Book Reviews

I mentioned quite a while ago that I would write reviews for the two books I recently read.  ANd then I forgot.  And then I would remember as I read another book before bed.  But I don't want to write reviews then.  So finally, here are the promised reviews.  In a slightly more condensed version now that it's been months to weeks since I've finished them.

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern

I had high hopes for this one.  I got it as a gift for Christmas and read it a couple months later.  It's about two magicians'  apprentices battling in the late 1800- early 1900s while they work in a circus that is only open at night.  Awesome premise right?

The first half is very good.  The descriptions of the circus are fantastic, flowery confections.  The characters are interesting as they interact, since only one of the two battling apprentices (Celia and Marco) knows who his adversary is.

The book cover promises a love affair between Celia and Marco which does not get underway until probably 3/4 of the way through the book.  Since I was waiting since page one, I found this annoying.

Also, the nature of the battle is not as climactic or straightforward as I was expecting. They are just supposed to create better, more intricate, more difficult tents within the circus.  (For example, one is the cloud tent, where it appears that you are walking through clouds as you wind your way up the tent.)  And then when the weaker apprentice cannot handle the strain of managing so many tents, it's over.  Because that one dies.  There's not really any dueling or anything fun like that.

Also, about 2/3 through the book some random character from the future (not our future, just the future of the book, like 1900 as opposed to 1887 or whatever).  Then this character, Bailey, winds his way into the main narrative and


(SPOILER ALERT)
ends up saving the circus or whatever.  I'm still not clear on how that worked, since he didn't start out magical.  But whatever.
(end of SPOILER ALERT)


There was a distinct problem with pacing too.  I don't know if it was because each chapter is preceded by the date it takes place and this spans a number of decades.  Things take a long time to get rolling (number of years as well as pages).  Or if the stately and descriptive cadence set by the first half of the book doesn't match up with the quicker pace of the end.  I felt like a lot was crammed into the end of this book, and not everything seemed as well-explained or built up to as it should have been.  It's kind of hard to explain this one, but I hope you got it.

Lastly, the characters of Celia and Marco still didn't seem fleshed out enough.  They fall in love too quickly.  Or kind of randomly?  I don't know, I felt their relationship wasn't built up enough when it finally happened.  And Marco is a little flat for being a main character.  He just doesn't do much, and how he becomes a magician's apprentice is weird.  But what's weirder is that he doesn't think getting picked up out of a boarding school by this random guy and then left alone in his own room and then apartment is very strange.  I think part of the problem might have been that Marco's thoughts were not  known enough by the reader.

I was kind of expecting a lot out of this book and it let me down.  As awesome as the premise is and how lovely the descriptions are, there are some pacing, character and plot issues.  Not to mention the obnoxiously placed email address at the very end of the book.  The events that transpired were meant to take place over a century ago, and you finish with an email?  Let me explain, throughout the book there are page-long descriptive scenes that let you "walk through the circus".  They are in 2nd person and the book closes with one of these scenes.  Where you get a business card for the owner of the circus.  With his damn email on the back.  Am I supposed to email this yatz?  Are you kidding me, Erin Morgenstern?  But anyway, the last quarter of the book really fell flat to me, and that is why I'm left wanting a visit to a better circus.


Heidegger's Glasses
by Thaisa Frank

Did you know the Nazis were incredibly suspicious?  So suspicious and fascinated by the occult that they thought that letters sent to the dead should be answered so that the ghosts would be satisfied and wouldn't bother psychics and mediums for answers, inadvertently revealing the Final Solution?  This is the premise of Heidegger's Glasses.

It's a work of fiction, but it describes some of the horrors of the Holocaust from a strange perspective: Jewish letter writers in an underground complex that were saved from being sent to Auschwitz by their abilities to speak various languages.  One of my favorite parts of the book that is also quite chilling is when we learn how each of the scribes came to be in the compound, what language they spoke, shouted or whispered that saved them from being sent to a concentration camp.

Between each chapter is a letter.  The original language above with an English translation below it.  They are from people in the concentration camps.  Some are obviously written under coercion from a Nazi, since they say how great it is where they are and that the person they are writing to should come meet them.  Understandably, the scribes in the compound don't answer very many letters a day, since just reading them is difficult.

