365 Days of Books

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I liked this book at first; it was looking like a 3 star read. I was reading the Kindle version on loan from my local library. It had some issues: timing seemed off to me where things took a few days but felt like a few weeks, the brother starts off the book having spent time at court but half-way through the book has no skills and defers everything to his sister. The misunderstood communication between the couple was predictable, at the end she says her court raised children are going to have a chance to be free like her because she will ensure 1 week a year to run barefoot in the mountains (eye roll - that's not how it works). But it was a nice read so 3 stars. Then I read the extras at the end of the book, the "inserts"written for the LiveJournal community. These inserts totally undermined the heroine of the story and her relationship with the love interest. Oh, he thought she was cute, he took her along on the adventures because he liked her, she wasn't really doing any good action - it was all puffed up by him, he kept important knowledge from her for no good reason, he talked down about her to others, he was so disrespectful about her that I wished that in the story she had kicked him a few more times, their relationship is what she originally thought - he thinks her a dangerous idiot with no skills and he is taking care of her, their relationship is a puffball and will fail and I hope she sucks up her self-esteem and kicks him off his throne to rule alone, the brother was an idiot who hadn't the brains to understand anything but was tolerated for his honesty and ignorance. Ugh, without the inserts it was an okay story but now.., Is this what happens when there is no editor? Was this stuff that a previous editor recommended be removed because it weakened the story? WTH was the author thinking? It made me think that the author did not respect the main character at all.

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Sourdough by Robin Sloan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was primed for this book by having just started my own sourdough culture and making sourdough english muffins with it. I was browsing the fiction section of the online library looking for a Kindle book. Sure, a novel about sourdough. Hopefully it wouldn't be like those cheesy romance mysteries about brownies or picnics, full of sweaty sex and recipes. There is some type of romance here but nothing of sex. Some about the excitement and overwork of the tech industry and much about the joy of baking and the dangers of ambition. There is mystery, magic, and the awesome grandeur of biology. The emotional and mental engagement are similar to what I get when I read Cory Doctorow. Finished, I am satisfied and rise to stir more flour and water into my culture.

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My goal is to blog each book as I finish it and not let the pile of read books grow on the dresser. It's a goal but right now I feel okay about just talking about them as I get to them.

An Abundance of Katherines hits a spot for all of us who were told we weren't living up to our potential; it hits double for those of us that think that the stories we have told ourselves, about ourselves, are the same stories that other people tell about us. Okay, it's about other things as well.

Colin was a child prodigy. It's not so much that he isn't still awesome and prodigy like, the problem is that he is no longer a child. He's an ex-child prodigy not an ex-prodigy child. Although he's not really sure whether or not he is still a prodigy; at what point does a prodigy become just a skilled adult? Colin has graduated from high school and just been dumped by his 19th girlfriend named Katherine. In this depressed position, Colin and his friend Hassan head out on a road trip to find some sort of clarity, some goal for their lives.

They stop in a small town where Hassan merges into the young people scene and Colin turns his prodigious mind to finding a formula for his Katherine idea. There is a smart good looking girl but her name is Lindsey so obviously she isn't a threat to Colin. Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey all examine their lives and the personas they publicly hold and decide what they can change or want to change.

I've never seen True Blood but I love the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris; they are goofy, sexy, light reading (even when sad). Generally I like Charlaine Harris' writing though the Lily Bard and Aurora Teagarden books were blah for me.  Dead of Night contains 2 stories; one story is by Charlaine Harris and set in the same world as Sookie Stackhouse. In Dancers in the Dark, dancer Layla is in hiding from her past. Her new job is dancing paired with a 300 year old vampire. Lust, love, power, and justice find their ways though the story. I'd like to see more of these same world stories! The second story The Devil's Footprints is a creepy and suspenseful story of ongoing violence in a small town. Sarah tries to escape her dark history in the small town by living in New Orleans but horror finds her there.

