The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I really love the fact that it's a novel for adults but it reaches back to childhood and the reason why so many of us love to read stories.  We like to escape and imagine worlds that are full of adventure, excitement, and danger.  At approximately 180pages, this book is a quick read that will take you on a fantastic ride.  The boy in the story, who remains unnamed, is a shy bookworm with no friends.  One day a boarder at his family's home steals the father's car and kills himself at the end of the lane. When the boy and his father go to the end of the lane, they meet the Hempstock women.  They boy is seven years old and he meets Lettie Hempstock who is eleven years old. The two become quick friends and end up having an adventure that could mean life or death for one or both of them. I'm just going to leave it at that because this is a book that has to be enjoyed, not explained.

When we sometimes think of magical books or fantasy books, we think of Harry Potter or something similar.  This is a different kind of magic.  It's the kind that doesn't have answers and is closely intertwined with the real world in plain sight. That was one of the reasons I enjoyed it. You may never look at a full moon or the night sky in the same way after reading this book.  Is what we see on a daily basis real? Is your reality a mirage? Memory is a tricky thing.  When you remember something from your childhood, how sure are you of its veracity?

You can easily read this book in one day.  I suggest a nice quiet spot with your preferred warm beverage (coffee, tea, cider, cocoa) and a baked good.  If you can, get the physical book. Stay off social media, turn your phone/laptop/tablet off and enjoy!

A Game of Thrones

Well 22 days after starting this behemoth I am finally finished.  I heeded all the warnings and tried not to get too attached to any one character because I heard that George Martin would kill a character in a heartbeat. With that being said, sometimes I did find myself thinking "What's the point of the back story if the person is dead three pages later?"  I just let it go and let the story take me away.  You have to suspend a little bit of disbelief. For instance, apparently in this world siblings can procreate with one another and their kids have no genetic defects.  *shrug* I do love these pseudo-historical, political, adventure stories, though, so I just filed my medical knowledge in the back of my brain and kept on reading. I don't know if I will finish the entire series because it will definitely take a substantial time commitment. I may just have to read one book from the series per year because I'm not sure if I'm ready to invest that kind of time in 2013.

I'm late reading this book so I think most people already know the synopsis, but basically the title tells you what it's about.  A fight for who is the right and just king of the realm. Who should rule from the Iron Throne?  Within the battle for the throne there are a million subplots and side stories.  This story truly has it all.  Love, betrayal, war, murder, sex, child abuse, castles, mystical animals, knights, incest, kings, queens, and even zombies (although they aren't called zombies in this context). I can't even begin to discuss the intricacies in the book, but if you have some time to dedicate to the series I would recommend it.

EDIT:  Okay I just read the synopsis for the rest of the books on Wikipedia.  I just don't see myself dedicating the time needed to the seven book series.  I couldn't even get through all of the Kushiel books so who am I kidding?  The only seven book series I read in its entirety was Harry Potter. Let's keep it real.

Insurgent

Well you know once I love a book in a series I have to jump on it the series.  So I got the second book in the series yesterday at the library and finished it today (teen book = quick read).  Now on to the review.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I love it as much as Divergent? Not so much.  It is the same with most "second books" in a trilogy.  You get a little bit of new information in order to move the story along, but nothing too crazy happens because all of the heavy stuff should happen in the final book.  The protagonist has some angst about some of the things she saw and did in the first book so she's pretty much depressed throughout the book and is now unable to perform at her best.  You know I hate that sh*t.  Excuse the profanity, but nothing gets me more riled up than a girl who weakens under pressure and starts making bad decisions instead of standing strong in the face of adversity and giving it the finger.  Anyway, she snaps out of it a little bit so I'll give her a small pass.  However, she better be about her life in Book 3.

The redeeming quality of this book was the big reveal at the end.  It is reminiscent of one of M. Night Shyamalan's movies.  I'll let you figure out which one if you read the book.  If you don't think you'll ever read this series and are curious, though, you can highlight below for the spoiler.

