CB # 30-32: Books that were made into movies

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (Translated  by Thomas Colchie)

Unfortunately, I have seen none of the movie versions of these books, so I can’t tell you how they compare, but I can tell you if I enjoyed the book!

The Help

                There was a lot of controversy about this book, and I do understand. I was frustrated that the two black narrators had dialect signals in their narration, including them regularly putting in the word “a” all over the place, while the white narrator never seemed to narrate in a specifically Southern way. I also thought that the author could have explored the relationships between white women and black maids in more depth. Both Albileen and Minny have complicated feelings about their employers, but neither woman out and out hated the people they were currently working for. Nor did they feel that they absolutely had to continue to work for a person they hated.  That would have been a more complicated story.  Instead they worked for people that they didn't seem to have any feelings for at all. Albileen thought that Elizabeth was a horrible mother, but she didn’t seem to hate her, and although Minny did “ a horrible thing” to Hilly, I never felt her visceral hatred for Hilly other than in that act. Maybe that’s just me.

                On the other side of the controversy, I have to say that writing is not politically correct. Writing fiction always involves imagining another way of thinking, which means that imagination can fail. I’ve heard a few people wish that this book had been written by someone else, who could deal with it more honestly and sensitively. Well, there is still time for someone else to write that book, and that’s the great thing about books. You can always write back to contest something you didn’t agree with. Honestly, my main concern with this book is that it is often being read in a self-congratulatory way. We aren’t like that anymore! There is no us and them anymore! But I don't think we can escape that part of ourselves that easily. It’s just that we don’t recognize who the “them” is now, or how we are being cruel to “them”. That takes time and self-reflection and a willingness to understand someone different from you. If The Help made you reflect on your life in that way, then it has value; if it didn’t make you think, well maybe it doesn’t.

               One thing I'd like to note is that at first I really couldn't read it. I skimmed it and found that it focused to much on Skeeter for my liking. Later on I returned to it and finished it properly, which is why I can't really say that I really enjoyed it.

Water for Elephants

                  Jacob Jankowski’s parents die in a horrible car crash, just before he finishes his training to become a vet in the 1930’s. To pay for his training at Princeton University, his parents had gone into debt and mortgaged their home. Now he has nothing, so he runs away with the circus. Even though he hasn’t finished his veterinary training, he’s the closest thing to a vet that the circus can get.  In the circus, he meets the beautiful  Marlena, who performs with the horses, and her bipolar husband August who manages the animals.  There is also the cruel and terrifying Uncle Al, owns the circus, and will get rid of any one who isn’t useful anymore.  The story is all told from Jacob’s perspective as a 90 year old man looking back at his life. Of course, Jacob falls in love with Marlena and all the animals in the circus, especially an elephant named Rosie, but neither August nor Uncle Al will let him be truly happy.

I actually really enjoyed this book, even though I was spoiled about the ending before I read it. This book had lots of interesting historical information about circuses in the past, but once again, there wasn’t a lot of depth to it. The romance was light and the cruelty of Uncle Al and August was incredibly intense. One friend mentioned that the main thing she got from it is that growing old really sucks. I still really enjoyed it though.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

                This book is a translation from Spanish and was written in the 1970s. The novel mainly consists of the dialogue between two prisoners in Argentina in the 1970s. One, Valentin, is a political prisoner, while the other, Molina, is a gay man who has been imprisoned for corrupting a minor. The reader never finds out more about the exact circumstances of either characters’ imprisonment, but before long it becomes clear that Molina has been asked to find out more about Valentin’s friends and their future plans, in return for his freedom. Most of the novel consists of Molina telling Valentin about the plots of films that he’s seen, as a comfort from the pain that Valentin is regularly in. The two become friends, as Valentin begins to see the importance of beauty in one’s life, while Molina begins to recognize the importance of being politically involved.

                It’s an odd novel. It’s mainly dialogue between the two characters, but there is no “he said”. You just have to figure out which character is talking.  Most of the dialogue consists of Molina retelling the plot of different films. As well, there are a bunch of odd footnotes that appear though out the novel which all deal with how psychologists (at the time or earlier) understood homosexuality.  I usually ended up skipping the footnotes, because their positions on homosexuality were aggravatingly out of date. I did find it interesting that Molina is sort of the hero of this story. His motivations are complicated, and what he’s been imprisoned for makes him suspect. What are his real motivations? There’s not a huge amount going on in the novel, but somehow that seems to make the story all the more complicated.

CB# 28-29: Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett               

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett  (YA)

                These are the two most recent Tiffany Aching books. I’ve reviewed the first two earlier.  I found these books fairly interesting because Pratchett had said that these novels are aimed at younger readers who might also enjoy the fantasy and humour of Discworld. The first two books had really felt aimed at children, while these two, especially I Shall Wear Midnight, feel like they’re aimed at young adults.

                 In Wintersmith, Tiffany is staying with the ancient Miss Treason to learn more witchcraft. She’s nearly 13 and although she misses her home, she knows that she’ll never be truly respected as a witch unless she goes away. Everyone’s seen her as a child, so she needs to leave so that they’ll believe that she’s changed. She’s still being watched over by the Feegles, and she has a pen pal in Roland, the Baron’s son. One night, Miss Treason takes her to a Dark Morris dance which leads to the coming of winter. Even though Miss Treason warns Tiffany that she can only watch the dance, Tiffany ends up dancing in it. This means that she actually danced with the Wintersmith, and replaced Summer in the dance. Now the Wintersmith is intrigued by her, and wants to be with her … forever! Also,  Summer might never come again, since Tiffany’s replaced her. This book is all about personal responsibility and realizing that actions have consequences. Once Tiffany realizes that she’s made a major mistake, she has to do more than just apologize. She has to fix things.

