Introverted Reader

Huck by Janet Elder: Book Review

When Janet Elder was diagnosed with breast cancer, she and her husband promised their twelve-year-old son Michael that they would get him a puppy as soon as she was better. They realized that life is too short to deny their son something he so desperately wanted, but they also knew that she would be in no condition to care for a puppy for a while. True to their word, they got Michael a red toy poodle, whom he named Huck and whom they all immediately fell in love with. They couldn't imagine a life without Huck in it. Then, while they were on a much-needed vacation and Huck was staying with Janet's sister in New Jersey, the unthinkable happened. Huck ran away. The family immediately returned to start looking for their dog, and they found unexpected help throughout the small town of Ramsey, New Jersey. This was a heart-warming story, but, being honest, I didn't find it very unexpected. I think being from a small town (it's not even technically a town) and living my whole life in a couple of small towns within half an hour of home skewed my perspective a little. I would have been more surprised if the people they came across didn't offer to help. Pretty much every business in the small towns I know have a community board to post lost dog signs and business cards. That said, this was a reminder not to take that for granted. Huck and his family live in New York, and they were amazed that perfect strangers spoke to them, helped them look, and let them post Lost Dog signs. That's really about all I have to say. Huck sounds like a very sweet dog, and animal lovers of all kinds will enjoy this tale of "hope and…

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin: Book Review

I don't even know where to start with a synopsis for this book, so I'll just skip that. I have a feeling that the reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars shows more about what I'm lacking than about what the book is lacking. I felt myself on the verge of a huge epiphany throughout the book, but I just never got there. That has left me incredibly frustrated. Maybe reading through other reviews will help me see what I'm missing. The language is absolutely gorgeous. It's just one of those books that is so dense and beautiful that you feel like you could eat it. This was partly a love letter to New York. The author doesn't blindly love his city, he loves it warts and all and sees its potential to be something so much more than it is. Mostly this was a book full of beautiful symbolism that I think was trying to tell me something about life, love, justice, time, immortality, and faith in mankind. Maybe. I was tempted to put this on my "mythology" shelf, because it felt like Helprin was creating something of a modern, American mythology. I have notes scribbled here about what I think this means or that means, but something would always happen to show me that I was wrong in my interpretation of something. I finally just gave up and read the book without trying so hard to figure everything out. I hoped that everything would come clear to me in the end, but it didn't. Readers who enjoy lush language, people who love New York, and people who want a book to chew on for a while will probably love this. I truly hate to admit it, but this one defeated me. Reviewed March 30, 2009 Read an…

Introverted Reader Features

Character Connection: Amy

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.I had a rough day at work, so I'm going to take it out on a character I hate. Her name is Amy and you can find her in Scott Smith's The Ruins. She's one of a group of young Americans on vacation in Mexico who find themselves trapped in a horrific situation in the jungle. Okay, it's horror. Horror can sometimes rely on stock characters, and that's pretty much what Amy was. The little individual personality she had left me wanting to smack her, wring her neck, you name it. She's the girl who causes the whole problem in the first place but then blames everyone else. She falls apart under the stress of the situation. She steals rations when no one is looking, thinking that her need is greater than everyone else's. She's willing to pick a fight with anyone and everyone. If someone comes up with some sort of idea or solution to try, she's…

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January 20, 2011

The Word Made Flesh by Eva Talmadge: Book Review

I pulled this out of its mailer and my husband took one look and said, "Oh, crap. You're going to have a tattoo soon, aren't you?" I was a little hesitant to open it for fear of that very thing myself. I don't have anything against tattoos on other people, they just aren't for me. Let's just say that, working in health care, I've seen too many wrinkled, formless tattoos on those who never thought they'd grow old. Yeah. Not for me. But in looking through the tattoos in the book, I can admire the artistry, but many of them really are more Literary than what I normally read. I'll pick up the classics every now and then, but I typically read for entertainment, not necessarily enlightenment. So the tattoos of Kafka and company don't mean a whole lot to me. The tattoos of quotes were interesting, and they did leave me pondering if there's a quote that means so much to me I would have it permanently etched on my body. Nothing yet, but I'll keep you posted. There were more popular tattoos included, such as tattoos for Harry Potter and Twilight, and I at least understood those a little more. The ones that intrigued me the most were part of a living story. Each person has one word from a short story written by Shelley Jackson specifically for this project tattooed on their body somewhere. The short story isn't written down in its entirety anywhere. The people who have the tattoos have read the story but no one else ever has or ever will. It sounds so very cool to be part of a living story. Okay, so we live our personal stories daily. I hope you know what I'm trying to say. It would be cool to…

Bending Toward the Sun by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie: Book Review

Rita Lurie is a Holocaust survivor. Her story is remarkably similar to Anne Frank's. She hid in an attic in Poland for two years at the very end of WWII. Her family's hiding place was nowhere near as carefully-planned as the Frank family's though. They fled Nazi soldiers in the night and eventually found a family friend who let them stay with him. Imagine 15 people, including children and a baby, hiding in an attic for two years with no food supply mapped out. The children couldn't run around a make noise and be children. They had no heat source. They didn't even have much light. They lived on what the men could forage at night. Needless to say, they were very sick and malnourished when they finally emerged. Rita was five when they went into hiding, but the experience left a deep and lasting mark on her psyche. Now, where this memoir is different from others that I've read is that it doesn't stop with Liberation. That's only the beginning, in fact. How does such a horrific experience mark your life forever after? Also, how does it mark your children and their children? It's not like you come out of hiding and return to a perfectly normal life. I have to say that the first time I ever thought about these questions was when I read The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman shows that his father was hard to live with, and sometimes it was because of his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. He's a hoarder and a control freak. Spiegelman's mom, also a survivor, was clinically depressed. That opened my eyes a little bit. So when I was offered this book for review, I jumped on it. I was surprised by the ways that the Holocaust affected…

