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I look forward to hearing from you!
Only on the internet can you have so many friends and be so lonely.
We’re all famous in our own minds.
Complete honesty is a complete lie.
What’s worse than keeping a shameful secret?
All sex has consequences, most of them dire.
Don’t read my life. Go live your own!
“Imagine an 18-year-old Lolita, updated to the 21st century, blogging her own provocative adventures. By turns charming and crude, disturbingly reckless and achingly tender, Undiscovered Gyrl seduces… Shot through with teenage yearning for ‘true love,’ each page vibrates with the quicksilver spirit of youth. As we follow the narrator on her ever-darkening journey, questions arise about voyeurism and identity in an age of cyber-anonymity. Allison Burnett’s masterful page-turner lingers long after the last page.” -Rachel Resnick, author of Love Junkie
When I saw the banner for this Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett in Shelf Awareness, I was hyper-excited to get my hands on the book, and when I got a positive reply to my email requesting a copy to review, I couldn’t contain myself. It looked interesting and like one of those books you just can’t put down, especially for someone nosey… like me.
So, how did the book hold up to my anticipation?
Honestly, I was surprised by the book. It’s set up as a blog-to-book, and in it you watch as the narrator (the definition of the “unreliable narrator” to be sure) grows as a blogger, and disintegrates in some ways as a person. The idea of being able to be completely open in the anonymity is, at first, a relief and exciting thing for her, later it seems to be something that pushes her to more extreme and outrageous behavior… if for no other reason than to get a reaction from her readers.
Personally, there are parts of this that scare the hell out of me. I have a 16 and 15-year-old, neither of which are really that into blogging and stuff… now. Maggie, on the other hand, is 10 and a bit extroverted. “Katie” tells about her mother and her boyfriend’s fighting, her dad and his girlfriend’s abusive relationship, and how she pits everyone against each other to get what she wants. She continually tells her readers that there is NOTHING sexual behind her boss’s generosity, but relays stories about him in such a way as to leave it almost obvious. She degrades herself over “Dan,” her college instructor on-the-side, and you can’t help but feel pity for her… she so wants to be loved, she’s willing to turn herself into that girl who waits desperately for his girlfriend to go away so she can devour the scraps.
With Undiscovered Gyrl, Allison Burnett reveals a very real picture of the modern teenage life. Unable to read and comprehend a book a year unless assigned by a teacher, but reads and responds to 20 emails, IMs and text messages a second. She couldn’t fathom doing homework without the TV on, CD blaring and the Google open on the computer. It makes me glad I’ve not given any of my kids a cell phone. They don’t have TVs in their bedrooms, even. We just got a second computer last June, so maybe mine will be safe…
Here’s the thing: Undiscovered Gyrlis very graphic and I even learned a few sex-things from reading it. I never knew what a “box job” was before this book. But it’s not porn, per se, and it all goes into the story for a purpose. It is shocking… at least for me, an over-30-parent. “Katie” isn’t totally unsympathetic, yet says things at times that make me want to slap the snot out of her. She’s so stupid and I just want to grab her up and say, “Wake up! You’re throwing your life away!” But, if there’s one thing I got out of this book it’s this: The fact it came from an adult would render it meaningless all together.
Young Max Ransome watched his father die, killed by marauding phantors as they swept through T’Aragam at the bidding of the evil wizard Zadok. Barely escaping with his own life, Max is thrust into a whirlwind journey as he races against time to save T’Aragam, the world he loves, from a dark dominion. Can Max overcome the horror of his father’s death and save T’Aragam from the grasping talons of its enemies?
Woven with a charming mix of zany humor and genuine danger, T’Aragam immerses the reader in a world of original characters and tightly-woven plot. Young Max leads the cast and is ably supported by, among others, a faithful medgekin friend named Gramkin, two monster brothers named Doom and Gloom, and an equuraptor named Dresden.
Coupled with quirky supporting characters, such as mercenary Captain Baggywrinkle, Lord Stench, and a perpetually hungry sea serpent named Bob, this cast of characters steps from the pages and pulls the reader into the story.
I am thoroughly entranced by this book. It’s fantasy with wizards, phantors and equuraptors (part horse, part dragon, and few are alive who’ve seen them in person). It’s also got a good comedic side to it with monster brother Doom and Gloom who are afraid of everything, including birds and boys, and Doom is particularly put off by the lack of tea time and unsanitary conditions of the dungeon. There’s adventure, the battle of good and evil, and 13-year-old Max must decide between doing what is right, even if it leads to a horrible and long death, or to do what’s comfortable. All of it works to make a very addictive read in this first book of The Max Ransome Chronicles.
Okay, some side notes from me… I’ve gotten a bit caught up in World of Warcraft lately. After making fun of everyone I know who plays it, I thought I’d see what the deal was and found out I’m as big a dork as them. What’s more, Maggie is even worse about it than me! So reading T’Aragam has been like being “in game,” even though I was AFK. I could picture it all and could relate to Max as if it were me in it… because I’ve done or seen similar things, or felt similarly while playing WoW. And I can’t wait for more of this series.