                I Shall Wear Midnight is even darker in tone. Tiffany is nearly 16 and she has to deal with the consequences of what she has done with the Wintersmith. The magic she used then has awoken and called to her a monstrous being whose power is to make witches be hated and feared. This will lead to witches (or women who seem like witches) to be killed by the community that they cared for.  This book is much darker in tone than the first three, at least in the unmagical happenings. In the first chapter, Tiffany has to take care of a 13 year old girl whose father beat her so hard that she miscarried. As well, everyone is worried for Tiffany’s wellbeing because (scroll over for spoilers)  Roland is getting married to someone else! . Honestly, I think it’s for the best, but it’s a bit of a surprise after their friendship in the other 3 novels. Don't let the darker tone turn you off though. In spite of this its still full of humour  and it's exciting to read. And the young girl that Tiffany cares for does manage to escape her father and find a safe place to be.

                I really enjoyed both novels. I love that magic isn’t the answer to everything. I love that being a witch mainly involves doing things that other people don’t want to do or don’t think about like making sure a wizened old lady gets her bath or visiting lonely people. I really like that Tiffany always has to deal with the consequences of her actions, and that she is always capable even if she is scared. In my mind, she’s a pretty good role model.

CB # 24-27 Mysteries!

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse

The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz

                I once read somewhere that librarians love to read mysteries. I think it has something to do with the fact that librarians love solving puzzles, since what is a reference question if it’s not a small mystery? Some of these are older, one is newer, and one is barely a mystery but I’m throwing it in just because.

Murder Must Advertise

                I have a deep and abiding love for Sayers.  I read her translations of Dante’s Divine Comedy for class, and our professor informed us that she also wrote mysteries about the lovely Lord Peter Whimsy. Whimsy seems to be a dilettante but he’s really one of the greatest detectives of all time. One of the appeals of the Whimsy novels is that  Sayers  goes really in depth when writing her mysteries. Not only is it exciting and well written, but a huge amount of research must have been done, because you always learn something (not surprising coming from a translator of Dante). This one is set at an advertising house and was published in the 1930’s. There’s been an “accident”, and Whimsy is on the case, disguising himself by getting work at the agency. I learned a ton of about how ads were created and distributed, which makes sense since Sayers used to work in advertising. I also learned that cocaine has always been a hell of a drug, although I did find 1930”s drug slang confusing.

                Apparently this wasn’t Sayers favourite work, but I really enjoyed it. The mystery was interesting, Whimsy was divine and all the supporting characters were a delight. I also actually figured out part of the mystery myself, which made me feel super accomplished (sad but true).

Evil Under the Sun

                I reach for Agatha Christie novels when I want a quick read. I always fly right through them in an hour or so. It’s part of the appeal though, especially after you finish a slog of a book. Hercule Poirot is the detective in this one, and even though he’s not my favourite (Miss Marple is) he is still pretty wonderful. Vanity is always appealing in a character, but never in a real person. Also, he has a great mustache, which is always admirable.

                The mystery in this book revolves around a dead woman found on a private beach. Only people staying at the hotel could have access to it, so they’re all suspects. I find it hard to solve Christie’s novels, so I usually just read them for the thrill. She’s always using red herrings and I find it hard to ignore them. However, it was harder to ignore the 1940’s version of femininity that I was presented with. Christie regularly writes that way, but I found it really rubbed me the wrong way this time. Even so, it’s a good quick read.

Something Fresh

                To be honest, this is barely a mystery, but it was so funny that I have to recommend it. Especially since the last time I read a Wodehouse novel it was just offensive, and I need to believe that some good things did come out of Britain.

                Lord Elmworth is incredibly absentminded, and accidentally stole a priceless scarab from his hapless son’s future father-in-law. The millionaire father-in-law, J. Preston Peters, is incensed and decides that he’s going to  offer a reward if someone steals it back. Ashe is barely escaping poverty by writing trashy detective stories, and takes Peters up on the offer. Unfortunately for Ashe, his neighbor Joan Valentine has also heard about the reward from  Peters’ daughter Aline, and really needs to get her hands on some money. Then there’s the fact that Freddie, Elmworth’s son, has gambled too much and probably should be a confirmed bachelor since I don’t think he could make anyone happy. I’ve only mentioned the major characters, there are more and they are all ridiculous and therefore charming. This is a major comedy of errors with people running around Blandings Castle all night, falling in love, making huge mistakes, stealing scarabs and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

                Once again this is a quick read, but it’s funny and there is a bit of a mystery and a lot of  (hilarious) romance.

The Spellmans Strike Again

                One of these things is not like the others. The Spellman mysteries are set in present day USA, and not in first half of the 20^th century Britian. However, these books are funny and charming and they are mysteries, which is the connection I made to the others. This one is the fourth in the series.

                Izzy Spellman works as a private detective, which might sound interesting until you realize that it’s really a lot of watching people. If you’re wondering how she got into that work, it’s because it’s a family business. Everyone in the family, except for her brother David, works at the Spellman firm. It’s probably not best for family relations because they’ve become very used to surveillance and they spy on each other all the time. Izzy’s mother blackmails her with information from prom night so that Izzy will go on dates with lawyers. However, Izzy actually has a boyfriend, a bartender who doesn’t appreciate the fact that she absolutely has to go on dates with these men.

