Introverted Reader

Katsa: Character Connection

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. 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. If you like strong female characters, you have got to read Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Allison at The Allure of Books raved about this book so much on GoodReads that I finally just had to go check it out. The summary hadn't done much for me, but this book was seriously awesome. Katsa and Po were both great characters, but I feel like writing about Katsa today. Katsa is Graced. She has one blue eye and one green, and she has an almost supernatural ability to kill. She's been her uncle the king's hired gun for a long time, and she's a young woman. He got her started early. She doesn't like what she does but doesn't feel like she has much choice in the matter. She's a little afraid of her abilities and she's a little insecure because very few people want to spend time with a woman they view as little more than a killing machine. Throughout the book…

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August 19, 2010

Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson: Book Review

Susannah Charleson sort of fell into search-and-rescue. After volunteering as an assistant for her local search-and-rescue team, she eventually received approval to train a dog of her own. After a prolonged nation-wide search, the Golden Retriever Puzzle landed in her lap. I'm not a huge non-fiction reader. Let's take a peek at my GoodReads shelves, shall we? Let's see.... I've labeled 1252 read books as fiction and 129 as non-fiction. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the true stories. Yet I was drawn to the story of Susannah and Puzzle. I don't watch the news a lot, but even I have noticed that whenever a disaster happens, there's always footage of a SAR (search-and-rescue) worker and his or her dog in the background. I did not realize that these workers are volunteers who spend hours training each week, not to mention the time that they spend actively searching. What a huge commitment to make to help out other people. When I was asked if I wanted to read and review this book, I asked the publicist, "Is this one of those books where you get all attached to the animal and then you sob the last fifty pages as they get sick and die? 'Cuz I don't do the whole crying thing." To my relief, the answer is that Puzzle is alive and well. Puzzle learning to rappel Posted with permission And what a dog Puzzle is! She is highly intelligent and creative, and through Susannah's eyes we can watch Puzzle reasoning her way through the problems she's confronted with. I was amazed at some of the stories I read, not just about Puzzle but about all the dogs in their SAR team. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say much, but just think about…

Read more about the article Article from Susannah Charleson, Author of <i>Scent of the Missing: Love & Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog</i>

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Article from Susannah Charleson, Author of Scent of the Missing: Love & Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog

Five Communication Lessons from a Search-and-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson Author of: Scent of the Missing: Love & Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog She does not speak English, and I do not speak dog. And yet somehow six years into my partnership with Puzzle, a golden retriever and certified search-and-rescue K9, we have forged a common language. We need it in the search field. Our working life together is framed by loss and urgency—a person missing, time passing, a family and community desperate for answers. And so Puzzle and I enter the hard spaces where a lost person might be, and I give my dog a command, and off she goes into the thick of it, independent and ahead of me, ready to communicate back what she knows. It’s my job to translate her and move all of us closer to a rescue. Having run beside many other dogs and handlers before I met the puppy who would become my partner, I knew this kind of collaboration existed, this necessary dialogue. What I didn’t realize is how my work with Puzzle in the search field would improve my communication with other humans, too. Here are some of the lessons offered by a working search dog in the dark. 1. Avoid Hasty Conclusions. Experience is the best teacher, we’re told, but sometimes past experience can be misleading. While it’s easy to judge from the obvious and frame people, places and events by things we’ve seen before, such grab-and-go thinking can cause us to overlook important differences, to miss what we don’t expect, and to stereotype others. Search dogs don’t work with these kinds of preconceptions. Every new situation is taken on its own terms, the obvious and the subtle alike. The dogs operate on what’s real and present to them right…

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August 17, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: Book Review

