tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30368914341125651922024-02-07T20:23:48.813-08:00My Reading AntlersAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-8079006909471387882014-07-05T11:43:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:43:49.578-07:00[Review] I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells<img src="http://s30.postimg.org/sdhexu3xt/oie_52003s_Jc6mj_Rm.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating</b>: 3-stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Horror, Paranormal Fantasy, Detective/Thriller, YA<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: <i>John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. </i><i>He’s spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential. </i><i>He’s obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn’t want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he’s written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.</i><br />
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</i> <i>Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don’t demand or expect the empathy he’s unable to offer. Perhaps that’s what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there’s something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.</i><br />
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<i>Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can’t control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.</i><br />
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I don't often read thrillers, but when I do, I like them to be with serial killers. <i>I am not a Serial Killer</i> is very Dexter-esque for any of you who have watched <i>Dexter</i> before. The protagonist, John Wayne Cleaver (get it?), is basically a high functioning sociopath who really does his best not to murder people. Do people get gold stars for not being a murderer? I guess you do if you're a sociopath. John has all these rules that limits that helps curb his homicidal intent and frequents a therapist to help him sort out his... er... urges.<br />
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A part of me still loves this book. It's short, fast-paced, and fascinating. I like that he works in a morgue with his mother and aunt, I like his morbid fascination with serial killers, and I like that he tries so very hard to not become one. John is the an anti-hero that can be sympathized with.<br />
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But then... this out of nowhere the fantasy element comes in and ruins it. Seriously. Out of <i>nowhere</i>.<br />
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Fantastical elements tends to put a damper on a lot of books that could've been <i>excellent</i> but had to settle for <i>pretty decent to good</i> (i.e my review of <i>Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children)</i>. WHY? WHY WHY WHY DAN WELLS? WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE KEPT THIS STORY GROUNDED IN REALITY!?<br />
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I mean, <i>really</i>?<br />
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If you don't want any spoilers, stop here now.<br />
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You have been warned!<br />
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So in this small town, a bunch of murders have been taking place and John thinks it's because there's a serial killer in town. But guess what? It's really a demon. Yes, a demon! What the hell is going on? Why the hell is there a demon? What the hell is the point of making this book about serial killers when THE serial killer in this book is not even human? Is this some sort of ploy? What is this? I don't get it. Someone explain to me why this happened!<br />
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I thought this book was going to be awesome. Sociopath vs. Sociopath in a fight to the death, but <i>noooooooo</i>, instead it's about a demon who is has to kill people to absorb their body parts in order to keep living. And the reason he's doing it is because he fell in love with a human woman.<br />
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Argh.<br />
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Just argh. Can you imagine watching <i>Dexter</i> one day and thinking "oh this is so exciting, I can't wait to see him catch the ice truck killer" only to find out the ice truck killer was the abominable snowman? No, I didn't think so.<br />
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*takes a deep breath*<br />
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That MESS aside, the book is pretty good. I am on the fence about recommending it because of this demon curve ball, but since I actually finished it and was interested in what happened, I think it is worth taking a look at. A lot of things don't end up being explained, but I guess that's why it's a series. I might look into getting the second book in the series, but at this point, I'm still too infuriated to continue.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-53369096677391415032014-06-28T10:25:00.002-07:002014-07-05T11:04:09.973-07:00[Review] Submarine by Joe Dunthorne<b><img src="http://s30.postimg.org/47j65yrrl/oie_28191934sy_MRGHb_J.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 3.5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Contemporary fiction, YA<br />
<b>Summary</b>: <i>At once a self-styled social scientist, a spy in the baffling adult world, and a budding, hormone-driven emotional explorer, Oliver Tate is stealthily nosing his way forward through the murky and uniquely perilous waters of adolescence. His objectives? Uncovering the secrets behind his parents’ teetering marriage, unraveling the mystery that is his alluring and equally quirky classmate Jordana Bevan, and understanding where he fits in among the mystifying beings in his orbit. Struggling to buoy his parents’ wedded bliss, deep-six his own virginity, and sound the depths of heartache, happiness, and the business of being human, what’s a lad to do? Poised precariously on the cusp of innocence and experience, Oliver Tate aims to damn the torpedoes and take the plunge.</i> <br />
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Definitely quirky and definitely not a book I would've picked up by normal means, but I'm glad I did. So I am a big Arctic Monkeys fan, and it is no surprise then that when I heard Alex Turner, the vocalist, also did solo work, so I quickly dug up his album <i>Submarine</i>, which is the soundtrack for the <i>Submarine</i> movie, which I watched and thought was pretty fantastic. I didn't even know there was book until I happened across it on goodreads, and when I saw it, I knew I had to read it.<br />
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Personally, I found the movie more enjoyable than the book (Is it because of the soundtrack? *cough* No way...), but the book does have its own merits. It's about a teenage boy named Oliver who is oddly--creepily obsessed with his parents, particularly their relationship to the point where he checks the dimmer switch in his parents' room to make sure that they're having enough sex every week. I have never heard of a fifteen year old teenager who worried about his or her parents' sex life to this extent. I know they are way more open about sex over in Europe (the story takes place in Wales specifically), but it still comes off as a tad bit <i>obsessive</i>. Seriously, he goes above and beyond to make sure that their marriage doesn't fail.<br />
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Sometimes it's funny, and then other times it's just plain <i>messed up</i>. For example:<br />
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"There is one option that they must avoid at all costs: a baby. Couples say this: 'We're staying together for the baby,' so, logically, the reverse is also true: 'A baby will glue us back together.' The last thing any of us wants is to go through childbirth. A placenta is terrible; it looks worse than jellied eels. A third-degree tear is a rip that may occur during labor--two holes become one. I do not trust them to take the appropriate action to fix their relationship. I will count the number of tampons my mother has left each month. There are currently eight. If she is not using them, I will intervene and suggest an abortion."<br />
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Wait what? That's not funny or quirky, that's freaky! Oliver definitely comes off as egotistical, stalkerish, obsessive, and extremely manipulative. Though you can't really help but forgive him most of the time because he means well, even if he deserves to be punched in the gut for some of the things he says or does (such as writing a short guide to the fat outcast in class on the unsaid social rules of bullying and how to not be a loser anymore, and thus not be bullied anymore). If I knew someone like him, I would avoid him at all costs. Personally, I didn't even really care if anything happened to him, but I was interested in what would happen to the other characters, which is why I didn't drop this book. Parts of it are quite smart, even if Oliver is occasionally an asshole.<br />
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I did enjoy the trivia in the book. Oliver loves memorizing words and their definitions. For example "Cotard's Syndrome is a branch of autism where people believe they are dead". I liked the odd narrative style of this novel. Parts of it are written in a diary form for his girlfriend to read, though the entries are sometimes completely fabricated for his girlfriend's entertainment so it keeps things interesting. His relationships are interesting, and I enjoyed his detached observations of his life and the life of others.<br />
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As an ending note, it's still definitely worth reading if you're into offbeat things. Also recommended is Alex Tuner's <i>Submarine</i> soundtrack!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-72071702983757429672014-06-08T16:10:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:04:39.763-07:00[Review] Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting<b><img src="http://s25.postimg.org/jbifge93z/8603232.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Horror<br />
<b>Summary</b>: In this darkly hilarious debut collection, misfit women and girls in every strata of society are investigated through various ill-fated jobs. One is the main course of dinner, another the porn star contracted to copulate in space for a reality TV show. They become futuristic ant farms, get knocked up by the star high school quarterback and have secret abortions, use parakeets to reverse amputations, make love to garden gnomes, go into air conditioning ducts to confront their mother’s ghost, and do so in settings that range from Hell to the local white-supremacist bowling alley (from Goodreads).<br />
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This is a genre I've only discovered recently: Bizarro fiction. The closest thing I can think of that is similar is Chuck Palahniuk's stories. Two words: grotesque surrealism. The only difference between this collection and some of Chuck Palahniuk's works (don't get me wrong, I do love some of his works) is that it's not bile-inducing and actually enjoyable to read. More often than not, I would rather a book left me elevated, not nauseous. <i>Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls</i> is just that. It's the right amount of weird, morbid, gross, and bizarre, but without the sour aftertaste. The book is all kinds of amazing. I don't think I'm going to even write a review for it. I'll let these various quotations speak for themselves.<br />
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This is the first line of the first story: <i>"I am boiling inside a kettle with five other people."</i><br />
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Intriguing. Do go on.<br />
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<i>"Our limbs are bound and our intestines and mouths are stuffed with herbs and garlic, but we can still speak. We smell great despite the pain."</i><br />
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Sold. If you are a rather modest and conservative person who doesn't savor in <i>uncleanliness</i>, this is definitely not a book for you. For anyone else who, like me, has a rather twisted sense of humor, you will love these stories.<br />
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Here are some more quotations:<br />
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<i>"My friend Gizmo who works at the funeral home occasionally smokes the hair of the embalmed dead. The smell does not bother him: he is used to horrible smells. He claims that after a few minutes of inhaling, moments form the corpses' lives flood his head like a movie."</i><br />
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From a story that takes place in Hell:<br />
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<i>"I also found an intestine that had been suffocated with rat poison and fashioned into a noose. I decided to hang the whole thing from my chandelier. 'You're becoming more comfortable with entrails,' the devil commented. I liked the way he took notice of my growth."</i><br />
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Seriously, what's not to love? Aside from the bizarro shock factors, I really liked that all the female characters were all equally unique and compelling. Like the title suggests, this collection of short stories is about women, and sometimes girls, having to go through very unpleasant (to put it mildly) situations. It features women in all different walks of life and in all different types of relationship (familial, romantic, platonic, stalkerish, inhuman, symbiotic) from every setting imaginable--from falling love with the devil in the underworld to trying to find closure with a cryogenically frozen mother (frozen for being a murderous felon) in space. I can't even decide which of these stories are my favorite. Five stars hands down.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-78066451005971240612014-06-03T11:00:00.001-07:002014-07-05T11:05:04.825-07:00[Review] Revenge by Yoko Ogawa<img src="http://s25.postimg.org/d4ixsf99b/16032127.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating</b>: 4 stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Short stories, Japanese Lit, Horror, Contemporary<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: <i>Sinister forces draw together a cast of desperate characters in this eerie and absorbing novel from Yoko Ogawa.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Years later, the writer’s stepson reflects upon his stepmother and the strange stories she used to tell him. Meanwhile, a surgeon’s lover vows to kill him if he does not leave his wife. Before she can follow-through on her crime of passion, though, the surgeon will cross paths with another remarkable woman, a cabaret singer whose heart beats delicately outside of her body. But when the surgeon promises to repair her condition, he sparks the jealousy of another man who would like to preserve the heart in a custom tailored bag. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders—their fates converge in a darkly beautiful web that they are each powerless to escape.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Macabre, fiendishly clever, and with a touch of the supernatural, Yoko Ogawa’s Revenge creates a haunting tapestry of death—and the afterlife of the living.</i><br />
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So because I saw that they recently added it to Netflix, I rewatched Kill Bill. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" indeed. However, the book isn't really about revenge. Certainly there are characters that serve it up real cold, but the theme is really about all those dark emotions that tend to manifest in humanity: despair, resentment, cynicism, obsession with the macabre, etc, etc. The title <i>Revenge</i> makes it seem like some sort of action thriller Kill Bill Uma Thurman style when it's not.<br />
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I know when I finished reading the first story "Afternoon at the Bakery" (doesn't Murakami have a story titled similarly, I can't recall), I was like "Oh, this is pretty dark and awesome, but what does it have to do with revenge?" Hence, don't have your heart set out on vengeance. I don't know what's wrong with the publishers who worked on this book, but the title and the cover make no sense with the actual content and it drives me nuts. It's a huge pet peeve of mine. They did the same thing to another Japanese novel (which I will get around to reviewing soon). I'm sure the publishers did it so it would sell better, but it is completely unnecessary and actually quite distasteful.<br />
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Yoko Ogawa's writing has very little flourish. It's sparse and a little deadpan. The woman gets to the point. A game I played while reading through the short stories was trying to guess, before other characters in the story clue me in, whether the speaker is a male or a female. It's seriously not easy. Kudos Yoko Ogawa for your genderless writing style.<br />
