Monday, May 23, 2005

 

Saving Grace by Lee Smith

In Saving Grace we meet Florida Grace. Grace's father is a preacher, an anointed man of God, who handles snakes as part of worship and asks other people to support him and his family. In the first thrill of religious ecstasy, communities and churches embrace and uphold the family but as times passes the truth can not be kept covered.

When Grace's mother met Virgil Shepherd, she was a dancing girl and he swept her up in glory and power. Now they live in a donated house eating donated food and she finds out that Virgil is cheating on her. He has a sexual magnetism that draws women to him, women young and old; the older women become his staunch supporters and worship with him and the younger women take him to their beds. The women, his previous behaviours, and a child from a previous marriage visit Scrabble Creek to bring him down. Not terribly worried, Virgil repents and is cleansed and moves on to start anew.

Grace is a child who has been so abused and manipulated by people she loves that she is unable to feel real love. She despises Virgil and yet is tied so tightly to him that she acts out his behaviours in her adolescent and adult life. Grace keeps searching for love and freedom but is mired down by her honest desire to not hurt other people and her destructive actions.

In the end, Grace returns to Scrabble Creek and fasts. She tells her friends and family not to worry, that she will come back as soon as she clears her mind. I think that at the end she commits suicide but two other people who read the book believed that she came out and began handling snakes at the new place of worship.

 

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

Once Upon a Marigold models many good ideas that I feel are lacking in most fairy tales. Marigold and Christian are friends, good friends, even though they think that there can never be marriage between them because Christian is a commoner and Marigold is royal. They are honest with each other, for the most part, and trust each other. Marigold is smart and described as plain (though not by Christian). Marigold's father has made some terrible mistakes but he sees the errors he has made and tries to fix them; he apologizes for his parental shortcoming. Marigold's mother is a nasty piece of womanhood and her anger and pettiness affect everyone around her; it is easy to see how one person's nastiness can sipple out and affect more and more people. Marigold knows that things are not just black or white; she sees that sometimes people who take responsibility cannot just do whatever they want.

This is a funny story full of mangled proverbs and anachronistic tidbits (like p-mail - by pigeons).

Lots of fun, I recommend this book to boys and girls from 10-15.

Monday, May 16, 2005

 

What book does create passion and intense interest in me?

I love the writing of Elizabeth Moon. The characters and story lines more than make up for my lack of interest in the military strategy in many of her books. I think I first read The Deed of Paksenarrion when I was just out of college (some 20 years ago) when I had to track down each book separately and I've been hooked ever since. The Herris Serrano books are some of my favorites and I reread them at least yearly; I was very happy to be able to introduce them to my favorite 13 year old. Elizabeth Moon's female characters are complex and strong; even their weaknesses are real and human...not gender based. Yay!

I'm currently reading, but making last as long as possible, The Speed of Dark.

 

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a novel about blossoming power. The power is more than nominal and includes sexual, mystical, and social powers.

Gemma has been raised in India and longs to go to England and engage in the social Season. She does not understand why her mother forbids her this experience. When Gemma's mother is killed during a strange interaction in the market, Gemma gets her wish but also a warning from her mother and a strange (but alluring) young Indian man. In England Gemma is annoyed with her brother because of his ennui and worried about her father because he is sinking into opium addiction. Gemma's grandmother ships her off to finishing school where Gemma finds opportunities to use her feminine wiles and comes up hard against the limits placed on her as a woman in British society. Along with other girls at school, Gemma discovers her mystical powers and uses them to shore up her social position as well as to punish her enemies. The alluring young man reappears to warn her against using her power to enter another world (insert some nudity and tittilating situations) but in the other world Gemma finds her mother and strains to make sense of the power and the warnings.

In the end Gemma tries to right a terrible wrong and one of her friends chooses to die in order to escape an unwanted marriage to an older man. There are downsides to all the choices and sometimes the absoluteness of the outcome is in doubt right up until the choice is made.

Not great nor terrible.

 

Sticks and Scones by Diane Mott Davidson

Serendipitously Sticks and Scones is the next book in the series after The Grilling Season which I read last November. The thrift store is wonderful the way it pops books up to me in appropriate sequence!

I'm interested enough to pay 80 cents for one of these books and then I'll read it but I don't really enjoy them. They are unsatisfying to me perhaps because I don't like Goldy. I don't feel sorry for her, I don't worry about her, I don't care if someone shoots out her window, and I think she must take responsibility for her own safety when she makes the decision to investigate criminal activity on her own.

(grumble, grumble)

Goldy's husband is out of town tracking down a source/suspect in a stamp highjacking when someone takes a shot at Goldy's window. Taking refuge in the castle where she is soon to cater several English meals, Goldy stumbles on a dead body (surprise! the suspect) and she and her husband are shot at. Goldy's abusive ex-husband is featured. Sprinkled throughout the story of ghosts, fraud, fencing, and hyperclean Swiss are some recipes. I made the scones and they were fine though not as buttery as my usual recipe.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

 

The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable

The Waterless Sea is a sequel to Singer of All Songs. They are both set in Tremaris, a world separated into divergent political and religious countries each of which "has" different magic.