Another point is that you have to go to Podiobooks and listen to the Regan perform the audiobook (while there, feel free to make a donation… Regan gets 75% of it 😉 ). It was listening to the first chapter of the audiobook that sold me on this book; Regan is one of the best performers I’ve heard. I suppose it could be argued that the author would do the best reading, since they know exactly how it should sound, but I have two words to argue that: Ray Bradbury.
While this book is technically a YA and geared for boys, I’d have to say that anyone who enjoys Tolkein and C.S. Lewis would enjoy T’Aragam. I was impressed with Regan’s storycrafting, the fluidity of his writing without it becoming blah or going over the reader’s head. I never wanted to put it down, and when I had to for life’s demands, my mind kepty drifting back to how Max was going to get out of whatever situation I’d left him.
For it’s ability to spirit me away to the land of fantasy and take me on an adventure, I give T’Aragam by Jack W. Regan 5 out of 5 stars, and am dying to know how much longer I have to wait for book two??
Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons (div of Penguin Young Readers Group)
ISBN: 9780399250026
PJ put on one of his father’s spare POLICE jackets. “C’mon, we’re already here. Besides, you said it takes an hour round trip to get to the border crossing and back. Any smugglers would probably still be forty minutes away.”
PJ was reaching to put the car into park when something moved in the darkness. A patch of shadow shifted against a background of dark trees. As soon as he noticed it, it was gone. “What was that?” he said.
“What was what?” Sam said, staring into the forest. “I can’t see a thing. It’s pitch-black.”
PJ reached down and flipped the headlight switch. The sudden light glared on a dark, husky human shape in front of the car. It waved a club-shaped object and brought it down onto the metal hood of the cruiser.
Wham!
“Smuggler!” Sam yelled.
PJ’s foot was still on the gas pedal. He jammed it down instinctively, and the car lurched forward. There was no time for the figure to move. Thud! It went down like a bowling pin and disappeared beneath the bumper.
PJ hit the brakes and the police cruiser jerked to a stop. He took a deep breath and quickly locked the door.
“You hit him!” Sam cried.
“I know,” PJ breathed, staring into the woods.
“He’s under the car!”
“I know!”
“What if he’s a farmer or something?” Sam said.
“You’re the one who screamed that he was a smuggler.”
“How do I know who he is?”
“It’s your stupid little town!” PJ snapped.
A low, pained growl rose from beneath the car.
“He’s alive,” PJ said, relieved. “Let’s get out of here.”
“We can’t leave him,” Sam said. “There’s no way he can be okay after you smushed him.”
PJ shook his head. “Dude, I just ran over a guy in a borrowed police car. My instincts tell me to drive far away and never speak of this again.”
–Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham, pages 16-17
Goblins! by Royce Buckingham has been some of the most fun 200-some pages of reading I’ve had in a while. The characters are normal, average teens who are called upon to act in extraordinary ways to save each other and to protect their world from the goblins of the UnderEarth.
One of the things I like about this book is that there are no 100% evil bad guys in the book, they’re a mix of good and bad. While PJ would prefer to stay out of things, he chooses to step up and take responsibility for his actions and for Sam, who was left in his care by his father. Sam wants adventure, and bites off a lot more than he can chew, but nevertheless manages to prove he has a heart of a warrior. The goblins have silly, descriptive names like “General Eww-Yuk,” “Slurp,” “Slouch,” “Thick,” etc, enjoy eating humans, fighting, humans as well as each other, are dumber than a bag of hammers, yet they are extremely inquisitive and quick to learn and adapt.
Another thing that I liked about Goblins! is that the writing is simple, the details are just enough to make things easy to picture but not so thick that it bogs you down. At times it reminds me of The Spiderwick Chronicles, and at other times Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Besides having a highly imaginative setting and great actions scenes, including 7 foot bugs-versus-human battles, it also has a great sense of humor. It is a book with teenagers as the heroes and main characters, so the surliness and sarcasm of the age often shines through. For instance: When Sam is brought before General Eww-yuk by the goblin Bargle
“Have you talked to it?” Eww-yuk asked.
“Yes,” Bargle said. “It barks the words ‘screw’ and ‘off’ … over and over.”
–Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham, page 71
I think this book is ideal for the tweenage-early teen years, 9-14, and probably more for boys than girls, though I think Mags will enjoy and laugh at it. I’d also like to warn that this book does contain the deaths of central characters that readers may get attached to, so if your reader is potentially sensitive to this, then you might want to wait.
For being one of the most enjoyable, reality-suspending, relaxing books I’ve read in a long time, a book that wasn’t teaching the reader or delivering a message (if it was, I didn’t notice at all), a book that was just like losing 25 years and being on the playground again… I give Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham4 out of 5 stars. It probably won’t win any awards, but it is pure pleasure.
Don’t forget to sign up to win a copy of Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure in the Great Goblins! Giveaway. Contest ends 11;59 pm, May 31st, with the winner to be announced on Monday, June 1st!
I’ve just started reading Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a fast and easy read, and I may get Mags to do a guest review on it, as well… seems like something she’d really enjoy. It reminds me a bit of The Spiderwick Chronicles, with goblins and kids battling goblins and goblin goo all over, but it’s its own book as well.
Here’s a trailer for the book:
and a blurb from Amazon.com:
Sneaking out into the woods near the Canadian border, Sam and PJ come across what looks like a mutant gorilla with a bad attitude. But it’s no ape— it’s a goblin, and thousands more of them live under the earth, kept in check only by a small corps of human Guardians.