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Each story connects to the others in some sort of way, though the stories can be read out of order or stand alone, the full creepy effect isn't achieved if you don't read the whole thing. Here's a quotation that sets the tone for the rest of the stories. From the first short "Afternoon at the Bakery" about a mother grieving over her murdered son:<br />
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"The door would not open no matter how hard you pushed, no matter how long you pounded on it. The screams no one heard. Darkness, hunger, pain. Slow suffocation. One day it occurred to me that I needed to experience the same suffering he had...so I took a deep breath, curled myself into a ball, and slowly worked my way inside. As the door closed, all lights vanished. I could no longer tell whether my eyes were open or shut, and I realized it made no difference in here. The walls of the refrigerator were still cool. Where does death come from?"<br />
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Eerie right? There's a story about a woman who grows carrots that look like hands, a torture museum, a woman whose heart comes out of her chest, etc. It's all very unusual and a little unsettling. Overall I give it four stars. I think it is a splendid book that anyone interested in the macabre should definitely take a look at.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-11951587421509988862014-05-21T19:51:00.001-07:002014-07-05T11:05:48.441-07:00[Review] To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee<b><img src="http://s25.postimg.org/5t4jqf5wf/265711111.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 4 stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: YA, classics, Southern Lit<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: <i>The story takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. It focuses on six-year-old Scout Finch, who lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The story goes on to delve deeper into the case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman whom Atticus is appointed to defend.</i><br />
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Another one of those books I should've already read in high school but didn't. It does live up to its reputation. The characters are memorable, and despite their flaws, relatable and likable.<br />
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So why four stars instead of five? That's a matter of personal taste. I was just sort of tired of reading these kind of stories about the negro who can't defend himself so the benevolent white man steps in, with his reputation and safety at stake, to defend him. I completely support Atticus and even admire him for being so clear-headed and wise, but I just find it distasteful that this book was so "life-changing" for people. In a way, that's a good thing right? The book teaches you about respecting others, and treating them with how you want to be treated-all that good stuff, but if this story was told from the perspective of the black man, it would be nowhere near as widely read as this. Somehow, learning about racism and equality from the white man rubs me the wrong way. Now the lesson is a good one no matter where it comes from, and I'm glad that it was able to teach people a little perspective, but personally, from where I'm coming from, it didn't move me or touch my heart the way it would others.<br />
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That's really all I have to say about this book. I'm sure most people have read it, so I don't think I need to say more about it than I already have.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-73745608353189358112014-05-13T12:47:00.001-07:002014-07-05T11:05:24.673-07:00[Review] Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs<img src="http://s17.postimg.org/at47o8067/9460487.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating</b>: 4 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Paranormal Fantasy, YA.<br />
<blockquote><b>Synopsis</b>:<i> A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.<br />
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It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.<br />
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A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.</i></blockquote>The main attraction of this book, or at least it's unique selling point, is the vintage photographs provided in the book. They are all real collector's photographs, which I found pretty cool. I'm not a huge photography person. I mean... I only know Man Ray and Richard Avedon so I'm not a photography expert, but the photos were a nice touch to the story. Some of them weren't altogether relevant to the actual plot (the creepier ones), but it doesn't bother me as much as it does for other reviewers.<br />
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There's a lot going on in this book, <i>a lot, </i>so much so that the dynamics gets pretty convoluted at times and you have to take a moment to really understand the laws of this particular universe. I can't really go too deep into it without spoiling the story, but it does get a little complicated without much explanation.<br />
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Otherwise, I kinda sorta actually <i>adored</i> this book. I liked the character's sarcastic self-deprecating teenager voice. Any book that makes me laugh gets an extra gold star. The protagonist says things like: "<i>It seemed like my parents were always trying to get me to care about money, but I didn't, really. Then again, it's easy to say you don't care about money when you have plenty of it.</i>" Jacob isn't particularly compelling and a little on the daft side, but he's a likable guy.<br />
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I also really enjoyed the WW2 jewish refugee backstory with Jacob's grandfather and that sometimes monsters aren't just the variety that pops up underneath the bed at night. There's actually so much I like about this book that I don't even have time to list out all my reasons. So why four stars and not five? Here's where the "paranormal fantasy" part of the book failed me. If it was only a story about a young boy who on a quest to uncover his grandfather's past, it would be just another YA Jewish coming of age "Everything is Illuminated" type of story, and understandably, it wouldn't have been quite as unique, but the whole fantasy part of the story was a little weak. Click for more, but beware of spoilers.<br />
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<img src="http://s3.postimg.org/fxfuyuk4j/miss_per.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />So basically (somewhat big spoiler alert--don't continue reading if you really can't stand the smallest hint of how the story plays out) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is stuck in a time loop where all the children have been the same age for decades. They're all as old as Jacob's grandfather or even older. So why didn't Ransom Riggs actually flesh out what it would be like to live in this eternal limbo? There are some mentions of it, but I felt like he could've really taken it into some thought-provoking mind-bending territory. It's sort of like how J.K Rowling never really touched on many of the philosophical aspects of magic and its associated problems, besides that evil people will abuse it. What I'm more interested in is how it mentally affects people, but I guess that might be too much to ask.<br />
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Another weird part is that Jacob is sort of dating this girl that dated his grandfather. Talk about age gap. I don't know about you guys, but that part wasn't very d'aww. <b>Those problems aside, this book is solid. </b>There is a sequel and I'm a little iffy on continuing (just because I feel like it's going to really delve into the fantasy aspect and not so much the other stuff) but I'll give it a try.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-37864760427530946072014-05-07T21:53:00.003-07:002014-07-05T11:06:15.842-07:00[Review] Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri<img src="http://s25.postimg.org/98cgbidun/5439.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating: 5 Stars<br />
Genre: Short-Stories, South-Asian fiction<br />
Synopsis: Short stories about India, or being Indian living in the U.S.<br />
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I'm just going to come out and say it, I love Jhumpa Lahiri. She's such an amazing writer and has such a talent for description and nuance. <i>Interpreter of Maladies</i> consists of nine short stories. The book is not very long so it can be finished in a few sittings. I'll summarize and review each story separately because there's no way I can make any sweeping generalizations about the whole book.<br />
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But first off, some criticism about Jhumpa Lahiri that I want to talk about. She gets a lot of crap for only writing about Indian professors/students living in Cambridge. But so what? Leave the lady alone. Let her write what she wants to write. It's obviously working so why mess with a good thing? Whether she grows as a writer or not is nobody's business but hers. So, let's start.<br />
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"A Temporary Matter" is the first story in the collection. It's about a husband and a wife who become estranged after the death of their first child in the delivery room, but they are finally brought together by a series of blackouts in the neighborhood. They sit in the dark, and they tell each other truths they have never revealed before. Only in the dark, which is reminiscent to their life in India when electrical shortages weren't uncommon, do they open up about their feelings. The story is all about relationships and communication. Personally, it is one of my favorites in the collection.<br />
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"When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" is the second story, and also one of my favorites. It's told from the perspective of a child who only vaguely understands the sociopolitical climate of what is happening in India during Partition. Her parents and Mr. Pirzada spend every evening together in front of the news and discussing what is happening. The thing about Mr. Pirzada is that his wife and daughters live in Dacca, one of the frontiers where all the fighting was happening in Pakistan (Dacca is now the capital of Bangladesh). The war, which is so important to her family and her family friend, is never mentioned in class, which is not at all uncommon in the American education system that prefers to avoid present day conflicts to focus on the same history lessons taught year after year after year. "No one at school talked about the war followed so faithfully in my living room. We continued to study the American Revolution."<br />
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"Interpreter of Maladies", the third story, is about an Indian tour guide who ruminates on his disappointing life. I actually didn't really care much for this story as much as the others, but to see the Americanized family is interesting. The title is actually the result of Mrs. Das, the mother on the guide, telling Mr. Kapasi (the tour guide) that his regular job as a translator for a clinic is an interpreter of maladies. This particular title gives Mr. Kapasi a renewed sense of importance and for a few hours he falls madly in love with Mrs. Das. The story doesn't end as had hoped, like everything else in his life.<br />
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"A Real Durwan" is about an old woman named Boori Ma who tells entertaining, but exaggerated stories, about her life when she was rich. Everyone in the apartment complex likes her because she acts as a <i>durwan</i>, which is basically a door-keeper who keeps out suspicious individuals from lingering around and causing trouble. The landowner gets promoted and installs two sinks, which leads the whole apartment complex into a home-improvement addiction. Boori Ma, who had been loyal and unaffected by this sudden materialistic enthusiasm, is eventually driven out so that the tenants, who believe that their upgraded homes mean an upgraded status, wants to hire a <i>real</i> durwan.<br />
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"Sexy" is about Miranda and her relationship with a married man. There isn't much I have to say about this particular story except that I liked how Lahiri dealt with the topic.<br />
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"Mrs. Sen's" is a story about a boy named Eliot who is taken to an Indian woman's (Mrs. Sen) house to be babysat when his mother is at work. This story exemplifies the difficulty immigrants have with adjusting to new cultures. And I just want to mention (this goes for the other stories too) that Jhumpa Lahiri is an amazing writer of food. She really makes everything sound delicious.<br />
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"This Blessed House" is a kind of odd story about a couple who recently moved into a new house. The wife is obsessed with finding Christian memorabilia stashed around the house that was left behind by the previous inhabitants and the husband detests it. The story is really interesting, but I had no idea what to make of it.<br />
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"The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" is the only other story that takes place in India. It's about a woman who suffers from seizures and wants nothing more than to be someone's wife. But because of her medical condition, she never learned how to be a good housewife, and because she is in the care of her cousin, they don't have money to put together a dowry or to throw a wedding (and Indian weddings are lavish affairs, more so than American weddings).The ending is a pretty crazy twist, but in a good way... sort of.<br />
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"The Third and Final Continent" is the last story, about a man who has lived in three continents and then starts his life in America with a wife from an arranged marriage. The story revolves a bit around an old woman, over a hundred years old, who actually helps the protagonist adjust not only to his new surroundings, but to his new wife as well, who had been a complete stranger to him.<br />
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All of the stories have their own merits, though I did like some better than others. Like I said, Jhumpa Lahiri is a great writer and I think everyone should read her. South Asian literature has suddenly become all the rage, and if you've never read any before, Lahiri is a great place to start.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-62951551313194020702014-04-29T07:55:00.003-07:002014-07-05T11:06:29.235-07:00[Review] Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt<img src="http://s25.postimg.org/k24y6o4rj/13064395.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating</b>: DNF<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Do I even need one? I'm just going to steal it from goodreads because they know how to make things sound exciting. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><b>WHEN A MASKED MAN . . .</b></i><br />
<i>Twenty years ago Maximus Batten witnessed the brutal murders of his parents. Now the autocratic Duke of Wakefield, he spends his days ruling Parliament. But by night, disguised as the Ghost of St. Giles, he prowls the grim alleys of St. Giles, ever on the hunt for the murderer. One night he finds a fiery woman who meets him toe-to-toe—and won't back down . . .</i><br />
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<i><b>MEETS HIS MATCH . . .</b></i><br />
<i>Artemis Greaves toils as a lady's companion, but hiding beneath the plain brown serge of her dress is the heart of a huntress. When the Ghost of St. Giles rescues her from footpads, she recognizes a kindred spirit-and is intrigued. She's even more intrigued when she realizes who exactly the notorious Ghost is by day . . .</i><br />
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<i><b>DESIRE IGNITES A DANGEROUS PASSION</b></i><br />
<i>Artemis makes a bold move: she demands that Maximus use his influence to free her imprisoned brother-or she will expose him as the Ghost. But blackmailing a powerful duke isn't without risks. Now that she has the tiger by the tail, can she withstand his ire-or the temptation of his embrace?</i></blockquote>My first DNF since starting the blog. Why? Because the book was pretty long and about halfway through I didn't even really care anymore if the hero and heroine got together anymore. I don't read a lot of romances, but when I do, I expect it to focus heavily on romance. This one was focused way too much on this whole murder mystery plot that I personally didn't care about. As nice as it is to see romances start out slowly, the character development wasn't really there for the amount I've read.<br />
