Saturday Review of Books: October 27, 2012

Oct26

“The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.” ~Thomas Carlyle

Still true in the 21st century.

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Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones

Oct26

It’s possible that I kept thinking of Pippi Longstocking when I was reading this book by Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl’s Moving Castle and many other fantasy favorites, because Paul Zelinsky’s illustrations reminded me of Lauren Child’s pictures of of Pippi. Maybe it’s just the electric pigtails that both Pippi and Earwig share. It’s also possible that Earwig is a cross between Pippi and some random wizard. Someone left Earwig at St. Morwald’s Home for Children with this message pinned to her basket: “Got the other twelve witches all chasing me. I’ll be back for her when I’ve shook them off. It may take years. Her name is Earwig.”

Earwig likes her life at the orphanage, but when she is chosen to go live with Bella Yaga the cruel witch and a terrifying man with horns who doesn’t like being disturbed, Earwig makes herself at home and tries to work a deal: housecleaning help in return for witchcraft lessons. Bella Yaga doesn’t want to teach Earwig anything, though, so Earwig must decide how she’s going to cope with her new life and make it suit her in spite of the lack of cooperation from her foster “parents.”

Earwig and the Witch is an early chapter book, and as such it’s not really too scary or too complicated. The scary parts involve worms and some swirly-smoky demons. The plot has Earwig doing just what she wants to do in spite of those who might try to thwart her desires. The theme seems to be” “If life hands you witches and demons, make lemonade. Or cast spells.” This one is appropriate for beginning readers, unless you don’t care for the whole witches and spell-casting thing. It might have been meant to be the start of a series, but unfortunately, Ms. Jones died last year (2011).

Snow in Summer by Jane Yolen

Oct25

Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All by Jane Yolen.

The mountains of West Virginia are the setting for this disturbing, yet riveting, retelling of the story of Snow White and her wicked stepmother. (The cover, by the way, is beautiful, but it doesn’t look like West Virginia, c.1949 at all, does it?) In this version, Snow in Summer is known as Summer to her mother, her cousin Jane, and the rest of her family. But her new stepmother, the witch, calls her Snow. Suffice it to say that this story won’t do anything to repair the reputation and public image of stepmothers in general.

The entire book walks just on the edge of plausibility. Could all of episodes in the book be real events, just sometimes interpreted by Snow in Summer as evil magic? Are a talking mirror and a bewitched father just too much to attribute to anything but sorcery and witchcraft? The story also includes a snake-handling, strychnine swallowing religious cult, green garden “magic”, and a murdering lecherous boy named Hunter. It’s reminiscent of some of the stories that take place in Storybrooke, Maine on the TV show Once Upon a Time, mostly just this side of magical, but tipping over into the inexplicable and downright creepy every so often.

I’d recommend the book for girls ages 13 and older who like a good fairy tale rendering. There’s too much “girly-stuff” in the book for most adolescent boys, and the book includes scenes of abuse and attempted assault (not graphic, but very real and scary) that might be disturbing to younger readers.

Crossed by Ally Condie

Oct24

I read Matched, the first book in this planned trilogy, in 2011, and I had this to say about it: “Matched by Ally Condie. There’s not so much action and adventure in this book, but more romance and thoughtful commentary on the pros and cons of a ‘safe’ society bought with the price of complete obedience to an authoritarian government.”

In this second book, Cassia goes to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky, her chosen match and true love. Ky is already in the Outer Provinces where he is trying to survive in a government-controlled “war” that is designed to kill all who are forced to participate. Can Cassia find Ky? Will Ky survive long enough to be found? What will the two of them do once they have been reunited?

If Matched was about safety and freedom, Crossed, is more about trust and the lack thereof. A lot of romance and dystopia novels these days take the theme of trust and develop it as a prerequisite to a real lasting relationship. Of course, without trust there is not real relationship. However, I would say that trust develops as both partners in a relationship are given reason to trust one another by the daily sacrifices of love that are required in marriage or even any other family relationship or a long-term friendship. So beginning a relationship requires a “leap of faith”, maybe a small leap, but a hop nevertheless. Then that trust is rewarded with reciprocal trust and faithfulness, or it’s not. If not, the relationship needs mending and forgiveness and eventually another leap, or else it dies.

