The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Read: 16 March, 2012

The Road Hill House murder shocked Victorian England. The crime itself was brutal, of course, but what really shook the foundation of Victorian assumptions about social class and safety was that the murder took place in an otherwise ordinary middle class household and that the murder was evidently one of its inmates.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher follows the investigation of the murder and its aftermath, focusing on the lives of the Kent family and on Mr. Whicher, the detective, himself.

Summerscale does an amazing job of contextualising the murder and its aftermath. While she does go a little overboard in painting the Road Hill murder as the catalyst for change in Victorian society, she does at least make her argument rather convincing. Her writing style is approachable even for those unfamiliar with the era, and her frequent mentions of books and historical figures added extra fun to the reading for me because it brought back so many of my lessons from when I studied Victorian literature in university.

I highly recommend Mr. Whicher if you have an interest in the Victorian era, issues surrounding the interaction of law enforcement and privacy, or simply enjoy mysteries and want a little more background on real life detectives.

Buy The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher on Amazon.

The Poisons of Caux #1: The Hollow Bettle by Susannah Appelbaum

Read: 14 March, 2012

Apotheopathy - or healing - has been illegal in Caux since the deadly King Nightshade took the throne. Ivy Manx's uncle is one of the few apotheopaths still practising in secret. But when he goes missing, Ivy sets out on a adventure to find her lost uncle and to fulfil a mysterious and hidden prophecy about a Noble Child.

I picked The Hollow Bettle up on a whim. I'm trying to build a collection of good children's books to build my son's interest in reading, and this one has very appealing illustrations and seemed to have an interesting concept. Blind buying is always something of a gamble, and I'm generally so lucky that it stands to reason that I was about due for a dud.

Appelbaum's writing style aims for whimsy, but often opts for lyricism over sense. Her writing is littered with throwaway lines that sound lovely (if a little purple), but don't fit in with the text around them. For example, when Rowan tells Ivy to kick at the Outrider, we are told that "it was fortunate for Ivy that Rowan's advice was excellent." But what was excellent about it? Ivy kicks and it fails to free her from the Outrider.

I also noticed several occasions where Appelbaum chose the wrong words - often words that sound very similar to the right ones, or perhaps indicate a case of thesaurusitis (choosing a synonym without fully understanding the particular connotations of the new word). To be fair, the problem does lessen as the book goes on, perhaps as the author starts to find her groove, but it's enough of a problem that I would have considerable reservations giving The Hollow Bettle to children lest they build their vocabulary incorrectly.

The story itself suffered from similar problems. There's no question that the world Appelbaum constructs is interesting, but it seems that she was more interested in showcasing that world than in actually telling her story. As a result, each adventure adds little to the story or to the reader's understanding of the characters. Rather, the episodes feel disjointed, and Ivy moves from one to the next in fits and starts.

The illustrations are beautiful, and filled with details and life that are so lacking in the narrative.

Series: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a dystopian series set in the distant future Appalachia. The world - as much as we know of it - has destroyed itself and been reborn as Panem. In the centre is the Capital, where people live in luxury and entertain themselves with fashion and the drama of the Hunger Games. Around it are twelve districts, each focusing on a single industry so that all dependent on each other for the basic necessities of life. Once, 75 years before the series begins, the districts rebelled in what has come to be known as the Dark Days. There were thirteen districts then, but the Capital destroyed one in the battle. To ensure that the districts would never again seek to rebel, the Capital instituted the Hunger Games - a gladiatorial event in which two children, a boy and a girl, from each district is selected by lottery and entered into the arena, there to fight to the death until only one child is left.

The odds were in Katniss Everdeen's favour and she was not called to be a tribute for the Capital's Hunger Games, but her little sister was not so lucky. When Katniss volunteers herself to take her sister's place, her personal refusal to accept the Capital's rules lay the groundwork for a return of the Dark Days and the possible extinction of what's left of human society.

Are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale?

The Hunger Games series followed many conventions that could have reduced it to a superficial, silly novel - the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale perfectly illustrates my point. It would have been all too easy for the Hunger Games to become about Katniss's "boy troubles," to make her struggle be about the men in her life. The narrative does flirt with this at a few points, but it does so in a psychologically real way that preserves Katniss's identity as an individual in her own right, rather than as an object for the competition between two males. As Shoshana Kessock points out, the only real team in the Hunger Games is Team Katniss.

Living vs Surviving

Katniss's reaction to her dystopian government grows and changes in interesting ways. In the beginning, she is resigned to her fate, content merely with survival. She dismisses the interests of both boys in her love triangle because she cannot envision a future with either, a future which may include having children, in a society that would allow have something like the Hunger Games. It's Peeta who offers her an alternative to simple survival - living - which, paradoxically, may mean martyrdom. His refusal to sacrifice who he is as a person to play by the Capital's rules is a lesson to Katniss that simply surviving isn't enough. She comes back to this lesson again and again through the series, each time understanding a little more about what Peeta meant.