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As to the ending, I would say it's predictable, but obviously since I didn't finish it, I wouldn't know. But given all the heavy handed clues, I think it's not that difficult to figure out what's going to happen. Here are some pros that I found, and then the cons that followed.<br />
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<u>What I liked</u>: A capable heroine with a tragic back story.<br />
<u>What I didn't like:</u> That the heroine constantly whines about how she'll never be able to live a normal life because her family's reputation is destroyed and now no one will ever marry her because she also has no money. Yes, yes, we got it the first few times. You're doomed to a relatively comfortable life as your cousin's lady companion. Because you know, I think we'd rather all starve on the streets in rags and have our freedom than attend balls and have daily meals in return for hanging out with some bimbo all day. Oh, did I mention that it's such a travesty that she only has ONE evening gown? Let's keep drawing attention to her sparse wardrobe!<br />
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<u>What I liked</u>: Dark broody heroes with athletic prowess.<br />
<u>What I didn't like</u>: Dark broody heroes who get really creepy on the heroine. Like please sir, I don't want to know that you want to put her foot in your mouth. I just really don't. I did not sign up for you to get all pervy on her every time she flashed an ankle (he doesn't actually get gropey-rapey pervy, but he gets all sexually frustrated and is practically inwardly moaning about it). I know that was totally scandalous back in the day, but do show some self control. Why does every guy in a romance feel the need to mention how many times and how often that he just wants to take the woman and ravish her on the spot? It gets old and makes me cringe. We don't need to an update that you still find her attractive every few pages. (The heroine too. It's like if the author doesn't mention how hot they are all the time, we'll somehow forget and lose interest. Newsflash, readers just assume the hero and heroine are hot until otherwise stated because, dun dun dun, the genre is Romance and look at the cover... come on.)<br />
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I kind of also take this for granted by now so I didn't think to mention it until I saw the other reviews, but yeah, the hero is kind of a douche sometimes. And I know it's kind of the norm for the males to be overly sexed, but personally don't need him repeating it all the time.<br />
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<img src="http://s25.postimg.org/4iq3gvdb3/6502_original.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><u>What I liked</u>: Intelligence > Beauty and Money moral that they push in the story.<br />
<u>What I didn't like</u>: How they make the cousin the epitome of beauty and money but without brains and then proceeded to make her a metaphorical punching bag throughout the story on why she sucks and the heroine is awesome. There were so many unnecessary scenes that highlighted the cousin's faults that I had to roll my eyes a bit. We get it. The cousin is a shallow ditz who "means well... sort of", but she was nothing more than a dramatic device to make the heroine look so much more superior in comparison. It was annoying. At one point how the heroine describes her sounded a lot like bullying--only not to her face because that would be rude you know... instead let's just talk about how awful she is passive aggressively and end all the trash talk with "she means well...I think" so we can still look like decent human beings.<br />
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There is this one scene where the cousin is singing badly off key and then failing at archery, which added nothing to the story except that she sucks and the heroine is so much better in comparison because omg she shot three arrows in row and it hit the target and her cousin... well at least she didn't kill anyone right? Sorry, but in something like a romance novel characters should just be awesome as is, not out of relativity.<br />
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<u>What I liked</u>: The heroine's devotion to her brother.<br />
<u>What I didn't like</u>: As I said before, there was too much focus on this murder/mystery plot. Though that scene where the brother is taunting those rapists was pretty golden.<br />
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<u>What I liked</u>: The writing was pretty good.<br />
<u>What I didn't like</u>: All the similes. Yes, a few are nice to elaborate on meaning, but after awhile, they were just useless deadweights. I get that it's supposed to make everything sound more rosy and poetic, but actually... it just made it sound overly sentimental. What I want is a story, not whatever... this is. To use a simile, it's like walking into a rose garden, only the smell of roses is so overpowering that you're nearly knocked unconscious.<br />
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All in all, I think the novel is trying a little too hard not to seem too much like a typical Mary Sue romance that it failed for me (weird I know). I didn't relate to the heroine, and I didn't care if she ended up with the hero. In a romance novel, I'd say those two are pretty much the basic requirements for a good romance.<br />
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Are my standards too high? Maybe, because other people seem to really like this one. I have nothing against the Romance genre, other than the market is so oversaturated with these half-assed ones. They just figure out the formula and then they run with it (I'm also looking at you Romance editors who are looking to make some fast cash).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-9693109172407380392014-04-24T10:32:00.002-07:002014-07-05T11:06:53.201-07:00[Review] Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch<b><img src="http://s25.postimg.org/vd30ham8v/427354.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 3.5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Erotica, Romance, Classic<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Foolish man gets the whip from sexy goddess clad in fur. He is cuckolded and tormented, but he can only beg for more.<br />
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Notorious book. I mean check out that last name, this was the guy who brought masochism into the vogue, all because he wrote a book about some wimpy guy who begged to be stepped on.<br />
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So I <i>had</i> to read this book, not buts about it. Luckily for me, it's in the free domain so I tabbed over to Gutenberg, downloaded it and polished it off in a few days.<br />
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One thing to say about the genre. I have it listed under Erotica, but there are no sex-scenes. Obviously the characters have had sex, but there is really no explicit mention of it. There is not even really any innuendos that they have had sex. I've read YA that has had more sex scenes in it, but, all in all, not a book for children or those who can't understand how anyone could get off being beaten and demeaned. <br />
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There are a lot of great things to say about Venus in Furs and then some not so great things. I think I loved everything about the concept of this book, but the execution was lacking. The book became repetitive at times, with the characters occasionally repeating themselves and using the same lines over and over again. Given how short the book was and how the plot jumped all over the place, it really shouldn't have felt like it was dragging.<br />
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Severin, the masochist, is probably one of the least likable people in the world. I know he thought he was pretty damn romantic and sensitive, what with the groveling and the constant spewing of how much he loved his mistress, but about halfway through, I was also itching to whip this guy for being an emotional see-saw going back and forth about how he wanted to be mistreated and then whining when he is mistreated. At some point, I was really hoping for Wanda (the sadist, who coincidentally, has the same name as Sacher-Masoch's wife's writing alias) to completely humiliate him and then toss him out the door naked and bound. Not to give away spoilers, the ending didn't disappoint too badly (though it did still disappoint since Severin--this is not really a spoiler since they tell you at the beginning of the book--became a dom). This is only book one in a series, but I have yet to find the others. I'm not sure if they are in the free domain or not, but most likely not.<br />
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There are some very interesting analyses on the relationships of man and woman. Several times throughout the book, the metaphor of the anvil and the hammer is brought up. In a relationship then, you are either hammer, the dominating one, or the anvil, the submissive one. There are no compromises in between.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"But you cannot deny, that man and woman are mortal enemies...In love there is union into a single being for a short time only, capable of only one thought, one sensation, one will, in order to be then further disunited. And you know this better than I; whichever of the two fails to subjugation will soon feel the feet of the other on his neck--"</blockquote>Whoa. Crazy stuff. That second sentence is basically saying that the desire to become "one" with your partner is only a fleeting desire, and after it passes, the lovers will want nothing more than to be independent and distinct from one other until they end up competing for dominance. I'm sure that some happily married couples would disagree, but I think Sacher-Masoch does make a good point. From my own personal experience, relationships are, more often than not, a game of who has more power. I know it's a super cynical way to think, but I'm a cynical person.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Can there be any greater cruelty for a lover than the unfaithfulness of the woman he loves?"<br />
"Indeed!" she replied. <br />
"We are faithful as long as we love, but you demand faithfulness of a woman without love, and the giving of herself without enjoyment. Who is cruel here--woman or man? You of the North in general take love too soberly and seriously. You talk of duties where there should be only a question of pleasure."</blockquote>More good points. The quote kind of explains itself. One last thing that made me particularly fond of this book is the Greek Alexis Papadopolis, whom Wanda cuckholds Severin with. Okay, check out this description of him and tell me that he isn't amazing.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"He is a man who is like a woman; he knows that he is beautiful, and he acts accordingly. He changes his clothes four or five times a day like a vain courtesan. In Paris he appeared first in women's dress, and the men assailed him with love-letters. An Italian single, famous equally for his art and his passionate intensity, even invaded his home, and lying on his knees before him threatened to commit suicide if he wouldn't be his. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">'I am sorry,' he replied smiling, 'I should like to do you the favor, but you will have to carry out your threat, for I am a man.'"</blockquote>Do I love beautiful men who can pass as women? Yes, yes I do. This guy is deliciously diabolical, where can I read more about him? Am I a little weird for loving evil androgynous guys that use their beauty to completely screw people over? Probably, but I can't help it. I think this was the highlight of the book for me when this guy starts whipping Severin. Does that make me a bit of a sadist? Duh, why else would I read this book?<br />
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I loved this book, but it wasn't good enough to give it a full four stars. 3.5 is my rating. Anyway, I'm going to end it with this nice quote from the book. I think a lot of what is wrong with relationships is how society treats gender.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"'That woman, as nature has created her and as man is at present educating her, is his enemy. She can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. This she can become only when she had the same rights as he, and is his equal in education and work."</blockquote>The book isn't only about taking a perverse pleasure in seeing a man suffer at the hands of a beautiful woman, but it is a look at gender roles in society and their so-called "perversions"--the deviations from the norm. I think there is something to be said about the whole "you're either a dominant or a submissive", not just in sexual relationships, but in any kind of relationship.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-89651216357097317602014-04-22T11:11:00.001-07:002014-04-22T11:11:18.340-07:00[Rant] WorkI'm really sorry about not updating more often. Currently work is kicking my behind. For those who don't know, I intern at a small independent publishing company, which probably sounds more amazing than it actually is.<br />
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Let me tell you, doing blog tours is a major drag. I applaud bloggers who host them for free. On the bright side, it is interesting? I do learn a lot and the experience is rewarding in its own right. I've also come to terms that me and Marketing don't get along so well.<br />
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<img src="http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/b617/lucidum/Reactions/puppyfail_zps7b3133e8.gif" /><br />
Me everyday at work tbh.<br />
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I'm currently reading <i>Atonement</i>, and as amazing as Ian McEwan is, it's kind of painful because I already know what's going to happen. Ugh. Maybe I should read a different McEwan book. This one is giving me so much anxiety.<br />
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I'll try to post a review asap! Sorry!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-35402838623020378752014-04-16T08:58:00.001-07:002014-07-05T11:07:31.138-07:00[Review] The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman<b><img src="http://s12.postimg.org/bt07mgln1/15783514.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 4.5-stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Contemporary-fiction, Speculative-fiction/Fantasy<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: A middle aged man returns home for a funeral and begins to recall the fantastical events that had happened in his childhood. A very eerie and magical Gaimanesque story.<br />
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It's hard to review this book because I listened to the audiobook, but it was nice because Neil Gaiman read it and it's always nice to hear authors read their work. The story is about a middle-aged narrator returning to his childhood home and starts to remember his extraordinary childhood and his extraordinary friend Lettie Hempstock. The story is eerie and peculiar, beautiful and tragically haunting. I think I came out a little traumatized--which is a good thing in this case, because rarely do books really ever leave a mark on me.<br />
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The main character is weak and bookish, but brave in his childishly pure way. I really enjoyed the whole cast of characters, especially the Hempstock women. What I like about this book in particular is the ending. It's perfect. Rarely do books have any sort of satisfactory ending, but this one does. In fact, I think just about everything in this book is done pretty damn perfectly.<br />
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The book started off slow. Admittedly, the synopsis make it seem kind of boring, but it <i>is</i> Neil Gaiman after all, and I have faith that the man can deliver. And deliver he did. Gaiman really captures the consciousness of childhood, particularly its joys and anxieties. This is a story that I definitely will have to read on print before properly reviewing. If you have read other Gaiman stories, you will find yourself immersed in a familiar atmosphere. This book is targeted for more adult audiences, but it still deals mainly with childhood.<br />
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<img src="http://s9.postimg.org/fh3kumplr/ocean_at_the_end_of_the_lane_1_e1371926929624.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /> This is a story filled with magic, like actual <span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>magic</b></span>. Don't be fooled by the very contemporary literary fiction-ness of the synopsis. For example, a worm hole develops in the protagonist's foot. Is that psychedelic or what?<br />
