My to Read and Review List

Currently Reading:
The Gates - John Connolly

To Review:
The Fire - Katherine Neville (Finished August 09)
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes - Martha Stewart (Finished August 09)
The Thief & The Queen of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner (Finished August 09)
The Enchantment Emporium - Tanya Huff (Finished August 09)
A Weed By Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the plants we Don't Plant - Nancy Gift (Finished September 09)
A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick (Finished September 09)
Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts - Martha Stewart (Finished September 09)
Widdershins - Charles De Lint (Finished October 09)
Fire - Kristen Cashore (Finished October 09)
Day after Night - Anita Diament (Finished October 09)
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (Finished November 09)
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception - Maggie Stiefvater (Finished November 09)
Time of my Life - Alison Winn Scotch (Couldn't get past the first chapter, November 09)

To read Fiction:
Selected Works of T.S. Spivet - Reif Larsen
The Story Sisters - Alice Hoffman
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry
Angels of Destruction - Keith Donohue
The Masque of the Black Tulip - Lauren Willig
A Single Thread - Marie Bostwick
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club - Gil McNeil
Bread Alone - Judith Ryan Hendricks
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
Knit the Season - Kate Jacobs
The Whiskey Rebels - David Liss
Van Alen Legacy - Melissa De La Cruz
Owl Killers - Karen Maitland
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen

To Read Non-Fiction:
Losing my Religion: How I Lost my Faith Reporting on Religion in America - and Found Unexpected Peace - William Lobdell
An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths about the Foods We Eat - Joe Schwarcz
The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness - Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen - Molly Wizenberg
Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life - Paul Ekman
The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia - Laura Miller
The Smartest Animals on the Planet - Sally Boysen & Deborah Custance
Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses from Myth to Reality - Helen Scales
The Power of Slow - Christine Louise Hohlbaum
The Power of No - Beth Wareham
My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them - Michael Montlack
Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics we Never Stopped Reading - Lizzie Skrunick
Do One Nice Thing - Debbie Tenzer

Deja vu all over again

Last year around my birthday, I decided to start the 101 things in 1001 days project. That's actually how this blog started, as a means to track that effort - I can see how well that went. I think what I learned the most from that effort was that as much as I love to make lists, that making lists that track minutia don't last as far out as two and a half years.

My wise friend Rebecca decided last year to do a modified version of it, and do 10 things in 100 days. I'm hoping that is more my style, so we were talking about this on my birthday and realized that if we start again on October 10, the day before Christmas Eve is 75 days. So instead, I'm doing 7.5 things in 75 days - coming up with 10 "goals" to give myself some wiggle room.

1) Do the first four weeks of Couch to 5K
2) Lose 15 pounds.
3) Learn to make Scrabble Tile/Glass pendants.
4) Knit three hats (gifts).
5) Knit four pairs of mittens/gloves (gifts).
6) Bring my this blog up to date with all of the books I've read.
7) Sign up for one of the Mango language tutorials online and work through 1 section.
8) Set a firm Xmas shopping budget, and be done shopping by the Monday after Thanksgiving.
9) Mail 10 written cards or letters (there's roughly 10 weeks).
10) Pay off the remaining amount on the couches.

I doubt that I'll blog much about the goals beyond this - but I want some accountability. And since one of the goals is to write up my book reviews, I figure I might as well just lump it all in one place. Wish me luck!

The Magicians (Lev Grossman)

For The Magicians I am going to fall back upon my beloved Venn Diagrams and call this the intersection of the Narnia series with the Harry Potter series, with one of my favorite books, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. With the thought that this book combines three of my favorite pieces of literature, I had really high hopes for it, perhaps too high.

The main character, Quentin, is one that many of us can identify with. Too bright for his own good, he struggles to find his place in the world, and falls back on his “Narnia” as a comfort mechanism (called Fillory). You would think that finding out that not only is magic real, but that he has the gifts required to enroll him in a secretive magic academy, would knock some of the teenage angst out of his system. While in school, he falls in with an interesting clique and finds out that being in a magic college isn’t that different from a regular one. I think at the point when they graduate, the book split into two parts. It is after graduation that his clique discovers that Fillory is real, and they travel there to have adventures (references to the Fellowship of the Rings of course). So here too, a second fantasy is completely fulfilled, and still, Quentin isn’t happy. Adventures to ensue, as well as chaos and heartbreak – though you can see how these things might have happened no matter what land they had made their way into.

