The Leninist Lemon

No more anonymous commenting.

2010-02-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so I've basically forgotten about this blog for what, three or four years now? But I still get emailed comments that I get, and lately I've been getting a lot of spam comments, particularly on my review of Ecotopia. It's been annoying going in and deleting them all the time, so I'm blocking anonymous commenting. Sorry everyone (emphasis on the "one" at the end.) You'll need at least an OpenID now to comment.

2009-09-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC

"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut

labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?"

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo

2007-01-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

I am skipping working on ochem right now to post, because I have the warm fuzzy feeling of just having finished a good book, and needed to write about it. Even if everything tied up a little too neatly at the end, it's still happymaking because I can pretend that that's how it really would have gone. And who knows, maybe it would have.

So, this is the last book in the series *sniff* I do wish it had a bit more after the dramatic climax, or an epilogue type thing, although I understand why it ended where it did. Man, these books are so awesome. Even if they are total harry potter ripoffs, it's a ripoff with a different setting and new characters and new plots, if that makes any sense. I should mention though: dude, a mirror that you can communicate with someone with. Did anyone else think of Sirius's mirror that he gave to Harry? Cause yeah, similarities. Handheld mirror, magical, and although harry's was for two-way communication, the charlie bone mirror could "bring you right to wherever the person you were thinking of was" and as such brought Charlie to his father. Also, in the harry potter ripoff category, we have charlie hiding underneath a table and a grand dinner party listening to the Bloors talk about (lies, as it turned out) important family history regarding Charlie, and even talk about Charlie a fair bit - since Charlie is one of the main threats to the Bloors. Dude, just like in the third book where harry is in the invisibility cloak listening to Madam Rosmerta talk about James. Same sort of thing, hiding while getting astoundingly important info about - well about their fathers in both cases. They're very similar characters too - the "average" student, but brave and attracts trouble and adventure even though he doesn't really ask for it, also somewhat impulsive and clueless and naiive. Very interesting. But this is a tiresome subject.

Olivia so kicks ass. Emma too. Why can't we see more of them? They're so awesome when we get to hear about them, only we hear about them so little. Maybe this is also a bit my gripe about the lack of girls in this series. Kind of like harry potter where it's mostly male but then you have a couple token girls. And, dude, dumping Olivia and her mother in the kitchen while the boys fought the sorcerer was so not on. I'm not quite so sure I should jump to labeling this sexist, but it sure seemed like it. I understand why they'd want to keep Olivia's mother out of the way - the enchanter put a spell on Charlie's mother and plus her mother is a slight ditz. But dude, Olivia has illusion powers! She could so help in the fight. Although, the other side of this is that maybe Charlie didn't want Olivia to give herself away, as her endowment is, so far secret. But that was not said or implied, so unless someone can come up with a decent explanation for this, a label it a bit sexist.

The incredibly background Asa storyline - very cool, all of it, but barely mentioned, and not gone into deep enough. Why? A very good storyline - dude, one of the key characters changes sides! I honestly think Nimmo should have substituted the Maisie storyline with an Asa storyline. The reason I suppose that Asa saved Emma and then joined the good guys at the end was because, as an animal halfish the time (at night) he felt the "dark chill" I suppose that all the animals felt before they ran away, and so wanted to work to eradicate it. Also, as soon as Mr. Ominous agreed to pretend to be the "person under 20 required for the spell" I knew that Asa was going to come join them at the last minute. Very predictable, but still rather a clever cool thing - that so so could have been drawn out and plotted more. I don't believe Asa says a word in this book. There could have been something - because clearly Asa wouldn't be so down with having to change sides, to change friends etc., so we should have heard more about that. Or, or! He could have even been a morally ambiguous character, which would have been awesome, you know, he joins the circle, (by the way, how awesome and pagan was that spell at the end?) helps their spell, but then goes back to not really being with them, but kind of doing his own thing. Like, I want to get rid of the dark chill but I don't want to help any farther. That would have been way interesting, and the series still could have ended on that note.

