Weekly Geeks: Making A List? December 14, 2009

Wow, it’s time for another Weekly Geeks post already! How the time flies. This week, in honor of the upcoming holidays, I presume, the team asks us some questions about books as gifts, for both ourselves and others.

 I don’t tend to ask for books, literally. But bookstore gift cards nearly always find their way into packages for me, whether I ask or not. But usually I do ask. I just love the whole gift card concept. Occasionally, I’ll ask for a specific book. But I’ve never said, “Oh, whatever you find…” It might be fun to do that someday, though, and see what I get. Like potluck, only different.

Books seem to make really good gifts for others. I’ve gotten books for friends, and for a relative this year (I won’t tell who, in case they’re reading my blog!!). I most often choose books that seem to fit the person. I know they say, “Buy what you would want for yourself,” but that doesn’t always work, from my experience.

I tend to buy book gifts at big-box bookstores. First, I’ll browse the sale section. Sometimes you can find really great stuff in there. If I don’t find something good, on to the regular shelves. Occasionally I’ll buy books online, but very rarely.You have to pay for the convenience in the ominous form of   Shipping and Handling  **cue scary music**!

The To-Be-Read Stack– Literally! December 14, 2009

Most bookworms seem to have a to-be-read (commonly abbreviated to TBR) stack, either literal or virtual. Usually mine is just floating around in my head. But now I have a real one sitting on my desk. I took a picture, just for fun. Here it is:

They’re all from the local library. Here’s a description, listed from top to bottom.

• The Wanderer, by Sharon Creech. Published quite a while ago, this realistic fiction is written by one of my favorite authors of the genre. I’m currently reading this one.
• The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones. A fantasy that I read a positive review of on a book blog (can’t remember which one) a month or so ago. I was reminded of that review when I picked this one up and found the snippet on the back cover rather amusing.
• Septimus Heap, Book Five: Syren by Angie Sage. The fifth book in one of my favorite children’s fantasy series. I was preparing to order this one from the online library network, having just finished and reviewed the fourth book, when I spotted this one in the “New Titles” section. I had to reach over and around a little fake Christmas tree to reach it!
• The Lady Grace Mysteries: Betrayal by Patricia Finney, writing as Lady Grace Cavendish. Told in diary format, this series of Elizabethan historical fiction/mysteries is just plain fun to read. I read the first book in the series a couple weeks ago, but I tore through it so fast it never made it into my “Currently Reading” widget.

Harry Potter spin-off? Maybe, maybe not December 11, 2009

Title: Septimus Heap, Book Four: Queste 

 Author: Angie Sage, illustrated by Mark Zug

Release Date: April 2008

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

 Pages: 596

Genre: fantasy

Age Range: Children’s

Summary/Teaser: Septimus Heap, back from his latest time-travel adventure, soon encounters trouble at the Castle where he lives, apprenticed to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand. Merrin Meredith is back with a Darke curse in store for Septimus. Septimus and his friends Jenna and Beetle have plans of their own: rescuing Nicko and Snorri, who seem to be trapped back in time.

Review: My reading experience with this book wasn’t perfect. Let me explain: it has been ages since I read the first three book in this series (Magyk, Flyte, and Physik), so many of the mentioned events in this one were quite blurred in my mind. This, most certainly, doesn’t mean that the book itself was bad.

In fact, the book was quite entertaining. It was action-packed, funny, and magical, as were the first three books, to my recollection of them. The series is definitely for a younger audience (sometimes things are a bit silly, the solutions too simple), but I enjoyed it. The huge size of the book, nearly 600 pages, isn’t challenging to read at all. The text is relatively large, the narrative flowing, and the fantastic illustrations by artist Mark Zug positioned at the beginning of each chapter. Speaking of chapters, there are quite a few; the table of contents takes up several pages!

This series seems to be often compared to the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. But Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap books are unique. I can’t quite place it, but they just seem fresh and different. I can see the similarities they point out, though: the young, orphaned (only seemingly, for a while, in Septimus’s case), magical boy goes on to become a talented wizard. The two characters even share those trademark green eyes!

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 stars.

Weekly Geeks 2009-44 December 9, 2009

It’s time for another Weekly Geeks post! This week, the team asks us some questions about our reading habits and reading process. Here is my general answer, all mushed together…

Most of the books I read come from the little local library, which is close enough to easily walk to in fair weather. Once I get settled in the tiny young adult section, my reading decisions are largely based on the little synopsis most books provide on the back or in the front jacket flap. I used to be an all-fantasy-all-the-time girl, but I’ve broadened my horizons considerably. If I’m in the mood to write a review for this blog, I’ll choose something fairly recently published.

