2011 July » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

The Sunday Salon (July 31): News and stuff

Posted by Anastasia on July 31, 2011 8 Responses »

Jul 312011

I have so much news, people! Okay, so, first: I’m moving out of Albuquerque way sooner than I thought. My parents have been planning to move to California for a while, and I decided to tag along with them. Originally we were going to move at the beginning of 2012, but now we’re moving within (hopefully) the next three months or so. We’ve already started packing and getting rid of stuff, which means ruthless book purges and a lot of crying.

Book purges mean I need to get as rid of as many books as I can without falling completely to pieces. I’ve now gotten it down to, I think, the bare minimum plus the TBR books I really think I can read before we move. I’ll no doubt get rid of some TBR books once I’ve read them, so that’ll help, too. If I can convince myself to get rid of just a few dozen more I think I’ll be ahead of the game.

I’m really wobbling on some of my series collections, most of which are available as ebooks. Like, the Young Wizards books are getting updated/expanded (yay!) and released as (new) ebooks later this year, so technically I guess I don’t need the seven (old) paper versions I have, right? But I can’t bear to part with them, because I like having them all lined up on my shelf looking pretty. (Plus the first book is one I’ve had for AGES, and it was the first Diane Duane book I read, and I’m all sentimental over it. Sigh.)

I really hate the actual process of moving, though the results are nearly always good.Plus, once I get to California I can start hording again, I guess.

Second: Our trip to California has been pushed to late August. We’re still going because we want to check things out and get a feel for the place, but unless my parents absolutely hate it (unlikely), we’ll be moving there anyway.

Third: I only have one more book to to until I reach my book-a-day goal for July! Huzzah! I think I can finish it before midnight, if I read really fast and keep off the internet. So with that I’m cutting this Sunday Salon short and leaving you with this question:

How difficult do you find it to purge books from your collection?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
81. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers – Maria Augusta Trapp [rating: 3]
82. Hard Spell – Justin Gustainis [rating: 3] e R
83. Jane-Emily – Patricia Clapp [rating: 4]
84. Witches’ Children – Patricia Clapp [rating: 3]
85. What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything? – Avi [rating: 3]
86. The Magicians – Lev Grossman [rating: 4] *
87. The Star of Kazan – Eva Ibbotson [rating: 4]
88. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes – Jonathan Auxier [rating: 3.5] e R
89. Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti – Genevieve Valentine [rating TBD] e
90. Dragon’s Blood – Jane Yolen [rating: TBD]

Books reviewed this week:
52. Tuesdays at the Castle – Jessica Day George [rating: 5] B
74. Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day – Ben Loory [rating: 3.5] R

Books acquired this week:

Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile by Kristiana Gregory (PaperbackSwap).
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl by Kathryn Lasky (PaperbackSwap).

Currently reading:
I’m currently 42% into Hounded by Kevin Hearne, and it’s a LOT of fun. It’s got all the good stuff about urban fantasy books without minimum annoying stuff, and I’m really enjoying it.

Out Soon (August 2011)

Posted by Anastasia on July 30, 2011 No Responses »

Jul 302011

I, like many other people, have an intense need to know what’s being released soon in the book world. Otherwise I might miss something, and that would be disastrous! So here’s a list of some interesting-looking books that are coming out next month. I hope y’all find it useful! And if I’ve missed something? Let me know in the comments!

(Partially inspired by The Story Siren’s New Reads feature, except I’m not ambitious enough to do it weekly.)

Aug. 4th:

The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin (YA fiction).

Aug. 8th:

Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth by Andy Hueller (MG fiction).

Aug. 9th:

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson (fiction).
A Long, Long Sleep by (YA sci-fi/dystopia).
Machine Man by Max Berry (sci-fi).

Aug. 16th:

Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong by Joan Steinau Lester (YA fiction).

Aug. 18th:

By Light Alone by Adam Roberts (sci-fi).

Aug. 23rd:

The Dragon’s Tooth by N. D. Wilson (MG Fiction).

Aug. 30th:

Reality 36: A Richards & Klein Novel by Guy Haley (sci-fi/mystery).

For a bigger list of books coming out in the following months, check out the Out Soon page!

Thursday Tea (July 28): The Star of Kazan

Posted by Anastasia on July 28, 2011 8 Responses »

Jul 282011

The book: I have a small collection of Eva Ibbotson books and I can’t remember how I acquired it. I do know, however, that The Star of Kazan is the only EI book left in my collection that I haven’t read, and I’m kind of sad about that. However! This means I can go out and buy more Eva Ibbotson books– yay!

