Books 26, 27, 34: The Secret Country Trilogy

So, reading City of Bones got me thinking about some old drama I read about on the internets back in my younger days concerning miss Cassandra Clare/Claire. It seems that she plagiarized - and not just a line or two, but whole pages verbatim - from Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy. She also pulled lines from Buffy and other popular TV shows, but those were supposed to be a bit more obvious; no one picked up on the Pamela Dean rip-off for quite a while, I believe.

Anyway, I liked the Draco Trilogy so much, I figured I should probably give these a go:





They were pretty good, especially if you like fantasy in the vein of children getting magically transported to another land, like the Narnia books. The children in these books are transported to a land of their own invention, or so they thought - it was their favorite game of make-believe come to life. They are thrust into roles of princes and princesses in a game that has already begun, and they must deal with the consequences of their scripted actions. It's a pretty good series, and would probably have absolutely thrilled me when I was younger. As it is, I intend to hold onto these books for my children someday, or a rainy day when I want to escape.

One word of caution - the characters speak ridiculously old-fashioned, with lots of thees and thous. It was a little hard to follow conversations at first, and when I say at first I mean for the first two books I was lost. Worth the effort in the end, though.

Book 25: City of Bones

I have a confession to make: I read Harry Potter fanfiction. Well, I USED to read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction. My preferred pairing? Harry and Hermione. At some point, I came across fanfic writer Cassie Claire, even though she was mostly into Harry/Draco stuff. She's one of the very few people writing fanfic that actually get "discovered" and get their own book deals. I read her infamous fanfic trilogy (The Draco trilogy, which I believe has been pulled from the internet now that she's a published author), which was absolutely wonderful, so there wasn't really any question that I would at least give this book a shot.

It started out so bad I thought I must've made a mistake. Thankfully, it started to get a bit better, and now I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment in what will eventually be a trilogy. The story centers around a girl, Clary, that realizes there is much more to the world around her than she realizes, and it's her job to hunt evil thingummies. Sorry, it's been a while, I can't remember what they're called in this book - Shadowhunters, maybe? It was pretty decent, although some of it did, in fact, read like bad fanfic, and there were cliches everywhere. Still, though, it wasn't bad, and I did quite like it by the end. Definitely not a bad way to spend a weekend. It ended with a cliffhanger of epic proportions, so I'm a bit anxious about the sequels.

Book 24: Children of Men

I read this book, and then several months later saw the movie. Honestly, I'm such a lazy bum, it's been forever since I actually read this one. I can tell you that the book was pretty slow to start, but the second half was pretty good; there were several things in the book that only got passing mentions in the movie; and Clive Own is pretty. Also, in the movie, they smushed several characters together into Julianne Moore. The book is worth reading on its own, especially if you liked the movie, which I thought was... better than mediocre, but not much.

Book 23: A Storm of Swords

This is the big book I've been working on for a few weeks now:



I affectionately call it my "big dumb fantasy novel," and while it is big (1128 pages plus appendices!), it is certainly not dumb. It is the third in a planned series of seven books by George R. R. Martin loosely based on the War of the Roses.

The books follow several characters from different families as they each try to get their own house to the throne. I'm not even going to try to recap the plot, but I will say one of the reasons I love this series is that no one is really "the bad guy," and the author apparently has no problem killing off main characters. I mean, this is the third book in this series I've read, and I was STILL surprised at which characters he chose to kill off. I'll read the rest, for sure. This is not your typical fantasy story; it's mostly political maneuvering, assassinating, backstabbing, etc, with the occasional ice zombie or dragon thrown in. Also, a great website related to the series: www.towerofthehand.com . I wasted a couple of days there, it's highly recommended for other fans of this series.

Book 22: Eats, Shoots and Leaves

See, every now and then I do read a bit of non-fiction!



I adored this book. Besides being a wonderful grammar lesson, it is funny. Some would say I should have expected that, given that the title is a joke, but I was pleasantly surprised. I have known for a long time that I apparently don't have the right sense of humor to enjoy most comic fiction. Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, William Goldman: all are lost on me. I think the problem is that I just don't really "get" situational humor; I've read so much sci-fi and fantasy that whenever I come across unusual situations, I just accept them and move on. I do much better with witty dialogue, which this book has in abundance.

I highly recommend this book, just remember that it was written for a British audience, so some terminology and even a few punctuation rules are different for us.

Book 21: Sandman, Vol. 2 - The Doll's House

Ok, I don't have a lot to say about this one - I'm still thinking on it a bit. However, I will post the cover!

