Weekly Geeks #26

Here are the instructions for Weekly Geeks #26 - fun, I like getting to know new bloggers!


1. Using the WeeklyGeeks category here in my blog, find 5 Weekly Geeks you don’t know. The easiest way is probably to look at the Mr Linkies in my weekly Saturday posts.
2. Visit each of your 5 new blogpals and snoop around their blogs to find at least one thing you have in common.
3. In your blog, write a post, linking to your 5 new blogpals, about what you have in common with them.
4. Come back and sign Mr Linky.
5. As you run across other Weekly Geek posts (or deliberately seek them out) if you see anyone mentioned who has something in common with you, pay them a visit.



So, I visited...

Jessi at Casual Dread - we're both fans of the hilarious Carl Hiaasen, woo!

Melanie at the Indextrious Reader - we are both Canadian librarians and fans of the blogbrarian Miss Information

The BookDads - know, as I do, that Todd Parr writes great picture books about all kinds of families.

Edgy at Books Are King - is a Young Adult fiction fan, like me.

Icedream at Reading in Appalachia - we both loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Young Adult Book Challenge 2009

J. Kaye is hosting next year's Young Adult Book Challenge, hooray! You can sign up here.

The rules:

• Read 12 Young Adult novels. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
  
• Challenge begins January thru December, 2009.

Here's my current list, subject to changes. The problem was picking just 12...

1. Jars of Glass by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler
2. Death by Bikini by Linda C. Gerber
3. Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle
4. Suck It Up by Brian Meehl
5. Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz
6. Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison
7. Envy: a Luxe novel by Anna Godbersen
8. Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby
9. Paper Towns by John Green
10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
11. Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Elizabeth Gehrman
12. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Review: Silk

Silk by Alessandro Baricco
2.5 stars

Description: "In 1861 French silkworm merchant Hervé Joncour is compelled to travel to Japan, where, in the court of an enigmatic nobleman, he meets a woman. They do not touch; they do not even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his country. But in the moment he does, Joncour is possessed."

First line: "Although his father had pictured for him a brilliant career in the army, Hervé Joncour had ended up earning his crust in an unusual career which, by a singular piece of irony, was not unconnected with a charming side that bestowed on it a vaguely feminine intonation."

My thoughts: This book seems to have gotten raves all around the world. And it's quite an interesting book - it's like a haiku of a book, really. Very short, each chapter rarely longer than 3 or 4 paragraphs, if that. As they say on my favourite British real estate show "Small but perfectly formed." (I confess, as I started reading it, my reaction was "Yay! It's really short!' - I'm running out of time to finish all my reading challenges before the end of December.)

Unlike the other books I've read for Orbis Terrarum, I didn't see any hints of the author's Italian background. At first I thought this was strange, but then thought about all the historical fiction I've read that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the author's country of origin. It's just that this happens to be the first book of the challenge that didn't contain anything like that.

Overall, the book just wasn't for me. I'm not really a novella person, I like more meat to my stories. The historical bits about the silk trade were fairly interesting, but about 1/8th of the text is repeating the lengthy trail of Joncour's journey to Japan each year, with barely any change in the paragraph from one year to the next. And I found the no-touching, no-speaking love affair a bit hard to believe.

But for someone willing to be carried away on the silken path, it could be just the thing.

Review: Piece of my Heart

Piece of my Heart by Peter Robinson
4 stars


Reasons for reading: been on the TBR list for a while because of a long-ago good review; Mystery for the Triple 8 Challenge


Description: "The novel opens in 1969. Yorkshire’s first outdoor rock festival has just finished, and the psychedelic pastoral band the Mad Hatters and other top British groups have departed. Even the last of their fans has gone, leaving behind only a muddy field, littered with rubbish. Volunteers are cleaning up when one of them finds the body of a young woman inside a sleeping bag.Stanley Chadwick, the straitlaced detective called in to find her killer, could not have less in common with — or less regard for — the people he now has to question: young, disrespectful, long-haired hippies who smoke marijuana and live by the pulsing beats of rock and roll. And he has almost just as little in common with his own daughter, who lied to him about her whereabouts and slipped off to the festival.More than thirty-five years later, Inspector Alan Banks is investigating the murder of a freelance music journalist who was working on a feature about the Mad Hatters for Mojo magazine. This is not the first time that the Mad Hatters, now aging rock superstars, have been brushed by tragedy, and Banks has to delve into the past to find out exactly what hornet’s nest the journalist inadvertently stirred up."


