As promised, this is a review of the first book in Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. (I read the prequel, New Spring first, although it was written later.)
Moiraine Sedai and Lan Mandragoran have spent much time searching throughout the land for the child who will become the "Dragon". In the backwater Two Rivers area, they realize they have found him when the village is attacked by evil creatures. The creatures target three teen boys specifically - Rand, Mat, and Perrin; Moiraine and Lan take the boys away, hoping to take them to safety at Tar Valon. The Eye of the World follows the group's journey, as the boys realize each of them will play an important part in saving the land from The Evil One.
I mentioned in my review for New Spring that that book assumed a knowledge of certain terms used throughout the series; luckily, many of those terms are explained in greater detail in this volume. There are also a series of maps of different areas of the land in which the story takes place, and the ever-helpful glossary at the back of the book.
I really enjoyed this volume (even more than I liked the prequel), so I think I will continue reading the series for a while longer.
Section of wikipedia article which explains the premise behind the series.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner/Alan Sillitoe/144 pp.
This is one of the best collections of short stories, by an artist I'd never heard of, that I have ever read. Sillitoe was born and raised in Nottingham, England, in a working-class family. At the age of 14 he left school and went to work with his father in a local bicycle factory. The stories in this collection mostly deal with families like Sillitoe's - poor factory workers living in cramped, dirty houses where the noise, soot and grime of the nearby factory is a constant part of their lives.
The title story is about a young man (Colin) who robs a bakery and is sent to a borstal, a sort of part youth prison, part reform school. The governor (warden) of the borstal gives him the opportunity to run cross-country meets for the prison track team; Colin is a good runner, and the governor thinks he will help him to win against a posh private school and get the borstal some good publicity. Throughout the race against the private school, Colin is way in the lead, but he stops running shortly before the finish line, intentionally losing the race to show the governor he is in charge of his own life.
"Uncle Ernest" is about a veteran of World War I who has suffered a mental breakdown due to his experiences in the war. There is an almost childlike innocence to him; when he meets two young girls at a diner, obviously poor and hungry, he offers to buy them something to eat. He continues to meet the girls at the diner, and the older of the two begins taking advantage of his innocence, getting him to buy them other things. Unfortunately, Ernest's motives are misunderstood by other patrons of the diner; they (and the police) assume he is a pervert, and warn him away from the girls.
I enjoyed all the stories in this volume, but I think my favorite was "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller". Frankie is a young man of about twenty, who has the mental capacity of a younger boy; he acts as general (though he prefers to be called sergeant-major) in the neighborhood boys' skirmishes with other groups of boys. World War II is approaching, and Frankie assumes that when the war starts, he'll go to join his father's regiment; obviously, when the war does begin, he is rejected for service and ends up assisting the local civil defense patrols. This story is obviously at least partially autobiographical; Frankie addresses the narrator as "Alan", and Alan is a writer of stories about his old neighborhood. Sillitoe uses the story to reminisce about his own childhood and to express regret over having "moved on" to be a well-known writer who seems to have lost touch with his roots.
Reviewers have compared this book to The Catcher in the Rye, calling Colin a "British Holden Caulfield". It's easily one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read. Unfortunately, this copy of the book will not be going back into the MULSA book sale - it was missing a front cover when I got it, and has lost several pages since then. However, I note from MERLIN that there are several copies in the Libraries' collection: MERLIN
The title story is about a young man (Colin) who robs a bakery and is sent to a borstal, a sort of part youth prison, part reform school. The governor (warden) of the borstal gives him the opportunity to run cross-country meets for the prison track team; Colin is a good runner, and the governor thinks he will help him to win against a posh private school and get the borstal some good publicity. Throughout the race against the private school, Colin is way in the lead, but he stops running shortly before the finish line, intentionally losing the race to show the governor he is in charge of his own life.
"Uncle Ernest" is about a veteran of World War I who has suffered a mental breakdown due to his experiences in the war. There is an almost childlike innocence to him; when he meets two young girls at a diner, obviously poor and hungry, he offers to buy them something to eat. He continues to meet the girls at the diner, and the older of the two begins taking advantage of his innocence, getting him to buy them other things. Unfortunately, Ernest's motives are misunderstood by other patrons of the diner; they (and the police) assume he is a pervert, and warn him away from the girls.
