Introverted Reader

Lisbeth Salander: 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.I must confess here that I am one of the few readers in this world who did not fall in love with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It was okay, but I didn't think it was all that everyone makes it out to be. The character of Lisbeth Salander is probably the only thing that made me read the next book. What an enigma she is. I'm working off memory because I don't own the books, but I think I'll get everything right. I'm sure Fiona at The Book Coop will keep me honest! ;-) From my review: But speaking of Salander, I am hopelessly intrigued by her. She was really the big draw of the book for me. Asocial, a little goth, super-intelligent, mysterious, and with a preternatural ability to sniff out someone's deepest, darkest secrets, I always wanted to know more about her. There are little clues here and there, but we don't find out too…

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July 1, 2010

Introverted Reader Features

Character Connection Links

Who do ya love? Or love to hate? You know you've got a lot to say about some larger-than-life characters, and this is the place to say it. Write a straightforward post. Draw a picture. Vlog, write poetry, write fiction, cast the role, be as creative as you want! 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. My posts: Doc Holliday: Doc by Mary Doria Russell Red Emmy: Oral History by Lee Smith Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Enzo: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein Scarlett O'Hara: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Briar Wilkes: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest CeeCee Honeycutt: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman Cal Morrisey: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie Karou: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Jem Finch: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Eleanor Vance: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Rhett Butler: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Major Ernest Pettigrew: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson Deryn Sharp: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld Marianne Engel: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson Frankie Bard: The Postmistress by Sarah Blake Moses Froben: The Bells by Richard Harvell The Lilim: Stardust by Neil Gaiman The Morrigan: Several different books Ebola: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston William Hamleigh: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Neville Longbottom: Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Mary Hightower, aka "Mary, Queen of Snots": Everlost by Neal Shusterman Li Po: Wild Orchid: A Retelling of "The Ballad of Mulan" by Cameron Dokey Weaver Smith: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly Francesca Giordano: Poison by Sara Poole Wizard Howl: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne…

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June 30, 2010

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer: Book Review

Unless you've been hiding deep, deep, deep under a rock, you know that Eclipse comes out today. Well, tonight, actually. I thought I would post my review of the book. Let me say first of all that I've become a reluctant Twilight fan. You won't find me shouting my love for Edward, Bella, or Jacob from the rooftops. You're most likely to find me rolling my eyes as I listen to co-workers whom I've never seen reading anything else talk about what an amazing writer Meyer is and drool over Edward. But whenever I've read one of these books, I (mostly) haven't been able to bring myself to put it down. For the record, I haven't seen any of the movies, nor do I intend to. Although I have admired my share of pics of Jacob's abs. :-) I have wrestled with my rating for this brick of a book. On one hand, Meyer really is not the greatest writer out there, and I noticed it here. And Edward really is so controlling that it's frightening at times. And Bella can be nauseatingly gushy. Yes, I'm looking at the sentence, "I wrenched the door out of my way--ridiculously eager--and there he was, my personal miracle." Ugh. Cue the eye-rolling and gagging. But once I just sort of let that go and went with the story, I read most of this 629-page book today. I couldn't look away. So it would be 3 stars for all the things that irritated me, but I'm bumping it up to 4 stars for being compulsively readable. And that really sums it up. That and I think the epilogue was a cheat to keep all the Jacob fans reading the series. I'll declare myself to be a member of Team Jacob right here. Edward, when…

The Haunting of Andrew Sharpai by Jerome Peterson: Book Review

Andrew Sharpai has his heart broken when he's engaged to be married to a Vegas showgirl. He moves away from the bright lights and goes to Pocatello, Idaho. There, he meets Iris Winkle and her daughter, Lily. Rumor around town has it that Iris is a witch. With her horribly scarred face and her pentagram pendant, she doesn't do much to dispel the idea. Andrew is attracted to Iris though and finds himself in over his head when he starts to experience supernatural events. Do you ever read a book and think, "This is trying to tell me something, but I'm either not in a place to learn it now, or it's something I've already learned and moved past?" That's me with this book. I really liked Peterson's first book, Thumb Flagging, and liked what he had to say about learning from everyone you meet. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I learned anything from Andrew Sharpai. It could be the subject matter. Mention anything even slightly demonic and you have given me a big-time case of the heebie-jeebies. There wasn't enough going on to even give me nightmares, but I was a little worried when I realized where this was going. It is fairly tame stuff--the point isn't to scare the reader, I did get that much--but I didn't have any way of knowing that as I read. I did like the three main characters. Poor Andrew just wants someone to love and he keeps getting hurt. He's such a good guy though. Iris has lived a hard life, but she's learned from her mistakes and is now trying to move on and do the best she can. Little Lily stole the show. She's so funny and wise beyond her years, but she's so desperately trying to look out for…

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay: Book Review

Shen Tai's father, the great Kitan general Shen Gao, died haunted by an epic battle he led against the neighboring country of Tagura. He won the battle but in his old age he came to realize that the cost was too high. 40,000 casualties lie unburied in the beautiful meadow at Kuala Nor. Tai decides to spend his two and a half years of mourning burying those dead to honor his father's memory. Word of his epic task spreads throughout both countries until a Kitan princess married to the Taguran king hears of it. She honors him by gifting him 250 Sardian horses. "You gave a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor." Tai finds himself thrust back into the quick-moving world of court intrigue as he tries to do the right thing for his country, his family, and himself, while also trying to stay alive. My expectations for this were too high. I tried to temper them, knowing that I might be disappointed, but c'mon. It's Guy Gavriel Kay. It's China. How could it be anything other than a 6++++ star book? Yeah. They were too high. I just kept waiting for the story to start. And it kept not starting. And then it was over. So I missed something somewhere. GGKay isn't exactly about the action, he's definitely more about the characters. But there's usually some action going on somewhere. Not here. Tai just sort of went along, reacting to other people's plans for him and his horses, unable to gain much of an initiative himself. It's…

