2010 June » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Library Loot: Mid-June Haul

Posted by Anastasia on June 12, 2010 No Responses »

Jun 122010

Library Loot meme Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Eva and Marg that encourage bloggers to talk about what books they’ve gotten from their library during the week. Anyone can participate any time during the week, so feel free to write up your own post and link it using Eva’s (or Marg’s) Mr Linky!

This post is going to EPIC, y’all. Because apparently I can’t stop myself from grabbing every slightly interesting-looking book off the shelf at work. Or ordering books through inter-library loan. Or going to the public library and checking books out there, too. Continue reading »

Mini Reviews: The Little Lady Agency, Meeting Faith, Eyes Like Stars

Posted by Anastasia on June 11, 2010 No Responses »

Jun 112010

117. The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
Publication: Pocket (September 5, 2006), Paperback, 416pp / ISBN 1416527265
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Beach Read
Rating:
Read: May 15-16, 2010
Source: BookMooch

Review

A different sort of chick lit book in that the heroine meets the hero by hiring out her services as a fake girlfriend/(real) life planner, which makes for some uncomfortable accusations of prostitution from other characters (though luckily not the hero) and some really wacky hijinks. I really liked this, though Melissa has serious issues with denial, almost to the point of me wanting to throw the book against the wall. But she’s a nice change from the more Shopaholic kinds of protagonists (though I love Becky); plus the hero has red hair! When do you ever see a hero with red hair, eh? Hardly ever.

118. Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of A Black Buddhist Nun by Faith Adiele
Publication: W. W. Norton & Company (April 2004), Hardcover, 288pp / ISBN 0393057844
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Rating:
Read: May 18-20, 2010
Source: Library

Review

I wrote about this for one of my Thursday Tea posts and I really don’t have anything more to say except that this is one of my favorite books EVER. I loved the writing, the story, how the personal journey detailed by Ms Adiele never feels pushy or more-spiritual-than-thou. I really wanted to know more about what happened after she left the monastery. Did she keep the same feelings of personal value that she left with? What happened after? Luckily she seems to be writing another memoir about her life, and I know she’s written at least a FEW essays about her travels and such for other books. I’ll have to track them down!

124. Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Publication: Feiwel & Friends (July 7, 2009), Hardcover, 368pp / ISBN 0312380968
Genre: Fantasy, YA/Teen
Rating:
Read: May 30, 2010
Source: Gift!

Review

I’m torn about this book. On the one hand I really enjoyed the whole theatre motif, and how it’s magical and wonderful and everything, and I liked the plot…kinda. But on the other hand I felt really adrift in the story; what world is this theatre in? Ours? An alternate universe? How is it magical? Why doesn’t anyone ask why it’s magical? Is magic normal for that world? Or does everyone outside the theatre just think the characters are actors, not people literally stepping out from a book?

I wanted more concrete details about the world that the theatre lives in, and I never got any so I had to guess. And that’s kind of annoying– it’s one of the things that can ruin a book for me, actually. Luckily I think with the next book the story/characters are going outside the theatre, so hopefully I’ll learn some more about the world then.

The writing style is really great, though! I know I had issues with the plot and everything, but the writing is what kept me reading and it wasn’t anything that would keep me from continuing on in the series.

Review: Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Posted by Anastasia on June 10, 2010 7 Responses »

Jun 102010

106. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Publication: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 22, 2009), Hardcover, 496pp / ISBN 0385733976
Genre: Fiction, YA
Rating:
Read: April 23-24, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

Review

So I’d seen this book around on the blogs a lot in the past few months, but I never actually took a close look at the cover or any of the reviews. This lead to my believing Going Bovine was a teen book about a girl who’s getting fatter and probably spends the entire book whining about it (the gnome totally looks like a lipstick when you just glance at it from the corner of your eye). Actually, it’s about a dude who gets mad cow disease and then spends the book going on psychedelic adventures!

So, yeah. Totally different story from what I first thought, which I learned when I actually READ THE SUMMARY. Ha!

Still, I wasn’t sure what to expect. From the start it seemed like a dark comedy sort of book– I mean, dying from mad cow disease? Totally tragic and yet…kind of ironically funny. (Maybe.) And it does have a lot of humorous things in it that made me laugh– the weird adventures Cameron goes on are both whimsical and hilarious. But it’s not only about the comedy! It’s also about human relationships, and about your relationship with yourself. And it’s also about love, and there’s even a satire about modern American culture with the cult that only lets its members think positive things (and they only drink smoothies, and they bowl a lot!), though a lot of the deepers aspects of the book tend to get smothered under the tripping-on-acid narrative.