                Her younger sister Rae, wants nothing more than to be a detective, but her parents know that she’s practically a genius, and they want her to go to a renowned university. Oh, and there’s a mystery as well. A millionaire is losing his valet for a short period of time, and wants Izzy to figure out if the rest of his servants are stealing from him.

                The mystery is rarely the point in the Spellman books. It’s more about the kooky family arrangements, and the secrets that they’re keeping from each other. Once again, it’s a quick, fun read that’s really delightful.  I would suggest that you start with The Spellman Files, so that you get maximum enjoyment from the series.

CB # 21 - 23 Post-Modern Love Stories

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

                Just to start, I'm sorry I've abandoned this blog for most of the summer. I've been reading all summer, but I've had a lot of problems figuring out what to write about the books I've read. Since it's been a while and I have a huge amount to move through, I'm just going to review my summer books by theme. This grouping is going to make the least sense and I know that, so I figured I'd get it out of the way  first. It's full of post-modern love stories, and I consider these ones post-modern because of the way that they play around with narrative.

Super Sad True Love Story

                Lenny Abramov is a 39 year old schlub in love with 24 year old Eunice Park. He’s the child of  a Russian father who slaves as a janitor, while she’s the daughter of an abusive Korean potierit. The question is: does Eunice Park see anything in Lenny?
                Super Sad True Love Story is set in the near future. America is on the brink of financial collapse. People don’t write any more, they “verbal” or send images. Everyone is constantly being rated on their appearance and what they’ve revealed about themselves online, and sexuality has been reduced to a cheap, crappy version of pornography. There is no such thing as privacy, everyone transmits everything about themselves. Girls wear transparent jeans and the English language seems reduced to obscenities. Through all of this Lenny keeps on writing in his diary and keeps on reading books, even though they are seen as smelly artifacts of a bygone era.

                The novel is told from both character's perspectives, Lenny through his journal, and Eunice through her emails to her family and friends. Lenny is a bit of a sad-sack, and doesn't have enough perspective on life to really see understand the destruction of liberty that is happening all around him. Although Eunice is obsessed with looking good, she doesn't have the same need to be remembered for posterity, and her communications seem to have more value since she is trying to reach out to people.

                I’m not one hundred percent certain how I’m supposed to see Lenny. I’m much closer to Eunice in age, and I understand her initial disgust with him. They meet in Rome, where Lenny is trying to find rich clients who want to live forever using Post-Human Services.  Lenny falls for Eunice immediately, without any real reason other than her beauty, oh and the fact that she’s been abused by her father. Apparently that’s appealing to Lenny.

               But there's still something about this book that got to me. It's about how love is always possible, it's about the importance of liberty and although it is a super sad love story, there's something really appealing about everyone, even as they disgust you.
(ETA: As mentioned in the comments, this book is really, really funny, however, I also found it really sad too)

A Visit From the Goon Squad

                My friend called this a collection of short stories, and I sort of have to agree. Each chapter is told by a different narrator, and he or she tells about a key moment in his or her life. The stories connect, the same characters reappear throughout the stories, but there isn't a cohesive narrative to this novel. It doesn't matter too much, since it's all about the moments in between. It's sweet, lovely and confusing. The stories switch directions and flip back and forth in time. When I first heard about this book (everyone and their dog has reviewed it and loved it), I was told that it focused on the music industry, and it does, but that's not what it's really about. It's about using music as a theme to allow the tidbits of people's lives to show through. Characters work in music industry, or tried to be musicians, or just love the silences in a song, but it doesn't add up to more than that.

                The problem for me was that each chapter helps you understand the current character, but you, the reader, still want more information.You want the before and the after, but all this book gives is a few fleeting moments. It's all middles, but not even complete middles. It's a beautiful book, but it doesn't leave you satisfied. It leaves you craving more, which is probably a good thing.

The Rehearsal

                A young girl has a relationship with her high school music teacher. He argues that it was completely consensual. It's probably a familiar sounding story, something that you read once in the newspaper, or in your favourite news blog, but it has nothing to do with your life. The Rehearsal is about the person who reads about it in the paper and forgets that real people were involved, and it's also the other girls who find out about the affair, and it's consequences for them.

                The main characters are three girls who go to the same (female) saxophone teacher: Bridget who rather bores the teacher, Isolde, the younger sister of  Victoria who had the affair, and Julia, who might be a way for the saxophone teacher to relive and hopefully fix her own mistakes. When these girls talk to their saxophone teacher they reveal their fears and desires, and they are both mystified and drawn to Victoria, because they cannot understand how it happened.

                On the other side of the novel is Stanley, who has started his first year at a drama school. The students are supposed to create an original play, and they decide to write it about a major news story, the girl and her teacher. As the novel winds its way through these characters' lives, their stories become more and more interconnected.

                I liked this book but I also found it really unsettling. We never find out much about Victoria, and her motives always are unclear. Other character's try to figure out what happened, but there is no way for them to know the truth. Also, characters regularly speak theatrically, even when there isn't a stage in sight. All subtlety is striped bare and people say intense truths to each other, with no consequences, or even a reaction. It's almost as if the reader gets to read the truth without any of the politeness and camouflage of ordinary conversation. 

