Introverted Reader

Odd Thomas: 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. Odd Thomas, from the book of the same name by Dean Koontz is wonderful. I don't exactly have a book crush on him, but if he were available I totally would. How crazy is that to say about a fictional character? The best thing about Odd is how devoted he is to his girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn. Oh, they adore each other. In a very Big moment, they visit a fortune teller machine together at a carnival and receive the fortune, "YOU ARE DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER." Odd keeps this fortune with him, to remind him to be the best person he can in order to be worthy of Stormy's love. The most striking thing about Odd is that he can see dead people. Yep, Haley Joel Osment style. Except that he can only see them, not hear them. Elvis is a frequent visitor. Sometimes he's hamming it up and at other times he sobs inconsolably. Odd tries to talk to…

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April 29, 2010

Blogger Spotlight

Thanks to All of You!

Alyssa from Teens Read and Write wrote a very positive post yesterday and asked us to share stories about other bloggers who have helped us or just made our days a little brighter. As I sat there thinking about who to write about, I realized there were too many to list in someone else's comments. So here goes. First of all, thanks to Alyssa! The comments on her post show that we were in need of a virtual group hug! I have been friends on GoodReads with Misty at Book Rat for what feels like forever. I haven't advertised my blog on GoodReads at all, other than posting a link on my profile page, but Misty found me and was one of my earliest followers and gave me a great big welcome to the blogosphere! She's one of my most regular commenters, and her posts and reviews are thoughtful but usually funny in a way that is all Misty's own. She also jumped in on my Character Connection meme right away and joins in as she has time. Thanks for everything, Misty! I recently emailed Jennifer at Crazy-For-Books and asked her where she found her nice, neat GoodReads and email buttons. She promptly emailed me back, told me what search terms she used and then told me I could just use hers if I wanted to. Thanks! Jan at Eating Y.A. Books emailed me just this morning to let me know that my commenting system wasn't working. She could have just moved on and gotten on with her day, but she took the time to let me know something needed to be fixed. Thanks! Misty also tweeted me about the problem. Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, Jenn at Book Crazy, and Marce at Tea Time With Marce were some…

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April 27, 2010

Author Spotlight

Sarah Addison Allen: Meeting the Authors

I was fortunate enough to attend Sarah Addison Allen's book signing on March 16, the release day of her newest book, The Girl Who Chased The Moon. She was very sweet and seemed to genuinely enjoy interacting with us. We had a packed audience, with standing room only. She told us a little bit about gigantism and Robert Wadlow, officially the world's tallest man at 8'11" tall. He was the inspiration for Vance Shelby, an elderly giant in her new book. Giants don't tend to live long, so she wanted to write about one who did. She talked about the research she had done on Wadlow and how he seemed to be a truly kind man who always had time to answer people's questions. I can't remember if Mr. Wadlow said it or if Vance Shelby did, but when one of them was asked, "How tall are you?" he answered, "Tall enough to see into tomorrow." She talked for a little while about how when you know your life is probably going to be short, you learn not to take your tomorrows for granted. She chose to dedicate her book to Robert Wadlow. She read us a short excerpt from her book that ended with an excellent teaser: People had always known about the Coffeys' aversion to the dark hours, but no one had ever realized just how serious they were about it. It was the first time the citizens of Mullaby began to wonder, What if it wasn't that they didn't come out at night... What if it was because they couldn't. You're curious now, aren't you? Go ahead and admit it! She did a pretty long Q&A session with us, which was a lot of fun. We were kind of all over the place with our questions, so…

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April 27, 2010

The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen: Book Review

3.5 Stars. I really liked the whole story, I just felt that I wanted a little more meat to it. That's really my only criticism. I liked the way that Emily learned the value of family. Julia learns that for most people, home will always be home, no matter how hard you try to leave it behind. I loved the way that the Coffeys [...]

People of the Sword by Neil O’Donnell: Book Review

The powerful wizard Crarnock has decided to wipe out humanity with the combination of his magic and his goblin hordes. In order to mount a resistance, the people opposing him must put aside their prejudices, band together and work as one. My huge problem was that this needed a lot more editing. I'm not talking about just a few typos here and there, I'm talking about lots of typos, incorrect word usage that spell checker will always miss, characters saying gonna when their speech has otherwise been very formal, formatting mistakes, and more. It could also have used a general tightening up of the story line. I did read a finished copy, not an ARC. I would have had a hard time overlooking all of this even if it had been an ARC. There were about three gigantic info dumps. I will say that O'Donnell has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this world he's created, from the history and mythology right down to the smallest details, but my eyes glazed over as I read about the religious history and shifting power between the knights and druids. One character was supposed to be telling another the history, but when that one character talks for pages and pages, I have to call it an info dump. The story itself was okay. I couldn't help but compare it to The Lord of the Rings. I don't want to go into that too much and give anything away, but I think even from my brief synopsis you can see that there's going to be a little similarity. There was a lot of similarity in the overall arc of the story, but the details were different, if that makes any sense. I honestly never managed to finish The Lord of the Rings,…

