Book #212: The Return of the King

Book #212: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

December 21, 2015

I actually finished this book last night, but it got a little late to write this entry. I'm at the start of a long winter break from work, so I'm hoping to get more reading time in. I did an okay job of fitting in some reading time to my busy schedule recently, but this book, the final book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was a long one.

I didn't remember much of the events from the movie as I read. All I remembered was that Gollum fell into Mount Doom with the ring, Aragorn becomes the King, Sam marries Rosie, and Frodo sails away at the end with Gandolf and the elves. Oh, and the almost-death of Faramir. There were snippets that stuck out to me, but not the whole narrative of the story.

The story started off not split in two, but into several parts as more Fellowship members are separated. I almost feel like the movie did a better job of emphasizing the pain that Merry and Pippin felt while apart. In the book they're certainly missing their old lives, but they throw themselves into the service of the respective lords under whose protection they find themselves. 

The leaders in the (at first) desperate fight against Sauron's creatures acknowledge that their massive efforts are only a decoy. The real fate of Middle Earth lies in the outcome of Frodo's mission. He and Sam meet many dangers in Mordor, but of course are ultimately successful, and they all more or less save the world.

Though I didn't have much vested interest in Faramir or Éowyn, but I thought their hooking up was good. Éowyn is one of the few female characters in this series, but she was a strong female. In the end she conforms to the expectations of her gender (had the series been more modern, I'd like to think it would turn out differently), but her role in the story was significant. 

Poor Frodo! He bore the ring for too long to not be affected by it. He leaves Sam to have a normal, prosperous life in the Shire. Sam has always been the biggest hero of the story in my view, and I was glad to see him get a happy ending. But still...poor Frodo.

So ends my reading of Tolkien's works. If the writing isn't always spectacular, these are still classics that have inspired every work of fantasy literature since written. Would there be, for instance, a Dark Tower series without Lord of the Rings? Would there be a Harry Potter? I think not.

Book #211: In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Book #211: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

November 9, 2015

I checked this book out as part of the Big Library Reads program. I didn't finish it in a timely manner (obviously), so I had to purchase the ebook. This book wasn't a big turd like the last BLR book that I read, but I wasn't exactly blown away.

The premise was interesting. A young woman named Mary Shelley (that's her first name, and yes, it's after the author) leaves Portland for San Diego after her father was arrested. It's 1918, and her father is accused of being a German sympathizer, or worse. To top it off, the Spanish flu is killing people on the Homefront while young men die in the trenches in France. This was a timely read, since I just did my World War I chapter in my U.S. History class.

Mary Shelley stays with her widowed aunt. Her boyfriend's mother and half-brother live in the area. Stephen is fighting in France...or so she believes. She tolerates being around his shady brother in hopes of hearing of him. Julius is a drug addict and a swindler, using his dead stepfather's studio and development tricks to make people believe that he can take pictures of ghosts. At this point in the story, I'm still in.

But then, MS learns that Stephen has died. She attempts suicide...and has one of those cheesy out-of-body experiences before coming back to life. She can now communicate with Stephen's troubled spirit, and is determined to learn the truth about his death.

I think this book should have stayed grounded in reality. Stephen's experiences before his death were compelling, and the fact that Julius and Mr. Darning were highly immoral, troubled men would negate the idea of ghosts. MS shouldn't have hunted for the truth to save Stephen's spirit, but for the truth itself. Take out the ghost crap, and there'd be a very solid story here. As is? Not so much.

But still not bad. MS looked like Aubrey Plaza to me as I read, so obviously I think well of the character. As far as the Big Library Reads program goes, I'll read another select. Had this one been awful, I would write off the program for good. This book had it's good points, mostly the setting and characters, but the plot didn't hold together. 

Book #210: Wonder

Book #210: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

October 13, 2015

When I was in middle school, there was a girl at my church who was a year ahead of me at school. She was clearly born with some sort of abnormality, because she didn't look "normal." I remember sitting in chorus class on one of the last days of school, as our director made us watch the seventh graders' concert performance from the previous week. As the camera panned across the faces of our older peers, this girl's face came on the screen. There was a lot of cries of "ew!" and laughter around the room. It pissed me off, since I knew her from church and knew she was all right, but I just shook my head and didn't say anything. It made me think that this girl probably had to deal with stupid shit like that every day of her life.

Auggie Pullman, the main character of this book, has different abnormalities than my old schoolmate, but fundamentally they have the same situation: their looks always have, and always will, be the main thing that most people know them for. Ignorant people are disgusted or scared. They're called many ugly names, not always to their faces, but still. Jack's right when he says it would be tough to be Auggie, but it's other people who make it tough for him. As though dozens of surgeries before the age of 10 just to be a functioning person weren't enough to deal with.

Auggie attends school for the first time as a fifth grader. He's smart and his parents are well off, so he goes to a private school. Still, he only makes a few friends at the start, and is mostly seen as a pariah by most of his classmates. They won't even touch him. It's nice to see that most of them get over this as they get to know Auggie, and some come to his defense when he's bullied by some bigger, older kids on a field trip. It's a good ending for Auggie.

I appreciated that the book presented other perspectives besides Auggie's. His sister Olivia isn't exactly bitter about not getting nearly as much attention from her folks, but it's clear that it hurts her, even just a little. Jack seemed like a little jerk until his perspective is presented; then it's clear that he's a decent kid who, like any decent kid, says and does stupid things sometimes. I imagine that even Julian would look decent if he'd told any of the story. He came by his bad attitude honestly; his mother actually had Auggie cropped out of her copy of the fifth grade class photo. Dumb bitch! 

The only perspective I didn't "get" was Olivia's boyfriend. He's quirky; he's a fiddler with Tourette's. But his POV is so short that it kind of just felt tossed in, and it didn't really give me a new frame through which to view Auggie. Knowing that Palacio has written more books about these characters, I wonder if this guy's story will be told.

I got really emotional when Daisy, the Pullman family dog, died. I mean, like, sobbing and crying, "no!" I can't even handle dogs dying. My Dog Skip? Forget about it. The second to last episode of Wilfred? Hot mess alert. Seymour from Futurama? Don't even talk to me. People dying can be touching, but a good, sweet dog? Shut up.

I felt like this was a fantastic book, and one I hope many kids in middle school (or even older "kids" like me) read. We're told that looks don't matter, and for everyone, that's bullshit. But this book has a great message about seeing beyond looks. Auggie was not just his face, though that does have a lot to do with how he approaches and views the world. He's a Star Wars fanatic, a brilliant student who loves science, and overall, in spite of it all, a normal kid. I think if this book were meant for older readers I'd expect a more complex plot, especially more inclusion of Olivia's boyfriend, but for younger readers, this book is perfect.

Book #209: The Enchantress of Florence

Book #209: The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

October 4, 2015

I've gotten very behind on my reading lately. I could blame this on a number of factors. I've just had a hard time getting back on track. This book wasn't super long, but it took a while to get through. I did enjoy it, I just wasn't making the time to read.

Like Rushdie's most celebrated book, this story mixes historical fact with magic and whimsy. This story mostly takes place 400-500 years ago, when the world was changing and growing. It takes place in Muslim-ruled India and the Middle East, Italy (of course), and to a much lesser extent, the "New World." A blonde young man arrives at the Indian emperor's palace with a strange tale to tell.

Although this young stranger with many names is shown to be a scoundrel at the beginning of the text, his story has enough proven truth to earn the mighty emperor's trust. The emperor is a rather imaginative man himself; he has many wives and slaves in his harem, but he most lusts after a woman he made up in his own mind. So it's no surprise that he, along with all his people, are sucked into this man's kinda-true story.

To be honest, I wasn't so much drawn into the story of Qara Köz as I was to the historical details and overall imagery of the story. I was more interested in the Mirror, the princess's doppelgänger slave and constant companion. She is described and shown as an echo of her even more beautiful mistress. I felt very sad for her, to have no life or personality outside of being this other woman's shadow. When Qara Köz is given the  Western name Angelica, the Mirror is called by the same. She's not the only example of the oppression of women in this work. Slave girls are literally game pieces on chess-type boards in the emperor's court. And of course, the entire concept of the harem. The desires and dreams of all of these women mean nothing. 

Meanwhile, the whimsical emperor is a person prone to deep philosophical thinking. He is having an existential crisis, and he feels that his efforts to find meaning are fruitless. The young visitor, who may or may not be his own blood relation, gives him some hope. But his story only pushes the emperor deeper and deeper into his own mind. He's certainly no better off for having heard Qara Köz's tale.

I'm not clear on the message of the book, which bothers me a little. Still, I enjoyed it, and the setting was very interesting, misogynistic though it may have been. In the story, women are the ones with powers. Still, it isn't enough to give them status over men, or in Qara Köz's case, to bring her happiness. 

Book #208: Twelve Years a Slave

Book #208: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

September 13, 2015

I technically finished Northup's memoir yesterday afternoon, but my day got so busy that I couldn't get to this entry. Anyway, Northup's story was recently adapted to film, and won much critical acclaim (including the Best Picture Oscar, I think?). I'd actually never heard of it until the film came out, and didn't know it was an autobiographical work until I found it in my elibrary. I wish I had realized it sooner, as Northup's story is written with such clarity and truth.

