The Promised Recap

It's taken me forever and a day to get around to writing this recap, but I know you're not surprised, so let's just move right along.

When I last posted, I was reading/listening to Anton Strout's "Dead to Me", which is the first novel in his Simon Canderous series. I had been looking forward to this one for quite a while, and I really enjoyed it. It's funny, original, and only slightly sexist. I suspect I wouldn't be as annoyed by the sexism if I had read the novel instead of listening to it, since the narrator did give a slightly irritating read for the female characters, but the sexism was definitely there. It's not bad enough that I wouldn't recommend this novel, and it wasn't bad enough to make me even consider not reading the rest of the series. It's just there. I think Anton Strout is a very funny and kind man, and I really don't think it will be an issue in the rest of the series - it seemed to be a 'first novel' issue more than an actual sexist issue.

While I was on holiday I read the second novel of Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdom's series, "One Good Knight", which was a fun, light read. I didn't love it as much as I loved the first book, probably because I had an idea of what to expect from it, and predictable is never great, but it was still a really enjoyable read. I don't read much romance, but romantic fantasy is perfect for vacation.

I followed that up with a binge read of the three most recent novels in Kelly Meding's MetaWars series - "Changeling", "Tempest", and "Chimera". You may remember how much I enjoyed "Trance" - the series just gets better from there! I couldn't stop reading them. We are talking 'stay up past bedtime to finish and then immediately start the next novel' level of addiction here, and I am anxiously waiting for the next novel to be announced. This series is what I had hoped the 'Marvel's Agent's of Shield' TV series would be like, only even better because I'm not nearly as imaginative as Ms Meding is. Each novel is told from the point of view of a different member of the team-formerly-known-as-Rangers, a group of emotionally scarred young superheroes who are just trying to find their place in the world. They are brilliant, heartbreaking, and inspiring - and you should go buy the whole series (also available on Amazon, if that's your bag) because I swear you will not be disappointed. Go. I'll wait here.

Got it? Ok, moving on...

At Christmas I decided to re-read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which is never a mistake. When I was growing up we went to the local stage production every year, but I never get tired of it. If you've never read it (GASP!!) find yourself a copy next December - it's a quick read, but it's lovely.

Maybe it's a comfort thing (I've been feeling a bit down) but a lot of my reading time over the past six months has been devoted to re-reading favourites. In addition to "A Christmas Carol" I've also re-read the first 6 Harry Potter novels and the second Dexter novel - so, it's been a lot of fun. I discover something new every time I read Harry Potter, and the joys and heartaches feel as fresh as they did on the very first read. I'm taking a little break before Deathly Hallows because, let's be honest, the conclusion Half-Blood Prince is emotionally exhausting! As for "Dearly Devoted Dexter" - man, I love that character! For all his darkness, he is a funny guy and one of the most human characters I've ever read. I'm way behind on the series, so hopefully I can catch up (assuming there will be a book 8 - fingers crossed!).

I also started a re-read on audio of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series, which I love so much, you don't even understand. I was really excited about it - one of my favourite series ever, read by James Marsters? Yes please!! Unfortunately, Marsters reading of the story is not quite to my taste. I'll probably try again when the days are a bit longer. I'd like to get caught up on this series this year, too.

I haven't given up on my Man Booker challenge, but I've been stuck on Margaret Atwood's "Blind Assassin" since early November, and I don't know why. This novel is another re-read for me, and although I'm only about a quarter of the way into it, but I just keep putting it down to read other things. I'm disappointed that I'm not enjoying "Blind Assassin" this time around, since it blew me away the first time. It's probably mostly because I haven't forgotten any of it, so the dramatic tension is just not there. Or perhaps I'm just making excuses (see Harry Potter 1-6 and Dexter 2)! I'm going to try to get into it again after I finish reading my current novel, but if it still doesn't grab me I will have to admit defeat and move on to the next title.