First line: "Monday, September 8, 1969 - To an observer looking down from the peak of Brimleigh Beacon early that Monday morning, the scene below might have resembled the aftermath of a battle."


My thoughts: This is the 16th Inspector Banks novel - I had no idea when I picked it up. While there are some references to previous events, such as the death of Banks' brother and his former involvement with a female colleague, I didn't feel as though I needed to have read the others in order to understand this one.

And I really enjoyed it! It's a great mystery and, as The Times remarked, it, "Brilliantly interweaves past and present." At first I was a tiny bit confused when it jumped to 2005, but I soon got the hang of it. I thought the 60's were painted very well and it made me remember I keep wanting my husband to teach me more about Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. (I have a pretty big hole in my classic rock knowledge, sadly.) I thought both mysteries were interesting on their own and couldn't figure out how they were going to intersect, which added to the suspense.

There is a theme of fathers and daughters running through the novel, particularly how fathers want to protect their daughters and don't always manage it very well. I thought the supporting characters were well-done, particularly Banks' colleague Annie Cabbot and Winsome (isn't that a great name?), a Jamaican beauty in the department. While I often don't like side plots, the one Banks and his colleagues having to come to terms with a new, ambitious and not-particularly-friendly boss.

The only slight con? I've had Janis Joplin's "Piece of my Heart" running through my head on and off since I read it! :-)

I don't know if I want to go back 15 books, but I think this series could be really interesting.

Review: Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
3.5 stars

I've been putting off reviewing this one because it's such a crazy-hot book that everyone's already talked about and I don't think I have much that's new or interesting to add to the discussion. I'm also amibivalent about it - I enjoyed the series but had some reservations about the writing in the last few books. But when I did the Weekly Geeks ask a question about a book I haven't reviewed thing, I got a couple of questions, so I'll just go with those.

Heather J asked:
Breaking Dawn - how does it compare to the other books in the series (I haven't read them yet, but I'll get around to it!)?

Hmmm.....well, I found the books, like the Harry Potter books, got longer and less entertaining as the series went on. I loved Twilight - 5 stars, thought it was really fresh and really something that teens would love reading. And while I wanted to find out what happened, I found them getting harder to slog through. Meyer really loves flowery prose and repetition, I find. She won't use one paragraph if she can use several pages. And by the 4th book, at 754 pages, I thought she really needed a good editor. I felt there were a lot of sections she could've left out and, without adding a spoiler, some parts were really creepy in a not-good way.

Lightheaded asks:
What do you think of the Volturi resolution? I ask because it's the thing that disappointed me :)

I agree, it was rather disappointing. It felt like there had been sooooo much waiting around for them to show up and then there just wasn't much action. I was glad of the happy ending, but something a bit more climactic would've been good.

Final verdict? I don't think we need another book in this series, but apparently there's going to be one. I honestly don't know if I'll end up reading it, I feel really OD'd on Edward and Bella and their forever perfect love. The series definitely has its moments and has turned into a phenomenon, but just because the characters can live forever, it doesn't mean the series has to. I am looking forward to the Twilight movie, though! :-)

Review: Private Peaceful

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
4.5 stars

Reasons for reading: Remembrance Day book for Holiday Challenge; Historical fiction for Triple 8 Challenge; heard the author speak recently and was amazed

Description: "As the enemy lurks in the darkness, Thomas struggles to stay awake through the night. He has lived through the terror of gas attacks and watched friends die by his side. But in the morning, Thomas will be forced to confront an even greater horror. As the minutes tick by, Thomas remembers his childhood spent deep in the countryside with his mother, his brothers, and Molly, the love of his life. But each minute that passes brings Thomas closer to something he can't bear to to think about--the moment when the war and its horrific consequences will change his life forever."

