Shadow of Night

Shadow of Night

I feel like I haven't really been posting much here recently, it's not because I've forgotten about it. It's because I've been struggling through this book, and boy, oh boy, I thought it would never end. That's not to say I didn't like it, exactly. It's just that there was a whole lot more of it than I wanted to read.

Shadow of Night is Deborah Harkness's sequel to A Discovery of Witches, and there will be a third novel, which I don't believe has been released yet. The first book introduced the story of Diana Bishop, a modern day scholar with witching in her blood, and her relationship with the vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont. Diana's witch education has been neglected, and she and Matthew decide to time-travel back to the 16th century to try to augment her education.

This book deals with what they find there. I found the treatment of real historical figures (Queen Elizabeth, Kit Marlowe, Walter Raleigh, Dr. Dee, to name a few) fascinating, and was only annoyed by the constant references to Diana's troubled relationship with Matthew. (Yeah, she loves him, he loves her, they're tied forever... I get it, already!) Other Amazon Readers liked the relationship stuff, and wanted less history. Go figure.

Necessary Endings

Necessary Endings

I've read a lot of self-help books in my life, and by now it's rare that I stumble across something new. Necessary Endings is in that category -- an excellent book, and very novel in it's attitudes.

Dr. Cloud talks about endings, and how they're sometimes necessary in order for us to make progress. He deals with personal life, and with businesses, and he offers a lot on both counts. My favorite section was when he talked about hope, and makes the point that hope not only buys time, but it spends it.

I can't possibly do justice to this book in a short review. Just know that it's different, and it's wise.

After You with the Pistol

After You with the Pistol

After You with the Pistol is what's generally categorized as a "Caper" novel. It features the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai, thief, forger, sometime assassin, and knave. In this book, Mortdecai finds himself unexpectedly married and inveigled into a plot to assassinate the Queen.

The book was first published in the 1970's so some of the references are a bit out of date, and others, I'm afraid, I just didn't get. (Lots of Britishisms that I didn't understand.) It was mildly amusing, and started out as kind of fun, but by the time I finished, I found myself considerably glad it was over.

A Feast of Ice and Fire

A Feast of Ice & Fire

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It's a cookbook based on meals referenced in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, with beautiful photographs and reasonably authentic recipes. There's a nice introduction by Martin himself. The recipes are arranged by region -- the Wall, the North, Southron lands, etc. -- and most dishes have both an authentic medieval recipe and a version that would be more in tune with modern tastes. Quotations are given from both Martin's books (where the particular food is mentioned) and the reference source for the recipe.

(The medieval recipes are from medieval Europe of course, and the Ice and Fire series is actually set in a fantasy world that closely approximates it, so you can't really say that they're 100% authentic. And there are differences between the worlds. Martin's world seems to have potatoes and peppers, for example, which didn't come to Europe until a bit later. But still, the two worlds are extremely similar.)

This would make a terrific Christmas gift for:

•     George R. R. Martin fans
•     Fans of the TV series, Game of Thrones
•     "Renaissance" people -- fans of Renaissance Faires, Society for Creative Anachronism people, etc.
•     Foodies and Gourmets
•     People who like to cook
•     Anyone who likes food

Monkey Mind

Monkey Mind

Monkey Mind is the story of author Daniel Smith's personal experience with anxiety. It's been promoted on NPR, and generally has been acclaimed as an excruciatingly funny and extremely honest account.

Well, it's excruciating all right, but it's not really funny. And I'm not sure how much help it would be to someone who actually suffers from anxiety. It struck me as being self indulgent, more than anything else. I don't suffer from anxiety, so I suppose it could be argued that I'm not sympathetic enough, but really, I don't think that was my problem. I tended to not be very sympathetic with the author, which is not at all the same thing. Somehow, I just couldn't get past the feeling that he could help himself if he really wanted to. And that's not helping anybody.

PreSchool Gems

PreSchool Gems

I happened to notice Preschool Gems on the New Book shelf at the library and flipped through it quickly and decided to check it out. It's a collection of bon mots from the younger set, and the few that I glimpsed look cute.

"I'm feeling poisonous, baby kitty."

This is a real cute book of the cute-things-kids-say genre. I liked it because it seemed more genuine than a lot of other books of that type: the quotes aren't earth-shatteringly perceptive, or side-splittingly funny. They're the kind of thing that little kids say every day. Some of them have their own brand of childlike logic, and some of them seemingly no logic at all.

"Um, she chopped my hand with a piece of bark because I said her ice cream wasn't real? But also, I want some?