In Crossed and in other stories I’ve seen or read lately (Once Upon a Time), the characters seem to be saying, “You must trust me blindly with all your secrets and insecurities, and if I give you reason to doubt my faithfulness and trustworthiness, you must ignore those reasons. Otherwise it’s not True Love.” It doesn’t exactly work that way, does it? You commit to the relationship, and then you grow it little by little. And you remember that your partner is human and prone to sin just as you are, so betrayal of trust in some ways is inevitable. And the cycle of trust, reciprocal trust or betrayal, and forgiveness begins again. But repentance and forgiveness are just as necessary as trust and faithfulness are because we live in a fallen world.

The only one who is completely trustworthy, who will never leave you or betray you, is Jesus. Our human relationships are all imperfect and incomplete, no matter how fulfilling and trusting they may be.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series, and I will eventually be reading the third book, Reached, which comes out in November.

Website for the Matched series by Ally Condie.

Peaceweaver by Rebecca Barnhouse

Oct23

First of all, I really like the concept of a “peaceweaver.” In this book set in a sort of mythical medieval Saxon culture, Hild wants to use her womanly influence to become a peaceweaver, someone who persuades the men of her honor-based culture to make peace, to forgive, and to overlook slights and small insults. Yet, Hild herself is a product of her own culture. She sees herself as too good, too “honorable”, to associate with slaves and people from another land who do not follow the same customs as her people. She wants to be a peaceweaver, but she finds herself embroiled in violence over and over again throughout the course of the story. It’s a fascinating dilemma, and the story of Hild and her journey through the wilderness to find her own honor and peace is a magical read, both literally and figuratively.

Hild is not only a girl who wishes to become a peaceweaver; she is also what the people of her country call a “far-minded woman.” To be far-minded means to be able to see far, into the future, but also into the minds and hearts of others. Hild uses this far-mindedness to defend others, or perhaps she is possessed by it as many of her own family believe. She must decide for herself whether her gift is good or evil, and she must also decide where her true home is and what true honor means.

Rebecca Barnhouse is a medieval scholar, and her erudition shows as she weaves Norse gods, Saxon mythology, and a coming of age story together to make a novel that will appeal to anyone who is interested in any of the above. I doubt this book will be flying off the shelves, and I do have a couple of quibbles (Why does the book introduce Hild’s older sister, Sigyn, in the first chapter and then never mention her again? And is Hild’s escape from the monster really credible?). However, if it doesn’t become a bestseller, it should find a niche with those readers who are interested in all things medieval and Norse and even feminist, in the best sense of the word.

By the way, if you want to know about honor-based cultures, at least where I got my introduction to the concept, look here in this post by Lars Walker at Brandywine Books and at this article by Jonathan Rauch called Pride Goeth Before a Brawl.

Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes

Oct22

Book One of The Celestine Chronicles.

Ms. Reyes says that this book, or series of books, started out as a bedtime story for her son, Marcum. It’s high fantasy, owing certainly something to Tolkien and to Star Wars, as most of this kind of fantasy does. Marcus and five other boys from his village, Quendel, set out on a Great Quest to find the Rock of Ivanore. Marcus takes with him a magical key and a walking stick named Xerxes. If the boys succeed, they will be heroes; if they fail they will return to disrespect and menial jobs in the village for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately for the boys, they have no idea what the Rock of Ivanore is or where to find it.

Marcus is an orphan, of course, and he has daddy issues. The other boys, including Kelvin, also an orphan and sort of a secondary protagonist, are described and take part in the action, but I never could pin down what made any of them tick. Why is Kelvin so prickly and distrustful of strangers? Why does Marcus steal something that belongs to Kelvin and only return it when forced to do so? Why does anyone follow Jerrid, the mayor’s son? The other three boys are mostly inconsequential afterthoughts; they sometimes play a part or have a bit of dialog, but they’re not very memorable.

More interesting as characters were Jayson, the half-breed Agoran, part cat and part human, and Xerxes, the talking walking stick that only Marcus can hear. I wanted to know more about them and understand them both better. King Frederic of Dokur is a wimp and a whiner, but his son Arik makes an adequate villain.

At 350 pages of fairly large print, this book might satisfy fantasy adventure fans who are looking for something a little easier and/or shorter to read than Tolkien or Rowling. But it left me a bit cold. I couldn’t get too interested in the characters, their stories, or their fates until about three-quarters of the way through the book. I can, however, see the potential for improvement as this series continues.

