Mid-Year Books 2013 (Part 2)

As promised!

(7) The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan

When you start a 700+ page book with 13 sequels, there might be a worry about how much time you are going to have to commit to this endeavor. You might wonder: is this something I really want to get hooked on? Your attachment to this series is going to depend a lot on your personal tastes. If the reader is attracted to strange new lands, nightmarish creatures, and action-packed fights with mighty foes that result in rapid page flipping, then it is likely that this is the book for you. If, however, the reader’s imagination is a bit out of order, you are going to have a bad time. One might struggle with imagining the countryside of these unusual places. Maybe they just can’t imagine the adversarial critters, so the reader just borrows other monster visages from movies they have seen. The reader could also grow bored from pages upon pages of action sequences. You’ll have to decide what kind of reader you are (I lean more towards the second description) and perhaps decide that this is not the reading direction you want to venture into.

The story begins as murderous monsters target three peasant young men in a poor village. The three men have vivid, frightening dreams that indicate that they might be a chosen soul whose destiny is to save all from evil forces. They travel with two strangers; matured individuals who have magical powers. Two women from their village who seem to have important, pre-destined roles in this adventure also join them. With a book of this length, you have the privilege to spend a lot of time with each of them.  There were many actions scenes with frightening beast-like enemies that were very fun to read and placed you right in the middle of the action. The story is not male-centric; the female characters are essential to the plot. Although they do not apparently share the same destiny as the three young male protagonists in the story, they still have a vital fate and purpose.

The book is primarily a travelogue, which seems to be a trend in fantasy fiction. While some readers might love traveling along side these characters to exotic and unfamiliar places, the story, plot and character relationships were a backdrop to the “travel experience.” There were certain storytelling devices that were too contrived (too many instances of: oh isn’t that convenient!).  

Content Rating: Fantasy fighting scenes

Length: 832 Pages

Genre: Fantasy Fiction

(8) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

While reading this, it was as if a projector was playing a thriller in the brain. I even paused at moments to consider proper casting for my imaginary head film. The husband of a missing woman narrates what happens to him during the days and weeks following her disappearance—especially as suspicions of foul play begin to mount. Once you start this novel, you are going to want to read it straight through; who likes pausing an exciting thriller in the middle to do bothersome things like sleeping? The writing style is first-person within the protagonist’s own thoughts and a lack of complexity means the sentences flow well and is a fast read. The book channeled a Hitchcock movie, but rather than having a twist ending, there were numerous twists throughout the book that made the story feel deeply layered. I’d rename the book: Things are not what they appear to be!

Content: Adult

Length: 432 Pages

Genre: Thriller

(9) Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Despite a crop of substandard young adult books, the books of the Across the Universe series are an unexpected and surprising trilogy of dystopian thrillers. Many authors of young adult dystopian novels get by on the indiscriminating popularity of the genre. Just as it is easy to make fun of terrible pop music that teenagers love, we should be just as critical of the writing and storytelling in the books that are marketed to young people. It is imperative that the books we are handing our young adults will nurture their constructive development into a maturing reader who will eventually handle books with adult themes and issues. Young adult dystopian novels are very common, and while it is fun to imagine what it would be like to live in these odd, alternate universes, the author usually fails to answer two important questions: why and how. Why did society degrade to this? How did this happen over time? The author might develop and immerse her reader in an exotic culture, but that is not enough. Those two nagging questions are ever-present in the back of the discriminate reader’s head and distract from the overall enjoyment when not adequately addressed. The story is underdeveloped if the author fails to identify the specific causes and effects that have drastically and irrevocably changed life for all humans on earth.

But, this series is a refreshing, shining star in a sea of young adult mediocrity.  The first two books establish the culture of the crew on the spaceship Godspeed: no religion, no race, controlled births and cloned leaders. The first book begins with Amy, daughter of a scientist and a career military consultant, deciding if she will join her parents in stasis as they travel to a new planet. She decides to join her parents, and is frozen via an uncomfortable procedure for the long journey. However, when Amy is woken up early, she discovers incredible changes to the crew of Godspeed. Although there is a love story, the book’s focus is the mysteries of the ship and the unseemly and covert objectives of this mission.

While traversing through each book, the impression I get is that Revis first began with answering the “how” and the “why” before starting to write the narrative. Once she knew where her story was headed, she then embedded the history of the dystopian spaceship around Elder and Amy, our teenage protagonists. By the end of the second book, the reader has a fairly clear understanding of how time and politics upon this space ship have altered human appearance and culture. Shades of Earth, the third novel, tells more of the historical story without the reader even expecting it. The inhabitants of Godspeed finally disembark and colonize the new planet, but in addition to deadly monsters that prey on the new arrivals, it also seems to already have natives living there that are not pleased with their presence.

