Animorphs Re-read - going down memory lane

Sean at the Intergalactic Academy is doing a fantastic series of posts on an Animorphs Re-read - that's right, he's reading all of the Animorphs series by KA Applegate, one by one, and posting synopses and reviews. If you're of the same generation we are, and of a nerdy inclination, chances are you used to read these books. In the eyes of an adolescent sci-fi fan, they were awesome. Do they stand up to the test of time? Maybe...

Oh, you didn't know they were released with new covers? How awful...

Review: Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

I've been feeling weary of genre fiction lately. I used to be a huge sci-fi and fantasy buff, but the past few years I've been more in the mood for something more literary and... cerebral? I guess I just prefer nice writing over heroes and rocket ships. But, if you look hard enough, turns out I don't have to pick one over the other.

Perdido Street Station is, in a nutshell, about an overweight scientist in a fantastic city. But it's a thousand times more than that.

It has a million different plots and subplots, some of which get unsatisfactorily dropped partway through, some which disappear and then resurface long after you've forgotten about them. But it is the world and the characters that really shine in this work.

I'm inclined to describe it as fantasy, or urban fantasy at first, because it has magic and fantastic creatures, but it has shades of steampunk and science fiction as well. The universe of New Crobuzon is as vivid, expansive, and colorful as anything by Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but even more interesting because technology mixes with magic and half a dozen alien races mingle together within one extraordinary city.

Most of the main characters aren't particularly likeable; they're all flawed in some ways and it adds an interesting dynamic to the story. Even though there are more 'alien' (in the book they're referred to as 'xenian' and it's not clear whether they're extraterrestrial or native) characters than human, they're all written with lifelike qualities and it's not until Mieville mentions wings or antennae that you remember the person speaking is not actually a 'person' after all.

I got out of Perdido Street Station exactly what I wanted from it - an enjoyable read, the way I used to enjoy science fiction and fantasy when I was younger. My tastes may have evolved from Orson Scott Card to Margaret Atwood, but I can still enjoy a good story with magic and monsters and fantastic elements. I'm relieved!

"I am compelled to worship this extraordinary presence that has silted into existence at the conjunction of two rivers. It is a vast pollutant, a stench, a klaxon sounding. Fat chimneys retch dirt to the sky even now in the deep night. It is not the current which pulls us, but the city itself, its weight sucks us in. Faint shouts, here and there the calls of beasts, the obscene clash and pounding from the factories as huge machines rut. Railways trace urban anatomy like protruding veins. Red brick and dark walls, squat churches like troglodytic things, ragged awnings flickering, cobbled mazes in the old town, culs-de-sac, sewers riddling the earth like secular sepulchures, a new landscape of wasteground, crushed stone, libraries fat with forgotten volumes, old hospitals, towerblocks, ships and metal claws that lift cargos from the water."

Length: 7/10 It's quite a thick volume, but it doesn't drag at all once you get into it. You just keep wanting more.
Grade: 95. Perdido Street Station is a gripping read, a beautiful world, and best of all just downright fun to read.

~Joy

The Book Group

This isn't a book review, but I think this post might be relevant to readers of this blog. I recently discovered a television series called The Book Group. It's a British series starring Anne Dudek, an actress whom you might not know but would certainly recognize - she has had a number of supporting roles on popular shows such as House, Desperate Housewives, Bones, Psych, Big Love and Mad Men. It was very satisfying to see her in a starring role, because I think she really is a great actress. Surprisingly, this show is actually an older one which was shot before many of her roles on American television.

The program is only available on DVD in the UK, in the Region 2 format. However, both seasons (or series as they're called across the pond) are currently available for viewing on Hulu if you live in the US.

Between the two seasons there's a total of 11 half-hour episodes, which makes for quick viewing if you get into the show, and then leaves you wanting more. For each of the two seasons, I ended up watching the majority in a single sitting - each half hour was like a potato chip, and I kept telling myself "Just one more before bed." The series is interesting, compelling, sometimes funny and sometimes gripping. The characters are anything but flat, and it's really just a fun show to watch.

