders never would have predicted (and even would have hated), but to us seem inexorable. The bonds of noblesse oblige and gratitude were neatly severed, imperfectly replaced by religion, trade, and mutual self-interest.

This isn't a book I'd recommend for a casual reader, or to those who like more traditional narrative histories like David McCullough's 1776. Fans of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States may enjoy Wood's insightful new take on a familiar era. Revolutionary War-era buffs or policy wonks looking for an unusual history with a commanding sense of an era's subtle movements will find their perfect match here.

Quotable (all emphasis mine):
"Because monarchy had these implications of humiliation and dependency, the Anglo-American colonists could never be good monarchical subjects. But of course neither could their fellow Englishmen 'at home' three thousand miles across the Atlantic. All Englishmen in the eighteenth century were known throughout the Western world for their insubordination, their insolence, their stubborn unwillingness to be governed."

"Monarchy presumed what Hume called a 'long train of dependence,' a gradation of degrees of freedom and servility that linked everyone from the king at the top down to the bonded laborers and black slaves at the bottom. The inequalities of such a hierarchy were acceptable to people because they were offset by the great emotional satisfactions of living in a society in which everyone, even the lowliest servant, counted for something."

"People labored out of necessity, out of poverty, and that necessity and poverty bred the contempt in which laboring people had been held for centuries. Freedom was always valued because it was freedom from this necessity to labor. Most people, it was widely assumed, would not work if they did not have to. 'Everyone but an idiot,' said the English agricultural writer Arthur Young in a startling summary of the traditional view, 'knows that the lower class must be kept poor or they will never be industrious.'"

"The gentlemanly elites of the eighteenth century could condescend and be affable with their subordinates and inferiors because they often thought of themselves as parents dealing with children. Since most relationships in this hierarchical society were still very personal, they were also necessarily paternalistic."

"In the colonies servitude was a much harsher, more brutal, and more humiliating status than it was in England, and this difference had important implications for the colonists' consciousness of dependency. Colonial bonded servants in fact shared some of the chattel nature of black slaves."

"Many colonists, therefore, not only black slaves but white servants and young men and a variety of tenants and of course all women, knew firsthand what dependence meant. Dependence, said James Wilson in 1774, was 'very little else, but an obligation to conform to the will ... of that superior person ... upon which the inferior depends. People who were dependent could not be free; in fact, 'freedom and dependency' were 'opposite and irreconcilable terms.' Dependents were all those who had no wills of their own; thus like children they could have no political personalities and could rightfully be excluded from participation in public life. It was this reasoning that underlay the denial of the vote to women, servants, apprentices, short-term tenants, minors, and sons over twenty-one still living at home with their parents."

"No doubt the cost that America paid for this democracy was high - with its vulgarity, its materialism, its rootlessness, its anti-intellectualism. But there is no denying the wonder of it and the real earthly benefits it brought to the hitherto neglected and despised masses of common laboring people. The American Revolution created this democracy, and we are living with it still."

Books Read in December

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett - When Tiffany Aching goes to the mountains to learn the art of witchcraft, she is soon targeted by an immortal creature, one that not even the bold Nac Mac Feegles can fight for her.

The Reversal by Michael Connelly - Defense attorney Mickey Haller volunteers to act as Special Prosecuter against a man who claims to have been falsely imprisoned for the murder of a young girl - a man Haller and Bosch believe will kill again.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman - A young boy named Odd encounters a trio of strange animals and with their help strikes out on a mission to save the gods of Asgard from the Frost Giants.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - At the whim of a totalitarian government, teenager Katniss Everdeen must fight for her life in a brutal game where there can only be one victor - and the cost of losing is death.

Odd and the Frost Giants

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A young boy named Odd encounters a trio of strange animals and with their help strikes out on a mission to save the gods of Asgard from the Frost Giants.

Odd is as odd as his name, and everyone in his village knows it. After the death of his father during a voyage to raid the shores of Scotland, Odd suffers a terrible injury that leaves him even more outcast than before.