I enjoyed all the stories in this volume, but I think my favorite was "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller". Frankie is a young man of about twenty, who has the mental capacity of a younger boy; he acts as general (though he prefers to be called sergeant-major) in the neighborhood boys' skirmishes with other groups of boys. World War II is approaching, and Frankie assumes that when the war starts, he'll go to join his father's regiment; obviously, when the war does begin, he is rejected for service and ends up assisting the local civil defense patrols. This story is obviously at least partially autobiographical; Frankie addresses the narrator as "Alan", and Alan is a writer of stories about his old neighborhood. Sillitoe uses the story to reminisce about his own childhood and to express regret over having "moved on" to be a well-known writer who seems to have lost touch with his roots.
Reviewers have compared this book to The Catcher in the Rye, calling Colin a "British Holden Caulfield". It's easily one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read. Unfortunately, this copy of the book will not be going back into the MULSA book sale - it was missing a front cover when I got it, and has lost several pages since then. However, I note from MERLIN that there are several copies in the Libraries' collection: MERLIN
Thursday, July 21, 2011
American Uprising / Daniel Rasmussen / 317 p.
Daniel Rasmussen, a young white historian, retells the little known story of a massive slave rebellion held in January 1811 in Louisiana along the German Coast.
Slaves Kook, Quamana, and Charles Deslondes led a revolt of around 500 slaves by its brutal termination. They used Carnaval as the time to strike during the break from sugar cane cultivation and as a guise for clandestine meetings that would go relatively unnoticed.
This quick and fascinating read illuminates the story of this little-known slave revolt and its cover-up by Gen. William Claiborne, situated within the culture of the times, Southern slavery, and plot and intrigue of American annexation of West Florida. And it's all in HarperLuxe (larger print for those of us with weak eyes)!
For more information, visit the author's website: http://www.danrasmussen.net/
Friday, July 15, 2011
Purge / Sofi Oksanen / 390 p.
I found out about this book from the Estonian guy in my book group. Its author is a 33 year old Finnish-Estonian woman who first conceived of the story as a play. The novel is the first to win both of Finland's top literary awards, the Finlandia and the Runeberg.
Looking at the cover, which features a thin young woman wearing an apron, working at a counter with a lump of dough and some apples and looking behind her, with a slight air of unexplained tension, an American reader might surmise that the title refers in some way to eating disorders. It does not, at all. Instead, it is a reference to the the Soviet persecution of large segments of the Estonian population after World War II. One of the two main characters of the book was a young woman during that bleak period, and the other one, a younger woman, also has a personal relationship to that word.
The action of the novel opens in 1992, when the two characters come together, but this action is interspersed with a written diary of another character from the past, and other written documents, and the narrative bounces between decades, between the 1930's and 40's and 1992. Even translated into English, the language of the novel is obviously literary yet not pretentious. Somehow, the reader does not shrink away, even when terrible events, and perhaps even more terrible non-events, play out.
Before I read Purge, I asked my Estonian friend what rings true to him in terms of his own perceptions of rural Estonia, and he said, well, the flies...the constant swatting of flies.
Like the movie about rural Missouri, Winter's Bone, it has harsh and difficult parts, yet it left me more reflective than dismayed.
Looking at the cover, which features a thin young woman wearing an apron, working at a counter with a lump of dough and some apples and looking behind her, with a slight air of unexplained tension, an American reader might surmise that the title refers in some way to eating disorders. It does not, at all. Instead, it is a reference to the the Soviet persecution of large segments of the Estonian population after World War II. One of the two main characters of the book was a young woman during that bleak period, and the other one, a younger woman, also has a personal relationship to that word.
The action of the novel opens in 1992, when the two characters come together, but this action is interspersed with a written diary of another character from the past, and other written documents, and the narrative bounces between decades, between the 1930's and 40's and 1992. Even translated into English, the language of the novel is obviously literary yet not pretentious. Somehow, the reader does not shrink away, even when terrible events, and perhaps even more terrible non-events, play out.