Okay, so: The Star of Kazan. I’m 26 pages into it so far, and it’s…well, it’s cute. I know I said I was going to make an effort not to use that word any longer, but I can’t help it. It’s a cute book, okay. I think later there’ll be a mystery and some intrigue and possible some escaping from bad guys, so that’s exciting.

The tea: Ugh, I don’t know what I did wrong, but my Christmas Eve tea tastes horrible today. Maybe it’s expired or something?

Do they go together? The book is set during the spring, but it’s got that cozy, comforting feel to it that Christmastime always gives me. So I do think they go together, actually!

Other tea drinkers

Alison is reading The False Princess and drinking Shaken Passion Fruit Iced Tea Lemonade.

The Book Gatherer is reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County and drinking chamomile tea with fancy homegrown honey.

(Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!)

REVIEW: Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory

Posted by Anastasia on July 26, 2011 2 Responses »

Jul 262011

74. Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 26, 2011), Paperback, 224pp / ISBN 0143119508
Genre: Fiction

Read: July 16, 2011
Source: Publisher (thank you!)

Summary from Amazon:

Loory’s collection of wry and witty, dark and perilous contemporary fables is populated by people–and monsters and trees and jocular octopi–who are motivated by the same fears and desires that isolate and unite us all. In this singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.

Review

I don’t really read that many short stories, if only because I’m busy reading longer stories. But this book is less a collection of short stories and more a collection of stories whose purpose is to make you think about fantastic things and maybe expand your imagination or something.

There really isn’t any morals in these stories^[1]. There’s hardly any plot, and a lot of stuff doesn’t make sense, and one story was only three sentences long. I think if I hadn’t read a lot of weird and confusing Modern fiction before I read this book I would have probably left it halfway through for another book with a cohesive narrative. But luckily I DID read all that Modern fiction and, as a bonus, I paid attention to the first story.

The first story is probably one of my favorites in the book^[2], not only because it was a lot of fun to read but also because it sets up the rest of the book so nicely. In the first story, a woman finds a blank book. She doesn’t know what to do with it and so she gets rid of it. The next day she sees multiple people reading the blank book. This freaks her out and so she spends a good deal of time and effort to campaign against the blank book existing.

Then the rest of the story happens, which I don’t want to spoil, but the point is this: the story starts out relatively “real,” with the book and the woman who, on the face of it, is the only one who’s sane. Who reads a blank book, after all? But then the story gets progressively less and less “real,” until finally the bits of magic happen and everything’s slid into imagination/unreal/just-a-bit-surreal land.

The author

Basically the whole book’s like that, and if you don’t like the first story I don’t think you’ll like the others, either. Since I DID like the first story I of course liked the others, although I think since I read them all at once they lost some of their power.

I love books that encourage people to think outside the realms of reality, as I think too often people are discouraged from doing that^[3]. Also, the way the stories are written makes them feel like someone’s telling them to you over a campfire, or something. That’s nice, too.

I guess the only downside is that because all the stories sound the same, and because I read them all at once, I can’t really remember individual ones except for, like, three. Remembering three out of forty stories (without a hint) is kind of bad, isn’t it? Or is it not bad? I can’t decide. I don’t even really know if it’s bad that the stories all sound the same. (Is it?)

I do think it’s kind of bad I’ve forgotten more than half the book already, though. And my memory isn’t THAT bad.

Also I suppose I like the idea of some of the stories more than the actual stories themselves. Some of the stories were kind of boring, but they had some element in them that kept me interested (a talking moose, for instance). I think I spent a lot of my time interested but sort of up-and-down entertained– not that I’m expecting to be entertained all the time, like some sort of toddler. But, on the whole, I felt more “oh, that’s interesting” than “wow that was fantastic.” If that makes sense.

But anyway, I like Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day. I like what it’s trying to do and I like the idea of it. I like that it’s weird and that people will probably get really annoyed by the stories until their imagination has become less atrophied. The stories themselves are mostly fun but also kind of boring, depending on how you look at it. It’s probably better if you read them a few at a time, so they have a chance to not get boring and same-y.

I’ll probably reread it sometime in the future, when I want something magical and a bit weird, and I’ll probably reread it in chunks instead of in one big gulp. If you appreciate weird magical stories that sometimes don’t make sense, I think you’d like Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, too.

