lantairvlea | Entries tagged with reviews: book

Keeping up on books might be harder now that I can burn through them in audio format because I 100% have more time to listen to audio than I do to snuggle in a little nest and leisurely read a book. That's okay, it's life. I don't have time for everything, but having audiobooks as an option is fantastic. I catch up on podcasts between the audtiobooks so I'm finding a little bit of balance in my podcast listening by adding in the audiobooks. I will admit my NPR listening is non-existant right now, but that's fine. I still flip it on now and again to stay somewhat inforfmed. I like thinking that Trump and Co. are being given just enough rope to hang themselves, though I'm not sure if it's worth the collateral damage.

Morgan recommended the Legend of Drizzt books, which there's apparently a crap ton of. I started with "The Orc King" by R. A. Salvatore, which is the start of a trilogy within the dozen plus book series about this character. It's a D&D-esque fantasy, high on action, low on women, and sometimes losing it's point in the next battle scene. It was still entertaining. The number of charcters to follow was a little overwhelming, but I think I figured it out (mostly) in the end. The reader was quite good, but I'm too lazy to look up his name, forgive me.

I canceled my audible free trial, but snagged "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire because it was free and I finally hit the point of "what's all the fuss about." I found myself a bit "eh" about it. He kept nudging the line of being sexually explicit, but not quite crossing, which I found more obnoxious than just a sex scene because it kept me debating on whether or not to skip it. There were some interesting character interactions and it was a different view of Oz and how it developed. The worldbuilding was more thorough than the original books by L. Frank Baum, but Baum's vision was more whimsical and "Wicked" is gritty and "real" and I think suffers from the modern idea that "gritty and real" means better and more intellectually sofisticated, and it really is not.

Next up was "A Thousand Li: The First Step" by Tao Wong, a fantasy rooted in the wuxia and xanxia tradition of Chinese literature. An interesting change from what I usually read, while still in the fantasy genre. I admit some of the character names were hard to follow in audio form, it might have been easier in text, but the author was good about context cues to assist my poor Anglo ears.

I borrowed another T. Kingfisher book through the library, "A House with Good Bones," which was read by Mary Robinette Kowal (she is both a fabulous author and reader). The protagonist is an arceological entymologist who moves back home while her mother while she's between digs and things are Not Quite Right. Once again, I love Ursula's writing. It's witty and weird and wonderful in all the right ways. I know I can't write like that, but I absolutely adore it. I'm going to slowly work through the backlog of her books.

"Seraphina" by Rachel Hartman was my latest listen. It's in the same world as "Tess of the Road" and takes place a decade or so before. These two books stand well alone, you don't have to read one to get the other, but it does give you more insight into some of the characters. The title character, Seraphina is half dragon and rather desperate to keep that a secret. It's about coming to terms with the parts of yourself that you can't change, the danger and power of secrets, love, discovering yourself, and coming to understand the choises your parents made and how they affect you. There were some parallels in what I'm writing in FFK so there was a good deal more analytical thought going on as I was listening. The twist near the end was quite spectacular and the mystery and intruige woven in kept me looking sharply for the next clue. Surprising, but inevitable is an adequate describer.

Current Mood: accomplished

"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel DeFoe was a pretty interesting and, in turns, exciting book. You'd suspect that a man who spends twenty-eight years on an otherwise uninhabited island wouldn't be all that interesting, but the tale of how he came to the island, starting with his father's prophetic warning, was only the beginning of the adventures.

It is told from Robin's perspective, some of it from his journals and some from him "talking" to the reader. He was somewhat conversational in his manner of retelling his tale and spent a good amount of time reflecting on how much of an idiot he was as a youth and how he was the author of many of his own misfortunes.

He finds religion while he was on the island, ultimately recognizing the tender mercies and God's hands in all things. From him being able to harvest his own food to the series of events that ultimately lead to his escape from the island.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, the protagonist was engaging and relatable, even if he had some very 17th century ideas. His pride in teaching "Friday" how to speak English, yet not taking any thought to learn Friday's native language is one example. It is a story I wouldn't mind reading again and settling down with the physical copy to enjoy for sure.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum is one of those stories that's in the general conciousness, mostly due to the 1939 movie (is it really that old? Egads!). It was interesting to note the differences in how the story was told on the screen versus in the book. I imagine the movie had parts from other of Baum's stories about Oz mixed in and the order of the story was not the same for sure as the plot doesn't quite fit tidily in the classic three act format of film.

Some of the small, but obvious changes include the slippers being silver instead of red, there was no "horse of a different color" (I suspect it was either invented or pulled from one of the other books). The flying monkeys were controlled by whoever wore a gold hat and performed a charm to summon them, but they could only be summoned three times so the Wicked Witch having them constantly at her beck and call was a movie invention as well.

The story read much like a fairy tale, not being overly complicated or explained. It's a cute story, but not overly thoughtful or introspective, though I'm sure you can read many things into it if you wanted.

Another large difference between the book and the movie is the movie insinuated that Dorothy had been in some sort of fevered dream. In the book we only meet her aunt and uncle before the tornado takes her up and drops her in Oz and she returns on her own two feet with her relations acting as if she really had been gone for weeks.