Coming back to the romance tropes, it was so refreshing to see Katniss and Peeta help each other grow as individuals rather than simply learning to don a new identity at the expense of the self. Bella Swan, of Twilight fame is a perfect example of the latter. She sheds her self to take up the identity of her paramour (in this case, his identity as a vampire). In the Hunger Games, on the other hand, Peeta serves as a lesson, but it changes Katniss in a way that is unique to herself. She doesn't become a copy of Peeta, but rather a person who has been shaped by her relationship with him.

Moral Complexity

In the first book of the series, the sides are fairly clear: the Capital is bad, the Districts are victims. But by the second book, Katniss is unable to reconcile her hatred for the Capital with her love for the Capital people in her life, such as her design team, Cinna, or even Effie. By the third book, the moral line that divides the sides becomes even more complicated as we meet the people of District 13 and fine them to be something less than the rescuers they have presented themselves to be. As with so many of our real world revolutions, when the rebels win the war, they adopt all the habits they had so recently fought against. There's a lesson there for readers about trying to fit groups into a "good guy vs bad guy" narrative, and about thinking too uncritically about one's in-group.

Image

Much of the series revolves around Katniss's image. Throughout the series, characters are always dressing Katniss, using her appearance to tell a narrative that promotes their own agenda. I kept thinking of our fashions and the way that clothes often display the maker's branding in a highly visible spot, using their customers as walking billboards. Through it all, Katniss struggles to keep hold of who she is as a person, an individual separate from the image is made to project.

There's also a lesson here about the importance of image, and how powerful our appearances can be.

Conclusion

This series is absolutely fantastic. At only three books, there's really no reason not to go out and read it. It's very well written and excellently plotted. If you haven't already, give it a try!

The Hunger Games #3: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Read: 11 March, 2012

The Hunger Games ended when Katniss destroyed the barrier keeping the tributes in the arena, but the battle against the Capital is far from over. After an all-too-short glimpse of freedom, she finds herself yet again a pawn in someone else's game - this time she is the Mockingjay, a symbol of the revolution used by the rebels and District 13 in their PR campaign.

I was worried about the third instalment of the Hunger Games series because so much could have been poorly handled. The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale - which had been on hold while Katniss fought for the survival of herself and her loved ones - needed a resolution, and that might mean turning Katniss's world towards 'boy issues.' The Capital had been set up as the baddies from the start, but Mockingjay is the first time we get to look at possible alternative rulers. It would have been so easy to maintain the perception of the Capital is the series' baddies and reduce the conflict into a simplistic good vs evil conflict. And, lastly, the first two books in the series focused around a Hunger Game - what was left for the third? Surely we wouldn't see another Hunger Game? But where else was there to go?

I was pleasantly surprised on all fronts. Collins navigated the standard whirlpools with much grace and ended the series powerfully. Even the "years later" epilogue fit the story and only increased the emotion, rather than feeling too removed from the events for the reader to process. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was in tears for much of the ending.

I really enjoyed the twist - yes, there's a twist. It caught me by surprise, but only because it solved an issue that had been concerning me rather than because it was from "out on left field" or otherwise lacked sense. In retrospect, it fit Katniss perfectly.

Buy Mockingjay from Amazon now!

The Hunger Games #2: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Read: 5 March, 2012

After Katniss defied the Capitol in Hunger Games, forcing them to allow two winners of the Games for the first time in their history, she returns home and tries to patch together a life that has been irrevocably changed by recent events. Her budding feelings for Peeta become even more confused now that Gale is once more by her side. But for now, she's tried to put the events of the Games aside as best she can while she carves out a new routine. Unfortunately, the Capitol is not so willing to forget her defiance.

Discussing Hunger Games with a friend on Facebook recently, someone chimed in to say that they truly enjoyed Catching Fire and actually considered it superior to the first book. I'm not sure I agree, but I can certainly understand where she was coming from. It starts out fairly slow, showing us a Katniss who is trying to make sense of her post-Games life, but then the story really catches fire (har har) and I found it impossible to put down. And with the fictional world and character exposition taking care of by the first book, Catching Fire was free to focus on development.

There were some weird authorial issues. I don't want to give too much away, so... this next bit is a total spoiler. Sorry. So, in both books, Haymitch communicates with Katniss in the games through the gifts he either gives her or does not giver her. So when there are five people in Katniss's alliance and they keep receiving bread rolls in multiples of 6, I assumed that Haymitch was trying to tell Katniss that her group should be looking to include Chaff (since Chaff was Haymitch's friend, and because Peeta had so easily remembered that he was still unaccounted for). And yet while much page space was given to Katniss trying to interpret all of Haymitch's other gifts, she barely gives the rolls a second thought. The only reason I could think of for this is because Suzanne Collins knows the answer, knows that it isn't anything she wants Katniss to guess, so she's just dropped it. It feels like a missed opportunity for some character development. Up until that point, Haymitch's gifts were always communicating to Katniss, but this time the message was meant for her allies. Katniss could have tried to guess the meaning and come to the wrong conclusion, and then had to deal with her feelings later about Haymitch "cheating" on her (which, frankly, would have made her anger at Haymitch's supposed betrayal at the start of Mockingjay - which I've only just started reading, so forgive me if this does get covered - far more palatable).