He runs away, and encounters three strange creatures: a fox, a bear, and a one-eyed eagle. With these companions he takes the Rainbow Road to Asgard to save not only the gods but also his own world from the threat of the Frost Giants and their eternal winter.

Odd is a bold, clever boy who carries no hint of self-pity for his circumstances. This story would be a great introduction to the Norse pantheon for kids who already love stories like the Brave Little Tailor or Jack and the Beanstalk. Gaiman captures that matter-of-fact narrative voice that characterizes fairy tales, while at the same time injecting the tale with modern morality.

I loved reading about the Norse gods as a kid: they seem to be the strangest and wildest set of immortals around. They lack the amorality of the Greek (and later Roman) Zeus and company, with a dark vein of tragedy running beneath each wintry tale. These, after all, are doomed gods who choose to fight against fate. And Loki is the most compelling of tricksters, always on his own side and sometimes cutting off his own nose to spite his face.

Plenty of takes on Norse mythology have been published in recent years. One I enjoyed was the YA novel Runemarks by Joanne Harris. I want to check out Mike Vasich's Loki (not YA) and The Coming of the Dragon by Rebecca Barnhouse (a loose YA retelling of the epic poem Beowulf). For those interested in a broader overview of the Norse myths, check out Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

The Reversal

The Reversal by Michael Connelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Defense attorney Mickey Haller volunteers to act as Special Prosecuter against a man who claims to have been falsely imprisoned for the murder of a young girl - a man Haller and Bosch believe will kill again.

This story blends Connelly's two popular series, the Harry Bosch (#16) and Mickey Haller (#3) stories. The Haller sections are told in the first person, the Bosch sections in third, and it is fun to see the half-brothers working on the same team for once.

While Bosch investigates the twenty-four-year-old murder, Haller and his ex-wife, prosecutor Maggie McPherson, start putting together their case. Haller is uneasy about representing the side of might for once, but he believes the bad guy is bad and will do more evil if he is released. There is considerable doubt that even the dream team of Mickey, Maggie, and Harry will be able to keep him in prison.

Both of the half-brothers are facing the challenges of fatherhood, which adds a charge to their efforts to keep a child-killer in prison. The procedural details are all there for those interested in the criminal justice system, the details of L.A. setting carefully outlined (a key setting is Mulholland Drive).

It's not the best of the Bosch stories: the purely functional prose often comes across as slack instead of muscular and Hemingway-esque. There is no neat resolution, which may leave some mystery/thriller readers uncomfortable. For me, Connelly's stories are the equivalent of watching an action movie on cable just to pass the time. Enjoyable and undemanding - also entirely forgettable, which may be perfect for your next plane or road trip.

Defending the Damned by Kevin Davis is a nonfiction account Connelly drew on for his characterization of the gray-tinged world of defense attorneys. For those who love legal thrillers, there is of course the juggernaut John Grisham to explore, and for action-packed, somewhat bleak detective stories, dip a toe into Ian Rankin or Lee Child.

A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Tiffany Aching goes to the mountains to learn the art of witchcraft, she is soon targeted by an immortal creature, one that not even the bold Nac Mac Feegles can fight for her.

This second Tiffany Aching book is probably my favorite. I love the story of the apprentice learning her craft, and discovering that there is more in the world than she ever imagined. Leaving behind her beloved Chalk, Tiffany finds that her new profession is less about flashy magic and more about caring for the old and lonely, making sure the goats are milked and no one is overlooked.

The witch community is introduced in the book. Miss Level, Tiffany's teacher, is a witch with a very unique talent. There are many other young witches, each with a different variety of magic: a sweet yng pig witch and a snooty spangle-wearer stand out.

In the Feegle mound, there is also a new kelda, Jeannie, who has suspicious views of Tiffany, which leaves the young witch vulnerable to the predations of an ancient creature called a hiver (who is one of Pratchett's most interesting creations).