Each episode is focused around a meeting of the very eclectic eponymous Book Group - As you would expect, the characters meet up to discuss a book. But the series explores the many facets of the characters' lives, which more often than not relate to the book they are currently reading or discussing. Titles include Don Quixote, The Alchemist, and even The Little Engine That Could.

I hesitate to call the series a comedy, because while parts are humorous, there are a lot of serious issues also explored. The Book Group tackles such issues as drug abuse, being in the closet, and infidelity - and also contains a refreshing portrayal of disability, with one of the group members, Kenny, using a wheelchair. Kenny is no mere 'token', but rather he displays the issues of disability and ability that he faces from day to day.

The Book Group is great fun: sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes knee-slapping, sometimes thought-provoking. It's short and sweet, which may leave you wanting more, but I found it pretty satisfying. I can't recommend it enough, especially when US viewers currently have the opportunity to watch it free of charge.

~Joy

Review: The Rainbow, D. H. Lawrence (Librivox)

I always have a book I'm reading, and I always have a book I'm listening to as well. Librivox is a fantastic resource for public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. I'm a knitter, and I like to listen to a book while I knit. Recently I finished listening to The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence.

I had already read the fantastic Women in Love for a history class before reading The Rainbow. Lawrence's Women in Love details the most recent generation of the Brangwen family, sisters Ursula and Gudrun. The Rainbow is the story of three generations of Brangwens, from the Brangwen sisters' grandparents to the sisters themselves.

In a nutshell, The Rainbow is about a family's lives and loves. The book has a very grand scale because of the amount of time it encompasses, and the number of different people experiencing love and desire in similar and different ways.

Because the book spans three generations, one must be careful to keep the characters distinct. I found it a little difficult, especially with the first generation of Brangwens and the second. When you categorize characters into wide boxes such as 'the husband' and 'the wife', since most books only have one of each of those characters, it's easy to get them mixed up when a book has several of each!

I found Lawrence's writing style generally pleasant, though sometimes getting a bit too philosophical for me. In Women in Love, every conversation the sisters or their men had was a Very Deep One indeed, and there isn't as much of that in this one, but plenty of introspective internal dialogue. Reading either book will certainly get you thinking.

I might never have read this book if I hadn't found it as a free audibook on Librivox. I like to unwind by knitting and watching TV or listening to something, so I enjoy audiobooks very much. The quality of Librivox audibooks can vary, even from chapter to chapter with a single book. This recording was all done by a single reader, which was nice. The quality is generally good, though some people might find the reader's voice a bit grating. There were a few mispronunciations I found occasionally distracting, but for the most part the reading is fluent and easy to understand.

"Indeed, it was true as they said, that a man wasn't born before he was married. What a change indeed! [...] When he was a child, he had thought a woman was a woman merely by virtue of her skirts and petticoats. And now, lo, the whole world could be
divested of its garment, the garment could lie there shed away intact, and one could stand in a new world, a new earth, naked in a new, naked universe. It was too astounding and miraculous."
Length: 5/10 (1 is the Cliffs Notes, 10 is Shakespeare's entire oeuvre) The book is hefty enough, but it feels like it goes quickly because it's like three stories in one book.
Grade: 90%. The Rainbow is a wonderful, enjoyable, rewarding read.
~Joy

Book Review Blog Carnival #25!

Today I am hosting the Book Review Blog Carnival. If you're a blogger who has written a review recently, you can submit your review for the next edition of the carnival. The Book Review Blog Carnival runs every two weeks. In addition, I and all the other book reviewers in this carnival would appreciate it if you blogged about the carnival!

There were a ton of great submissions this time around, so I'm breaking them up into some rough categories.

Novels
Reader in Mind reviews Allah is Not Obliged, a fictional journal set in northern Africa.
The Hungarian Bookkeeper revisits a classic, Don Quijote (part 1).
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett at Chewing a Leaf.
The Expanding Life reviews Hattie Big Sky and ruminates over stories of pioneer women.
There's a review in The Viewspaper of one of my favorites, Margaret Atwood's dystopian Oryx and Crake.
Zinemark reviews Twenties Girl, a romance and ghost story.
I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book! reviews Thomas Pynchon's latest, Inherent Vice.
BooksForSale? reviews Shift by Jennifer Bradbury.