Unfortunately, the third book is the weakest of the three. While Revis certainly has answers to the questions that are formed in the first novel, this book feels like an early draft with a meandering narrative. Perhaps she had pressure to finish it in a time frame that did not give her adequate time to flesh out the characters and events in this final adventure for Elder and Amy. Also, leaving the confines of the spaceship to a new planet was probably too much to attempt in one book. So much is happening with these characters and Revis only has four hundred or so pages to tell it all.

My expectations were sky high, and the descriptions of the mysterious new planet did not work well to activate my imagination. Despite a few missteps in the third book, I love this dystopian in space series.

Content: Older young adults

Length: 384 Pages

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

(10) Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bossypants was marketed as a laugh-out loud silly memoir, but that is a grossly imprecise description of this chronicle. This is a witty book, but the humor is understated and softer than what would be expected.   The reader would probably find this more enjoyable if approached as a feminist narrative with some humor sprinkled in.

You’d think that the entertainment industry would be a progressive and easy place to be a female boss; instead her tales describe the difficulties of navigating through a male-dominated industry being Tina Fey. Bossypants is an important work, and shouldn’t be disregarded as simply a silly book of stories. One of the memorable stories she tells involved a weekend that dealt with three stressful situations: transforming into Sarah Palin for the now-famous SNL sketch, shooting scenes with Oprah Winfey for 30 Rock, and trying to find all the decorations necessary for her daughter’s Peter Pan birthday party. She managed to make all three happen, and none seemed to be more important to her than another.  Fey is very talented at pointing out astute observations about the condition of womanhood and the challenges that we face—and the challenges we unduly create for ourselves. Near the conclusion of the book, there is a wonderful chapter covering “mommy shaming” that made me want to give a standing ovation (too bad I was reading it on an airplane). 

P.S. If you are looking for a guaranteed laugh-out-loud memoir, try Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. You will laugh so much; you might wet your pants.

Content: Adult

Length: 283 Pages

Genre: Memoir

(11) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

A well-read young woman named Margaret, who has grown up working in her father’s bookshop, receives an offer to become a biographer for the elderly Vida Winter. Vida Winter is the most famous author of Margaret’s time, yet no one knows anything about her. For her entire career, she was withheld her identity from the public. Margaret arrives at her home, and Vida begins to tell her astonishing stories about two indivisible and uncouth twin sisters. Sometimes these stories are dark and heinous, some are funny and charming. As her story unfolds, Margaret begins to put together some complexities within Vida’s past, as well as deal with her own personal issues.

The story refers many times to the classic novels that Margaret loves, such as Jane Eyre, and the storytelling feels classic and timeless, similar to what you might expect from a Bronte sister. Even if you have difficulty reading older classic fiction, the writing here is accessible and should appeal to a wider audience. When Vida Winter tells her stories to Margaret, the reader is completely drawn in to her story with an intense longing to know more.  The stories of Winter’s childhood as a member of an unruly twin combo are captivating.

The problem is, once the loose ends of the mystery are tied up, your interest begins to languish.  Once you venture into the last third of the book, the story, which once drew you in, becomes very contrived and absurd. After all is revealed, the ending leaves one feeling that they have been manipulated for the entire book. Characters that were easy to imagine and seemed like real people become obviously fictional and fantastical. By the end, there are too many issues with the story to leave the reader feeling positive about the reading experience.

Content: Adult

Length: 416 Pages

Genre: Fiction

(12) The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding is a baseball book that isn’t really about baseball. This is a character study of five individuals at Westish College: a college shortstop prodigy, the eccentric and brilliant roommate of the prodigy, the sullen baseball team captain, the sensitive college president, and the college president’s recently separated daughter. The author uses baseball as a scaffold to tell the stories of their intricately woven personal relationships. Despite being someone who only enjoys attending baseball games to consume chocolate frozen malts and oversized hot dogs, I enjoyed the baseball scenes because they were suspenseful and descriptive enough to follow the action. The game scenes are described through the eyes of an onlooker, which makes the reader feel as though they are right there in the stands. However, most of the story takes place off the field, and those scenes between the characters are often just as dynamic.

What could have been better? This book is just too long for its story.  Each chapter revolves around one character; there is no central protagonist. If the author had cut back on the narrative for some of the characters, the book would have felt better paced and streamlined. The storylines of the Westish baseball team captain and the college president dragged, and became uninteresting by the last fourth of the book. However, the other characters kept the story interesting until the end, and the final scene in the book was surprising and a bit morbid—I loved it.

