I thought that I’d at least try out the series that everyone’s been talking about – I guess it’s a super hit on HBO as well. I was a little worried it would be too graphic for me and it was, but I’ll probably at least try the next book in the series and take it one book at a time.
Sookie is a telepath and can hear everyone’s thoughts — except vampires. So when ‘Vampire Bill’ comes into the bar where Sookie works and Sookie hears nothing, it’s a blessed relief to her. I won’t say much else about the story, but it was a nice diversion when I was flying and at the airport. Like I said, I’ll at least read one more and may even check out the DVDs. I am wondering, though, if Stephenie Meyer had read this series before starting Twilight. There seems to be some similar ideas, but maybe all vampire fiction has some basic commonalities.
Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith is one of the books of the Canongate Myths. I’ve only read one other book in the series, The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood, and I truly loved it. I enjoyed this one as well, which is a retelling of the myth of the Celtic god of dreams and love.
The book starts out with the tales of how Angus came into being and grew up, and then it has separate stories, alternating between modern and ancient times, of Angus and his doings. One of the stories seemed a bit harsh, but in most of them Angus was a giver of good dreams, enabling people (and sometimes animals) to come to peace with their situations.
I really enjoy Alexander McCall Smith’s writing style and I love myths, so I was very happy to read this book. Since both of the books I’ve read in this series were very enjoyable, I may branch out into the other installments listed below as well.
Most people either love Paulo Coelho’s writing or absolutely hate it. I haven’t seen many who have straddled the fence on this author. I’m in the former category, though I know quite a few people who don’t care for him at all. While some believe his writing is too simplistic, I, on the other hand, sometimes crave simplicity! I do quite a bit of heavy reading (though not recently), and it’s nice sometimes to curl up with one of Coelho’s books and know that I will probably read it in one sitting. I also believe his ’simple’ books have a much deeper meaning to them, and this story is also indicative of that.
One day a stranger comes to Viscos, an idyllic mountain town. The stranger has a plan to tempt the villagers with some gold. They only have to do one thing to get the gold, but that act is contrary to the basic character of the town’s residents. There hasn’t been any trouble in the village for years, and when Miss Prym, the local barmaid, is told of the plan, she is confident the villagers will be able to withstand the temptation.
The story raises the question of whether humans are generally good or generally evil, and also why God, if there is one, would allow evil things to happen to good people.
Dear Mr. Henshaw is definitely one of my favorite Newbery titles. I really, really enjoyed it. I listened to it on audio with my 15 year old son, and though he is much older than the target audience, he very much enjoyed it as well.
Leigh is a boy whose teacher gives him the assignment of writing to a favorite author. Leigh does and asks Mr. Henshaw some questions required of the assignment. When he gets a letter in response, Mr. Henshaw asks him a set of questions as well. Leigh continues to write Mr. Henshaw and they develop a correspondence over the years. Leigh wants to become a writer, and he asks Mr. Henshaw for writing advice but also tells him of some deeply personal events occurring at home, such as his parents’ divorce.
This is an excellent book that can definitely be appreciated by both children and adults, especially if they are struggling with a major life event.
I didn’t even know who Chuck Klosterman was when I picked up this book, but after listening to just a few minutes of Downtown Owl, I had to check to see who he was and if he went to high school with me. He didn’t — as he’s from North Dakota — but Downtown Owl was so jarringly and surprisingly familiar to me that I had to make sure. Set in 1983 and 1984 in the cold, flat plains of fictional Owl, ND, this book captures small town plains life almost perfectly. At least it does for that time frame.
The residents of Owl converse and care deeply about the weather, crops, the high school sports teams, the bars, and the fact that the local movie theatre is closing down. (Check, check, check, double check.) The day doesn’t seem complete if the farmers don’t get together and talk about all these important events over coffee every day. (Triple check.) And last but not least, the English teacher is having the high school classes read 1984 in 1984. (Quadruple check.) Klosterman could have been telling this story about my own hometown in the very year of 1984 when I, too, was reading 1984 as a high school sophomore. Eerily familiar, I tell you! Oh, and the music, too. All the popular music of the day gets a mention, and that was a nice blast from the past as well.
The three main characters in the book are Mitch, a high school student on the football team; Julia, a young, brand new teacher who is the new celebrity in town; and Horace, a 70ish widower whose wife died of insomnia. I really don’t want to say too much about the characters because they each have their own unique voice and slant on living in Owl that is best experienced yourself. If you want to know more about them, read the book!
The book does have quite a bit of bad language in it, one scene of animal cruelty that was graphically described, and an ending I wasn’t sure if I liked or not, BUT… I will definitely be looking into Klosterman’s next novel, particularly if it contains plains people in a plains town.
I finished Draculaon audio this week and loved it. Now my sons and husband are listening to it as well. The unabridged edition, of course. It is creepy and scary, and I normally don’t like creepy and scary, but Bram Stoker’s novel is so well done and, obviously, the beginning of it all. I’m thinking of getting this annotated edition at left that comes out on October 13. It even has an introduction by Neil Gaiman. I’ll probably use this edition for a future re-read.
We started to watch the movie starring Gary Oldman, but it wasn’t appropriate for kids (my kids at least) so we quit. I still may watch it at a later date. I would love to see a modern version that was faithful to the book.
Something that surprised and pleased me while reading the book was the strong Christian faith of some of the characters. I didn’t expect that at all, and I do wonder about Stoker’s own beliefs. He was rumored to have been part of a secret, magical order that included the occultist Aleister Crowley.
Also, I read on Publisher’s Weekly that Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker and Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt are going to be writing Dracula: the Undead. The publisher will be Dutton, and it is scheduled to be released in October, 2009.
