Monday, July 18, 2005

 

Four more

Four more books to blog before I am caught up. Yes, one of them is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

 

The Earthsea Trilogy and Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu are all part of the Earthsea Series by Ursula K. Le Guin. Two other books in the series are Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind.

Ursula K. Le Guin has created a beautiful and mysterious world populated by people who are very different from us and yet have the same motivations and goals. There is the struggle of life, the lure of power to be weilded fairly or unfairly, good versus evil, and - most important in Earthsea - keeping the balance.

The magic in Earthsea is a solid part of the world. It is part of the basic chores of living and is well accepted. Follow Ged in his journeys through Earthsea helping people and keeping the balance.

These books are MUCH better than the Sci-Fi networks miniseries of the books that came out this year. Much better.

 

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Feed is set in a not so improbable future. Following the lines opened by the acceptance of internet connection chips implanted for educational experiences, most people now have a FEED which sees everthing the person does and then connects those actions and desires with products, tailoring advertising for each thing the person sees.

Titus is a young man on the lookout for girls and alcohol. He and a group of his friends go to the moon as something new and exciting to do however the moon is over. Then Titus meets Violet and she seems so different (she is very like Stargirl). It seems that Violet got her Feed only recently and is just now exploring the world it has opened for her. While dancing, the group is infected with a computer virus by an activist. Most of the group have their feeds fixed quickly but Violet continues to have problems with hers. As Titus and Violet learn more about each other and fall in love, Violet's Feed deteriorates until she becomes trapped in her unresponsive body. Violet brings Titus to question and resist the Feed.

 

Children of the River by Linda Crew

In Children of the River Sundara is a young woman who fled Cambodia and journeyed to America. She had been sent from her parents' house to help her Aunt with a new baby (and to stay safer) when the Khmer Rouge army arrived in her Aunt's town. The family scrambled onto a ship and made their long tortuous way to sponsonship in the US.

Sundara is part of three worlds: the American teen world of school and boys, the traditional Cambodian family life of hard work and gender restriction, and the silent guilt ridden world that ties her soul to Cambodia. She works hard to keep the parts of her life separate but Johnathan, a local boy, and the stream of refugees still coming from Cambodia start to stir the separate parts together. Sundara wishes that the parts would mix smoothly but instead an explosian may happen.

Friday, July 15, 2005

 

The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker

The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker is a twist on the old tale of the princess who kisses a frog and he turns into a prince. Emeralda is a rebellious princess who will not fit into the role of Princess that her mother has defined. When Emeralda kisses an enchanted Frog Prince, he does not turn into a human prince - she turns into a Frog Princess. Life as a frog is not easy, yu have to master tongue catching of bugs, bug eating, frog swimming, and identification and evasion of predators. It's a good thing that Emeralda has Eadric with her since he has years of experience being a frog.

Emeralda and Eadric journey to find a solution to their dilemma and along the way they find out about trust, the problems that can come from judging by appearance, and how choices made for a moment can affect our whole lives.

Very funny. Very punny. Strong but not perfect female characters (just like in real life).

 

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese Cinderella is the true story of Adeline Yen Mah. Adeline's mother died shortly after Adeline was born. Adeline's sister and brothers partially plame her for the loss of their mother and the situation is not helped by her father's remarriage and the appearance of two step-siblings. The fashionable step-mother resents the children of the first wife and relegates them to less than family status. The stepmother also manipulates the children in order to divide their loyalties.

Adeline wants to be loved, she wants a normal family. She tries very hard to maintain the public image of a well loved child in a wealthy family.

It is a sad story with a murdered pet, family intrigue, war, and deliberate cruelty to children. The worst of the abuse to Adeline comes as neglect and paternal rejection.

The uplifting part is how Adeline learns to build her self-worth on her own terms...she finds what she values about herself and focuses on that.

 

The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl

I had high hopes for this book; the blurb sounded very good.
"Anna is more than shy. She is nearly invisible....Anna retreats within their enormous Victorian house, and builds a house of her own: passageways and hidden rooms become her world."
But certain parts of the story were so bizarre that they jolted me out of the possibility of the story. One was Anna falling into a handbag. C'mon! Shy, practically invisible, slight? I can buy that but NOT falling into a handbag.

Another jolt came from this line:
"I was a woman because somewhere out there was F., a man."
I have to say I almost choked on that sentence. What drivel! This is certainly not a sentiment that I would want to pass along to readers. This is not, to my mind, a healthy position. If a woman is a mature female then scientifically womanhood is a chemical/body happening that does not depend on the presence of a mature male seomwhere in the world. I'm disappointed that Patrice Kindl felt that the way to have Anna find herself and develop the strength to emerge into the world was to base her value on a man.

I almost forgot the link: http://www.powells.com/biblio/7-0395830141-0

 

Ohhh! I'm way behind.

I have time for reading and knitting but my computer time has been limited. The other main user of this computer got a Tiger Woods golf game and has been spending every evening hogging the computer.

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