Elie, the main character, works in the compound for the Germans while secretly sneaking as many people across the border and getting as much food and supplies that she can for the compound.  She is in love with Lodenstein, the German soldier assigned to the compound who sympathizes with the Jews and throughout the course of the story does his share of rescuing.

The characters are compelling and are clearly pushed to their limits as they deal with uncompromising circumstances of life and death as WWII come to a close.

One problem I had was the wrapping up of the ending.  Elie and Lodenstien are separated as the war ends.  The reader read about them looking for each other then we switch gears and follow around the child of two of the inhabitants of the compound.  Wait a minute.  What the hell happens between them?

(SPOILER ALERT)
I think I know the answer, they never see each other again.  Elie and Lodenstein are forced to live out their days terribly alone and unhappy.  So much for surviving the goddamn war.  But really?  I have to infer this?
(end SPOILER ALERT)

I didn't like how book was ended with the thoughts of a character we just met a few pages ago. Otherwise, it was a solid novel, though like all Holocaust-centered stories, quite sad.

American Gods

(Or, why I also want to meet and befriend Neil Gaiman.)

Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.


Some books come into our lives at the exact right moment.  I am in the middle of transition within my life, and I think our country is as well.  American Gods by Neil Gaiman is an intelligent and fascinating look into the landscape of America.  


It begins with a caveat and warning for travelers, saying that the places and geography used within the book can be found.  And "it goes without saying that all of the people living, dead or otherwise in this story are fictional or used in a fictional context.  Only the gods are real."


In the melting pot that is America, this book delves into what happens to the gods that all of the immigrants to this land have brought with them.  Gaiman obviously did tons of research into the waves of people that have come to America, from the 18th century to 14,000 BC and many points between.  And within the larger narrative arc of the book, he adds in slices of those tales and who their gods are.  


The gods of America are in a battle for the hearts and minds of Americans.  And the old gods  -a leprechaun, an African spider god, Odin, Loki, and others I had never heard of- are losing the battle to the newer gods of technology, TV, and other stuff.  Shadow, the main character is thrust into this battle and mucks his way through helping his new employer, Mr. Wednesday, and figuring out what this battle is all about.  


Gaiman's use of suspense is admirable.  It's a thick book at 588 pages and it took me a while to get through it, but his craft in storytelling is evident on each page.  His prose is lyrical, smart and sometimes funny.  


While I was reading, it brought up a lot of personal faith questions.  There's a story in the Bible which says where your treasure is, there also you will be.  And you should store your treasure in heaven (i.e. believe in Jesus), in order to go to heaven in the afterlife.  Personifying technology as a god really brought home this idea for me.  I've heard homilies (the sermon the priest gives after the Gospel, which is the selection of the Bible read to us about Jesus) a number of times about how we should not make money or stuff our 'gods' or think of them as more important than God and Jesus.  But from the book I thought how technology, and science, could also become like a 'god'.  Do we really worship our computers and iPads?  Do I?  


There's a creepy moment when Shadow is visited by the TV god.  I won't ruin it by giving away too many details, but she comments on how she is 'worshipped' by people who give her time. Again, do I worship TV because I watch too damn much of it?


Anyway, I highly recommend this novel.  It's a fabulous read and will make you think about who our/your gods are.  

The Dante Club

It's book review time, once again!  I finished The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl yesterday, and it was a pretty good read.  It followed a group of friends who are poets and publishers (Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, and Fields), so I suppose I was inclined to like it simply for that.  But these guys form a club to help Longfellow translate Dante's Divina Commedia.  Then murders start plaguing some of Boston's elite and only they can help because the murders reflect specific circles of hell from Dante.

In highschool I read The Inferno, okay skimmed and spark noted, so I was mildly familiar with the work which helped my reading.  But Pearl does a good job in providing enough for a reader to not be familiar with Dante and still enjoy the book.

I have to say, it was a little bit of a slow start (at least after the book begins with the discovery of the first murder victim).  But once we get to more people being killed, the intrigue, horror and mystery really pick up and the book takes off.