CB # 20 The Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

               I'm so proud of myself for finally reading a series in the right order on this blog. This is the sequel to The Name of the Wind, which I read back in May. It was pretty much what you would expect if you had read the previous book. There is still magic and Kvothe is just as un-self-aware as before. 

              The major surprise for me was that this book, although longer than the first one, felt a little less padded than the first. I mean, an editor could still be used. There is a bit too much time spent wandering around the woods and fooling around with a fairy (in the most literal sense). The Kvothe who tells the stories of his adventures does not seem to have any of the skills he acquired over the course of the adventures, and it makes you wonder if he’s a completely unreliable narrator (he did spend a long time talking about his amazing physical ability to subdue a sex-crazed fairy).  However, this book was enjoyable, kept on pushing the narrative forward, and made me excited for the next book, which will finish the series off (at least I assume it will).

If you’ve read the first book and enjoyed it, then I’m fairly certain that you’ll enjoy this novel. 

           Dear readers, I'm sorry for the short review, but I'm finding myself far behind where I want to be in the Cannonball Read. I've read about 40 books so far, but sometimes it's hard to say anything interesting about a book. Sometimes a book is just a book; something that makes your lunch hour more enjoyable. Sometimes a book has more going on inside of it, but then it takes longer to read, and it's even harder to write about it. Sometimes you just can't put your finger on what you liked and what you didn't like.

CB # 19 One of Our Thursdays is Missing

One of our Thursdays is missing by Jasper Fforde

            I really enjoy the Thursday Next mysteries. Thursday Next lives in an alternative verison of our world, where cloning has allowed dodos to be pets, strong cheeses are traded on the black market and Wales is a socialist republic. Oh, and also it’s possible for a person to read her way into a book. I love the series as a whole. Fforde obviously love books, as seen by the way that Next can travel throughout BookWorld and meet all of her favourite characters. I love the allusions that occur throughout, they're always surprisingly funny. Some of them, especially in the earlier novels have caused me to pick a book up and read it myself. However, this (the 6^th novel by my count) was not his best work.

This novel is told not from the perspective of real world Thursday whom readers have come to know and love, but from the perspective of the written version of her, the one who is regularly read in the books about her adventures. These books are similar to what those who have read the series have read before, except that all the sections about Justification as well as the explanation of how Thursday read her way in, in the first place. The fictional Thursday is a bit of a hippie, and honestly, rather dull.   “Real” Thursday is simply more fun to read than written Thursday and a lot of the joy of the novel has been lost to me. Another factor is that  the geography of BookWorld has changed dramatically, as demonstrated in the prologue, when Thursday explains how BookWorld now consists of islands. This probably made the whole plot of the novel more reasonable to write, but it was sort of aggravating after being used to things.

There is a fun mystery in this novel, and there are still the fun allusions to other works, including War and Peace and Harry Potter fan fiction. If you haven’t read the Thursday Next books before, I definitely wouldn’t start here. Instead I’d read the first one, The Eyre Affair and continue on from there. For me at least, this one really completes the series, but it isn't a necessary read.

CB # 18 Hand Me Down World

Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones
             There are no limits to what a mother will do for her child, and in Hand Me Down World Jones explores the reality and consequences of that statement. In the first chapter, a hotel maid in Tunisia recounts the story of how one of her co-workers fell in love with a hotel guest. She got pregnant, and he rented a house where they both could live. Every one at the hotel was so happy for her since she seemed to be coming up in the world. However, a week after her son was born, Jermayne (the hotel guest) made her sign papers in a language that she could not read and then left with the child. The rest of the novel follows the consequences of  that action, as the woman tries to reach her child again in Berlin.

            The first half of the novel is all told from other people’s perspectives as they tell the story of their experiences with the woman they call Ines. Their versions allow each person to present his or herself in the most positive light. However, all their stories have a black hole in them when it comes to Ines. Through their eyes, she is made mysterious or unknowable. Even those who think that they know her, seem to be completely wrong. All they see is what she lets them see, her bright blue coat or her hotel uniform. In the last third of the novel, she tells her own story, and the reader comes closer to understanding her than those she met seemed to. I liked the Rashomon quality of having both versions of the story available, always leaving you wondering what is the truth.

            I must admit that when I started this novel, I wasn’t really enjoying it. There wasn’t a very long description of the novel on its back, so when I started it, it seemed completely different from what I had expected. However, the more I read the more I enjoyed it. I started to really wonder about truth. What is it? How do we know it? Don’t we change it just by being? I also became more and more concerned for Ines and wondering how she would get to have her son back.

            I picked this book up because I had adored Mister Pip, which left me crying like a baby on a Greyhound bus. Hand Me Down World was not as intense, for me at least, but there was something really wonderful about it. It left me thinking and it made me worry more about the people I see on the streets. What is the truth of their life? Can I ever know it?

CB # 17 The Little Stranger

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

            I do like ghost stories and I love horror. I like chill that runs down my spine as I read, but I don’t like to be scared after I finish a book. I don’t like the feeling when I’m lying in my bed that something is wrong. I don’t like feeling like closing my eyes is risky. To fight off this fact, I mainly read horror and ghost stories in the summer. The chill can’t stay for too long then, and the sun scares off all the murky thoughts from staying for too long.