Once I’ve brought the books safely home, I’ll set them aside until I find time to read. I don’t do anything special during reading. But after I’ve finished, I’ll think about the story for a few minutes, then, to remind myself to write a review (if I’m going to, for that book), I’ll hop on the computer, title the review and start it, then save a draft until I’m fully ready to write.

Other than writing a book review, there might be a few things I do before I declare my reading  experience officially through, but it depends. I kinda-sorta keep a “reading journal” where I write the titles of books I’ve read and record my thoughts on them, but it’s use is on and off. About 50% of the time I’ll ignore the dismal little composition book sitting on my desk. I briefly used GoodReads to keep track of my reading and connect with other bookworms, but that account went to ruin. It’s been sitting, unused, since about June. Book blogging has been sufficient for me. However, I’m looking into taking up that account again, or perhaps re-joining altogether. Start with a clean slate. I’ll think about it.

After I’ve finished all of those aforementioned gyrations, the book is ready to go back to the library. Occasionally the book will go into my bookshelf, if I’ve bought it, but  for the sake of saving money, I like to get books from the library system. The only time I buy books is when I have a bookstore gift card, which is usually around the holidays, as they are popular gifts for me. What to get for the girl who loves reading, but likes picking her own books? There you go.

Ah, how Christmas has changed… December 7, 2009

I honestly can’t believe it’s December already(I know this post is really late–sorry!), though the weather around here has been very winter-ish. I know, I know, winter isn’t until December 21st, but it just seems like winter. Have you noticed that the blog is snowing? Little snowflakes are falling down the page! Extremely cute, I think– thanks for the feature, WordPress! Anyway, since the month of Christmas is upon us, I thought I’d write my first Christmas post of the season. I’ve been reflecting on artificial trees, battery-operated candles, and other ways Christmas has been modernized and changed, for better of for worse. Here I detail by thoughts for you, reader, to see.

Let’s start with the traditional Christmas tree: most of the people I know use artificial–fake–trees. My family always uses a good old-fashioned real one. Concerns with real trees seem to include a fire hazard, cleaning up after the needles, the environmental issue, and the worry of the tree falling down. Despite these problems, a real evergreen just makes Christmas Christmas for me.  Maybe the lovely scent has something to do with it? Or perhaps it’s the quirky irregularity of the branches that makes it such fun to find just the right nook or cranny to fit a particular ornament? Some try to replicate the pine scent by burning a candle nearby their plastic tree. More often than not, the candle will be fake, too.

Christmas is the season of giving. Wouldn’t want to be a Scrooge! But giving within our own homes and families has changed so much, and gone overboard, in my opinion. We feel obligated to get a little knick-knack for our third cousin twice removed (or was it our second cousin thrice removed?). What is the likelihood that this distant relative will actually appreciate this object? If you’ve only met this person once or twice, can it actually be a genuine token of love?

Also, kids expect so much on Christmas. The younger ones who still believe in Santa Claus will often make out a long and extravagant list because they believe that Santa and his elves can make and deliver toys and gadgets beyond their wildest dreams. I’m not saying to ruin the magic of Christmas for the youngsters, but perhaps you could teach them some restraint. My mother always advised me to limit my North-pole bound list to three or four items. Now that I’m older, the spending limit on gifts is about $100. But I see children asking for gifts that cost well beyond that! Do you think that 6-year-olds really need the latest cell phone that can do about a sixty things other than make calls? This is supposed to be a recession. During the Great Depression, which my great-grandmother grew up in, children would receive nuts and fruits in their stockings. Oranges were a special treat. You wouldn’t see that today. The kiddies would throw tantrums. If you ask me, that deserves coal, and I don’t mean the candy kind.

Invasion of the Ladybugs November 30, 2009

Usually, by the time the first frost rolls around, the ladybugs that reside outdoors in my backyard have moved into the house. Actually, I believe that the insect’s proper name is “ladybird,” but I’ve been calling them ladybugs for so long it’s hard to break the habit. Anyway, one friendly little ladybug has taken up residence in my bedroom: he (or she) has made himself comfortable in a corner, right between the wall and ceiling. Since I’ve figured out how to zoom in with the family digital camera, I took a picture.

Please excuse the poor quality of the image; I cropped it down and it came out slightly fuzzy!