It was interesting to read about a time (1865- post Civil War) when Dante was unknown to America.  Though I'm not necessarily familiar with his works, I've always felt a certain amount of reverence for it, like I do other classical authors (like Shakespeare and others).  So when reading about some characters talking about Dante and his 'smut' and how Italian is not a superior language worth knowing, I was thrown.  There was a time in literary history when Dante was not thought of as an accomplished and admired poet?  And more significantly, the Harvard fellows at the time believed the vernacular languages to be greatly inferior to Latin, Greek and Hebrew.  They thought, what could be written in these languages of any significance?  Now, hardly anyone uses these languages with frequency.  They are no longer revered and held above vernacular tongues as superior ways of speaking, writing, and thinking.  I found all of this fascinating.  It's like they thought English was just some passing phase.

Aside from the interesting historical aspects, this book is pretty solid: well-written, interesting characters, thrilling plot.  I would say though, that it's not a quick read.  The language (and perhaps smallish print) is very literary and intelligent and not something that you just fly through.  Not that this is a problem, but stylistically important and in keeping with the characters and subject matter.

About the characters, I only knew Longfellow by name, but it was interesting to pretend to get into the lives of well-known poets and a publisher.  I thought it was funny though, how the three poets (except Fields, who is their publisher) are not really on equal terms.  Longfellow is revered by Lowell and Holmes, not to mention the rest of Boston. Everyone recognized him where he went; it was like he was a celebrity.  (Which sort of made me laugh, because I could not recognize any famous poet if I saw one today.)   I guess if I was friends with Longfellow, I might be a little intimidated and respect his mad poetry skills, but I'm kinda glad that our group of writers doesn't have a dynamic like that.  None of us is thought to be better or superior than the rest.  We all have different strengths as writers, but no one is on a pedestal, and out main focus is supporting each other.  Though if  when we get published and one of us is recognized by a complete stranger I will doff my hat and give you Longfellow-esque admiration.

I am the Messenger

Through all of these book reviews, I have come to a realization about the strata of books.  (I'm sure I kinda already knew this, and that you do too, but it has been made abundantly clear now..)

There are bad books.  Badly written, bad/unexplored characters, bad/confusing/nonsensical plots, and almost worse than all those, bad/terrible theme or message of the book.  (We all know to whom I refer, here's looking at you Twilight.)

There are good books.  Books that have quality writing, engaging characters, plots that draw you deeper into the world of the book.

Then there are books that affect you.  That are not just good, they leave a mark on you.  They can make you feel, or change your way of thinking, or cause you to do something.  They are why we read books.  They are why we write them.

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak is one of those books.

Rather high praise, I know.  But this is the second book I've read by him and the second book I've been wildly impressed by.  (The first was The Book Thief.  Fabulous.  Read it.)  A couple pages in, I knew this was going to be a good book.  And 357 pages later I am not disappointed.

It's about Ed Kennedy who is an underage cabdriver going nowhere in his life.  It begins with him and his 3 friends, Marv, Audrey and Ritchie, in a bank as it's being robbed.  Events tumble from there and soon a playing card, the ace of diamonds, arrives in Ed's mailbox with 3 addresses and times.  He has to go there and do something at those times.  But what?  After visiting these homes he begins to understand he has been sent to help them, to deliver a message.

I finished it yesterday while eating lunch at Noodles and Company.  I teared up a couple times.  In public.  This book has also made me laugh.  Which I think speaks to the range of this author, that humor and emotion can be done well and in such a moving way.

Aside from one small issue I had at the end about who is giving Ed his mysterious and challenging messages to deliver, I have no complaints.

The characters are messy and realistic and pitch perfect.  The narrator has a clear voice that can be sarcastic or heartrending depending on the situation.  In fact this narrator reminded me in a weird way of the narrator in The Book Thief, who also happens to be Death.  It's because it's the same writer and the style is so evidently the same, but it was still kind of interesting to conflate Ed and Death.

Oh, and the author is Australian and the book is set in Australia.  So I love it that much more.

Anyway,  the end is very moving and I am again impressed by the skill of Markus Zusak.  His poetic prose  and personifications kept me engaged and engrossed throughout the entire book.  I think y'all should read it.