Dear Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon: Book Review

Imagine, if you will, that Jane Austen can somehow receive letters from her modern-day readers, asking for her sage advice in love and marriage. That's the premise for this charming little book. Part "autobiography", part self-help book, and part critical analysis, Dear Jane Austen is full of practical advice for all women, no matter what era they're living in. Told in a tone that is mostly pitch-perfect, Austen weighs in on topics ranging from beauty to friends and family, to sex. The only thing that jarred was when she used modern phrases in her answers. There's something of an explanation included, but it still bothered me a little. There are some spoilers included if you haven't read Austen's entire body of work. I haven't yet, but this didn't really bother me. I think I'll have forgotten the little bits and pieces I learned by the time I actually get around to reading all of her other books. Fans of Austen will love this little book, especially the single women still looking for their Mr. Darcy. Review written April 18, 2009

Introverted Reader Features

Serena Pemberton: 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. This is my first Character Connection about a character that I love to hate! She's from Serena by Ron Rash, set in the early 1930s. Serena Pemberton. Her very name gives me chills. She's the daughter of a lumber baron from Colorado and she marries another one based in North Carolina. We first meet Serena as she's on a train pulling into her new home in Waynesville, NC. When she and her husband get off the train, they're met by a drunken father whose daughter is pregnant with Mr. Pemberton's child. The father ineffectively tries to attack Pemberton. Serena incites her husband to murder the man and then gives the knife to his daughter, saying that's the only thing she'll ever get from her or her husband. She then asks Pemberton how it felt to kill a man. Holy cow. What kind of crazy woman do we have here? And that's just the beginning. In my review, I described Serena like…

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June 24, 2010

The Vision of Emma Blau by Ursula Hegi: Book Review

Stefan Blau runs away from his home in Germany when he is a young man. He's always dreamed of living in America. He eventually finds himself in New Hampshire, building a beautiful apartment building, running a restaurant, and doing his best to provide for his family. Honestly, this book might have suffered from too many interruptions. My review is definitely suffering from allowing too much time to go by between finishing the book and reviewing it. I mostly enjoyed this, my problem was that I felt a little too distanced from the characters. An immigrant acclimating to America, German-Americans living through WWII, love, loss, family, strange neighbors--any of these should have made a book that I loved. The third-person narration felt so very distant from the action though that I just couldn't click with anyone. Also, this family is just desperately unhappy. The narration changes from Stefan to Helene to Robert to Emma and not one of them is happy. I just can't take that. The meaning of the title just dawned on me. I was understanding it as "Emma Blau's Vision," and it has a little to do with that, but mostly it's about "Stefan's Vision of Emma." If that had clicked earlier, I might have gotten a little more out of this. I kept waiting for Emma to show up and she didn't make her appearance until page 268. That's a lot of waiting. Once Emma did appear, she was actually my least favorite character. She's so very pushy and clingy, I felt a little smothered just reading about her. As an adult, she makes horrible choices in her life and doesn't really understand why she's unhappy. She's terrified of change and fights it however she can. She's one character in a line that takes care of the…

Author Spotlight

Lev Grossman: Meeting the Authors

Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, came to my local independent bookstore, Malaprops, a couple of weeks ago to promote the paperback release of his book. I had just finished reading and enjoying it, so I headed out to see what he had to say. He read us part of a short story set in the world of The Magicians and based around a sort of "World of Warcraft set in the real world" kind of game. He said the story is online, but I can't find it. It might help if I could remember the name of it. If you know what I'm talking about and you know the link, let me know, please. Before he started reading, he explained to us that he had quickly printed off a copy of the story before catching his plane and he hadn't realized that his wife had "recycled" some paper from their six-year-old daughter's birthday party into the printer. Holding up a sheet of paper, he explained, "When you see beg, wag your tail or sit, you don't actually have to do those things." I caught myself watching to see what was going to rotate up next! He is working on a sequel, and it is set to be published next year, according to his website. He told us that he wrote the scene with The Beast first, I believe as long ago as 1996 or '97. Don't quote me on that one. He said that scene was influenced by Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea. He also joked about how if he had finished the book then, maybe he could be the one cashing in on the Harry Potter craze! He wrote that scene right around the first US publication of Harry Potter. Of course we asked about a…

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June 22, 2010

The Magicians by Lev Grossman: Book Review

Quentin Coldwater is the top in his class. He's also in love with his best friend's girlfriend and unhappy at home. One day, he receives a manuscript that looks like an unpublished addition to his favorite fantasy series, set in a fantasy world called Fillory. In a roundabout way, this manuscript leads him through a portal to a school called Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy and Quentin thinks he's found the happiness he's always been searching for. Let's get the obvious out of the way. I've seen the reviews that call this a Harry Potter rip-off. There's a boy in a school of magic, and a few intentional winks sent Harry's way, but this story felt like much more of an homage to Narnia than Hogwarts. Since it fell into Narnia territory for me, I started reading it and looking for the "deeper meaning." I don't know if I was exactly supposed to but I did; I couldn't help it. It worked that way for me. If you're looking for it, there's all kinds of stuff about childhood dreams and disillusionment, how there are so many distractions in life that really don't help you in any way, and how you won't find happiness externally until you find it internally. One character tells Quentin, "I will take some chances. If you will, for just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever....{You} can sure as hell decide to be miserable." All that stuff aside, this worked as…