Bookish Thoughts

The fourth book in the  Wheel of Time  series took a really long time to get going. Everyone starts out in the same place, trying to figure out what they're going to do next. And it takes nearly 200 pages for the various groups to head out and become interesting again. Thankfully, the back half of the book was so good I actually considered calling in sick to work so I could spend all day reading it. The book ultimately breaks off into three different plots. Perrin and Faile head to Two Rivers to deal with the Trollocs and Whitecloaks there. Elayne and Nynaeve take off to Tanchico in search of the Black Ajah, with Thom the Gleeman in tow. And everyone else heads in to the Aiel waste. Perrin's adventures in Two Rivers, growing into a general and falling in love with Faile, take up the bulk of the book. Initially I wasn't happy with this story. Faile is an incredibly frustrating character, and she and Perrin have some serious communication issues. But they figure them out ...

It took me a little while to get into  Kindred . Not because it's slow - the plot kicks in immediately and refuses to let up. Nor because of the characters; Dana is an everywoman with whom it's very easy to identify. Rather, the language, which I found to be blunt and stilted, kept me distanced from the story for a while. That language proved to be an asset though. Once Dana is fully engaged with the slave plantation, witnessing and experiencing horrors, Butler's simple, straight-forward language melts away. It's not flowery or overly descriptive. It just presents horror after horror, refusing to sugar-coat them or pack them beneath allusions and metaphor. I went from struggling with the language to being nearly unable to put the book down without even realizing it. While I wish the book had been able to capture me from the beginning, I'm ultimately glad that the story is presented as it is.  Kindred  is a short novel, coming in at 265 pages, but there is so muc...

The best way to get a feel for whether or not you'd like Randall Munroe's  What If  book is to check out the  blog  that it's based on. Given that the blog is available for free and most of the book is a reproduction of the blog, it may be a little silly to buy the book. But I enjoyed reading it. It makes an excellent coffee table book, something people can pick up and flip through and learn something new and interesting. The book also organizes the questions so that some of them build on each other quite naturally, which adds a little something extra that isn't available in the blog. But mostly I enjoyed reading the book because, frankly, I prefer books. I spend all day at work staring at a computer screen. When I'm at home relaxing, I'd rather not be looking at a back-lit screen. It's hard on my eyes. It confines me to my office (okay, I could read on the tablet, but then I'm worrying about battery life). So even though that blog has been available...

The final book in Margaret Atwood's  MaddAddam  trilogy is less of a conclusion than I expected it to be. Instead of moving significantly forward, the book mimics the format of the previous two, delving into Zeb's past and the founding of both the God's Gardeners and the MaddAddam movements. It does resolve the conflict with the painballers, but beyond that it raises almost as many questions as it answers. The final pages look towards the future with hope, but with as little resolution as the previous two books. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. The trilogy feels both like it could be complete and like there could be another three books, following the Crakers into the next generation and their new life. Seeing if they can maintain their truce with the pigoons and continue to repopulate the world. Zeb's story is interesting, and helps to make the world feel much bigger. His story moves from the east coast to LA and San Francisco. As far south as Rio and farth...

This book was perfect. If I could leave my life behind and live out the rest of my days inside of a book, it would be  The Night Circus . I'll try to parse this, to explain what I loved so much about this book. To start with, as always, the characters were phenomenal. The love story between Celia and Marco was electric and passionate. Isobel's role was tragic, but understandable. Same with Tsukiko. The children, Poppet and Widget and Bailey, were exactly the bright future I wanted. The shadowy puppet masters were perfectly aloof and manipulative. All I wanted was for everyone to get along and have their happily ever after. The structure also played right into all of my weaknesses. I've come to realize recently that this format, short vignettes from various view points, is, if not my favorite, then one of my favorites. The story jumps in time, circling back on itself to look at events from another angle. It includes a wealth of characters, bringing them all to life. It...