Northup was a free black man in New York state in the 19th century. He and his wife did all right for themselves, were good citizens and hard workers with a lovely family. Northup was educated, and had connection in his part of the world. But that didn't protect him from kidnappers, who tricked him into accompanying them to Washington, where they drugged him and sold him to a slave trader. 

I've read several slave narratives at this point, so unfortunately, none of the details of Northup's tale were shocking. Disheartening, yes. And Northup gives you the real deal, not beating around the bush when describing the ways that Patsey, a young woman, is victimized by their owners. The cruelest of base human emotions drive their interactions with her: lust and jealousy and pride, and Patsey is helpless against it. It is far too easy to imagine this happening to millions of other helpless people during this shameful time in our history.

Northup's perspective is especially valuable because of his lawful status as a freeman. His own father had been freed when he was young, his mother a free woman, so Soloman was never a slave until he was 30. He then had an outsiders' perspective on things. He could, for instance, call bullshit on the idea that black people are intellectually inferior. He being born free, with the ability to travel and to learn, was a stark contrast to his fellow slaves who had never known anything but cotton fields and swamps and degradation. How can intellect flourish in an environment designed to suppress it?

Northup was in Louisiana, in the bayous, where he states that treatment of slaves was harsher than anywhere else. I've read other sources that would support this. Still, he has a forgiving nature and makes a distinction between kind masters and cruel masters. I find the kind masters like Ford to be terrible hypocrites, but I'm sure that Northup much preferred Ford's ignorant but well-meaning management to Epps's drunken cruelty.

Northup got lucky and made a friend of a visiting Canadian nomad, who got in touch with Northup's New York connections. It was the son, or maybe grandson, of Northup's father's master (the one who freed him), who came to retrieve him. I found it kind of inappropriate that this Henry Northup guy didn't drop everything and go free someone he claims to call a friend, rather than wait several months to tie up some unrelated legal affairs. Like damn, don't offer to help the guy and then leave his family hanging that long. This does not affect Solomon's gratitude, but I found it messed up.

Northup attempts to have the men involved in his kidnapping prosecuted, but they all manage to get away with it. It's not difficult to imagine that they'd done this to other people, and maybe did it some more after they were acquitted. You see these other slave narratives, of getting to freedom and starting a new life of peace and freedom, but the danger wasn't truly over. Northup never was a slave before he was sucked in to that disgusting institution. And he acknowledges that he was lucky to have friends and the laws of New York to eventually get him out. 

Northup was home with his family as he wrote his memoirs. He was an active abolitionist for a while, but then dropped off the radar. He was rumored to have been kidnapped again, but historians don't buy into it and neither do I. He was kidnapped in the first place because he trusted two white strangers; I highly doubt he was ever so trusting again.

Book #207: Mansfield Park

Book #207: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

September 5, 2015

I was reading this book while reading The Dark Tower, so I crawled through the first half of it. I've been able to finish it more quickly since finishing the last one. I've now read all of Jane Austen's novels, and I must say that it's my least favorite of her works. While most of her others are considered timeless classics, especially Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park simply doesn't stand the test of time, for a number of reasons.

The biggest issue here is Fanny Price, our protagonist. Inevitably, I find myself comparing all of Austen's heroines to Elizabeth Bennett. Elizabeth is an easy character to root for because she's bold. She stands up for herself and her family, she does what she feels is right without too much regard for societal expectations, and she is smart. Fanny is almost her exact opposite. She's not dumb, but she's otherwise timid, dull, and ultra-virtuous. She's got a stick up her ass, too, and in spite of her sweetness, she's tough to like.

Fanny has rich relations, Lord and Lady Bertram, but her own parents are white trash. Apparently in Austen's time, even white trash families with too many kids can afford a servant or too, negligent though they may be. The Bertrams offer to take 10-year-old Fanny in to give her folks a little financial relief, and the main story finds us a few years later. Fanny isn't mistreated by her extended family in any respect, but there's a distinction between her and her cousins. Her other aunt, Mrs. Norris (I'm pretty sure that Filch's cat from the Harry Potter series was named after her) is a real bitch to Fanny, constantly putting her in her place. Nobody at Mansfield is very fond of aunt Norris, but she's always around.

If I didn't enjoy this particular story, I still have to admire the characterization. Lady Bertram is an interesting character. She's lazy, selfish, but not cruel-hearted. She's not outwardly affectionate to Fanny, but does love her. Lord Bertram is supposed to be this formidable figure, but he isn't half bad, and any neglect of Fanny prior to her coming of age was probably due to her being so quiet and submissive that he just never noticed her while he had four other children to attend to. There isn't a villain in this story, per se, but rather a distinction between the rational and the foolish. But it's Fanny being seen as the rational one here that bothers me...she's just so outdated in her values.

Take the whole play situation. Their cousins and some friends wanted to have a little fun, and while Lord Bertram was abroad they decided to put on a play. Yeah, the fact that Maria was flirting with another man in front of her fiancé was fucked up, but Fanny was a stick in the mud about the whole production right from the start. When Lord Bertram arrived home early and put the kabosh on the plan, it was acknowledged by several involved that Fanny had been right. Urg. Lighten up.

Fanny was right to spurn Henry Crawford's repeated attempts to woo her, but not totally for the right reasons. She saw that he was a player long before he actually noticed her, but he might have gotten through that barrier with his attentions and sincerely decent qualities were it not for one thing. Fanny had long been in love with her cousin Edmund. 

Okay, I get that cousins getting married wasn't exactly frowned upon in Austen's time. But throw in the fact that Edmund isn't a great character himself, and it's just bad chemistry all around. It just now strikes me that the boy who slept with his cousin in How I Live Now was named Edmond...another reference? Anyway, Edmund pays Fanny attention when no one else does, and she worships him. But while he's a fuddy duddy himself, he's also easily swayed. Hey, he's a man, and he falls for pretty Mary Crawford. I like her, personally, but she was all wrong for Edmund. She thought he was a good person, but she made fun of the fact that he would soon be a clergyman, and since Tom was the oldest Bertram he'd get the title and estate, Edmund wouldn't make enough money to maintain her lifestyle. I think there's nothing wrong with her recognizing that. 

So Fanny and Edmund end up together at the end of this slow drag of a story. I would have liked to have seen growth from Fanny, and it bothers me that the message of the story is that she didn't need to grow. Edmund patronizes her, and will continue to do so for the rest of her life. And she'll love it, and she'll listen to him talk about himself all the time, and happily ever after. Yuck. While I was never a huge fan of Mr. Darcy, I can now appreciate the way he grew as a character and smile at the thought of the challenging marriage he and Elizabeth surely had. I don't believe I'll ever think of Fanny Price again. She might appreciate that anyway; she never much liked attention.

Book #206: The Dark Tower

Book #206: The Dark Tower by Stephen King

August 29, 2015

I definitely intended to have this book finished sooner, though it is over 1,000 pages in the edition I read. But life happens. I had a family reunion in Colorado, and the very day after I got home, I was back to work. So I didn't quite accomplish my goal of finishing the series over summer break, but I came very close.

A lot happens in this last volume. The baby is born, and proceeds to eat Mia. It can change forms between a giant spider and a human, and this horrific distraction allows Susannah to get her hands on the gun and kill the low men and their associates...but Mordred gets away. It's not long before the ka-tet is reunited, and they have a couple of important things to do before heading on to the Dark Tower itself.

This could have easily been two books, so it's interesting that King, after taking his sweet time, blasted through to the end. This is actually built in as part of the narrative, as Jake sacrifices himself to save fictional Stephen King from being killed by the van. In return, this King stops hesitating and finishes the story for them, you assume.

I don't want to say too much (Jake's third death was foreshadowed so that shouldn't be a shock), but the ending devastated me. Ka is a wheel...Roland instilled this belief in his ka-tet, but he didn't see the truth. I'm left with so many questions about why he's doomed to his fate. Damn, poor Roland.

Though the ending makes me sad, I'm not dissatisfied. It's rather fitting, if unfair. Life and fate are so often unfair, so there it is. I absolutely loved this series. If this is what Stephen King considers to be his masterpiece, then I say he did a damn good job. And as to the rest of the beloved ka-tet, he's much kinder to them than any earlier comments of mine may have suggested, which softens the blow of Roland's reality a little bit but does raise further questions. 

I bet there are websites out there dedicated to theories and speculations about The Dark Tower series. I don't know that I'd delve into all that, though. I'm always about seeking a new reading experience...the world (in my mind) is moving on.

Book #205: Song of Susannah

Book #205: Song of Susannah by Stephen King

August 3, 2015

This is the sixth (and second-to-last) of The Dark Tower series. It's the lowest rated book in the series on Goodreads, but I personally liked it. The bulk of the controversy seems to stem from the fact that King includes himself as a character in this book. 

I don't know yet how effective King's inclusion in the story was. What's intriguing, though, is that this King is in another world very similar to this one, except that he dies in 1999, as he's in the middle of writing the series. One of the most significant and well-known events in King's life is that he was hit by a van that year. In real life, he recovered; he wrote about his experience a bit in On Writing, since he wrote it during this time. In Song of Susannah, he doesn't survive that accident. This will certainly affect the events in the final volume, since the ka-tet realizes that they are products of his imagination...or, at the very least, he's the vessel or messenger used to tell this story.