Angelology

I finished the book Angelology by Danielle Trussoni.  It was an okay book, but I found myself getting more annoyed with it as I continued reading.  It was an interesting concept:  half angelic beings are the root of all strife and are among the ruling class of people.  Execution, though, was sometimes troubling for me.



On a basic language level, I found her writing too flowery for my taste.  But wanting to delete nearly one unnecessary word per page makes for a poor reading experience.  She did things (like overusing adverbs and saying things in a long, archaic kind of way) that any one of my writing workshops would have immediately jumped all over.  I felt like her language could use some heavy editing, though I realize this is more of my personal preference for reading and writing.

The plot was intriguing but a little clunky.  For about 100 pages (once we are already 150 in) she changes tack to follow a different character around in the past.  I found this sustained excerpt jarring, initially confusing, and at the end kind of unnecessary.  (We only needed to know the details of what happened in the last 35 pages of the section.)  To add to my dislike of this section, we were following around this annoying and semi-stupid girl.  She was naive to the point of stupidity, and since it was always brought up what a good student she was, I was annoyed by her simplicity.

Then we get back to the main character, a young pretty satisfied-with-her-life nun named Evangeline.  Umm, really?  Okay, we take that as it is.  Fine.  Then later we find out she saw an angel when she was a little girl and never demanded her dad to know what the hell he was doing with a captive angel?  REALLY?  She is also kind of simple-minded as a character.  Which I've found, as I read books with stupid characters, annoys me.

Oh, and the boy that shows up at the convent, and gets tangled into the messy web of the angelologists lives and the angels' ruthless plans, falls for the pretty nun.  And after a few tense situations, Evangeline starts to realize she IS capable of sexual feelings.  And they are directed towards the only man her age she's seen in... how many years?  at least 5.  Uh-huh.

Well, needless to say really, when two of the pivotal characters kick it at the end (in fact both are murdered)  I can't say I cared.  I didn't feel an emotional conniption to any of them (well, the boy was decent, he didn't annoy me and he had appropriate and intelligent insight sometimes).  But the rest?  Didn't really care for, wasn't rooting for them, and when the angelic lyre (which the book is spent looking for) is found and assembled I was kind of left wanting more.

I could tell you in detail about the end (which I had huge problems with) but I will hold off in case any of you want to take the dive yourselves.  I will say this:  there is a pretty big plot twist, and I was not engaged enough at the end to really care about how it affected Evangeline.

Oh, and this is only the first in a series.  I had no idea about this when I picked up the book.  Well, I doubt I'll continue reading the series.  This just goes to show you, all the wonderful and intricate fantasy in the world can't save lackluster characters.

Michael Vey: the electric boy

I finished this book about week ago, so I should probably review it for y'all.  It's called Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans.  It's a YA novel.  It's the first in a series.  It's sci-fi.  My mom read it and suggested it to me.  And I loved it.

Of course this type of book has been my bread and butter since I was ten, so of course I'm biased to like this genre, but this also makes me a little more critical if something isn't working.  But this book works.  From the first chilling chapter to the introduction of Michael to the action-packed finale, I was engaged, fascinated and left wanting more.  Exactly what I want from a book.

The initial chapter (like 2 pages) focuses on two nameless villains discussing "the last two" children they are looking for.  They have a million dollar bounty on both of these kids, because they need to find them quick because "you know how difficult they are to turn at this age."  Then they ominously mention Cell 25 as a place to put these kids if they can't be turned.  Terrifying, brief, lets us know how serious these villains are, and whets our appetite for more.  Though I will concede that this is not a new tactic.  (See Ender's Game and almost any other YA sci-fi novel...)  But I love this genre, so it works for me.

The second chapter (another short one) introduces us to Michael.  This could have been a throw-away chapter, Hi, my name is blah-blah, I'm special, read about me.  But I was really impressed by how much we learn about him, how clear his voice is, and how drawn into the story I was.  It starts: "It's not like I was looking for trouble.  I didn't have to.  At my height it just always found me."  Gold.  We learn a lot and want to know more.  The rest of the chapter is similar.  Michael is 14, lives in Idaho, is short and bullied, and has a huge secret.

