The Library of Shadows

Gainesville has this wonderful book sale hosted by the Friends of the Library once a semester and I never come home from one of these sales with less than 10 books.  There can be many hidden gems but for the most part the cheap prices and the amount of book lovers in Gainesville quickly decimate those.  This is one of the 17 books I picked up this year, drawn by the cover and the fleeting description of secret book lover society with powers.

 This book started rather slowly, with a lot of explanation of powers that took far longer than it should have. The powers themselves were awesome, being able to hear people read silently from afar so they could always hear someone reading the 'no trespassing' sign on the drive up to the farm. Enhancing someone's attention to their reading so you can sneak by unnoticed and they can better study. Some are even able to brainwash, reading a text so forcefully that others actually see it the way the reader sees it. 

However, this book has some flaws too. It seemed like three different book disjointedly connected; the lawyer dealing with family issues and trying to excel at his job (reminds me of the movie the proposal with Sandra Bullock), the magical but grounded in reality book society (reminds me of something like the new Jessica Jones series) , and then the secondary faction of the society which was fanciful, ancient, and cult-like (like the Mummy or Indiana Jones). The story was compelling but it took me a long time to read. I was uncomfortable with the shifts and could never fully immerse myself in the book because I felt like I kept getting jarred out of the story.

All in all I will probably give it back to the book sale folks but I'm glad I read it. These powers and the main character will definitely be remembered. 

The Rithmatist

As I mentioned in my first post I recently finished  the Wheel of Time series. The first 11 books in this series were written by Robert Jordan but he sadly passed away and Brandon Sanderson wrote the last 3 books using his notes. He captured the essence of the series and brought them together in a beautiful ending, staying true to all the characters that we had come to know and love in first 11 books.  So of course when I saw a book by Brandon Sanderson in the bargain bin I grabbed it; and I was not disappointed.

If I had not just read the amazing marvel that is The Fifth Season I would have said this is the greatest book ever ( I tend to dramatize about things I love). As is, I can say that this book is thoroughly enjoyable, unique and wonderful and I can only hope everyone will read it so I can talk about it more. Chalklings are the most interesting and insanely terrifying idea and I can think of millions of stories for these fantastical creatures. The main character, Joel is a captivating narrator, courageous and gawky and somehow the perfect hero even though he does not have any chalk powers like practically everyone else in the book.

A wonderful selection and I cannot wait to get my hands on the second one called The Aztlantian. 





The Shadow in the North

I was really looking forward to reading this because who doesn't like The Golden Compass right? Well, actually, maybe a few people, but I adored that book and the series that followed so naturally another book by Phillip Pullman caught my eye. Initially I enjoyed the book, the story draws you in. Sally Lockhart is a fiercely independent woman whose client has lost some money in stocks and she is doing her best to discover why that particular business crashed the way it did. She is helped by her photographer friends and some quirky magicians as well as her trusty dog.

 Eventually she finds the culprit although she doesn't quite know the means to what he has done. Unfortunately in the second half of the book a lot of characters are killed off needlessly and the ending as well as the mystery doesn't justify all the terrible events that happen. I felt pretty disappointed when I finished the book and also very confused as to how this could possibly be part of a series since all the most important characters to her die. An interesting read but I probably won't be reading anymore Lockhart mysteries.

The Chosen

So when I originally put The Chosen on my books to read list I was talking about the one by Ted Dekker which my parents suggested to me. However, it spent so long on my list I forgot who it was by and when I found this at the store I thought "yay, I'll be able to cross something off my list!" and also "Why the heck was this book on my list?".  I am so glad to have read this book. It is about two young Jewish boys growing up in New York during World War II. They are from different sects and although they initially despise each other they grow to be best friends. They grow in their faith as one boy steps farther from it while the other decides he wants to become a Rabbi.
 The thing I love about this book is that it shows positive and negative sides to both types of Judaism and does a great job of showing what there religion was like during the high pressure time of World War II when they were just beginning to hear about the camps and brutality of Hitler. It was interesting to me how divisive this time was for Jews, they believed it should be handled in very different ways and fights even broke out at schools between Jews of different sects.
It is a fictional book that handles itself well with a very specific and very real group of people. I loved this book, it made me cry and laugh and I definitely believe its worth a reread in the future.

What is not yours, is not yours

Short stories have never been my favorite other than collections of classic fairytales and I'm not sure whether this book changed that or not.  Helen Oyeyemi is an amazing author and each of these stories are so unique and wonderful but I wish that I could read more about each of the stories. If each of these short stories had been expanded on and turned into full books I would have read them all and loved it even more.

Like I said, each story is unique, they share the theme of keys and occasionally a character wanders into another story. When this happens I immediately tried to create a world where all of these stories happened in the same universe and somehow she would pull them all together in the end. That did not happen however and I still immensely enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more by this author. From a puppeteering school to a secret garden, all her characters were vivid and quirky and one-of-a-kind. 



The Fifth Season

Ahhhhh!! This is one of my new absolute favorite books! It was recommended at the front of a bookstore. I got it read it, LOVED it, then went to buy the second only to find out only the first book has been written :( NOOO.

This book is about an alternate world where certain people have the ability to move earth and quell earthquakes by there will. This ability is called orogeny. This book follows three different time periods in a girl's life who discovers she has the ability, the way the world she lives in treats her kind and her trying to live outside of the world's constructs for her. Orogeny is feared but viewed as necessary to save the people from earthquakes and tectonic movement. Those who are able to practice it are tightly controlled by the government, they are taught, bred and used in specific ways.

This book is gripping and devastatingly good. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second one!

A Walk in the Woods

I was super excited about this book for a few reasons. 1. Bill Bryson is my boyfriend's favorite author, I read In a Sunburned Country by him and enjoyed it. 2. I just did my 2nd section hike of the Appalachian trail and loved every second of hiking and 3. It was made into a movie fairly recently. I heard the movie didn't get great reviews but given that the book is always better I was still pretty confident in this book.
Unfortunately I was disappointed by the book. It is a funny and interesting story but to me it failed to capture what long distance hiking is like. Granted everyone has a different experience and does it for different reasons so perhaps I am biased. I love to hike; I wish Charles (my boyfriend who I'm always referring to) would come with me but he always declines and after reading this book I don't blame him. Bill Bryson spends the first 15 pages naming all the terrible things that could possibly happen on the trail citing numerous horror stories from places he passed. He describes the hike as stressful and mundane somehow at the same time.
Eventually he decides against doing it all and does some combinations of day-hiking and short sections. There are many humorous moments, he makes some great points about the trail. There were many enjoyable moments but on the whole I was not a fan. I still love Bill Bryson and I won't give up on his other books even though he didn't enjoy the hike.

Stardust

Stardust, written by Neil Gaimon is a unique fairy tale. I ran into this book on a library trip with my boyfriend. I wandered off into the children's section, as I often do, and was happily surprised to see this book. It was, of course, amazing and undoubtedly better than the movie which I also love. If you've seen the movie the plot is the same, even including the ghosts of the royal heirs, which I had assumed was a comedic insert of the movie. I always feel like the characters are so much more vivid in the book and this was no different. The illustrations by Charles Vess were such a treat, they make me wish the movie was animated. Tristan is hilariously simple but with the best of intentions and Yvaine is strong and defiant. Also, the unicorn played a much bigger part in the book and I know it's cheesy but I LOVE unicorns ( I bet Tina from Bob's burgers likes them too and she's cool, so there ). This book is magical and delightful and I hope it is read by all.