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MINI-REVIEWS: Love Among the Chickens, The Explosionist, The Warrior Heir

Posted by Anastasia on May 31, 2011 1 Response »

May 312011

36. Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse
Publication: originally published 1906, ebook published 2003
Genre: Fiction, Humor

Rating: Borrow it
Read: April 13-15, 2011

Source: Project Gutenberg

Review

I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed by a Wodehouse book, and I’m not really disappointed with this one. But I AM underwhelmed. This is, I feel, one of his more lackluster books, with more fluff than wit and entirely forgettable characters. It’s a funny story and it’s a good book to read if you’re bored on a train somewhere, but it’s definitely not up to the level of Mr. Wodehouse’s other, more popular books.

40. The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson
Publication: HarperTeen (July 1, 2008), Hardcover, 464pp / ISBN 0061239755
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy, Action

Rating: Borrow it
Read: April 20-30, 2011

Source: Borrowed

Review

This book is so interesting. I love alternative histories, and stories that mix science with magic (or spiritualism, I guess). This one is particularly good because it’s got so many important parts of history running around inside it: the battle of Waterloo, spiritualism, women’s rights, the Industrial Revolution, and so on. I also loved the protagonist, Sophie, and the mystery/thriller bits were very entertaining. However– the end. The ending killed it for me. The last two chapters or so were just so boring and obvious and blah, and it really left me with a sour impression of a book that really deserves more. I understand those chapters setting up the plot for the second book, but I wish it had done it in a more vibrant way.

41. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
Publication: Disney Hyperion (September 23, 2009), ebook, 448pp
Genre: YA (Urban) Fantasy

Rating: Borrow it
Read: May 1-2, 2011

Source: Bought

Review

I so wanted to love this book. Instead I’m left feeling like I just stepped in cow poop after a fun day at the county fair. You know what I mean? I like CWC’s writing voice and I like the world The Warrior Heir resides in, but it’s just so full of the same ol’ fantasy tropes I’ve seen over and over again that I couldn’t stand it. If I hadn’t been focusing on those (or if this was my first ever fantasy book) I probably would have enjoyed the book more, but all I could think the whole time I read it was “and then I bet THIS is going to happen”– and it did.

At least it had plenty of strong female characters! And I also really liked the friendship element running heavily throughout, and how Jack actually learns more than just how to swing a sword (I mean emotional stuff, yeah). I just wish it had tried to do more new things than just doing the same old things everyone else already did. Still, I’ve got the next book already and that one might have something going for it, so I’m going to go ahead and continue the series.

REVIEW: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Posted by Anastasia on April 19, 2011 5 Responses »

Apr 192011

30. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Publication: Scribner (May 6, 2008), Paperback, 224pp / ISBN 0743299418
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories

Rating: Borrow it
Read: March 27, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Award-winning filmmaker and performing artist Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection. In these stories, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, a shy revelation can reconfigure the world. Her characters engage awkwardly — they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals their idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

Review

I’ve been wanting to read No One Belongs Here More Than You for a few years now, but I can’t remember exactly why. Probably it was because I keep seeing it pop up everywhere on those hipster blogs that I pretend not to be impressed by but secret want to emulate. Anyway, I got a copy for myself and then I read it and now I’m wondering what the big deal is.

Are they good stories? Yes. I like Miranda July’s writing, and I like some of the ideas in them. Her author and character personality (and possibly her real one as well) is that of a socially awkward person who has a lot of doubts about life and everything else, something I can relate to. I particularly liked the story “This Person,” and most of the stories had at least one extremely lovely phrase somewhere in them that made reading them really enjoyable. But overall I was kind of…underwhelmed.

I suppose I was just expecting it to be this big, fantastic, heartbreaking, quirky collection of stories that would change my life forever once I read it– because that’s the impression I got from the hipster blogs, see. But actually, it’s just a LITTLE bit of all those things, and several weeks after reading it I’ve actually forgotten most of the stories. Also, having the same sort of person narrate all those stories (which star different people, see) got a little bit boring and repetitive. Every single character in each story reacted to every single situation in exactly the same way– or at least they all SEEMED to do that. They didn’t even really seem like distinct individuals, more like dopplegangers of the same person (Miranda July, probably). Overall I was just, well…underwhelmed.