Spoiler starts here---> The factions discover that they are enclosed by the fence to protect them from the outside world where apparently there is a lot of murder, madness, and mayhem going on. That's the part that sounds like The Village by M. Night Shyamalan.  The kicker is that the founder of all this faction madness is one of the main character's family members. The instructions from the founder are that the fence should be opened wide when the number of Divergent has grown exponentially (which it now has). <---Spoiler ends here

And there you have it. Insurgent was not as exciting for me as Divergent.  It also was not without its flaws, but it did what it was supposed to do, which was reveal some major new information to propel the story forward. I still plan on reading Allegiant (Book 3) when it comes out in a few months because I want to see where the author takes these characters.  I will see it through to the end!

Divergent

My whole review should really consist of the following sentence:

I stayed up until 1:30am to finish this book.

That tells you everything you need to know.  I loved this book.  It kept me engaged.  I even went to a few fansites to peruse different information about different factions to see which faction I would call home (Amity!).  I have not been this into a "young adult" novel since Harry Potter (where, incidentally, I'm completely positive I would be in Ravenclaw). I have a weird relationship with books for the youth because on the one hand you have to accept that there will be childish behavior from some of the characters because, well, they are children.  On the other hand, when done right, it is refreshing to see something with a little bit of innocence attached.  Fresh eyes.

Having said that, I seem to make poor choices for these series.  I hated Twilight and will never get those hours of my life back. The Hunger Games was a disappointing series for me because the protagonist slowly became catatonic and less empowered when she should have been going from district to district raising a rebel army.  I'm still an optimist though. So when I heard about Divergent, I thought I would give it a try because the premise sounded decent and these books are usually quick, light reads.

In Divergent, we have all the requisite elements:
1) Protagonist teenage girl: 16 years old (just old enough to kiss, but not *quite* old enough for sex)
2) Brooding love interest
3) Dystopian future
4) Sidekicks
5) Mean adult antagonist
6) Similarly mean teenage antagonist
7) Conflict between good and evil

Now you can apply these elements to a story and it can flop because one element or another is weak.  But, elemental formulas don't always mean it will flop (see: Jodi Picoult). The author uses the formula well here.

Brief description:  Main character, Tris, finds out that she is different from the other teens who test into different factions of society.  She is Divergent, which is something powerful, but she doesn't understand how powerful it is and what it all means.  She is warned to never tell anyone she's Divergent, but instead to just pick a faction she thinks she can function in and press on.  She picks a faction and begins to learn what it really means to be Divergent and why she is a threat to others.  After this first book, I'm going all in for Book 2. If that one doesn't disappoint, I'll be ready for Book 3 when it is released in October.  I really, really, really want this series to rise to the occasion. I don't want the main character to become a puddle of weak female teenage emotions at the end.  That's all I ask.  I want to believe again!

Kushiel's Scion

I feel the need to give a short back-story before I say why I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it.  This author has written nine books based in the fictional world of Terre D'Ange, which is a parallel world similar to Europe.  I absolutely LOVED the first three (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar). That trilogy had everything a fantasy novel could have, political intrigue, espionage, betrayal, war, forbidden love, unrequited love, murder, sex, swords, daggers...you get the picture.  I devoured that first series over ten years ago.  

Then I bought Kushiel's Scion probably about six years ago. I decided I would pick up where I left off.  What I didn't know at the time was that it wasn't really a continuation (i.e. it was not "Book Four" of a series), but a new trilogy where a character who was only a child at the end of Kushiel's Avatar was now older and he was the narrator.  It was a character I didn't really even care about, but I decided to give it a chance because maybe it would be as exciting as the first three books.  Well that was six years ago and I tried to start the book several times over the past few years.  Finally, I dove in and decided to read it.  It is 900 pages and it took me about 300 pages before I was well vested into the story. The story was interesting, just not put-everything-down-and-read-this-book absorbing.  So I plugged along and completed three other books along the way.  

The story is way too detailed to discuss here, but basically the first trilogy is known as "Phèdre's Trilogy" because it's mainly about Phèdre and her adventures as a spy/courtesan.  In the end of the trilogy she rescues a little boy named Imriel from a death camp.  That's not a spoiler alert because there is so much more to the story.  So the second trilogy is "Imriel's Trilogy" because he's not a little boy anymore and now he is having his own adventures, which mostly consist of him trying to avoid assassination because he is actually a prince that nobody wants to see on the throne.  See, even this review is going on too long because of all the intricacies of the story.  