In this short memoir chronicling the author’s own bout with depression, Styron gives us a glimpse of the pain and madness of the disease. Styron not only provides us with details of his own illness, but also expounds on the suicides and/or depression of other authors. He also gives guidelines and suggestions for action to those who have a loved one suffering with the disease.
Styron was the author of Sophie’s Choice and the Pulitzer Prize winning The Confessions of Nat Turner. He died in 2006 at the age of 81 from pneumonia.
Daughters of the North, known as The Carhullan Army in the UK, is a dystopian novel set in an environmentally and economically ravaged Britain. Citizens are forced to be registered in cities where they are assigned work for the good of the state. Contraception is mandated and every female is fitted with a device for that purpose. Not only that, but they must also submit to periodic checks to insure the device is in place. Unable to remain where she is under such circumstances, “Sister” escapes to an all-female commune that she knew about as a child. Her reception there is at first strained, as the members of the group want to insure she is not a spy sent by the state. As “Sister” gains their trust and tells them of the conditions in the nearby city, it becomes uncertain whether the group will be able to remain in their isolated location for long. A decision must be made to stay or fight.
Author Sarah Hall was nominated for the Booker Prize for her book The Electric Michelangelo. I recommend this title to readers who enjoy dystopian fiction with a feminist slant. While not nearly as captivating as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, it is worth a look if you enjoy reading the dystopian genre.
2008 in the U.S., 240 pp.
Rating:
Written in 1977 but published in the US for the first time this January, Detective Story by Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz tells the story of a group of men who, while working for an unnamed Latin American country’s government, go too far to stop their political enemies. While I thought Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Kertesz was brilliant, I must admit I didn’t get into this one too much. I’m willing to confess the fault might lie with the reader rather than the writer, however. Luckily, this one was short, but it didn’t pack the same punch for me that Kaddish did.
1977 [2008 for the English translation], 112 pp.
Rating: 3/5
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell is a fictional story about Agnes, a middle-aged woman from Cleveland, who finally gets the courage and means to travel on her own. Her choice is Cairo, and while there she meets up with Winston Churchill, Gertrude Bell, and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) while they are drawing the new map for the Middle East after World War I. Russell’s descriptions of Egypt are spectacular. I have been to Cairo myself, and some of the points made were still true from when I traveled there. I enjoyed the setting of the book and the historical accounts from this period tremendously. From this conference in Cairo, the boundaries for present day Iraq and other countries in the Middle East were set. The book has encouraged me to explore more about this era of history and re-view the movie Lawrence of Arabia.
However, there were several things I did not like about Russell’s writing style. Normally I don’t care if a book is written in first or third person. This book was written in first person with Agnes as the narrator. It just didn’t work for me, especially when she speaks directly to the reader. I felt it would have been better had the book been written in third person. In addition, I did not care for the ending at all and actually thought it was quite silly. I can’t describe more, though, without giving spoilers. I’ve read Russell’s books The Sparrow and the sequel The Children of God, and together they were my most thought-provoking books of 2006. I have not read A Thread of Grace, but I have heard good things about it and still plan on reading it. I’m sad to say, however, that I was disappointed in Dreamers of the Day. It could have been an excellent book if it had taken a different path. I’m still rating it a 3.5, though, because the descriptions of Cairo made me miss it tremendously, and because it did make me interested in the history of how the present Middle East was formed.
Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith is one of the books of the 
Most people either love Paulo Coelho’s writing or absolutely hate it. I haven’t seen many who have straddled the fence on this author. I’m in the former category, though I know quite a few people who don’t care for him at all. While some believe his writing is too simplistic, I, on the other hand, sometimes crave simplicity! I do quite a bit of heavy reading (though not recently), and it’s nice sometimes to curl up with one of Coelho’s books and know that I will probably read it in one sitting. I also believe his ’simple’ books have a much deeper meaning to them, and this story is also indicative of that.
Dear Mr. Henshaw is definitely one of my favorite Newbery titles. I really, really enjoyed it. I listened to it on audio with my 15 year old son, and though he is much older than the target audience, he very much enjoyed it as well.
I finished Dracula on audio this week and loved it. Now my sons and husband are listening to it as well. The unabridged edition, of course. It is creepy and scary, and I normally don’t like creepy and scary, but Bram Stoker’s novel is so well done and, obviously, the beginning of it all. I’m thinking of getting this annotated edition at left that comes out on October 13. It even has an introduction by Neil Gaiman. I’ll probably use this edition for a future re-read.
Darkness Visible
Daughters of the North, known as The Carhullan Army in the UK, is a dystopian novel set in an environmentally and economically ravaged Britain. Citizens are forced to be registered in cities where they are assigned work for the good of the state. Contraception is mandated and every female is fitted with a device for that purpose. Not only that, but they must also submit to periodic checks to insure the device is in place. Unable to remain where she is under such circumstances, “Sister” escapes to an all-female commune that she knew about as a child. Her reception there is at first strained, as the members of the group want to insure she is not a spy sent by the state. As “Sister” gains their trust and tells them of the conditions in the nearby city, it becomes uncertain whether the group will be able to remain in their isolated location for long. A decision must be made to stay or fight.
Written in 1977 but published in the US for the first time this January, Detective Story by 
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell is a fictional story about Agnes, a middle-aged woman from Cleveland, who finally gets the courage and means to travel on her own. Her choice is Cairo, and while there she meets up with Winston Churchill, Gertrude Bell, and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) while they are drawing the new map for the Middle East after World War I. Russell’s descriptions of Egypt are spectacular. I have been to Cairo myself, and some of the points made were still true from when I traveled there. I enjoyed the setting of the book and the historical accounts from this period tremendously. From this conference in Cairo, the boundaries for present day Iraq and other countries in the Middle East were set. The book has encouraged me to explore more about this era of history and re-view the movie Lawrence of Arabia.