I've also been reading a bunch of non-fiction book on finance, compassion, history, and evolution. Nothing terribly exciting, but it's been keeping my mind busy.  Novel-wise, I finished reading Half-Blood Prince four days ago, and Dearly Devoted Dexter three days ago, took a couple days off trying to decide what to read next, and yesterday I decided to start a new-to-me series that I've been looking forward to - Anthony Bidulka's "Russell Quant" mysteries. The first title is "Amuse Bouche" - a rookie PI based in a small Canadian prairie city - sounds like fun, right? So far, it is! In fact, I think I can fit in a few more chapters before bed...

Happy reading!

Feel Free To Skip This One (I Wish I Had)

Trigger Warning and Spoiler Alert in effect. 

I've been trying for days nearly a week well over two weeks now to think of something nice to say about J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" and the nicest thing I can come up with is... I didn't notice any typos.

I truly hated this novel. It wasn't a matter of just not enjoying it, or even of not 'really getting' the deeper themes of the novel (although that is possibly true as well). I hated it. I was so angry reading this novel that whenever I stopped reading I would realize I had been unconsciously scowling at the book and clenching it hard enough to dent the pages. I wish I hadn't read it, because every book we read becomes a part of us, which means a bit of my brain is now dark and disgusting, and I can never get rid of that. Grr. I understand that 'literature' is meant to stretch us as humans, to engage our emotions and our intellects - but I've never been so angry about a book in all my life!

My issue with this novel is that the protagonist is a misogynist who judges all women on their appearance, and has double standards on sexual assault. He is a professor, and before he (repeatedly) assaults a young student he tells her that she "ought to" sleep with him "because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it." - which was nearly enough to make me puke all on it's own.  Later, he visits his daughter and describes her as "solid", "sturdy", and "ample... letting herself go, as happens when one withdraws from the field of love". Although there is a suggestion of an absent lover, he seems to believe that a female lover is as good as none at all. When he meets one of his daughter's friends he takes an instant dislike to her because "he does not like women who make no effort to be attractive" - because a woman's value to society is wholly determined by her sexual attractiveness, amirite?!  When he later finds himself sleeping with this same woman he thinks to himself, "...this is what I have come to.  This is what I will have to get used to, this and even less than this." He is a truly distasteful character for this alone, but it's even worse when factoring in his attitude toward sexual assault.

In the opening pages of the novel, he stalks an escort he has been seeing before losing track of her and moving on to two other women. In the following chapter he becomes infatuated with the beautiful young student whom he subsequently assaults, prompting an inquiry at the university over what he describes as an "affair" gone wrong. He loses his position because, while he is willing to admit that theoretically it was wrong of him to 'have an affair' with a student, he maintains that resisting his 'impulses' would be as much as castrating himself and living out his life as less than a man. An entirely disgusting argument. When he is later a witness to the gang rape of another woman, he sees absolutely no connection to his own behaviour and is confused and angry that she will not report the crime.  She believes there is no such thing as justice in her situation, so stoically tries to move on with her life (which, in it's own way is stupid and appalling) but he can't let it go, partly because he sees it as an insult to his manhood. He was unable to protect her from the indignity, therefore he was violated. Again, a disgusting and male-centric view.

I thought, when the rape occurred, 'here is his chance for redemption as a human being, to see the error of his ways and repent!' I kept reading on the assumption that the character's journey would bring him to a place where he was no longer a loathsome caricature of a chauvinist pig, but the only real change in his character was that he no longer saw himself as unassailable.  He never changed his attitude, he never accepted that what he did or how he treated the women in his life was in any way wrong, he just seemed to accept that he was no longer impervious, that age was catching up to him. The only real kindness he shows in the entire story is when he cannot stand to see the corpses of euthanized dogs being beaten to fit into an incinerator, and so takes it upon himself to gently feed them into the machine.  Not from any real love for the animals, of course, oh no! It's still an entirely selfish action - he doesn't like to see them treated that way.