Well, it's not any more bizarre than anything else we've experienced in this series. It's meta, in a way. What is reality, anyway? "We could be in a turtle's dream, floating around in outer space." Or living in a universe that is balanced on a great turtle's shell. Eddie and the others have a bit of existential pondering when they realize they're characters...but what they experience is real and important to them. I sort of hope they get into this more in next (final!) book, though there's a lot of action going in.

Just a quick run-down of the events. The ka-tet gets help from the Manni to get through the door. Eddie is distraught when he and Roland end up in Maine in 1977 and Jake, Oy, and Callahan end up in New York in 1999 to find Susannah, but he soon realizes that ka played out that way for a reason. The story follows Susannah and Mia (Detta's around as well) as Susannah learns more about Mia; not a new personality, but a spirit send to inhabit her by the low men to bear the child that they intend to use to kill Roland. There's a lot going on there, and the main story ends as Susannah and Mia are going into labor. 

I appreciate this book for what it is: the set-up to the final volume. I intend to pick it up at the library today and get to it. I hope that the crew will all be reunited soon, because shit is getting more and more (un)real.

Book #204: Shout Her Lovely Name

Book #204: Shout Her Lovely Name by Natalie Serber

July 29, 2015

This collection of short stories is tied together by the common theme of mothers and their children. Most of the stories revolve around Ruby and her daughter Nora, though there are three unrelated short stories about modern mothers. The title story was one of these, a second-person narrative about a mother coping with her teenage daughter's eating disorder. 

All of the stories were good, but I wanted more of Ruby and Nora. Ruby got pregnant while in college in the early 1960s. The father bails, and most of the stories are about her and Nora as the years go by, leading up to Nora at the age that her mother got pregnant, struggling between having a stable older boyfriend and wanting to be 20-years-old, being irresponsible sometimes. We never know if she takes an interesting job offer, though I'd assume yes.

It doesn't surprise me that the blurb at the front of this book is from a review in Oprah's magazine. The target audience is definitely women, as the stories show the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. I won't get into any details, but I'll just say that I envy women of my generation who are friends with their mothers. Though Ruby and Nora had a close relationship, they definitely butted heads. I would read more by Serber (this seems to be her only book so far), but I would specifically read more about Ruby and Nora.

Book #203: Wolves of the Calla

Book #203: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

July 28, 2015

I got my hands on a copy of Song of Susannah more easily than this book, which is a good thing because I'll be eager to start it. The events of this one lead directly into the next. We have an important connection established between our heroes and the men that Jake spoke to in the bookstore in the third book, and the events of Susannah's child labor will unfold.

Let's put it this way: Susannah was, indeed, pregnant, but Eddie isn't exactly the father. Poor Susannah has developed another personality, Mia. Mia, I need answers about. Is she the reason why Susannah had vague recollections about Lud, about Roland's world before it moved on? And of course, what the beast inside her, which Mia wants to have, turns out to be. Susannah is such a complex character; she's so tough and brave, and she's actually about to resist and communicate with Mia in a way that Odetta and Detta never could. She at least got Mia to hold off until after the battle with the Wolves before Mia took over and fled.

It's a bit hard to keep track of the ways that our heroes have discovered of traveling between worlds. I'll leave it to this: another piece of the "Wizard's Rainbow" is now in the mix, and this powerful orb, along with a door in a cave near Calla Bryn Sturgis, allows them to control the where and when that they travel to. Their dealings in New York add further dimensions to the issue of saving the Dark Tower.

After this book, I finally have a decent grasp on what the Dark Tower is. It's the ultimate quest for good for the gunslingers, and this book (as well as The Wind Through the Keyhole) gave me a clear definition of what a gunslinger is. So that puts the situation in the Calla into perspective. They had to fight the Wolves; it is their ka as gunslingers.

I found the whole situation with the Wolves to be mostly predictable, but still compelling. But the events with the door and Black Thirteen, the addition of Father Callahan to the mix (note to self: read 'Salem's Lot in the near future), and Susannah's situation were really the driving points in this book. So, on I go into the next volume...only two more to go!

Book #202: We The Animals

Book #202: We The Animals by Justin Torres

July 21, 2015

It's been awhile since I've had a double-entry day. Since only half of The Dark Tower series was available through the ebook service that my library uses, I'll need to have other ebooks going for my gym reading. Torres's autobiographical story was a very quick read. It's about his family, especially the shenanigans that he and his brothers got up to as kids in upstate New York while his parents struggled as young, working class parents.

Ma and Paps are certainly not bad parents. They really love their three boys, and want a better life for them. Paps is mostly around, though there is a period when he's gone and their mother slips into a deep depression, leaving the young boys to fend for themselves. Almost any boy with too much freedom or not enough supervision will get up to lots of hijinks. Even when Paps is there, the boys run wild. 

Torres shows his parents as very human, flaws and all. Ma is described as fragile, and has some emotional issues. Paps drinks too much and can't hold a steady job, and often uses violence for discipline. The three brothers, Justin and his older brothers Manny and Joel, are very tight as young boys. They love their parents, and are protective of their mother, but they know their folks can be self-absorbed and it makes them angry.

The end of the book is jarring. Joel and Manny go the way of many wild young men: they drop out of school, drink, work in manual labor jobs. The author is different from his brothers. The least of it is that he's academically inclined. He's also confused about his sexuality, and develops the dangerous and unhealthy habit of looking for strange men to hook up with in the bus station bathroom. When his family learns of this, they have him institutionalized. The text says that after this, the five of them are never together again. Did Torres fall out with his brothers for good? Did one of the parents die or leave? Did he never go home again? The text does not say.

I feel for the child that the author was, that his "sexual awakening" was watching a perverted porn tape of a "Daddy" spanking a naked teenage boy. I imagine now that Torres has healthy relationships with men, though I doubt that his time being institutionalized helped with that. I'd want to know if he has a good relationship with anybody in his family now. 

This was a brutally honest autobiographical work. I would read more by Torres in the future. I believe that this is his only full-length text to date, though he has had short works featured in major publications. 

Book #201: The Wind Through the Keyhole

Book #201: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

July 21, 2015

It's become a thing for series authors to write supplementary texts, to give their readers a little more or to provide the perspective of another character or something. King did that with this book, sort of; while it's the most recently published book in The Dark Tower series, it takes place between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla, so I read it as King intended. It's more stories from Roland, as the ka-tet is riding out a windy, super-freezing storm in the town hall of an abandoned village. I wonder what those who'd already read all of the series made of this one; while it doesn't include much about the ka-tet's continuing journey, it does give more details about Roland's life, and provides closure for what was revealed about him at the end of Wizard and Glass.

"The Wind Through the Keyhole" is a story within a story within a story. It's a childhood favorite of Roland's, told to him by his mother, whose death he's still reeling from when he and his friend Jamie are sent to the mining town Debaria on a real gunslinger mission: to hunt down a man who can change into animals, who is murdering people in the area. Roland tells the story to comfort Bill, a boy who saw his father and others mauled by the "skin-man" in bear form. Over and over again through the series, Roland has referred to himself as being cold and detached, but he's lacking some self awareness. He is actually a caring person with a soft spot for children, as his interactions with Jake and Bill have shown.

It's no surprise that the story of Tim, a young boy who is tricked by a wizard (of sorts) and ventures into a dangerous forest to help his ailing mother and avenge his father's death, would appeal to young Roland. Tim proves his bravery and becomes a gunslinger himself, in spite of the traps set for him by the wizard-guy/tax collector. There are more examples of how King incorporates other fantasy stories into his own; the boy Tim encounters Maerlyn (Merlin), and he learns that the Guardian of the Beam on which he finds him is Aslan (yes, that Aslan), who is currently in a land of eternal snow (that'd be Narnia, y'all). Those references are fun, and I wish Jake and the others had commented on them, as they did about the Wizard of Oz scenario.

This book was a breeze-through compared to most of the others in the series. I found it to be enjoyable, though again, I'd be interested in knowing the perspective of readers who read this one last. I've got a hard copy of Wolves of the Calla from the library waiting for me, and I'm excited to continue the adventures of the ka-tet, but this was a delightful detour.

Book #200: Wizard and Glass

Book #200: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

July 19, 2015

The fourth book in The Dark Tower series. This hefty volume revolved mainly around Roland's past, as he tells his ka-tet the story of Susan. We already know, from a brief description in The Gunslinger, that she was burned to death. The story of their young, passionate love and the events leading to her murder help Roland's friends to understand how he became so sad and serious. It also shows how he first became fixated with the Dark Tower itself.

I wish the book had given us more of the ka-tet and their adventures, as they only really factor in at the beginning and the end. When Eddie defeats Blaine, they end up in...Topeka, Kansas??? But they realize that this world, so like the "real" one, is different. The population has been wiped out by a virus called "Captain Trips." This was in a story in King's Night Shift collection; a group of college-aged kids, who have managed to survive but know their time is running out, are at a beach just passing the rest of their lives away. Anyway, they start down the interstate, and on the way they stop and Roland tells the story that has been burning him up for so long.

We get to know Cuthbert and Alain, Roland's two best boyhood friends. It's clear why Eddie reminds Roland so much of Bert. They've all been sent to a small village called Hambry. Officially it's to get Riland away from Marten; Marten, the wizard, tried to trick Roland into getting killed by facing off with Cort. But Roland won his guns, of course, and the young gunslinger's life is in danger. But I think there's more going on here. Why did the boys have to use false names in Mejis? And if Hambry was supposed to be this sheltered place, why did Roland's father happen to warn them about the pink glass? I feel like Steven knew a lot more than he let on, just as he sort of "allowed" Roland to later kill his own mother. 