I think this book just tried to do too much. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t fall in love with it, which was truthfully what I was hoping for. And I do really wish that it had been split into two (or three) smaller books, that way I could anticipate and savor the series. The message of it is one that we can all take home – happiness is what you make it. If you can’t be happy in a magic college, or in the land of your fantasies, then where are you going to be happy? In our real world, the manifestations of our deepest fantasies aren’t going to be handed to us and suddenly make everything all right – so it’s up to us to figure it out for ourselves.

Mind of the Raven (Heinrich) & Bird Brains (Savage)

Last winter I came across a thread on Ask Metafilter that asked – what do you notice that other people overlook? It got me to thinking, and while I still can’t come up with a firm answer, I do know that something my husband notices that others tend to overlook are birds. From the many hawks that perch above us as we drive Pennsylvania roads, to the doves that nest near our bathroom window, to me he appears more aware of our feathered friends than most people. His favorite birds are ravens and crows. I don’t come from a family of birders, so I decided between his interest, and reading two interesting entries on crows and ravens on the larger Metafilter site (Thread One; Thread Two) perhaps I should learn more about these fascinating and intelligent creatures.

The book most recommended in the above threads is the Heinrich book, Mind of the Raven. This title details the first hand research that he (a biology professor), and colleagues around the world, participate in while attempting to learn more about ravens. While occasionally what some might consider to be dry, even as a first time reader in this genre I found the information fascinating, and his passion comes through in every chapter. While he may be a biased author, having raised ravens from hand and dedicating years of research to the birds, coming away from this book it would be hard not to appreciate the intelligence of these animals. Without anthropomorphizing them, it’s easy to see them squabble and bicker in one minute and be thoughtful in the next. This left me thinking yet again that the difference between animals and humans isn’t as broad as we might like to think.

As an accompaniment, I also checked out Savage’s book, Bird Brains, from the library at the same time. It was a perfect companion piece to the heavier Heinrich book, which only featured b&w pencil sketches – this was lushly photographed with anecdotes and brief text snippets, occasionally referring back to the Heinrich book as primary source material. It was a very fast read by comparison, but worth the time – the story of one of the birds mourning for a lost family touches me still. I would recommend these books as a duo to anyone with interest in these intelligent creatures.

Percy Jackson Books 1 & 2 (Rick Riordan)

Last fall I was discussing books with my friend AmyP who, upon learning that one of my favorite genres of books is one where we learn what happens when ancient gods aren’t needed anymore, recommended to me the Percy Jackson series. (For the record, my three favorite books of this genre would be Gaiman’s American Gods, Pratchett’s Small Gods, and Adams' Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.)

Percy Jackson is trouble. He’s a 12 year old diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, he can’t stop getting expelled from any school that he enters, and mysterious inexplicable events keep happening around him. It turns out that he is a half blood – the illegitimate son of a Greek god – and that explanation is just the tip of the iceberg as to why Percy’s life is so filled with chaos. In the first book in this series (The Lightning Thief), Percy makes his way to “Camp Half Blood” where he starts learn about a world that surrounds him that he hadn’t noticed before. During his time at camp, he learns who is father is, and that his father is being framed for a theft from another god. Percy then goes on a cross country quest to clear both his, and his father’s name.

There’s a larger conspiracy afoot that bridges across the series, as well as an ominous prophecy about Percy in his 16th year, so there’s much more to the plot than meets the eye. From the outset, when I learned that the main characters were all 12, I thought that this skewed a little young, even for me – but once the action started, it was easy to forget that the protagonists were pre-teens. (The only blip on my skepticism radar was if it really is that easy for three 12 year olds to fly cross country alone, even if they are demi-gods. I guess if I can have a suspension of disbelief concerning a present day Ares being part of a biker gang, then I shouldn’t doubt the TSA.) I really enjoyed how the author managed to update the Greek myths and apply them to present day America (Mount Olympus is now in Manhattan, Medusa sells ceramic yard statues) and hope that if the allusions do fire above the heads of the intended audience, that they’ll be inspired to read the original myths.