I didn't like Pigtopia; I didn't finish it. It wasn't that bad but there is so much that is better to read that I couldn't find the time to waste finishing the book. It was pretty horrific with guts, meanness, abuse, blood, and more meanness. I read about 2/3s, put it down to go to bed, and left it there for a month. Jack is an adult body deformed since he was young; his mind is that of a much younger boy. Hiding and hidden by his mother for most of his life, Jack has a hidden life with his herd of pigs under the house but he hopes to make positive connections with other people. He begins a friendship with a young woman, Holly, and she tries to support him when his life starts to get even worse. Is this a Frankenstein like story as the cover suggested? I did see innocence and horror but I couldn't get to the characters through the horror.

The Hum And The Shiver is first in the Tufa series. I read and had a soundtrack in my head but it didn't sound like this. In this world the Tufa (from tuatha?) settled in this Tennessee county long before it was a county or Europeans had arrived. Bronwyn is a full bred Tufa who left the valley and fought for the US in Afghanistan. She has just arrived back in Cloud County to recuperate from a vicious attack. The tufa have strong connections to music of many kinds but Bronwyn seems to have lost her music. Bronwyn is welcomed back by her family but they know that trouble is coming. Can Bronwyn shake off her rebellious history and its violent connections or will she and her loved ones be pulled down by past actions? Things that are strange and different can be scary or embracing - different things for different people. Bronwyn's character is nicely deep and care is given to flesh out other characters even bringing in some outsiders to the Tufa. I've since bought 3 other pieces by Alex Bledsoe for my Kindle including Firefly Witch Collection and Wisp of a Thing (Tufa book 2) so look for posts of those in the near future.

Raven Boys is book one of the Raven Cycle (The Dream Thieves is available in hardcover). Blue is part of a family of female psychics but her talent is amplification of their powers. On St. MArk's Eve she accompanies her aunt to view the dead from the coming year and sees someone. Trying to find out about this person who she may love or kill, Blue gets a name and that he is a student at Aglionby. She soon comes into contact with Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah. Gansey is obsessed with tracing the local ley lines and finding (and then awakening) a lost Welsh king. During the search we find out more (but not enough) about each of the boys and their mysterious enemy. They solve one mystery but don't even address several others. I was interested enough to read this book straight through (snow days!) but felt left hanging in some ways and that the main mystery was too obvious. Blue's talents are used in interesting ways where they were kept relevant - some books only mention the powers at key points and the rest of the time it's as if they don't exist or impact the persons life.

Tomorrow Girls: Behind the Gates and Tomorrow Girls: Run For Cover by Eva Gray are first two in the Tomorrow Girls series (Coming soon: Tomorrow Girls: With the Enemy). In this dystopian future the government controls citizens with permanent id bracelets and strict control of communities. The US is in a war with Canada. Louisa and Maddie are tapped to attend a prestigious and safe boarding school that turns out to be something they did not expect. Their secrets are exposed and they find out that other people have even bigger secrets. In Run For Cover the girls and their friends and some other people with secrets run from the school and end up in even more trouble. Question authority and certainly don't trust it! I didn't really enjoy these books, the adult characters were only slightly real and the main characters only slightly better. I thought the story exploration of how secrets change who we are and how people grow apart was interesting but the rest was bland. I was unable to suspend my disbelief at any point.

In The Coldest Girl in Coldtown Holly Black builds the world I first read about in the short story by the same name in the collection The Poison Eaters. The book features different characters in the same world with a couple of repeated plot ideas. Be Aware: this is a book with violence and sex.

Tana lives in a world where vampires are known to be deadly and violent but who are also media marketed as sexy. Simplified: Vampirism is a two step process where first the human is infected by a vampire bite and becomes cold and then drinks human blood and becomes a vampire. If a human can not drink human blood for 88 days after being infected, the poison passes from their system. Infected people and vampires are kept in Coldtowns - ghettos unregulated by police or government.

At a weekend party, Tana passes out in a bathtub and wakes to find the party goers massacred by vampires. In a bedroom she finds her ex-boyfriend infected and tied to a bed with a chained vampire on the floor. She frees both of them and escapes from the house sustaining a scraped bite on her leg. The three make their way to Coldtown. Along the way Tana wrestles with her possible infection, love, lust, and fear. Coldtown is a brutal and unsavory place which is still seen by people of all ages as the only place they can be their true selves. Populated by vampire wannabes, vampires, infected, and humans caught in the ghetto when it was built, Coldtown is a dangerous place to be for Tana, Gavriel, and Aidan. Will Tana be food for a beginning vampire, a vampire herself, can she sweat out the infection, and can she save her little sister who flees their dead home for a life with vampires? You can't save everyone. You can't trust anyone.