I have to mention that I have loved the Sarah Waters novels that are set in the Victorian era, especially Fingersmith. It was thrilling and filled with crazy twists and turns. Waters seems to love exploring different genres each time she writes. I knew when I picked up The Little Stranger that it wasn’t set in the underbelly of the Victorian era, but instead in the grubby reality of post-WWII Britain. The gentry, or the upper class that has been falling apart since Jane Austen’s time is finally in the death throws, and part of the fear of the novel comes from the realisation that something real is finally dying off. The Little Stranger is set at dilapidated Hundreds Hall, where the matriarch and her two children are somehow still there. Roderick was injured in the war, and is having a hard time being the master of a falling-apart house. Caroline is a rather plain girl who doesn’t mind having the take care of the house almost completely by herself; in this time and place, she’s considered a spinster.

The story is told by Dr Faraday, an older bachelor who gets called down to the house one day to see to the maid, but gets entangled with the Ayres and the mysterious goings on in the house. Scorch marks are left in strange places, strange noises happen in the night, sweet and gentle dogs turn vicious and Roderick thinks that something is infecting the house and its inhabitants.

The horrors are not extreme, and Dr Faraday is able to rationalise away them all, but that’s not the point. The ghostly/ghastly occurrences appear to reflect the world outside of Hundreds. There is no place for the Ayres in the new society that is emerging after the war, and they realise it. The house just seems to reflect it back on them. Dr Faraday isn’t much help because he doesn’t seem to have any sense of self-reflection. His own mother used to work at the house, and he has always felt a strong connection to the house because of it. Instead of telling the Ayres to sell the place, he believes that things will work out in the end, without having any thoughts of how or why.

Now I just want to state my personal pet theory about the novel because I would love to know if anyone feels the same about it. Obviously, there is no one true answer, Waters likes to be ambiguous. I just had a feeling as I read that I need to sort through. So SPOILERS ahead after the jump

CB # 16 The Name of the Wind

 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I usually have a problem with a certain type of fantasy novel. I think reading one bad Terry Brooks novel ruined them for me. I can stand fantasy set in the present day, or any well written young adult fantasy, but all adult fantasy that’s set in an medieval or “typical” fantasy world (re: anything that even slightly resembles Tolkien) needs to be funny or else I can’t deal with it.  This novel was different. For some reason I liked Kvothe, now disguised as a tavern owner, telling the story of his life as an arcanist (what I would call a wizard). He’s fallen on hard times, he can barely do magic (called “sympathy” in this world), but a scribe has found him and wants to hear the story of this life. Kvothe decides that he will tell his story, but that it will take three days to tell. This novel is only the first day of Kvothe telling the story of his life, and I have to admit that I’m interested in reading more.

I think that what I really like about Kvothe as a narrator is that he doesn’t always realize his faults; however, as a reader, I know when he’s in the wrong. The problem is that Kvothe knows that he’s talented, so he breaks rules. When he gets caught, he doesn’t explain himself, mainly because he doesn’t seem to realize that other people don’t know about his life. He grew up with a troop of traveling actors, but when the entire troop were killed by the Chandrian (the villains of this story, but most people consider them boogeymen) he lived in the woods and on the streets for years. He never really tells anyone about how he has suffered, so no one really understands him. If only he would reveal part of himself, he might not keep on getting into trouble when he starts going to a school for arcanists.

Sometimes the book could have been a bit tighter, with some stronger editing. This isn’t grand literature, but it’s still a great read, and I’ll be looking for the second book.

CB # 15 For the Win

For the Win by Cory Doctorow  (YA)

This young adult novel follows teenagers all over the world as they play video games and try to mine gold and create a union for all the people who work within the system of the games. I thought the concept was really interesting, as it follows people in countries like China and India who play games for money. Their jobs is to farm gold, get the super awesome weapons to sell, or help new or lonely players to get further along in terms of experience. However, the gaming companies don’t want this to happen, so they hire other players in these countries and in North America to find these people in the game and kick them out. Since all of this is happening online in games that resemble World of Warcraft, outsiders don’t realize how both groups of players are being exploited. A group in Indonesia reaches out to players all over the world in an attempt to create a union for those who work within the online world. Unfortunately, a wild-cat strike of players in China means that workers are likely to experience the most vile strikebreaking techniques.

I know what Doctorow was trying to do with this novel, in terms of raising awareness in young adults about worker’s conditions around the world, as well as the way technology is changing the way people can connect. I guess I just wasn’t the perfect audience for this one. I found that there were too many characters and not enough time spent on them, so it was hard to feel strongly about any of them. I know that I don’t know too much about gaming, but I felt that there was too much explanatory description of how the games worked, even for me. However, I did learn the term “wild-cat strike”, as well as a better understanding of economics, so this book was a draw.

CB # 14 Generosity: An Enhancement

Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers

                I read this a few weeks ago, but misplaced my copy so I can’t quote it extensively, which is what I really want to do. The writing in this novel is absolutely beautiful. Very rarely do I make markings in books, since I think it’s just cruel to destroy innocent books for no good reason. Even if I really love a quotation, I usually just write it down as soon as I see something beautiful in it. Generosity was different; I made markings all over the place. I couldn’t start writing it all down, so I kept everything.