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The ocean at the end of the lane is actually a pond, or is it? I think most of us in our childhood have had these flights of fancy where our imagination gets the best of us and Gaiman is really good at utilizing our childhood experiences and then bringing them back to us as adults (though I'm sure children would enjoy this book as well). I guess if I had to use one word to describe the book it would be: <i>nostalgic</i>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-76886920618720897112014-04-11T05:31:00.002-07:002014-07-05T11:07:47.462-07:00[Review] Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad<b><img src="http://s27.postimg.org/wuuy59g0j/975485.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Rating</span></b><span style="background-color: white;">: 3 Stars</span><br />
<b>Genre</b>: Literary fiction<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Cynical yet condescending sailor faces existential and moral dilemmas in the middle of Africa, meets crazy sociopathic nutjob, cannibals, and gets owned by mother nature.<br />
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If there was ever a book that has been so debated upon, it would be Heart of Darkness. It is the book that has plagued me through my years as an English Major--a work that I should've read a long time ago, but haven't. I've tried, God knows I've tried. I must've started this book a hundred times, but I've only just gotten around to reading it.<br />
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Is Joseph Conrad <b><span style="color: blue;">r</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: #6aa84f;">c</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">i</span><span style="color: magenta;">s</span><span style="color: #b45f06;">t</span></b>? (ooh look colors!) Dear God this is probably one of the most racist things I've ever read. There is the argument that Conrad isn't actually racist, his narrator is, but let's not split hairs here. Saying the depictions of Africans in this book is distasteful would be putting it mildly. Though still, there is the argument that Conrad is only being truthful, that it was not so uncommon for Europeans to view Africa as a country full of savages. Is it important to acknowledge this work? Yes, lest we forget our literary history and how it is used to subdue other cultures. It's like in the novel. Marlow's obsession with Kurtz and his eloquence. Words are his power. Use it to subdue the brutish savages.<br />
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This idea that certain cultures are superior to another is still widely prevalent today. I know, I know, some of you might gasp at such a thing, but it's usually unintentional and subtle compared to Conrad's novel. One look at the English canon and it just screams white supremacy. Culture is a tool of power that has been used to oppress others for a long time. The English Major was offered first and foremost in British colonies abroad because Shakespeare was going to civilize them. Fun fact, I'm learning how to oppress myself. Whoopie. So why did I choose English and why am I reading this racist book? Cultural capital. I might make a post on this at a later time when I'm not feeling so lazy.<br />
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So why in the world do we still study this book a hundred or so years after it's been published? Especially if it is radically racist?<br />
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Who knows. Conrad was a visionary, and scholars have nothing but praise for his style and narrative innovation, whatever that is or means.<br />
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Though, to be honest, I do think Joseph Conrad's a master of prose. I enjoy reading it even if I get lost in the plot points. The man knows how to write. The only qualm I is that I cringe whenever I read "darkness". Maybe because it's in the title, but every time he writes "heart of darkness" it feels heavy-handed and tired.<br />
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<img src="http://s27.postimg.org/ikudz6dc3/congobasin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />The book is not so very much about character development or plot as much as it is about the great big in your face metaphor that is "<b>the heart of darkness</b>", which is a euphemism for the great unknown inaccessible to humankind. There are constant references to the heart of darkness, i.e the center of Africa, as the earth's beginning. Marlow parallels traveling deeper into the the Congo with going back in time in a similar fashion to walking down a museum exhibit on history. The people are primeval, supposedly devolving early humans, and the land is untameable and has an almost sentient wildness. In other words, the heart of darkness is the dark origin of life on earth. It promises existential and very real dangers that make it compelling for explorers, but of course, the explorers all eventually get their asses handed to them by nature. The ending was okay, a little silly, but I get it.<br />
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Anyway, here's an example where Conrad really shines.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Destiny. My destiny! Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic fora futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself--that comes too late--a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be."</blockquote>All in all, I give it 3 Stars because I really did enjoy the way he wrote. I might take a look at Conrad's other novels just for that reason.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only." </blockquote><br />
Does the idea redeem it though? I don't know about all that. In conclusion:<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-83740861029582326082014-04-04T13:00:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:08:04.072-07:00[Revew] The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides<img src="http://s2.postimg.org/4cy550p7d/10956.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating:</b> 3.5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: A town speculates on the multiple suicides of five suburban girls obsessively.<br />
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What is there to really say about this book? The title and cover recommends itself and Jeffrey Eugenides has made great strides in the literary world. There is a movie adaptation to this book, which is currently on my to-watch-list on Netflix. <br />
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Seriously, I can't think of the first thing to really say about this novel so this is going to be one of my shortest reviews so far. I haven't really made up my mind as to whether I liked it or not. Don't get me wrong, Eugenides can write. Though I couldn't help but feel that he knew a little TOO well exactly what to write. This is the kind of writing that cultural elitists really get themselves hot over. It's packed to the brim with imagery and symbolism and narrated in the rare first-person plural.<br />
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Is Eugenides exploitative? Definitely, and I think that's why he always rubs me the wrong way. When I first read Middlesex a few years ago, I thought it was a great book, but upon reflecting and reading interviews, Eugendies only used the protagonist's ambiguous gender as a literary device, and I felt like he did the same here with the Lisbon sisters in Virgin Suicides. The narrative style left little empathy for them and a great need to know why the girls committed suicide. I think with a few readings, one could try to glean over all the details and come to some conclusion, but I don't think there is a reason why, or if there is, it won't be entirely satisfying.<br />
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Suicide then, becomes a means to an artistic end. I'm not crying out in moral outrage or anything (though I can imagine some people will), but I can't help but feel that Jeffrey Eugenides is sitting in some some comfy armchair somewhere and smiling rather pretentiously to himself as he reflects on his own gifted literary abilities.<br />
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It was more enjoyable than it was off-putting, so there's that. Some people will love it, some will hate it, I am ambivalent.<br />
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There was on quotation in particular that I want to point out.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"We could never understand why the girls cared so much about being mature, or why they felt compelled to compliment each other, but sometimes, after one of us had read a long portion of the diary out loud, we had to fight back the urge to hug one another or to tell each other how pretty we were. We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing which colors went together... We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them."</blockquote>Like I said, this guy just rubs me the wrong way. I could talk about how exploitation is a real theme in this story, particularly in how the girl's are idolized and objectified to the point where who the girls really were didn't matter so much as the stories and fantasies the narrators as well as the rest of the town spun to suit their own fancy. Did the suicides have to be pretty teenage white girls? Yes, yes it did because pretty teenage white girls are placed upon pedestals and worshiped, and if the nation's object of desire and envy, then it is as theorized in the novel, "the Lisbon girls became symbol of what was wrong with the country". It isn't titled <i>Virgin Suicides</i> because the girls were all virgins (they weren't), but merely for its symbolism, just like how all the girls' deaths were commemorated, even though one of the sisters Mary, survived the attempt. Eugenides is clever, I'll give him that.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-88891559344330675682014-03-31T17:25:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:13:55.246-07:00[Comic] how2beauty<img src="http://s15.postimg.org/h75kbnnnv/beauty1.png" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-38204568878711845402014-03-28T12:00:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:08:22.870-07:00[Review] Hope's Rebellion by Jade Varden<b><img src="http://s30.postimg.org/akxqd1yc1/Hopes_Rebellion.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Rating</b>: 3 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: YA dystopia<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: In a world that favors light hair and discriminates dark as a means a social status, three girls growing up in three different circumstances form a friendship.<br />
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First and foremost, I am a bit torn between softening down a review for the sake of a struggling writer or just plowing through like I would for any book, popular and well-known or not. However, for the sake of the writer and the readers, I will do my best to be as honest as possible.<br />
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Let me say that this is my first time reviewing a self-published book (and one that was requested) I can say with some certainty that this book has not been professionally edited. If it has, Jade Varden you're not getting your money's worth because there are some very obvious grammar/spelling issues. There are also some transition issues. It's hard to tell how much time has passed between each scene until ages are talked about, and the scene switch itself seems to change abruptly and without notice. There definitely needs to be some indication of time passage at the beginning of each skip.<br />
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Overall, I think it that the prose itself flows pretty well, much better than some of the other YA of the same vein that I have read. I really have no complaints in that department. Also, I like that there is a focus on female friendships, which you really don't see very often for some reason. It's too bad that it feels like they're friends because of circumstance and not because they have any genuine interest in one another. They hang out, but I feel like none of them actually really knows one another until the end.<br />
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The genre is dystopia, though one wouldn't know it with soldiers walking around with breastplates and helmets. Usually dystopias are placed in the future (it took some time for me to ascertain that this story was indeed taking place in the future and not some alternate universe) and explore how the pressing issues of modern day social problems will play out if they are to continue (a.k.a global warming, materialism, genetic manipulation, government thought control etc). Somehow I don't see hair color discrimination factoring into the future since it obviously doesn't factor into the present. Personally if I was going to write about shade discrimination I would've gone for the elephant in the room, skin color, but I guess that's not some faraway future, that's reality. I mean, I guess hair color is supposed to an allegory for color discrimination, but still... something about it rubs me the wrong way.<br />
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As far as this new society goes, nothing is ever really explained. How we get from the present to that sort of future is hazy at best. It lacks cohesion and makes little sense. For example, what happened to all the technology? Why is everyone suddenly all medieval for? I get that it must be in the far far far future where civilization has completely collapsed and has reinvented itself, but if it's so far as to seem irrelevant to present day, it's not really doing it's job as a dystopia.<br />
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<u>So the social issues are:</u><br />
<img src="http://s27.postimg.org/xrd0vbwdf/eugenics4dummies.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><br />
1. Eugenics. Relevant? Sure. It's still present in a subtle institutionalized way. But maybe if this was written before WW2 and the rise of Nazism, it would've been more mind blowing.<br />
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2. Forced breeding/Breeding ideal traits: Yes, but it's not that relevant except in terms of the advances in technology today that can manipulate genes or map out which ones are favorable and which ones aren't.<br />
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3. Environmental issues: Standard dystopian theme, but there's not much focus on it.<br />
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4. Government decides what job you do based on a random lottery. <i>The Lottery</i> by Shirley Jackson anyone? Anyway, not so relevant. Dystopians are surprisingly outdated sometimes. The whole point of this heavy government control stems from the fear of Communism/Totalitarianism. Yes it was eerily on mark when 1984 and Brave New World came out (both of which were around the time of WW2, though 1984 focuses more on the Cold War), but it is a bit of an outdated concept for today.<br />
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So I'm afraid there isn't much in the way of innovation in <i>Hope's Rebellion</i>. I mean, to be fair, a lot of YA dystopias don't really do their jobs as dystopias in warning today's masses of the future that might happen if they remain ignorant. Sometimes YA tends to just use dystopia as some plot device so the heroine can kick down oppression in a quasi allegory on kids coming to age in a society that doesn't allow for individuality. I mean, sure why the hell not, we can't all be <i>The House of the Scorpion</i> by Nancy Farmer talking about cloning and the rise of drug cartels, but I sort of despise the mainstream YA dystopias for their effect on aspiring writers. Like, it's fine to enjoy the books and all (I'll be the first to admit I loved the Hunger Games, as problematic as it was), but why can't things be enjoyable and still be well-researched and thought out? Is it really that impossible to entertain the masses <i>and</i> teach them at the same time? I think not. The message was lost to me in this book. I'm not even sure what Jade Varden is trying to warn people about when it comes to the future.<br />
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Like I said before, the author really could've benefited from professional editing. Some scenes needed to be elaborated, while others weren't necessary. Parts of it felt rushed and glazed over. Instead of being shown how something happens, usually you just get someone reporting all the exciting parts that you miss out on, which doesn't make much sense since the narration is third person omniscient.<br />
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Now let's head over to the actual plot details. Drexi saves some random guy and then suddenly she is lifted from labor camp right on the spot and taken to live a better life somewhere else. Hmm... that seems... a little unbelievable, especially when Drexi's mother was practically dragged from her nice home and demoted to the lowest of the low just for having a dark haired baby. I can't tell if this society is actually serious about its laws or not. (I don't get why her mother is punished when the Most Esteemed Mother that trains Rinna also had a dark hair child but wasn't punished. Was it because it was her second child? That doesn't make any sense. If her mother has blonde hair, they could've just made her try again and again while discarding the dark haired babies). After all, if having dark hair was such a serious offense, why are there so many dark-haired girls at the school? Ah well, maybe I just wasn't reading close enough. I've been pretty tired lately working.<br />