A big cheer for Dodger! This is a satisfying read. A different way of looking at Dodger, Charles Dickens, and Sweeney Todd with real personalities for some characters who are usually as uninteresting as boards. The sewers are still mucky in this setting but the views are twisted in that Disc World way that Terry Pratchett has.  I read it through almost without stopping and enjoyed every bit. I was kept wondering what would happen next and how Terry Pratchett would get Dodger through the current twist. I really appreciated this fun read after finishing The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. 

I know that readers have different reactions to books and there will be many people who enjoy The Long Earth but I found it depressing. The Long Earth features a new universe or series of universes that open up what seems to be unlimited possibilities for humans. Some, most?, people can step though using technology from one world to another each slightly different and most unpopulated. For me, the story was bleak and the characters were depressing. I found it hard to keep reading when I felt that while there were many good people who were looking for personal or cultural betterment that the actions of the greedy and bigoted would negate their actions. It felt like a hopeless world to me. A string of hopeless worlds streaked by hate and violence and not redeemed by love or charity. Self-centered, a portrait of the flaws of humans. 

Clone Codes by Patricia C. McKissak asks us to examine our understanding of cloning from a civil rights angle. How much of a person must be unique dna or actual flesh and blood in order to be human? At what point do our basic human rights no longer apply? An interesting story but simply laid out without mystery.

For other books about these ideas see The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer and another book I'll name here after the boy wakes up and I can get in his room.

Hero Type by Barry Lyga sets before us a dramatic scene of something that we do daily. Each of us knows our inner weaknesses and reasons for action; we see our selves from the inside. What other people see of us is very different...shaded by their inner selves but not ours. Kevin intervenes in a kidnapping and saves beautiful Leah from a serious assault. He is considered a hero by not only Leah but the whole town. Kevin feels guilty and sick inside because he knows that his actions were only possible because he had done something creepy. Can he forget his previous actions and interest and move on from the hero position or will he have to expose his flaws in order to free himself. Not as clear or easy as you might think.

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst is Beauty and the Beast meets East and North Child with a modern setting. I did like the concept that the totem animals collect and implant the souls of their species and how important that could be to balance. I think that the story was rushed when it came to deepening Bear and Cassie's relationship. I love fantasy and I can feel a story very deepl;y and fall into the world of the story but it is very distracting when, as in in Ice, my brain keeps popping out of the story so I can roll my eyes at some ridiculous action or story twist.

Cherub - Mission 2 - The Dealer by Robert Muchamore is probably the last of this series that I will read. The plot was ridiculous and the relationship between James and his sister Lauren is thin and only pops up when it is convenient; there never seems to be any realy feeling or connection there. Anyway, this time the mission is about drugs and the SpyKids get to act as mules while trying to find the dealers and suppliers. I was bored.

Ironside by Holly Black is the third in the tale of a modern faery. The other two books are Tithe and Valiant. I think that Ironside has less violence/sex but it is still very dark. Pixie changeling Kaye declares her love for the faery prince Roiben. In order to keep her safe and out of the way, Roiben sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Confused and hurt Kaye struggles to understand the task and Roiben's distance.

Linda Greenlaw is one of the best sea captains on the East coast. In The Hungry Ocean she tells of a season of fishing with its triumphs and hardship. She details the decisions about where, when, and how long to fish. She tells about the personal relationships and interactions on the ship without whitewashing herself.

