My Birthday Haul

This is a late entry, but my month in reading has been taken up by the novels my husband and sisters gave me for my birthday. 

All above from my husband.  


All below, purchased using an Amazon gift card from my husband and sisters.

I've always wanted to own this series, but you don't find it at Half Price Bookstores. 

The newest Southern Vampire Series book:

Pretty good.  Glad I didn't pay the price the inside cover said tho. 

This is the only one I haven't read.  My husband has been hoarding it to himself. 

Also, I was going through some novels I own and have read.  

Namely, the Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliot.  My attention petered out about halfway through book 4 of 7.  Which is pretty normally what happens with that series.  

I've also been rereading the Cast series by Michelle Sagara.  I own the first two.  The library is bringing me the rest.  Including a new installment I haven't read yet.  

Robin Hobb

In recent weeks, I've taken a break from borrowing books from the library and have reread some favorites from my personal library.

And holy shit, are they better than I remember. 

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

So... WOW!!  I was amazed by this book.  And since I really didn't have any expectations, it was nice to be blown away.

The cover-blurb really does this story a disservice, making it seem boring and trite.  However, in reality, this novel was full of WIN!

To begin: the story focuses on a young boy named Todd Hewitt as he goes to collect some apples with his dog.  And very early on, you realize things are wrong in the community of Prentisstown.  Settlers from another world settled on the New World some 20 years ago.  Since that time, there are no women: they were all killed in a plague that caused all the men in Prentisstown to be able to hear one another's thoughts.  This plague, or perhaps a war with the indigenous Spackles resulted in all the other settlers dying except those in Prentisstown.  What's more, is that on every boy's thirteenth birthday, they boys are made "men" in an ominous ceremony.  As there are no women, Todd is the last remaining boy.

Except very little of that is true, which Todd begins to discover when he finds a quiet spot in the swampy area of Prentisstown.  Not only can the men hear one another's thoughts, they can also hear the thoughts of all the animals on the planet as well.  Proximity increases the Noise, as its called, as well as emotional distress.

This is a YA novel and the issues it tackles are multitudinous.  However, the way the story is telling is compelling and vivid and amazing.  I stayed up way to late on a work night reading this because I wanted to know what the big secret was.  And its a doozy.

Some of the focus issues: how do you live a private life when everyone around you can hear your thoughts?  There are some methods of dealing with or tamping down the Noise, but if anyone really listens to you, they can hear you thinking.  What is individuality, when you constantly live in one another's heads?  What role do individuals have who can hear your thoughts, if you can't hear their thoughts.  This is central to the theme of the book, and to a degree mimics the xenophobia the settlers feel in regard to the alien Spackles.  And, how could you stand to hurt someone if you feel and hear their pain?  This is just a tiny portion of what this novel tackles.  And when I finished it, all I could think of was DAMN!  I'm not ready for it to end!

New!

Just picked up

which is YA.

Another history by Alison Weir, hopefully more able to hold my interest than the last three.

And this last, which was reviewed on John Scalzi's Whatever site as one of the Big Idea features.



















Now, which to read first?  I'm leaning toward The Lady in the Tower:The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir.

The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons

My husband is a BIG fan of Dan Simmons.  I've read one book by Simmons, Darwin's Blade and I enjoyed it.  I started Illium, Simmons' take on a futuristic Trojan war set in space and, unfortunately, set it down at some point and forgot about it.  I've requested a big batch of books from the Cincy Public Library, but none of them arrived until today, so I decided to read 

The two main characters, Bremen and Gail, are telepathic and married.  Gail dies from cancer and Bremen spirals down into depression and madness.  The novel shifts between scenes from Gail and Bremen's married life (Bremen is a mathematician who ends up studying human consciousness), Bremen in the years after Gail's death, and a mysterious third party who intimately knows both Gail and Bremen.  


The information about human consciousness and the effect of humanity of chaos and probability and the Universe was very interesting.  However, many of the things that happen to Bremen post-Gail seem unnecessarily contrived and a little too scripted.  


The moment when I close the pages of a book seems to crystalize my overall feelings on the book.  For this book, I liked it, but I didn't feel regret that the story was over (unlike Tigana, where I flipped through the last blank pages, hoping for more) and I was kinda irritated by the conclusion.  And when I was trying to figure out why the conclusion bothered me, I realized that it seemed that Simmons had come up with the ending and written a book to fit that ending.  And the novel seemed a little shoe-horned into that ending.  


What really struck me about the book was the discourse on the nature of human consciousness.  I wish that had been taken farther, as I found it the most compelling portion of the novel.   

The Crazies

So, its not technically a "zombie movie," but I'm really excited!  I comes out next Friday.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I have to lay this out there.  I love zombie movies.  I enjoy the dreams I have about zombies.  I enjoyed World War Z by Max Brooks.  Husband and I train for the Zombie Apocalypse (it makes me feel better about running).  We have a plan on how to save ourselves.

In my opinion, books such as The Forest of Hands and Teeth is one of those books that elevates the YA genre from its saccharine roots.  I'm including this novel in an elite group that contains Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I'd include Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, but it wasn't released as YA.

Mary lives in an isolated village surrounded by fences.  Some time in the past, her father was lost to the Unconsecrated outside the fence.  Her mother watches the fence, hoping to see her father.  And Mary watches with her, in order to watch her mother.

It is made clear that all men and women fulfill traditional roles in this village, with women staying in the home or becoming part of the Sisterhood (read nuns) if no man asks for them.  Men guard the village as part of the Guardians or Guild and protect the home.  Love is not considered important, rather, people tend to make poor decisions once they are in love.  While Mary is being asked to a dance preliminary to betrothal, she leaves her mother alone.  Sudden sirens indicate a breach of the fence: Mary's mother had gone close to the fence and been bitten, probably by Mary's Unconsecrated father.  

In this village, those infected are given the option of being killed or being allowed to die and Return and be thrust outside the village fence to continue among the Unconsecrated.  Mary's mother chooses the latter option and Mary watches her mother die and return.  Afterward, Mary is sent to take vows with the Sisterhood, which is where the story really begins.

Mary is very much concerned with love, and finding it.  She has dreams of something else and the main conflict in the novel is between Mary's love and her dreams.

I found this novel compelling for a multitude of reasons, but I picked it up because I wanted to see a story about life after the Zombie Apocalypse.  As I understand it, Carrie Ryan is planning to write more about this Universe, which is good, because the book was a fast read and felt like it ended prematurely.

I was frustrated by Mary allowing events to happen to her, rather than being a mover in her own story, but her character does grow.  I hope to see her again.