Leslie McCollom, the author, is a preschool teacher. I liked her book particularly because she's not condescending toward the children, and she doesn't go in for all the double entendre stuff that a lot of authors of this type of book do. She also has a Twitter Feed that you might want to sign up for.

It's a good read.

" Know what? I really, really, really...I forgot what I was going to say."

Insurgent

Insurgent

This is technically considered Young Adult fiction, and it's been a lot of years since I was considered a young adult. Still, I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Divergent .



Update:

This series is definitely worth a read, although, I have to say, I didn't like this book quite as well as the first one.

At the end of Divergent , Tris -- our main character -- had successfully transitioned from the family's faction of Abnegation to her new home with the Divergent. And a horrible war had just broken out.

Insurgent continues the story, as the now homeless Divergent population finds temporary refuge with Amity, and then with Candor, giving us a look at both of those factions, too. It's becoming more and more evident that none of the factions is entirely without merit, or blame. (Well, except for the Erudite, but I'm sure we'll get to them in the next book.)

I particularly admire the way the author handles the romance in this series. It seems relatively authentic for a young girl like Tris, and yet it's neither cloying nor exploitative. I'm eager to see what the next book will be like, but I guess I'll have to wait until it gets published. Sigh.

Watch the Book Trailer for Insurgent:

 

 

Dancing with Cats

Dancing with Cats

This falls into the "I think this is a joke" category. It's written by Burton Silver and Heather Busch, who brought us such wonders as Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics, Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics, and The Naughty Victorian Hand Book: The Rediscovered Art of Erotic Hand Manipulation. I never know what to expect from these people. Well, actually, I guess I do.


Update:

"Last year, when we had the feng shui catman in....."

My absolute favorite sentence in this book started out something like that. Dancing With Cats is a fun book, a parody, and a delight for anyone who loves cats or is forced to live with someone who does.

It's full of that special blend of Burton Silver/Heather Busch humor that's so delightful in their other books. Amazon Reviewers can't seem to agree on just how "real" the pictures are. (My personal opinion is that a lot of them are probably authentic photos, but taken when a cat was lying down and stretching, and then made to look as though they were in mid-air. A few of the pictures look as though a leg might have been repositioned courtesy of PhotoShop, but I don't know -- cats do get into some kind of weird positions sometimes.)

Anyway, it's a fun book, and it's currently an Amazon "Bargain Book", so you might be able to get a good buy on it. Christmas gift, anyone?

Hide Me Among the Graves

Hide Me Among the Graves

Oh, my, this was fun!

Hide Me Among the Graves is a new novel by Tim Powers and a distant sequel to his The Stress of Her Regard, which was first published in 1990. The Stress of Her Regard is apparently about Keats, Byron, Shelley -- and vampires! (I say "apparently" because I haven't read it yet, but you can be sure I will.)

Hide Me Among the Graves takes us into another generation of vampire hunting. This time the chief bad guys are the spirits of John Polidori and Boudica. (Polidori was Byron's personal physician and the author of the short story that helped to inspire Dracula. Boudica was 1st century British female warrior who led an uprising against the Romans.) The vampire hunters are veterinarian John Crawford (who is also a main character in The Stress of Her Regard) and former prostitute Adelaide McKee. Other significant characters include Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, and author/adventurer Edward Trelawny. And there's where the fun begins.

I found the shenanigans of the Rossettis' totally convincing, given what little I know about them. One of the most well-known acts in Dante Gabriel's life was his romantic burial of the only copies of his poems in the grave of his wife. Some years later, he changed his mind and had her dug up so he could get them back. This book actually presents Rossetti in a more favorable light than history does. And I totally believe that Algernon Swinburne would have sold his soul to write better poetry. Oh, yeah!

Other than that, the book has us wandering through the streets and sewers of Victorian London, and the action gets pretty exciting and scary at times -- I actually found myself biting my fingers. A terrific read that I highly recommend.

(Now I just have to find a copy of The Stress of Her Regard.)

The Kingmaker's Daughter

The Kingmaker's Daughter

The Kingmaker's Daughter is the latest in Phillipa Gregory's "Cousins' War" series -- what most of us probably think of as The War of the Roses. It was the 15th century conflict between the two branches of the Plantagenet family, the houses of York and of Lancaster.