Book 20: Coraline

Like I said earlier, I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan. This was on sale at the local used bookstore (shout out to McClure's!), so I picked it up.



It's a dark fairytale, rather like Alice in Wonderland. Coraline is a girl that is bored in her new house, and she feels her parents don't pay any attention to her. One day, she wanders through a locked door, into another version of her house, complete with Other Parents. The Other Mother and Other Father shower her with attention and gifts, but it starts to turn a little sinister when Coraline realizes she can't return to her real home and the Other Mother isn't as nice as she seems.

If you like dark fairy tales, give this a try. It's intended for children; I read it in about two hours in one sitting, but the illustrations (by Dave McKean, who also worked with Gaiman on Mirrormask) are pretty nice, even if they are in black and white.

Book 19: Y: The Last Man, Vol. 8 - Kimono Dragons

This series is pretty damn good. You should be reading it. Why aren't you reading it?



"Y: The Last Man" follows the story of the last man on Earth, Yorick Brown, after a mysterious plague kills all the males on the planet except for him and his pet capuchin monkey named Ampersand. This is the 8th volume in the the series, and it's almost over. In the last couple of volumes, we learned that the key to the plague might actually have been in Ampersand, and Yorick was saved by his close proximity. Now ninjas have stolen the monkey, and Yorick and his friends are trying to get him back.

This whole series is worth reading, just for the interesting plot of there being only ONE man left on Earth. It's an interesting attempt to predict how women would react. There are conspiracy theorists, politicians trying to hold it all together, lesbians!, but most are just normal women that have to figure out how to make a living for themselves in such a post-apocalyptic world. The art's not bad, either, especially the covers.

Book 18: The Hedge Knight

I am a big fan of George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. (In fact, I am reading A Storm of Swords right now!) This graphic novel is a prequel to this series, so it was a no-brainer.



I did like this one, but it didn't have the same dramatic impact that his books do. Of course, this could be due to the fact that his books are about 1100-1200 pages long EACH, and this was just a picture book. Can't quite fit in as much plot and character development, you see. However, it was still very good for a graphic novel. I'm glad I own it to complete my collection, and also for the useful appendix that contains the sigils for the multitude of houses listed in the series, but I probably won't reread it.

Book 16 & 17: The Mean Seasons and Homelands

I love this series of comic books. The basic plot is that they've taken all the characters from fables and fairy tales, and they live together in a neighborhood in New York City. The rest of the mundane folk, or "mundys," don't know they exist. They're trying to get back to the homelands, where they came from. These are the fifth and sixth collections in the series.





I really enjoyed these, and I have heard that "Homelands" is many fans' favorite so far in the series, but I think I still prefer "March of the Wooden Soldiers." In order to avoid spoilers, I will just say that in "The Mean Seasons," we learn a secret about Snow White's pups (fathered by Bigby Wolf), and in "Homelands," we finally learn the identity of the adversary, the evil entity that chased all our favorite fables out of the homelands. It's a surprise, I honestly never suspected his true identity. I'm glad it was a character that we already knew, though, and not some new unknown character. It's much more satisfying this way.

I just heard that the next volume (or perhaps two) are out, so I'll have to pick those up soon. I am dying to know where Bigby's been all this time!

Book 15: Ultimate Iron Man

The one writer that is most over-represented, above all others, is Orson Scott Card. I will read anything this man writes.



This, however, was not that spectacular. I think I've come to the realization that I just don't care for superhero comics. It was not bad, as far as they go, but the whole genre just does nothing for me. Meh.

Book 14: Stardust

I loves me some Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, so when I saw this at the comic shop (I was shopping for the boyfriend's birthday, shut up) I couldn't NOT pick it up.



A few days after I bought it, I got very, very sick. I also realized that due to my reader's block, I hadn't read anything for this list in almost a month and a half, so I needed to read something, and quick. I made a stack of graphic novels on my bedside table that I'd been meaning to read, and polished them all off in about two days. Go me!

But back to Stardust. The story is magnificent, creative, original, enveloping. The real icing on the cake for me was Charles Vess' artwork; I already owned the paperback version of this book, and I was completely unaware there was an edition that he had illustrated. I can't even imagine reading that one first, since Vess' artwork just MADE this book for me.

The plot: A young man, filled with hopeless unrequited love, promises the object of his affections that he will retrieve a falling star for her. To accomplish this, he must leave his village and go across the border into the realm of faerie. However, the fallen star is not just a star, but a person, and he is not the only one looking for here. I won't say anymore, I don't want to ruin the plot. Trust me, though, it was very good!