In The Waterless Sea Calwyn continues to accrue different magics. This time the story is primarily set in the desert landscape of Merithurua, the land that her beloved but frustrating Darrow came from. Merithurians have come to hate and distrust those who can do magic. Children who display talent are removed from their families and sequested in the Dark Palace where they are trained and tested to become secret mages. Calwyn and her friends aim to rescue the children but they are hampered by the desert, the people, and the long tradition of silence. Naturally there are evil sorcerers who try to thwart them and a sweet looking but treacherous girl. Calwyn learns more and more about Darrow but will the understanding bring them closer or farther apart. Calwyn obviously has a crush on Darrow but his emotional distance is baffling.

Hmm, not bad and I'm interested in the next book of the series but it did not generate passion or excitement in me.

 

Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman

I bought City of Masks when I was at a wedding held in a bookstore. Isn't that a great idea?

City of Masks is first in a series by Mary Hoffman.

Lucien is suffering from cancer and the chemotherapy cure. He comes into possession of a beautiful Venetian notebook which transports him, in his sleep, into an alternate universe AND into the past. Lucien's body remains at home but he seems to be in a deep sleep or coma until he returns. In Bellezza Luciano becomes involved with intrigue and political scheming and he learns about a roup of (presumably all) men who travel to different times and universes using talisman's like Lucien's notebook. In fact the notebook was a talisman seeded into his world in order to draw other time travellers. Some of the plot twists are telegraphed though the motivation for them are gradually revealed and some come as complete surprises. Mary Hoffman does not take the easy path of having Lucien cured of his cancer. With another main character she does not gloss over the problems caused by finding out that your mother never told your father about your existence and then she abandoned you (to a good home). Another tricky bit of thinking comes when it is revealed that not only the "evil" characters take life lightly.

These are intriguing characters and the similarities between this universe and the other are very interesting. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

 

be more chill by Ned Vizzini

Maybe all teenage boys are obsessed with sex and I was only ever acquainted with aliens disguised as teenaged human males. Maybe but I don't think so.

In be more chill Jeremy Heere is an average high school student. He has a crush on a cute girl and he worries about where he fits in school society. He feels geeky in a normal sort of way though he catalogs the social snubs he recieves on specially designed forms which is more than the journal and mental tallies that most people I know kept. He thinks a lot about sex and the book chronicles his dreams and forays into internet porn and masturbation. Jeremy purchases a Squib, a microchip meant to be ingested. The Squib interacts with the host and instructs the host on how to achieve his/her dreams. In Jeremy's case that would be sex and popularity. The Squib does not care about friendships or morals, those are secondary priorities to Jeremy's stated main desires. The Squib tells Jeremy what to do and what to say. Jeremy sometimes ignores his Squib because he is the hero and the moral will be that you can be cool and get sex by: being chill, understanding and manipulating science and people, and not walking all over everybody (just the people who deserve it). The depiction and treatment of the female characters was disturbing in that they are objects, objects to be manipulated or acquired or used. The male characters in the book are much deeper and fully portrayed.

The dialogues between Jeremy and his Squib are well done and sometimes amusing; they are probably the best part of the book.

I finished be more chill feeling that I needed to wash off the slime and glad that I had only paid $3.99 for the $16.95 listed book.

 

The Meq by Steve Cash

Small world coincidence: On Saturday we went shopping at a used CD store and an independent bookstore. At the cd store my partner bought a cd by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. a friend had recommended the group; at the bookstore I bought The Meq by Steve Cash. It turns out that Steve Cash is a founding member of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

I enjoyed The Meq until about 3/4s of the way through when I realized that the story would not end in this book. I don't like it when books are not complete in themselves and when I realize that there is no way that the plot twists and conundrums will be complete in the present book, my interest lags. Why should I race through when I will have to wait, perhaps even years, for the completion of the story?

The Meq are interesting people. When they turn 12 they stop developing physically until such time as they meet their life mate and decide to move on together into adulthood. The Meq have been all over the world for centuries but seem to have originated in Spain. The Meq heal quickly from almost all wounds and some Meq carry special stones which convey powers. Z finds out that he is Meq when his parents die in a tragic accident when he is 12. Finding out who and what he is and looking into the mysteries of the Meq and their enemies takes decades but the Meq have time.

I found the name dropping in this book annoying. That Z might meet one or two famous people of that time is not unusual but the large number of names and people broke the flow and reduced the believability of the story.

 

Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Beyond the Deepwoods is the first book of The Edge Chronicles. The blurb on the back cover says that the story is about Twig, a young wood troll, who finds out that he is a foundling and doesn't really belong to his troll family. His foster mother sends him off to safety but he wanders from the path and has adventures. In reading the book I thought that the main story was not Twig and his adventures but instead an opportunity to introduce many of the peoples and fauna of the Edge. The peoples, places, and scenery were interesting but neither they nor Twig was given sufficient attention.

I don't know if it is worth it to buy the second book in order to find out if the plots and characters deepen. Beyond the Deepwoods was $12.95 for 277 pages; the small hardback design and the price remind me of the Series of Unfortunate Events books.

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