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Anyway, if it comes to characterization, I liked Rinna the best. Yes, she is privileged and her golden hair blinds people into submission, but she's bold and I like that. She is also, in my opinion, the most fleshed out character. And the best irony of all is that Rinna, the privileged girl with the superior hair coloring is the one who feels the most oppressed. Ironic. <br />
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<img src="http://s3.postimg.org/5s3uimzoz/avg128_D.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />I think the funniest part is how angry she gets with Drexi and Wren's relationship. I don't know what that was about. *cough*<strike> I think Rinna is secretly in love with Drexi</strike>. I mean... it make sense. Drexi is super kick-ass and apparently gorgeous and Rinna is always fawning over her.<br />
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So let's talk about Drexi.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Despite the comfortable surroundings and the variety of plentiful food, Drexi found that life wasn't so different from when she was a dinwa. Lessons were really work. She'd washed clothes and dyed them, spun cloth and woven it. She'd sewed and stomped, and dug rocks out of the ground. Lessons were labor."</blockquote>Why is Drexi saying that her new comfortable life isn't any different from a labor camp? What? How about not being shouted at every morning or being publicly punished every time she decides to open her mouth? What about the fact that it is different because in one setting, she is forced to work because she is a slave, and in another setting, she's doing it because she's practicing and learning as a student? And yes FOOD does make all the difference. She gets buffets everyday whereas before she ate soggy vegetables and protein paste. For the love of God she had to squirrel away peanuts under her bed in order to keep from starving. C'mon! What about the whole "being talked to like an equal" thing? Don't tell me Drexi has become that spoiled only after a few years of not being a slave.<br />
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Okay. So I don't like Drexi. Funnily enough it is Rinna who is thinking about the children starving in the labor camps during a failing crop season while Drexi is equating her classroom lessons to labor camp. Drexi probably does think about the labor camp and her friends, but since it's never shown, how are we to judge that she still actually cares? Readers just can't assume these things.<br />
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So Drexi is kind of an asshole, but she sort of redeems herself in the end. Prelly... there's not much to say about Prelly except that I feel bad for her.<br />
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So it isn't until halfway through the book that I could actually get into it. Things start to pick up and get interesting. There's one thing I can say about this book, it's not completely predictable. It makes you want to know what happens to everyone and how they overcome their challenges.<br />
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<img src="http://s9.postimg.org/dvxl5c14f/suspense.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /> <b>The ending is crazy</b>. For awhile I thought I might've been wasting my time reading this book, but then the ending made up for it. I HAD TO TAKE A MOMENT, put my kindle down and like... just stop and process. WHAT WAS THAT?<br />
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All in all I think the book is worth taking a look at (if for nothing other than the fact that there are three awesome female protagonists). Even though the book is definitely longer than it shows on goodreads, it could probably stand to be a little longer to fill in the details and gaps.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-20639199738913342532014-03-23T19:58:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:08:56.372-07:00[Review] Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder<img src="http://s30.postimg.org/5ientrcbl/60510.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><b>Rating</b>: 2 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: YA-Fantasy<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: A teenage girl about to be executed gets a second chance at life as a poison taster. <br />
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I really thought I would love this book and get hooked onto this series. During the first few chapters, I thought I would spend the rest of the week with dark circles under my eyes trying to read everything, but unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case. <br />
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All in all, there isn't really anything too bad about the series. The heroine is pretty awesome. The whole poison taster acrobat angle is definitely a new one for me. She has a tragic past without whining about it. She is attracted to men without throwing herself on them and wailing bitterly whenever they aren't paying attention to her. Every male in the series is not slobbering at her feet. When she's in trouble, her immediate thought is not for someone to rescue her. She does not feel entitled to anything except basic human rights, and even those, she'll bargain for.<br />
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So why did the book feel so <i>long</i>? Why did her character still seem <i>flat</i>? Is it because she actually has little to no flaws? Is it because every part of her is a good and hardworking person? Maybe it's that her extremely traumatic past doesn't actually manifest itself into her personality in the least? Okay, given, she does seem like a person who had been oppressed to such an extent that her first and foremost thought will always be in on survival, but where's her resentment and bitterness?<br />
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Isn't it normal for a sixteen year old girl whose life had been completely destroyed and then redestroyed to be a little temperamental? Everything she says and does bears no ill-will and no bad intentions. At some points, she makes Valek, the cold-hearted assassin seem <i>emotional </i>and <i>petty</i>. He literally has to push her to the point of breaking to get a reaction, and even then, she bounces back pretty quickly as if being betrayed by the only person she was beginning to trust was only worth a few day's worth of brooding.<br />
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So let's get to Valek the love interest that you don't really expect to be the love interest, which is actually pretty awesome twist. We don't even get a description of him the first time we meet him. He's deadly, smart, agile, mysterious, and can't be trusted, A+ love interest right?<br />
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But first<i>. </i>How <i>old</i>... is Valek exactly? Let's do some math. <i>Yikes</i>.<br />
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The Commander took over the old empire about fifteen years ago and Valek was the one to assassinate the King and many of the magicians of the former monarchy. So that makes him AT LEAST twenty-five, assuming that he wasn't younger than TEN years old when he became a professional regicide. Let's also assume that the Commander would not actually trust a mere child to do his dirty work. There are people in this series who would, but let's just assume he wants someone pretty damn capable to trust him with such an important job. So then, let's assume that Valek was eighteen or around there when he first got the job.<br />
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So wait... Valek is... thirty-three? Maybe early thirties? Maybe even older? Forty?<br />
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MS.SNYDER, if you're going to make a romance between someone with such an EXTREME age gap... I would like to be informed beforehand! Now there's nothing wrong with age gaps, but I am personally not jumping up and down squealing at the thought of thirty-ish year old Valek swooning over a vulnerable sixteen year old girl, whose life, he literally has in the palm of his hand. <br />
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My gif for almost everything about this. Sorry, but that is definitely NOT turning me on. I don't know if Valek is <i>meant</i> to be that old or if it's just the author being sloppy. And as awesome as Valek is, I personally don't view him and Yelena as a good match. Halfway through, just when the romance was starting to happen, I was really praying it wouldn't.<br />
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And Yelena is... sixteen right? At least I think she's sixteen. She was sixteen when she became an experiment for Brazell, and then she spent one year in prison as Valek has told us... so.... is she... seventeen or eighteen? But wait, the magician said that powers manifested itself at sixteen and then became uncontrollable and unstable at seventeen. Yelena bargained for a year because she still had time... I'm confused now. The magician gave her the year, but if Yelena is already seventeen because she spent a year in prison then... *headache*okay, the author clearly has some plot holes and can't keep her own story straight.<br />
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Spoiler alert. Highlight to read.<br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">So when Yelena starts trying to give Valek a rubdown almost out of nowhere, I was very uncomfortable. First of all, this kind of behavior is perfectly normal if it was in today's society, but the author has never let on how this particular society views sexuality and its display. Second of all, Yelena is sexually traumatized. She was raped. (OH adding to another point to the author being sloppy. She first mentions that Reyad did NOT rape Yelena, and then during the middle of the book, the rape scene is depicted in detail! WHAT? DON'T LIE TO ME MS.SNYDER!). So if Yelena has received little to no sex education and any experience she does have with sex has been negative and associated with pain, I have a hard time believing that she would suddenly start unfastening his belt no matter how drunk she is. You can't just do that without any sort of explanation! Agh. UGH! SIGH I am so disappointed.</span></span><br />
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I also was extremely annoyed that Maren, one of the strong female characters who was training Yelena, who is supposed to be all about girl power and who is supposed to not give half a shit about training men... is bitter and jealous because Valek talks to Yelena. What? Way to ruin the only other strong female and thus ruin any chances of Yelena forming any sort of real friendship with another woman. I could go in depth about gender stuff, ( and the transgender stuff?!?) but that would take too long.<br />
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Anyway, let's get to the side characters. Lovable but not at all interesting except Rand the gambling chef.<br />
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The setting feels dystopian (more sectors in this quasi-Communistic military government) but it's actually not? It's a fantasy with magic and swords and assassins in the dark. The fantasy gets a little lost in all these dystopian details. The whole magic blanket theory and mind-reading becomes a side thought to the rigid hierarchies, uniforms, and laws of Ixia.<br />
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Speaking of countries. There is another one, Sitia, where all the magicians come from. The Southerners have black hair, darker skin (olive probably), and green eyes which are almond-shaped. I'm not even going to get into the Southerners, who, by the way, wear exotic robes and animal masks decorated with fur an feathers. Really though? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of exotic? OH. ANIMAL MASKS, FEATHERS, AND ROBES. The leader wears a hawk mask. <i>Really!?</i> And Yelena is supposed to look like these people, yet she faces no signs of prejudice or discrimination based on her coloring. Inconsistencies, they're everywhere.<br />
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The world building is okay, not great, but not as bad as in some of the other more popular books in the same genre.<br />
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The real problem is the writing. Snyder uses metaphors well, but the writing lacks flourish and complexity. At most, she can string two clauses together and that's it. Most of the time it's like one long military report.<br />
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Example: <br />
"Valek lifted a box of eight bottles from the floor. They clinked musically as he set the carton on the table."<br />
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Why couldn't she write "The carton of eight bottles clinked musically as Valek lifted them from the floor and set them on the table." OR, if you want to emphasize that they clinked after they had been put down: "Valek lifted the carton from the floor and the eight bottles clinked musically as he set them on the table." AND is a compound words. You can use to combine sentences.<br />
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Why not just make that one sentence? Why does it have to sound like a play by play newscast of everything that is happening in exactly the order that it happens? Maybe this is only a personal pet peeve, but it would've really made the prose better if she could just combine sentences for maximum efficacy. I'm just saying. I know this might seem like nitpicking, but it's like this throughout the book. The writing is bland. Period.<br />
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The way its written makes it hard to really escape into the story, which is the whole point of FANTASY. I really do wish it could've been better than it was, I really do. Let's just say if this is what the book is after being professionally edited, I would hate to see what it looked like before. I will try to read the second book, but if it's really not going to work out, I won't bother forcing myself to finish like this one.<br />
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Still two stars because <i>some</i> people might still enjoy it regardless of the glaring problems, many of which I didn't even bother mention, and I'm sure there are more that I didn't catch because at the halfway mark I just wanted to be done with it. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-34152013174277521612014-03-19T09:18:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:09:27.154-07:00[Review] Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin<img src="http://s10.postimg.org/5ctg9xvkp/17143.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"The darkness and silence of the church pressed on him, cold as judgment, and the voices crying from the window might have been crying from another world. John moved forward, hearing his feet crack against the sagging wood, to where the golden cross on the red field of the altar cloth glowed like smothered fire, and switched on one weak light."</i></blockquote><b>Rating</b>: 5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Literary fiction, Modern fiction, African-American literature<br />
<b>Timeline</b>: Early to mid 1900's<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: An honest portrayal of a black family living in New York. Every single member of the Grimes family struggles with their faith as they face the inhumanity of living in a violently racist world.<br />
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<div>This book is like a work of art. You have to experience it a few times to even begin to truly appreciate the complex humanity that Baldwin has poured into his prose. Like many modernist works, there is a fragmentary cohesiveness in the way the story is told. At once broken yet fluid, I found myself startlingly aware of my own heartbeat as I was reading.<br />
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I think there is something to the rhythm of his words, which isn't surprising since Baldwin was a great enthusiast of jazz. There is a flow that carries you along even if you find yourself wavering over the subject matter. The story is foremost about John's internal struggle over his place and identity in a world that forces him to choose between being a sinner or a saint. Because he struggles with his own sexuality (Baldwin was also gay), and because he bears resentment against his abusive step-father who is revered at church, John becomes alienated from the Christ-centered community that he is brought up in. For himself, he sees no hope of redemption or salvation.</div><div><a name='more'></a><br />