Sam finds a tunnel below the surface, and in no time he’s in the goblins’ clutches. With goblin leaders Eww-Yuk and Slurp at odds, it will take all of PJ’s strength and ingenuity to get Sam back—but then again, how hard could it be to outsmart a goblin?
Featuring the high adventure and slapstick humor that made Demonkeeper a fantasy favorite, Goblins! is a subterranean romp that will keep readers laughing as they race through the pages to see what happens next.
So, I want to share the Goblin! fun with you! I have a second, spanking-new copy to give away to a lucky winner. I think we’ll keep this one quick and easy.
Leave a comment here to enter the contest.
Blog this contest for an extra 3 entries, and make sure to leave a comment with the link.
email 5 people or more about the contest, make sure to include me ( ibetnoonehasthisdamnid@yahoo.com ) in the CC, for another 3 entries.
Post the contest and link (shortened URL: http://bit.ly/vX3Se ) on Twitter, make sure to include @thekoolaidmom in your tweet so I’ll catch it, for another 3 bonus entries.
Leave a comment on the review of the book when I post it Saturday for another bonus entry.
Contest is open until 11:59 pm, EDT, and I’ll post the winners names on Monday, June 1st 🙂 Good luck!
Miscellaneous: This is the first book in the House of Night series.
I am known by many names… Changing Woman, Gaea, A’akuluujjusi, Kuan Yin, Grandmother Spider, and even Dawn…
As she spoke each name her face was transformed so that I was dizzied by her power. She must have understood, because she paused and flashed her beautiful smile at me again, and her face settled back into the woman I had first seen.
But you, Zoeybird, my Daughter, may call me by the name by which your world knows me today, Nyx.
“Nyx,” my voice was barely above a whisper. “The vampyre Goddess?”
… yes, in your world [my]children are called vampyre. Accept the name, U-we-tsi a-ge-hu-tsa; in it you will find your destiny.
I could feel my Mark burning on my forehead, and all of a sudden I wanted to cry. “I – I don’t understand. Find my destiny? I just want to find a way to deal with my new life – to make this all okay. Goddess, I just want to fit in someplace. I don’t think I’m up to finding my destiny.”
… Believe in yourself, Zoey Redbird. I have Marked you as my own. You will be my first tru U-we-tsi a-ge-hu-tsa v-hna-i Sv-no-yi … Daughter of Night… in this age…. Within you is combined the magic blood of ancient Wise Women and Elders, as well as insight into and understanding of the modern world.
… “But I’m sixteen! I can’t even parallel-park! How am I supposed to know how to be your eyes and ears?”
–Marked: A House of Night Novel by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, pages 39-40
Marked by P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast was a definite divergence from my typical reading, but I enjoyed it very much. It’s a Young Adult (though, was edging very close to mostly adult, IMHO) book about a 16 year-old named Zoey who is marked by a Vampyre Tracker and has to leave her world and her old life behind and attend the private vampyre school, House of Night (for which the book series is named). All young Zoey wants is a place to fit in and belong, but it’s clear from her abnormal Mark that “fitting in” isn’t going to happen.
The book is typical of YA hero books. Zoey is the good-vamp and immediately knows that Aphrodite is her nemesis. Zoeylacks the confidence, but overcomes that with the help of her friends who believe in her and encourage her. She has those few trusted adults to turn to who also encourage her (and of course, none of them are her parents). She’s surprised by the deep well of abilities and talents, and she sees and feels things others don’t. And when the time comes to stand up and save the day, she does… over the whimpering and cowering body of Aphrodite, who, afterwards, draws the proverbial line in the sand and tells Zoey “it’s not over.”
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the book is like everything else out there, simply that it follows a form. The writing, owing probably to the way the two authors divvy up the responsibilities, is unique (a trait that is heavily stressed and embraced at the school, btw) and seems almost conversational. It is narrated by Zoey, who says little asides to herself while telling the story, and we see the world of the fledgling vampyre through her unique perspective.
Whereas Twilight was a fun, reminiscense of high-school romance and first loves, squeeky clean and was more about temptation and timing, Marked is a bit more sullied. Within the first few free minutes Zoey has in the school, she accidentally walks up on a guy standing in front of a kneeling girl, face in his crotch area and her hair blocking Zoey’s view. It is an event that sets the tone of the book, as well as the relationship she has with the two later on (after she discovers their identities). Yeah… I’d have to say, even after they were married, Bella never gave Edward a blow job (and the Casts use that term, too). I’m trying to think of how I can sneak Marked back to the library before my 16-year-old can read it.
On a technical level, the characters are well-developed and most of them are likable. The ones you aren’t meant to like, Aphrodite’s sycophants, her step-loser (step-dad), even Kayla, her ex-best friend, aren’t developed beyond the point of, “name, relationship and purpose… next!” I would also add, that the Casts have dug deep, imagination-wise, to create a half-a-step-away alternate-reality where vampyrism has always existed, and contain everything in our world (stars, books, mythology) but claiming it as it’s own, Faith Hill is a vampyre for instance. Also, they borrow a bit from Wicca and the Native American, as well as other bits and pieces from other religions, to create the Vampyre religion, worship of the Goddess Nyx. It’s rather interesting in that regard, as well.