Content: Adult

Length: 528 Pages

Genre: Fiction

(13) The Shunned House by H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is known for his works in horror, and this was my first introduction to his stories. The Shunned House is a short story about the baneful history of a haunted house. The protagonist’s uncle has developed a hobby of collecting information about the construction and life of the home, and he spends much of the story describing all the deaths and illnesses that occurred within its walls. Then, the story’s setting changes to the haunted house itself, and what happens when the protagonist attempts to purge it of its demons. This story would have been awfully dull had it been any longer, but this story was well suited for its short-length. The horror felt dated, and would be unlikely to ever induce a nightmare in a modern audience.

Content: Adult

Length: 48 Pages

Genre: Horror Fiction

(14) I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Did you know that this is a vampire book, not a zombie book? Without a doubt, this is the best vampire book I have ever read.  The crisp writing completely immersed me in this vampire-infested world. I was right there with Neville in his barricaded home as vampires attempted to entice him to come outside. I panicked with him; my heart would race when things went horribly wrong. I felt his loneliness and sadness at the loss of his family. Certainly, the modernity of this book was most astounding. Although it was published in 1954, it could very well be a brand new release today. The absolute best part of the book is the science of vampires that Neville studies and explores; by the end, there is an answer to the “how” and “why” vampires exist. This is an exhilarating reading experience and I classify it as a must-read book.

Content: Adult

Length: 320 Pages

Genre: Horror Fiction

(15) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

I wish I had read this before I saw the film version. As I read, I remembered the actors, sets, and costumes that were already implanted in my head. I’d recommend either the book or the movie, because director David Fincher does an outstanding job of capturing the tone and story of this short novel. If you don’t want to watch the brutality on film but you are still curious about the story, the book version might be easier to get through.

Nonetheless, this is a slick book about the condition of being a modern man.  Some topics explored here include the angst felt when the American dream is unreachable, the claustrophobia caused by the cubicle, and the male drive to hit things to work out problems. Fight Club had a peculiar effect, as by the end, I really did wonder if fighting in an underground club could help me become a happier person.

This is revolutionary story telling, and I have never read anything quite like this. It is absolutely unique in voice and tone, and contains great twists. This book applauds violence as an answer to problems, so it may not be to everyone’s tastes. You might not want to buy your grandma a copy for Christmas.

Content: Adult

Length: 224 Pages

Genre: Fiction

(16) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

This was so, so good. Robert A. Heinlein, where have you been all my life?

In the year 2075, a covert group of “Loonies” conspire to overthrow the officials on their homeland, the Moon. With the help of Mike, their joke-telling self-aware computer, they carefully plot this seemingly impossible revolution. Because capital punishment has been outlawed on Earth, the “earthworms” have sent their criminals to Luna to complete their prison sentence. Over time, the people of the moon establish their own culture, one that is driven by general consensus of customs rather than laws. There are no taxes, laypeople serve as impromptu judges to decide disagreements (even on capital offenses), and the rarity of women means they have strongly respected personal rights. Earth criminals who do not behave themselves after being sent to Luna don’t last long; they are quickly eliminated for failing to follow moon customs.

This science fiction book does not resemble what you might expect from the genre, as it is not a book about spaceships shooting at each other. This is a story of political intrigue. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is tightly laced with political ideologies and focuses on the complexity of planning a regime upheaval.  The story is oozing with realistic science. I love that Heinlein doesn’t waste time explaining the science to a reader who might not know what he’s talking about. Can you imagine if he had to stop to explain to the reader every simple physics concept mentioned? I won’t pretend that I totally grasped the science behind a giant catapult that could forcefully project an object from the moon’s surface to earth, but Heinlein convinced me it could work!

The writing here is a bit dense and that results in a slower read. It takes some time to adjust to the style of the Lunar dialect. When you begin reading, you will notice that some words (“the,” “there” and clarifying nouns) are often omitted. The Lunar dialect does become easier to read, and adds extra depth that delineates the developed culture of the Moon from the Earth. I loved reading about the underground life living on Luna and the family makeup and dynamics of the Loonies. Heinlein has an exquisite imagination for creating a plausible libertarian world.

Content: Adult

Length: 384 Pages

Genre: Science Fiction

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Lots of good stuff coming up; I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick, and loved it, just not ready to write about it. I have big digital stack of sci-fi waiting for me; hopefully my babies will cooperate and let me read.