The title character in this book is Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, popularly known as the Kingmaker for his power and political maneuvering. Anne was married, first, to Edward of Lancaster and heir to the throne of England after his father, King Henry VI. After his death she married Richard of Gloucester, who later became Richard III. Thus, Anne was at various times allied with both the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

Gregory's earlier books in this series, The Lady of the Rivers, The White Queen, and The Red Queen are rather interesting in that they treat many of the same events from differing points of view. The books are told in the first person by the title character, which tends to give them all the same voice -- Gregory's -- which is sort of a problem for me. Nevertheless. I find the series fascinating, and will no doubt continue to read it.

Gregory says that her next book will be called The White Princess and will be about the Princess Elizabeth of York, daughter of Henry IV, niece of Richard III, wife of Henry VII, and mother of Henry VIII. I can't wait.

Un-Spell Book

The Un-Spell Book

You can call it Magick, but it's really just about focusing your energy.

As such, I suppose it's valuable to be reminded that in attempting to achieve things it's necessary to be clear in your intention, focused on the result, and always grounded. What is perhaps not quite as valuable is Mya Om's recitation of spell after spell after spell, all dealing with essentially the same elements. She criticizes other books whose "spells read like recipes in a cookbook", but that's essentially what she's given us.

It took me forever to finish this book. A book about Magick should be a lot more fun, don't you think?

Divergent

Divergent

In post-apocalyptic Chicago, citizens are required to join one of 5 "factions", each representing and serving a different virtue. There's Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Dauntless. On one day of the year, all 16-year-olds are required to declare themselves, and join one of the factions. If they choose a different faction than the one they grew up in that means leaving their family forever. There's no turning back.

Divergent is the story of Beatrice (Tris) Prior, a young girl brought up in an Abnegation household. She opts for the Dauntless, and immediately begins a rigorous training program, where success and failure could be literally a matter of life and death. Tris also has a special ability -- one she must keep hidden at all costs.

If you think this sounds a little bit like The Hunger Games , you're not far wrong. There is, however, one important distinction between Divergence and The Hunger Games. I actually liked this book.

I don't remember exactly what I didn't like about The Hunger Games, and I wasn't doing reviews then, so I can't just look it up. I do remember that I decided, after reading the first book in the series, that I wasn't going any further. It seemed an important thing to remember -- I didn't want to read that series again by accident.

I checked Divergent out of the library the other day, read half of it before I went to bed, and then finished it up the next morning. That afternoon I ordered the sequel. It's a quick read, and very absorbing.

There is one little thing about this book that bothers me, however. It's the name of the factions: Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless. They're not even all the same parts of speech. I suppose you could argue that the adjectives can be used as a noun -- the Erudite, the Dauntless -- but then you have 2 factions with names that describe the people, and 3 that describe the quality. The lack of symmetry distresses me. I'd even accept it if four of them referred to the adherents, and only Abnegation the quality, because -- well, you know how those Abnegation people are, never wanting to draw attention to themselves.

Now, if only there was a faction for the anal-rententive.

Forbidden Area

Forbidden Area

A while ago my reading list included Pat Frank's class post-apocalyptic novel, Alas, Babylon. It was better than I had expected, and had the interesting factor of having been first published in 1959. If you want to get a good idea of the kind of thoughts that were going through Americans' heads during the cold war, Alas, Babylon is an excellent resource.

Forbidden Area is more of the same. It was published a few years before Alas, Babylon and is not quite as good a novel. In this book, the Soviet Union has planted sleeper agents in the U.S., with a sabotage plan that will make possible the conquest of America by nuclear weapons. One of the characters in the book at one point asks what on earth they would want with a continent covered with radioactive waste. "Maybe they'll just put a fence around it with a sign saying 'Forbidden Area'," is the answer.

This isn't a very long book, but I felt at time that I was never going to finish it. There are a lot of characters, few of whom have particularly distinct personalities, and eventually I just gave up on keeping most of them straight. (It's pretty clear what the role of each character is, anyway, so I just treated them as though I was meeting them for the first time whenever I encountered the name. It didn't really matter, in terms of understanding the book.)

I was in elementary school during the '50's and '60's, and I found this book to be pretty indicative of the attitudes of the time. I had pretty much forgotten how frightened we were of the USSR in those days, but this brought it all back. It's an interesting look at a slice of the past, and I recommend it for historical perspective if nothing else. As a literary piece, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

No matter what you might think, I'm not actively looking for novels about girls who disappear. Although this book would appear to have quite a similar plot line to The Uses of Enchantment (reviewed previously), the fact that I've read two such novels in the same month is purely coincidence.

I picked Some Kind of Fairy Tale up off the New Book shelves at the library. I read the introductory paragraphs, found them rather intriguing, and decided to give the book a try. I was actually more attracted to the language than the plot line.