It's really just an appalling novel. I was furious and frequently felt sick to my stomach while reading it. Unless you feel that you aren't reaching your Daily Recommended Value of Misogynistic Assholes (and, you're on the Internet, so I'm willing to bet that's not the case) I suggest you skip this book altogether.  There are so many wonderful books in the world, it shouldn't be hard to find one more pleasant than this! As for me, I'm trying to enjoy my non-Booker mini break, listening to the audio book of Anton Strout's "Dead To Me" (very funny, only slightly sexist) and planning a reread of Harry Potter.

Because life is too damn short for shitty books.

Happy reading!

I Swore To Myself I'd Never Review Erotica....

I assume you're all used to me being absent more often than I am present, so I'm going to skip over the apologies and excuses for why this post is 18 days late (it has to do with Internet Explorer, knitting, heat waves, and flooding. It's been a busy month.) and we're going to roll right into the reviews.  That's right, plural! I've not been writing but I have been reading! Three whole novels read, so, let's go!

First up, I read "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai, Man Booker Prize winner of 2006, which took me a total of 16 days to read. The scope of the novel is massive, an intersecting web of lives from a small Indian village through a lens of immigration, emigration and colonization,  from the 1920's to 1986, when the majority of the story takes place. The historic details are interesting - for instance, I'd never heard about Gorkaland and it's turbulent history - and the individual character stories are heart-wrenching. Everyone can relate to a story about migration and the conflicts involved in 'claiming' land, so in that regard it was a fascinating study, and a really well written novel.

I did not enjoy it.

This is definitely a case of, 'It's not you, it's me' because the story was really well-written, in it's style. It's just not a style I like. I'm not a fan of 'theme' driven stories, I much prefer a solid plot line, so it was a real struggle for me to get into it.  In fact, I was more than half way through the novel before I even recognized the theme because I kept waiting for the plot to 'click', which of course it never does. I found it meandering, obsessive in it's descriptions of minutia, and disappointing in it's conclusion - but these are all issues that have more to do with Me as the reader, than the Novel itself. I understand why it won the MBP, and I'm sure 'literature' folks will just gobble it up - but it just doesn't do a thing for me!

In the midst of my struggle to read that novel, I picked up and absolutely devoured another one. It wasn't intentional! We had a couple of really quiet weeks at work, mainly due to the aforementioned flooding and heat wave. Now, I hate reading at work - I know I work in a book store, but I think it's rude to be engrossed in a novel when there are customers around, and besides, I'm not being paid to read!! (Also, it's really hard to concentrate when people keep talking to you! I mean, geez, can't you see I'm reading a book?!) However, I really had nothing else to do!

So... long story slightly shorter, I picked up a copy of Megan Hart's "Stranger" and was intrigued by the idea of the heroine, a funeral home director who hires 'escorts' for sexual companionship in order to avoid the mess of emotional attachments. Talk about your kick-ass powerful gender-reversal! I flipped open to the first chapter, and I was hooked! Yes, it's erotica (oh my! oh my! is it ever!!) but it's so much more than that! It's a really great romance, an interesting look at life as a funeral director, and just a great story! Maybe I'm a bit morbid, but I've always thought being a funeral director would be an interesting career (I still don't think I'm wrong!) so that was great, and I love a female character who is in command of her own sexuality. Romance novels and erotica are full of supposedly strong, independent women who are sexual victims - it's nauseating, and it's totally uncool. There is none of that here, and that alone would be enough to make me recommend this novel, but it really is great! I blew through it in 4 days, and I'm definitely going to read Megan Hart again!

So, that's caught us up all the way to July 5th, when I decided to give a book I tried to listen to back in December another shot. Firstly, I love the idea of audio books (knitting and reading at the same time!!) but I've discovered that narrator's are really hit or miss for me. I was spoiled early in life (and as recently as the Harry Potter novels) by having my father read to us. He is a brilliant narrator, and all others suffer in comparison. Except maybe Morgan Freeman... and Tom Selleck. 