In the second book in the series (The Sea of Monsters), Percy is finishing up the school year and is looking forward to another summer with his friends at the camp for demi-gods. After an altercation, it comes to light that the camp’s protective barriers have been damaged, and that their beloved sanctuary is no longer a safe haven. Percy’s best friend Grover is also in trouble, and several of the students leave the camp on quests – to find the Golden Fleece and heal the camp, as well as to save Grover from his peril. If anything, this book is more densely packed with allusions to the original myths, and is a great adventure with a lot of good humor as well. The conclusion allows many characters to save face and restore their reputations, as well as opens up a whole new kettle of worms that I’m sure will be addressed in the third book. I’ve enjoyed these two books, and as an adult they were easy, quick reading. I’d recommend them to any preteen who is looking for a stepping stone into more traditional mythology.

The Arrival & Tales from Outer Suburbia (Shaun Tan)

I came across the work of Shaun Tan through a short story on the Guardian website, about an exchange student. Told in twelve images, the ending of the story proves to be heartwarming and whimsical - something I think most of us could use a little more of these days. After finishing the short, I immediately requested his two most popular titles from my public library, The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia.

Both of these works are not just books, but pieces of art. I started with The Arrival, which is 128 pages of wordless black and white drawings. It details a story of a family man who leaves his wife and child to set the foundation for a new life in a new world. I would be curious (in the case of both books) to hear what children think of the stories, as an adult I found this touching and all too realistic. In fact, I sped through the first reading, concerned perhaps that the book would not end well, that the immigrant would come across some cruelty and horror in the new land, only being able to savor it through a second reading. The man enters an alien land, where things are completely unfamiliar to him - it doesn't take much of a leap to imagine what things were like for the first immigrants to this country - when things are foreign to you, there's a fine line between foreign and completely alien. The Arrival is the kind of art that I suspect you could spend time pouring over again and again, each time noticing a new detail. I loved it.

Tales from Outer Suburbia is a short story collection, told more often in art than in words - but it is not exclusively a graphic novel. I can see where this would be a difficult title to place in a library collection - it's more than a children's title, but might get lost among the greater adult collection and not valued for the treasure it really is. The short story from the Guardian piece is included here - "Eric" - as are 14 other vignettes, that some might feel leave with more questions than answers. Regardless, I felt that this was another example of a whimsical, heartwarming title, full of fantastic and beautiful art. The closest comparisons I could come to for adults would be the Griffin and Sabine series (without the mysterious love story) and the art of Michael Sowa. I suspect that Tan will continue to be a niche author, but would be pleased to see his work reach a much wider audience. Both of these books made me very happy.

East (Edith Pattou)

I first saw this book in paperback while browsing through Borders while on vacation. I liked the cover, and the recommendations on the back cover had me curious enough to make a note to request it from the library when I got home. The library copy that came to me was a hardback, and my foolish mistake was to re-read the book flap, and make note of a reference to a famous fairy tale, which pretty much was an enormous spoiler for the book and I think to a certain extent, ruined it for me.

Despite this, I enjoyed the book. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, from the heroine Rose, her brother, her father, the goblin queen, and the great bear. Rose is the youngest child of eight, born to a superstitious mother and a diligent father, and a secret surrounds her birth that leads to betrayal and conflict. At the lowest point in her family’s life, a great white bear comes to their house and bargains – Rose comes to live with the bear, and her family will find health, wealth and happiness. Rose’s decision is enough to break apart her family, but it’s not a simple choice for anyone. Questions remain – are the events in her family’s life a coincidence or a direct result of Rose’s actions?

Rose is a strong heroine, smart and capable outside of the historical stereotypical confines of what a woman should be in her universe. The bear was a highly sympathetic character (but I love animals) and the goblins were fascinating in description. The rest of Rose’s family were almost place holders or used for exposition, but as a whole, well defined and interesting. I think I would have enjoyed the ending more had I not known the eventuality of what would happen, but I would recommend this to anyone with a love of fairy tales anyway.

Graceling (Kristin Cashore)

I heard about this title from my friend Jen, in her review which made me want to read it myself.

As Jen points out, in this universe certain people are born with eyes of different colors – they are known as “Gracelings” – and each person is graced with a different gift. When a Graceling is born, they are taken and raised in the castle – if their gift is one that is useful to the Kingdom, they are kept in service, if not, they are returned to their family and often shunned by outsiders. Katsa is an orphaned young woman, the niece of the king, who is graced with the ability to kill. As she matures, she becomes less comfortable with being the king’s bully and muscle, and part of the story is her quest to know herself, her grace, and her place in the world.

