Introverted Reader

Book Crushes on Valentine’s Day

I thought about trying to write about my favorite couples for Valentine's Day, but honestly, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the actual romantic part of books. I pay more attention to how I feel about a male character than how the women in the book react to him! So that's what you're getting today. Some of my book crushes. Admit it--you have them too. The first one is a little weird. Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird. Okay, he's a father figure. But a widowed man raising his children well, with the moral strength to seriously defend a black man in the Jim Crow South? I'm in love. Papa and Rudy from The Book Thief for pretty much the same reasons I love Atticus. Here's a spoilery quote that shows why I love Papa. And Rudy--a boy who impersonates his hero, Jesse Owens, in Nazi Germany is going to grow up to be a man that I love. Odd Thomas from the book of the same name. He's funny, self-deprecating, heart-broken, loyal, and always doing his best. He might not be a hottie, but he's got a beautiful heart. The rest are more frivolous. The Phouka from Emma Bull's War for the Oaks. Wow. Playful, protective, fey, and sexy? Sign me up. Willy from the same book is a ball of sex appeal himself. Jamie from Outlander--There's a drummer for a Scottish group that I describe as sex on legs. That's Jamie too. Finally, there are Rodrigo Belmonte and Ammar ibn-Khairan from The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. I have told my husband, quite seriously, that if Rodrigo and Ammar ever walk out of the pages of that book, he should be very worried. They're strong, intelligent, attractive, faithful, thinking-soldier types who treat…

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February 14, 2010

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review

Mattie Gokey is an intelligent high school senior living in rural New York in 1906. As this book unfolds, we are following two different, intertwined arcs of Mattie's life: the earlier months when she is desperate to get to college and the later months when she's working at a summer lake resort where a young couple has just gone missing. I have neglected writing this review for about two weeks now. I loved this book, and I know that I'm never going to do it justice. First of all, there's Mattie herself. Do all readers adore books where the main character is reader also, or is it just me? Mattie is a beautiful writer; a voracious, hungry reader; and a word collector. I just loved her. The book is written in first person, and her voice is authentic and beautiful. The edge of my book is a flurry of post-it flags marking quotes that I loved. You know I'm going to quote them at you at the end of this review, right? She's at that age when the world is open before her, but she has ties tugging her back. You know that feeling that your soul is bigger than your body and you just have to stretch your wings? Mattie describes it perfectly. A lot of the book centers around the choice that Mattie must make between what she wants and what's expected of her. She's torn and I was so worried about her, all the way through. I desperately wanted her to choose what would make her happy. I just love characters that do that to me. As Mattie is making her decision, she's reading letters left behind by the lady who is missing. These are real letters from a real crime committed in NY. The contrast between…

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: Book Review

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief hits theaters today. I have to admit that I'm pretty excited to see it. I loved the book, the cast is amazing, and the trailer is exciting. I just wish that they had found an actor who is actually Percy's age to play Percy. He's what--12 in the book? Logan Lerman is seventeen. His voice has already broken, for crying out loud! Still, I liked Lerman in 3:10 to Yuma, and I think he'll do a good job with the part. I just don't really see him as Percy at this point. Maybe he'll change my mind. Oh, and that amazing cast makes me nervous too. It seems like a movie with too many famous names just never lives up to expectations. (I'm looking at you, The Royal Tenenbaums, my first vote for Worst Movie Ever) Anyway, without further ado, here is my review of the book. Percy Jackson tries to be good, but circumstances just don't allow it. Trouble always seems to find him. Let's not talk about what happens to his math teacher his sixth grade year.... At the end of sixth grade, Percy and his mom take off for a trip to the beach. Late in the night, it sounds like a hurricane blows up and they're running for their lives. Percy winds up at Half-Blood Hill, a summer camp for the children of...Greek gods? An evil plot is afoot and Percy needs to clear his name and unravel the mystery with the help of his two friends, Annabeth and Grover. I loved this! I've always enjoyed mythology and this was an original take on the old myths for children. But don't think it's only for children--adults will enjoy it too. Percy, Annabeth and Grover are fantastic, smart, fun…

Bookish Miscellany

Encouraging Non-Readers: Booking Through Thursday

How can you encourage a non-reading child to read? What about a teen-ager? Would you require books to be read in the hopes that they would enjoy them once they got into them, or offer incentives, or just suggest interesting books? If you do offer incentives and suggestions and that doesn’t work, would you then require a certain amount of reading? At what point do you just accept that your child is a non-reader? In the book Gifted Hands by brilliant surgeon Ben Carson, one of the things that turned his life around was his mother’s requirement that he and his brother read books and write book reports for her. That approach worked with him, but I have been afraid to try it. My children don’t need to “turn their lives around,” but they would gain so much from reading and I think they would enjoy it so much if they would just stop telling themselves, “I just don’t like to read.” Well, I don't have kids and I've always been a reader, so I don't have any practical advice to offer on this. I think every person is different though. I'm far too stubborn to respond to required book reports. In fact, I hated almost everything I had to read for school. And I think that offering rewards would make reading seem like a chore. Those types of things obviously work for some people though. My husband wasn't really a reader when we met. He'd read a few books by Robin Cook and enjoyed them, but he never made time for reading. I went out on a limb and bought him The Alienist by Caleb Carr. He loved it! He's still not a voracious reader, but he always has one book on his nightstand that he's working on. For…

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February 11, 2010

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading has been taken over by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. It looks like she's got some new tricks up her sleeve, so go check her out! Finished: Link to my review Soulless by Gail Carriger--Loved it! 5 stars! Currently Reading: Remaining links will go to GoodReads descriptions World Without End by Ken Follett--I'm enjoying it, but it feels awfully similar to his earlier book, The Pillars of the Earth Up Next: World Without End is a monster, so I'm not sure if there will be time for another book this week! I'm about halfway through the 1014 pages. If I have time, I might pick up Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr for one of my GoodReads groups. Or I might read Persuasion, which I've never read, but it's waiting patiently for me right here at home. What are you reading this week?