Novels: Mystery/Thriller
Mysteries in Paradise reviews Lord Edgware Dies, an Agatha Christie novel also known as Thirteen at Dinner.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a mystery with a philatelic (stamp collecting) twist, at The Hungarian Bookkeeper.
Eye of the Whale is an 'ecological thriller', reviewed at How to Make a Difference with a preview of the first chapter.
An audiobook edition of James Patterson's 8th Confession over at Melissa's Bookshelf.
The audiobook of Death of a Dormouse at Mysteries in Paradise.
At Necromancy Never Pays, there's a review of The Language of Bees, a book starring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
Mysteries in Paradise reviews The Build Up, an Australian mystery.
Mysteries in Paradise also reviewed Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child.

Other fiction
Fists, a short story collection reviewed at The Truth about Lies.
Chewing a Leaf speaks her mind on Kitchen, a set of two stories by Banana Yoshimoto.
Doctor Brodie's Report, a short story collection by Jorge Luis Borges, at The Truth about Lies.

Nonfiction: Memoirs
Iran Awakening is over at Things Mean a Lot, a book which has been on my to-read list for quite some time.
A guest post at Home School Dad: Trudi's Garden, a memoir about much more than gardening.
BookDads reviews A Worthy Legacy, "the record of a grandfather’s wisdom [and] an evocative memoir of family life in Nigeria".
The Symposium introduces us to an extremely intriguing book, Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement.

Other Nonfiction
I Want to Teach Forever talks about the book that made her love math again, Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.
A DIY guide to your own green energy, Homebrew Wind Power gets reviewed at Frugally Green.
Money Blue Book goes over their favorite Personal Finance Books.
And Bargaineering reviews one of those books more in-depth, the Total Money Makeover.
At Read and Lead, there is a writeup on the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, with related books.

Children's
Coco le Cochon is a taste of France, with a interview with the author by Misadventures with Andi.
A review of Here's How I See it/Here's How it is at BooksForSale?.

Keep reviewing, bloggers! I have a few reviews of my own to finish, so I'll see you next time.

~Joy

Movie Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

Doing something a little different today because I recently went and saw the new film The Time Traveler's Wife. The film, starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, is based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger.

A few summers ago, over the course of three days, I devoured this monster 560-page romance-cum-SF novel, the very first novel of the author and only one to date. Her next novel, a ghost story by the name of Her Fearful Symmetry, is set to be released at the end of September.

The film version of The Time Traveler's Wife just came out, with a mostly starry cast and a bit of fanfare. How does it stack up to the novel that left me with summer reading whiplash?

The Time Traveler's Wife is, in a nutshell, a time travel story and a love story like nothing you've ever seen. It's a classic story of true love with a very large twist. It's incredibly hard to explain -- Every time I try to explain the plot of this novel to someone, I am met with blank stares. Sorry. Basically, my advice is to read the book, then you'll understand.

The movie version of The Time Traveler's Wife manages to remain more faithful than most movie adaptations I have seen. Much is cut, but little is changed and the soul of the story remains intact. The emotional impact is somewhat lessened on the screen, but... well, I still cried.

Reading the book The Time Traveler's Wife, I spent three days spending 40 years (give or take) with the characters, feeling the love between them and living their lives with them. The movie manages to fit the plot into a scant 100 minutes, leaving me feeling rushed and like something was missing. You can't do a massive book like this justice in just an hour and a half.

The acting was wonderful, particularly the adorable child actor portraying Alba. The only time I felt pulled out of the world of the movie was seeing Ron Livingston (of Office Space fame) in the role of Gomez - an important character in the novel, reduced to a face and a name in the movie. All characters who are not Eric Bana or Rachel McAdams get precious little screen time in the movie, because the movie has no room for anything but the main couple's relationship.

Length: Too short. There's a lot to the book that made it such a gripping read, that stuck with me long after I had finished reading it. The film was very enjoyable, and very good, but somewhat forgettable. I don't think people will be talking about it years later.
Grade: 89/100. Scores better than most adaptations of novels. The filmmakers committed no mortal sins. However, it really should have been longer.

~Joy