                I was reminded of this novel when I read this article about the discovery of the happiness gene. Generosity is all about that same discovery and what it would actually mean for humanity. Russell runs a non-fiction writing class, and is a bit of a sad-sack. He’s surprised to read the writing of his student Thassadit and discover the amount of pain and suffering that she has lived through, including the Algerian Civil War. He is so massively surprised because she is such a happy person. She brings joy to the lives of her cynical classmates and she makes them notice the beauty of the world that she lives in. A parallel narrative thread follows the scientific search for the happiness gene. Obviously, the two stories get brought together and Powers questions if happiness is really all that good for us.

                Powers doesn’t like easy answers, or even answering things. I loved Gain, which I read for a class, and focused on the connections between capitalism and cancer, as reality and as a metaphor. Generosity has a similar intent. There are things we want to be able to control with science and with commerce, but maybe all our control is leading us in the completely wrong direction.

CB# 13: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan     (YA)

                I unabashedly love John Green. I thought Paper Towns was amazing. I also love David Leviathan, at least I love what he writes with Rachel Cohn (Boy Meets Boy is never available at the library). And they work really well together.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is about two boys named Will Grayson and the coincidences that bring them together, especially their relationship with the amazing Tiny. Tiny is a gigantic football player with an amazing baritone voice and the seeming ability to fall in love with any boy he meets. One Will, has been Tiny’s friend since elementary school, and is too afraid of life to take real risks and admit how he feels about Jane, about life, about his friendship with Tiny. The other Will doesn’t consider anyone he hangs out with his friend, and is in love with Isaac, someone he only knows online. Misunderstandings and cruelty bring the two Will Graysons together on a lonely night in Chicago, and both their lives start to change for the better.  

This novel is concerned with love (between friends, and romantically) and all the consequences of admitting what you feel. It is also about being different from the “norm” in any number of ways, including coming out as gay, but also being depressed, not having enough money, or being afraid of having visible emotions as a straight boy. My favourite part of the novel was the fact that Tiny decided to write a musical about his life called Tiny Dancer. It is epic to say the least. My least favourite element is that the second Will Grayson does not like to use capital letters and he writes about half of the novel from his perspective. In my heart, only e.e. cummings gets away with that.

Apologizing to my readers

I know I haven't written anything recently. I'm sorry, but grad school does things to your free time. I can promise you guys that I have been reading lots of wonderful books and I will have 3 new reviews up sometime this week.

CB # 12 The Cardturner

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar           (YA)

                I have a serious soft spot in my heart for Louis Sachar, mainly because of Holes and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. I just love his style and his sense of humour. He can always make me laugh, and his books for teens, including this one, wrench at my heart. I was so excited when I found this at the library, and for once, I was right to cheer. Sachar has managed to write a funny, sweet novel about bridge. That’s right, the card game, and he somehow convinced me that I really want to learn how to play.

                Seventeen year old Alton is always being reminded that his great-uncle Lester (or Trapp, as his real friends call him) is his favourite uncle. Not because he’s actually his favourite, but because Trapp is extremely rich and will hopefully leave all his money to Alton’s family. This money is pretty much expected, because his parents have overextended themselves pre-emptively in anticipation of the riches that they’ll receive. However, Trapp isn’t dead yet and he needs an assistant. Trapp has gone blind because of his diabetes, but he still wants to play bridge. His last cardturner, Toni, questioned him at one point, so she has started to actually start playing bridge as Trapp's occasional partner. Instead, Alton will step in because he doesn’t know anything about the game. Basically, with each new hand of cards, Alton takes Trapp aside and tells him what he has, and then plays the cards as Trapp tells him during the game. Trapp assumes that Alton will never be interested in the game, but he’s very wrong. The more Alton watches, the more he wants to learn.

                As Alton learns more and starts to practice, the reader can learn more (if he or she really wants to). Whenever there’s a section explaining how the game works, there’s a little whale so that if the reader wants to skip to the quick summary box, he or she can. I personally found it fascinating, but that’s just me, and I can understand why other people wouldn’t want to learn about bridge. Sachar seems to know how teens think, and gives those with no interest in bridge a way out without them giving up on the book.

                Of course, this wouldn’t be great YA with just an explanation of bridge. In fact, that would probably get Sachar tons of angry letters from readers who were expecting to read a novel. No, Alton learns the dark secrets of Trapp’s past, makes a friend (or more) out of Toni, and tries to balance the complications that occur when your best friend is dating your ex-girlfriend. He also starts to realise how strange his parents really are for expecting Trapp's money.  I liked how bridge really does seem to be a metaphor for life, it’s what you do with the hand you’re dealt that counts.

CB #11 The Wisdom of Whores

The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani

                The great thing about having a human-rights loving sister is that there are always interesting things to read when you go home and visit. I found that this book was exactly what I needed, incredibly fascinating and about a subject that I would love to know more about. I had learned a little bit about AIDS and HIV in a course last year about disease in global literature. We had read Sziwe’s Test by Jonny Steinberg, which focused on why so many people in South Africa weren’t getting tested even though clinics were relatively available. We also read Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe , a novel that explored the lives of the residents of Hillbrow in Joannesburg, including the rise of HIV and xenophobia, as well as how traditional views and the modern world are colliding in post-apartheid South Africa. These other books had piqued my interest, and I was interested in hearing about the global fight against AIDS.

                Pisani is an epidemiologist who has been covering the AIDS crisis around the world since the 1990’s. Her main focus has been in Asia, particularly Indonesia. Her journalism background means that what she writes is always both entertaining and informative. Her writing doesn’t get weighed down by jargon and she’s able to explain the many complicated facets of the fight against AIDS, including the politics behind it.