And

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Other reviews:
Vulpes Libris: “That’s what I mean about her not always being the most subtle writer. When the writing is good the stories don’t try to justify or to explain themselves – there is a confidence or a carelessness about the writing that I like very much – a sure-footed trust that the reader will understand. But this last line, it tries to explain too much, it’s stamping you on the head with a theme that a reader will already have understood – too much of July and so a bit out of character for the narrator.”

BookFox: “The first story that I read, “The Swim Team,” won me over, and I bought the book at Borders. The piece was only six pages, a length that July handles extremely well. It characterizes the best of the collection: intimate, sharing a secret withheld from everyone but the reader, and immediate, written in simple language that somehow emphasizes every moment.”

Rat’s Reading: “There’s a pathos about all the characters. Lives of quiet desperation and whatnot. Except that it lost all potency with me because I didn’t care about the actors in these stories. They didn’t seem real to me so why would I give a rip about them? Perhaps I should have appreciated their child-like nature, but I didn’t.”

Save Ophelia: “Essentially, the stories were written in the same style and played on the same grander themes, using sexuality and odd characters to explore them. I would have enjoyed seeing something brand new rather than variations on a theme.”

I felt the same way I feel about NOBHMTY after watching Fight Club, reading A Clockwork Orange, and listening to Modest Mouse. Obviously I should just stop paying attention to hipster blogs.

REVIEW: I Lost My Mobile At the Mall by Wendy Harmer

Posted by Anastasia on April 12, 2011 3 Responses »

Apr 122011

25. I Lost My Mobile At the Mall by Wendy Harmer
Publication: Kane/Miller Book Publishers (March 2011), Hardcover, 265pp / ISBN 1935279971
Genre: YA Fiction

Rating: Borrow it
Read: February 27, 2011

Source: Publisher

Summary from Amazon:

I lost my mobile at the mall and am now facing certain death. My mother will accuse me of being lazy, ungrateful and plain old stupid. The first death I suffer will be from an utter lack of natural justice. My father will sentence me to die by disappointment. His shoulders will sag and there will be a long escape of air from his chest, as if I’ve crept up behind him and pulled out his plug. As if I deliberately lost my mobile phone to prove to him that there is no God. My best friend will kill me, all because there’s a photo in my mobile of her standing next to Hugh Jackman. I am not an overly dramatic person, but a year’s worth of numbers, texts and photos were in my phone, and if I don’t get them back my life is not worth living.

Review

This is a cute little book! It’s basically about what happens when a teenage isn’t able to constantly check Facebook or text her friends, and guess what? It isn’t that big of a deal. The world doesn’t end, the teen doesn’t lose all social contact, and, in fact, some really good things happen that probably wouldn’t have if Elly had still been glued to the internet all day. Some things– like homework– are harder to do without technology, but it’s not horrible.

Anyway, I Lost My Mobile At the Mall isn’t actually about life without technology. It’s more about Elly and her family and friends, the relationship between them and how they all navigate the murky waters of Teenage Drama. The technology aspect just adds a new edge to those relationships! Elly and her family are really cute– especially her grandmother– and they’re so normal, and in a normal world, it was a nice change from all the fantasy/sci-fi I’ve been reading lately.

The only downside is that, while I enjoyed the story and liked the different aspects (like family, technology, friendship, etc), it didn’t have pizazz. I hate saying that because I can’t quantify what pizazz is, exactly (beyond the definition), or how a book can get hold of it, but nevertheless I think it needs more sparkiness. Think of Louis Rennison’s books. They’re also about normal people doing normal things, with an edge of all-out wackiness, and they have pizazz. I don’t think I Lost My Mobile At the Mall needs to be hilariously wacky, but it needs more of the thing that books like Louis Rennison and some other YA authors have. You know?

So, anyway. I enjoyed I Lost My Mobile At the Mall and thought it was really cute, and I liked the inclusion of how over-dependence on technology robs you of some of the fun things of life, but it needs a bit more spark to really be amazing.

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Other reviews: Australian Women Online | Kiss the Book

Also, you can read the first chapter at the official website!