Buy Catching Fire from Amazon now!

A Song of Ice and Fire #3: A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

Read: 28 February, 2012

I really can't summarize the book without giving away what's happened in the previous works of the series, but let's just say that it's more of the same. Stuff is bad, it's getting worse, and everyone is too focused on their own concerns to see the bigger picture.

It's incredible that Martin is keeping me at the edge of my seat through the audio equivalent of 3,000+ pages, and leaves me craving more. Even more incredible is that he is able to keep hitting air circulation devices with human waste without it ever feeling forced or giving me anxiety fatigue. It's become a running joke in our household - D will ask how the book is going and I will say: "Everything's gone to hell!" To which my dear gentleman friend replies: "Isn't that what you said last time?"

In Storm of Swords, Jaime Lannister is given a POV and quickly earns his way into my good graces. Martin has done an amazing job at creating convincingly grey characters, and allowing for multiple interpretations of the same events. By giving the reader insight into Jaime's motivations, Martin shows us a man who wishes to honour his vows, and who was willing to break them and sacrifice his reputation to protect the innocent.

Tyrion Lannister is still one of my favourite characters, and we see quite a bit of his development in this book, but there's something that's been bothering me. From the start, he is played as "the clever one." Jaime is a great fighter, Cersei is beautiful, and Tyrion is clever. Yet from the start, he's never struck me as especially smart. He's borderline witty, although he seems to simply subscribe to the buckshot school of wit (make as many japes as possible and hope that some of them land). And, quite frankly, his mocking jokes are frequently ill-timed and just get him into trouble.

I've read a couple reviews mentioning Sansa Stark and how weak and annoying she is. She's no Arya, certainly, but is she really so weak? Arya and Brienne of Tarth are both aberrations in Westeros, and not really an option for females. Sansa is the more realistic of the three. She is a woman and she is acting within the female sphere to survive. Far from being some passive little china doll, I found her to have incredible strength and an active agent in her own right whenever she sees the opportunity. Consider, for example, how she uses Ser Dontos Hollard to escape King's Landing, or how she tries to escape Joffrey by marrying Willas Tyrell. She's afraid, to be sure, but so is Arya. The difference is that Arya survives by using her sword while Sansa survives by using her courtesies. Personally, I admire Sansa's strength, all the more because she carves out her survival in the "woman's domain" (historically speaking) rather than pushing herself into the "man's sphere" as Arya does.

One final note, I am "reading" this via audio book (because it's a hands-free way to stave off boredom while nursing) and it needs to be said that Roy Dotrice is amazing. He makes the characters come to life by giving each a different voice. It was hard for me at first because it shaped my perception of the characters - something that I like the written medium without - but it's grown on me. And Dotrice's range is truly impressive.

The Walking Dead #4: The Heart's Desire by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

Read: 23 February, 2012

The story picks up at the cliff hanger from Safety Behind Bars, and continues to cover the survivors' stay in the prison. Zombies make very few appearances in this volume and are, for the most part, just background scenery to the real story taking place among the living.

Unfortunately, the greater focus on interpersonal relationships brings to the forefront Kirkman's weakness in writing dialogue. Overall, I've found the writing in this series to be rather bland and, at times, suffering from the kind of awkwardness that an editor might easily have fixed. From a character standpoint, we meet Michonne who seems like she has the potential to be an interesting character, but she behaves erratically- alternating between character and caricature at the flip of a switch. She clearly has a history that I hope will be exposed in future volumes, but I found in frustrating that the survivors took very little interest in who she was, how she had survived for so long, or how she came to have two zombies following her around on a leash who "stopped trying to attack [her] a long time ago." Seems like the kind of thing the survivors ought to want to know more about...

Closing the issue, we have a rather lengthy speech from Rick Grimes about survival in a zombie apocalypse that was, frankly, cringer-worthy. While it had all the markers of "the badass teaches everyone a little something about their darker natures" speeches that we get in the movies, it suffered from all the failings of these sorts of monologues - superficiality, a lack of logical consistency, and an awkwardness that turns the characters into mouthpieces for authors who want to sound cool.

This was by far the most difficult volume of the series to write so far because it had so little action to carry it through and, unfortunately, I didn't feel that Kirkman is capable of handling the interpersonal complexities that were needed. That being said, he and Adlard's artwork did convey some sense of psychological breakdown - that the immediacy of survival had been keeping everyone's heads together, but that sustained (relative) safety is highlighting the cracks.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. I may not be impressed with The Walking Dead, but it's still an interesting series and I'll be reading volume 5. It's pulp, but it's a very quick read and the illustrations make for a different experience than I'm used to.

Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child by Robert J. MacKenzie

Read: 21 February, 2012

Since my son was born, I've occasionally indulged in "mommy boards" - online forii where mothers argue, call each other names, and generally try to maximize the amount of parental guilt each feels. In other words, oodles of fun.

In these groups, The Great Spanking Debate often rears its ugly head. At one end of the spectrum are those who decry spanking as a failure in parenting, while at the other are those who say that spanking is God's Gift to Parents. But the more interesting responses are from the vast majority who say that spanking isn't ideal, but that many kids simply don't response to other methods of discipline and make the occasional spank a necessity.

Setting Limits is about those kids.

The premise of the book is that while some kids are naturally very compliant and eager to please, some kids are strong-willed and will always seek to test limits. Setting Limits doesn't talk about spanking, but the position of the author is clear that the problem lies with the parent. Compliant kids are very forgiving and will respond well even to inconsistent or inefficient disciplinary methods, but strong-willed kids need a much more strategic parenting style.

The focus of the book is on setting clear expectations, making consequences proportional to transgressions and logically related to transgressions, and following through on stated punishments. I still found it a bit heavy handed for my bleeding heart, but I generally found the advice sound. The real strength of Setting Limits is in the numerous examples of possible situations. Too often, parenting books cover the theory, give a few highly scripted examples, and leave me feeling no wiser as to how I should actually be applying any of it. But in Setting Limits, much of the book is devoted to running through a wide variety of situations, making the practical application far easier.

But, like many books in the genre, Setting Limits was far too wordy and repetitive, repeating every idea about as many times as the English lexicon could allow. The book could easily have been a quarter of its present length and still be a little on the wordy side.

My son is still pre-verbal, so I'm a little early to actually put any of the theory to the test, but I do feel that Setting Limits has helped me prepare a bit. I would recommend it but, as with all parenting books, with the caveat that it should be read as a possible source of ideas only, not as an instruction manual.

The Walking Dead #3: Safety Behind Bars by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

Read: 17 February, 2012

We love zombie stories  because it feeds into our destructive impulses. The zombies destroy the daily stresses and struggles of our modern life. No more bills to pay, no more 9-to-5, no more damn kids on mah damn lawn... And then there's the possibility of building anew from the ashes of society, a clean slate on which the survivors may impose their will in a way that many of us feel too helpless to do in our real lives.

We had a few false starts in this direction in Miles Behind Us (such as the discovery of the Wiltshire Estates), but the immediacy of survival kept the characters' attention. But in Safety Behind Bars, the survivors find a respite in a prison. Zombies are no longer a threat, there's no lack of food, and there's even working showers. This is where the lesson comes in.

Zombie stories generally teach the same lesson. They wipe away the society that gives us so much stress and ennui, and they give us the opportunity to rebuild, to make it different, to make it good. But we're doomed, says the zombie story. Given every chance to make a society, we will still be our petty selves, we will still play power games, we will still destroy ourselves. We are flawed, so flawed that the dreary world of rules we live in now is preferable to the freedom zombies give us. The zombie is never the monster in the zombie story - people are.

Kirkman didn't do a terrible job at exploring this theme, but it's just been done so many times that it was somewhat tiresome to read through. From the opening of the volume, I knew that the survivors had reached a safe haven, and I knew that would mean trotting out the tired old "we're our own worst enemy" trope. Unfortunately, he did not disappoint.

That's been my impression of the series so far, really. The dialogue is so-so, and the plot is basically just running through the standard zombie story plots. It's enjoyable insomuch as I enjoy zombie stories, but it's nothing special. Even as far as zombie stories go, the fast pace of the comics means that I don't feel like I'm getting to know the characters, or to care about them. I'm hoping that it will get better as the series trods on, but so far I'm not impressed.

The Walking Dead #2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

Read: 14 February, 2012

In Miles Behind Us, we follow Rick and the other survivors as they hunt for food and meet some other people. There's the standard story of the survivors who keep the zombies captive rather than kill them (which has never, in the history of zombie stories, ended well), and a few other adventures.

This volume has a different artist from the first, although it's not necessarily obvious to someone like me who isn't really familiar enough with the graphic novel medium to know what to look for. I did start to notice a difference in feel about halfway through, though. I commented in my review of Days Gone Bye on the way that the use of detail helped to highlight elements of the story. That's still the case in Miles Behind Us, but the details are used to express emotions rather than to create the ambience of fear. In particular, the new artists use shadows very deftly to convey brooding, sadness, anger, menace, etc.

The plot is interesting, but I feel like the dialogue itself could have used more polishing. There were a few instances of fairly awkward phrasing that a good editor could have fixed. And as I complained in my review of Days Gone Bye, the fast pace makes it difficult for me to feel for the characters. The artwork helps somewhat, but I still feel like the story is kept at a very superficial level.