A Dream Within A Dream I November 24, 2009

Announcing a new post series! This one, “A Dream Within A Dream,” is dedicated to recording some of my more interesting dreams. Before I begin with this installment, I have a few people to mention/give credit to. First of all, Edgar Allan Poe, one of my favorite poets,  for the title of this series, which is also that of his poem A Dream Within A Dream. Second, I was inspired a while ago to write a little something about dreams when Sharry wrote a bit on a dream she had over at her blog, Always Dreaming. Lastly, I’d like to mention Amanda over at Dream Log Blog, which is a blog completely dedicated to dreams. If you’re interested in dreams, both nighttime and day dreams, I encourage you to pay her a visit! Anyway, the dream  itself is marked at the beginning and end with asterisks.

****

I’m climbing up the creaking stairs to the attic of an old mansion. I think the mansion is open to the public, but its empty at the moment. As I get into the attic, I look around, but there’s nothing but old, empty crates and boxes. I take a last peek around and spot a primitive wooden doll leaning against the wall in the corner. It’s clothed in a rough wool dress, and it’s facial features and limbs are very unrealistic, some oversized, some undersized. As I reach out to pick up the doll, it turns it’s head!

I yelp and jump back, but the doll continues to come to life, growing slowly but steadily. I run for the stairs and bolt out of the attic, but the doll pursues, moving slightly slower, if much more creakily, than I. I make it out of the mansion and burst into the lawn. The doll seems trapped in the doorway, unable to leave the mansion. The scene fades out.

I’m in an office of some kind. From the sterile, antiseptic smell and feel, it’s a doctor’s office. As I listen to the people around me talk, I realize this is a psychologist’s office. Funny sort of psychologist’s office, I think. Eventually I’m led into see the psychologist himself. He already knows about my problem.

“Tell me more about it,” he says. I describe the strange incident in as much detail as I can muster, and as I talk, my fear grows. I begin to tremble.

“Hmm,” says the doctor, scribbling in his notebook. He seems to be trying to think of a way to convince me the doll wasn’t possessed by something. “Perhaps the doll was hollow, and there was a mouse, or maybe a snake, inside. Did it just sort of twitch, like this?” He begins to subtly jerk parts of his body.

“Nope,” I say. “And it was growing, remember?” The psychologist continues his twitching. I wonder if he is quite well. The scene begins to fade out, and just before I lose the room all together, the man mutters something about rice. Huh.

I’m back in the mansion of the possessed doll, but I feel braver now. I have a friend or two with me, and we’re planning to be rid of the thing once and for all. There are a few suits of armor around the mansion, so we arm ourselves with spears, swords, and daggers we find on their hollow metal persons. The weaponry looks and feels suspiciously like cardboard that’s been spray-painted silver.

“Do you think these will do any good?” asks one friend.

“They’ll have to,” is my grim reply.

We search the place fervently. A couple of times we have to duck out of sight because of passing school groups. Why they would be here, I don’t know. Finally, we here an inhuman moaning and groaning. We glance at each other meaningfully, then advance toward the sound, brandishing our flimsy weapons.

We spot the doll in a side room. It has grown to about five feet tall, originally being about five inches. As soon as we appear in the doorway, it swings its wooden head around and screams like a banshee. It beings growing at about ten times its previous rate, hitting the ceiling, than busting through that. We hear the schoolchildren shrieking, terrified, nearby. The doll’s now huge hand reaches down to us. I stumble backwards, screaming, than I wake up.

****

What an odd dream (actually more of a nightmare)! I wonder what it could mean? Have you had any interesting dreams lately, readers?

 

Catching Fire ignites curiosity about upcoming Book 3 November 24, 2009

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Copyright 2009, Scholastic Press

391 pages, YA sci-fi

[Spoiler Alert: I highly recommend you skip the first paragraph of this review (the synopsis/teaser) if you haven't read Book One in this series, The Hunger Games. It contains a severe spoiler for the first book and would ruin your reading experience entirely.]

Having won the vicious Hunger Games along with her fellow tribute from District 12 Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen is expecting a life of leisure. However, Katniss was the perpetrator of several rebellious acts in the Hunger Games arena, and therefore the government of Panem is keeping a close eye on her. Now Katniss must choose whether to try to settle down an uprising country or join the rebellion herself.

I was quite lucky that I read the Hunger Games well after it came out, because if I had had to wait for this one, Book Two, to come out, I think I would have died (used as a figure of speech, of course) of the suspense! What a cliffhanger Suzanne Collins left us at! For that matter, Catching Fire ends with a cliffhanger as well, but I won’t detail on that for fear of spoiling the book! I eagerly read this book, but I wish I had slowed down and savored it over a week or two, because this was an excellent novel.