In short, it's a stronger story than the first Aching book, and one that fans of this Discworld YA series will eagerly read. You might also pick up one of Neil Gaiman's YA novels: Coraline is my first favorite, but there is also The Graveyard Book. And to complete the trio of great authors, there is Diana Wynne Jones. (Definitely start with Howl's Moving Castle for the best introduction to her books.)

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This keenly observed series of essays encompasses tennis in Tornado Alley, television's effect on fiction, the films of David Lynch, the Illinois State Fair, and a superbly snide summary of a supposedly fun Caribbean cruise.

If you read nothing else in this collection, read the title essay to see David Foster Wallace (DFW) at his best. "A Supposedly Fun Thing" takes on the cruise industry with hilarious observation. DFW promptly rechristens his ship the Nadir, finds his liberal sensibilities tested by benefiting from the servitude of the cruise staff, wonders at the on-board entertainment, and makes witty and crushing observations about his fellow passengers in his trademark footnotes. He's erudite and clever, and it's easy to see how he earned his towering literary reputation.

In "Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All," DFW turns a supercilious eye toward the Illinois State Fair. His self-consciously acquired distance from his home state is punctured by the refreshing (and too-brief) presence of his foul-mouthed friend, whom he refers to only as Native Companion. His account of a dangerous baton-twirling competition is especially funny and worthwhile, and I think this is the second best of the lot.

"Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" does what the very best essays do - blend two seemingly disparate topics with panache. You can lose yourself in his virtuoso language, which effortlessly blends ten-dollar words with expletives for humorous effect.

The essay "David Lynch Keeps His Head", which documents the making of Lost Highway, is strongest when DFW steers clear of film criticism (his tastes tend to the obscure and overly arty) and simply details the oddities of a Hollywood movie set (I mostly enjoyed reading about DFW's disdain for actor Balthazar Getty, which seemed pettily personal but in keeping with DFW's writing persona).

I find DFW's East Coast hyper-referentialism and snark sometimes off-putting (the worst offender, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", also feels dated, penned before the cable boom enriched TV and started trends toward more serialized storytelling), but his pose of detachment and gift for ironic observation makes it worthwhile to wade through the pretentious bits. However, I rarely find his worldview as compelling or as deep as his prose.

DFW is at his most powerful when aiming his formidable vocabulary at people and places: his true talent is in describing and classifying people with the precision of an lepidopterist with a flock of butterflies. He is much less interesting when venturing into analyses of art or literature - it's easy to get lost in his school-of-criticism buzzwords and East Coast irony. For essay lovers who are already fans of Annie Dillard's peerless Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends, or Joyce Carol Oates' excellent anthology The Best American Essays of the Century, you shouldn't overlook David Foster Wallace.

So Quotable:

"I had gotten so prescient at using stats, surface, sun, gusts, and a kind of stoic cheer that I was regarded as a physical savant, a medicine boy of wind and heat, and could play just forever, sending back moonballs baroque with spin. Antitoi, uncomplicated from the get-go, hit the everliving shit out of every round object that came within his ambit, aiming always for one of two backcourt corners. He was a Slugger; I was a Slug." - "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley"

"They made no sense. Houses blew not out but in. Brothels were spared while orphanages next door bought it. Dead cattle were found three miles from their silage without a scratch on them. Tornadoes are omnipotent and obey no law. Force without law has no shape, only tendency and duration." - "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley"

"Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." - "E Unibus Pluram"

"Indifference is actually just the '90s' version of frugality for U.S. young people: wooed several gorgeous hours a day for nothing but our attention, we regard that attention as our chief commodity, our social capital, and we are loath to fritter it." - "E Unibus Pluram"

"I have seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled what suntan lotion smells likes spread over 21,000 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as 'Mon' in three different nations. I have watched 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide." - "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"

The Mysterious Howling

The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A young governess enters the mysterious Ashton Place to care for three children raised by wolves - can she tame their howling and squirrel-chasing ways?