Good thing, too, because the story wasn't all that much. In a nutshell: 16-year old Tara Martin disappeared from the Outwoods, an old, old forest in the heart of England, 20 years ago. No one ever knew what had become of her. Now she has come back.

Tara has scarcely aged at all in the time she's been gone. To anyone at all acquainted with English folklore, it's perfectly obvious that she's been stolen away by the fairies ("Don't call them that! They don't like to be called that!" she keeps insisting to everyone.) Her family, however, flat out doesn't believe her.

The story had promise, but ultimately it doesn't really go anywhere. We have flashbacks into her time in Faeryland (which put me in mind of a 60's hippie commune). We have interviews with her psychiatrist. We have discussions about how her disappearance effected her brother, her parents, her boyfriends. And we have a whole lot of shifting around of points-of-view. None of these aspects of the novel are really anything to grab the attention. It's not a terrible book, but it's not a terrific one, either.

Yes! Energy

Yes! Energy

Really, it's nothing you haven't read before.

Believe in yourself. Change your self-talk. Capitalize on your strengths. Delegate. Trust in a Higher Power.

Loral Langemeier's Higher Power wants her to have a new car in the driveway and more time on the slopes. And this is where things start to get questionable.

If you google the author's name, you'll find lots and lots of complaints about her organization. According to Loral Langemeier, these websites are paid Google advertisements designed to steal traffic away from her and direct it toward her competitors. And, she says, they're put up by Eastern European Extortionists in an effort to extort funds from her. (If she pays up, she says, they'll take the websites down.)

Except they're not. They're definitely not Google ads, and they're not directing traffic to anyone else. And they sure look like actual reviews to me. Which is something I can't say about all the glowing 5-star reviews of her book on the Amazon Website.

If you really want to read this mediocre and not-very-helpful rehash of all the old money-making platitudes, I urge you to borrow the book from your library. Or, if you must buy a copy, get it from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Do not, under any circumstances, consider buying it from her website, or from doing anything else there that would involve Loral Langemeier and her minions from getting your credit card number.

Because, according to those East European Extortionists, that might land you in a sea of grief.

The Elements

The Elements

Before I begin discussing this book, I'd like to make a little detour and explain a literary allusion that seems relevant here.

There is a character, in Dickens' classic David Copperfield, named Mr. Dick, who is attempting to write an autobiography, but keeps running into a problem. Mr. Dick is a gentle soul, and a little crazy, and he is obsessed with the matter of the head of King Charles I. The subject keeps finding its way into his manuscript, no matter how hard he tries to keep it out. The phrase "King Charles head" was picked up by other writers, and by the end of the 19th century it was a common expression for an obsession that keeps intruding into matters where it's not relevant.

Now, back to the The Elements. The author, Theodore Gray, has a bit of a King Charles' head, and that head is his aversion to incandescent lighting. You would think that in a book that covers, literally, every thing in the world, he could find other things to write about. But no, he is thoroughly and enthusiastically opposed to incandescent lighting. It is bad.

And it's amazing in how many places he manages to bring the discussion around to his topic. I mean, I would have expected it under tungsten. But he talks about incandescent light bulbs all thought this book! Amazing.

I ordered this book from the library after reading a review that said it had amazing photographs. Eh. It's formatted pretty much in the manner you'd expect of a junior reader encyclopedia. There's a big picture of element on the left-hand side, and a bunch of smaller pictures of its applications on the right. There's a little bit of text, in white lettering on a black background. The book smells like Play-Doh.

One review I read of this book suggested it was perfect for high school students. Not bloody likely. If your high school student already knows, for example, that diamonds are made of carbon, this book is way too elementary for him.

Or if he already knows about incandescent light bulbs.

Unholy Night

Unholy Night

Seth Grahame-Smith. Really, how can you not love this guy?

Grahame-Smith is also the author of enormously successful books Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Like those two books, Unholy Night is the re-telling of an oh-so-familiar tale.

It's the story of Balthazar, a thief by profession and wise guy by preference, and his adventures during the 1st century AD. Balthazar runs into a little trouble with Herod's soldiers, gets thrown into prison, and meets up with a couple of other career criminals named Gaspar and Melchyor. After their resourceful escape from execution, the trio meet up with a newly-married couple and their new-born son, and help them escape from Herod's forces who, for some reason inexplicable to Balthazar, are routinely slaughtering all the Jewish boy babies in the area.

Get the picture?