Elizabeth Gilbert is an emotional train wreck. She's going through a tortuous divorce and her on-again-off-again relationship with her new boyfriend is just killing her. She realizes that she needs a change in her life if she is going to save it. So she sets off on a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia to learn how to live "the good life" in different ways. Italy is about pleasure, India is about prayer, and Indonesia (Bali) is about finding balance between the two. This could have turned into a great big pity-fest but it didn't. Gilbert realizes exactly how blessed she is to have the time and money to undertake this physical and spiritual journey. She gives us the down-and-dirty on exactly how low she had sunk and exactly how bad she felt sometimes, but I didn't feel like she was ever asking for pity. Photo of Naples taken by Mattia Luigi Nappi and shared on Wikimedia Commons Oh, these settings and the people she meets! By the time she got through eating her way through Italy, I felt like I needed to go shopping for a larger pants size with her! Just read this description of Lucca. "Sausages of every imaginable size, color and derivation are stuffed like ladies' legs into provocative stockings, swinging from the ceilings of the butcher shops. Lusty buttocks of hams hang in the windows, beckoning like Amsterdam's high-end hookers. The chickens look so plump and contented even in death that you imagine they offered themselves up for sacrifice proudly, after competing among themselves in life to see who could become the moistest and the fattest. But it's not just the meat that's wonderful in Lucca; it's the chestnuts, the peaches, the tumbling displays of figs, dear God, the figs..." Hungry yet? I love what she has…

Introverted Reader Features

Rudy Steiner: Character Connection

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. 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. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is my favorite book, hands down. Oh, I have others I'll call "favorites," but this one is THE favorite. I love so many of the characters. They're people that I would like to know in real life. They feel like real people. They aren't perfect but they're doing the best they can. Anyway, little Rudy Steiner is who you're going to hear about today. I'm looking through the book at Rudy and Liesel's first meeting, when they're both nine, and there's just no way I can improve on what Zusak wrote. So here you go: ***SOME FACTS ABOUT RUDY STEINER*** He was eight months older than Liesel and had bony legs, sharp teeth, gangly blue eyes, and hair the color of a lemon. One of six Steiner children, he was permanently hungry. On Himmel Street, he was considered a little crazy. This was on account of an event that was rarely spoken about but widely…

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August 12, 2010

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer: Book Review

Mary "Jacky" Faber is an orphan in eighteenth-century London. She actually came from a good family, but when both her parents died of illness, there was nowhere for Jacky to go but the streets. Luckily, she made her way into one of the gangs of street orphans, groups of children who watch out for each other and share whatever they manage to find or steal. Jacky eventually decides she needs to do something to improve her life before she ends up dead. She disguises herself as a boy and starts wandering London on her own. She immediately realizes how much easier life is for boys, even orphan boys. She soon finds herself at the docks, where she lands a position as ship's boy in the Royal Navy. Adventures follow, with Jacky worried about someone finding out her secret the whole time. I loved Jacky! She is such a strong, true female character! I was thrilled to find her in a YA/MG book. She's not unrealistically tough either. She has her fears, and when she gets scared she starts crying and screeching like a banshee. She admits that she's not very brave--except that she mostly is. She has her own fears, as we all do, but she does things that most children, or adults for that matter, would be terrified to do. When she finds herself in a tough spot, she doesn't just give up; she solves her problems the best way she can, and she's very smart about it. Whether it's a matter of survival or bullying, nothing fazes Jacky for long. Jacky writes her own story, and the beginning is written in a very--cockney?--way. I thought it was pretty fun and didn't have a problem understanding it at all. If you find yourself reading this and you're put off…

The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall: Book Review

Taking place before The Russian Concubine, The Jewel of St. Petersburg tells the story of Valentina Ivanova and Jens Friis as they meet during the fall of the Russian monarchy. Valentina is the privileged daughter of a wealthy Russian minister and Jens is a Danish engineer, working to improve the overall water quality in St. Petersburg. The two are immediately drawn to each other, even as their world is falling into chaos around them. Well, first things first. At least I know where this title came from--The Russian Concubine still doesn't make sense to me! I found this to be a page-turner. It took me a couple of days, but really I read it in just a couple of sittings. Even though I knew how this was going to end up--an irritation of prequels--I still wanted to know how they got where they did. Jens was wonderful. The big, gentle, Viking-looking type is right up my alley. You know he could get all bad-ass if he wanted to, but it doesn't cross his mind until someone he loves is threatened. He loves Russia but still sees that there are great flaws in the system and in the tsar. He understands where the revolutionaries are coming from but he believes their methods are completely wrong. He believes in working within the system rather than causing a national bloodbath. In his own small way, he's trying to improve the lives of the Russian poor. They keep getting sick because they don't have clean water to drink, and those forced to live in basements frequently get flooded out. By improving the water delivery system and the sewage system, he's making everyone's lives better. When injuries happen on his job sites, and they often do due to lack of funding for proper safety procedures,…

The Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeier: Book Review

Sure, you know all about the fairy tale princesses. There's that Cinderella chick and her pumpkin coach. Another fell asleep for a hundred years or so. And wasn't there one who had crazy-long hair? Sure, you know them. You don't know these princesses. Covering a gamut of traits, from Princess Hot-Head to Princess Eelizabeth (not a typo), you will learn all about princesses that you didn't know existed. Each princess has a lovely full-color, full-page portrait and a brief biography. Two of my favorites were Princess Paige--"She reads everything she can find: novels, poetry, philosophy, and tall tales"--and Princess of the Disorient--"Her kingdom fits her image: wacky, filled with fools, and complete with nutty celebrations." You know you're intrigued now! There are more than princesses in this book. There are all kinds of tips on princess behavior and style. Every princess needs a confidante. And exactly how does the fashionable princess outfit her elephant for traveling? This book comes complete with a diagram. Seriously, I saw a review for this and knew I had to have it. My husband obliged and got it for me for my birthday. Even though I was in the middle of a scavenger hunt for my gifts, I had to stop and pore over this book for a while. Trust me, nothing comes between me and my presents. I put it down after a few minutes (a lifetime in between gifts!) and went off to finish looking for everything else. When I had time that night, I picked this back up and started reading it again. I was surprised that it was so long. It's 92 fully-illustrated pages! I loved reading everything in it. It was just whimsically perfect for me. I adore the illustrations. At least pick it up if you see it in…

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey: Book Review

Elena Klovis is badly mistreated by her stepmother. She is forced to clean the house, cook the food, and dress her stepmother and her two stepsisters, while she herself dresses in rags and goes hungry. Sound familiar? That's because Elena is supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella. But her "Prince Charming" is completely wrong for her. So magic just keeps building and building around her. Finally, Elena's Fairy Godmother steps in with a most unusual offer. Elena's life is changed in a way that she could never have foretold. But will there eventually be a happily-ever-after for her? I loved the whole concept of this story. I love fairy tales and I love to see twists on fairy tales. This one was a lot of fun and it really wasn't very predictable. It was a fun, light read, and I would recommend it to other fans of fairy tales. Two things though: First, I was sort of thinking that my little cousin, a fan of all things princess and fairy, might enjoy having this book read aloud to her. Then I got to the sex scenes. There were probably only two, and they were pretty lightweight, but they were still there, so keep that in mind if you're thinking of the little princess in your life. Second, I've read several of Mercedes Lackey's books, and I would love to be her copyeditor. She absolutely kills me. She generally tells interesting, original stories, but the copyeditor whose red ink swirls through my veins cringes through her books. I would disable her italics key right off the bat. I don't mind the convention she uses of having a character's thoughts in italics. That actually makes things a little clearer. But I'm glancing through the book right now and it's almost impossible to…

Introverted Reader Features

Dashti: Character Connection, Once Upon a Week Edition

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. 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. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is a fantastic book that I just loved. It's based on a little-known fairy tale called "Maid Maleen." In that story, Maleen's father locks her away in a tower for seven years, with only her lady's maid for company, because she's been disobedient. So what would it be like to be that maid? Enter Dashti. Dashti is a simple girl whose streak of misfortune lands her into service with disobedient Lady Saren on the very day she's locked away in a tower. With her simple needs, Dashti isn't too unhappy at first. She's warm and she's fed. That's more than she could say about her life previously. Lady Saren is a wimp though. She just isn't the kind of girl that fairy tale heroines are made of. But every fairy tale needs a heroine, so.... Dashti was the biggest reason I loved this book so much. She starts out as a poor, hungry…

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August 5, 2010