I found the use of bold in the dialogue to be fairly distracting. Maybe this is just a graphic novel convention that I'm unaccustomed to, but it made it difficult to read because I was putting emphasis on the bold words, even though this disrupted the natural cadence of what was being said. I was unable to find any pattern or sense to the selection of bolded words. If anyone here is more familiar with the conventions of this genre, I'd appreciate an explanation!

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I enjoy the zombie/apocalyptic setting, and the graphic format makes this series a very quick read. so far, it's nothing special, but it's certainly good enough.

The Hunger Games #1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Read: 11 February, 2012

Every year in Panem, two children are chosen by lottery from each of the twelve districts to compete in the Hunger Games. Twenty-four kids enter the arena to fight to the death, and only one can survive.

The general story is a fairly common one, and I don't do well with stories heavy on action, so Hunger Games could have gone quite badly. But the action was just present enough to keep the story interesting without ever making me feel "actioned out." As for the plot, the interesting characters keep it fresh.

There is a love triangle, which seems to be a required theme in these sorts of books, but it never felt forced. Katniss naturally starts to develop feelings for Peeta when she finds herself in a life-or-death, high stress situation. Rather than coming off as a silly girl unable to decide what she wants, Katniss is instead confused by the stress of being so near death. I found this to be much more psychologically plausible and it avoided the demeaning perception of girls/women as too silly to know their own minds.

Even beyond the love story, the gender portrayals were refreshing. There are no helpless princesses in need of rescuing in The Hunger Games. Peeta is vulnerable, but even he shows enough strength to prevent the story from simply being a flat reversal of gender stereotypes. Katniss is strong, but realistically so, with failings and weak moments that don't feel token or trivial. She is a genuinely strong person, and a complete character to boot.

It was a bit of a shock to read The Hunger Games right after reading Clash of Kings. For one thing, the simplicity of the plot made for a difficult switch in my reading. But once my brain caught up, I found that I truly enjoyed the book. The setting was a dangerous one, and the novel could have easily devolved into a bludgeoning "message," but while the criticism of our present world are very much there, I never felt like it was overly forced.

Buy The Hunger Games from Amazon now!

A Song of Ice and Fire #2: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

Read: 6 February, 2012

Picking up where Game of Thrones left off, Clash of Kings jumps right into the action. The series reads like a unified whole, separated only to appear less daunting to potential readers (and to prevent back injury, I suppose), so it was hard not to take up book 3 immediately after finishing. I think that says a lot about the quality of this series - 2,000 pages and I'm still hungering for more!

All the plotlines from Game of Thrones are still present, and this next instalment adds more. So by the final page of Clash of Kings there are enough plots and subplots to fill several series. Certainly, the Daenerys, John Snow, and Iron Thrones lines could all easily have been separated. But it speaks to Martin's expertise that he's able to balance all three (including their respective subplots) and interweave them enough that they enhance each other rather than detract. The subplots are sufficiently connected to the main plots to make the world feel even more alive and to heighten suspense without becoming overwhelming.

Game of Thrones had very little magic. That was great for me because I have a lot of trouble getting into stories that are heavy in magic. But although there's quite a bit more in Clash of Kings, I was already so engrossed in the story and the world by the time it was introduced in earnest that I didn't find it jarring.

What's impressed me most about the series so far is how alive the world feels. There are thousands of background characters, and each is given enough detail to seem real, to feel like they could have their own stories to tell. The setting, too, is filled with history. I don't think I've ever read a book - even contemporary fiction - where the world seemed so populated.

I'm still fairly early on in the series, but it has really impressed me and is shaping up to be my favourite fantasy story, if not one of my favourite stories in general. The audio book makes the length far more manageable, which is great if you're reading time is limited, so there's really no excuse not to give it a try!

Fruits of the Earth by Frederick Philip Grove

Read: 2004

Fruits of the Earth is the chronicle of Abe Spalding, a farmer possessed by "land hunger." He leaves his stony and untillable farm in Ontario to start a new farm in the prairies, leaving his wife behind until he has established himself in their new home. The story is as much of his land as it is of Abe, following the two through the years as they shape each other.

Grove masterfully captures his subject, even in his writing style. The novel is slow and plodding, as it watches the passage of years. If you need a faster pace and action, this is absolutely not the novel for you. Instead, Fruits of the Earth draws the reader in to the life of a Prairie farmer, with its struggles, tragedies, successes, and endless cycles. It's a beautiful novel, and by the end I knew more about wheat growing than I ever thought I would.

It's a Canadian classic that helps the reader experience - it only vicariously - a part of the country's history. This isn't the story of great wars or grand political gestures, but rather of the "little people" who shaped the country with their hands. As an immigrant to Canada, I feel that Fruits of the Earth helped me understand the country a little betters.