You can’t trust Cameron’s narrative as being what actually is going on because there’s lots of flashes– TRIPPY flashes– where he’s in a hospital bed. And then there’s that whole question of “what is reality,” and if Cameron THINKS he’s at a snowglobe factory fighting evil snowglobe dudes, then it’s a valid form of reality and WHATEVER. Basically you spend the entire book wondering if things are real or not real, and it’s a very Matrix-y sort of book, actually. And! I liked that even when you’re questioning the story’s reality it’s still very obvious that even if Cameron ISN’T fighting evil snowglobe-makers he’s still going through a sort of spiritual rebirth, where he’s improving his inner person even as his outer person is dying.

I really liked Going Bovine. The ending– without giving away any spoilers although I suppose it’s pretty obvious by now– is surprisingly realistic although I did NOT want it to happen. I cried. Really.

The steady decline into a trippy-er and trippy-er narrative was really fun, although it’s got an edge of sadness to it because of the whole “my brain is decaying and making everything trippy” thing. I had a fun time reading Going Bovine, and now I really want to read more of Libba Bray’s books!

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Random sidenote, but I LOVE Libba Bray’s website! It’s stylish without clogging up my internet tubes. Very cool.

Also, if you go to the Amazon page you can see her do a video about her book while dressed like a cow.

Thursday Tea (June 10): The Pirate Queen

Posted by Anastasia on June 10, 2010 No Responses »

Jun 102010

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

The book: I’m actually reading two books right now, but one of them is for the Nerds Heart YA thingy so I won’t talk about that one. Instead, I’ll talk a bit about The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O’Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea by Barbara Sjoholm. Part travel memoir, part biography, I’m finding it really enjoyable to read and, even better, I’m learning new stuff!

Barbara Sjoholm is a really good writer, and reading about her travels across Europe– to do research on woman’s involvement in ocean affairs– makes me feel like I was there with her, getting rained on or having the wind slice into me. And I really like how she presents what she learned while traveling, like it’s part of her life story and not just some random facts she decided to stick in to make things more interesting. I’ve just gotten to the part about sea witches, when Ms Sjoholm is in Orkney, and it’s very interesting.

The only thing I have an issue with is her sometimes weird turn of phrase. She described a mannequin of Grace O’Malley as having a wig like a transvestite– which, okay. What? That’s on the edge of being insulting, and I’m not sure why she chose to describe a mannequin’s hair like that. Little things like that (it’s happened twice so far) throw me out of the story, but hopefully there won’t be any more.

The tea: I’ve currently become addicted to these big Arizona juice drinks, which are only $0.99 at my campus food store thing and are totally a good deal, considering how much every other drink costs in relation to its size. These cans last ALL. DAY. and they’re delicious. I’m tried the watermelon and the mango flavor earlier this week, and I think the mango is my favorite. They were out of it today, though, so I had to make do with fruit punch, which tasted a bit like less-noxious HI-C.

Not exactly tea, but, uh. It’s got vitamin C in it?

Do they go together? Ms Sjoholm drinks a lot of tea in Scotland, because it’s so rainy and horrible outside and tea is comforting. My tea is cold and refreshing, and I’m drinking it in reaction to the weather just like she was drinking her’s, so I think the book and my tea go together pretty well.

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?

Obviously I've not been paying enough attention

Posted by Anastasia on June 9, 2010 5 Responses »

Jun 092010

There are a TON of good books coming out in the next few months that I had no inkling of, and I’m blaming you people. Why didn’t any of you tell me that another Jonathan Stroud book is coming out? A new Cornelia Funke! A new Rick Riordan!! Yes, it’s all your fault I didn’t pay attention to any of the “upcoming books” posts that my feedreader shows me, or that I ignored the publisher newsletters I signed up for specifically so I could learn about new books. That’s on your head. Duh.

Anyway, I’ll forgive you of this mishap if you promise me to read this post I’ve put together about soon-to-be-released books and spend time making squee noises with me about them.

The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan, coming out October 12, 2010. Set in the same world as the Percy Jackson series, but with a whole new cast and whole new adventures! The Gathering (Triskellion #3) by Will Peterson, coming out September 14, 2010. It’s been so long since I read book two I’ve forgotten the cliffhanger but I’m sure I’ll appreciate finally getting some more answers for the series as a whole.

