Summer Reading

Yep. It's that time of the year... again. Where I have to read tedious, horribly boring, or (if I'm lucky) just remotely interesting books and pay attention to what they say. This year's list is less than enjoyable, and while it gave me choices, few of them were what I really wanted to read.

Nonetheless, I did see a few of my favourite authors on the list and therefore chose them. Technically I only have to read four, but adding the fifth seemed a safe bet. Without further ado, here is the dreaded List:

-Puddenhead Wilson, Mark Twain
-Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Fannie Flagg
-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
-House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
-Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury

Mark Twain and Ray Bradbury are the authors who made me smile and think that maybe this year's list wasn't quite so bad. After all, nothing can beat The Once and Future King in a "kill-it-dead" contest--not even 1984 or Animal Farm (though Animal Farm does give The Once and Future King a run for its money).

Reviews will be on their way. I promise.

Magyk

by Angie Sage

Magyk is the story of Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son. This is a very Magykal position, as the seventh son of a seventh son has many Magykal powers.

...Okay, I can't continue. Magyk is an enormous book, where every other word is either capitalized and/or misspelled. In order for me to write a review on it, I would probably have to follow the same style, which would bother me to no end.

To be frank, the only thing that kept me reading this story was the characters. The plot rings somewhat hollow, even two books later (I'm currently reading Physik). The unconventional spelling wouldn't bother me nearly as much as it does because all the "important" words are bolded and in a different font face (a highly idiotic formatting move on the part of the editor, in my opinion). But the characters are hilarious, and they keep the story moving. Septimus (aka Boy 412)... Jenna, the not-so-regal Princess... Alther, the very helpful plot-device-character ghost... Marcia, the uptight ExtraOrdinary Wizard... Sarah and Silas Heap, and all the Heap brothers... it's crazy, but fun.

This book is a very hefty one. It's a good read, but more aimed towards those readers who love reading so much that a two-inch-thick novel does not faze them. Read it for the characters!

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

When someone says "Holocaust novel," the first thing that comes to mind is a tearjerking story of Jews who were tossed into a concentration camp, right? The camp of choice for fictitious stories is usually the ever-infamous Auschwitz, while true stories tend to have more variation. The Book Thief is not an average Holocaust novel.

Liesl Meminger's mother has given her up for adoption. Liesl ends up living with a foster family, the Hubermanns. They are a German family: Papa (Hans) Hubermann, and his wife Rosa (aka Mama). Liesl joins the Hitler Youth, becomes friends with Rudy, a neighbourhood soccer teammate, and is generally a good German girl in the 1940s. But then a Jewish man from Papa Hubermann's history comes to the house and they have a Jew living in their basement in the midst of the Holocaust.

This story, narrated by Death, is fascinating. Instead of a typical concentration-camp story, Death follows Liesl and her life in Nazi Germany. I highly recommend this to anyone who like Holocaust fiction (and even those who don't--it's really, really good!). But start reading some time in the day, or else you won't have time to sleep at night. It's an all-night story.

...Oops...

Yes, I know. This post is long overdue. And it still isn't a real post! Don't worry. Posts will happen! I just need a little more time. Current project: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Excellent book. I can't put it down!

My Ántonia

by Willa Cather

This novel is set somewhere in the Midwest and chronicles the story of young Jim Burden. Bohemian neighbours move to America and live nearby, and My Ántonia tells of how the children grow up together. The Bohemians speak little English, so the Burdens help them, as well as aiding them in surviving the winters. Ántonia (or Tony) is Jim Burden's little friend. Tony is a few years older than Jim, but they still watch out for each other.

Quite honestly, I didn't really understand the point of this story. It was sweet, but I'd rather not have read it. Not quite as slow as Siddhartha, My Ántonia took me long enough to read as it was.

Siddhartha

by Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha is a fictitious novel portraying the journey of the life of the founder of Buddha. Laden with symbolism and descriptions, this puny just-over-one-hundred-page novel is like wading uphill through molasses in the dead of winter. I actually had to read it twice just to understand it, and regretted the second read-through. Unless you really enjoy this type of novel, I do not recommend it. On a nice night, I think I'm going to burn it.

His Majesty's Dragon

by Naomi Novik

As a man of the navy, Captain Will Laurence did not ever expect to come across a dragon. Moreover, he never expected to have to be the master of one. But when the dragon egg captured as a prize from a French ship hatches and takes a liking to him, he finds himself the companion of a black dragon by the name of Temeraire. At first, taking care of Temeraire is a daunting task. All he does is eat and grow and eat some more. Captain Laurence knows that as soon as they reach shore, he must take on the task of learning to be an aviator.

Within weeks, Temeraire's company begins to grow on Captain Laurence, until he is comfortable in his job as handler. Once they reach shore, Laurence is assigned to the aviator base and begins a brand-new adventure.

Temeraire turns out to be a very rare Celestial dragon from the Orient. The people at the aviation base try to assign Temeraire a new handler, but he refuses. Relieved, Laurence continues his training with Temeraire, learning to fly and becoming even better friends with his dragon. The black dragon is fascinated by battles and constantly asks Laurence to read to him tales of heroic feats and aerial combat.

His Majesty's Dragon takes the Napoleonic wars and inserts dragons. It is a wonderful work of historical fantasy, and I doubt my book review does it justice. I'm currently searching for the next in the series (though I have to return this one, still...)

The Twilight Saga

by Stephenie Meyer

The saga begins with Twilight, the first in the series of four. Isabella (better known as just Bella) Swan is on her way to live with her dad, Charlie. All her life, she has lived with her mom, Renée. Upon arriving in Forks, her new home, she jumps right into her senior year of high school. While there, she meets Edward Cullen. Bella does some poking around and figures out that Edward and his family are vampires. Around the same time, she realizes that she is completely and utterly in love with him.