Ender Saga #1: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Read: 2001

Ender is a third child, his birth required from his parents in the hopes of breeding a commander who struck a balance between the joyful savagery of his brother and the bleeding heart of his sister. Ender's Game follows Ender as he is trained to fight the "buggers," an alien race once defeated but expected to return.

Ender's Game is a fantastic story, and certainly ought to be required reading for all fans of science fiction. Though I read it years ago, this book has stayed with me all this time. There's something very compelling about Ender's struggle between his compassion and the violence he is being trained for.

I highly recommend Ender's Game for fans of science fiction, particularly those in the young teen crowd.

Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway

Read: 2006

Kiss of the Fur Queen is the story of two Cree brothers who were taken from their families to be raised in one of Canada's infamous residential schools. The story follows them as adults as they come to terms with what happened to them.

It's a magical story that interweaves the compelling story of the brothers and the more mystical elements of Cree tradition. Highway's style is lyrical, but with a gritty realism that prevents it from ever seeming too purple.

I read Kiss of the Fur Queen as part of my university course on First Nations literature (as the "modern fiction" entry) and it was by far my favourite book of the course, perhaps of the entire year; and the beauty of the novel has stayed with me over the years. I can't recommend it enough!

Dune #4: God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

Read: 30 August, 2010

Over three thousand years have passed since Paul Atreides died and his son, Leto, became emperor. Since then, Arrakis has been fully transformed, the sand worms have gone extinct, and the universe is held together solely by Emperor Leto's stockpiles of spice. Leto himself has also been transformed, into the great sand worm Shai Hulud.

God Emperor is written in a very different style than the other books in the series. While all have spent a good deal of time on political/religious theory, this one is nearly devoted to it, at the expense of plot and characters. Duncan Idaho makes a reappearance and his reaction to having been resurrected time and time again over the course of three millennia is interesting, but it isn't enough to fill 400 pages.

Leto's rantings about the patterns of human civilization are sometimes interesting, but often laughably silly. One reader commented that this is the lowest point in the series. With the prospect of two more books ahead of me, I hope that this was an accurate assessment!

Dune #2: Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Read: 2007

The Atreides star has risen. Paul is emperor and rules the universe from his seat on Arrakis, transforming the empire into a theocracy. And yet Chani, the imperial concubine, has still not produced an heir.

Dune Messiah was not nearly as good as Dune, but it was still very interesting. Paul's reaction to becoming Muad-Dib - a kind of prophet - have greatly shaped my views on religion and on those who seem eager to speak on behalf of a god. This book does suffer from some sequelitis (trying to be both the original and it's own book, but failing to strike the right balance between the two), but it's still very much worth the read.

Dune #1: Dune by Frank Herbert

Read: 2006

The Atreides are strangers to Arrakis, called Dune. The planet is the only place where spice - the most valuable commodity in the universe - can be produced. Their presence re-ignites an ancient conflict with House Harkonnen, bitter enemies of the Atreides. Amidst political intrigue, a sisterhood called the Bene Gesserit try to breed a superhuman they call the Kwisatz Haderach, and the desert people, the Fremen, look on at the universe that fights over their dunes.

The series, taken as a whole, scores only slightly above "meh." But the original, Dune is a masterpiece. While fantastical, the fictional universe is just similar enough to our real world to provide a great deal of food for thought. The setting is enchanting and the characters are interesting. This book captivated me right from the start and I still think of it as one of my favourites.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Read: 2006

Rachel Verinder has inherited a priceless diamond from her uncle, a corrupt and misliked British officer who had been stationed in India when he died. But shortly after she wears it for the first time, the diamond goes missing from her bedroom. A search for the missing diamond, and for its thief, ensues.

The Moonstone is the progenitor of the modern detective novel. It is, as T.S. Eliot described, "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels." This isn't, of course, your average poolside detective fic. The Moonstone is filled with social commentary (some of it truly hilarious, such as Drusilla Clack reverse thievery of religious tracts). Collins's treatment of Hindus is years ahead of its time.

The novel is memorable. Franklin Blake's mad rant about the objective versus the subjective is still oft quoted in this household. Highly recommended for fans of Victorian literature who also enjoy a good whodunnit.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Read: 3 February, 2012

Hazel has terminal cancer. She sits in her Cancer Kid Support Group rolling her eyes as she listens to the other children, children who will get better, who will beat their cancer, who will grow into adulthood. She's tired of being told how brave she is. She's tired of the refusal of those around her to face mortality.

Then she met Augustus Waters.

John Green doesn't believe in epiphanies. It was odd reading a book about the intersection between love and terminal illness without a tidy epiphany to pull the narrative threads together at the end. That's not to say that nothing is learned. The characters grow and change, they touch the lives around them and are touched, but there are no epiphanies.

I don't want to go into more detail out of respect for the author's wishes that no plot points be revealed. But I will say that this isn't your average tear-jerker that relies on the inherent emotionality of the set-up to play at depth. Rather, The Fault In Our Stars is legitimately clever and thought-provoking (and, of course, very sad). I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys books that stay with you and keep you thinking long after the final page has been turned.