Anyway, the boys get a lot more than they bargain for in Mejis. Through their uncovering of the conspiracy with the goods and the oil, we learn quite a bit more about why Roland's world fell apart. Roland and his pals stop the plot to aid Farson, but that doesn't stop him from taking over his world and destroying it. 

I felt like some parts of the story dragged a bit, but I was mostly into the story of Roland and Susan. I was, however, glad to get back with the ka-tet as they continue to try to find the Path of the Beam again. The wizard sets up a wizard of Oz-inspired scenario to draw them to him, but they thwart him and finally kill that disgusting Tick-Tock man. They haven't seen the last of the wizard, but they've found the Path again and are continuing in their way.

Although I didn't like this one quite as much as the last two, I'm still really excited to continue with the series. Plus, it was good to have more things from the first book clarified. I almost want to read the original version to see what King added or changed to make it fit; I feel like the first book, the revised version that I read, fits really well with this one. But for now, I'll continue on.

Book #199: The Waste Lands

Book #199: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

July 9, 2015

As of yesterday, I was a little more than halfway through this book, the third in the Dark Tower series. I was reading it at the same time as One Hundred Years of Solitude, and once I finished it I intended to spend a bit more time on this book, maybe wrapping it up this weekend. But I happened to check my library's ebook site this morning, and saw that I only had nine hours left in my checkout...and no option to renew. So I buckled down and plowed through it today. Not too difficult; it was so good that reading it quickly did not diminish my enjoyment.

I was really happy to see Jake back in the mix. When Roland prevented Jack Mort from pushing him into traffic in the last book, both he and Jake experienced a kind of split in their memory; both felt that they were going insane. Eddie helped them both, enabling Jake to return to Roland's world and quieting the voices in their heads. 

From there, our motley crew was off, following the path of an invisible by powerful "beam" towards the Dark Tower. Susannah has some vague memories or visions of what life was like in the town of Rivers Crossing and the city of Lud before the world moved on. Was she there in another life or something? My questions so far have been satisfactorily answered, so I have zero doubt that we'll learn more about Susannah and the others' connection to Roland's world eventually.

I've been assuming that Roland lives in the very distant future, but some details in this book are causing me to doubt that theory. The characters discuss this at one point; Eddie suggests that the infamous Bermuda Triangle, for example, is a portal to Roland's plane of existence. Again, I'm hoping that the nature of his world, and its tentative connection to the "real" one, are explained further. 

Eddie and Jake both seem to have the ability to envision the tools that they need to face dangerous obstacles. Eddie envisioned the key before he knew it would be needed to draw Jake; Jake predicted Blaine the train (what a pain) and the importance of riddles before he'd even left New York again. Roland's internal observations about his companions indicates that they have these powerful abilities...this knowing why without knowing how...that he lacks, and he quickly trusts the instincts of his companions. 

After several dangerous run-ins in Lud, the gang boards Blaine to take them through the Waste Lands, a hellscape of fire and desolation and scary birds. But Blaine, a very old and very intelligent train, has intentions of his own. When he reveals this, the book ends. The cliffhanger was no big deal for me, since I've already started the next book and know how that whole situation comes out. But those who got into the series as it was released had to wait six years to find out the fate of Roland and crew. You have to admit, that was a dick move on King's part.

Oh, and I loved the addition of Oy to the gang. Oy is a small, intelligent little furry creature (called a billy-bumbler) that becomes a pet for Jake, and helps Roland rescue him in Lud. It was indicated at one point that Oy would die in this rescue mission, and I was pissed. But the little bugger came out all right. Roland believes that Oy's presence is part of their mission, that he is a proper part of this ka-tet, and he's already proving his worth. There may be another addition to the group yet, as Susannah thinks she might be pregnant. 

In addition to the Blaine situation, there's another danger lurking. Alex Quick, aka Tick-Tock, the leader of the gang who captured Jake, is still alive, and is in cahoots with a wizard (a "reincarnation" of Walter?) to hunt down the gang and thwart their plan to reach the tower. So that's another element to look forward to learning more about.

I am absolutely loving this series so far. I plan to focus on them exclusively for a little while. I may not read all day like I did today to finish this one, but if the rest of the series is as good as these last two books, I may not be able to resist.

Book #198: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Book #198: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa)

July 7, 2015

This is the second book by Márquez that I've read. It is very surreal, and I found myself wishing that I were an artist as I read it, because I would want to paint a series of beautiful and strange scenes from this book. When the people of Macondo, in the end, questioned the truth of these events and even the existence of the once-prominent Buendía clan, I got that. Their story, as predicted by an old gypsy 100 years in advance, is pretty unbelievable.

The Buendías were part of the group that founded Macondo, a cloud cuckoo land of a remote village in Colombia. The story follows them through a century, seven generations total. Incest was already  part of their family history, and Úrsula's prediction that more inbreeding would result in a child with a tail came true in the end. Though not all family members engaged in incest, there was quite a bit of sexual immorality: infidelity, statutory, the Colonel fathering seventeen sons with all different mothers. The offspring from these encounters, or from "legitimate" marriages, were all killed in some miserable or horrific way.

Since the book spans a hundred years, no one at the beginning is still living at the end. Yet the family names are recycled again and again: all of the males are some combination of Aureliano, Arcadio, and José, and there are like three Remedioses. Even with the aid of the family tree at the beginning of the book, I had a hard time keeping track of characters and their relationships to one another. Perhaps Márquez did this on purpose, to reinforce the idea of history repeating itself. But the fate of the Buendía family is like a wheel that finally comes to a stop at the end.

The narrative repeated refers to the solitude of each Buendía. They always stick together, or those who leave eventually come back, and yet they are alone. Multiple generations of men, in their turn, stay isolated in the silversmithing room built by the family patriarch. Rebeca stays alone in her falling apart house after the death of her husband, her adopted brother. Meme never speaks again after being forced into a convent. Although the twins are born and die at the same time as each other, they are not immune to the solitude. Is solitude, in this case, synonymous with loneliness? For all of them (besides the last Aureliano in his early years), the solitude is self-imposed.

This complex book has likely been the subject of much dissection and many writings. I should probably look into some interpretations, because I'm not totally sure what message I was supposed to get from the story of this doomed family. I guess I've always believed that everyone is alone in this world, to some extent. We live and die alone, and I don't know if that's tragedy, just reality. This is definitely a book that I will come back to and read again in the future. I'm glad that I own a hard copy of it; I wish I'd given in to the temptation to mark or highlight certain lines and passages. This book is beautifully written and dense, and I'm glad that I took on this particular challenge.

Book #197: Brown Girl Dreaming

Book #197: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

June 27, 2015

This book was published less than a year ago, but it's already been awarded a number of honors. It's definitely a great text for teen readers; I've read a few books like this, stories told through a series of free-form poems. The difference here is that Woodson's work is autobiographical. I could see it having a lot of appeal for young readers, and I was fully engaged with this quick read.

Jacqueline was born in 1963, a particularly tumultuous year during the Civil Rights Movement. Her family lives in Ohio, but when she's still young her mother leaves her husband, taking her three children home to South Carolina. Jacqueline remembers her time with her grandparents fondly, even as she bristles under the strict rituals of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and as her beloved grandfather's health deteriorates. She's definitely a sheltered child, even when she and her siblings move to New York with their mother. She and her sister have an interest in the Movement, and they've heard stories of how their mother and other family friends and neighbors have been involved. 

I found myself thinking, as I read, about how racial issues in our country have been erupting lately. The whole situation in Charleston had me in tears; a bunch of nice, church-going old people, gunned down in church because of their race. This is sounding too much like the shit that was going on the year that Woodson was born. She's telling her story of being a young girl, who struggles to read but loves stories and wants to write. While her dream has come true with this beautifully written work, it's sad to think that some things haven't changed since that child was born. 

I don't know if Woodson has published any other books. I'm planning to look into it. Every work that I've read written in this style of poetry has been great. What I'd really love to see is Woodson continue her life story in another volume. My only complaint about this book is that it seemed to end abruptly, in Woodson's early adolescence. I'd read about her teenage years and beyond, if she chooses to tell that story. 

Book #196: Juliet, Naked

Book #196: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

June 24, 2015

Some Goodreads reviewers wrote that this book started strong, but had a weaker and less satisfying second half. I'd have to say that I agree. I was interested in the relationships between the three main characters, but by the end of the book I felt like they were all pathetic...in a realistic, relatable way, but still. I found myself pitying them, but there's a thin line between pitying someone and despising them. I don't think I quite crossed it, though.

The title refers to an album; more specifically, the stripped-down demos of a famous album. Juliet was a break-up album by Tucker Crowe, who abruptly ended his career and hid from the public eye for two decades not long after its release. Crowe still has some fans worldwide, who share their interpretations and theories on Crowe and his music online. I could relate to Duncan, a Crowologist who takes himself very seriously. He's a textbook introvert: obsessed with obscure things, avoiding awkward social situations, feeling his best when he expresses himself in writing. I've never been obsessed with anything to the extent that he is with Tucker Crowe, but I've had people in my life not "get" what I'm into. He's definitely a snob when it comes to music, and many people think of him as being a dweeb, but he's a pretty harmless dweeb, a man-child, really. He's a huge dick for cheating on Annie, though, and pretty self-absorbed. I don't like him, but I get him, even if I find him rather pathetic.