...I can't review all four of these books... I'm sorry, readers. I went to the midnight release for Breaking Dawn last night and stayed up all night reading, so I'm lucky if this is coherent. Stephenie Meyer is an excellent writer, and I highly recommend these books to anyone interested. It is a rare day when I find a romance series that I enjoy so much that I will follow it as far as it goes. Just go read them. They hold your attention.

So Yesterday

by Scott Westerfeld

Ever wonder who decides what's cool and what's not? Hunter Braque is one of those people. Hunter is a Trendsetter, the second level of the "cool pyramid." Then, one day when he's out cool-hunting, he comes across an Innovator by the name of Jen. Innovators are the top of the cool pyramid, the ones who have the original ideas. They're the ones who are the first to do something new, like tie their shoelaces in a new pattern, or wear clothes too big on purpose.
Trendsetters go around looking for Innovators so that they can sell the ideas to advertisers. Jen's latest Innovation is to tie her shoelaces in a rising-sun pattern, and Hunter spots it and sends it to his boss, Mandy. While talking to Jen, Hunter gets a call from Mandy to go to a focus group for reviewing an advertisement. Hunter invites Jen along, and she startles everyone there by making an observation that nobody had made before. This couldn't be good, since Mandy wasn't happy. But as it turns out, businesses like original thinking. They are looking for new ideas and original concepts so as not to reuse the old ones over and over again.

Shortly afterward, Mandy invites the two of them to a meeting. She had something to show them, a new level of cool. But she never turns up for the meeting, and Hunter and Jen find Mandy's phone in a nearby abandoned building. Suspecting that Mandy has been kidnapped, they embark on a crazy mission to find her and rescue her. As it all turns out, things aren't what they seemed to be...

I really, really enjoyed this book. Westerfeld's creative use of capital letters to indicate importance or emphasis (i.e., Innovators, Trendsetters; at a computer-geek's house, dust and sunlight were Very Bad Things and Bad Things, respectively) is very clever and gives voice to the story. The characters come to life, with an excellent balance of action and slump, along with a dash of romance to keep things interesting. This story, though it may be small, has a little bit of everything I look for in a book. Action, character interaction, espionage, humour, seat-of-the-pants decisions... the list goes on, but it's all there. Kudos to Westerfeld, and this book gets a great recommendation!

Poison

by Chris Wooding

Poison is a strong-willed, bull-headed child who lives in the marshes. She chose her own name on her nameday in order to spite her mean stepmother. Then, one day, she finds her little sister Azalea taken by the phaeries and decides that she must go rescue her. Once she reaches the Realm of the Phaeries, she goes to the Phaerie Lord and asks him for her sister back. He tells her that she must steal a dagger from another lady, the Lady of Cobwebs. Poison steals the dagger and returns to the palace, only to discover that the Phaerie Lord, Aelthar, won't give her her sister back and instead intended to kill her. With Bram, the wraith-catcher who joined her cause; Peppercorn, the girl she picked up in the house between Realms; and Andersen, the cat who was Peppercorn's companion, Poison determines to steal Azalea back. Her plan is thwarted, however, when she discovers that the Hierophant, the most powerful lord in the Realms, is writing again. To her, this means nothing--to the rest of the Phaerie Realm, it means something big is going to happen.

Poison, along with her companions, travel to the Hierophant's castle, where Poison encounters Fleet, an old friend of hers from the marshes. Fleet explains that he is an Antiquarian, someone who watches the world and records the most interesting of stories. Thus, the Hierophant is the head Antiquarian, and whatever he writes, happens. The Hierophant tells Poison that she is but a character in the fiction he is writing, and that all that has happened is just a story. Poison tries to give up, but all the people in her story begin to fade and die. She steps back onto the path just in time for someone to murder the Hierophant with the dagger she stole from the Lady of Cobwebs. The Phaerie Lord actually figured out who had done it--his secretary, Scriddle, who was originally born for the sole purpose of becoming the Hierophant. Accompanying Scriddle was the Hierophant's wife, Pariasa. It was she who did the deed and stole the book recording the Hierophant's life from the Hierophant's library. Scriddle, who had intended to become the next Hierophant, tries to kill Poison. But he can't kill Poison without killing himself, as he is merely a part of HER story. Of course, Poison is the next Hierophant, and she records her own story. Her test was the quest that the Hierophant sent her on through his writing.

As soon as I opened this book, I sensed two things. One: a very clichéd character set. Poison has purple eyes, an angsty name, and she named herself. On top of that, she is rebellious. Two: a plot-driven story. There are four main kinds of stories in the world: plot-based, character-based, both, neither. Usually I prefer the stories that are character-based and have good plotlines, falling under the category of "both." However, I can excuse a plotline if the characters are convincing enough. Poison was a little too predictable for my tastes. I knew, at least twenty pages in advance, that Poison would be the next Hierophant. I knew she would succeed at the impossible, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the girl she met in the first town would have an importance later on. If you like stories with good plots but cardboard-cut-out characters, take it. If you're more like me, pick up something else.

Another thing that really irked me was Wooding's consistent usage of ridiculous spelling. Phaeries for fairies or faeries, magick for magic, etc. It got really irritating after a while... Regular spelling works just fine, but for some reason he felt the urge to add in the extra letters. British spelling I will excuse--I spell certain words the British way. I grew up on Roald Dahl and Harry Potter before graduating on to Agatha Christie, so it's imprinted onto my brain patterns. But adding all those different letters gave me a headache after a while and did little more than frustrate the grammar Nazi in me (who is trying to be on vacation for a little while).

Overall, Poison was not my cup of tea. I'd much rather read something with a little more imagination, but that's just my opinion.