First paragraph: "They've gone now, and I'm alone at last. I have the whole night ahead of me, and I won't waste a single moment of it. I shan't sleep it away. I won't dream it away either. I mustn't, becuase every moment of it will be far too precious."

My thoughts: I was really impressed and touched by Morpurgo's storytelling and how passionate his is about the subjects of his books. After hearing him speak, I knew I had to read one of his books, and since I'd seen him just before Remembrance Day, this one fit the bill very well. While the subject is very sobering, I'm glad I read it and would recommend it.

The book was inspired by a telegram in a museum in Ypres that bluntly informed a mother her son had been shot for cowardice. With some research, Morpurgo found that almost 300 soldiers had died this way, with barely a trial, rarely any representation, and with no consideration for the effects of war on their minds and bodies. Outraged, he wrote this book. And apparently he saw the surname Peaceful on a gravestone in Ypres, which I think adds the perfect touch.

There is a lot of bird imagery in the book (and, from hearing him speak, I think this is a central theme with the author) - birds representing the spirits of the dead, birds bringing joy and hope, the absence of birds indicating despair. There are little pictures of butterflies separating the paragraphs and also on the cover, but I think they should have been birds.

I think this is an excellent war-themed book for teens, as it's not just about the war - a lot of time is spent revealing Charlie and Tommo's life before the war - their close relationship, the hardships their family has endured, their love for the same girl. The scenes in France are very realistic, with many details about life in the trenches. The ending is a surprising twist and I found that it made an already well-written story even better and more poignant.

Review: Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime

Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime by Diane Leslie
3 stars

Reasons for reading: read a good review of it long ago so it's been on the TBR list for a while; Historical Fiction for Triple 8 Challenge

Description: "Tucked away in her parents' lavish Beverly Hills mansion, young Fleur de Leigh has all the benefits of a privileged and glamorous upbringing. Or so she is frequently told. Fleur's mother, a flamboyant, ambitious B-movie actress and eponymous star of The Charmian Leigh Radio Mystery Half-Hour, and her aloof father, currently reduced to producing the TV game show Sink or Get Rich, casually entrust their daughter's welfare to a procession of nannies, cooks, and character actors. Surrounded by falsies, false eyelashes, and lust for fame, Fleur seeks to learn from her eccentric caretakers the difference between genuine love and its many imitations."

First line: "We'd been studying Bedouins in my fifth-grade class, how they carried only what they needed or loved on the backs of ornery camels, and how other, territorial groups kept them hopping."

My thoughts: Weirdly, I'd thought this was a mystery. I had to switch it from the Mystery to the Historical Fiction list at the last minute.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one (I seem to be saying that a lot lately!). It was witty and I enjoyed the old Hollywood setting (Fleur sneaks into the grounds of Pickfair and the Barrymore mansion). I liked the structure - each chapter lasts the length of the stay of one of Fleur's nannies or other transient adults in her life. Some of the nannies are very funny indeed and some are scary. And I was pleased by the ending, where Fleur learns to stand up to her truly odious parents. But I seem to have read a big bunch of (admittedly very different) books involving bad parents in the space of a few weeks, so that might have affected my reaction - though I'm sure the Leighs are meant to be parodies, they're so terrible I found them really hard to stomach.

I also have a feeling maybe I didn't get below the surface enough. For example, there are discussion questions at the end of the book and one of them is "The word crime in the title is used as a metaphor. What crimes take place in Fleur's household? What is Fleur's crime?" Well...her parents are walking crimes against parenthood and there are some actual crimes (like theft) that take place, but I have no idea what Fleur's crime was. I actually shouldn't read questions at the ends of books, they make me feel dumb. :-)

To me, the whole tone of the book felt cold, I think that was the problem, and so it left me a bit cold. When I read the author's note and discovered the book was fairly autobiographical, I thought "Aha, that explains it, there's a lot of bitterness there." But overall, it seems to have warmed reviewers' hearts, even leading to comparisons to my beloved Eloise at the Plaza, so perhaps I missed something.

(But honestly, what is up with that hideous cover??)