As an aside, I've been watching John Green (and his brother Hank) on YouTube for quite a while. It changed the experience of the reading, in that I could spot some of the influences Green was drawing from in creating his fictional world (such as the goat milk soap detail), and I felt that I had some insight into his opinions and arguments that he was fictionalizing. I feel that this enriched my experience of the book, allowing me to see a broader dimension than just what found its way onto the page.

The Walking Dead #1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore

Read: 1 February, 2012

I'm enjoying AMC's The Walking Dead TV show, so I thought I'd give the graphic novel a try. The beginning of Days Gone Bye is very similar to the beginning, although differences do start to creep in.

The artwork is gorgeous. Tony Moore's work is at once realistic and expressive. The zombies are rendered in far more detail than the living, making their grotesqueness stand out from the page. Injuries, rot, flies burrowing under skin, all is meticulously drawn for maximum effect. Walking Dead isn't a "jump out and get you" horror, but the artwork adds a creepiness to the zombies that drew me in to the story and to the fear felt by the main characters.

I was a little disappointed by the lack of depth. The TV series gives far more time to each episode and allows for more character exposition, while the graphic novel seems to glide through at a much faster pace. As a result, I'm not feeling like I know the characters the way I did while watching the show.

It's a good series and I'll definitely be reading more.

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Read: 27 January, 2012

It was hearing that Psychopath Test was coming out that got me interested in Jon Ronson. At the time, the only of his books my library carried was Men Who Stare At Goats, a book that had been sitting on my reading list for some time. So I read that, enjoyed it, and put Psychopath Test on hold as soon as it came out. As it turned out, I wasn't the only one and it took a really long time for my turn to get it.

Like Men Who Stare At Goats, the writing is a real trip. It's not so much as exposé as it is a journey - a meandering journey that occasionally slips in time and subject. Rather than an argument of a thesis, it reads more like a discovery.

It straddles the line between non-fiction and fiction, between history and personal experience, and between the logical and the totally insane.  There were times when I couldn't believe that what Ronson was reporting could be true, that people really said what he said they said in interviews, for example. But pull up the original articles and there it is, in all its glorious craziness.

It's an interesting (and quick!) read with complicated conclusions. Ronson explores the Scientology-styled anti-psychiatry and he looks at those who believe in it so much that they diagnose and medicate 4-year-olds with bipolar. Never are the issues presented as simple or one-sided, and Ronson is very good at leading his readers down one path and then veering in a very different direction. It's interesting and refreshing.

I can't close without commenting on how perfect the cover design is for this book. I don't often see a cover that is so memorable and perfectly suited for the subject!

Amelia Peabody Mysteries #18: The Serpent on the Crown by Elizabeth Peters

Read: 20 January, 2012

Every good detective needs a special trait. Adrian Monk has OCD, Nero Wolfe is overweight, Gilbert Cunningham takes place in Medieval Scotland... Peters' Amelia Peabody is an Egyptologist working in the late 19th - early 20th century.

I've long been something of an amateur Egyptology aficionado (and, in fact, was set on a career in the field for years before the insecurity of puberty put me off any "hard" careers), so I was quite excited to give this mystery series a try. Also, I like to start series at the beginning, but I picked this but up at a sale so I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

In this adventure, a widow and well-known author presents Peabody&co with a "cursed" statuette and claims that a mysterious black afrit killed her husband and is coming after her.

The mystery was fairly blah. The detectives do very little detecting; instead, they spend 2/3 of the novel having things happen to them, and then the culprits confess everything. In the final chapter, it's revealed that Peabody had everything figured out much earlier, but she gave no indication of this at the time.

And, frankly, it's not like the detectives didn't have the chance to do some real detecting - they just sucked at it. For example, two of Peabody's party spend days trying to track down fugitives before they even think of the possibility that the fugitives might not be using their real names!

The writing  form was also rather confusing. Some sections were titled "From Manuscript H," but no indication was given as to what this might refer to. I suppose it's possible that this was established in an earlier book, but it was rather weird, especially since there were no other section titles. Peters also made the odd choice of switching back and forth between first person and third, without any real reason for the choice.

All in all, I'd say that this is a fine detective story for a poolside read, but it's not worth seeking out.

The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar

Read: 16 January, 2012

My great challenge in writing this review is to critique the book itself, not the faith that motivates it. The two are so intertwined that sometimes it's impossible to speak of one without speaking of the other. This book is, after all, part of the Duggar ministry.

This is never more clear than the structure of the book. Superficially, it chronicles the history of the Duggar family, from Michelle and Jim Bob's childhoods until just before the birth of their 18th child. But the stories are told in such a way as to reinforce the thesis of their ministry: In each case, there is a problem or a crisis, the Duggars react by either "listening to God" or listening to their fears, or greed, or ambition, and then things suddenly and serendipitously resolve.