The Atlantis Complex (Artemis Fowl #7) by Eoin Colfer, coming out August 3, 2010. Okay, so technically I haven’t read past book three, but this’ll motivate me to continue the series for sure! The Ring of Solomon (Bartimaeus #4) by Jonathan Stroud, coming out November 2, 2010. So new it doesn’t even have a cover yet! And never mind that the Bartimaeus trilogy is getting a fourth book and that makes my head hurt, I’m just happy that we get more of my favorite djinn.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke, coming out September 14, 2010. “Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, master storyteller Cornelia Funke introduces a lush, enchanting landscape of fairy tales and legends re-imagined as never before. Reckless is a thrilling adventure and a tale of heroism, filled with danger, mystery, and above all, magic.” Hell yeah! Behemoth (Leviathan #2) by Scott Westerfeld, coming out October 12, 2010. Also has no cover yet. But who cares, really?

This isn’t all the new books that are coming out this year, of course. And I’m sure I’ve missed a lot more that are going to be releases soon– so I’ll just have to make another post when I find them!

More awesome than even a hot dog with all the fixings

Posted by Anastasia on June 8, 2010 No Responses »

Jun 082010

a.k.a. interesting links and whatnot.

Nymeth (Things Mean A Lot) had some really nice things to say about writing book reviews. I especially liked how she talked about the differences in what a blogger focuses on in their reviews, and that all all approaches to a review are equally valid.

Diane von Furstenberg is coming out with these very fashionable Kindle 2 covers. Here I am sitting in a jealous rage– is there something equivalent for Sony Readers?!

Becky (Becky’s Book Reviews) really struck a chord with me in her post Imagine a blog(ger) without guilt. As a blogger you do tend to feel pressured to post post post, and when you can’t keep up with that pace you feel like a failure. Which is STUPID because blogging honestly isn’t a competition unless you make it into one, and I’m gonna try to remember that whenever I worry about not posting for a few days.

I’ve also found this blog that I wanted to put the spotlight on for a bit: Steampunk Scholar, where this dude named Mike writes about steampunk and stuff! And he’s a really good writer, too! Yay!

Review: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Posted by Anastasia on June 8, 2010 5 Responses »

Jun 082010

105. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Publication: Picador (August 27, 2002) originally published 2001, Paperback, 576pp / ISBN 0312421273
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating:
Read: April 21-23, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man-or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

Review

The problem with waiting so long between reading a book and writing the review of it is that little details that would otherwise make that review interesting are forgotten, and so I’ve gotta apologize in advance if my review is pretty vague and overly generalized. I can sort of remember plot details, but what I remember more is the relationships between the characters.

How people interact with each other and how that differs from how they act when alone is something that really fascinates me, especially if there’s a large disparity between the two. For instance, it’d be like someone who was very friendly and outgoing on the outside, but on the inside they’re bored/lonely/angry/etc. There’s a lot of that sort of thing in The Corrections, which made me really happy, and there’s also some really good stuff about social/family obligations, big business and the individual, and the differences between metropolitan society and more rural society. All of that is the sort of thing I love reading about, and it helps that Mr Franzen’s writing is pretty freakin’ good– although it started off like a bad grad student novel, it got better pretty quickly.

There were some problems with the plot set-up, if only because there were five main characters and you can only spend so much time on each one if you want to fit them all in, so one sibling (Chip) got left out of pretty much the majority of the book (and his plotline didn’t even really make all that much sense, unless you look at it from the perspective of big business vs. individuals and ignore every other angle) and my favorite sibling (Denise) didn’t get much screentime either, but luckily Gary won me over by the end of his plotline, so it turned out all right in that respect. And I think the whole thing with trying to get Alfred into the Correctall was sort of slapdash and boring, but I might just think that because I was more interested in interpersonal relationships than Mr Franzen’s comments on modern medical practices.

I really enjoyed reading The Corrections! It’s basically everything that I love about literary fiction, with the realism and the interesting characters and whatnot. A few blips in the plot aren’t all that big a deal, and I’m sure other people, people who aren’t me and like commentary on modern societal issues as well as the relationships between people, would really enjoy this book! I sort of wish I could go back and read it over again, except I’ve got to move on to books I haven’t read already. Blast.