And that brings me to my main problem with the book.  It went on way too long. I confess I skimmed the last 200 pages and read mostly for dialogue, opting out of the lengthy descriptions about the rocky cobblestones or the shining vambraces.  Also, the action did not interest me.  There were battles and sieges and riots and I was like 'meh' through most of it.  The redeeming quality that, in the end, kept me moderately interested was that the author rounds the characters out so well that you do want to know what happens to them eventually.  I was legitimately sad for one of the characters when he died.  I thought in my head "Aww man, poor ____ why him!?" So the book gets some kudos for tugging at my heartstrings.   Otherwise, I've decided that I'm not interested enough to finish this second trilogy or begin the third.  I do, however, highly recommend the first trilogy (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar).

Beautiful Creatures

I tore through this book in about two days because it's another teen fantasy book (i.e. quick read).  I ended up reading this because I saw Viola Davis will be in the movie and I like her. Since the book is always better than the movie, I downloaded it to my Nook for $3.99 and got to reading.  Anyway, it's your typical, new kid in school is kind of weird/magical; one of the regular students falls for new kid; they love each other but can't really be together (physically) because of the magical weirdness; and they have to fight some dark evil, story.  Yes, it's a plot we've seen ad nauseum, but I will haltingly admit that I enjoyed it for what it was. The key words in that sentence are "for what it was". You have to go into the story understanding that it's a teen fantasy.  If you know and accept that, you'll more readily accept some of the plot holes and leaps of logic that have to be made.  You also have to understand that you will know what's going on in the story about five chapters before the characters do. I must have thought "It's a trap you idiot! Don't do it!" at least twenty times.  Those are the things you expect when you're an adult reading a teen novel.  If it went deeper psychologically, it wouldn't be a teen book. However, the escapism is often enough of a trade-off that it's worth it. In this case the escapism was worth it.  Will I read the complete series?  Possibly in the summer since they are quick reads.  Seems like a series I could take on vacation.

Fragile Things

Long ago I purchased a copy of American Gods.  It sat on my shelf unread for too long and then, without ever reading it, I donated it to a bookstore.  Fast forward a few years and I saw a wonderful commencement speech by Neil Gaiman on YouTube via a link sent by a friend.  A few days after I saw that speech, which stayed in my mind, I was in the library and saw this book.  It's a collection of some of his short stories and poems.  I was so inspired by what he said, I wanted to get to know his art. I wanted to ease into his work so I could come back to American Gods one day.  This book has a "wow" factor.  I mean that I would sometimes finish a story and literally say "wow" or "that was SO good".  There were, of course, a few stories that I didn't care for either way. However, the majority of his stories absorbed me.  At times I would be reading a story and become so enveloped in it that when it ended, I had to remind myself that I was reading a short story and not a novel.  I had settled into the story so deeply that I was somehow fully expecting it to go on, and the point is I wanted it to go on.  If you are a fan of Mr. Gaiman's work, I think you'll enjoy this.  If you are unsure whether or not you will enjoy his work but enjoy fantasy, this is a very nice introduction.

*On a side note, as I was reading his work, I found myself thinking that it is very much possible to write great stories without being lofty.  In fact, making a story more accessible lends a certain authenticity to it.  This was a good writing lesson for me!

The Magicians

I don't know if I should like this book or roll my eyes.  I finished it relatively quickly and I did find myself interested in one of the side characters, Alice, whose character is well developed and interesting.  I ultimately kept coming back to the book to find out what happens to her. The main character, however, is the ultimate jerk.  It's difficult to like him and, frankly, I never did.  This is Book One in a series, although only Book One and Book Two, The Magician King, have been published thus far. The basic premise of the book is that a miserable young man named Quentin Coldwater discovers that magic is real and he is transported to a magical university where he makes a few friends and essentially gets his Bachelor's degree in Magic (think Harry Potter goes to college).  The twist is that he fervently wants to escape the magical school and go to a different magical world that he's read about since he was a kid (think Narnia).  So one day he finds out that it may actually be possible to go to the other magical world and then the adventure begins.  My problem with that is the adventure begins about 75% of the way through the book.  So up until that time you have to deal with Quentin whining about how he hates school, he hates his family, he barely tolerates his friends, he only kind of likes his girlfriend.  You may want to eat some cheese while you read this book because there is a lot of whine flowing.  It's been praised as a darker Harry Potter, but really it's just about a guy who is probably clinically depressed, but happens to know magic and wants to go to Narnia.