While on a secret mission, Katsa meets another Graceling who turns her world upside down. It would have been easy for this story to turn into just another romance novel, but it is an adventure, it is a personal as well as physical and geographic quest, it has political intrigue, and well, some romance. I admit that part of the reason I wanted to read it was Jen’s mention that the heroine didn’t want to get married or have children – and I wanted to see how well that plot point was written. Katsa remains a woman true to her ideals and herself, while you can follow along as she comprehends a mental paradigm shift when it comes to female roles and relationships. Just because she doesn’t want to be a wife and a mother, doesn’t mean she’s an uncaring, unloving soul.

I thoroughly loved reading of this universe – the seven kingdoms, the kind of people in each land and their politics. Cashore really has a gift at laying out a universe and making it mentally visible. She has two more books planned for this universe – Fire – coming this fall, and Bitterblue, a more traditional sequel to the first that is currently being written. This is one of the titles I’ve been most enthusiastic about so far this year, but should warn that there is some graphic violence as well as some other themes that were hinted at (animal abuse, child abuse) that might make others uncomfortable.

French Girl Knits: Innovative Techniques, Romantic Details, and Feminine Designs (Kristeen Griffin-Grimes)

I have a rule when it comes to buying knitting books and magazines. If it is a magazine, it has to have at least two patterns I'm interested in knitting, and if it is a book, it has to have at least three patterns. For this reason, I love to look at the knitting books at the library - to have time to take the books home, look over the patterns in detail and really think about if I want to spend the money or not.

From the outset, this should have been a fantastic book for me. My most hated thing to do in knitting is seaming. I hate to finish and sew the thing together - I've got a baby sweater right now that is ready to go, save for an arm I need to sew on. It's been that way for a month. In the meantime I've knit two hats. Bah on seaming. The majority of the patterns in this book rely instead on either seamless construction or a kitchener stitch. So to that end - if you're like me, I recommend this book and the theory and construction techniques.

I also lean a little more romantic in my knitting for myself as opposed to what I can buy from the store. I want my projects to be dramatic and beautiful, but also practical. I guess at the end of this title I realized, well, I'm just not French. The book is divided into four themed sections - the second of which pretty much screamed "ren faire" to me ("Rustic with a Gypsy Edge") - but the fourth had a sweater I could almost see wearing ("Streetwear with Style") but realize in fact it just wouldn't be practical. So as a library book, and for construction and design theory, a thumbs up - pattern wise, probably perfect for someone else, but not me.

Six Word Memoirs (Larry Smith & Rachel Fershleiser)

I still remember the first time I read Hemingway - in high school AP English, we read the short story "Hills Like White Elephants," and in many ways, it was a revelation to me. I've had a soft spot for his efficient writing style ever since then, and was tickled to discover the "Six Word Memoir" contest as I was browsing the Powell's website. (One of the Powell's winners - "Turned lemons into lemonade. Added vodka." is genius!) This series is based on the touching six word short story written by Hemingway - "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." In 2006, the editors of Smith Magazine asked readers to contribute their own six word tales.

The first of these titles, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure" covers broad ground in six words - life, death, children, illness, love, education, jobs - some are comical and flip, some make you want to cry. While you can finish it in less than 30 minutes, many of them will stay with you for a long time after. So sticking with the "six" theme, I've picked my six favorites:

I'm my mother and I'm fine.
In a Manolo world, I'm Keds.
Carbohydrates call my name every day.
Put whole self in, shook about.
Laughter and inappropriate humour since 1985.
The freaks, they always find me.

And here is my own: "Napping is my addiction of choice."

After finishing the first in the series, I quickly moved onto "Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak" - which seemed to be a natural progression from the first title. So many people define their lives based on who they love, or who has loved them. Again, my favorite six:

Where he is, I am home.
Maybe some pots have no lids.
You holding my hair, me puking.
She knows what my kryptonite is.
He always stirs my chocolate milk.
You were my little red-haired girl.

The next version of this series is due in the fall, and I'm looking forward to it. These books are charming, well laid out, and lovely little diversions. In a time when so many of us can "self publish" as many words as we'd like to, it can be a challenge to limit to just six words. I'm still struggling to do one for my relationship - it's truly hard to put something you value and cherish into just six words. But try it yourself - it can be fun, and frustrating, and you'll figure out a little bit about how you define yourself.