Putting the a chapter of the book in Charlie's mother's point of view - very interesting, even though it was just a small chunk, and she was under a spell the whole time. You don't get adults' points of view very much in children's books, for obvious reasons (it's got to be the young person that saves the day, after all.) Makes me sort of wonder how many times it's been done before. Like, I know harry potter would do that for some chapters, but that's not young adult the way charlie bone is young adult (more like children's, I suppose, but it's borderline.)

Ships: Emma/Asa! Fanfiction, where are you? C'mon, Asa saves Emma, and it's really rather cute, even if it's very much for only a minute and he doesn't say anything (he's in beast form). And the whole am-i-good-or-am-i-bad angst. Totally fanfic material, I am telling you. A rewrite of that scene! Where Asa had been saying a few things to Emma throughout the year, and then her questions about his loyalties culminate with that scene, and then they change shape and talk, or something. Could be cool. Charlie/Olivia as usual, and then Tancred/Lysander also as usual (c'mon they even share a chair for a sentence.)

Kids' Books Are Dirtier Than You Think: Ummm.... the only thing I can think here is that Charlie's mother being enchanted by the enchanter brought about some possibly adult themes, though more in the "so I wonder if...." variety than anything textual or subtextual. I think there was something else as well, but I always forget to post-it mark my books, so that'll have to be it.

Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing

2006-12-18T05:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of my more embarrassing picks for sure. And it just so begs to be made fun of, in so many different ways. Mainly, cause it's just so teen-girly and so appeals to that crowd. But, despite that nagging feeling that I'm just reading another version of a Sweet Valley Twins book, or something, it was actually pretty good. By that I mean strickingly easy to read, and the book just kinda moved along and before you knew it you were done, kinda thing.

I picked this book out cause I was looking for something witchy, interesting, that I hadn't read yet, and this seemed to fit the bill pretty. Whatever, it's hardly literary meritable, but Lynne Ewing knows how to hook you in in that sort of soap-opera-ish way, so that's good enough for me. It's really not a book to be analyzed to anything, let's just put it at that.

Anyway, some good things: the lore, of being a goddess and what it means and how it fits in, and the followers and a couple other terms I forget, was pretty well thought out, by which I mean it didn't make me cringe. In the vampire books, Cirque du Freak, it's this weird convoluted stuff but in this book the lore was integrated pretty seamlessly.

Omg, really liked the character of Stanton. He's the "dark mysterious man" of stereotype except add in the mystical, for this series. Apparently he has a book all his own that Lynne Ewing, so I'll read that eventually. But the whole "I lost all hope and became a follower, except it was because of circumstances I couldn't control, and I seem totally evil except deep down I'm not exactly and I'm betraying and helping both sides and also kinda trying to save my own skin" thing was just nicely integrated. He's a character you for sure want to revisit.

One lame thing: this is soooo stereotypical of these sorts of "I'm normal and then suddenly my world is turned upside down and it turns out I'm a _____" books that I love to read so much, the whole thing where Vanessa "just can't believe" that she's a goddess and what's-her-name Maggie or something must be lying and I must be hallucinating. So that's dumb and stereotypical and drawn out too much in itself. But dude. Vanessa has been aware that she can become invisible for awhile. That's kind of paranormal don't you think? So, why is all this stuff, and quite frankly anything, so hard to believe? I'd be happy, relieved to finally know why I can become invisible. I'd expect it to come with a lot of baggage. Come on, Vanessa. You know it isn't just a genetic trait.

Oh, and P.S.: the amount Vanessa uses the word "molecules" is starting to seriously get in the way. When you're talking about being invisible, don't be too sciency about it, okay, You don't needed to talk about molecules reforming. It's paranormal. Say "her body began to disappear," or something.

Ships: Almost not worth analyzing or looking into since this is a teen book and not a ya book (and teen books cater to an audience that likes to see a lot of romance stuff.) But since this is what I'm here for, we have Vanessa/Michael, mainly. which is omg so soap opera/ trashy romance novel-ish, and would be totally unbearable if it weren't for all the supernatural elements of the book. But the whole "he made her feel like she had never felt before." Yeah, okay. Showing, not telling, where are we? But that's typical trashy romance novel, and so. And I don't mean to keep dissing on it, really it wasn't that bad. But Michael so has no personality. He's just a random "sweet" guy. A character foil, and nothing more, unless it changes in the next book. That's not interesting shippy. That's boring shippy. I think I may add this to my long list of why I like slash so much. But well, teen books are hard pressed to have actual romance, I think.