So the album that shares its title with the book sets everything into motion. Being a diehard fan, Duncan is quick to praise the stripped -down version of his old favorites online. Annie, his partner, is kind of a Crowe fan by proxy, and so is able to give a more objective review. Crowe himself sees it and emails her.

Tension has been building between Annie and Duncan, even before his infidelity. She secretly corresponds with Crowe, relishing what Duncan's reaction would be if he knew. This, I can understand. What I don't get is why Annie fell for Tucker herself. There's no chemistry there that I could detect. That's when things started to go downhill.

Tucker is the most pathetic of all. He's a stereotypical ex-rock star, with kids scattered all over whom he barely knows and a history of alcohol abuse. He doesn't drink anymore, and is trying to be a good dad to his youngest, but he still lives off of his exes, not bringing in any income whatsoever. Plus, he reads about himself online (since he saw both Annie and Duncan's reviews of his work), yet he dismisses his remaining fans as being losers. Takes one to know one, asshole! Knowing all of this, Annie still sleeps with him. It's implied that she drops her life in Gooleness, a seaside town in northern England, and goes to Pennsylvania to be with Tucker in the end. She basically goes from one man-child to another. Give me a break!

I wish this book had focused more on that tension in Annie and Duncan's relationship. I almost feel it would have been better if Duncan had learned about Annue's contact with his idol sooner...or, if the person contacting her wasn't Tucker at all. The book started off so strong that the second half was a huge disappointment. I'll give Hornby another go sometime; I'll probably read High Fidelity, his most famous work. Wasn't that made into a movie starring John Cusack? Anyway, I wanted to like this book more than I did, but it's hard to love a book when you don't really like the characters. I guess I crossed that line from pity to contempt after all.

Book #195: Eyes On You

Book #195: Eyes On You by Kate White

June 20, 2015

This isn't the kind of book is normally read. It came up as the current Big Library Read book through my elibrary, and since I enjoyed the last one so much, I decided to go for it. That was kind of a mistake, because in my opinion, this book is pretty crappy. For anybody who likes predictable mystery books or cheesy Lifetime movies, this novel might be an enjoyable read. I really didn't like anything about it.

First off, the characters in this book work for a cable news network, sort of like MSNBC. I don't even have cable, and I hate "entertainment news" and political pundits, so right away I had a bias against the characters. Robin, the main character, is the cohost of a celebrity news show. She repeatedly explains the difficulties in her past: a psychotic stepmother, a divorce from a cheating husband, an injury that stalled her career. But she's on this hot new show, and she's just published a book about...well, I don't really know what the hell her book is about, because the text barely gets into that. Life is good for Robin.

But then, creepy things start happening to her. She gets a threatening note at a party, a Barbie doll with the eyes cut out, that kind of thing. She believes, until the weak climax, that it's the host of another show on her network who feels threatened by her rising star power. There are other people who seem suspicious, too. But the actual culprit is someone you're not supposed to suspect...I called it about a quarter of the way in. 

Now, the predictability of the book wasn't my biggest issue. This book is just really boring. Robin, as narrator, is repetitive and self-absorbed. The book pretty much consists of her worrying and complaining. There are some laughable sex scenes, and a murder that you can see coming from a mile away. This book could have been half its length, and that would have improved it some. 

The characters aren't likable, the plot is unoriginal, and the narrative is dull. I might have liked this book if I were in middle school. I've written before about how I read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark in 7th grade. I felt like the characters seemed kind of old-fashioned, so the pop culture references in this book would have impressed my 13-year-old self. My more-than-twice-as-old self? Not so much.

Book #194: Snow Country

Book #194: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (translated by Edward G. Seidensticker)

June 17, 2015

I skimmed the translator's introduction after I finished this short novel. Seidensticker compares Kawabata to haiku writers, and there is definitely a poetic vibe to the story. The main character Shimamura observes the beauty of the world around him and the women with whom he interacts. Kawabata doesn't give us a whole lot of background on his characters, but the little details that he drops are rather telling.

The story revolves around a couple of overlapping love triangles. Komako is a geisha in a small mountain village in northern Japan. The introduction helped to put her situation into context. Unlike urban geisha of the time, rural geisha don't have much chance at a future outside of that line of work. What they do is not seen as an art like it would have been in the urban tea houses; a geisha like Komako is more or less a prostitute, but still has a good social standing as they entertain guests who come for the hot springs. Shimamura, a wealthy man who never has to work, is one such visitor. His solo trips (three total) to this hot spring village are not explained; like, why did he end up there, in a place with little cultural attraction, when he's so into the arts? The introduction once again helped this to make more sense.

So Shimamura and Komako are drawn to one another, and she seeks him out whenever he's in town. On his second visit, he becomes interested in a situation involving Komako, her old friend Yukio (who dies of an illness around the time that Shimamura heads back to Tokyo), and Yoko, Yukio's young lover who accompanied him back to his hometown. Shimamura is fascinated by Yoko, much to Komako's consternation. 

But the most important relationship is the complicated one between the two women. Yoko respects but does not like Komako...at least that's what she tells Shimamura. Komako's feelings are much harder to place. She is jealous, sure, and even says that she thinks Yoko is insane. But she pulls Yoko from the fire in the warehouse at the end. We don't know if Yoko is dead or alive, but Komako's feelings towards her are best illustrated in this final scene. It may be that, if Yoko survived, these two would continue their complex relationship for the rest of their lives. 

I almost do want more about these three main characters, but I appreciate the story as is. It's short but complex and beautiful. I'm most intimidated by these kinds of books, even now. So it's all the more important that I read such books; if anything, these blog posts are a way of digesting what I've read. 

Book #193: A Tale of Two Cities

Book #193: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

June 12, 2015

When I was in the fifth grade, I attempted to read this book in the school library. I didn't get past the famous "best of times, worst of times" verse that famously starts this book before deciding it was too difficult and put it back. Why a school with only 5th and 6th graders would have the works of Dickens in the library, I couldn't tell you. I'm obviously a much more confident and sophisticated reader now than I was at age 11, but I went into this knowing as much about the story as I did then: the opening lines, the closing lines, and that the two cities were London and Paris. That's about it.

But some of my reading lately has given me the background knowledge to understand what's going on in France in the book. It's the late 18th century, and while both France and England have societies that keep the poor downtrodden and the wealthy living it up, it's the French who are going to violent extremes to do something about it. As much as Dickens was an advocate for social equality (at least when it comes to class distinction and treatment of the poor...let's not forget that he was prejudiced and kind of a prick), he clearly was critical of the French Revolution, though he gets what drove them to it.

Dickens focuses on grassroots efforts in the Revolution; Robespierre and other influential people who helped organize the violence are not mentioned. In the section of Paris in which most of the story takes place, Defarge and his wife are the ones running things, with their wine bar serving as a front and a meeting place for supporters of the Revolution. I think this book, while not bad, would have been 10 times better if Madame Defarge had been the main character. She has a right to be angry, but takes it too far when she uses the Revolution as a way to get revenge on Darnay's family for what happened to her siblings. That this event led her and her husband to be so involved in the bloody Revolution makes sense, though.

The heroes of the story are meant to be Carton and Darnay and his family. I felt like Dickens could have done with more character development. For instance, I wanted to know more about Carton's past, why he felt he was such a worthless piece of shit. He essentially says as much, and that's why he doesn't feel worthy of Lucie, though he's so in love with her. His attitude toward her reminded me of Mr. Darcy's toward Elizabeth: "I don't like her, she's stupid and not even that pretty...aw shit, I love her." 

Lucie is pretty much described as being pretty, devoted, and emotionally fragile. That's about it. If there was more to her than being the stock character, pretty and a good daughter/wife/mother, then I might have cared about the whole situation more.

I felt like Mr. Lorry, the first character we meet, is pretty interesting. He's very dedicated to his work at a London bank, but he becomes personally involved with Darnay and Lucie and their whole crew. He's helpful to their whole situation, but that's about it for him. 

I could go on about how I wanted more about Jerry Cruncher, how Miss Pross had unfulfilled potential to be more than a stock character, and how Darnay himself was a snooze, but I think I'm making my point. It all boils down to this: Carton's sacrifice didn't pack the emotional wallop that it might have because I didn't care much about the main characters. 

In some ways this was different from any other Dickens I've read. But he attempts those twists and shocks that really were predictable, and heavily foreshadowed. I think that, had this book actually been longer and gotten into more detail on the individual characters, this book would have been easier to get into. As it was, the only parts I really appreciated were Doctor Manette's PTSD, and the French Revolution setting. This book was not everything it could have been. So far, Dickens does not have the best track record with me.

Book #192: The End

Book #192: The End by Lemony Snicket

May 29, 2015

Book the Thirteenth (the final installment) of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I made my goal of finishing it by the end of the school year, with a week to spare. I imagine that, at the time that it was published, many readers were not entirely pleased with the end of The End. But since readers would be aware by now that the stories of Snicket's world, the bizarre but maybe "noble" practices of VFD and the mysteries of its associates and enemies was not over, as Daniel Handler has published more titles as the witty, absurd, and elusive Lemony Snicket. As complicated as things get in this final work alone, the more of those questions (like what's up with the sugar bowl, and the tunnels) are not yet answers in the series that I've just finished.