The last books in "Twelve Books to Read Before You Die Volume Two" is "The Three Musketeers" and "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" and then it's time to cancel Audible as I don't want the monthly expense of it, even if I have found my foray into audio books somewhat enjoyable. It has gotten me through quite a few books that were on my list of "I should read that someday." There is a third volume of the series, but I don't think I'll allow myself to get suckered into it.

Current Mood: accomplished

"The Blockade Runner" by Jules Vern

This adventure story set during the Civil War features an British Merchant, James Playfair bent on fortune by running through the Union blockades to trade with the South. Their ship, The Dolphin was built to purpose as the fastest vessel of its kind. The captain's plans got a wrench in the works early on their sailing when he accepted an old "sailor" and his nephew as part of the crew. The sailor turned out to be a man servant and the nephew was his master's daughter. Their intent was to go and be with the girl's father who was held captive at Charleston.

It was a short and enjoyable litttle story, but not too gripping. Vern's writing style seems to keep the viewer a little back from the action and I never really got a good sense of peril or fear that the characters weren't going to make their goals.

"Cleopatra-The Biography" by Jacob Abbott
This one was so dry. It seemed like half the book was backstory and you didn't really get to "meet" the title character until nearly halfway through. If I thought the people of "Wuthering Heights" were deplorable, the people of ancient Rome and Egypt were absolutely detestable. The Ptolemeys, Julius Ceasar, Anthony, and Cleopatra herself, all of them absolutely despicable. This would not have been a book I would have bothered to sit and read through myself. There were some interesting points of history and I learned things, but still. Not my type of book.

"The Black Arrow" by Robert Louis Stevenson
This one was quite engaging, the story between Dick and Joann and how they met and all that befell them was very interesting. There were twists and turns, intruigue, danger, and plenty of action to keep the reader interested. An enjoyable romp into the middle ages of England with battling factions framing a love story underrun with betrayal and old unjustices to be righted.

I think much of my LJ-time has been sucked up with my book of late, which I am not too upset about. Fire Forged Key hit 250 pages by the skin of its teeth and I've sent it off to my most awesome and patient beta readers to be reviewed. Going to beat on DotF for a bit in the meantime and maybe work on the outline for the driving training course, which needs to be done as I really need to get bustling on that this summer.

Current Mood: awake

"Through the Looking-Glass was a fun little romp. Alice was less insufferable, perhaps having grown some after her first encounter with Wonderland. I was surprised to find her age in this one a mere seven and a half, which makes her impertinence in the first book more understandable as the actions of an absolute child who is still learning manners.

I empathize with the Gnat who is always wishing people could appreciate good puns. The story wanders and shape-shifts as dreams are wont to do and is a fun, nonsensical romp.

"The Late Mattia Pascal" was an interesting change of pace. It is set early 20th century and takes place in Italy primarily. Originally in Italian I can't rate the translation itself, but the writing was quite engaging and the reader good, he suited the narrator's personality. There was one or two characters that spoke a diffrrent dialect, which they left be as the narrator translated it so that was interesing. The title character and narrator has quite the adventure in which he dies twice, he tells that to you early and I won't spoil it in telling you exactly how these two deaths come about. The narrator is an interesting fellow and it is curious to see how he changes between his first and second deaths. I would definitely recommend it.

Current Mood: amused

The reader they had for Huckleberry Finn was quite good and did well with the accents and vocal mannerisms of the characters.

There was one glaring inconsistency between the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and those of Huck Finn. In the former book Tom Sawyer knew what a ransom was, but in the beginning of Huck Finn's story, as they are forming their robber gang Huck asks Tom what a Ransom is and Tom dodges and avoids it and sounds like he doesn't know what it is.

Unlike Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn's story is in the first person, which immerses you better in the story, especially since so much of it is flavored by Huck's viewpoints. It was interesting to see his personal morals and also how they evolved during his journey South with Jim.

Towards the end you see him almost questioning the morals of slavery and how, maybe, black people aren't all that different from white people. It's on the cusp, but he's just a young teenager steeped in slavery culture with no one to tell him any different.

This is also a meandering story full of true-to-life conincidences and side-steps. Some of them tie into the main plot, others not as much.

Huck is a very likable character, he's uncanny smart in all the practical ways, even if he doesn't have a whole lot of booksense. His "Pap" is a horrible, greedy, ignorant drunkard who does nothing good for his son, other than motivate Huck to get out of town, which involved the boy faking his own death rather ingeniously.

At one point Jim and Huck meet up with a pair of frauds they refer to as The King and The Duke. These men of dubious royalty used Huck and Jim to transport them a ways down the Mississippi as they defrauded several towns in new and exciting ways. The culmination of which I will not spoil. I did enjoy it more than Tom Sawyer, though the aforementioned was also a very enjoyable story and I'd read it again.

Next up was "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," which was a remarkably short read. It was fun and weird. I did find Alice a bit insufferable. Her manners were poor and she caused many of her own problems with both her rudeness and inattentiveness. I agree with the Chesire Cat, she is also quite mad herself, even if she doesn't think it.

This reader was also enjoyable, though the audio quality was a little weird, it sounded like it was recorded in an empty room, that style of slighly echoed acoustics.

Next up is "Through The Looking Glass."