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February 8, 2010

Read more about the article <i>Wicked</i>: Musical Review

Screen and Stage Review

Wicked: Musical Review

I meant to post this last weekend, but I got busy and forgot. I got to see Wicked! I feel like I'm the last person in the world to see it, but it was a huge deal for me! I love musicals, whether they're on stage or on the screen. Call me cheesy if you want, but I'm a huge fan. A touring company came to a city near us and we bought tickets pretty early. That's a good thing because I'm pretty sure the 2.5 week run is sold out. The day of the show, the forecasters were calling for some nasty icy stuff to come through, so we decided to leave early and book a hotel. Good thing too. The show was only about an hour and a half away from home, but it's all downhill or uphill and we would have been in a mess if we'd tried to get home at midnight. We probably wouldn't have gotten home. They had to close the interstates for a while to try to catch up with the clean up. Anyway, we got to the hotel and saw that a nearby restaurant that we've always been interested in but never tried was having a "Wicked Buffet." I'm a picky eater. Buffets aren't usually worth the money for me, but my husband, the skinny little thing, usually eats enough for both of us, so we decided to go. It was fun! We were on the third floor of this restaurant that looked like it was a converted warehouse, with all the exposed brickwork and wooden beams showing. They had white Christmas lights wrapped around the beams, and some green theatrical lights set up to give us a little Wicked ambiance. Not very flattering to the complexion, but still just fun. All…

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February 8, 2010

Soulless by Gail Carriger: Book Review

I have waited entirely too long to write this review and gotten too deeply involved in Ken Follett's World Without End, so this review is going to suck a little. Which is a pity because I had thought of all kinds of witty things I was going to write and now I've lost them. Miss Alexia Tarabotti is soulless. When she touches supernatural beings, she neutralizes their abilities and they become human for a moment. That could be useful to the Bureau of Unnatural Registry if she weren't a lady of good breeding. She refuses to be treated as a wilting lily and goes about, wielding her tricked-out parasol and assisting in any way she can, as new vampires who appear to be entirely clueless about supernatural laws go about wreaking havoc on society. I loved the chemistry between Alexia and Lord Maccon from the moment he threatens to bring her out of a faint with something stronger than smelling salts. He's an Alpha werewolf, but Alexia has enough alpha personality to hold her own against him. Their subtle yet pointed verbal sparring made this book for me. And can you say steamy? It wasn't too graphic, but oh my gosh. *Fanning* Alexia herself was a fantastic character. At twenty-six, she's firmly on the shelf in Victorian society, but she's okay with that. Better to be on the shelf than married to some half-wit who can't keep up with her own intellect and curiosity. She gets enough of that from her family. They don't know she's soulless and put all of her quirks down to the fact that her father was Italian. But they've left her just a little insecure about her appearance and desirability. Just enough to make her feel real. And Lord Maccon. Yum. That's all there is…

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery: Book Review

My favorite book growing up was Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. It's still one of my all-time favorite books. I have to confess that the first time I tried to read it, I thought it was boring. I'd seen the movie somewhere and grabbed the book at the library, and I think the language was just a little too difficult for me at the time. I couldn't have been ten years old. But I tried once again, and that time I fell in love. I wanted to be friends with "Anne-with-an-e" and the ever-loyal Diana and share in their adventures. If I'm honest, I still want to be friends with them! They just became real to me. My family used to go to the beach every summer, and there was this one little bookstore that always had a big selection of L. M. Montgomery books. My library only had the first two Anne books, so it became a tradition for my mom to take me to that bookstore so I could get one or two more of Montgomery's books to read. I was always impatient for more, but now I'm glad I got to stretch all those books out over such a long period of time. The anticipation was delicious. One of the books, Jane of Lantern Hill, was actually out of print, so I didn't complete my collection until I was somewhere in my twenties and my husband bought that one for me online. I was thrilled! I don't have any new-to-me L. M. Montgomery books to look forward to now, but I've re-read everything she wrote countless times, and I get something new out of them every time. I'm thinking it's getting to be time to do another re-read. Synopsis from GoodReads: As soon as…

Bookish Miscellany

Winter Reading: Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday asks: The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do? Honestly, I'm not aware of my reading habits changing throughout the year. When I think of winter though, I think of classics and/or big, heavy books, like the one I'm reading now, World Without End by Ken Follett. It just seems like I have the time and attention to devote to them, instead of being busy doing outdoorsy kind of stuff in the warmer months. What kind of books do you read in the winter?

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February 4, 2010

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading Monday?

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog. Finished (Links to my reviews) Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane--Oh my gosh, how twisty! 4 stars Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale--What a fantastic retold fairy tale! 5 stars Venom by Joan Brady--A thriller with characters I couldn't like. 2.5 stars Currently Reading (Remaining links to GoodReads descriptions) Soulless by Gail Carriger Up Next: I've been so excited to get started on Soulless that I haven't even thought that far ahead! If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I might get started on Ken Follett's World Without End, the sort-of sequel to Pillars of the Earth. I might take the shorter route and read Daughter of My People by James Kilgo instead. We'll see. Right now, I'm really enjoying Soulless though! What are you reading this week?

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February 1, 2010