Rating

Somewhere between liked it and really liked it.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

The OF Blog: “One thing Loory does in several of the forty stories is create an off-beat juxtaposition of the mundane and the unreal. The short sentences Loory favors serve to build up expectations in one paragraph that then careen into something else in the next.”

My Bookish Ways: “These little stories are short, but they’ll make you think long after you finish them. The key word here is subtlety. You won’t find in your face violence or a “message”. The author leaves it to you to get out of them what you will, and I really enjoyed that. I found myself turning these little stories over in my head for quite some time after I finished.”

Three Guys One Book: “Loory stories are not strung randomly together, though at first this may seem like the case. The collection has an arc, a palpable progression, with the exception of “The TV” which was tacked on at the end, obviously because of its appearance in the New Yorker. It doesn’t detract from the whole, however. I just think of it as a bonus track.”

Notes

You can read one of the stories, The Girl in the Storm, right here at Ben Loory’s website.

Footnotes
1. although there are themes and things, but I’m not in school any more and you can’t make me talk about them. BACK
2. the other one’s a story with only three sentences, and maybe also the one about the duck who’s in love with a rock. BACK
3. “get real,” “think realistically,” “you’re not taking your student career seriously,” etc. BACK

REVIEW: Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Posted by Anastasia on July 25, 2011 12 Responses »

Jul 252011

52. Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
Publication: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (October 11, 2011), ARC paperback, 232pp / ISBN 1599906449
Genre: MG Fantasy, Adventure

Read: June 4, 2011
Source: BEA 2011 (from the Bloomsbury booth, which I kept circling around like a creepy circling thing)

This book will be released on October 11, 2011.

Summary from Amazon:

Tuesdays at Castle Glower are Princess Celie’s favorite days. That’s because on Tuesdays the castle adds a new room, a turret, or sometimes even an entire wing. No one ever knows what the castle will do next, and no one-other than Celie, that is-takes the time to map out the new additions. But when King and Queen Glower are ambushed and their fate is unknown, it’s up to Celie, with her secret knowledge of the castle’s never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom. This delightful book from a fan- and bookseller-favorite kicks off a brand-new series sure to become a modern classic.

Review

How have I never read a Jessica Day George book before? Have you all been hiding her from me? Do you want to hoard her books for yourself, is that it?

I can understand the inclination. Reading Tuesdays at the Castle felt a little like reading my first Diana Wynne Jones book. There’s that tingle of suspected wonderfulness on the first page. The growing realization that, yes, this book really is wonderful. And the the immensely satisfying conclusion where you’ve finished the book so you’re a little bit sad, but you know there’s a whole heap of other books by the same author out there just waiting for your nose to be shoved into them. All in all, that’s one of my favorite reading experiences! Plus I always know that when that happens, the author is something special I should be paying attention to.

So. Tuesdays at the Castle. Let’s talk about why it’s wonderful.

First: it has princesses and castles and royal drama and lots of magic. These are things I really like! Also it has action and adventure and the castle is alive (but not in a creepy way).

The author

Second: the characters, especially the royal family, are exactly the sort of people I’d like ruling over me if I was living in a monarchy instead of democracy. They sort of remind me of the Narnia kids, only without a pre-Witch Edmund. They’re good and kind and very forthright, but they’re also not only those things. For the most part they’re stiff-upper-lip strong, but, being kids, they still have moments of being otherwise. The mix was done very well, I thought, and made them seem more real.

The villains even had depth! Well, sort of. Some of the villains had depth, and some of them didn’t. But I bet if this were a longer book the villains would have gotten some more layers; that’s just the sort of author JDG seems to be. She gives everyone a fair chance.

Third: speaking of “if the book were longer”– the story was exactly the length it needed to be. It wasn’t too long and it wasn’t too short, and though it’s part of a new series there wasn’t an annoying cliffhanger at the end. The pacing was perfect, basically, and I never felt like stuff was being left out or skipped over to save page length.

Fourth: the world of Tuesdays (outside of the castle) was just hinted at, but, honestly, that didn’t bother me. The important part of the story was the castle, which is an amazing place, and longer descriptions about the outside world can wait for another book. I am interested in knowing more about it! But it wasn’t overly necessary in this book, I think.