REVIEW: Bloodshot by Cherie Priest

Posted by Anastasia on March 29, 2011 2 Responses »

Mar 292011

26. Bloodshot by Cherie Priest
Publication: Spectra (January 25, 2011), Paperback, 385pp / ISBN 0345520602
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Action

Rating: Borrow it
Read: March 5-15, 2011

Source: Contest win

Summary from Amazon:

Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.

Review

Man, thinking about having to write this review has given me (hypothetical) hives, because I adore Cherie Priest and I absolutely love her steampunk books and I know she’ll find this review somehow and I don’t want her to hate me. I put off writing a review for a while because of the (hypothetical) hives, because, you see…I’m just not enthusiastic about Bloodshot.

I was SO excited about it when she was posting updates re:plot/wordcount/etc on her blog. It sounded so cool! Drag queens and snarky vampires and secret government programs. Good stuff! Exciting stuff! And since I know Cherie Priest is an awesome writer I just knew I’d love Bloodshot. Right?

Wrong.

It’s not that I hate Bloodshot. It’s definitely way better than most of the other urban fantasies-with-vampires books I’ve read. It’s got an interesting lead– a paranoid ex-flapper vampire suffering from some sort of nervous condition who can nevertheless still a bunch of hard-to-steal stuff– and and interesting plot, and there’s very little romance so I didn’t feel like puking for once, and all in all it sort of reminds me of an Angel/X-Files combo TV series. It’s not a BAD book. It’s just…not as good as I was hoping it would be.

I think I’m disappointed mainly because of two things:
1. the ending is like what happens when a soufflé collapses just as you’re about to put it down on the dinner table.
2. Raylene was not as good a protagonist as the ladies in CP’s other books.

The first point speaks for itself, I think. The second point needs more expanding, so: Raylene. She’s an interesting lead, as I’ve said. I like that she wasn’t shy about killing people (so rare for a vampire nowadays), and I like that she was a bit of a lecher. I like that she has issues with privacy and safety and that despite her panic attacks she can still kick ass. But what I didn’t like was that she was only a vampire thief prone to panic attacks. She wasn’t anything else.

With Cherie Priest’s other female protagonists, you know they’re more than just what they seem on the outside. In Boneshaker, for instance, Briar is more than just a worried mom. In Dreadnought, Mercy was more than just a nurse with a dead husband. They had other things going for them, they had painful histories and hopeful futures. And in their stories they both grew in some way, they both changed from how they were at the beginning of the book.

But with Raylene? I didn’t see that. She stayed exactly the same as she was in the beginning and though there are hints to her past life (both pre-vampire and pre-book), it nevertheless felt like her life only began at the first page. For an urban fantasy vampire she’s got some depth, but for a Cherie Priest protagonist I think she fell a bit short.

Normally I think in this instance the secondary characters could pick up the slack of the protagonist, but even they were more boring than CP’s secondary characters usually are. The most interesting one only showed up for one phone conversation!

Anyway, I know Bloodshot is the start of a series and I’m still going to read the second book, if only to find out more about the government program. But I’ll be way more happy when the next Clockwork Century book comes out.

And

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Other reviews: Love Vampires | io9.com | Ruled By Books | King of the Nerds

REVIEW: The Bloomswell Diaries by Louis L. Buitendag

Posted by Anastasia on March 25, 2011 7 Responses »

Mar 252011

24. The Bloomswell Diaries by Louis L. Buitendag
Publication: Kane/Miller Book Publishers (March 2011), Hardcover, 258pp / ISBN 1935279823
Genre: MG Action/Adventure (with a bit of steampunk)

Rating: Borrow it
Read: February 26-27, 2011

Source: Publisher

Summary from Amazon:

Benjamin Bloomswell is pleased to be staying with his uncle in America while his parents are off on another business trip. But when a series of newspaper articles, telephone calls and mysterious disappearances result in his being sent to – and having to escape from – a sinister orphanage and the criminals who run it, he knows he’s got to find a way back to England. He has to get to his sister’s boarding school before anyone else does. And somehow, he has to find his parents, who are also in trouble. But how?