It's a clever idea, and adequately carried out. I can't say there's anything especially noteworthy about the execution, however. Grahame-Smith is a pretty decent writer. I was really impressed, for example, with the way he seamlessly blended the zombie scenes into Jane Austen's prose in his better-known work, and I understand that he did pretty well with the archaic style of Abraham Lincoln's "secret" diaries. (Haven't read that one yet.) But here, he's writing, presumably, in his own voice, and I can't honestly say I'm all that impressed. It's a quick read, and altogether understandable, but his writing's a little more expository than I would like. Still, it's a fun read, and it won't take you long to finish.

Silverwing

Silverwing

I read a review of this book that compared it to Watership Down, and that was enough for me. Silverwing is clearly a children's book, and I'm not really expecting a book of the same caliber as Richard Adams', but it could still be very good without rivaling his work. It's apparently about the travels and tribulations of a young bat.


Update:

What a delightful book!

Actually, I started reading this a couple of weeks ago, got into it a few chapters, and then got bored and started reading something else. Last night I picked it up again. And oh, my goodness!

In the very next chapter: Cannibalism! Bad bats! Danger and excitement! Lots of surprises!

I read straight through to the end, and I really enjoyed the ride. There's a whole series of these books (which are technically written for children, but, who cares?) and I'm pretty sure I'll be reading more of them.

Everything He Hasn't Told You

I'm not quite sure what to expect from this. Burton Silver is the author of several amusing books, including Why Cats Paint, Why Paint Cats, and The Naughty Victorian Hand Book. At first glance, however, this one looks more-or-less serious. It's a book of questions to ask your man to get him to "open up to you." Hmmmm, isn't that Cruel and Unusual Punishment for a man?


Update:

Oh, boy.

I once had a boyfriend who, when being asked a simple question, would sit and think about it for a few minutes before answering. It wasn't a difficult question. When I asked him what was up, he answered, "I'm trying to decide what the right answer would be."

Really, I'm not like that. I don't have a hidden agenda when I ask questions. (Most of the time, anyway.) He didn't get this from me, but, yeah, he did have a lot of baggage. And I'm beginning to understand how men get this way.

This book is touted as the solution to all your troubles if your man isn't too communicative with you. Hmmm. If he just isn't communicative in general, I guess you could just try, you know, talking to him. If, on the other hand, he's "uncommunicative" in the sense that he doesn't share everything when you ask "What are you thinking about?", then this might be the book for you.

If you're one of those women who believe that he's your man, and that means you own every little idea that's in his noggin, then I think you'll really like this book. It gives you techniques to mine for all that precious ore that should rightfully belong to you, not him. Even better, there are secrets to translating the answers he gives you into usable data. Oh yes, ladies, there are Trick Questions in this book.

For example, one of the questions gives you a series of situations that men might fantasize about, not necessarily in a positive manner. The situations include being an astronaut, going insane, wearing women's clothing, cannibalism, moving to Canada, and meeting Elvis. You're supposed to ask you man what percentage of men, in his opinion, have fantasized about the experience. The trick is, that since most men probably want to think they're "normal", he will tend to put himself in the majority. In other words, for any experience that he thinks more than 50% of men have fantasized about -- he probably has, too.

This book left a really, really bad taste in my mouth, and it may have been just because I was reading it straight through, one invasive question after another. I thought at one point that it might be an interesting book from the point of view of questions to ask yourself, or -- if you're a writer -- things to think about in regard to a character. But in the long run, I rejected both of those ideas. I get offended when I ask myself all of these questions. And my characters would never stand for it at all.

The Uses of Enchantment

The Uses of Enchantment

I'm looking forward to this. I've read several other books by Heidi Julavits, and enjoyed them, but I find I have to pace myself. Her books do tend to be a lot alike, and have eccentric and unlikeable characters and bizarre situations. A little goes a long way. I think I'm ready for another, though.


Update:

The year was 1985. Sixteen-year-old Mary Veal, leaving school after soccer practice, was abducted by a stranger, held prisoner for a few weeks, and sexually molested. Or was she?

Her psychiatrist doesn't think so. He believes she fabricated the entire incident. Her mother tends to believe him, thinking it less shameful to have a liar for a daughter than a rape victim.

15 years later, Mary still isn't sure what did or didn't happen. Her mother has just died, unreconciled to her daughter, and Mary returns home for an uneasy reunion with her father and sisters. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the past, and attempts to unravel what might or might not have happened. Like so many of Heidi Julavits' books, the novel is filled with unpleasant female characters, difficult relationships, and the truth is never cut and dried.

Interesting novel.