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You can almost taste the oppression off the pages, and smell the anger and resentment against a world that only knows how to create barriers and boxes. It's a world full of don'ts and can'ts. It's a world where John feels he must read half the books in the library before being allowed to step into one. Relations between race are tense. Inside and outside the home, there is nothing but anger and frustration. John's brother Roy is a prime example of the black youth who instinctively feels the hypocrisy and the injustices of his daily life, so he walks around, a ticking bomb constantly exploding with small acts of violent rebellion.<br />
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The book is also concerned with the rest of John's family. It dips into the perspectives of his father, his father's ex-wife, his mother, and his aunt. There are some definite feminist themes in the story. The women in the family are constantly at battle with the rest of the world to assert their own humanity, to assert that they will not be second to a man, just as black is not second to white.<br />
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I thought it might be interesting to read this interview about Baldwin.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">INTERVIEWER<br />
Would you tell us how you came to leave the States?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">JAMES BALDWIN</div>I was broke. I got to Paris with forty dollars in my pocket, but I had to get out of New York. My reflexes were tormented by the plight of other people. Reading had taken me away for long periods at a time, yet I still had to deal with the streets and the authorities and the cold. <b>I knew what it meant to be white and I knew what it meant to be a nigger, and I knew what was going to happen to me. My luck was running out. I was going to go to jail, I was going to kill somebody or be killed. My best friend had committed suicide two years earlier, jumping off the George Washington Bridge.</b><br />
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When I arrived in Paris in 1948 I didn’t know a word of French. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t want to know anyone. Later, when I’d encountered other Americans, I began to avoid them because they had more money than I did and I didn’t want to feel like a freeloader. The forty dollars I came with, I recall, lasted me two or three days. Borrowing money whenever I could—often at the last minute—I moved from one hotel to another, not knowing what was going to happen to me. Then I got sick. To my surprise I wasn’t thrown out of the hotel. This Corsican family, for reasons I’ll never understand, took care of me. An old, old lady, a great old matriarch, nursed me back to health after three months; she used old folk remedies. And she had to climb five flights of stairs every morning to make sure I was kept alive. I went through this period where I was very much alone, and wanted to be. I wasn’t part of any community until I later became the Angry Young Man in New York.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">INTERVIEWER</div>Why did you choose France?<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">BALDWIN</div>It wasn’t so much a matter of choosing France—it was a matter of getting out of America. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me in France but I knew what was going to happen to me in New York. If I had stayed there, I would have gone under, like my friend on the George Washington Bridge.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">INTERVIEWER</div>You say the city beat him to death. You mean that metaphorically.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">BALDWIN</div>Not so metaphorically. Looking for a place to live. Looking for a job. You begin to doubt your judgment, you begin to doubt everything. You become imprecise. And that’s when you’re beginning to go under. You’ve been beaten, and it’s been deliberate. <b>The whole society has decided to make you <i>nothing</i>. And they don’t even know they’re doing it.</b></blockquote><br />
I was not raised on the Christian faith, so I had to do some independent research, but "Go Tell it On the Mountain" is actually a religious song that is sung in church. The actual title itself comes from one part in the book where Elisha, one of the saints, tells John: "'You keep your mind on Jesus. <i>He</i> went that way—up the steep side of the mountain—and He was carrying the cross, and didn’t nobody help Him. He carried that cross for us.’” The image inevitably reminds me of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, which I will use to conclude this review.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://s24.postimg.org/sff8r0rqt/Christ_the_Redeemer_Photo_Disc_60270_652x415.jpg" /></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-87205299975505102852014-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:09:56.241-07:00[Review] An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments written by Ali Almossawi, illustrated by Alejandro Giraldo<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://s2.postimg.org/qzylm5tzd/image.png" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Read it for <b>free </b>here: <a href="https://bookofbadarguments.com/">https://bookofbadarguments.com/</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Rating</b>: 4-stars</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Genre</b>: Nonfiction-Philosophy, Nonfiction-Reference </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Synopsis</b>: An illustrated book of rhetorical arguments. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Do you know what's awesome about this book? It has pictures. How many philosophy books have cute adorable pictures? Hardly any. Did I mention that it's free? This book is a good brush up of terminology for those who have studied logic or logical fallacies.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">There isn't really much to say or review about this book. It's short, the book is not really for children. If you have never studied the art of argument before, the terminology and dissection of definitions might be hard to follow. Philosophy books tend to have their own style of explaining things that is extremely concise, but not particularly friendly to the average reader. You can certainly get the book for your child, but they would probably struggle with the actual text of the book, even if the pictures are perfectly understandable. Click Read more for an example.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Slippery Slope: </u></div><div style="text-align: center;">"A slippery slope attempts to discredit a proposition by arguing that its acceptance will undoubtedly lead to a sequence of events, one or more of which are undesirable."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Common example:</u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"We shouldn't allow people uncontrolled access to the Internet. The next thing you know, they will be frequenting pornographic websites and, soon enough our entire moral fabric will disintegrate and we will be reduced to animals"</i></div><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-16261034255756790222014-03-15T10:00:00.000-07:002014-03-15T10:00:00.528-07:00[Art] How 2 smart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-68865109442637688072014-03-14T09:38:00.000-07:002014-07-05T11:10:29.572-07:00[Review] The Zahir by Paulo Coelho (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)<img src="http://s14.postimg.org/eppecuacx/1427.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"No one should ever ask themselves that: Why am I unhappy? The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything. If we ask that question, it means we want to find out what makes us happy. If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, then we must either change once and for all or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy."</i></div></blockquote><b>Rating</b>: 2 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Literary Fiction<br />
<b>Setting</b>: Somewhere between Milan and Paris<br />
<b>Timeline</b>: Close enough to present day<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: A successful author's life disappears. He looks for her, and along the way makes some discoveries about love and life.<br />
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The synopsis of the book is rather misleading. It appears on the surface to be a love story, but it's actually one of those inspirational stories about spirituality that doesn't make as much sense as the characters want you to believe. Yes, there is a lot of moaning and groaning from the narrator about how much he loves his wife and how much he obsesses over her for every second of his waking life (even though he is a serial adulterer), but the wife seemed more like a plot device for the narrator's self-discovery than an actual autonomous character. For one, she is missing throughout almost all of the book, only appearing in random flashbacks when it is most convenient for the narrator to make some supposedly poignant observation about humanity's many flaws.<br />
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I mean, look at the cover of this book. Beautiful right? Check out that subtitle, "a novel of obsession". HMMM, let's think about that one for a second. Who is the narrator obsessed with? His wife? Well he certainly seems to think so. He calls his wife the Zahir.<br />
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Now what in the world is a Zahir? Well, some may be familiar with the Islamic concept of zahir, but the zahir that Coelho's protagonist is obsessing over has little to nothing to do with the Quran, but with a short story with the same title by Jorge Luis Borges. How do I know this? Three reasons, the first being that he quotes Borges in the beginning of the novel; the second reason is because Coelho releases another book called <i>Aleph</i>, another Borges story, that is the conceptual polar opposite of the zahir. And finally, the third reason is because of the whole obsession theme (if you read the original short story you will know what I mean).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiDhmJFtMC2e8hKLJFq4B5ouLlvx0h8GXEtH_9ZyxtniQN_XPBZXBhZsBCXzjsoRneH9nvuEt6r496AC09jR9ZR1JlJ51Bgry6OGgOhc1InpUXVX8SYFr-815EcDVfcXr5JGr7BznPGb6rgsB4VUKAWet-x=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s27.postimg.org/defaft1hv/The_Zahir_Coin.jpg" /></a>So the story is not so much about the man's wife, as much as it is about the man's obsession. So let's talk about the obsession, the zahir. In Borges story, the zahir is a concept that materializes into an object, and in his case, it is a 20 centavos coin. However, the object of which the zahir takes is arbitrary. It can be the stripes of a tiger, a painting on the wall, a hole in your shoe, whatever. The whole point is obsession, but where it differs between Borges in Coelho is that in Borges story, there is an element of the absurd in the obsession. After all, anyone who is obsessed with a coin to the point of thinking about it constantly is considered mentally insane, while in Coelho's case... it's more that of a heartbroken man. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some people thought it was sweet.<br />
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Now that's where it started to rub me the wrong way. Coelho is romanticizing Borges' concept of the zahir by applying it to the protagonist's pathetic wallowing over his own failed relationship. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"But the Zahir, about which I initially used to think with either irritation and affection, continued to grow in my soul. I started looking for Esther in every woman I met. I would see her in every bar, every cinema, at bus stops."</i></div></blockquote><br />
On another note, I usually don't talk about authors, but Coelho mainly writes about spirituality and this book is no different. Throughout various points of the novel, he recycles ideas from his previous works (the narrator will refer to the Alchemist in the story). If you have read Coelho before and have enjoyed his works, you had better avoid this one. There's nothing particularly new here. At the very least, the other works are a little more entertaining.<br />
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So back to the the novel. The prose flows well, typical Coelho who believes that if the reader doesn't understand what you're writing, than you're not doing your job right. However, I didn't find the prose particularly inspiring, so I can't praise it in that aspect. On a more positive note, Coelho does have interesting ideas, and the narrator thinks and talks a great deal about things like love, happiness, success, work, and other important topics. At times, it does get a bit preachy, and at other times, it seems Coelho gets a little confused about what sort of message he wants to get across.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"'As long as I'm in a war zone, my life has meaning... I know that at any moment someone could lob a grenade into the place where we're sitting, and that makes me live, do you see? Really live, I mean, loving every minute, every second. There's no room for sadness, doubts, nothing; there's just a great love for life.'"</blockquote>Wait. What? Yes, I understand that people can become addicted to the adrenaline of war. During war, living is reduced to its essence, anything superfluous stripped away as you stand before the massive gulf of oblivion. But to wage war in order to know oneself is selfish. I don't understand this glamorization of war. Yes, you realize what is important in life and you develop bonds that go deeper than blood, but at what cost? To the suffering of millions of others and to the desecration of miles after miles of land that was meant to sustain life? I just can't reconcile with it. People who go on spouting this nonsense that humans need war for peace need to just sit down and cram it. It seems that everyone just keeps throwing the word "love" around and I have no idea what they mean by it anymore. <br />
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Unfortunately, the narrator is not a likable person. He spends a great deal of time whining about how miserable he is and then goes off to brag about all his accomplishments. And then, near the end, he supposedly discovers the love of the universe, the ultimate love of God that is everything at once, but he gets extremely critical and judgmental for someone who has supposedly "seen the light".<br />
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At no point in the novel does it explicitly say that the narrator is Paulo Coelho, another trick, might I add, along the lines of Borges, who delved heavily into metafiction. It's a turn off for most readers, and probably for myself as well (I do not quite know what to make of it actually). Normally, I would chastise myself for judging a work by comparing it to another work by the same or a different author, but the title, all the quotations that appear before the book even begins, and the constant reference to his own literary life begs for it to be examined that way.<br />
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He's no Borges, though that is hardly an insult since I esteem Borges as one of the greats of the greats, a literary monster so to speak. <br />
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<a href="https://dunravencomics.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/labyrinth-noir"><img src="http://s24.postimg.org/cw8pda3w5/labyrinthsmall.jpg" /></a><br />
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So anyone who is reading this review who has not already read the story will look at this and wonder what the hell I am going on about and what the hell this all has to do with the story. Everything and nothing. Like I said before, the synopsis is misleading, the work is more like a flirtation with form and existential theorizing than about the actual plot. I found the details hardly consequential. Whether the narrator is sleeping with one woman or another, whether he is in Paris or Kazakhstan, whether his wife is a regular journalist or a war correspondent, whether she is having an affair or murdered, whether he is writing lyrics or novels, none of it matters. It's more like literary masturbation, a kind of self-indulgence for the sake of self-indulgence. He takes Borges story and inappropriately rubs himself all over it. It's seriously a waste of time. I don't even know why I forced myself to finish this book.<br />
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In conclusion, I give it 2 stars because it was easy to read, and he made some good intellectual points. The novel did not rise to expectations, given its title, and if you never ever read this work, you wouldn't be the worse off. For the most part, some of the stuff the characters were spouting made no sense (Coelho, you said it yourself. It's not the reader's fault if she can't understand the book, but the author's). If this is your first Coelho novel, or the first time you have ever encountered magic realism and metafiction, you might be impressed, but I say let's just read Borges' version instead.