Okay I am terrible. I swear I actually liked this book. Remember, if I have stuff to rat on the book for, then it means the book was worth talking about. Just remember that, any passing Lynne Ewing fan. Some books I don't have a thing to say, and they simply pass through my mind. I am intensely cynical, can't help it.

Kid's Books are Dirtier Than You Think; Again, not really worth it because this is a teen book, and anything that's not explicit goes. In fact, I can't even think of anything to point out for this section. Because well, it's more like the opposite. Like the book tried to be passively "dirty" (probably wrong word here even) but like totally failed.

Cirque du Freak and The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

2006-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

So: a vampire book? a vampire book say what? Erm, yeah. Not my usual genre, but I picked up this series (there's 10 total, and I'm not done) for two reasons: first, I am a huge sucker, and there's a quote by J.K. Rowling on the front. Actually, the same generic quote on the front of every book in the series, but still. It just might be legitimate. The second reason, is that, to my great amusement, I've gotten one of my friends into young adult fiction (yay!) and she read like the first 4 in one sitting, and so recommended them to me. Sure, so I read considerably slower, but I'm getting through them.

So, the premise is that a boy decides to become a vampire in exchange for his friend's life. Nobel guy huh? Especially since the feeling wasn't exactly reciprocated. Pretty good premise I think; sometimes you can tell how good/readable a book will be by its premise. And it is, I mean, it certainly captivates you and makes you keep reading, although in the "wow, but I so have better things to do" way. Ah well. Interesting to see where this goes. Will we get character development? Meh, somehow I doubt it. I kind of see this as a very "series" type of book - leaving it open to as many as the author can write, rather than a set beginning and ending.

The vampire lore. Very intersting, twisted, and kind of wtf-y to tell you the truth. Maybe I'm too used to normal vampire lore, or Buffy-type vampire lore (pretty standard, but also makes sense.) Some of this vampire lore was really kind of contrived in some cases. There are some of the usuals: can't be out in the sunlight, can be killed by a stake (but also a gun, eh what?) and of course drinking blood. But then there's this weird stuff about half-vampires. Um, what? Well, a point for creativity I suppose. See, Darren (btw, why is the characters name the same as the authors? what? It isn't even done well, re: Lemony Snicket. It's just stupid.) is a half vampire, so he can go out in the light. Like, I swear the author put that in just so that Darren could go out in the light. And the whole thing where you need human blood - not just animal blood - or you'll die. Eh. I mean, in Buffy it's mearly that human blood tastes better, but you can survive on animal blood. It doesn't make sense to have human blood required - it's too specific you know? And you can't have the audience thinking too much about the anatomy and biology of vampires, which well, dude guys, these are fantastical creatures. And then the vampaneze: "evil" vampires, who like to call themselves something different. And the thing where drinking human blood till the human dies lets the vampire take the soul. Well, okay, I guess that was kind of cool actually. But I dunno. People have very specific ideas of what a vampire is, and this is weeeeird vampire lore. And for what it's worth I haven't exactly read too many vampire books. Maybe I should.

Oh and you know how vampires are supposed to crawl out of their graves? Darren gets dug out by Mr. Crepsley. Lame! Vampires in Buffy crawl out of their graves like good, normal vampires. Getting dug out by somebody else shows a lack of independence. And vampires are surely known for their independence.

Two things are potentially set up for future plots though: one, the completely mind-numbingly obvious, is that Steve confronts Darren, saying that he became a vampire to spite Steve (cause Steve was the one that wanted to be a vampire but couldn't - he had "bad blood" (uh, wtf?)) and Steve now hates him and wants to kill him, etc. So you know that'll come up. Also, though, I thought his family life, and especially his sister, Annie, is well fleshed out, so I really hope we see them again. Can't just introduce a loving family and leave it at that. I hope we at least see Annie again, in a later book. Very intesting situations with that, I think.