The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir and The Dragon Heir are part of the Heir series by Cinda William Chima. We are introduced to a world where unbeknown to regular mortals a cabal of wizards fight for power. Specially talented people, including wizards, are born with jewels of power in them which tell which if powers they will develop and determine the strength of the talent. Wizards seek out and kill or kidnap these people in order to manipulate the balance of power. The three boys who are stars of each book (Dragon Heir does feature a young woman as well) struggle to understand the wars, control their own powers, and stand for what they feel is right. In the battles, the thrid way is used to good advantage. The Demon King is the beginning of a different series. The plot of this book revolves around a well known fol tale and the history that inspired it. There are princesses in disguise, powerful wizards, civil wars, and laws circumvented. It was a little too romance for me but I hope to find out more about the tribes in the other books of the series.

I'm not a big zombie fan and I thought a book about blogging and zombies might be boring. Frankly, I scanned over large parts of World War Z because I want more flow and less statistics. Feed was GREAT! I really bought into the world she has built and her zombie timeline. The characters were fun, cynical, focused, and cracked (in what could be flaws but are for now personality highlights). The immediacy of the blogs and the braid of action, editorial, and prose work together to satisfy. The main character set is small enough to feel that I know them but the additional characters are not paperdolls and are sufficiently fleshed out to register as meaningful.

Does this all sound vague and goopy? It's not that kind of book at all and my opinions are strong. I recommend this book. The characters and plot are strong. I think the world is good enough to support more books even if not about these characters.

Oh, I forgot...Georgia and Shaun Mason and their co-blogger Buffy are chosen to blog the campaign of a rising presidential candidate. As they travel and see the inside of the campaign, unslantingly reporting the truth, their cynacism starts to become hope. Then Georgia and Mason start to see signs of a deeper problem. Is someone targeting the candidate using zombies? Is one of the conspiracy theories about zombies actually true? When the danger is turned on Georgia and Mason, it looks like they are close to the truth.

Set in the Disc world I Shall Wear Midnight (reference the poem When I am old I shall wear purple) picks up the life of Tiffany Aching previously seen in Wintersmith and A Hat Full of Sky and her defenders the Wee Free Men. Tiffany is struggling to untangle where she and love intersect. It's hard to focus on the untangling while fear and an obsesses ghost are turning the community and the wider world into a witch hunt. The generally pragmatic witches find gentle ways to turn the hate and to shine a light into the dark places where the hate filled shadows confuse people. The whispering shadows seem almost comical and it is hard to take them seriously until violence begins. Tiffany knows she should be the mature person but (stamp foot) she is not yet old and she wants to live young while she is young.

This is probably the last in the Tiffany Aching series. Terry Pratchett settles things nicely, satisfyingly and not at all completely. Surely a character as real as Tiffany Aching will continue to live outside of the books just as I believe life in Disc world continues when Mr. Pratchett is not opening windows and giving us glimpses.

The only magic in Every Soul a (Star) is the glorious mysticism of astronomy. Three diverse teens are shaken out of their comfort zones but find new places and self-views. Moon Shadow is an isolated camping park specifically sited for optimum viewing of the stars and especially solar eclipses. A solar eclipse is due soon and the camp is gearing up for the big event. Ally and her family run the camp and have paid attention to maximizing the experience. Bree is happy in her town, practicing to be a fashion model. Jack is isolated and alone but used to it.

What if we aren't who we thought we were? Are we set in a pattern before our teenage years and can we change who we think of as ourselves if we have to or want to? How much effort does that take?

Gone and Hunger are the first two of Michal Grant's Gone series. I believe there are 4 in the series so far.

At the beginning of Gone everybody over 14 in the town and surrounding area of Perdido Beach disappears. There is a impenetrable dome around the area. Included in the dome are the town, a nuclear plant, and a boarding school. At first the children wait to be saved, then they work to pull themselves into a coherent group, then they start to look around, wonder, and plan. They must deal with the infants that have been left with them, the lack of communication, and the selfishness of humans. How can they work together to survive? Who can they look to for leadership?

Someone compared Gone to Lord of the Flies and there is that bullying personal darkness element but there are also aliens or alien or mutant powers in play. Yes, a fight of good versus evil but even more a personal inner struggle for integrity.

In Hunger, the children continue the struggle with the loss of food and electrical power. The non-talented fear and turn against the talented. The Darkness becomes more powerful and more is discovered about Petey's powers.

Worth reading as paperbacks but I'll not pay hardback prices to read more of the series.