Review

This is such a cute book. It reminds me a lot of the Pseudonymous Bosch books, A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Mysterious Benedict Society series– by which I mean it’s got great kid protagonists, secret-mysterious things going on, action and adventure, and fun illustrations.

I will say that I do think it fell prey to the “shove as much possible in the first book to make it easier on the subsequent books” syndrome. It started off great! Ben’s brought to New York to live with his mysterious uncle while his parents go off to do something equally mysterious, and Ben has to adjust to living with an uncle he doesn’t really know about. Then things go to pot. His uncle is killed, his parents are dead, and apparently he has no other family who can take him so he has to go to an orphanage. Then he has to run for his life from some Serious Baddies and their Killer Robot (awesome!).

There’s a quick stop-off at an evil children’s orphanage, and here’s where the pacing started to falter. We spend so little time at the orphanage that it’s barely a blip in Ben’s life, and I don’t entirely see the point of even going there except for Ben to make a new friend (who never shows up again in this book). His new friend also just so happens to know how to escape the orphanage with minimal trouble and is happy to show Ben how to do it (what?). This whole sequence moved very quickly, so quickly I was left wondering why it was even in the book at all. I’m assuming either the orphanage or his new friend will have a bigger part in the next book, but really all it did in this one was temporarily frighten Ben and show off how nasty the baddies are.

Then, a chapter or two later, Ben escapes the orphanage and the pacing gets much better. He stows away on a ship bound for England, and just so happens to run into some circus people who not only know his parents but are also ex-spies or something. They start teaching Ben the stuff he needs to know to survive the Baddies and their Killer Robot and it’s a pretty cool part of the plot, actually.

After the ship Ben goes to live with the rest of the circus people, who agree to take him in and, later, help him rescue his sister, who’s stuck in a girls’ boarding school in Switzerland.

I really like Ben’s sister. She’s WONDERFUL and, to be honest, I wish she was the protagonist of the book instead of Ben. Ben’s an okay character; he’s gotsome pizzazz and he’ll no doubt turn out to be an excellent spy or secret agent. But he’s also kind of bland, and his sister was so much cooler. She and her boarding school friends have this whole system worked out to get around the Evil Nuns running their school, and they have escape routes and secret societies and it’s just awesome. I may have a slight prejudice against Ben because of my deep love for boarding schools and the girls who go to them, but I won’t apologize! Ahem.

Anyway, I enjoyed The Bloomswell Diaries, although I wish it had slowed down a bit instead of rushing from one plot point to another. Not that I wanted it to be SO slow that it was another Mysterious Benedict Society, just that I wish some more time had been spent on, like, everything. Especially the worldbuilding, because I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with the robots and whatnot. Is it actually steampunk? Is it set in the future or the past? How did the robots come to be? What’s the purpose of them besides just being cool? Are there other steampunk-y things in existence?

The Bloomswell Diaries is a good first book to a fun new kids series, and I think if you like any of the other book series I listed above you’ll like this one. Just be prepared for some bumps along the way.

And

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Other reviews: Charlotte’s Library

REVIEW: The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno

Posted by Anastasia on March 15, 2011 5 Responses »

Mar 152011

22. The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno
Publication: W. W. Norton & Company (April 12, 2010), ebook, 416pp / ISBN ? (where have the ebook ISBNs gone?)
Genre: Literary Fiction, Magical Realism

Rating: Borrow it
Read: February 16-18, 2011

Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

The sky is falling for the Caspers, a family of cowards. When the parents decide to separate, this family is forced to appreciate the cloudiness of this modern age.

Review

Okay, true fact: I bought this book solely because of the cover. Well, and the summary– but mostly the cover. I love that cover. That cover is amazing, and it’s such a shame the inside doesn’t match it.

I don’t mind literary fiction. In fact, most of the time I even enjoy it! But what I don’t enjoy is when all literary fiction starts to sound the same. You know what I mean: the lit fic cliches. Cheating spouses. Disaffected modern (Western white) man. Descriptions of sex and/or masturbation that make me want to hurl. These things have become boring to me, and their presence in The Great Perhaps hurt my enjoyment of it big time.

