Better late than never…

Wow.

Talk about late. My poor site has been neglected.

The holidays have come and gone, and I’m now 23 (scary thought).I also got several new books that I really want to read. If you can’t tell, I love books. The best gift anyone can get me is a book — I love buying and collecting them. I also love the smell of old books, libraries, and book stores.

So thanks to my wonderful friend Katie and a couple of gift cards, I’ve picked up The Sea of Monsters, the second Percy Jackson book by Rick Riordan, along with Graceling by Kristen Cashore, The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima, and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I have Jane Eyre, too. I also picked up the ultimate in Chick Lit: Jane Austen.

I love Jane Austen, but my affection for her work is fairly recent. I worked my way through Pride and Prejudice in seventh grade, and fell in love with it, but I never picked up anything else. I had an elective to blow my senior year of college, so I decided to take a Jane Austen and Ann Radcliffe class. After suffering through The Mysteries of Udolpho (unless you enjoy inflicting literary torture on yourself, I’d skip it and try Romance of the Forest or The Italian), we finally started on Austen’s works.

If you haven’t read Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, or Emma, you should. They’ve got all the sappy romance you can expect out of an early 19th century British novel and plenty of cattiness.

But now for something fun! I hereby present to you the Jane Austen Fight Club:

 

Mission: Failure (and why you should read “The Lightning Thief”)

I regretfully admit that my summer reading list has become my summer-fall reading list. At the rate I’m going, it could become my summer-fall-winter reading list.

Since my last post I’ve only finished one book, but it’s the one I’ve been hoping to for a long time: Percy Jackson & The Olympians:  The Lightning Thief. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time — not just because I enjoyed it, but because the writing is spectacular.

Yes. It’s a kid’s book — a kid’s series. The protagonist is in the 6th grade. And you should go read it right now. I’ve said it before, and I’ve said it again. The material may not be as explicit, but kids’ books still tackle difficult issues. And “The Lightning Thief” has difficult issues: abusive step-parents, deadbeat parents, violence, sacrifice and betrayal.

Rick Riordan really does know what he’s talking about. He recreates the sensations and the emotions of the main character in a way I’ve rarely seen. And even though you go into the story knowing what the main character doesn’t (that he’s the son of one of the Olympian gods), you still feel his puzzlement at the strange events surrounding him. Even though you know he’s on his way to a great adventure, you feel his anger and frustration and hopelessness when he’s expelled from school.

The beginning of the book isn’t just to get Percy where he needs to be.

It isn’t just to hook the reader with some sort of mystery, and it isn’t just to lay out the rules of Percy Jackson universe.

The beginning of the book is for the reader to get to know Percy. Some of the younger readers may empathize with him (he’s been told he has ADHD and dyslexia, has never done well in school, and like Harry Potter in “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” seems to get in trouble for strange things that aren’t his fault), but Percy isn’t just a stand-in character for every misfit kid out there wishing they were someone special. He’s got depth. He has a personality – he has quirks and he has limits, and he has issues.

Maybe Percy Jackson has some similarities to Harry Potter. A troubled young boy with a less-than-ideal home life suddenly finds out that he’s not what he thought he was, and gets dragged into a fight that he inherited without deserving.

It sounds a bit like the start of Wheel of Times series, if you exclude the less-than-ideal home life. And if we’re excluding that, it also sounds a bit like the beginning of the Sword of Truth series. And yes, even the start of the Lord of Rings.

It sounds a bit cliché. But Rick Riordan’s done his homework. He doesn’t just ask, “Hey, what if the Greek gods were still alive and kicking?” He explains why they are. He works in the myths of the past, and makes them relevant to his story without abusing them and twisting them to his own ends. He captures the spirit of the Greek myths – stories of gods who aren’t all-powerful, all-seeing and all-good. These gods were petty, vengeful and proud.

And that’s what sets “The Lightning Thief” apart. Harry, Rand in the Wheel of Time, Richard in the Sword of Truth and Frodo all get thrown into the ultimate battle of good-versus-evil. And while the world is still at stake in “The Lightning Thief,” it’s not a showdown between the forces of good and evil. It’s very personal, very petty, and very much like the old Greek myths.

But hey, if you don’t believe me,  go read it for yourself.

Go on. You won’t regret it.

It’s slow going…

but I’m slowly getting through my reading list. I’ve now finished Butcher’s “Changes,” Lauren Kate’s “Fallen” and Eoin Colfer’s continuation of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “And Another Thing…“

I have to say, the only one I was impressed with was Butcher. A good book on its own, but it’s more impressive because it’s considerably better than his previous novels. The style of the novel is the same, and the plot is standard fare (minus one quickly revealed twist that I won’t give away here). The pacing is typical — one thing after another — but this time we actually see Harry pushed to his limits. In the past, he’s always had some last resource to tap, something no one expected. This time, though, it truly seems he’s in way over his head, and he needs help.

Kate’s novel is the typical angsty teen romance. Whereas “Twilight” has vampires, this one has fallen angels. The premise is the same, but the details are different. The main character is a bit of an improvement over Bella, but she still suffers from the same problem: She’s entranced by a boy who seems indifferent to her, who shows all the signs of being a bad boyfriend, and of course he’s so secretive that she walks into all kinds of danger without knowing it. (The book gives a reason for this, but I’m not buying it.) She also seems quite content to wait to be rescued rather than taking matters into her own hands. The book is interesting until most of it is explained to the reader, and then it’s hard to resist rolling your eyes and asking, “Really?”