The lesson, of course, is that God can be counted upon to provide. This has the potential to be very dangerous theology, as we see in Prosperity theology, but at least the Duggars impose limitations, such as refusing to borrow money. Even so, this "leave it to God" attitude has a lot of potential for harm when they follow it to the point of making themselves responsible for 18 children. The Duggars have done well for themselves, but many Quiverfull families haven't, living well below the poverty line and denying their children basic necessities such as health and dental care. To make matters worse, the repetition that God will provide if the family puts sufficient trust in him implicitly sends the message that those families that are not surviving are failing because they are not putting sufficient trust in God, which would mean that they should give up more control and have more children...

I also noticed that the Duggars have tried to fit parts of their story into a Biblical narrative, such as Jim Bob's references to the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham as analogous to his political campaign. It isn't bludgeoning, as I've seen elsewhere, but they certainly are speaking to their audience.

Further on that point, I noticed a lot of formulaic phrasing. These are phrases included in the narrative, ostensibly in the voice of Jim Bob or Michelle, but that are repeated frequently (either in the book itself or in the wider evangelical community, or both). For example, the words "Children are a blessing from the Lord" is repeated, without variation, multiple times and integrated into multiple different sentences. I've noticed the family use these little phrases in the TV show as well, and it's always felt scripted and rehearsed, making the family seem insincere.

Speaking of the TV show, I feel that I can't talk about the book without comparing it to the show (of which I've only watched the 18 and Counting season, which overlapped nicely with much of the topics discussed in the book). To its credit, this book never felt like just another TV show tie in. Rather, it had real content and was entirely readable even for families that do not have a television and have never seen the show - which I imagine was intentional given the Duggars' TV viewing philosophy.

I found the differences between the TV show and the book interesting, and it speaks to just how media savvy the Duggars are. The TV show, clearly intended for a broader audience, focuses on the fuzzy family happiness. God is ever present, but more as an underlying principle. The goal, clearly, is to make the show interesting for "lukewarm Christians," drawing them into the lifestyle with promises of the happy, close-knit family, without scaring them off with too much God-talk. The book, on the other hand, is clearly marketed at the converted, perhaps young couples who already hold Quiverfull values but who are afraid of taking that next big step. I imagine that this book is intended to be passed around in churches, recommended to new couples or given to new parents. As a result, the God-talk is front and centre, with every story coming back to God and to the Biblical underpinnings of Duggar theology. If the TV show is the infomercial, the book is the hard sell.

But given this, I found it interesting that any Biblical passages references were hidden away in the end notes, not displayed in the actual pages either as footnotes or embedded in the text. Given the audience and the fact that the Duggars are clearly not holding back on the God-talk in other ways, I found this detail very interesting.

In closing, I would like to share a recent post written by Libby Anne that was running through my mind as I read: From cog to individual.

The Duggars: 2o and Counting! was a better read than I expected, and it was interesting for me because of my interest in the Quiverfull movement. But the advice is all tied to the ministry, so don't bother if you are looking for real tips for managing your household! The recipes provided, while interesting and great for bulk cooking, look awful and have very low nutritional value. Much of their advice for making money or being frugal relied on tales of their good luck (err... good "faith," as Jim Bob prefers to call it), and many of their organizational tips are good but require substantial remodling of the average home to accommodate. In other words, I'd recommend this book for people with an interest in the movement, whether they are thinking of joining it or merely studying it. For anyone else, meh.

A Song of Ice and Fire #1: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Read: 6 January, 2012

Ever since HBO decided to put paper to screen, I've been hearing a lot about Game of Thrones. I'm not really "into" fantasy, in the sense that I don't know how to find the good stuff and most of what I just pick up off the shelves (or read over someone's shoulder on the bus) is truly quite awful. I've functionally given up while maintaining a dim hope for every new book I come across.

Boy, am I ever glad that I've kept an open mind!

Game of Thrones is extremely well written. The language flows and I was never ripped from the story by poor phrasing. Character development was very well done, with the characters at the end of the novel being quite different from the beginning but with no break in continuity. Secondary characters are given details that make them feel alive, making the fictional world feel alive and populated.

Of course, the book is long, very long, and longer still if the sequels are counted (and if you've committed to reading all of Game of Thrones, you've committed to the whole series because there's a mighty cliffhanger at the end of the book), but I can't think of anything that might have been cut out without hurting the story. Even action and battle scenes are kept to a minimum, with the focus quite clearly on the characters.

I also noted that the author clearly has a solid understanding of the medieval period, which further helped make the setting come alive.

I listened to Game of Thrones on AudioBook, read by Roy Dotrice. The reader was very good and used emphasis and voices effectively, so it was quite easy to follow along. The downside to listening to an AudioBook version is that the reader's voice and the characters' voice get confused, so it taints my perception of the characters.

I really enjoyed Game of Thrones and couldn't put it down. It's a substantial time investment and fairly complex, but it's well worth it.