So, to sum up: I adored this book. I loved everything about it. I don’t think JDG was a step out of place anywhere, and that’s a more rare thing that you’d think. Do you like MG fantasy books? Yes? Then you seriously need to read Tuesdays at the Castle. I’m telling you this for your own good: listen to me! Do as I say! You won’t regret it.

Rating

It’s fantastic! Read it ASAP.

Buy

Pre-order your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Notes

Honestly, Diana Wynne Jones was an author unto herself so I’m probably never going to find a full-on DWJ clone, but I can’t help looking for almost-DWJ authors to fill the void once I’ve read all of DWJ’s stuff. I know it’s not going to be the same whoever I find, but, well. Sigh.

Some other authors that are sort of like DWJ: Susan Cooper, Diane Duane, Jenny Nimmo, Garth Nix, Megan Whalen Turner, Patricia C. Wrede. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Also, JDG has a list of her favorite books and a lot of them are MY favorite books, too! In fact, almost all the ones I haven’t read yet are ones I’ve been meaning to read, anyway…

The Sunday Salon (July 24): On stories and lies

Posted by Anastasia on July 24, 2011 10 Responses »

Jul 242011

Completely by accident I’ve read two books this month that feature the impact of stories on a person’s imagination/life/etc. And now I’m reading another book which I’m pretty sure has been tweaked to show its inhabitants in a better light– although I haven’t double-checked that yet, as I don’t want to ruin the story with the truth until after I’ve finished it.

“Ruin the story with the truth.” That’s kind of a funny thing to say, right? But I mean it. Some stories are just better, more enjoyable and likable and more refreshing to the soul when they’ve got some lies mixed in. And I think that’s okay, even in the case of a memoir. Sometimes lies are good things, if they improve the quality of a story.

That reminds me of the time the James Frey debacle happened, when it was discovered that he lied about stuff in his “true” book. At the time I was indignant– how dare he lie about stuff and pretend it was the truth!– but now I almost…think it’s okay? I think it’s okay to lie in a story, even in a “true” story^[1], as long as the story is good and as long as the “truth” can be found out somewhere later on.^[2]

I don’t really want to get into a debate about what’s “true” or not, but I think, or at least I hope, that people know when you read a memoir you’re only reading one version of the truth anyway. One person’s idea of what happened last Thursday at the company picnic is probably completely different from another person’s, and I think that’s okay. If one of those people can tweak a story so it’s even more interesting than it was before, then that’s okay, too. I’d rather read a thrilling story of how the IT department’s supervisor defeated the company dragon in a tournament than a boring one about how the bean curd wasn’t as good as it was last year.

But that’s just me. I know some people would rather read about the bean curd, and I know also that sometimes the “truth” never comes out. That’s why my history classes annoyed me so much– there was only ever one truth, and I’m of the opinion that a solo truth isn’t a truth of all. But I know some people disagree, and that’s fine, too. I just wish that more truths were allowed to exists alongside each other, and, really, in the age of the internet, when basically anyone can put their stories online for people to read, why shouldn’t multiplicity be a good thing?

What do you think about stories with lies in them? Do they bug you? Do you bother fact-checking memoirs after reading them?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
76. Brooklyn, Burning – Steve Brezenoff [rating: 2.5] B
77. The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin [rating: 4.5] *
78. Ringlingville USA – Jerry Apps [rating: 2]
79. The Implosion of Aggie Winchester – Lara Zielin [rating: TBD] R
80. Lighthousekeeping – Jeanette Winterson [rating: TBD]

Books reviewed this week:
43. Silver Phoenix – Cindy Pon [rating: Buy it]
47. The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman – Meg Wolitzer [rating: 4.5] B
49. This Thing Called the Future – J.L. Powers [rating: 4.5] B
54. The Wizard of Dark Street – Shawn Thomas Odyssey [rating: 4] R
59. Blink & Caution – Tim Wynne-Jones [rating: 4] R

Books acquired this week:
None.

Currently reading:
I’m about halfway through The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. I have two copies of this book for some reason^[3], and I thought it might be finally time to read it. So far the best parts have been MAT’s descriptions of how Austrians celebrated Christmas and whatnot pre-WWII.

REVIEW: The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey

Posted by Anastasia on July 22, 2011 14 Responses »

Jul 222011

54. The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey
Publication: EgmontUSA (July 26, 2011), ARC, 345pp / ISBN 1606841432
Genre: MG Fantasy, Mystery

Read: June 5-9, 2011
Source: Publisher (thank you!)