The second book, “Torment,” is due out this fall. I doubt I’ll be picking it up. I certainly won’t be buying it.

Colfer’s continuation of Douglas Adams’ series is a blessing and a curse. The end of “Mostly Harmless” never sat quite right with me, and for those who of us who are unhappy about it, the new book undoes the damage “Mostly Harmless” inflicts. But it’s also no Adams book. Instead, Colfer takes all the mechanisms of the previous 5 books and reuses them. It lacks the inventiveness and randomness that marked Douglas’ writing. There’s precious little that’s truly new. It was a decent enough read, but not something I’d like to revisit.

I’ve got Rick Riordan’s first Percy Jackson book (“The Lightning Thief“) awaiting me. I’ve been wanting to read it for a long time, and I hear its good. We’ll see.

Summer reading list

I love reading, though I haven’t had much time for it in a long while. But in an attempt to motivate myself to read more, I’ve decided to make a list and post it.

I tend to think that genre books are extremely undervalued. They’re written off as being the livelihoods of an angsty bunch of misfits (See the New York Press blog post by Allen Houston for an example, and then check out a Publisher’s Weekly blogger’s response) but having been to midnight releases and talks by Laurell K. Hamilton, it’s not always the case. There are always “weirdos,” but who’s to judge? Certainly not me. The events are informative–when I went to the Laurell K. Hamilton Bullet tour kickoff, it was a question-based event. The fans got to ask her questions about the story and about her writing process. For aspiring writers, it’s informative and encouraging. She’s also extremely funny.

For those who don’t know who Laurell K. Hamilton is, she writes paranormal (vampire) romance/crime novels. (The first book of her vampire hunter series is called Guilty Pleasures.) In the world of her novels, vampires are legal citizens, and so are shapeshifters, even if they’re still discriminated against. Anita Blake is a vampire executioner and an animator–she raises Zombies for a living, while working with the police to solve crimes by paranormal bad guys. Oh, and there’s a vampire who’s trying to persuade her to date him.

At the Bullet kickoff tour, a former marine and police officer commented on how realistically she portrays the police/military world. He thanked her for capturing the spirit of it. It’s no easy feat, and a lot of it is based on her experiences talking with cops and military folk. This isn’t some “balding goth,” but a respectable man who enjoys the books. There were teenagers–one boy asked how he could get his mother (a syndicated columnist) to write more books. Girls, boys, men, women, all lining up to ask her questions and tell her how much they appreciate her books. More than a few girls/women commented on how they love Anita for being a strong, independent woman (these aren’t your princess myth romances) and look up to her as a role model.

I follow Neil Gaiman and Laurell on Twitter. They’re funny, educated, and considerate to their audience. They acknowledge that we’re there, and they share their lives with us. They run events that don’t just involve a lecture, but actual participation. We don’t find out about their lives in TV interviews or newspaper articles.

I feel much the same way about Young Adult and children’s literature. I’ve seen students write the stuff off as being fluff.I took a Jane Austen/Ann Radcliffe class where a student suggested that Harry Potter had nothing of value to contribute to the literary community. If she hadn’t, why has Harry Potter become such a huge movement? She might not have been the first, but she was the first to make it big, and hundreds have followed in her footsteps.

Children’s books deal with serious issues, too. The Higher Power of Lucky deals with a young girl living in a poor town with her step mother. Lucky, the girl, has to confront issues about her mother’s death. She listens in on the adults’ AA meetings and wonders what the word ‘scrotum’ means. She runs away with her friend, and when he gets hurt, she has to confront more of her own issues.

Harry Potter deals with friendship and life and growing  up, and most certainly losing people you love. The Anita Blake books deal with right/wrong, friendship and love, trust — the same sort of issues any good book addresses. These books are human; they’re engaging; they’re well-written. And their authors reach out to their fans, and to charity. J.K. Rowling plans to donate the profits from her Harry Potter encyclopedia to charity. When Neil Gaiman gets  his settlement from a comic book lawsuit, he’s donating the money to comic book charities.

So maybe there’s a reason that these genre authors have such a devoted and respectful following.

READING LIST

UPDATE 6.13.10: Three books in. LKH and Green down. Dresden next, perhaps?

So here’s the list, in no order other than how I pull them out of my little crate. Feel free to add your suggestions or comments– but absolutely no spoilers, please.

Sherrilyn Kenyon: One Silent Night and Bad Moon Rising
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel’s Mercy
Amanda Downum: The Drowning City
M.L.N. Hanover: Unclean Spirits
Robert Liparulo: House of Dark Shadows
Neil Gaiman: Coraline, Stardust
Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief
Patti O’Shea: Through a Crimson Veil
Simon R. Green: Just Another Judgment Day
Lauren Kate: Fallen
Jim Butcher: Changes
Laurell K. Hamilton: Flirt, Bullet
Eoin Colfer: And Another Thing
George R.R. Martin: A Game of Thrones

Please be patient….

This is a work in progress, after all. =)