So today we had our first book club meeting. It was nice. Small, you know? We only got interest from 7 people out of the whole place, 5 people said they would have time to get and read the book, and 4 people actually read the book and came along, myself included. So we didn't need to get any extra tables, didn't have to go hardcore on scheduling the discussion points, and there were few enough of us that no one talked over anyone else. We picked the book apart from a few different angles, and had a couple of observations that had the others in our group going, "Oh yeah, never thought of it like that."
Best of all, no one really panned the book, even though individual conversations kind of led to people admitting that they didn't "like" it as such. I don't think that liking a book always has anything to do with critiquing it, which is what I see as the purpose of a book club. It could be my college mindset creeping back up the stairs, but I've always liked really dissecting a novel. If you're already a reader, it's great fun to take apart a novel, to figure out how the gears lock together and what spark of magic makes the whole monstrous engine start.
Editorial moment: Honestly, it's important to read books that you dislike now and then. It opens up your perception of what quality fiction is and is not. That and the fact that enjoyment, I find, is very malleable. You can like something a lot while reading it, then find that on further reflection, it isn't as great as you thought. The same thing can happen of the reverse - you can be completely bored by a book, but agree afterward that it was worth reading and be unable to stop talking about it, and find that it stays in your head forever.
The book we read for the book club was Annihilation, so my thoughts on it are already put to paper. Not much more revealed during the discussion, though I was a little more excited about the novel at the end than I was at the beginning. So much so that I asked the person who suggested the book (an extremely pretty/nice/smart blonde who hears everything like an old lady in a Dickens book and has amazing eyeliner skills) for spoilers about the other two - just a no holds barred, full reveal. It was fun and not something I would do often. I feel like I haven't just geeked out over writing in way too long.
We're hoping to do another book club for November, but I'm hoping it's a quick read because dang my dance card is full right now. I've got 4 harp pieces to memorize and perfect by December 5 because I'm playing a friend's wedding, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo and already have an idea in mind for my 50k words. It's a fantasy story based on a video game concept I pitched to some friends who loved it and suggested I write out the full story. I've got the overarching plot, a loose outline, and even some theme concepts - one of which is that I'm going to try and eliminate the romance. All I need now are the characters and a setting. There may be some feels involved.
So I'm suggesting a light read, something with comedy or maybe classic YA fantasy. Like Douglas Adams or Narnia somethingorother. I'm leaning toward Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Do you have any ideas? Put your suggestions in the comments!
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Review: Deerskin by Robin McKinley
Good evening! For your enjoyment, I have posted a humble review of the adult fantasy novel Deerskin by Robin McKinley.
Goodreads Summary: As Princess Lissar reaches womanhood, it is clear to all the kingdom that in her breathtaking beauty she is the mirror image of her mother, the queen. But this seeming blessing forces her to flee for safety from her father's wrath. With her loyal dog Ash at her side, Lissar unlocks a door to a world of magic, where she finds the key to her survival - and an adventure beyond her wildest dreams..."
Original reading: Sometime in middle or high school, not sure
Recent reading: 10/5/14-10/9/14
4/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: As Princess Lissar reaches womanhood, it is clear to all the kingdom that in her breathtaking beauty she is the mirror image of her mother, the queen. But this seeming blessing forces her to flee for safety from her father's wrath. With her loyal dog Ash at her side, Lissar unlocks a door to a world of magic, where she finds the key to her survival - and an adventure beyond her wildest dreams..."
Original reading: Sometime in middle or high school, not sure
Recent reading: 10/5/14-10/9/14
4/5 stars
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Review: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Good evening! Due to the book club I helped start up at my office, I recently picked up a digital copy of this book, what I consider to be an adult experimental sci-fi thriller, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I wrote up a review partially for this blog, but to a large degree so that I could have the excuse of breaking it down before the club even meets for the first time!
Goodreads Summary: Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition.
Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.
Original reading: N/A
Recent reading: 10/2/14-10/5/14
3/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition.
Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.
Original reading: N/A
Recent reading: 10/2/14-10/5/14
3/5 stars
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Review: I Love You, I Hate You, Get Lost by Ellen Conford
Good evening! For your edification, I have posted a humble review of the young adult short story fiction collection I Love You, I Hate You, Get Lost by Ellen Conford.
Goodreads Summary: A collection of seven humorous stories reflecting the ups and downs of teenage love and life.
Original reading: Probably in middle school
Recent reading: 9/10/14-9/16/14
3/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: A collection of seven humorous stories reflecting the ups and downs of teenage love and life.
Original reading: Probably in middle school
Recent reading: 9/10/14-9/16/14
3/5 stars
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Review: Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
Good evening! For my nostalgia, I have posted a humble review of the middle grade urban fantasy novel Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy, a novel I consider to be one of my own personal formative works.
Goodreads Summary: They were watching...and waiting
At twelve, Maggie had been thrown out of more boarding schools than she cared to remember. "Impossible to handle," they said -- nasty, mean, disobedient, rebellious, thieving -- anything they could say to explain why she must be removed from the school.
Maggie was thin and pale, with shabby clothes and stringy hair, when she arrived at her new home. "It was a mistake to bring her here," said Maggie's great-aunts, whose huge stone house looked like another boarding school -- or a prison. But they took her in anyway. After all, aside from Uncle Morris, they were Maggie's only living relatives.
But from behind the closet door in the great and gloomy house, Maggie hears the faint whisperings, the beckoning voices. And in the forbidding house of her ancestors, Maggie finds magic...the kind that lets her, for the first time, love and be loved.
Original reading: Sometime when I was this book's target demographic
Recent reading: 9/1/14-9/7/14
5/5 stars
(There are some light spoilers in this review.)
Goodreads Summary: They were watching...and waiting
At twelve, Maggie had been thrown out of more boarding schools than she cared to remember. "Impossible to handle," they said -- nasty, mean, disobedient, rebellious, thieving -- anything they could say to explain why she must be removed from the school.
Maggie was thin and pale, with shabby clothes and stringy hair, when she arrived at her new home. "It was a mistake to bring her here," said Maggie's great-aunts, whose huge stone house looked like another boarding school -- or a prison. But they took her in anyway. After all, aside from Uncle Morris, they were Maggie's only living relatives.
But from behind the closet door in the great and gloomy house, Maggie hears the faint whisperings, the beckoning voices. And in the forbidding house of her ancestors, Maggie finds magic...the kind that lets her, for the first time, love and be loved.
Original reading: Sometime when I was this book's target demographic
Recent reading: 9/1/14-9/7/14
5/5 stars
(There are some light spoilers in this review.)
Monday, September 1, 2014
Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Good evening! For your first-blog-post bemusement, I present a humble review of the young adult urban fantasy novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Woo! Yay for new blogs I'm probably going to forget about in a month!
Goodreads Summary: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
Original reading: N/A
Recent reading: 8/30/14-9/1/14
3/5 stars
(There are some light spoilers in this review.)
Goodreads Summary: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
Original reading: N/A
Recent reading: 8/30/14-9/1/14
3/5 stars
(There are some light spoilers in this review.)
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