Fun fact: I hear they're making it into a move, starring Claire Danes. It comes out in August, I think? We'll see if it's any good.

Book 12: The Passion of Artemisia

I picked this book (by Susan Vreeland) up from the local bookstore for a whopping $2, and I think it was worth every penny.



I was hoping it would be similar in tone and style to Girl With a Pearl Earring, but it was not. It was much juicier, although not the bodice-ripping sort of juicy. It follows the life of artist Artemisia Gentileschi, from her rape by her painting tutor, through her unhappy marriage and rocky relationship with her father, and the birth and marriage of her daughter. While this wasn't fine literature, it was a page-turner, and I finished it in about two days. Recommended as a good escape, or good if you are interested in this particular painter, as it does describe her artwork in detail.

Books 10, 11, & 13: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

So, I said I would read the rest of the series, and I wasn't kidding! These were what my local used bookstore (McClure's, holla!) had available:





Can I remember intricate plot details from each one? No, I cannot. But they were fun to read. The lovely descriptions of Botswana are very... calming. I am currently looking for the rest of the series. When will Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni finally marry Precious Ramotswe? I must know!

Book 9: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Normally, I'm not a big fan of mystery novels. However, 50books.com gave these books such good reviews that when I saw this one on sale over the weekend, I just had to give it a shot.



It's the first in a series that currently has 8 books (I think) by Alexander McCall Smith. It follows the adventures of a lady detective, Mma. Precious Ramotswe, in Botwana. I read a blurb somewhere that compared these books to the Judge Dee books by Robert van Gulik, which is an odd coincidence, since that is the one other mystery I own.

I can safely say that this is much better than Judge Dee.

One of the things I enjoyed most was not the mystery aspect of the books (which was also good), but the descriptions of life in Botswana and the commentary on her society that Precious gives. I don't want to say too much, since it is a mystery, but the biggest case she takes on in this book concerns a boy kidnapped by witch doctors.

A good, quick, fulfilling read. I will buy the rest of the series.

Book 8: The Handmaid's Tale

Back to Atwood!


So, apparently I have a thing for dystopian future novels. What can I say?

This is my last Atwood book. I'm thinking of picking up Alias Grace, but it'll have to wait a while since I have several oterh books that need to get read.

You know what? I'm not going to write about this book, since it's taught in schools everywhere and has been written about all over the web. It's great, I enjoyed it, it's a classic, everyone should read it. The end.

Book 7: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War

After the letdown that was Surfacing, I decided to take a short break before I read the next Atwood book on my shelf. Clive Barker's first Abarat book was amazing, so I decided to pick up the sequel.



I loooved the first Abarat, because it's a completely different reading experience than I'm used to. If you do decide to read it, make sure you get an edition (paperback or hardback) that has Barker's illustrations. They're beautiful, and they really add a lot to his descriptions of the fantastic events in the book.

Abarat and its sequel tell the story of teenager Candy Quackenbush, who lives in a suburban town centered around a chicken processing plant. One day, she walks past the edge of town and into a whole other world, where she has special powers and meets outlandish characters. In this new world, called Abarat, she lives a completely different life from her life in Chickentown. In the sequel, she discovers more about her past and why it was so easy for her to adapt to life in the Abarat.

The Abarat itself is a pretty original world. It's mostly a sea (the Isabella), which has 25 islands. There is one island for every hour of the day, plus one island known as the mystical "25th hour." Instead of having the islands all go through all the hours of the day, it is always a given time on each island. There's a noon island, where it's always midday, and a 6PM island, which is always at dusk. It's a pretty original concept that works well for the story.

I can't stress enough that this book is fantastic, but even if it wasn't, the pictures make it worth reading. READ IT.

Book 6: Surfacing

So, once I finished The Blind Assassin, I scoured my local used bookstore for another book by Atwood. This one looked interesting:



Sadly, I didn't care for it as much as her other two books I've read. The story didn't flow very well, in my opinion, and some of the biggest questions were never answered. The book follows a nameless narrator as she goes to visit her father's cabin in the wilderness with her boyfriend and another couple. They are visiting because her father has suddenly gone missing, and she wants to see if he left any clues to his whereabouts.

Not only do you never find out even the slightest hint of whatever happened to her dad, the book also takes a sharp left into crazy-ville towards the end. I'm sure it's just full to the brim of symbolism and commentary on modernity, feminism, etc, but as we discussed previously, I'm absolute pants at subtext.

I'll probably be taking this one back to the used bookstore.