To be honest, I'm still personally not as interested in VFD as I was in the welfare of the Baudelaires. These poor kids, after sailing away from the burning of the Hotel Denoument with their crazy nemesis Count Olaf, end up in a storm and wash up on a coastal shelf. I don't know if the idea of an island on a coastal shelf being so far from land that to leave it is impossible but once a year is scientifically possible, nor do I know anything about the turning of tides (I'm pretty sure it's merely meant to be symbolic here), but the whole situation that the Baudelaires come across is really sketchy. They're only hoping for a safe place, at last, but that obviously isn't possible for them. Is it possible for anyone, really?

Kind of depressing, but in the end, as the tides turn in favor for leaving the strange island, the tides seem to be turning in favor of the unfortunate Baudelaires. They've been through some shit, but with their biggest (though perhaps not most dangerous) enemy dead, and a lot more knowledge about their parents and their strange world, they seem like they'll be able to survive.

Yep, Olaf does die. But not before he kisses a dying and in-labor Kit Snicket. Uh, things get rather complicated. To keep it short: the leader of the strange island is Ishmal, a former VFD member; Olaf has the poisonous fungus that nearly killed Sunny, and it gets released on the island when Ishmal shoots him with that harpoon gun; the Baudelaires, cured of the poison, are left to care for Kit's orphaned baby. Definitely opens things up for more adventures as they sail away with baby Beatrice (yes, the name of the Baudelaires' mother and Snicket's lost beloved; I had looked it up in advance so it didn't hit me like it might have). 

Here's my issue: how is Olaf slamming so much ass when he's so gross? He blows his nose on curtains. He doesn't wear socks with shoes that really need socks; he maybe showers once every two weeks. He's basically like Charlie Kelly without the love for rat-bashing. Seriously! He's functionally illiterate, has some artist talent, he drinks, and his hygiene is horrendous. The big difference is that Charlie is lovable, while Olaf is just despicable. You learn a little more about his past, and he's just a bitter, vengeful, greedy man when it comes down to it. His having loved Kit doesn't give him much in the way of redemption. But the kids, who really are holding on to their morals, can forgive him to an extent. They've held on to themselves under impossible odds.

I have most enjoyed Snicket's narration through the series, especially when it is more humorous and a bit detached. He's rather intimately involved in the story, when it comes down to it. I think young Beatrice somehow ends up with her uncle, as he makes a couple of comments in the last couple of books about a niece and her uncle: going on for ice cream, and him planting her a tree in the night as a surprise. Snicket never comes out and says that he meets Beatrice, but that's my theory. 

I do think that these books offer up a commentary about life's truths: that death is the Great Unknown, that people are complex, and that treachery exists everywhere. Not happy messages, but very real for a kid's book series. I think I would eventually read some more into Snicket's world, but I'll hold off for a while. I'll be trying to finish off The Dark Tower series over the summer, amongst other things. I think that this Unfortunate series has reawakened an appreciation for series books that I haven't felt since I first got into Harry Potter years ago. 

Book #191: The Bird Sisters

Book #191: The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen

May 27, 2015

I haven't kept up much with contemporary fiction. That's mainly because I've tried to make up for my shameful negligence of important classics (which I feel like I've improved on a lot in the almost three years since I started this "challenge"). When I do go for more contemporary works, I seek out my favorite authors...otherwise, I feel like I'm taking a risk. I only mention all of this because I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of historical fiction being published these days. Is it just me? Anyway, this particular work of contemporary historical fiction was satisfying, unlike some others I have read previously.

This is a coming-of-age story of two sisters, Twiss and Milly, growing up in a small town in Wisconsin. At the start of the story, we see them as aging spinsters. Twiss had a reputation for years for healing injured birds, while Milly would bake for and entertain the people who brought them in. In modern times, business is very slow, but one morning a harried mother brings in a goldfinch she'd hit with her minivan. The bird dies, and when Milly comments to the distraught little girl that there may not be a heaven, the mother snaps that only a woman without children would say a thing like that. This causes both sisters to reflect on why Milly never wed.

Twiss never wanted to or expected to marry. As a lesbian growing up in the middle of the 20th century, the idea of a conventional married life never appealed to her. She was the more daring of the two sisters, while pretty Milly was more timid and courteous, more "ladylike." I'm making them sound like clichés but I felt like they were pretty well fleshed out.

Separately, the sisters both recall the summer that their family was torn apart. Their mother came from wealthy stock, but married a poor man. He longed to fit in with the elite of their community, and he saw a way in through his exceptional golfing skills. Golf and philandering were his vices, and after a car accident causes a mental block in his playing, he loses the former, and the latter is what ends up ruining them.

That summer, the girls' daring cousin Bett comes to visit. Twiss falls in love with her...it only seems a little weird, considering the setting and all. Milly is in love herself, with Asa, a wealthy widower's son. As all this is going on, their parents drift further apart, their mother is kicked out of the snobbish Sewing Society, and they try to come up with a way to raise money to bring Father Rice, the beloved priest who lost his faith, home again.

Much of the book seems quaint and light-hearted, but when the girls learn the truth about their father, things turn tragic very quickly. I won't get into too many details on that. Suffice it to say that for these sisters, things get too real too quickly. But they vow to stay together, and through the rest of their lives they do. They are happy, it seems, but they definitely have regrets about the past. 

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It's one of those quality character-driven stories that I really get into. I would certainly read more by Rasmussen in the future.

Book #190: The Drawing of the Three

Book #190: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

May 24, 2015

I was going to save The Dark Tower series for when I'm officially on summer break. But this one was available through the elibrary, and none of the other options were tripping my trigger, so I got a jump start. This second volume makes me really excited to continue the series. The Gunslinger was pretty good; this book was great.

It starts off with Roland losing two fingers and a toe to a carnivorous giant lobster-type thing. The lobster thingie also poisons him, so he's more than in a bit of a bind. But he continues his journey in search of the Dark Tower. In this book, the man in black's prophecies are fulfilled. Roland encounters three doors, all leading to this world...or the past, as it still seems like Roland lives in the very distant future. Through each door, Roland takes on a person's perspective; that person has some hand in Roland's destiny.

Eddie and Odetta/Detta/Susannah are fascinating characters. They are the ones through the first two doors, and are destined to join Roland on his journey. Eddie was a heroin addict, so obviously coming through to Roland's barren world helps solve that problem. Odetta's issues are a bit more complex, to say the least. She's a schizophrenic whose legs end just below the knee. In spite of her handicap, her other personality, Detta, is very dangerous. When Roland goes through the third door and kills the man who twice tried to kill her, she literally splits into her two distinct personalities. They merge into Susannah, who is tough, smart, yet kind as Odetta always was. She and Eddie are in love, and both accept their fate to accompany Roland, come what may...and Roland acknowledges that they will face many dangers.

Roland's first and third trips through the door were exciting. When he got Susannah, he got her back through quickly because Detta was freaking out. In Eddie's time (1987, the year the book was published), Eddie was smuggling coke in from the Bahamas. He and Roland end up in a shoot-out with the mafia boss who'd hired him after Eddie's brother O.D.'d while being held hostage. Eddie's twisted relationship with his brother was interesting, as he'd always been made to feel guilty about the sacrifices his brother had made to care for him. Henry was the one who led him to getting hooked on heroin in the first place; talking it all out with Roland helped Eddie to finally see his brother's flaws.

Jack Mort, the man through the third door, was never meant to accompany them to the Tower. Roland was meant to kill him, to force Odetta/Detta to confront each other at last. Mort was a wealthy accountant who killed people for fun; he'd dropped a brick on Odetta's head when she was a little girl, and pushed her in front of a subway when she was an adult. When Roland came into his mind, he'd been preparing to push Jake (yes, that Jake) in front of moving traffic. Roland prevents this, thus saving the life he'd once taken...does that fix things with Jake? Will we ever know?

Mort reminded me of Patrick Bateman. Maybe Bateman was inspired by this character, to an extent? Anyway, Roland knows the guy is a piece of shit, and he feels good about being able to kill him, getting him run over by a subway, the same one that had paralyzed Odetta years before. 

Odetta was interesting, even without the split personality. A wealthy black woman in the 1960s, she was active in the Civil Rights Movement. Before getting forced into Roland's world, she'd been in Oxford, Mississippi, to protest or something. The situation with Ole Miss and James Meredith (which Bob Dylan sang about in a song that Eddie vaguely remembers) was a couple of years before that, I think, but it might have been related.

Eddie, Susannah, and Roland seem like a motley crew, but Roland admires the grit of his two companions. He acknowledges them both as gunslingers as they continue their journey. It's unclear why they (especially Susannah, it seems) are so important, but I assume it will all become clear as I continue the series. I can hardly wait, though I may hold off on reading the third volume for a couple of weeks, when I'll officially be on summer break.

Book #189: Quiet

Book #189: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

May 20, 2015

I am quite an introverted person. Even as a little kid as young as six or seven, I remember being very cerebral; I sometimes wondered if I thought too much. I wish I'd had someone to tell me that being introverted was okay, because as a child and a teen, I felt ashamed of my personality. I desperately wanted to be the exact opposite, because society (and perhaps my parents, to an extent) sent the message that being introverted was undesirable. And as an introvert, I was always conscious of the judgment of others. It was a vicious cycle.