Introverted Reader Features

Mattie Gokey: 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. My Waiting on Wednesday post this week has left me in the mood to talk about Mattie Gokey from A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. Sixteen-year-old Mattie is the oldest of four girls. Their mother is dead, so she's left to take care of them all herself. She mostly helps to take care of the neglected neighbor children too. She complains to herself but she still gets the job done the best she can. It's 1906 and her best friend is a young black man named Weaver. Granted, this takes place in upstate New York, not the South, but I would imagine that prejudice was present to varying degrees throughout the country at that time. I think it says volumes about Mattie's character that she accepts Weaver as he is--charming, smart, and fun. Mattie is a voracious, intelligent reader, writer and word collector. Her teacher sees her talent and encourages her. Mattie and Weaver have word duels that involve finding synonyms…

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April 22, 2010

The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review

When Max's family moves to the beach to avoid being caught in the city during a war, they don't realize that worse trouble is going to find them. First of all, I think the name Roland should be retired from fiction forever. It is impossible for me to read it without seeing The Gunslinger. When the character is supposed to be a normal seventeen-year-old boy, you see the problem I had. Anyway, I found it hard to pinpoint the age group of this book's audience. I didn't realize it wasn't for adults until I started reading it. The writing itself is easy enough for a middle-grade book. But there are a few things that happen that pushed it up into YA territory for me. I don't have kids though, so maybe I'm just naive about what kids read. If I'm not, I'm afraid this will struggle to find the right market. Not realizing this wasn't an adult book, I was disappointed when I didn't find Ruiz Zafón's gorgeous prose inside. I just adore his writing. The story itself was suspenseful and engaging. I was curious what was going on almost from the beginning and found myself reading more and more just to try to get to the bottom of things. I think kids who aren't too afraid of things that go bump in the night will enjoy it. As an adult reader, there were a few things that happened that I just didn't buy. I don't know any seventeen-year-old boy who is going to willingly start hanging out with a thirteen-year-old. Not without seeing his sister first. :-) I don't think the kids would have been left alone like they were. And I had problems with the story line surrounding Roland. As always, hats off to Lucia Graves for an…

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Wow, I just realized that I didn't actually get any reviews posted last week! I did get some written and scheduled last night. Read, Need Reviewing: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Moon Called by Patricia Briggs Currently Reading: People of the Sword by Neil O'Donnell Up Next: Probably Bite Me by Christopher Moore. This guy just cracks me up and I can't wait to read his newest book. I also still have Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater waiting to be read. What are you reading this week?

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April 19, 2010

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: Book Review

Any kind of synopsis feels extremely redundant, but I'll write one anyway. Anne Frank is a young Jewish girl in hiding in Amsterdam during WWII. I don't know how I made it to be 31 years old without reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I'm glad I finally got to it though. I think Anne's diary made the Holocaust real to me in a way that other books haven't because she is a typical teenage girl in a lot of ways. She's growing up, she dislikes her family and "roommates" one day and adores them the next. She's dreaming about the future, love, a career, and what she really wants out of life. She was funny, she was sad, she was introspective, she was growing, she was intelligent, she was scared, she was brave. She was a great big bundle of glorious possibilities. I wouldn't go back to my teenage years, but I remember feeling all the things she describes. SPOILERS IF YOU SOMEHOW DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK As I read, especially the older Anne got, I just kept mourning her. I thought she was a talented writer, especially for her age. She had such strong ideas about a woman's life and career and family. I really felt like, at least in a small way and maybe in a big way, the world lost something special when we lost her. I know that's the case with all the Holocaust victims, but I just felt it more with Anne since I spent so much time in her head. She had it in her to make a mark on this world. I truly believe that. I kept reading slower and slower, the closer to the end I got. I knew what was coming, but I somehow felt that if I…

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier: Book Review

Loosely based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, among other fairy tales, Wildwood Dancing is the story of five sisters who disappear into The Other Kingdom for a fairy revel every full moon night. But when their father leaves them alone to spend the winter in another city, their cousin, Cezar, realizes something is going on and starts making their lives difficult. So maybe there's nothing deep or thought-provoking here. This was still a hugely fun book. It's pretty obvious that this is a re-telling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but there are some other fairy tales thrown in. I enjoyed seeing how all of them fit together to make this tale. Jena is the second-oldest sister and the narrator of the book. I loved her. I have noticed in Marillier's other books that her female characters rock, and this one isn't any different. She's intelligent, capable, caring, but also maybe a little blind and naive about some things. Her sisters are a little bit of a disappointment. They don't really have huge roles to play, so they fall more into stereotypes. The pretty one. The smart one. The flirt. The baby. But for me, that just fell right into the spirit of a fairy tale. If you really think about it, aren't they generally peopled with stereotypes that prevent a lot of needless explanation? Cezar was bad enough for me to really despise him, but he didn't cross this weird line I have where I hate the bad guy too much. He was an insufferable, chauvinist prick who infuriated me, but at the same time I loved it. Go figure. Once I realized that there were so many stories being woven together to make this one, I started to worry a little that there was no good way to wrap…