We soon find out (if you didn't read the book jacket) that he is electric.  That is he can control electricity.  Over the course of the book we learn more about his abilities, the others that have abilities, and actually quite a bit about electricity itself.  This rooting in actual science make the abilities more believable and intriguing.  Clearly, the author did some heavy duty research and I appreciate the realistic credentials it lends to the story.

More about character voice: Michael's is pitch perfect.  From the first few chapters, we get small details that inform his character.  (He thinks rice krispies are the best food invented, he knows ninth grade is the armpit of life...)  These are great and having them peppered in the story giving Michael a more realistic feel and a genuinely 14-year-old point of view.  Also, POV in first person, at least when we are following Michael around (which is most of the time).  But we do slip into third person to see events that Michael is not privy to.  I didn't have a problem with this.  I know having 1st person, especially in a YA novel, makes sense since the reader is that much closer to the character.  So I couldn't decide if there was really any way to do this better.  We need to know about the other things that happen, but I don't think we need to sacrifice the 1st person of Michael just to have a little smoother transition from character to character throughout the book.  Like I said, I didn't see a problem here, but others might so thought I mention it to see if you have any further comments on this issue.

More about action:  There is a pretty long action sequence at the end (which I zoomed through) and it's executed superbly.  Many of the characters are very intelligent and some have powerful abilities.  This combination made a great climax because Evans utilized both smartly.  And once it was over, I wanted to read about them to continuing on their quest (it is the beginning of a series).

So I have to say, mission accomplished for this book.  I enjoyed what I read and wanted more.  So I recommend checking it out.

The Athena Project: where women kick ass

Hello again.  Since we are supposed to be posting more about the books we are reading, I'll review one I just finished.  It's The Athena Project by Brad Thor.  I'll be honest, I picked up the book at one of few remaining Borders because of the word Thor.  Before setting it down because this was only the author's name, I read the inside cover and it was about a team of secret government operatives kicking ass.  The best part: they are all women.

This book had some great, intense and harrowing action scenes.  And I really like that it centered around four women.  This team of four are athletic, attractive women that were recruited by the military to do covert counterterrorism operations in situations where men would not be given access or whatever.  Neat concept, I thought.  And Thor executes it pretty well.

A couple issues I had right away though were the women's characterizations and the jumpiness of the novel.  The reader is introduced to these four women and a paragraph for each summarizes their character and appearance.  While reading it, I thought this approach was a little heavy handed and too much info at one time.  Although, later I referred back to it to keep the four women straight.  (Oh, and I should note these characters have been in another book, so maybe these descriptions were just to get me up to speed.)

Another issue was that in only a couple chapters in we switch locations to follow a new cast of characters.  My initial reaction was, What the hell?  Go back to the chicks in Venice kicking ass and taking prisoners! I don't care what these new people are doing in a top secret military meeting.  No one is getting thrown out of windows here!  Later, I understood that we needed to get some of that background from the people in the meeting, but I still didn't like the interruption in the flow of action.  This jumpiness continued throughout the book.

Part of the problem with switching between three to four different places with completely different characters is all of the names.  I don't know what the appeal is, but Thor loves using first and last names.  I understand using both names when introducing new characters, but constantly referring to all characters by either their first or last name when you have so many characters in various places around  the world doing completely different things, I get confused.  It interrupts flow and brings me out of the book when I have to go searching through what I've already read to figure out who I'm reading about now.

Another glaring issue within this same idea:  Thor opens the book with some doctor rooting around in the jungles of Paraguay.  We don't get back to the jungle until page 200.  Eh.  I'm not sure that's okay with me.  I understand his reasoning; we need some significant background and things to happen before we can fully understand what the doctor found in the jungle.  But still, 200 pages seemed a little too long to keep us hanging.  Though I could see how this opening (if speeded up) would be a good opening in a movie.

In fact, his writing seems kind of cinematic in scope.  I could picture all of the things that happened and all of the amazing stunts the women pulled off like it was a movie.  Although the terrifying Nazi machine they find might be a bit graphic for PG-13...

Anyway, there were some clear problems I had with it, but overall The Athena Project was an enjoyable action thriller worth looking in to, if you're into that sort of thing.