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Over the past two weeks, I've Read: Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey--This is another fun installment in the Five Hundred Kingdoms fairy tale series Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer--Very intense, very readable non-fiction The Roar by Emma Clayton--Fast-paced dystopian sci-fi for middle grade/YA boys and girls. And adults who like a good story. Reviewed: The Gendarme by Mark Mustian--3 Stars At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson--4 Stars The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig--4 Stars Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund--2 Stars Currently Reading: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman--Attempting audio again, this time during my commute. So far, very good. Up Next: I've just barely started all of these, so it will be a while before I choose a new read. No idea what will be next! What are you reading this week? I have an affiliate relationship with IndieBound, Book Depository, and Better World Books and will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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January 17, 2011

Book Review Lists

Two More Challenges

I didn't think I was going to be doing anymore challenges, but I keep thinking about these two, so I've decided it's just time to sign up and get them out of my system! Colleen at Books in the City is hosting an Immigrant Stories Challenge. I'm signing up for the Just Off the Boat level--read 1 to 3 books about an immigrant experience. These books can be fiction or non-fiction, and they can be immigrant stories set in any country. I wasn't sure what I would read, but in looking through Colleen's recommendations, there are several that are already on my to-read list that I'm very excited about. Go to Books in the City to sign up! Tif Talks Books is hosting the Fairy Tale Challenge. Well, we all know I can't resist a good fairy tale, so I'm surprised I've held out this long! I'll be signing up for the Fairy Level: Read 1 original tale. Read 1 modern tale. Watch 1 film. (Total of 3 selections.) Any reading level counts, so you can read a child's picture book, a YA novel, a graphic novel, an adult book, or anything in between. Go here to sign up! Both challenges run from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011. I'll write an individual post for each challenge where I'll track my progress. They will be backdated in order to keep from clogging up my feed. I hope you'll join me for these two challenges! I have an affiliate relationship with IndieBound, Book Depository, and Better World Books and will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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January 16, 2011

One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey: Book Review

Princess Andromeda feels like she can't do anything right. Her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, always seems to be disappointed in Andie's appearance and her tendency to have her nose in a book. Finally, Andie finds a way to prove her value as a researcher to her mother--just in time to help try to discover a way to keep a marauding dragon happy. Unfortunately, the method she discovers involves sacrificing a virgin weekly. When Andie's name is drawn, can she find a way to save herself, or will this be a job for a Champion? And what exactly attracted the dragon to the kingdom in the first place? This was the second in Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series. I didn't enjoy the overall plot as much as I enjoyed the first in the series, The Fairy Godmother, but the story was still fun and there were a few little things that I did like more in this book. First of all, there were no silly sex scenes. It wasn't bad in the first book, but they felt sort of pointless, so I definitely didn't miss them here. Second, they used a good copyeditor for this book. Most of the distracting italics are gone (a very good thing!). The story was still unpredictable and interesting, I just didn't care about the characters as much. Speaking of characters, Elena and Alexander make a few cameos in this book. I liked them so much from the first book that I was thrilled to have them show up here. Overall, still fun fluff, but start with The Fairy Godmother and don't expect quite as much from this one. Reviewed August 21, 2008 My review of the first in the series, The Fairy Godmother. Read an excerpt. Find author Mercedes Lackey on her website, her blog,…

Introverted Reader Features

Character Connection: Merricat Blackwood

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Merricat Blackwood is an oddly disturbing little character. She's the narrator of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Merricat is 18 years old in the book's present, but she feels like she's mentally about 12. Oh, she's a smart girl alright, but she's happier acting younger and letting her long-suffering older sister, Constance, take care of her. She has her own little rituals of protection for what's left of her family. She's buried and hung talismans all around the family property to protect them. She makes the rounds weekly to make sure that they're all still in place. She even practically has a witch's familiar in the form of Jonas the cat. She also goes to the nearest town a few times a week to get supplies. She makes no secret of the fact that she hates everyone in the village. They make no secret of the fact that they hate her right back. There's…

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January 13, 2011

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund: Book Review

Lucy Bergmann's husband Thom, is a brilliant physicist who is searching for life on other planets in the near future. He is killed in the opening chapter of the book, and we're led to believe that religious nuts who didn't want his discoveries published might have been behind his death. A few years later, Lucy herself is being pursued by a group of religious nuts as she transports an ancient document that will cast a new light on the story of Genesis. I do love Sena Jeter Naslund. I really do. I was thrilled when I won an ARC of her newest book through Shelf Awareness. I was so disappointed when I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it at all. I hate to write this, because it feels like I'm getting a little personal, but the plot was a mess. I don't know if this was supposed to be a religious thriller/conspiracy book, a pointed statement on the role of religion in world politics, a coming-of-age story, a meditation on marriage and self-identity--I just don't know. There are at least two distinct plots involving Lucy, and I don't understand how they fit together at all. While the scenes set in Eden were gorgeous and lush, I don't really understand how they were necessary. Oh, I get that it's something about the nature of man, but still, it's a long, beautiful section with about zero payoff that I could see. In case you're wondering, questioning religion does not offend me, so that's not the problem. The one thing I did love is Adam. I've written a long-ish blog post already about how much I love him. He's pretty much physically perfect, gorgeous, well-sculpted, loving, caring, but he's a little damaged emotionally and mentally. I don't know if there's a woman…