Fun and a bit naughty, Marked by P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast is my beginning into the world of vampyres, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book, Betrayed. I give Marked3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
I highly recommend visiting The House of Night website, it’s a lot of fun. You can read the first chapter of Marked there, as well as check out videos of the other HoN books, and even make a pic of yourself with a vampyre Mark.
The video I picked for this book is a lot of fun. It is a bit long, but you can get a feel for how playful P. C. and Kristen are, both as mother and daughter and as co-authors. It’s a spoof interview, and the Casts contributed to the script. It’s not so much about Marked, all I found for it were teenage fan-vids, several containing Britney Snow as their hoped-for Stevie Rae… Britney Snow gets on my last nerve D-:< . But the series has been optioned, so a movie may be coming to a theater near you… or a series on the WB.
First off, I want to say Thank You! and throw smooches and hugs at all the RaT cheerleaders 🙂 You are much appreciated 😉 And I’m glad everyone’s enjoying my button… you know me, I like to mock ’em and shock ’em 😀
Also, I “finished” Empire Falls and How to Be a Villian today, but they were unfinished reads already began before today. I read about 20 pages and 80 pages in them, respectively, and about 15 in The Magician’s Nephew So I’ve only read about 140 pages altogether, including what I’ve read in Marked. S.Krishna and a few others blow me away with their tweets ever 20 minutes, “Finished another book!” Gack!
But It’s not a contest… *deep, cleansing breath* 😀
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Okay, so on to Marked… I don’t know where I’d heard of the House of Night series, maybe from one of the publisher’s newsletters, but when I did, something about the books screamed for me to read them.
I’ve been thinking that I might want to include some of the more popular books in my reading and reviewing for two reasons: 1) It’s part of the Zeitgeist of our culture, so I need to read them so I can keep up with the conversations, and 2) Reading and posting reviews of the more popular books might increase my blog traffic. The House of Night series popped out as possibly being a more popular set of books. AND, they’re about vamps, and I like vamp books. 😀
So far, I’ve read the first 3 chapters of the first book in the series, Marked, and I get it. It’s more of a social commentary… an allegory of our culture… and “vampyre” is the concept being used, but I think “homosexuality” is really what the authors are saying.
Zooey is an average, just-wanna-fit-in, middle child, sixteen year old in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Her mom, who used to wear make-up and have fun, is now married to a church Elder who’s more concerned about what people will think of him than if Zooey should go where she can get what she needs.
When her step-loser (as she calls him) sees the sapphire-blue crescent moon given to her by the Vampyre Tracker that marks her as a Vampyre, he tells her he’s not surprised her bad behavior has brought this crisis on her. He tells her, “Get behind me, Satan,” and tells his wife and her mother to call the clueless family psychiatrist and the church Elders to come over and “cure” Zooey.
To all of this Zooey replies that scientists have proven than it’s a genetic change that happens to some teens, and is not brought on by a vamp’s bite or by a person’s “bad behavior.”
Of course, his reply is, “God’s knowledge surpasses science, and it’s blasphemous for you to say otherwise…”
Yeah, okay…. I get it. On the one side, yes, people can get very cruel about things, Christians or otherwise. Parents, too, can be absolutely clueless about what’s going on with their kids.
I am torn on the issue, too. On the one hand, I do believe that God can do anything. He can heal people of incurable diseases, one of my good friends was healed (against all the doctors prognoses) of ovarian cancer. He can change the nature of a person, the habitual thief can be touched and steal no more. He can change a person’s desires, too, and an alcoholic or smoker can lay down their vice and never look back or suffer a twinge of withdrawal. I know people who have experienced these things.
On the other hand, it is the job of those around these people to judge them as a freak, criminal, or worthless, only to love, befriend and support as a fellow human being. Providing a person is not harming another, it is not our business what they do in their own private moments.
*drags the soapbox away and stores it back in the closet*
Any way… lol… back to reading. I am enjoying the book Marked.
What are your thoughts or book selection being partially influenced by popularity and the hope of increasing blog traffic? Selling out?
Reading Update:
Empire Falls by Richard Russo ~ finished. The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis, Chapter Four “The Bell and the Hammer” ~ finished How to Be a Villian: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans and More!!! by Neil Zawacki ~ finished 😀 Marked: A House of Night Novel by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast ~ page 27, the start of Chapter Four
Miscellaneous: Originally published in 1962 (after 26 rejection letters, I might add), A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in The Wrinkle in Time Quintet book series.
Meg’s eyes ached from the strain of looking and seeing nothing. Then, above the clouds which encircled the mountain, she seemed to see a shadow, a faint think of darkness so far off that she was scarcely sure she was really seeing it… It was a shadow, nothing but a shadow. It was not even as tangible as a cloud. Was it cast by something? Or was it a Thing in itself?
The sky darkened. The gold left the light and they were surrounded by blue, blue deepening until where there had been nothing but the evening sky there was now a faint pulse of star, and then another and another and another. There were more stars than Meg had ever seen before.
“The atmosphere is so thin here,” Mrs Whatsit said as though in answer to her unasked question, “that it does not obscure your vision as it would at home. Now look. Look straight ahead.”
Meg looked. The dark shadow was still there. It had not lessened or dispersed with the coming of night. And where the shadow was the stars were not visible.