Miss Penelope Lumley is only fifteen years old, but she has been well-trained to handle emergencies by an excellent upbringing at the Swanburne Home for Poor Bright Females. All her compassion and ingenuity will be called upon to deal with her new charges, siblings Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia Incorrigible.

The children have a habit of howling and various attitudes toward bathing, but a regime of squirrel desensitization and firm training is intended to prepare them for an all-important Christmas ball that may change their future. At the same time, their new governess is aware of strange undercurrents at Ashton place, especially involving the frequently absent Lord Frederick Ashton and his frivolous young wife Lady Constance.

There are plenty of mysteries left unanswered at the end of this humorous first in the series, which makes the sequels essential. The narrative voice is a less acidic version of Lemony Snicket's all-knowing narrator, with educational asides on vocabulary and the wise sayings of Miss Lumley's Swanburne mentor. A Series of Unfortunate Events books are a great next read, as well as The Wolves Chronicles of Joan Aiken.

Quotable:

"She had chosen Dante because she found the rhyme scheme pleasingly jaunty, but she realized too late that the Inferno's tale of sinner being cruelly punished in the afterlife was much too bloody and disturbing to be suitable for young minds. Penelope could tell this by the way the children hung on her every word and demanded 'More, more!' each time she reached the end of a canto and tried to stop." - 91

Beating Back the Devil

Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Center for Disease Control has been on the front lines fighting the effects of war, terrorism, and disease since 1946; this book recounts many of their most important cases.

Beating Back the Devil reads like a collection of true crime stories, rarely pausing to parse its technical terms or explain some of the statistical methods of epidemiologists, but galloping into the mystery of disease.

Tracking a small group of disease detectives in the Epidemic Intelligence Service's (EIS) class of 2002, the case histories range from the successful international efforts to eradicate smallpox, the spread of AIDS-related infections in minority drag queen communities, fighting cholera in Rwandan refugee camps, to tracking the post-9/11 anthrax letters.

There are surprising details here - for example, the U.S. government has a uniformed Commissioned Corps that has a military structure (to which the civilian doctors of the EIS struggle to conform).

My favorite chapter recounts the mystery of how West Nile virus contaminated donated organs, and it hints at the incredible amount of legwork required to come close to controlling an outbreak. There is also an interesting account of organizing a study of pregnant women in Malawi to fight malaria, and the story of efforts to prevent the spread of tuberculosis among the underground drag queens (whose extravagant balls are documented in the film Paris is Burning). The specter of AIDS looms large over many of the stories in the book, since AIDS victims' compromised immune systems are especially vulnerable to infection.

The chapter entitled "War" tells the surprising story of EIS efforts in refugee camps after the Rwandan genocide: CDC doctors made sure relief workers knew how to treat cholera patients and used their research skills to verify food distribution and make sure that women and children were not overlooked. The CDC doctors witnessed the continuation of horrors of genocide (many of the refugees were the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide), the children without parents, and the privations of an overcrowded refugee camp.

For those interested in the history of disease, be sure to check out Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy. There is also a free CDC Solve the Outbreak app for iPad that will teach you the basics of epidemiology, and the CDC Zombie outbreak guide, which is a light-hearted take on disaster preparedness. For more from the front lines of the CDC, check out Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC by Joseph B. McCormick.

Gods Like Us

Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame by Ty Burr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Charting the highs and lows of stardom from the silent idols to today's over-exposed pantheon of celebrities, film critic Ty Burr examines the cultural history of Hollywood fame.

As a longtime reader of Us Magazine along with other trashy entertainment news, one of my favorite pasttimes is learning the incredible history of celebrity. The scandals of today often pale in comparison with the hushed-up doings of the old studio stars like Clark Gable, Clara Bow, and Charlie Chaplin.

Celebrity studies (a fascinating new field that merges film/literary criticism with cultural history) examines the pleasure of watching beautiful and talented people enact fantasies that at once reflect and change our shared culture. Burr, a film critic for The Boston Globe, writes ably of the trends of Hollywood then and now. Even the most ardent buff will add unfamiliar titles to the list of films to see and find him or herself googling unfamiliar names to see the Julia Roberts and Harrison Fords of yesteryear.