SPOILER ALERT:  I have more to say, but don't want to give too much of the plot away. If you want to know one more thought of mine, highlight the text starting here ---> I don't often do this, but I kind of wished Quentin was the one who died and not Alice. Her character and her background of coming from a magical family, that we are only vaguely introduced to, would have made stunning material for Book Two. Instead, I've recently learned that Book Two brings back some little girl that Quentin had a crush on while he was still at a non-magical high school and in the end of that book she apparently gets raped.  No thank you Mr. Grossman. Why do you have a vendetta against your female characters? I'll be crossing Book Two off my list.<-----end spoiler

The Hound of Rowan: The Tapestry (Book #1)

This is a book that a good friend of mine recommended to me when I was in my post-Harry Potter funk.  She said this might help me develop a new magical interest.  As soon as I began reading this book, I was immediately reminded of Harry Potter.  There's a young boy who is singled out for his "talent" and offered a spot at a magical school where he can develop those talents (Rowan Academy vs. Hogwarts).  There is a professor who is a traitor (Prof. Quirrell vs. No Spoilers here). There is a kind and understanding headmistress (Miss. Richter vs. Dumbledore).  There is a magical sport (Euclidean Soccer vs. Quidditch). There is a bully with his cronies (Draco Malfoy vs. Alex Munoz).  There is a weakened villain trying to regain power and strength (Astaroth vs. Voldemort). I could go on. There are many parallels drawn in this book. Did I enjoy the book?  Honestly, it’s approximately 415 pages and it took me about 190+ pages to finally want to sit down for long periods of time and read it. Once I got past the multitude of one-dimensional characters and could single out who was really important to the story, my interest built up a bit more.

In the past, I've tried to get into the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and only read Book #1. I fear this series will suffer the same fate. At the end of the book, I didn't feel a burning desire to see how it all turns out. So Book #1 may be where it begins and ends for me. Harry Potter is still my all-time favorite thus far. If you have kids who would like to read the book, please note that it has bullying, violent fighting, attempted murder, kidnapping and death. There’s also one or two puppy love kisses. Just a friendly heads-up if you like to screen your child’s books ahead of time.

The Night Circus

This book was truly magical! There really are no other words to describe it.  I did think about Water for Elephants a few times while reading this, but it really is a different type of circus book.  It is much more about the magic in our world that we fail to see on a daily basis.  It's about that childhood belief that life can still have elements of awe.  The very basic premise is that two illusionists are pitted against each other in a competition that is played out in a circus for all the world to see.  But does the world see it or is your illusion a solitary pursuit? I completely expect this will be made into a movie (there is a fabulous opportunity for whomever designs the fashion and the set of the circus), but nothing can compare to the world you envision in your own mind.  Yes there is also romance in this book, but it is both a romance of the carnal kind as well as the romantic feeling you get when you fantasize about something that was wonderful, yet ephemeral.  This is one of the better books I've read this year. Highly recommended!

Switched

So I feel a little crappy today.  I'm PMSing and I'm snotty.  What better way to spend the day than to shun all schoolwork and finish this book I got for $1 on my Kindle.  It is just like Twilight but instead of the vampire/werewolf angle, it's about trolls and humans.  I kid you not.  It reads like it was written by a teenager but the author is really like 27 y.o. and uses the word "foxy"....as in "He looked really foxy."  If anything, this book has inspired me even more to get cracking on writing my own tome.

The Lightning Thief

Quick little kiddie read....almost in the same vein as Harry Potter (but doesn't draw you in as much).  I was hoping for another magical-esque series because I miss Harry Potter (and I'm not ashamed to admit it!!)