Book 5: The Blind Assassin

So, I admit it, I have a soft spot for Margaret Atwood. Last year, I read her book Oryx and Crake, and it sent me into an Atwood-buying frenzy. This is just the first of several of her books to come!



This book, which won the Booker Prize a few years back, intricately intertwines the story of sisters Laura and Iris Chase as they grow up and into childhood. Laura commits suicide in the opening sentences of the book, but the book is really told by an elderly Iris Chase looking back on her life. The story jumps between several different times: the older Iris telling the story, the girls growing up in the 1930s, Laura's post-humously best-selling novel about secret lovers meeting in borrowed rooms, and an outlandish sci-fi story that those lovers tell each other. Needless to say, Atwood weaves all these stories seamlessly together for a big reveal at the end of the book, supplemented by short newspaper articles about the sisters' lives that provides an "outsider's" perspective.

I think I actually liked this one better than Oryx and Crake. It was a little slow at first, but it really picks up in the last half. It's not for everyone, though: a lot of the reviews on Amazon.com show that not everyone can handle the jumping around between plots.

I wish I had something insightful and/or witty to say about this book, but I don't. It's just that good.

Book 4: Perelandra

I read Out of the Silent Planet late last year, and it was better than I was expecting. It's not that I somehow doubted C. S. Lewis, it's just that I had heard the religious symbolism in his space trilogy was OVER THE TOP, and I was afraid it would somehow overshadow the story. Thankfully, this was not the case!

The plot follows Dr. Ransom as he is contacted by aliens that need him to go to Venus. Once he arrives, he learns that Venus is essentially a paradise, and he encounters a green woman that is completely innocent. However, Ransom's sinister friend follows him from Earth, and tries to corrupt the lady.

Now, I shold probably mention that I NEVER get symbolism. For me to actually pick up on symbolism in books, it either has to be ridiculously over the top or someone has to flat out tell me it's there. So when I say that the religious symbolism wasn't apparent to me until near the end of the book, realize that might not be the case for you. Lewis finally gave it away (to me) when a snake bit Ransom on the heel and the wound wouldn't heal - I remember this from the Bible. So I can honestly say, it was a great book and I intend to read the last book of the series, That Hideous Strength.

Book 3: Hart's Hope

I read Drowned Ammet on the flight to the conference, and then started this one and read it on the way home.

Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card


I'm something of an Orson Scott Card junkie. I read his online column (www.hatrack.com if you're interested), and I did a thesis paper on his works in high school. If you're unfamiliar with him, he's one of the best sci-fi writers today, probably ever. His first novel was Ender's Game, which is still ridiculously popular. He's written about 30 or so full length novels, and a few volumes of short stories, and I've read pretty much all of it.

I really liked this book because of how raw it is. It's really easy to tell OSC's early books from his later ones, because the earlier ones are so much more gruesome. In Ender's Game, children kill each other. In Treason, mutants grow extra limbs, and will cut off their own arms to avoid being harvested by their peers for body parts. Not to be outdone, Hart's Hope starts out with the rape of a young teenage girl. This makes her so bitter that she hoards all the magical power she can to kill the man that raped her and stole the throne that was rightfully hers. Although this little summary might not show it, the man that raped her, Palicrovol, is actually the "good guy" and his son by another woman eventually grows to overthrow the evil queen.

There's only one thing I have to say about this book that isn't absolutely glowing praise: the style of this one takes a while to get into, but once you do get into it, it absolutely works for this story. It's told in the style of a folktale, very matter-of-factly, with the narrator not delving into the deeper emotions and motivations of the main characters. It reminded me a little of the Bible, but I think you'd have to read it to really understand why since I can't explain that association.

This book does raise some questions that aren't so easily answered. By Palicrovol's "act of mercy" in not killing the child he had to rape, he created a monster that was out for revenge. But he thought he was doing right by overthrowing the child's father, and evil monarch. Who is worse? Palicrovol, for his single deliberate but evil act? Or Asineth, driven mad with revenge, who was broken as a child but will now stop at nothing to get back at Palicrovol? This book is a beautiful example of how there are two very different sides to every story.

Book 2: Drowned Ammet

I went to a conference right after the New Year, and I took a couple of easy reads to finish on the plane. The first book, which I both started and finished on the 5.5 hour trip out, was the second in the Dalemark Quartet by the incomparable Diana Wynne Jones.

Drowned Ammet by Diana Wynne Jones


This book follows the story of the young boy Alhammit (called Mitt) in a fictional land called Dalemark. He lives with his family in South Holand, and they are happy until the evil Earl Hadd and his tax collectors force them into poverty. Mitt vows revenge for his family's sake, and plans to assassinate the earl, but his escape plan goes wrong and he is left stranded on a boat with the earl's young neice and nephew.