If you read everything by academic Anne Helen Petersen (who writes classic celebrity biographies for The Hairpin as well as posting on her own blog, Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style, her Twitter account, and Facebook page), then you may recognize a few of Burr's anecdotes. His book is more than simple history, though: it's also criticism, and it's a pleasure to read Burr's insightful assessments and descriptions.

The stories are fantastic and sometimes unbelievable: for example, the casting of Scarlett O'Hara for the adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's blockbuster novel Gone With the Wind took a full two years and encompassed every star in Hollywood, even the ones that in retrospect make little sense: Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, and even a young Lucille Ball. Nationwide auditions were held, exciting a frenzy of speculation and amateur enthusiasm: one woman actually shipped herself into the producer's office in a crate to give him a surprise reading and bonus striptease. In the end, the most coveted role in Hollywood went to an unknown Englishwoman: Vivien Leigh (who at the time was quietly carrying on an adulterous affair with Laurence Olivier).

There are also anecdotes about an entire studio taking daily nooners; the way the studio system cold-bloodedly cultivated its stars (to the point of arranging a marriage for gay actor Rock Hudson); how silent film actors first discovered the crushing wheel of celebrity (Florence Lawrence's trajectory is familiarly tragic), and many memorable turns of phrase from Burr (John Wayne, he writes, emerges like a "Venus on the half-saddle").

Burr mentions stars of prestige and popularity, and various mixtures thereof. There are many eras to examine: the earliest silent films, the bumpy transition to talkies, the heyday of Old Hollywood glamor, the rise of the counterculture (embodied by Marlon Brando, arguably the best actor of all time), then TV, cable, VHS, MTV, indie films, the Internet, and dreaded "reality" television (ugh). Hollywood has always reflected the world around it: bloody wars, new technology, shifts in culture, and larger-than-life personalities show up in Tinseltown as in a funhouse mirror, history's players morphing in unexpected ways. It's fascinating for any student of contemporary culture or of American history.

Marlon Brando, acting god

For your next read, I definitely recommend picking up Anne Helen Petersen's book when it comes out: Scandals of Classic Hollywood. David Thomson has also written extensively on the history of films. With Netflix and the trusty Criterion Collection, even the oldest films hardly seem out of reach any more, so I highly recommend checking them out. A look through past Oscar Best Picture nominees provides a convenient list to start with (though the Academy often got it wrong in their choice of winners).

Quotable:

"When [director D.W. Griffith] tried [the closeup] out in a Biograph film his bosses were horrified. 'We pay for the whole actor, Mr. Griffith,' he was scolded. 'We want to see all of him.'" - 21

"The history of modern fame, from the first movies to today, is a struggle for control between the people who make the product and the people who buy it." - 84

"If anything, star singularities force a need for their persona into the culture rather than the other way around. There was no call for Fred Astaire before Fred Astaire existed. ... The young Katharine Hepburn seemed so eccentric to mainstream audiences that it took fifteen years for them to come around. Edward G. Robinson looked like a toad and was built for character parts and ethnic caricature, but he had the crude forward momentum of a sex symbol; he was a star because he acted like one." - 104

"The problem with gods who look and act like us is that they get old like us, at which point they cease to be gods. So we continually choose new ones as young and beautiful as we hope we are when we look in the mirror. Each freshly born divinity is a reflection of who we think we are at that moment in time and culture, or, more precisely, who we might want to be." - 143

"As always since the very invention of movie stars, these actors and their peers each embody an idea, a narrative whose potential energy is shaped by aspects of physical appearance, attitude, talent, and luck." - 321

Cordelia's Honor

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When an attack leaves her stranded on an uninhabited planet, Cordelia Naismith is forced to travel with Aral Vorkosigan, a man better known as the Butcher of Komarr.