What could there be about a shadow that was so terrible that she knew that there had never been before or ever would be again, anything that would chill her with a fear that was beyond shuddering, beyond crying or screaming, beyond the possibility of comfort?
–A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L’Engle, pages 81-82
I have started reading and put down without finishing A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L’Engle three or more times in my life. It is one of those few books that I have felt like I’m suppose to read it, or that I should read it, but have never been able to finish. I have long felt like I couldn’t let the book beat me, even going so far as to watch the movie in hopes of encouraging myself. And now, I can finally say that, after first picking it up nearly 25 years ago in fifth grade, I have read A Wrinkle in Time.
I’ve always said that I didn’t know why I couldn’t get into this book, and this time around I figured out what it is that grates my nerves about it. MEG. Meg is whiny, and mopey, and self-deprecating. She’s horrid, to be quite honest, and every time she spoke I rolled my eyes so hard they nearly fell out. “Wah Wah Wah… nobody likes me. I’m dumb. I’m ugly. Blah, blah, blah.” BUT, she does change, thank GAWD! In fact, as the book neared it’s end, her attitude and behaviour is explained.
“I’m sorry… I wanted you to do it all for me. I wanted everything to be all easy and simple…. So I tried to pretend that it was all your fault… because I was scared, and I didn’t want to have to do anything myself” -page 220
Beginning with a groaner of a first line, “It was a dark and stormy night…” A Wrinkle in Timespins a tale that crosses the universe and even dimensions. Young Charles Wallace is different from other people, he understands the world around him in a unique way. He is very protective of his sister Meg, whom he sees as needing him. Meg is a sulky teen girl going through an ugly duckling phase, who prefers math and science to anything having to do with the world of words. The two of them plus Calvin, a local sports hero and relates to the world around him in a similar way to Charles Wallace, travel across the universe by tessering, something akin to a wormhole. They are on a mission to save Charles and Meg’s father from IT, the controlling entity on Camazotz, a planet which has submitted to the darkness. To accomplish this task, they will all learn much about themselves, their talents and faults, and ultimately about love, the only force capable of conquering evil.
I really wish I had stuck with this story when I first started it. I think I would have truly appreciated it had I pushed through the first fourth of the book. As it is, I still enjoyed it, and want to read A Wind in the Door, the next book in the Quintet. I was surprised by L’Engle’s Christian references. If people are shocked and wish to challenge Narnian books on the basis of their religious overtones, then these same folk would have apoplectic fits when reading actual passages from the Bible in A Wrinkle in Time.
The fact that the book is so overtly Christian, though Buddha and Gandhi are also given credit as “lights” in the fight against the darkness, is even more stimulating when you take into consideration that the story takes Einstein’s theories about time and gravity as inspiration AND makes a further bold step (mind, this book was FIRST published in 1962, before civil rights and ERA) by making the hero and saviour a female. The story itself is interesting, if not a bit simple, but the context surrounding it and the complex science it incorporates make A Wrinkle in Time an impressive book and a literary classic.
A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L’Engle incorporates science and religion in a harmonious way and said that guys aren’t the only heroes, is math and science just for men. For all that the story is and what the book represents, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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The following video is a clear and concise mathematical explanation of a tesseract. It incorporates lines from the book, as well.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers (div of Random House)
Publish Date: 2005
ISBN: 9780552773898
Miscellaneous: Don’t forget to check out this review’s companion post. It includes info on The Book Thief‘s future as a movie, and several quotes from the book I wasn’t able to work into this review.
On June 23, 1942, there was a group of French Jews in a German prison, on Polish soil. The first person I took was close to the door, his mind racing, then reduced to pacing, then slowing down, slowing down…
Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their French words. I watched their love-visions and freed them from their fear.
I took them all away, and if ever there was a time I needed distraction, this was it. In complete desolation, I looked at the world above. I watched the sky as it turned from silver to grey to the colour of rain. Even the clouds tried to look the other way.
Sometimes, I imagined how everything appeared above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.
They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.
–The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, page 358
I finished The Book Thief by Markus Zasuk on Tuesday, but have not been able to stop thinking about it since. Normally, I sit down and write the review as soon as I finish a book, then pick up the next book and move on. However, when I read the last words of The Book Thief :
A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR: I am haunted by humans.
I found myself not wanting to let the book go. I told myself I wanted to wait to review it so it could sink in and ruminate. I had already posted it on BookMooch figuring, like most books, I wouldn’t want to reread it, and it was mooched up right away, but now I don’t want to give it up. I have put off starting Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince because I don’t want to put anything else in there ever again. All of this is utterly baffling to me because I have never had an attachment or a reaction to any book like this.
The book itself, plot-wise and such, is easy to sum up. It is the story of Liesel Meminger, the book thief, who comes to live the Hubermann’s at age nine as their foster daughter. On the way to Molching, where the Hubermann’s live, Liesel’s younger brother dies and is buried in a cemetery at the next stop. It is in this place she “steals” her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook, after it falls out of the pocket of the apprentice gravedigger. As the novel progresses, Liesel makes friends with other children on Himmel (a word that means “heaven”) Street, the Hubermann’s take in and hide a Jew, and Liesel discovers the awe-inspiring private library of the mayor’s wife, from which she liberates a book now and then. All this is told by the book’s narrator, Death.