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"The only solution was to try to unmake the world, to make it black and silent and uninhabited again, to return to the moment before the Big Bang, in the beginning when there was the Word, and to live in that vacuous uncreated space alone with the Word."</i></blockquote><b>Rating</b>: 5 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: YA, Contemporary Romance<br />
<b>Setting</b>: 2000's<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Prodigious cancer teens fall in love.<br />
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I didn't want to like this book. Don't ask me why, but since the beginning I had already braced myself against for an endless stream of maudlin and sentimental drivel simply because people quoted all the sappy parts nonstop. It's that one book that people assault you with and you don't really get why. So I expected to hate it. But I didn't. Dear God I loved it. Okay, it wasn't perfect and some moments had me raising my eyebrow going what the hell John Green (why do boys expect girls to like boy movies? What the hell is <i>that </i>supposed to mean John Green?), but it was great because rarely do I ever laugh out loud while reading (and I even wept a little *cough* just a <i>little</i>).<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Mom reached up to this shelf above my bed and grabbed Bluie, the blue stuffed bear I had since I was, like one--back when it was socially acceptable to name one's friends after their hue."</blockquote>It's funny okay!?. The book is riddled with all these clever phrases and turn of words. However, sometimes it got a little <i>too</i> clever for it's own good. The characters are intelligent, but there is a difference between intelligence and being extremely well-read. Though I expect there are many intelligent seventeen year olds, I find it rare for them to be <i>well-read</i>. What sort of teenager spouts out things like <i>hamartia </i>(this word is so uncommon that google is telling me that I've spelt Harmonia wrong, whatever that is), or quotes WCW, or appreciates the <i>metaphorical</i> <i>significance </i>of <i>existentially fraught</i> free throws? Okay, maybe I'm just bitter because my own high school education was shit poor (public schools...), so once I accepted that I'm only lamenting my own loss, I moved on.<br />
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Every reference in this book is pretty much lit 101 and beginner's lit theory 101. So if you're into Literature with the capital L, prepare to have your ego stroked because you'll have studied every reference alluded to. The conversations swing rapidly between colloquial to eloquent, i.e "<i>awesomesauce</i>" to stuff like "the Whitmanesque revelation that the definition of humanness is the opportunity to marvel at the majesty of creation". To illustrate how the characters talked, I have this handy Dilbert comic featuring Zeno's Paradox.<br />
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It might turn some people off, but I think the majority of people can suspend their belief that such amazing teenagers could possibly exist and still be likable and cool and enjoy the story. <br />
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The characters were genuine and extremely lovable. Two words: Augustus Waters. Does such a person exist in this world, even in adult form? I found him a little <i>too</i> perfect to be entirely relatable, but I get that his role is to give teenage girls wet dreams and to make them incredibly angry that the only guys at their high school appear like rotting stalks of celery in comparison to the glorious Augustus Waters, professional Golden Boy with the fatal harmatia. Males wanting to read this beware, you may feel threatened.<br />
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So this is by no means the best book about cancer and dying (in fact if you're reading it because you or someone you know has cancer, it is better to find a book written by someone who actually went through a similar experience), because it's mainly a book about two teens contemplating love, life, and dying, but I still found it tragically beautiful and touching. As a really random end note, I also really enjoyed the significant meta-ness of Hazel searching for an ending to her favorite book.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-60214507271175504282014-03-06T08:25:00.000-08:002014-07-05T11:13:21.019-07:00[Review] Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><img src="http://s8.postimg.org/t1jgvi6ol/123dsdfa332.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"When I sprinted from the house, I saw the moon, orange, almost electric, stalled between feathery clouds like a helium balloon, ready to burst into a million splinters. Without glasses, the world melted from focus. The house and trees seemed under water. I leaned against a tree and felt its knobby trunk pressing into my skin like a column of bones."</i></blockquote></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Rating</b>: 5 Stars </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Genre</b>: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQ</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Setting</b>: U.S - Midwest</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Timeline</b>: 1980's</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Official Summary</b>: At the age of eight Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five–hour period of time. During the following years he slowly recalls details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been the victim of an alien encounter. Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years, curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, a terrorist of sorts, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><b>Two words. Soul crushing, just absolutely soul crushing.</b> Life is tragic, it is beautiful and redemptive, yet it was hard to go through the book with any sort of optimism. Once the milk has been spilled, the stain just won't come out. Things are built up, and they fall to pieces. The characters try their best to pull the pieces back together, but in the end, one just has to keep pushing along, surviving and trying to find some joy in the fact that at least they are loved and not completely alone.</span><br />
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</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">The prose is beautiful, sparse and to the point yet poetic. The characters themselves are relatable. The story features various points of views all from the different characters as they grow up in Little River or Hutchinson Kansas, but mainly focuses on the lives of Brian Lackey and Neil McCormick, both of who had suffered terrible trauma during childhood and how they deal with and then eventually come to terms with what had happened to them.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><div><br />
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</div><div><img src="http://s27.postimg.org/te3jlj31v/1313441.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /><i>Mysterious Skin</i> is probably better known for its movie starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. I have seen the movie, but I don't think I will discuss the differences between the two, they both have their merits. I think, perhaps, the movie is less disturbing just because the scenes in the book are just that much more graphic (whereas they would not actually show the abuse explicitly in the movie). <b>I would not recommend this book to those who are easily offended by sex and violence involving children and teens.</b> However, the book is honest, and these things DO happen and I believe that it is worth reading and acknowledging, even if it is so very painful and heartbreaking.<br />
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To play devil's advocate about the cons of the book, at some point, I felt like the minor POVs (Wendy and Eric) served no purpose than to show how awesomely hot and dangerous Neil was. "As I later wrote in my journal, Neil would have 'averted my eye from an uncapped grenade'". Now imagine this... almost all the time. At some point, I felt that all the other characters besides Neil and Brian sort of existed for the sole purpose of illustrating a more objective view of them. That's not to say that the minor characters aren't painted vividly, because they are, but they didn't seem particularly important and could've really been replaced by anyone and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It was also a bit more than suited my tastes with the self-wallowing.<br />
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All of the characters are looking to escape. You can be Deborah or her father who literally moves away, or like Wendy and Eric who fantasizes about being saved from monotony with their morbid fantasies of murder and mayhem, or you can be Neil, who separates himself from others by lashing out on them, or like Brian, who, instead of facing the troubles in front of him, prefers to look towards the sky for glimpses of the extraterrestrial. <i>Mysterious Skin</i> is a book about a small suburb in the middle of nowhere and how all the characters feel trapped. <b>It is a story about growing up, and how rarely one ever does it gracefully, but with a sort of violence that leaves one with a sense of vertigo.</b><br />
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The protection of innocence and its theft is what some people would consider the transitional point between child and adult. You are no longer a child if you are corrupted, yet, that is hardly the case since no one in the story gives off the feeling of being a responsible adults. The adults in the story struggle to raise their children while their own personal lives come crashing down like a vase into a thousand tiny pieces. They are child molesters, rapists, lonely men who slowly drive by parks looking for prostitutes are examples of those on the more degenerate side, and at best, they are too busy wrestling with their own problems to do anything about the problems of others. And if they are not blind to the problems of their children, they can do little about it except watch them grow up as one would an inevitable train crash. Brian's mother is as close to a responsible adult as one gets in the story, bless her soul.<br />
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Needless to say, it is a depressing story. Prepare to suffer.<br />
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<img src="http://s29.postimg.org/511f233nr/2011_06_22_Stranger_Danger.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" />Anyway, enough of about the book. I went and googled "pedophilia" (hope the cops don't bust through my door and arrest me, I swear it's just for this review), but I came across some interesting discoveries that I'm sure everyone else already knew and I'm the only one who is late to the party.<br />
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According to WebMD, a pedophile is: "<b>a person who has a sustained sexual orientation toward children, generally aged 13 or younger. Not all pedophiles are child molesters (or vice versa). Child molesters are defined by their acts; pedophiles are defined by their desires. Some pedophiles refrain from sexually approaching any child for their entire lives.</b>" But it's not clear how common that is.<br />
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Pedophilia has been categorized as a mental disorder since 1968. I find it sort of odd that they would say it is both a mental disease and a sexual orientation. I'm not trying to defend pedophilia or anything, but not that long ago, homosexuality was considered a disease as well... hm, some food for thought. I'm <i>definitely</i> not venturing into that territory since that opens up a whole can of worms and I don't want to be caught with my foot in my mouth. At the moment, I kind of view pedophilia as a mental disease a bit like an antisocial personality disorder. It's not something that one can help, and it is detrimental to others living in society. There is no cure, but there is therapy that makes it manageable.<br />
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</div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">So all of this talk about traumatized children, destroyed childhoods, and sexual predators begs the question of how early is too early to talk about sex with your children. Personally, I think it is never too early to talk about sex.<b> If a child can ask about it, then a parent/guardian should be able to answer it.</b> Knowing too much is definitely better than knowing too little. There are concerns by parents that by teaching their children about sex, they will immediately start bopping like bunnies. Well, sure, generally that happens when sex is FIRST taught to children by the media and pornography (think Neil McCormick whose first exposure to sex is porno mags and watching his mother and her boyfriend), which does nothing but glamorize sex while ignoring all the responsibilities and precautions that are necessary when it comes to connecting so intimately with another human being. In pornography, vulnerability is an act, and a fantasy that doesn't actually exist. All porn stars look pretty damn confident in themselves as well as movie actors/actresses who are having sex for the first time (pan slowly away to the full moon out the window as the bodies fall slowly to the bed).<br />
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That's why I believe it is important to teach your child about sex before something or someone else does. I for one, would not want my child to one day be caught by a predator and not know what's going on or that what is happening to him or her is wrong and help should be sought for immediately, or even if it could not be helped, that the child should feel safe enough with talking about what happens in the lower half of a human body to a parental figure without feeling ashamed or dirty. After all, we want to catch that fucker and many of these crimes are not reported until it is much too late.<br />
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Wow, I really went off on a moralizing tangent didn't I? Well all in all, I think <i>Mysterious Skin</i> is a fabulous book, but will definitely strike the wrong chords with some people. Read at your own risk.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-52786888905636833722014-03-03T20:47:00.000-08:002014-07-05T11:12:33.192-07:00[Article] Why the mainstream media fails writers of color<h3><span style="font-size: large;">The Trouble with Talking—or Not Talking—About Race<br />
Theme Essay by Aimee Phan</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3><b>In 2003, before my first book came out,</b> friends in the literary community warned me about how dire review coverage had become.<br />
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But no one I worked with at St. Martin’s Press on <i>We Should Never Meet</i>, a collection of short stories that involve “Operation Babylift” in Vietnam and its aftermath, ever mentioned that my ethnicity might play a role. Even now, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the publishing industry trying to explain the political murkiness and cold marketing statistics of landing book reviews to an elated debut author like me.<br />
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Few people read literary fiction, and those who do typically turn to critics to discover which books deserve their time. But if those critics are to be believed, few writers of color make the cut. <b>According to rough counts for 2011 to 2012 compiled by writer and teacher Roxane Gay and a graduate assistant, 90 percent of the books reviewed by the <i>New York Times</i> during that time period were by white writers, leaving a 10 percent sliver for writers of color.</b><br />
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These depressing estimates, first published in the <i>Rumpus</i> in 2012, confirm what many writers of color like me have always feared: that the words over which we’ve labored and sacrificed ourselves for years—the books we’ve written, revised, edited, and finally published in order to contribute to the literary landscape that’s inspired us—don’t matter to the influential gatekeepers of the reading population.<br />
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If mainstream critics, who are supposedly curating and recommending the most notable works of contemporary literature, aren’t paying attention to us, then who will know how to read us? While some readers may bristle at the idea of critics telling them how to read, authors of color know all too well the amount of interpretation required for their work to become accepted by mainstream audiences.<br />
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For some writers of color, the uniqueness of their background can result in better coverage. Cristina Henriquez, whose novel <i>The Book of Unknown Americans</i> will be published by Knopf this summer, told me in a recent phone conversation that she received generous reviews for her two previous books. Those critics, she added, seemed sincerely interested in her Panamanian subject matter.<br />
Yet, writers who share an ethnicity with other well-known authors (Chinese American writers will always have the Amy Tan question to contend with), often end up competing with each other. <b>I’ve heard writers complain about editors passing on certain manuscripts because “they already have a Korean book on their list.”</b> If this kind of bean counting is occurring—and I think it is—the same attitude carries over to many of the elite literary magazines, which rarely publish more than one or two authors of color an issue.<br />
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We writers are not supposed to gripe about the number of reviews we get. We’re simply supposed to appear grateful for any attention in this glutted market. But after seeing Gay’s alarming numbers, I couldn’t help wondering if my subject matter—the Vietnamese diaspora—could have affected the coverage I received.<br />
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For <i>We Should Never Meet</i>, that coverage was modest but respectable, especially for a debut work, with reviews in several major newspapers and trade publications. By 2012, when my second book <i>The Reeducation of Cherry Truong</i> was published, most of the coverage appeared in trade publications, book blogs, and online magazines—a sign of the changing terrain for book reviews.<br />
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Still, I’m curious about what book review editors were thinking as they considered my galleys. <b>Did the editors assume my appeal would only be limited to my community or those who already had an interest in Vietnam? That possibility disheartened me. Like most writers, I hope that readers will still want to invest in a good story, engaging characters, and beautiful prose regardless of subject matter.</b><br />
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<b>What’s preventing books by authors of color from being picked up and assigned to a reviewer? While it would be easy to assume editors are lazy or uninterested, the answer probably has much more to do with fear.</b><br />