Cordelia and Vorkosigan undertake a difficult journey to find supplies and shelter in the alien world, with an injured comrade in tow - but the uneasy alliance between people from radically different cultures transforms into an odd friendship of equals. The two soldiers slowly reveal their histories and characters to each other, always aware that their countries are on the brink of war. Vorkosigan is facing a mutiny, and Cordelia is forced to walk a narrow line to help the man she admires but who nevertheless represents a threat to her cherished way of life.

Cordelia's Honor is two novels in one: Shards of Honor and Barrayar. I'd definitely hand Shards to a romance reader who wanted to venture into science fiction: its tale of two opposites bonding on a trip through an alien world is a classic romance storyline, told by Bujold with the science fiction premise of spacefaring human civilizations. Barrayar is likewise more invested in the characters than the setting, in contrast to other classic science fiction like The City and the Stars or Asimov's Foundation books. (For example, I can't imagine Arthur C. Clarke adding a postscript that is a vignette of the aftermath of battle, when the bodies must be gathered and cared for. The scene is at once deeply moving and thought-provoking, proving how great Bujold is at depicting the human cost of war.)

Barrayar picks up where Shards leaves off, setting up the intricacies of a society wholly dominated by a wealthy military elite, further stratified by caste and gender. Compared to Cordelia's democratic homeland, Barrayar is a medieval totalitarian state (Bujold consciously modeled it on pre-revolutionary Russia). Newly pregnant, Cordelia uncomfortably assumes her new role Lady Vorkosigan, trying to untangle the conflicting agendas of the people around her. Soon an assassination attempt damages her unborn child and she must struggle not only to save his life but to defend her new homeland during a civil war.

Cordelia's reactions to her new home always come from a character place. Bujold's insight that the loss of a human life is not just the death of a person someone loves, but also a waste of all the resources that went into the person - education, experience, energy, etc, is a worthy idea that she explores fully.

As a novel, Barrayar feels more complete than Shards. It starts slowly, but once the civil war kicks in to test the new Regency the story and characters are firing on all cylinders. (My copy of Cordelia's Honor contained an excellent afterward by Bujold about the creative process for those who geek out about the craft.)

I think James S.A. Corey space opera novel Caliban's War is a good match for fans of Honor because it's full of great characters - especially female ones - who drive the story forward: but I can't recommend starting there instead of with its superbly scary and fast-moving prequel, Leviathan Wakes. You could also try On Basilisk Station by David Weber for kick-ass female characters, and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell for thoughtful, character-driven science fiction. (Side note: This omnibus include the first two books published in The Vorkosigan Saga, though you can find the internal chronological order of the series here.)

Quotable:

"About three meters away, he was now, she thought. An uncross able gulf. So in the physics of the heart, distance is relative; it's time that is absolute." - 80

"Kly regarded her with bemusement. 'So what are you, off-worlder not-a-lady?'
'I was an astrocartographer. Then a Survey captain. Then a soldier, then a POW, then a refugee. And then I was a wife, and then I was a mother. I don't know what I'm going to be next,' she answered honestly, around the gum-leaf. Pray not widow." - 357

Book Read in November

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - A brilliant young boy is molded into a military leader to save humanity from an alien threat in this classic work of science fiction.

The Girls by Lori Lansens - Can you really know another person, even if you spend every waking moment with her? Ruby and Rose are conjoined twins narrating the story of their remarkable shared lives.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett - When the Queen of the Fairies steals her whiny little brother, witch-in-training Tiffany Aching joins with a rowdy group of tiny kilted men to rescue him.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett - When junior witch Tiffany Aching joins a dance of the seasons, she attracts the attention of the Wintersmith and needs all of her ingenuity to rebalance the world before it plunges into permanent winter.

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett - Tiffany Aching, Chalk witch, must cope not only with everyday human failings of the people she watches over, but also the rise of an old evil that is out to destroy witches everywhere.

Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson - Kindly white witch Beladonna has never been able to do black magic, but when the handsome wizard Arriman sets a contest to find the wickedest witch to be his bride, she is determined to give it her best shot.