This book will be released on July 26, 2011.

Summary from Amazon:

Oona Crate was born to be the Wizard’s apprentice, but she has another destiny in mind.

Despite possessing the rare gift of natural magic, Oona wants to be a detective. Eager for a case to prove herself, she wants to show her uncle—the Wizard of Dark Street—that logic is as powerful as magic. But when someone attacks the Wizard, Oona must delve even deeper into the world of magic to discover who wanted her uncle dead.

Full of magic, odd characters, evil henchmen, and a street where nothing is normal, The Wizard of Dark Street will have you guessing until the very end.

Review

This book is so cute and wonderful and lovely that I’m having a hard time putting together a coherent paragraph describing just how cute and wonderful and lovely it actually is. I just. I just love it, okay? I want to clutch it to my chest and do a happy dance. I want rainbows to spring up everywhere and at the end of them are piles of this book. It makes me want to punch a rabbit in the face, that’s how happy this book makes me.

So please excuse me if things are a little wacky in this post.

Okay, so: this book. This book. Why is it so cute?! I hear you yell. I’ll tell you! It’s cute because it’s a) got an adorable protagonist, b) does “Sherlock Holmes but different” really well, and c) it just is.

To be fair, maybe if you’re not obsessed about Sherlock Holmes like I am you won’t think the book is as cute as I think it is. But I just love that Oona is a female Sherlock Holmes who is done right. She feels like a real person, not just like a stereotypical Holmes (is that a thing?) shoved into a female body. She has a personality! She has faults! She’s also really clever, and I love a clever female protagonist, I do, I do.

The author

The other characters are similarly charming, though maybe not as fully developed as people as Oona is. The Irene Adler character (who is a boy! who is training to be a lawyer!) is unfortunately one of the least well-defined secondary character, and he’s supposed to be the love interest. I’m assuming in later books we’ll get to know him better, but in this one he’s just shown in a “oh isn’t he handsome and kind and maybe smart” kind of way. The inspector, who is supposed to be Lestrade, I think, got really short shafted. He’s an imbecile, he’s useless, and he gets in Oona’s way. (Poor Lestrade.)

My favorite secondary character is Samuligan, the household fairy servant/slave (and I hope that gets addressed more in the next book) who I guess is…Mrs Hudson, maybe? (Some characters don’t translate exactly.) Only more obviously kick-ass than Mrs Hudson was ever shown to be. I just like fairy dudes who dress up like cowboys, okay?

The mystery was a lot of fun, with witches and fancy dresses and mysterious break-ins. ~~Moriarty~~ The Big Bad showed up at the end, but didn’t do much except hint at future troubles in later books. In fact, the whole ending felt like a big “here’s what’s going to happen in later books” sort of thing, which I admit was disappointing.

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed The Wizard of Dark Street, not only because of the Sherlock Holmes stuff but also because it was just a really well-written MG fantasy mystery with fun characters, an interesting world, and possibilities for more fun in the future.

Rating

Really liked it. (Duh.)

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

Charlotte’s Library: “It’s fun, its fast, it has a pleasantly diverse cast of characters and a vividly imagined fantastical setting. I can’t speak to the quality of the mystery, qua mystery–I’m not the sort of reader that thinks critically while reading, picking up clues and looking for inconsistencies; instead, reading a book like this, I am happy to be swept along, wide-eyed and slack-jawed….But regardless of that, I thought the concept of the heroine wanting to be a detective rather than a wizard was a nice twist, and Oona is a thoroughly engaging young heroine.”

Danyelle Leafty: “I think the world building was very well done. There were a hundred small details that kept my sense of wonder whirling. From the tattoos some of the students wore to mark their rank to throwing letters in the fire working as mail delivery, it really felt like there was a real world existing beyond the story.”

There’s also a book tour going on now, ’til August 5 (I’m not part of the tour).

Notes

Lately I’ve gotten the feeling that whenever I describe a book as “cute” or “charming,” that sort of…turns people off. Do people not like cute books? I like cute books, but I can see how such a description might turn someone off, especially if that someone thinks “cute” = “sappy and gooey and horrendously twee.” To me, “cute” = “makes me want to cuddle the book and call it snookums.” I don’t know if that’s the same thing or not, but it doesn’t feel like the same to me, so, like. Haha?

STO (who is also a musician) has done a music video to promote his book! I like it.