                Her main concern throughout this work is that because AIDS is caused by two “wicked” things, sex and drugs, that the politics of fighting AIDS has become murky. Tax payers don’t want to give money to wicked behavior, and they want their money to have an effect  and politicians realize this.  AIDS activists, including Pisani, have had to massage their statistics so that it seemed as if the AIDS crisis would affect innocents, good wives and children, in the hope that they would get the funding that they needed. In reality, it’s only in Sub-Saharan Africa that the AIDS crisis has become this all-consuming monster that regularly affects everyone in society. Pisani argues that there are two ways of thinking about AIDS and HIV: thinking about the spread of disease in Africa and thinking about the spread of HIV in the rest of the world. In Africa, anyone is at risk of getting HIV, and Pisani comes up with a few reasons why sexual behavior and cultural mores may have caused that. In the rest of the world, the people who are most at risk are those who engage in high risk behavior. They are sex workers or intravenous drug users or they have anal sex or some combination of the three; often they are extremely marginalized in society. 

              For example, intravenous drug users are the most at risk of getting HIV, because of the nature of the fluids exchanged. However, the programs that would most help prevent the spread of HIV in this group, are clean needle programs, and those are hard to get people to pay for. Even in Canada, the Conservative government keeps on threatening to shut down the Vancouver needle exchange.  It is easier to get money to pay for treatments (which can only last as long as the money lasts) because it  makes donors (including donor countries) feel like they are truly being effective. However, if they really wanted to change the world and stop the spread of HIV, they should focus more on prevention: condoms and clean needles and making sure that those who need these items have access and incentives to use them.

                For Pisani, the main issue is that the public view of morality and fighting this disease seem to be at cross-purposes. In her opinion, sex and drugs are fun things, and people love doing them. Though other people may have a moral problem with this, the best option is to make these fun things safe. Unfortunately, at the moment of her writing (2008) the focus was on trying to make safe things like abstinence seem fun. Human nature really does not seem to work on these lines. The problem is, is that when people focus too much on morality they ignore the people who are most at risk. Pisani notes that sex workers need to make money, and there are many highly functioning drug addicts out there. Our concern as human beings is to make sure that we don’t discount other people’s lives just because they don’t behave like we want them too. Pisani seems to recognize how hard it is for people to think about these populations in a positive way. It’s key that she notes that she couldn’t handle her (now ex-) husband’s descent into drug addiction, even though she had no problem helping the drug addicts and sex workers on the streets of Indonesia. It was just too close for comfort.

                Pisani isn’t the most politically correct person, and she’s really trying to fight back against the politics of development that seem to have overtaken all conversations about HIV and AIDS. As well, she doesn’t offer any opinions on how to make people change their minds about those who are at risk. I feel that her argument would be even stronger if she made an argument for the marginalized that stood against the moralizing of donors and tax payers. She needs to argue more strongly that these people matter, simply because they are people. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that fact.

CB # 10 The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Translated by Alison Anderson

Renée is the concierge at a fancy apartment building in Paris. She has the elegance of a hedgehog, for all of her better traits are hidden under all the ways that she pretends to be someone else. She loves Tolstoy, her cat is named Leo and she loves to challenge herself by reading about phenomenology and watching Japanese films. She hides these facts well. She pretends to be nothing more than a stupid woman who loves watching television and eating rudimentary food, when on the inside she’s on fire with thoughts. She loves beauty but she won’t let anyone else know it.

Paloma lives in one of the apartments in the building. She is twelve years old and decidedly precocious. She has decided to kill herself and burn down the building on her thirteenth birthday to spite her family, and so that she doesn’t end up trapped in the typical life of the bourgeois. There only seems to be one route to go when you’re wealthy and intelligent, and she doesn’t want to follow along. Obviously, these two women need to meet and find out about their similarities, but the novel doesn’t take the expected route.

I found this novel beautiful but frustrating. I loved the fact that the two main characters were thinking about the world they lived in. I loved the fact that they admired beauty, discussed philosophy and had thoughts about the kind of life they were living. They were interesting, unique individuals, but I was frustrated by the way they viewed the world. They obsessed about Beauty and Truth, but made serious efforts to disguise their love. They both hide their true selves from the world, and pretend that their hiding makes them noble, instead of scared. By being unwilling to expose their true selves and thoughts to the world, I found them both nihilistic, which I think was the complete opposite of what the novel intended. They assumed that no one ever could understand them so they gave up on trying to let people in. Paloma, I can almost understand, because she is so young, and teenagers are dramatic and frustrating even at the best of times. I have a harder time with Renée because she is an adult, and I feel that her experience of life should have given her a broader perspective on people.

I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have a full understanding of how French culture works that I had such a discomfort with the characters. I do know that there is a serious stasis for anyone who wants to be employed there, and maybe the novel is supposed to reflect this, as well as French class issues. I did love that the many subjects of my undergrad, phenomenology and great literature, were discussed, and made me feel more at home in this book.

This novel had some very thought provoking moments but my favourite one begins by saying: What is the purpose of intelligence if it is not to serve others?  […] If you belong to the closed inner sanctum of the elite, you must serve in equal proportion to the glory and ease of material existence you derive from belonging to that inner sanctum.

The only thing that matters is your intention: are you elevating thought and contributing to the common good, or rather joining the ranks in a field of study whose only purpose is its own perpetuation, and only function the self-reproduction of a sterile elite – for this turns university into a sect.