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As a creative writing teacher at an arts college in San Francisco, one of my most challenging and rewarding classes is Asian American literature. My students of color often relish the readings, but some white students say they feel anxious about discussing unfamiliar cultures. They don’t know how to speak about the topics with any depth, they tell me, and are afraid of saying something politically incorrect.<br />
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<b>In short, they’re scared to talk about race.</b><br />
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I understand this uncomfortable silence well: It’s what I and many other writers of color have experienced in creative writing workshops, when our professors and classmates fumbled with giving feedback to us. So, the reluctance to evaluate work by authors of color may begin early for many white critics.<br />
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I spend weeks coaxing my students out of such insecurities, assuring them they can approach the subject matter with careful reading. I explain that characters in novels such as <i>No-No Boy</i> by John Okada and <i>Blu’s Hanging</i> by Lois-ann Yamanaka, whose ancestors may have been born in different countries, share many traits that are part of the human experience. <b>I argue that it’s through critical analyses that Asian American literature—and any literature of color—can create understanding and empathy across ethnic lines.</b><br />
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Of course, writers of color are not responsible for promoting cultural awareness through their works. Within any ethnic literature, there’s a broad range of writers who experiment with form and subject matter. While my sources of inspiration do happen to share my ethnic makeup, other Vietnamese American authors write plenty of stories and novels that have nothing to do with their race. But if their characters don’t share their skin color, those authors are often questioned for their audacity in doing what white writers have done for centuries.<br />
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When Monique Truong published her second novel <i>Bitter in the Mouth</i> (Random House, 2010), the book’s official synopsis contained no mention of the protagonist’s racial identity—a crucial reveal in the plot. This clearly confounded some book critics, including Roy Hoffman from the <i>New York Times Book Review</i>, who spoiled this information in his opening paragraph:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"It seems only fitting, 50 years after the publication of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ that a Vietnamese-born author who came of age in the United States has written a Southern novel with an Asian-American protagonist who likes to cite Harper Lee." </blockquote><br />
This reviewer fails to recognize that such a disclosure will significantly alter the reader’s experience of the work. Instead of respecting Truong’s attempt to challenge preconceived notions of identity and the tensions of growing up in the American South, he clearly felt the need to assure readers that this author wouldn’t dare to write a Southern novel with a protagonist of another race than her own.<br />
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More recently, Bill Cheng published his first novel <i>Southern Cross the Dog</i> (HarperCollins, 2013). The review by Dwight Garner in the <i>New York Times</i> cited Cheng’s lack of experience in its headline: “Imagining a Past That Isn’t His Own.” By the second paragraph, Garner points out his young age and ethnicity:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"The blues in American fiction is a strong spice, easily overused. It’s worrisome too that ‘Southern Cross the Dog’ is set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi and is mostly about the lives of black men and women. Mr. Cheng is a 29-year-old Chinese-American from Queens. Until this month he’d never set foot in Mississippi."</blockquote><br />
After such reviews, <i>ALIST Magazine </i>columnist Matthew Salesses and <i>Kartika Review</i> fiction editor Christine Lee Zilka engaged in a thoughtful discussion with Cheng about the critical reception of his first novel. This conversation, which appeared in <i>ALIST</i> last August, highlights the issues many writers of color grapple with in navigating the public response to their work. For instance, when asked what he hoped his work would do for “APIA [Asian Pacific Islander American] literature,” Cheng said: <br />
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<blockquote>"[N]othing specific to APIA literature. As a whole, I want writing to be better. I want it to be important and outward looking. I want literature to plumb not just the easy truths, but the hard ones. I want American writers to recognize that their work exists on a world stage. I want us to challenge ourselves, to grow. </blockquote><blockquote>"And as for other Asian-American writers? My father once told me that words like chink and gook and chinaman are only hurtful if you give credence to those words. If you let it define you. If you believe in some way that you are a chink or a gook. Your days of letting people tell you what you are and what you aren’t are over. Write what you want, and don’t apologize for it."</blockquote>Cheng, Salesses, and Zilka all offer smart, if differing, suggestions for addressing the lack of diversity in book reviews. <i>ALIST Magazine</i>, whose website states that it’s “dedicated to bringing mainstream attention and interest to Asian American leadership and excellence,” is a noteworthy example of the diverse media outlets that now provide a critical space for literature by authors of many backgrounds. <br />
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Other magazines like <i>Hyphen, Diacritics</i>, and <i>Color Lines</i>—along with a wide range of book blogs and literary arts organizations such as the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Cave Canem—highlight writers of color who are often ignored by the mainstream media. Recently, Ron Hogan, founder of the literary site <i>Beatrice</i> (“introducing readers to writers since 1995”) and former senior editor of <i>Galleycat</i>, launched <i>Beacon: A More Diverse Book Review</i>.<br />
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But that doesn’t let other book review publications off the hook. Far from it. The majority of the reading public still consults the <i>New York Times</i> and similarly white-dominated bestseller lists for help with choosing which books to read—and buy.<br />
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Gay’s statistics have sparked responses in the <i>Nation, Flavorwire, PolicyMic</i>, and other outlets. Some editors have acknowledged the lack of diversity in their newsrooms and freelance contact lists. There’s an obvious solution: Hire diverse critics to write book reviews. Yet, this poses its own problems. It puts the responsibility for promoting the work of writers of color on other writers of color. And regardless, few authors of color are being asked to write reviews.<br />
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While Gay, Zadie Smith, and Alexander Chee have established themselves as critics who write about a wide range of topics, Truong has told me by email that, since the publication of her award-winning novel<i> The Book of Salt </i>more than ten years ago, she’s received only one invitation to review a book—and that was for a Chinese immigrant memoir. Henriquez also reported in our phone conversation that she’s never been solicited to write reviews, despite two acclaimed books to her name. <br />
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“We need reviewers,” Chee noted in an email exchange with me, “but we also need more book editors of color.... [T]he editor is where the message begins"— especially in meetings where new story ideas and assignments are discussed. "It's not that white editors can't do the job at all," Chee added, "but that our contributions to that launch meeting can make an important difference.”<br />
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Above all, Gay makes clear that white editors need to recognize this disparity and the importance and benefits of reading broadly. When I asked Gay by email recently about her plans for compiling a 2013 count, she said she isn’t sure she’ll have time this year. But Gay shouldn’t have to make the time. It’s not on her to be the only one watching, counting, and writing about literary racial inequality.<br />
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Writers of all colors and the literary organizations they support should band together to systemize a count, much as VIDA has done in tabulating the bad statistics for female authors. Once more of us are observing, tallying, and voicing our dissent, editors—as well as the reviewers they assign books to—will have to respond.<br />
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After all, we're their readers, too.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3036891434112565192.post-24012082553475688182014-03-02T21:44:00.000-08:002014-07-05T11:12:50.823-07:00[Review] Empress Orchid by Anchee Min<a dp="" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3036891434112565192" http:="" mpress-orchid-anchee-min="" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" www.amazon.com=""><img align="left" anchor="1" src="http://s30.postimg.org/p267oe3gx/139254.jpg" image="" margin-right="11px" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i> </i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>"The years inside the Forbidden City had formed a shell over her and the shell had hardened. Historians would describe her as cruel and heartless. Her iron will was said to have carried her through one crisis after another."</i></span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Rating: </b>4 Stars<br />
<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction<br />
<b>Setting</b>: China <br />
<b>Timeline</b>: Qing Dynasty (Mid to Late 1800's) <br />
<b>Summary</b>: A compelling story about the humble beginnings of Orchid, (also known as Empress Dowager CiXi) who eventually becomes the last empress of China. <br />
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For the most part I thoroughly enjoyed reading <i>Empress Orchid</i>. I've been meaning to read more of works after reading her memoir <i>Red Azalea</i> several years ago. The first part of the novel mainly focuses upon the traditions and dangers of imperial court life and the budding romance between Orchid and the Emperor. One can't help but root for our heroine as she stumbles into her own actualized Peking Opera from her impoverished beginnings in the countryside. The story itself starts off with her being unable to pay workers to carry her father's coffin to his burial ground, already framing the story in a sort of tragedy. A rags to riches story, Orchid comes from having nothing to all to everything she could need, and then more than she can handle.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The reason why I am always a little dubious about reading novels set during this time is because you know that there are no happy endings, but I suppose that's historical fiction for you--you sort of have a general idea of how it's all going to fall apart. Already during that time period you have civil unrest, invasions, widespread famine, and of course, the infamous Opium Wars part one and two. From dodging potential assassinations and executions to keeping China afloat by pleading her partially hysterical husband to do something about it, she certainly has her work cut out for her. All in all, the novel is an entertaining read. The prose flows well and you become really invested in the characters, even if you disagree with them at times, or find them a bit overdramatic.<br />
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One thing that I greatly appreciated about this novel were the glimpses into the lives of eunuchs. Honestly, instead of reading about more concubines, I would love to read a story from the perspective of a eunuch living in the palace. Although the theme of the novel does take a feminist slant, it also briefly expounds upon what it means to be a castrated male living in a world populated by thousands of female concubines. Seriously.<br />
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Anyway, like I said before, I always feel a little uneasy reading these kinds of novels about China. The reason for China's downfall, as historians have pointed out, is how they increasingly withdrew from the rest of the world. They thought their way of life was infallible. A few words about tradition. Confucius, for those of you who aren't familiar, was all about tradition. Tradition was what kept society functioning. If you don't know your place in the world or what you were supposed to do, then there would be mass chaos and confusion. Sometimes the tradition seems inhibiting and overcomplicated, but it was all about putting order to the chaos. Confucius was an incredibly well-learned scholar (a bit like Su Shun in the novel) and drew from the vast history of China all the things that worked and put them all in a pot of adhesive that would mend the fractured country. For awhile, this adherence to tradition worked. It was so effective that the invading Manchu who took over kept it and adopted Chinese language and customs.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Anchee Min does a great job portraying how that tradition becomes China's undoing, but how it is necessary to give hope to the people. It is the distance that the wealth creates that gives the peasants, whose lives are pretty miserable during this time period, something to look up to, "He emphasized that I was not to express my feelings. I must not remind people that I was as ordinary as they were". Life for Orchid had become like the Peking operas she so dearly loves. This sort of stubborn tenacity to cling to customs is persistent throughout the whole novel. When Orchid is advising her sister about the pain of a loveless marriage, she replies, "If it is the way things have been for hundreds of years, I don't see why I should be the one to have problems."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://s1.postimg.org/5c055d68v/qing_0.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For anyone who wants to really wants a basic understanding of Chinese culture and where they were coming from right before the era of the People's Republic, <i>Empress Orchid</i>, is a very good read. It gives you a general idea of what it was like during the Qing dynasty (see picture for Qing flag). What it means to be nobility, what it means to be in power, what it means to be a <i>woman </i>in power, are all themes explored in the novel. It is a fascinating story about a woman who has to bend like a river through all the obstacles in order to do what she feels is necessary for the collapse of what was once a great and powerful nation.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So why did it collapse? There are some remarks in the novel itself. The Manchu officials had become lazy and corrupt because of their privilege, and corruption was unattended to. There was a lot of problems with policy, and of course, China, believing themselves to be invincible due to being favored by God, didn't feel the need to strengthen their armies. I believe that during one of my history classes, it was said that China once had one of the most powerful naval fleets, but it was greatly weakened because there was thought to be no need for it. Well... obviously that didn't turn out to be a good idea.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Now onto the factual accuracy of the novel. All in all, it is an interpretation of events and should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I'm not a historian so I cannot point out what is true or what is false. There is a disclaimer from Anchee Min herself about it. "All the characters in the book are based on real people. I tried my best to keep the events the way they were in history. I translated the decrees, edicts and poems from the original documents. Whenever there were differences in interpretation, I based my judgement on my research and overall perspective."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://s29.postimg.org/qh97msbaf/beauty_secrets_of_empress_dowager_cixi951f57b4dc.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /> My quick glance at wikipedia tells me that Empress Cixi was actually considered a despot who ruined China, but if you read the novel and look at dates, you'll see that China was already in the decline before Orchid had even entered the palace. She was blamed for a lot of things that had already been taking place before her reign. I can't really comment on the truth of the matter, but I did see an article by Julia Lovell from <i>The Guardian</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Cixi, the last empress of China from 1856 to 1908, is one of those historical figures people love to be nasty about. Soon after her death, Edmund Blackhouse, a charlatan foreign correspondent, forged Chinese court documents portraying her as a psychopathic nymphomaniac; ever since, Cixi's many western biographers have gleefully wallowed in allegations of her badness: her extravagance (she splurged the fund for modernising the navy on a marble pleasure boat), her conservatism (she crushed the westernising reform movement of 1898), her ruthless disposal of inconvenient political opponents (including her nephew, whom she placed under house arrest for a decade and perhaps poisoned). This very partial version of events swallows whole the Confucian Chinese male view of history, which, wherever possible, deflects blame for monumental historical catastrophes - such as the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 - on to women. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>But the tide of opinion now seems to be turning for the last empress. Last year, Chinese television aired a hit drama series about the last years of the Qing dynasty, in which viewers were flabbergasted to see Cixi portrayed as "a nice person". (Deeply perturbed, China's rulers - all of them men - soon weighed in to criticise the show's historical heresies.) Empress Orchid is a further, feminist step on the road to her rehabilitation. Written by a woman, narrated by Cixi herself, the novel turns the last empress into a dignified, discreet sovereign, holding her country together in the face of foreign invasion, dissolute emperors and scheming courtiers. </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So with that, my conclusion is that <i>Empress Orchid</i> is definitely worth reading. The book won the 2006 nominee for the Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award, and is generally praised by critics and reviewers. I enjoyed the book and look forward to the second part of the series </div><br />
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</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07873277294434838082noreply@blogger.com0