Summarizing the book is simple. Explaining and conveying how it effected me, the reader, is anything but. First of all, Zusak writes with a poetic beauty that captures the way children take in the world around them. He often crosses the communication of the five senses:
At times, in that basement, she woke up tasting the sound of the accordion in her hears. She could feel the sweet burn of champagne on her tongue. -p. 365
One line I remember but was unable to find said something like “The smell of the sound of my footsteps,” and there are so many more lines like these in the book.
Another concept Zusak descriptively conveys is the power of words.</p>
Once, words had rendered Liesel useless, but now, when she sat on the floor, with the mayor’s wife at her husband’s desk, she felt an innate sense of power. It happened every time she deciphered a new word or pieced together a sentence. -p. 154
She couldn’t tell exactly where the words came from. What mattered was that they reached her. They arrived and kneeled next to the bed. -p. 246
After a miscarriaged pause, the mayor’s wife edged forward and picked up the book. She was battered and beaten up, and not from smiling this time. Liesel could see it on her face. Blood leaked from her nose and licked at her lips. Her eyes had blackened. Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from words. From Liesel’s words. -p. 273
Yes, the Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words. “I will never fire a gun,” he said. “I will not have to…” His first plan of attack was to plant the words in as many areas of his homeland as possible… He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen throughout Germany. It was a nation of Farmed thoughts. -p. 451
Frighteningly, it was exactly through the power of words and a healthy dose of charisma that Hitler was able to accomplish all the evil that was done in his name. He himself didn’t do the physical work, that would have required him to be in several places at once making that impossible, but through the words of his speeches and policies others took up his cause. Even more frightening is that his words are still used and followed to this day by some.
Also, through the use of Death, the ultimate impartial onlooker, as narrator Zusak is able to make epiphanic observations about human beings:
In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer – proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water. -p. 171
I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me. -p. 182
Death also points out that, beginning with houses of cards and sandcastles, humans “watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse and… smile at the beauty of destruction.” And he states a couple of times that the human child is much cannier than the adult.
By far, however, the most important observation Death makes, the concept that sets the tenor of the entire book is this:
AN OBSERVATION
A pair of train guards.
A pair of gravediggers.
When it came down to it, one
of them called the shots. The
other did what he was told.The
question is, what if the
other is a lot more than one?
-p. 30
What happens when there are a lot more people who simply do as there told, without question? What happens to a society when a madman can rule through eloquent speeches, expressing ideals of hatred, and inspiring others to carry out morally reprehensible acts of violence and wickedness?
The Book Thief by Markus Zasuk is haunting and breath-taking, poetically beautiful and filled with truth. Death often expresses sardonic, almost bitter, statements of irony, all the while telling the reader he is impartial. He points out both the evil and the good of humans, expresses both disappointment and admiration of the species among whom he walks and collects. It is a Homeric work that is full of joy and sorrow, anger and forgiveness, love and loss. It is the story of a handful of people in Nazi Germany during 1939-1945; adults, children, Catholic, Nazi, and Jew, the “free” (was anyone truly free then?) and the hidden, the epitome of the “master race” and the persecuted and annihilated.
If you’ll take a look to the right, you’ll notice I’ve added a new widget in the sidebar labelled “Mt. TBR Hall of Fame.” This is my Top 10 favorite books of all-time. This, honestly, is an imprecise feat, as I know I’ll think of a book that I liked better but forgot, or I’ll read a book that will replace a book on here, and that is okay because I can always edit it. When I added the widget, I was in the middle of reading The Book Thief, but it had already impressed me enough to be listed in 6th place… and I hadn’t even finished it yet. And after finishing it and digesting it and writing this review, it has moved up to first place.
Obviously, as The Book Thief by Markus Zasuk is now my all-time favorite book, I give it 5 out of 5 stars. It should be included in school curriculum alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel’s Night. The Book Thief has both historicity and literary eloquence, and will undoubtedly become a classic.
Again, don’t forget to check out this review’s companion post.
Miscellaneous:The copy I have read is in a complete book.There aren’t 767 pages in The Last Battle alone.
“Look!What’s that?”
“What’s what?” said Puzzle.
“That yellow thing that’s just come down the waterfall.Look!There it is again, it’s floating.We must find out what it is.”
“Must we?” said Puzzle.
“Of course we must,” said Shift.“It may be something useful.Just hop into the Pool like a good fellow and fish it out.Then we can have a proper look at it.”
… He flung it down in front of Shift and stood dripping and shivering and trying to get his breath back.But the Ape never looked at him or asked him how he felt.The Ape was too busy going round and round the thing and spreading it out and patting it and smelling it.Then a wicked gleam came into his eye and he said:“It is a lion’s skin…. We’ll make this skin into a fine warm winter coat for you.”
…As soon as he was alone Shift went… into his little house.He found needle and thread and a big pair of scissors… Then he came down the tree and shambled across to the lion-skin.He squatted down and got to work…
Late in the afternoon Puzzle came back.He was not trotting but only plodding patiently along, the way donkeys do…“Come and try on your beautiful new lion-skin coat,” said Shift.