CB #9 The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

The original plan for my reading week was to get tons of reading done. It didn’t happen. Instead I went to look at penguins,  wander around museums, cheer on the Habs and tried to sleep. This was the only book I finished, though I did get fairly far in my next read.

I was raised on fairy tales, specifically Irish fairy tales, where the fairies are out to get you. It’s not that they’re evil, per say, but they want what they want and they don’t have the same understanding of consequences. They don’t understand that humans need their friends and family, and that being tossed out of fairyland 100 years after you were taken, does you absolutely no favours.  I always knew that if the fairies took me then I’d better not eat a thing they offered me, unless they could offer me salt, and having some iron on your person is always helpful. Also, (though not as relevant to this book) be kind to people in general, and not just strangers. The people you know really well are more likely to be the ones who run into Fairyland to save you (usually on a horse that only ate clover, or was never shoed, or some other crazy detail) so maybe you should be kind to them so that they won’t abandon you.

Pratchett wrote the Tiffany Achung books for younger readers who might also like the magic and weirdness of Discworld. I have the incredibly bad habit so just reading whatever book in a series I can get my hand on, so I’ve already read A Hat Full of Sky, which I thought was just alright. I enjoyed this book far more because I got to understand Tiffany. However, I do love Pratchett’s footnotes, and once again there was only one.

She’s been the youngest child in her family for close to nine years, and then all of a sudden she has a baby brother, Wentworth, who she has to take care of all of the time. She’s intensely practical so when she notices that there’s a Jenny Green-Teeth with eyes as big as soup plates ( the kind that are eight inches across) in her river, she tempts it with her brother and then clobbers it with an iron frying pan. This causes the Wee Free Men , the toughest, tiniest fairies who love to drink and fight, to realize that she’s a hag or witch, and ask her for her help. The Queen of Fairies is on her way and she will try to enslave them once again. As well, she has already captured some humans who might want to escape her version of happiness. Oh, and she just kidnapped Wentworth.

This novel is funny and sweet and possibly a bit scary for younger readers. Like a lot of Pratchett’s works there are a few morals including: question conventional wisdom, don’t assume that people you don’t understand are evil and my personal favourite.

   'Now… If you trust in yourself…’

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… and believe in your dreams…”

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… and follow your star…’

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy. Goodbye’

Good advice for all of us.

Reading at the right time or Why YA?

                Let’s be honest. There is both a wrong time and a right time to read something, and it can be impossible to know the difference until you start reading. When I was 11, I tried to read 1984. It didn’t work. I found it boring and dry and I only got 50 pages in. I shocked a teacher by saying it was the most boring book ever. I was eventually able to read it though, when I was 15, but only after reading Animal Farm and a whole bunch of other things. I was amazed to find the book so different. It was intense and dark and terrifying, a beautiful nightmare.

                I’m not just talking about reading things before you’re ready, though it is the more likely thing to happen. There are tons of works that are only able to speak to you because of where you were at that time, and they are still able to speak to you as a reminder of the past. It’s hard to imagine people who can’t remember the emotions of adolescence finding anything to enjoy in Catcher in the Rye. Sure Holden’s just as phony as the people he hates, but I felt sorry for him because he doesn’t recognize it yet and because I could recognize myself in him.

                 There are books you need to read in certain ways, at certain times, so that they can touch your heart, save your life, change your mind or move you forward so that you can read that next thing that will mean the world to you. There were books I read, like The Chocolate War and Huckleberry Finn, that I read because other people didn’t want me to. I had found the ALA list of most challenged books and decided to read as many of these as I could. Part of the power of these books came from the fact that someone out there thought that I shouldn’t read them.

                Where does YA fit in to this? Everywhere.

                 Going back to 1984, I needed certain books to move me forward to the point where I could admire it. I needed to read other dystopias, as well as other completely different books. I also needed other books that referenced it to pique my interest once again. A lot of YA makes allusions to other “greater” works, or raised my consciousness about issues that had never crossed my mind before. It made me want to read further, to find out more. YA can be a stepping stone to other works, but it can also be a good unto itself.

                And then there’s The Chocolate War. Right now I’m working on a presentation on a challenged book, and I found myself returning to this one. When I first read it, I was a pretty typical teen. I was a mystery to myself.  I didn’t understand what I was feeling or why I was acting the way I was, and no one else seemed to understand me either.  It didn’t help that I’ve never liked to talk about my problems and there was some bullying going on. I’ve mentioned this before, but this book meant a lot to me back then; however, I don’t ever want to read it again.  In the novel, bad things happened to good people and evil triumphed… or did it? Maybe life wasn’t that simple. Maybe there were other options. It was comforting to hear about the dark things, things that sounded like part of my life and not have it banished from the story.

                I was sad when Robert Cormier died and when Monica Hughes died and when Madeline L’Engle died. I'll be sad when other authors die too. These people mattered to me because they helped give me an emotional vocabulary. Maybe not new words, but new stories, new phrases that helped me recognize myself and others. Sometimes you need to be shown that what you feel is real, that you are not alone in feeling this way, that other people have it worse, and that you should help them if you can. Maybe today sucks, and maybe tomorrow will too, but that doesn’t mean that something better won’t show up someday and you have a role to play in that. Yes, adolescence is a time for melodrama (and oh what melodrama!), but that doesn’t mean that the feelings aren’t real. And sometimes a book can help you figure it out.