Anyway, my point was, I listened to the first 9 chapters of the first novel in Caitlin Kittredge's Black London series back in December, but gave up on it because I found the narrator's choices in voicing Pete and Jack too annoying. I could tell the story had really solid bones, but I couldn't get past how whiny Pete sounded. I was really disappointed, too, because I'd been looking forward to the series since I discovered it back near the beginning of my Booker odyssey. I knew when I finished the Iron Codex earlier this year that I had to revisit this series - Aoife was such a strong character, and Kittredge is just too good a storyteller! So I picked myself up a physical copy of "Street Magic", and

Oh. 

My. 

Goodness.

So fucking good, you guys!! By now you know I love me some Urban Fantasy, and this novel is top-notch! Pete is truly kick-ass, and Jack is...well, he's my new fictional crush. Dark and damaged and punk rock and, um, excuse me while I drool. Seriously, though, it's a high-stakes story with lots of magic, and characters I was really rooting for. I described it to my mother as Dresden Files from Murphy's point of view, only Pete is way cooler and Jack is way more damaged. I literally had to force myself not to binge read this series the same as the last! It has, however, been added to my list of "Palette Cleansers" - books to read after a really bad book to remind me that I love reading!

For now, I'm forcing myself back to the Booker list - I figure if I let myself read two genre novels for every Booker title I finish, I'll be able to get through them much faster! I'm reading J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" right now, and I am trying my best to reserve judgement.... but I suspect I'm going to be reading one of those Palette Cleansers next!!

Happy Reading!

Vampires, Polygamy, Superheroes, and Possession

Since my last post I finished the nonfiction title I was reading, listened to the second audio book of a paranormal spy series, watched a film adaptation of a Man Booker Prize winning title, and also read an urban fantasy novel and a romance short story. Yikes! Lots of catch-up to do today, so I'll try to keep this brief!

Joe, Alina, Vicki and Val Darger, "Love Times Three" - nonfiction
I've been re-watching the HBO series "Big Love" over the past two months, so I was naturally intrigued when this true story of plural marriage came across my desk. In fact, aspects of the Darger's life were the direct inspiration for events in the TV series, specifically the season one finale, so if you are a fan of the show I definitely suggest checking out this book.  Polygamy has been in the media a lot in the past few years, from news stories about 'compounds' to the reality TV show "Sister Wives", but this is easily the most humanizing account I've come across. The Darger's story really made me look at my own views of marriage, in particular the legality of a marriage between consenting adults. I'm a big supporter of marriage equality, and it's really difficult to see why their marriage shouldn't be legal. So, absolutely worth a read if you're in the mood the expand your world view!

Christopher Farnsworth, "The President's Vampire" - audio book
I love this series! It's a vampire spy story, dark but hilarious, with lots of conspiracy theory 'quotes' which make it feel more realistic.  I listened to the first book last year and I've been really looking forward to listening to this one, and it was everything I could hope for. Terrorist plots and snark abound, and Bronson Pinchot does a fantastic job narrating, really brilliant. His delivery is perfect for secret agent vampire Nathaniel Cade, and just annoying enough to not make me hate sidekick Zach Barrows. I highly recommend this series.

Kelly Meding, "Trance" - urban fantasy
OMG! This novel is fantastic! Set in an alternate near-future, this superhero story has everything! Action, comedy, drama (I cried), suspense, romance - you want it, it's here. I love superhero mythology, but I'm always a bit reluctant to read the Marvel/DC novels because I've never been into comic books, and I'm worried that I'm missing out on part of the story. This is a brand new universe, though, completely unrelated to the established hero lines - and it's delicious! I've had Kelly Meding on my TBR pile for a little over a year now, and she does not disappoint. I can't wait to read more of her books!