Before I read Purge, I asked my Estonian friend what rings true to him in terms of his own perceptions of rural Estonia, and he said, well, the flies...the constant swatting of flies.
Like the movie about rural Missouri, Winter's Bone, it has harsh and difficult parts, yet it left me more reflective than dismayed.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Iron Thorn / Caitlin Kittredge / 512 p.
In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical—born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day. Aoife Grayson's family is unique, in the worst way—every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.
When we meet Aoife (pronounced Ee-fah, in case you were curious), she is an Uptown girl enrolled in the School of Machines (one of the FEW girls enrolled there) waiting to go mad. However, notes from her estranged brother convince her to escape school and Uptown and head for her father's mansion in Arkham to find and help her brother. What she discovers there is crazy beyond her wildest dreams.
I loved the characters in this book. Aoife was a character that I really, truly enjoyed reading about. She was..different. She has this chip on her shoulder about the madness that is a part of her family and the looming eventuality that it will probably affect her as well. But...she's also got a bit of an attitude. She's cautious but she's not afraid to pursue the things that are important to her.
The whole world that Kittredge has created is really spectacular. There is a little bit of everything for everyone! Seriously! It took me a little bit to get into the language with all the crazy inventions and such (welcome to steampunk, I suppose, lol), but once the plot gets going you can't put the book down! Don't let its size/length stop you from picking this one up. It's a fabulous read.
I loved the characters in this book. Aoife was a character that I really, truly enjoyed reading about. She was..different. She has this chip on her shoulder about the madness that is a part of her family and the looming eventuality that it will probably affect her as well. But...she's also got a bit of an attitude. She's cautious but she's not afraid to pursue the things that are important to her.
The whole world that Kittredge has created is really spectacular. There is a little bit of everything for everyone! Seriously! It took me a little bit to get into the language with all the crazy inventions and such (welcome to steampunk, I suppose, lol), but once the plot gets going you can't put the book down! Don't let its size/length stop you from picking this one up. It's a fabulous read.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof/Tennessee Williams/158 pp.
The second of a pair of Williams plays I read recently. "Cat" takes place in the bed/sitting room of Brick and Maggie Pollitt in the plantation home of "Big Daddy" Pollitt, Brick's father. Big Daddy is a rich man, owner of a huge plantation; the occasion that takes place in the play is the celebration of Big Daddy's birthday and his (supposed) clean bill of health from recent medical tests. All the family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) know that the medical tests actually came back positive for cancer, and they plan to gently break this news to Big Daddy.
The play chiefly deals with Brick's relationships with Maggy, Big Daddy, and Brick's brother, "Gooper" (Cooper). Brick and Maggie haven't slept in the same bed for quite some time, partly because of Brick's worsening alcoholism. Big Daddy wants Brick to overcome his alcoholism and general indifference to the world so that he can take over the running of the plantation, while Gooper and his wife try to get the plantation for themselves by making Brick look bad in front of Big Daddy and Big Mama. A subplot of the play is Maggie's questioning of Brick's relationship with his best friend, Skipper, who recently committed suicide; Maggie wondered if Brick and Skipper were homosexual lovers, and slept with Skipper to challenge their relationship. Her confrontation with Skipper is what resulted in his suicide, and the suicide is what has caused Brick's heavy drinking and general apathy.
Williams' handling of the interactions of this "Old South" family, his willingness to deal with topics like alcoholism, cancer and sexuality at such an early date, and the sometimes autobiographical nature of the story make this an interesting and entertaining read.
The play chiefly deals with Brick's relationships with Maggy, Big Daddy, and Brick's brother, "Gooper" (Cooper). Brick and Maggie haven't slept in the same bed for quite some time, partly because of Brick's worsening alcoholism. Big Daddy wants Brick to overcome his alcoholism and general indifference to the world so that he can take over the running of the plantation, while Gooper and his wife try to get the plantation for themselves by making Brick look bad in front of Big Daddy and Big Mama. A subplot of the play is Maggie's questioning of Brick's relationship with his best friend, Skipper, who recently committed suicide; Maggie wondered if Brick and Skipper were homosexual lovers, and slept with Skipper to challenge their relationship. Her confrontation with Skipper is what resulted in his suicide, and the suicide is what has caused Brick's heavy drinking and general apathy.