For those unfamiliar with Diana Wynne Jones, she's like JK Rowling, but before JK Rowling was JK Rowling. She's been writing young adult fantasy for a long time, and her books are always entertaining with creative plotlines. This is the second in a quartet (which I plan to finish this year). From what I understand, the first three books are only slightly overlapping, and they mostly have just the setting in common, with completely independent characters. The first book, Cart and Cwidder, follows a family of traveling musicians around Dalemark. The fourth book in the series will have characters from the first three come together to do something about the political unrest in their home country.

I should probably preface this by saying that I love pretty much everything I've ever read by DWJ. It's good for a day when I just want to escape into something. Her books are absorbing, but since they're children's books, they're also pretty quick reads. This book, however, wasn't the best of hers that I've read. The twist at the end was something I predicted pretty early on; in fact, it seemed so obvious that I was sure there was another twist coming. But no - the one I predicted was the only twist, so that was a bit of a disappointment. However, having said that, I will say that I love how dynamic her characters are. So often, the characters in books aren't really changed by their experiences, but her characters always have to confront their own faults and change in believable ways.

In short, not the best of her books that I've read, but better than some by others. I'll definitely finish the series.

Book 1: Marie Antoinette: The Journey

I'm counting this book for the challenge even though I started it around Christmas and finished it early on January 2.

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser



I chose to read this book because I'm going to Paris for a conference in July, and I wanted to know a little more about French history. I also saw previews for the new movie with Kirsten Dunst, and it looks quirky and awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow evening.

The book itself was better than I expected - I've had trouble following through with some history-type books in the past, and was worried I'd get bogged down and not finish it. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find it's almost a page-turner. I'm pretty easy to please sometimes; I thoroughly enjoyed the picture sections on glossy paper, especially when they showed a painting or artifact that was the center of some royal scandal or upset.

Overall, the book paints a fairly sympathetic picture of Marie Antoinette, but at the same time you feel that it's not that Antonia Fraser went easy on her; rather, it's more like popular history has been too harsh. The book doesn't hide her flaws; it just doesn't paint her as the villain most people think of her as. While Fraser does mention the excessive spending, she also points out that was how all royals of the time behaved, not just Antoinette. She also spends a good amount of paper detailing how family-oriented Marie Antoinette was, as well as how much she actually liked the public and used any opportunity to give money to the poor. In the end, I was actually sad that she was beheaded. (What?!? That's not spoiling it. Also, the Titanic sinks and Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time.)

I'm also on the lookout now for a good book of the general history of France. The reviews of Alistair Horne's books aren't that great, so I'd like some other recs if you've got 'em. I want to know what I'm looking at when I visit Paris in July!

Mission Statement!

Hello! I am Megan, and this is my blog. I intend to take the 50 book challenge this year, and I will write ALL ABOUT IT on this blog. I'm already behind, though - I've read 4.5 books already and reviewed none of them!

Anyway, the idea is that I will read about one book a week (or more likely go several weeks without finishing one and then finish a bunch in a flurry of excitement). This should be pretty challenging for me, since silly little things like graduate school tend to get in the way of me reading. Make no mistake though - I love to read! I just never have time.

About me: I'm a 23-year-old grad student, and I study biology - specifically salamanders and lizards, and that's really as much as I can say without getting ridiculously technical about what I do. I have a small zoo at my apartment - two rabbits, an axolotl salamander, two mice, and (soon) a tiger salamander. My mom is a librarian, and I was a librarian for a while in undergrad, and I've always loved to read. I read several different genres - fantasy (but not the epic, farmboy-realizes-his-magical-destiny kind), sci-fi, young adult novels with interesting covers, the occasional graphic novel that my boyfriend leaves at my apartment, lots of regular fiction of the best-seller variety, and sometimes history or natural science non-fiction stuff. I don't really plan to read anything particular for this challenge. I'm treating it more like a challenge to see how many books I read in a year. I think I read about 35 last year, so I'm hoping I can push that up to 50 this year if I actually have a goal and a place to record my progress.

Usually, before I type up a review about a book, I really like to go to Amazon.com and read the reviews for the book over there. I like to say it helps me crystallize my thoughts, but really, I just love to read the bad reviews.

Oh! I should also say that if you somehow ended up here without seeing the wonderful blog over at 50books.com first, you should totally check that one out; it's way better than mine will ever be, I think.

On to the books!