The cruelty of the Capital and it’s fear of rebellion was much more pronounced in this book than the first. It urges the reader to join Katniss’s side more definitely. However, at some points in the book, I was genuinely torn. I feel a bit guilty about that, wanting to take the easy way out, wanting to join the Capital. That really shows how powerful Collins’s writing is, to make me feel like that, even once I put down the book and rejoin the real world. Having thought it over, though, I’m actually on Katniss’s side.

Once again with the Hunger Games series, the amount of doom and gloom, murder and mayhem bothers me. As I’ve said many times before, I prefer to have plenty of lighter scenes. Katniss’s agony and indecision dragged down the reader as well. Those are the only negatives I can think of, and balancing them out with the overall goodness of the book–it has nearly all of the elements I look for in a good story–this is one of my favorite newly discovered series.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars.

Suzanne Collins paints a startling picture of the future November 22, 2009

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Copyright 2008, Scholastic Press

374 pages, YA sci-fi

Katniss Everdeen lives with her mother and younger sister in District 12, a portion of Panem, a country that stands in a place once called North America. The cruel Capital forces the districts to send one boy and one girl to compete in the survival competition called the Hunger Games. Katniss voluntarily takes her sister’s place in the Games, knowing that, whether she lives or dies, her life will be changed forever.

I can’t believe I didn’t read this book earlier. It has been sitting on the shelf in the young adult section in my little local library for a while, probably since it was first released, and I’ve just breezed right over it. Haven’t given it a second glance. I found it because it’s sequel, Catching Fire, was prominently displayed on the “New Releases Shelf.” I spoiled the story for myself, though: I read the inside flap of Catching Fire, which contained a major spoiler for The Hunger Games. This drawback didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story, however.

This book is extremely exciting, but also jarring, startling, unsettling, disturbing…the list of those sorts of descriptive words could go on forever. But, funnily enough, they aren’t necessarily used in a bad way. I know this is a science fiction novel, but Panem kind of makes sense. It, or something like it, could be the way we’re heading with the future. Don’t get me wrong, though– I sincerely hope we don’t.

There’s good character development, although Collins sometimes seems to overlook the “show, don’t tell” rule of descriptive writing. The numerous plot twists keep readers on the edge of their seats. I think that the story being told in present tense first person is a nice touch.It really makes you feel as if you’re inside Katniss’s head at the exact moment of action.

The story was a bit too solemn for my liking. Too much doom and gloom isn’t my style. But, it was good enough for me to rush back to the library to pick up the second book. (A review is coming soon for that, by the way.) And that’s some of the highest praise (at least in the suspense division) that a book can get.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

Hale, Hale, and Hale make a great team November 19, 2009

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale

Copyright 2008, Bloomsbury

144 pages, fantasy (graphic novel)

For as long as she can remember, Rapunzel has lived in a grand villa with her Mother, Gothel. The outside world is blocked completely by a high stone wall. On her twelfth birthday, Rapunzel ventures over the wall against Mother Gothel’s wishes and meets her real mother, who has been working as a slave in Gothel’s mines. When brought back into the villa, Rapunzel is taken away by one of Gothel’s guards and is locked in a humongous tower-like tree. All Rapunzel knows is that she has to get out, get rid of Gothel, and rescue her mother.

After that little synopsis, the similarities to the Grimm Brothers’s fairy tale pretty much end. Set in a fantasized version of what seems to me to be the American Wild West, Rapunzel’s Revenge is an exciting and creative retelling of “Rapunzel.” Shannon Hale, one of my favorite writers, teamed up with her husband Dean and the amazing artist Nathan Hale (no relation to Shannon or Dean, according to the front and back flaps of the book jacket) to produce this graphic novel; unless you count the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, this is the first graphic novel I’ve read.

More on the illustrations. They were perfect. Nathan Hale captured the essence of the story perfectly in his active and detailed illustrations. Apparently, he spent more than a  year on them. I can certainly see why!

There are a few minor, minor negatives. Rapunzel and her sidekick Jack (of “Jack and the Beanstalk”) seem to run into a little too much trouble to be realistic. But what am I saying? This is a fantasy! We need action!  Besides, with that old witch Gothel controlling everything, you’d expect it to be a little crazy.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars.

P.S. Before I forget: I just need to announce that I’ll only be writing reviews for books, movies, and music albums that came out in very recent years. For example right now, I’ll be writing about 2008/2009. It will stay like that until maybe February 2010, then I’ll write about 2009/2010.  I thought that would be a good idea to keep things up-to-date and allow for some other types of posts. However, books that aren’t so recent will still appear in my “I’m currently reading…” widget.