I'm still very much an introvert as an adult, and though I've come to embrace it (I mean, if I were more sociable I wouldn't have time to read so many books), I found this book to be validating, to an extent. And I think that was part of Cain's intention, to prove that this temperament is all right, even ideal in many ways. 

Cain looks at the benefits of being an introvert in many areas of life, the unique challenges that cerebral people face in Western culture, and makes suggestions for how to raise a secure introverted child. Basically, to an extent a person is born either introverted or extroverted. Obviously nurture, as well as a person's life choices, have effects on personality development, but biology plays an important role. When we were chatting at my niece's first birthday party recently, my dad brought up a favorite anecdote about my own first birthday: I crawled away on my own and was found in the closet (hardy har har) with a book. This book gave me a new frame through which to view that story: I was largely born an introvert, and having felt overstimulated, I retreated and had some "me" time. Good work, baby Lynsey. How very self-aware of you.

I found the comparisons of different cultures to be interesting, but not surprising. Having traveled to China, I was already familiar with the concept of "saving face." The dominance of introversion in Eastern cultures is in contrast to the "extrovert ideal" in the West. I felt more than ever that I would be better understood (personality wise, that is) in an Asian country. Being hypersensitive to others' feelings...I was always that way, and still am to some extent. So that particular chapter shows how upbringing and culture also have a large hand in shaping personality. It just so happens that in Asian countries, the extroverts are more suppressed, rather than the other way around.

Overall I found this book very interesting. Not just because of the personal validation and the insight into my temperament, but also because of the information on how introverts are often ill served in schools. I think Cain is correct when she says that all kids benefit from a healthy mix of group work and independent work. In a time when differentiated instruction is needed in diverse classrooms, keeping in mind students' temperaments is important; even the most gifted student, if he or she is an introvert, will struggle if there is too much emphasis on group work.

The one part of the book that I didn't get into was near the beginning, when Cain talks about introverts in corporate America or the Ivy Leagues. I don't give a shit about corporations or stocks, and I think people who shuck out hundreds or thousands for seminars by Tony Robbins or similar are suckers. I have an advanced degree, but I went to state universities. There was a bit of an elitist tone throughout this book, though fortunately the entire focus wasn't on business. I mean, obviously the child development and psychology experts would be at top schools. But the "average" people interviewed were upper middle class, lawyers and professors and shit, in California or the East Coast. Not everybody, but the vast majority. It doesn't change the major points that Cain made, but for some reason that irked me. It made it pretty clear whom her audience was and, I don't know, that bugs me a little. I shouldn't assume that Cain is an elitist because she used to be a corporate lawyer, but...

So overall I enjoyed this book. It offered some interesting insights into psychology and development that I'd never considered before. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do what feels right for me...read some more, and not talk to anyone but my dog for the remainder of the night.

Book #188: The Two Towers

Book #188: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

May 14, 2015

As I read this book, I realized how little I remembered of the film version. I remember a little of the battle between the soldiers of Rowan and Saruman's forces (especially Gimli and Legolas's competitive tally of their kills), the tension between Sam and Gollum, and the giant spider (Shelob) who almost killed Frodo. That's about it, so besides one point that I'll explain, I have no clue what the movie neglected to include. I'm thinking I ought to re watch the trilogy once I've read the third installment.

I do seem to recall that the film version of Frodo (played by Elijah Wood, a hometown hero where I live) seemed more willing to trust Gollum, and was almost naïve about it. Frodo in the book has more complex feelings about the wretched creature. He shares Sam's feelings of mistrust, though he isn't openly hostile to him. He basically keeps him around to guide them into Mordor because he thinks that's what Gandalf would want him to do. But he's not blind, and he knows what Gollum is capable of.

I remember being really confused about why the other surviving members of the Fellowship had gotten wrapped up in a battle. But it all ties together, as wicked Saruman was working for Sauron, though he had been trying to get the one ring for himself. So Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandolf fighting to defend Rowan makes sense. 

The Fellowship keeps getting split up. Sam and Frodo are on their own with the ring, of course. Merry and Pippin had been kidnapped by Saruman's Orcs, though they got away and were assisted by Ents, those giant tree creatures. But after reuniting with the others, Pippin and Gandolf ride off alone after Pippin had a look at Saruman's crystal ball...bringing him face-to-face with Sauron. Traumatizing!

Like the last book, Tolkien leaves things in suspense going into the next installment. I may need to read The Return of the King sooner rather than later, so I don't forget important details going into the final book. I know how it ends, obviously (if my memory is correct!), but there will certainly be many many details that I will be picking up for the first time.

A quick note on the title. I couldn't tell which towers it referred to, since both halves of the story mentioned at least a couple of different towers. Apparently Tolkien meant it to be ambiguous; the title was meant to tie together two otherwise very separate parts of the story, I guess. That makes me feel better, because I was starting to think that that was yet again something I had missed.

Book #187: The Penultimate Peril

Book #187: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

May 13, 2015

Book the Twelfth of A Series of Unfortunate Events. This book was baffling in many ways, which I'll go over. But I'll start by pointing out that the on-going theme of the Baudelaires' loss of innocence was the central theme. On a mission at the Hotel Denoument, assigned to them by the cryptic (and pregnant) Kit Snicket, the children are told that they must be on the lookout for villains and "noble" people...and they must observe and judge for themselves which is which. They quickly realize that in most cases, the lines are blurry. As Fernand said in the last book, no one is really wholly evil or good. And the Baudelaires (and the reader) start to realize how monsters like Olaf are created.

While it was fun to see some previous characters again (like the ever-obnoxious Nero), I'm still not sure why Olaf and Esmé invited them to the hotel to attend their party. I don't think that question will ever be answered, since the party never happens. Olaf dumps Esmé in a fit of annoyance, the presence of Carmelita being a source of tension. Oh, and the Baudelaires burn down the hotel.

Their reasoning for this was complicated. First off, it was Sunny's idea; her intention was to send Kit a message, as they'd been instructed. Why go to such extremes? Well, think about all that these poor kids have been through. They've encountered people with wicked intentions who are relentless, and people with decent intentions who are useless. They have just been tricked by the evil couple from The Slippery Slope, who are apparently influential justices in the High Court. Justice Strauss herself never suspected that they were so underhanded, and she'd known them for years. That's just one frustrating issue that the kids faced in this book.

Also, they accidentally shot and killed Dewey Denoument, Kit's baby-daddy, when trying to disarm Olaf in a tense standoff. They obviously did not murder him, but the hundreds of witnesses at the hotel think they did. Their reputations were already in shambles so...fuck it, right? They just wanted to get out of there, even if it meant hitching a ride on Olaf's boat. 

They never wanted to kill anybody. They warned people on each floor of the hotel about the fire, so whether or not people heeded their warning I guess was somewhat on each individual. But they left that chaotic scene of friends, foes, and strangers behind them...and are now on a boat in the ocean with Olaf! Talk about tension.

I felt that Handler missed a good opportunity with his Native Son reference. I would have compared Bigger to Olaf, or even the Baudelaires themselves. Bigger did horrifying things, including killing two women. But what turned him into a monster? Fear fueled by racism. Anger fueled by poverty. His circumstances turned him into a monster, and while it doesn't excuse his actions, it does make him human. The reader gets a bit about Olaf's past in this book. He, too, was orphaned...his parents were murdered by poison darts. Now, that's the same weapon that the Baudelaire parents used at some point. Against whom, we don't know, but while I don't think it was Olaf's parents (the timeline wouldn't make sense), it's still a jarring similarity. I'm sure we'll learn more harrowing details about Olaf's past in the next (and final) book. While his own unfortunate circumstances could never excuse his behavior, it makes him more...human.

And what about the Baudelaires? I guess both literally and metaphorically, they're in the same boat as Olaf. To an extent they've reached the end of their rope, and who can blame them? I commented on an entry on an earlier book that these kids seemed to operate on a higher moral plane, but that's not quite true anymore. I don't see them as bad people, still, but I can see how they could go bad from here. It's a slippery slope (hardy har har), but they are not so far gone that they can't still make a choice. To an extent, they know this.

So much depth for a children's series! I think that I will accomplish my goal of finishing the series by year's end. Only 16 school days to go, but even if I don't finish The End in that time, I'll get to it...I'll borrow the book going into summer if I must. I am eager to see how things turn out for all four of the boat's occupants. From the cover, though, I think Olaf will be done for...I'm not mad at that.

Book #186: Breakfast of Champions

Book #186: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

May 8, 2015

Having just finished this novel, I am not yet sure what I think of it. Vonnegut's a bit bizarre...I knew that, that's what I like about his work. This particular book, one of his most celebrated, may have gone a bit too far. I'm don't know yet...hopefully I will by the time I finish writing this.

At the beginning of the book, you get the impression that the narrator (who turns out to be Vonnegut himself) is someone from another planet. The outsider's observations on the absurdity of life in the U.S. were funny and true, to an extent. Vonnegut uses this as a way of pointing out certain hypocrisies in our society, especially in regards to the treatment of black people. This book definitely has an anti-racist tone, as it examines the racist attitudes of the white citizens in Midland City. It also casts a harsh light on class and wealth, through the stories of Dwayne Hoover's family (his adoptive father especially), as well as the details of how gangs basically run Midland City. The swindlers are the ones who get ahead, just like in real life.