Williams' handling of the interactions of this "Old South" family, his willingness to deal with topics like alcoholism, cancer and sexuality at such an early date, and the sometimes autobiographical nature of the story make this an interesting and entertaining read.
Inside Out / Maria V. Snyder / 315 p.
For me, Inside Out was a book that really had a little bit of everything: a likeable heroine, attractive boys, rebellion, romance, tragedy...everything! I know that I am a major sucker for dystopian novels but this one was seriously awesome. I can't believe I didn't read it before!
In the world of Inside, the "Uppers" and "scrubs" live separate lives--dependent on each other but not really knowing what life is really like for the other half. The world (and all information that flows within it) is controlled by the Travas and the "Pop Cops." When a "prophet" from the Upper levels shows up talking about the Gateway, Trella is determined to put a stop to such dreaming. To prove him wrong, she goes after his "proof" and along the way starts a rebellion the likes of which Inside has never seen...
Trella is a scrub, destined to spend her life in the lower levels as one among many doing the 'dirty work.' From the beginning, she presents herself as someone who doesn't want you to like her. She keeps her head low and doesn't make friends. She has an attitude that doesn't allow her to get close to anyone--the only exception being Cog, a boy she grew up with who everyone likes. However, I found it hard not to like her, despite her attitude--or make "like isn't the right word: RESPECT. She's definitely a tough chick with her head and her heart in the right place when it counts. She may be standoffish in the beginning, but she definitely grows throughout the book and it's fantastic to watch her personality develop and her attitude shift (slowly but surely).
We've got a couple of awesome male characters alongside Trella throughout as well. First, there's Cogon (or Cog, as everyone calls him). Cog is Trella's only friend. They were birth mates and he's always been there for her, even as she tries to push everyone away. I loved Cog (like everyone else I suppose!). He was so genuine that I think you couldn't help but love him! And then there's Riley, the Upper who Trella meets by accident when she's (illegally) exploring the upper levels. The two of them are quite the pair! I loved it as they try to get to know one another and uncover the myths that each side has been fed about the other. Trella is so untrusting of people and Riley has to work so hard to earn her trust.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was a great addition to all the dystopias that I've read lately and I thought that the society was developed superbly.
In the world of Inside, the "Uppers" and "scrubs" live separate lives--dependent on each other but not really knowing what life is really like for the other half. The world (and all information that flows within it) is controlled by the Travas and the "Pop Cops." When a "prophet" from the Upper levels shows up talking about the Gateway, Trella is determined to put a stop to such dreaming. To prove him wrong, she goes after his "proof" and along the way starts a rebellion the likes of which Inside has never seen...
Trella is a scrub, destined to spend her life in the lower levels as one among many doing the 'dirty work.' From the beginning, she presents herself as someone who doesn't want you to like her. She keeps her head low and doesn't make friends. She has an attitude that doesn't allow her to get close to anyone--the only exception being Cog, a boy she grew up with who everyone likes. However, I found it hard not to like her, despite her attitude--or make "like isn't the right word: RESPECT. She's definitely a tough chick with her head and her heart in the right place when it counts. She may be standoffish in the beginning, but she definitely grows throughout the book and it's fantastic to watch her personality develop and her attitude shift (slowly but surely).
We've got a couple of awesome male characters alongside Trella throughout as well. First, there's Cogon (or Cog, as everyone calls him). Cog is Trella's only friend. They were birth mates and he's always been there for her, even as she tries to push everyone away. I loved Cog (like everyone else I suppose!). He was so genuine that I think you couldn't help but love him! And then there's Riley, the Upper who Trella meets by accident when she's (illegally) exploring the upper levels. The two of them are quite the pair! I loved it as they try to get to know one another and uncover the myths that each side has been fed about the other. Trella is so untrusting of people and Riley has to work so hard to earn her trust.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was a great addition to all the dystopias that I've read lately and I thought that the society was developed superbly.
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