The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke - In the immortal city of Diaspar nothing changes - until Alvin is created, the first new human in eons, and the first to ask what lies beyond the city's gilded walls.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett - Polly cuts off her hair, names herself Oliver, and joins the army of Borogravia - only to discover that she may not be the only one in her regiment of fresh-faced recruits hiding a secret.

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold - When an attack leaves her stranded on an uninhabited planet, Cordelia Naismith is forced to travel with Aral Vorkosigan, a man better known as the Butcher of Komarr.

Gods Like Us by Ty Burr - Charting the highs and lows of stardom from the silent idols to today's over-exposed pantheon of celebrities, film critic Ty Burr examines the cultural history of Hollywood fame.

Beating Back the Devil by Maryn McKenna  - The Center for Disease Control has been on the front lines fighting the effects of war, terrorism, and disease since 1946; this book recounts many of their most important cases.

The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood - A young governess enters the mysterious Ashton Place to care for three children raised by wolves - can she tame their howling and squirrel-chasing ways?

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace - This keenly observed series of essays encompasses tennis in Tornado Alley, television's effect on fiction, the films of David Lynch, the Illinois State Fair, and a superbly snide summary of a supposedly fun Caribbean cruise.

Monstrous Regiment

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Polly cuts off her hair, names herself Oliver, and joins the army of Borogravia - only to discover that she may not be the only one in her regiment of fresh-faced recruits hiding a secret.

Borogravia is a backward place, with nothing to be proud of but its own excessive pride. This pride has led to endless belligerent warfare, ostensibly under the rule of a Duchess no one has seen in 30 years. Adding to the tiny duchy's woes is the insane god Nuggan decreeing everything an Abomination - from accordion players to cats, redheads, sneezing, and the color blue. Women dressed as men is an especially heinous abomination, you can bet your socks.

But Polly has a plan to save her big brother, so she follows him into the army. She joins up with other new recruits and they soon find themselves playing an important part in the war effort - in spite of their lack of training and supplies.

They are soon dubbed the Monstrous Regiment. The Monstrous Regiment is called such because it contains a Black Ribboner (a teetotaler vampire), a lisping Igor, a lichen-covered troll, and an assortment of humans - including one fervent Joan of Arc who believes she is in spiritual contact with the Duchess herself. (The original phrase Pratchett is playing with belonged to John Knox, and you can read about its origins here.) In fact, most of Polly's fellow recruits prove to be surprisingly feminine, each with his (or her) own reason for joining the army. Heck, even the warhorse is a mare, a fact unnoticed by a near-sighted lieutenant.

For me, this is one of the lesser Discworld novels. It lacks the fizz of Pratchett's best work, especially since the wheels of the plot turn heavily on coincidence and semi-divine intervention. Vimes makes an appearance, always a treat, but Polly, the main character, lacks depth. The supporting characters are much more interesting than she is (though I confess, I do like the implication that she's a natural-born noncommissioned officer).

Still, if you're interested in historical women who passed as men, there are plenty of great stories (from Shakespeare on down). Of course, anyone who likes this book can easily move to any of the other Discworld novels. If you lean towards feminist themes in your fiction, the Witches subseries is a great place to start.

Boy Oh Boy Am I a Boy Some Like It Hot at MOVIECLIPS.com

But let me diverge from tradition and recommend a few of the great cross-dressing movies instead of books (though I confess that my list skews to male cross-dressing comedies): First, one I consider to be among the greatest comedies of all time: Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. (Pratchett alludes to it by having one of his many, many cross-dressers assume the nom de guerre of Daphne, which is Lemmon's pseudonym in the film.) And modern drag comedies that aren't Mrs. Doubtfire? First, Tootsie, starring thespian Dustin Hoffman (plus Bill Murray!), then Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in The Birdcage. Thinking of going Shakespearean? Well, I have a soft spot in my heart for She's the Man. Don't judge!