In spite of the prologue, I still found it jarring when Vonnegut entered the story. That got rid of the idea of a futuristic narrator speaking, so I found it strange that Vonnegut would give us that impression in the first place. I was getting really into the story at that point, too. 

Until Vonnegut's arrival, the story mainly revolved around Kilgore Trout (who was a minor character in Slaughterhouse-Five) and Dwayne Hoover. We know all along that these two men will meet, and what the result of the meeting will be. Hoover's descent into madness is the best part of the story, but I mainly enjoyed the details on the different characters. They were all weird and detailed enough to seem realistic. 

So really, it's Vonnegut putting himself into the situation that has me most torn. But here's my take on it. He repeatedly refers to the Creator of the Universe...God, of course. Many people who ponder the existence of a higher power wonder why God would allow bad things to happen. Why the hate and violence? Why the natural disasters that kill people and destroy lives? How could God be so cruel?

Well, you could say that a writer is the creator of his or her own universe. In this case, Vonnegut is the creator...he even says to Kilgore Trout, "I am your Creator." Why would he allow one of his characters to go nuts and hurt a bunch of people? Why would he create a (realistic) world with so much racism and poverty? The question isn't answered, though Vonnegut, unlike the actual Creator of the Universe which may or may not exist, expresses a desire to free his characters...but what does that even mean? Without him, they're literally nothing.

I write creatively, a little. I stink at it, but I still do it, in hopes of maybe creating something that somebody else would want to read. This is a book that I think would be best appreciated by people who write. It is complex and multilayered, and I definitely feel like it needs multiple readings to be fully grasped. So in spite of what I feel is a lack of solidity in this work, overall I can appreciate the complexity and what Vonnegut was attempting here. It definitely makes me want to read more by him.

Book #185: The Princess Bride

 Book #185: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

May 4, 2015

Many people (myself included) consider the film The Princess Bride to be a classic. The cast is charming, the dialogue is clever...it's just a fun movie. The book is just as much fun to read, and there are few differences between the book and film to speak of; in fact, much of the dialogue, including the best lines, are used verbatim. No surprise, since Goldman, a celebrated screenwriter, wrote the adaptation himself.

Goldman uses a fictional version of himself as the framing device. He tells the story of himself as a kid with pneumonia, whose father, an immigrant of the fictional country of Florin, reads him a classic tale from his homeland: The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern. This launches the boy's love for fantasy literature, and leads him to his career as a writer. Years later, he finds a rare copy of the book for his son. When Jason, a fat boy, reveals that he tried to read the book, the grown Goldman is baffled. He looks at the book for the first time, having only ever heard the story when his father read it aloud, and he finds that it is much longer than his father let on. Daddy Goldman only read the "good parts." So Goldman decides to write an abridgment, making the story more accessible to young readers and recreating the story as he'd known and loved it. 

That's obviously very different from the movie. It's only framed by Fred Savage (sick in bed) getting the book read to him by his grandfather (Columbo, I think). So all of the stuff about Goldman and his fictional son and loveless marriage with his fictional wife is different.

We also get more background on the characters, of course. We see more of Buttercup's animosity towards Westley when they were young, plus her development into the most beautiful woman in the world. The movie doesn't emphasize her lack of formal education as much as the book does; for instance, she dislikes numbers and mixes up words like "syllable" and "syllabub." So to be perfectly honest, Buttercup in the book is little more than a pretty face with a tendency to be stubborn. I felt like the perfection that is Robin Wright (yass, queen!) gave real life to the character.

Inigo and Fezzik were just as wonderful here as in the movie. You actually get to see when the sadistic count kills Domingo Montoya, and Inigo's years to training to be good enough to fight the expert swordsman. Fezzik has an interesting childhood, becoming a professional fighter at a young age to please his parents, though the booing he endures when he wins so easily kills his self esteem. Poor Fezzik! Andre the Giant played him perfectly. 

25 years after the publication of the original novel, Goldman added on a little more. He gave an update on his fictional persona's life: fat Jason became a fit bodybuilder and a sex therapist, and while Goldman's wife eventually left him, his career as a screenwriter had continued success (that part is true). His grandson wants him to abridge Morgenstern's follow-up to The Princess Bride, but he only decides to do it when he's informed by the late Morgenstern's lawyer that he can't: the job's already gone to a fictional version of Stephen King. King suggests that Goldman abridge the first chapter; he personally doesn't want to, but his relatives in Florin have applied pressure, and he kinda thinks he can do a better job than Goldman. So we only get a single chapter of the unfinished follow-up, "Buttercup's Baby." It was okay, I guess, but I'm not exactly peeved that Goldman didn't go on to just write the whole sequel. 

This is a rare case where the movie is better than the book. The book is still very good, but the movie is phenomenal. I also think that this is a situation where the author using himself as a fictional character worked out...it doesn't always. But I'm glad that the movie focused on the main plot, and not on fictionalGoldman  himself. 

Book #184: Home

Book #184: Home by Toni Morrison

April 30, 2015

This is only the second Morrison book that I've read; the first was the highly acclaimed Beloved. Undoubtedly, she is one of the most important authors of our time. What's disappointing about this very short book was that it left me wanting more. With how intriguing and complex the two main characters were, I felt like the book should have been at least twice as long. This story felt rather condensed to me.

Frank Money was a young soldier in the Korean War. I found this very interesting, since I'm teaching a unit on the Cold War in my history class. When we read the section on the Korean War, my students noted that U.S. soldiers were now integrated. I also had them listen to a brief NPR clip about a Korean War vet who compared his low-key homecoming to the block party that was thrown when his brother returned from WWII. Frank returns to racist America with a heavy heart and severe PTSD. His best friends both died, and he has a lot of guilt over a certain situation. Frank stays with a woman named Lily in Seattle (I think) when he is discharged, but he gets a message that his sister in Atlanta is very dangerously ill. His journey home is eventful; there are moments when kindness is shown to him, and moments of violence. 

Cee is his younger sister. Frank was the only one who ever loved her. Their parents were too overworked to care, and their hateful step-grandmother took her anger out on the young girl. Cee is seduced by a young man after her brother leaves, and after hastily marrying him, he drags her to Atlanta, then abandons her. Cee eventually finds a job as an assistant to a doctor in his home. Too bad this guy is a sadist; he drugs Cee and "experiments" on her vagina, causing her reproductive system to get all fucked up and nearly killing her. 

When Frank shows up, he takes her to their hometown, a short way from Atlanta. Cee is aided by the strong, stern women she'd avoided as a timid child. She and Frank both have a lot of healing to do; both have been through a lot. But there's a bit of closure at the end.

A really great concept for a novel. But I didn't think this was as good as it could have been, simply because Morrison could have given us so much more. It was far from poorly written; it was just too short.

Book #183: Choke

Book #183: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

April 28, 2015

Double-entry day. Every time I finish a monsterously long classic, I feel like I'm able to blast through much shorter books. This is the third Palahniuk that I've read, and it had what I would expect: dark humor, controversy, characters of questionable morality. It never got dull, and in the end, I feel like there may be some hope for Victor, the narrator.

Victor's not a bad person, although he doesn't think real highly of himself. He's a sexaholic, but only goes to the meetings for sex. He's a med-school dropout who works as a tour guide at a colonial village-type place. He pretends to choke in restaurants to make people feel heroic...and to scam them out of money by keeping in touch and playing on their sympathies. He's a messed up guy, and judging from the flashbacks about his unstable mother, an Italian immigrant who kidnapped him when he was a baby, it's pretty easy to see why.

Besides the sex (which isn't good or bad on his part, it just is), Victor has good reasons for what he does. He uses the money from his sympathetic heroes to pay for his mother's health care. He allows old women with dementia to use him to come to grips with their own past trauma. For instance, one old woman thinks he's the older brother who molested her when they were kids. So he pretends to be this brother and apologizes, hence helping her to get closure. He does something similar for many of the patients.

Now, the situation with Paige Marshall seemed sketchy from the start, and what is learned about her near the end makes a whole lot of freaking sense. I guess the one thing I don't get is, why did Victor fall for the whole stem cell thing? Being a former medical student, didn't he think that sounded strange? Even if there was something to the concept, it would be highly unprofessional for Paige to produce the fetus herself. The fact that Victor got sucked into her insanity is the one thing that didn't click for me here.

Paige leads Victor to believe that, according to Ida's Italian diary, he was conceived using genetic material from Jesus Christ. This makes him think, eventually, that he could be a good person and lead a significant life. Learning the (much more grounded in reality) truth, and being arrested on the accusation of raping the old woman he'd tried to help, he earnestly tries to choke to death on a bottle cap, and his life is genuinely saved for the first time. After having to face down the many many people he'd conned at restaurants, Victor actually has a feeling of empowerment, thanks to his buddy Denny.

As I said, this is everything I'd expect from Palahniuk. The story is light-hearted yet complex. Victor isn't a perfect person, by a long shot, but you can still sympathize with him. There's even a good message here about taking control of your own destiny, in spite of the past. Perhaps Jean Valjean could have learned a thing or two from Victor Mancini.