However, The Great Perhaps isn’t a total loss. I really liked how the kids were fully fleshed-out people, and that they did, in fact, act like teenagers instead of miniature adults. I liked that the book had a happy ending. I liked that the beginning of the book reminded me of a Wes Anderson movie, and that if Wes Anderson ever decided to adapt this book to screen it would make for an interesting near-art house film.

The best part of the book was, for me, being able to follow these people around as they went through their lives messing it up and then repairing it at the end. Normally with lit fic books I think the ending leaves you with a bittersweet aftertaste, but with The Great Perhaps all I felt was satisfied.

It’s not my favorite book, and I wish that lit fiction would get some new ideas injected into it once in a while, but it’s not a BAD book. And after the story moved on from Jonathan’s penis and what he was doing with it, I enjoyed following the Caspers through their tale quite a bit.

And

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Other reviews: Reading and Rooibos | Farm Lane Books Blog

REVIEW: Bitter Melon by Cara Chow

Posted by Anastasia on February 28, 2011 3 Responses »

Feb 282011

20. Bitter Melon by Cara Chow
Publication: EgmontUSA (December 28, 2010), Hardcover, 320pp / ISBN 1606841262
Genre: YA Fiction (does it count as historical fiction if it’s the 1980s?)

Rating: Borrow it
Read: February 11, 2011

Source: Publisher

Summary from Amazon:

Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, has always had it drilled into her to be obedient to her mother and to be a straight-A student so that she can go to Med school. But is being a doctor what she wants? It has never even occurred to Frances to question her own feelings and desires until she accidentally winds up in speech class and finds herself with a hidden talent. Does she dare to challenge the mother who has sacrificed everything for her? Set in the 1980s.

Review

So: Bitter Melon. There’s been some drama about this book, mostly because I think it came out around the same time as Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and people were kind of like “ANOTHER book about an obsessive Chinese mother?”

Well, yeah. But it’s more a book about an abusive Chinese mother, about the clashes between Eastern and Western cultures, and about finding your own voice. It’s a little hokey in some places, Frances’ cousin is also pretty boring, with boring (and fake-sounding) dialogue to match, and I have no idea why it’s set in the 1980s, except to cut out cell phones and computers (which would have made the plot go in entirely different directions), but I liked it. I think I was in that rare mood where I wanted to read something depressing and sad, and that’s this book. (It did get happier at the end, of course.)

I can see why some people are upset with Bitter Melon, because it’s kinda disappointing to have ANOTHER book that’s basically repeating all the stereotypes, cliches, and exoticism of Asian societies that’s been in, like, almost every other book with an Asian character in it since the 1970s. But I nevertheless liked Bitter Melon because it seemed to be more about the effects of emotional and verbal abuse than the effects of “extreme Chinese parenting.” You know what I mean? It was Gracie, Frances’ mom, that was the problem, not Chinese culture.

Frances, meanwhile, was a pretty brilliant heroine. She knew where her mother was coming from (although I don’t think she realized that her mother had issues) and why she wanted Frances to succeed so badly, but Frances also knew that if she was to be happy she’d have to figure out her own path. Bitter Melon is her working through the problems between herself and her mother, and of Frances finding her own perspective in things.

Being the kid of an immigrant is tough, especially if the culture your parents came from isn’t entirely the culture you yourself are a part of. It’s also difficult being a parent (even without the mental problems Gracie had), and Bitter Melon shows off both sides of the issue pretty brilliantly. It’s a story that may have been done before (a LOT), but it’s (probably) still an important story to tell.

I think you do need to be in the right mood for such a book, though, because it IS very much like a Lifetime movie (“My Mother Beats Me With My Trophies”) in the almost OVER-emotional narrative aspect. But overall? I liked it.

And

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Other reviews: The Ya Ya Yas | Reading in Color | Good Books and Good Wine | GalleySmith

This review was hard to write, yo. I feel like I’m stepping on toes, or that I’ve (inadvertently) offended someone. I don’t know why? But it was totally stressful, this review.

There’s going to be a blog tour of Bitter Melon starting March 3rd! I didn’t know that before I started writing my review, and I’m not a part of it, but…yeah.

This interview with the author is really good, btw.