… The skin was very heavy for him to lift, but in the end… he got it on to the donkey… No one who had ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment.But if someone who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lion-skin he just might mistake him for a lion…“If anyone saw you now, they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself.”
–The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, pages 671-673
Thus begins the great deception and the beginning of the end of Narnia.Shift the Ape manipulates and bullies Puzzle the Donkey into believing that Aslan himself wants them to go to the people of Narnia and claim Puzzle is really the Great Lion, and to rule the land through this pretense.Puzzle has been used by Shift for so long (under the guise of “friendship,” though “servitude” might better describe the Donkey’s side of the relationship), that he is unable to stand up to the damn, dirty Ape (nod to Heston and “Planet of the Apes” hehe).
It is through this false-Aslan that Shift enslaves the land of Narnia, using the Animals as slaves and threatening anyone who dares to question his authority with the Wrath of Aslan.“He is not a tame lion” is repeated over and over to fill their minds with terror, and, even when they know this new “Aslan” is the opposite of everything they’ve always been taught is the nature of the true Aslan, the Narnians are unable to throw off the Ape’s bonds and fight back.
Even when Shift brings in Calormene soldiers and announces that the Narnian Animals are to be sent to work, and all their wages are to be paid to “Aslan’s” treasury, for only “Aslan” can care for their true needs.Compounding a lie with a lie, the Calormene Captain and Shift tell the Animals that Tash, the Calormene god to whom men are sacrificed, and Aslan are one in the same; two different names for the same person.This new god is called “Tashlan,” the meshing of the two names.
When Tirian, the last King of Narnia, calls on Aslan to rescue his country, the Great Lion is silent, so Tirian, remembering how children from another world had saved Narnia in it’s darkest periods of history, calls on the friends of Narnia to come and save his land.And, after a vision-dream of the seven legendary Friends sitting down to dinner and seeing the phantom of Tirian among them, he is surprised by the appearance of Jill and Eustace.Along with Jewel the Unicorn, who is Tirian’s best friend, the two children and a Dwarf named Poggin, the stage is set for the last battle of Narnia.
In the shadow of the trees on the far side of the clearing something was moving.It was gliding very slowly Northward.At a first glance you might have mistaken it for smoke, for it was grey and you could see things through it.But the deathly smell was not the smell of smoke.Also, this thing kept its shape instead of billowing and curling as smoke would have done.It was roughly the shape of a man but it had the head of a bird; some bird of prey with a cruel, curved beak.It had four arms which it held high above its head, stretching them out Northward as if it wanted to snatch all Narnia in its grip; and its fingers – all twenty of them – were curved like its beak and had long, pointed, bird-like claws instead of nails.It floated on the grass instead of walking, and the grass seemed to wither beneath it…. [They] watched it… until it streamed away… and disappeared.Then the sun came out again, and the birds once more began to sing….
“I have seen it once before,” said Tirian. “But that time it was carved in stone and overlaid with gold and had solid diamonds for eyes…. [It was in] the great temple of Tash… carved above the altar.”
“What was it?” said Eustace in a whisper.
–The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, page 712
The entrance of the Calormene god Tash takes this final fight into the realm of the supernatural, as it becomes the epic battle of the ultimate good, Aslan, and his antithesis Tash:Life versus Death.
The message of The Last Battle, I believe, is this:We are not always meant to win the good fight, only to FIGHT the good fight.Early on in the book we know this is a lost cause, the side of evil will prevail, and the heroes’ liveswill be forfeit.But, even then, Aslan will have the final say.
In The Last Battle, Lewis also addresses two major questions of Christianity.First, how can a person who has known the goodness and greatness of Christ turn his or her back on Him, choosing, instead, their own will.Second, what of those people who have never heard the Gospel and therefore had no chance to believe?Will He condemn them to Hell?
Missing for the Friends of Narnia is Susan, and somehow I knew this immediate when I counted eight helpers of Narnia, but only seven Friends of Narnia.Somehow I knew the missing person was Susan.
“Sire,” said Tirian… “there should be another… Where is Queen Susan?”
“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”
“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have!Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.”
“Oh, Susan!”said Jill.“She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations.She always was a jolly sight to keen on being grown-up.”
“Grown-up indeed,” said the Lady Polly.“I wish she would grow up.She wasted all her shool time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age.Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”
–The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, page 741
Susan turned away from Narnia and Aslan and, instead, made vanity and things of the world her focus.BUT, Lewis did not say she could not become a Friend of Narnia again.Further, someone had to survive to tell The Chronicles of Narnia.
As the Seven plus Tirian go “further up, further in,” they meet a Calormene who tells them of his meeting Aslan:
“Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him.Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him.Both the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my fourehead with his tongue and said, ‘Son, thou art welcome.’But I said, ‘Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.’He answered, ‘Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service to me.’ Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, ‘Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one?’The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, “It is false.Not because4 he and I are one, but because we are opposites – I take to me the service which thou hast done to him.For I and he are such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.Therefore, if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him.And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted.Dost thou understand, Child?’I said, ‘Lord, thou knowest how much I understand.’But I said also (for the truth constrained me), ‘Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.’‘Beloved,’ said the Glorious One, ‘unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly.For all find what they truly seek.’ ”
–The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, page 757
Honestly, it was impossible to review this book without incorporating the religious aspects of it.That is not to say it can’t be enjoyed without being religious.It stands alone as the heart-wrenching finale of a much loved and favorite literary classic series.I couldn’t help but cry at the end; for the beauty, for the Friends, for all who had been were together again… and for Susan, who, by her folly, missed the train (if you’ve read this, or when you do read this, book you’ll get that reference).