Ms.Reyes’ blog: 1000wrongs.blogspot.com

Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer

Oct21

“If God gives you a dream, and the dream comes to life and God shows up in it, and then the dream dies, it may be that God wants to see what is more important to you –the dream or him. And once he’s seen that, you may get your dream back. Or you may not, and you may live the rest of your life without it. But that will be O.K., because you’ll have God.” ~Richard Porter in Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer.

Phil Vischer had a dream, to build the biggest and the best Christian media company ever, to be the next (Christian) Walt Disney. And God blessed that dream and grew Big Idea Productions into a corporation worth millions of dollars, producing videos that encouraged and entertained millions of kids and adults. Then, God took it away.

This story was powerful. I understand what it is to have a dream, a Godly dream, and have it taken away or deferred. I understand what it is to ask God, “Why? Why have You not given me this good thing? This thing that is the desire of my heart and that will honor and glorify You?” It’s really hard. I don’t know real physical suffering, and maybe I would be a wimp when it came to actual suffering. But I know emotional and spiritual suffering and despair because I’ve been there. Sometimes I’m still there. And all know is that I hang on to two verses in the Bible. These are my life verses:

Job 13:15. God might kill me, but I have no other hope. I am going to argue my case with him. (New Living Translation)

John 6:67-68. So Jesus asked the twelve disciples, “You don’t want to leave, too, do you?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

I stand with Peter and Job and Phil Vischer.

“The Christian life wasn’t about running like a maniac; it was about walking with God. It wasn’t about impact; it was about obedience. It wasn’t about making stuff up; it was about listening. . . . God doesn’t love me because of what I can do for Him. He just loves me—even when I’ve done nothing at all.”

If you know who Phil Vischer is and you’re a fan, I highly recommend this memoir. If you’re not familiar with the creator of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber and Big Idea Productions, I still think you might find Mr. Vischer to be an inspirational guy, in an upside-down kind of way. He tells us in Me, Myself and Bob what God showed him when the Dream, the God-given dream, died in a horribly messy and hurtful way. If you don’t have the book, you can read the short version of What Happened to Big Idea here at Phil Vischer’s blog.

Saturday Review of Books: October 20, 2012

Oct19

“When you choose to read instead of clean the kitchen you are refusing to accept that your worth as a person is measured by the visible results that you produce in the world.” ~Susan Wise Bauer

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Time Snatchers by Richard Ungar

Oct19

Caleb is a time snatcher, an orphan trained by the man he calls “Uncle”, to travel through time and steal valuable artifacts that people in the year 2060 will pay big bucks to own. His time-traveling and thieving partner is Abbie, and the two of them have been living with Uncle and working for his company, Timeless Treasures, for as long as they can remember. The two teens enjoy their time travel, cat burglar adventures, but Uncle is becoming more and more callous and brutal. And Caleb is confused by his longing for a real family and by his feelings for Abbie. Are they partners or does Abbie care for Caleb in a different, more romantic way? Or is Abbie falling for Caleb’s cheating arch-enemy, Frank?

The author blurb says that Mr. Ungar “was inspired to write this novel by an image in Chris Van Allsburg’s picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” Good inspiration. Time Snatchers is a good novel.

What I liked: the idea of combining con games and cat burglary with time travel, the characterization of Caleb in particular, the cranky computer cyborg, Phoebe, who runs the elevator and has a running feud with Caleb, some of the snatches that Abbie and Caleb pull off.

What I disliked: Uncle is a particularly nasty bad guy who engages in rather gruesome child abuse to keep his “time snatchers” in line. To be specific, he uses a sword to cut off body parts of those who disobey him, and at one point he has his captive snapping turtles gnaw on Caleb’s arm. Yuck. The torture episodes gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Also, the romantic interludes (very tame and junior high-ish) seemed a little bit abrupt, not quite enough set-up or insight into what Abbie is thinking or feeling.

I’ve been watching a lot of the TV show White Collar, and I was reminded of that program while I was reading Time Snatchers. Caleb is not quite as classy as Neil Caffrey; he’s a lot younger, for one thing. However, just as Neil wants to know who his parents were and wants to be a part of a family, Caleb longs for a normal life with a real family. And both Caleb and Neil are pretty good at fast-thinking and theft. Unfortunately for both of them, thievery is not a very sustainable or morally justifiable lifestyle. Neil Caffrey and Caleb are both in the process of learning that crime doesn’t pay.

Time Snatchers ends with major unresolved questions, so I’m assuming we’re headed for a sequel or two. If you don’t mind the child abuse parts, it’s a good story.