Rachael Herron, "Honeymooning" - short story
I adore Rachael Herron's writing, she's brilliant, warm, funny and pretty much everything I'd want in a best friend. This one is a novella in her romance/knitting series 'Cypress Hollow Yarn', taking us along on an unexpected Hawaiian honeymoon, and it's so funny I was giggling out loud on the bus. The driver thinks I'm crazy, but it's totally worth it!

"Possession" - film adaptation
I wasn't entirely enamoured with A.S. Byatt's "Possession" when I read it the first time last year, but it has been on my mind quite a lot recently. I didn't want to take the time to re-read it right now, so I decided to check out the 2002 film adaptation. It didn't suck. Obviously it's not possible to faithfully recreate such a massive and detailed story in a film, much less a film that isn't even two hours long, but they did an O.K. job. It did deepen my overall understanding of the story, but the novel was (of course) much better.  I guess I'm going to have to give in and find time to re-read it anyway....

But, for now, my next novel is going to be the first of Mercedes Lackey's 'Five Hundred Kingdoms' series, "The Fairy Godmother". Looks like it'll be a fun one!

Happy reading!

Turn Off Doctor Who Good

The first novel read in 2013, Rob Thurman's "Moonshine", was completely devoured in 5 days! 5 days over a weekend counts as 'devouring' for me, since most of my reading is done on the bus and I spend less time on the bus on the weekend, and I also spend Sunday catching up on TV so it's basically a write off.  This weekend, though, found me thinking, "Another episode of Doctor Who? But... I could read, instead!" I can't think of the last book I read that was 'turn off Doctor Who' good but, seriously, this novel was That Good.  Which is crazy talk, because one can never have enough Doctor Who!

The Leandros stories are very action packed, which means that lots of the 'boring' elements are jumped over with frequent use of 'two days later' or Cal (the half-demon protagonist who makes me feel like a cougar) being unconscious for an extended period of time, and coming to when the action is about to get going again.  It's a teeny bit irritating on occasion, but it does keep the story moving at a quick pace so that's nice. Literally never a dull moment. There are lots of twists and turns in the plot, and every scene matters, which is awesome.  It's a  very economical style of storytelling, almost the complete opposite of so much of the 'literature' I've been reading lately! 

A bit of a tangent here, but one of the things I was interested in exploring when I began my Booker challenge was how my taste in novels would change, if at all, as a result of genre deprivation. Maybe two novels isn't enough for a definitive answer on that one, but I feel pretty confident in saying that it hasn't changed my taste at all, it's just made me appreciate genre stories even more than I did before. I enjoy the adventure/mystery/suspense of these stories more than I could ever appreciate the navel gazing of the literati.  Not that there aren't non-genre novels I enjoy, obviously! I just prefer genre writing.  End tangent.

Working in a used-book store, I see a lot of urban and paranormal fantasy books.  One of the things I love about this series is that Rob goes beyond the current fads in fantasy characters, delving deeper into mythology.  There are werewolves and vampires, yes, but also a plethora of other nasties! I love the level of research that she puts into the non-human elements of the story. I even looked up a few I wasn't familiar with, although Rob does a great job of describing them all in their creepy evilness so it isn't necessary if you don't enjoy doing extracurricular research for a novel! There are also demons of her own device, primarily the Auphe, who are the nastiest of the nasties and thoroughly frightening. The scariest of the monsters for me, so far, was in the first book, "Nightlife", but both novels have moments where I'm so scared I find I'm holding my breath as I read! 

I realize I haven't said really anything about the plot, but it's twisty and turny, and I don't want to spoil any of that for you.  Suffice to say I loved this book, and the ending was OMG heart wrenching! If you like urban fantasy at all, I'm sure you'll love this series!

I'm going to go rifle through my bookshelves and find my next read.  I have a few thoughts on what it may be, but I may surprise myself....

Happy reading!