The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis is beyond words, and I sigh with a bittersweet happiness, as I have come to the end of my journey through Narnia.I leave you with the last paragraph of the last book of Narnia:
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page:now at last they were beginning Chaper One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read:which goes on for ever:in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
Title: New Moon Author: Stephenie Meyer Paperback: 563 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Publish Date: 2006 ISBN: 9780316024969
“Bella, we’re leaving… I mean my family and myself.” Each word separate and distinct.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll come with you.”
He took a deep breath and stared, unseeingly, at the ground for a long moment. His mouth twisted the tiniest bit. When he finally looked up, his eyes were different, harder – like the liquid gold had frozen solid.
“Bella, I don’t want you to come with me.” He spoke the words slowly and precisely, his cold eyes on my face, watching as I absorbed what he was really saying.
“You… don’t… want me?” I tried out the words, confused by the way they sounded, placed in that order.
He looked away into the trees as he spoke again. “Of course, I’ll always love you… in a way. But… I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not, Bella. I’m not human.” He looked back, and the icy planes of his perfect face were not human. “I’ve let this go on much too long, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Don’t.” My voice was just a whisper now; awareness was beginning to seep through me, trickling like acid through my veins. “Don’t do this.”
He just stared at me, and I could see from his eyes that my words were far too late. He already had.
“You’re not good for me, Bella.” He turned his earlier words around, and so I had no argument. How well I knew that I wasn’t good enough for him.
In New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, I was forced to witness the horror of Bella and Edward’s breakup. I thought, “NO! THAT’S NOT RIGHT! I’m calling information RIGHT NOW and getting Ms Meyer’s phone number and BAWLING HER OUT!” But then reason washed over me as I realised this was just page 71, and I still had nearly 500 more pages to go, not to mention two more books… maybe good ol’ Steph has something planned. So I put the anger monkey back in her cage, turned the page and read on.
So, in the absence of my Edward, Bella kind of implodes on herself, going about the routines of life without awareness. I believe this state is called dissociative depression, or in layman’s terms, “The lights are on, but nobody’s home.” Until one morning Charlie (her father) threatens to send her back to live with her mother. The sudden threat of leaving the world in which Edward and her inhabited as a couple snaps her awake, and promises Charlie she’ll be better.
With the thought of reestablishing something normal in her life, Bella tries to reestablish relationships with her school chums. But when she’s in Port Angeles with Jessica walking to McD’s Bella experiences a moment of deja vu in a dark alley with four strange men. Along with a sense of threat and danger Bella hears Edward’s voice inside her head admonishing her to run. The discovery that adrenaline and risky behavior brings on an auditory hallucination, Bella turns to extreme (for her) recreation. She gets a couple motor bikes and rekindles a friendship with Jacob Black, who fixes up one of the bikes for her (the other’s for him) and teaches her how to ride.
This is when everything in the book goes screwy. Jake, as you may or may not recall, has really got a thing for Bella, and is in serious like-almost-obsessed-love with her. And Bella begins to start to think “Oh, well! If I can’t have Mr. Right… I guess I could settle for Mr. Handy!” Ugh! Every time I thought, “NO! THAT’S NOT RIGHT! I’m calling information RIGHT NOW and getting Ms Meyer’s phone number and BAWLING HER OUT!” But then I remembered there are still two more books and about 250 pages left, so I put the anger monkey back in her cage, turned the page and read on.
I really love, and am addicted to, the Twilight books. I have to wait for Eclipseto arrive in the mail from another BookMooch member before I can go on, but I think I can hold out for a second on it… I hope.
I did have a few issues with New Moon, though. First off: The whole “damsel in distress” thing is wearing a little thin for me. When she doesn’t have the friendly neighborhood vampires to protect her, the werewolves take up the standard to keep ickle widdle Belwa safe! It’s beginning to chafe.
and yes, Second: Werewolves? Vampires just didn’t have enough bite to keep reader interest? She had to go WEREWOLF?
Which brings me to my Third irritation: Is Bella really that stupid? or was Meyer’s dragging out the story for as long as possible? It took Bella two hundred pages to figure out Jake was a werewolf. I had that one figured out in like ten, tops. When she’s in the meadow and the “giant bears” show up, I knew right then what they were, AND remembered Jacob’s story he told her on the beach of La Push in the first book. But she was all like, “Duh? I think those bears look a bit more like dogs than Grizzlies… I know, they might be mutant wolves or something!” When I read that, I thought, “NO! THAT’S NOT RIGHT! I’m calling information RIGHT NOW and getting Ms Meyer’s phone number and BAWLING HER OUT!”
Tainted by Brooke Morgan
The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy
Strange But True America: Weird Tales from All 50 States by John Hafnor
Red Letters by Tom Davis
Dragon House by John Shors
Book reviews, entertaining and humorous posts, as well as memes and giveaways, In the Shadow of Mt. TBR is a fun and informative place to relax in the shade!
Title: Undiscovered Gyrl
In the Shadow of Mt. TBR 