Ships: Hmm, Ezra/Darren is a sort of way. They're "best friends" but there is subtext there if you want to find it. (They sleep in the same tent, and then Ezra is the "snake boy." Let me say no more.) Nothing else in the first two I can think of. Darren's still young, after all.

Kids' Books are Dirtier Than You Think: Ezra the "snake boy" and his pet snake. Clearly this is a sign that I have read too much Slytherin Harry/Draco fanfic, but oh man, you can't escape the dirty here, if you are looking for it. So many bad phrases. I swear I'm not usually like this, but yeah, fanfic. It corrupts (but no one minds.)

The Grim Grotto and The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

2006-11-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

Let me say first off that my trip to LA to see Daniel Handler was amazing, just amazing. And I've finished the End at this point (but it gets its own separate post) and that was amazing. More later on the event though. (Or an ETA here.)

I actually read these a long time ago, and so will have to scour my memory (only doing this before returning to library, you see), but yes, these books are chock full of goodness. The Grim Grotto starts with the Baudelaires going on an adventure in a submarine - looking for that elusive sugar bowl, oh yes - and instead finding a little secret about one of Olaf's cohorts, which made for some very interesting twists and gave the olaf + gang more three-dimensionality, which was cool. Lemony Snicket does play nicely with characters that aren't quite good or evil, just a little or a lot screwed up. And maybe that's what makes them all so endearing.

Also, the introduction of the Medusoid Mycelium. Now, I question said fungus's properties - you sniff, you die - and I even more so question Klaus's unfamiliarity with that word (but you know of couse he trying to impress Fiona.)

Also, Fiona! In the amusing way everyone in these books has one Interest with a capital I, well finally we have a biologist. For a little bit of the book. I rather liked that.

Penultimate Peril: The Baudelaires are in a hotel throughout this book (some people didn't like the book for this reason - but then, people are always looking for reasons to hate the end of a series) that is arranged by the dewey decimal system and owned by a guy named dewey that everyone thought was dead. That pwnzored, yay for the extremely literal portrayals these books are known for.

Also in PP: political commentary via Sunnyisms! I squeed so hard, I can tell you. Sure, so I've taken awhile to catch onto the Sunnyism phenomenon, but there were two in PP I noticed. One in which she says "Dreyfuss" clearly referring to Richard Dreyfuss, but um I'm going to have to look that up later to see why it's funny (can't remember who the guy is exactly.) The other one, however, practically made me jump out of my chair because it was so plain. As in, whoa, and here are Daniel Handler's political beliefs!

'"The verdict of the High Court was to take the expression literally," said the manager, "so everyone except the judges must cover their eyes before the trial can begin."
"Scalia," Sunny said. She meant something like "It doesn't seem like the literal interpretation makes any sense," but her siblings did not think it wise to translate.' (PP, 268)

Now, I may not know a whole lot about history, but I do know that Scalia was a scary conservation supreme court justice and also famous for being a strict constructionist. (Oh AP US History, you are so useful sometimes!) And let's just say that clearly Daniel Handler is not. And I love how there's more of these subtle political undertones as the series goes on. It really bring a nice depth to them. And much squeeing on my part.

Ships: Klaus/Fiona. In a rather screwed up way, lemme tell you. The pairing was far too easy, they didn't have any particular chemistry other than that they were similar ages and read and stuff, and she kisses him once right after betraying him, then leaves. And now, according to lemony snicket she was the girl who "broke Klaus's heart." Er, what? They'd have to like, be together first I really think.

So let's go on to something more exciting. Namely Charles/Sir. Omg, if this is not canon I will eat a t-shirt or a hat or something similarly drastic. Oh man. This is another total squee moment. The only I can't understand is why no one online cares. This is like my pet ship, and I can't even find any fanfic on it! Gah! If no one else will write Charles/Sir fanfic, then goshdarnit, maybe I will. Anyway, I noticed this completely obvious ship as being totally canon in the fourth book when they are introduced (then don't appear again until PP) and after scouring the internets, found one review on Amazon (I read all hundred some, because I was that obsessed) actually agreed with me. Lame! Of course, now there are a few more speculation threads online, but still, not very many (and I have scoured the internets, I have.) Maybe later I'll post links. But anyway, it was simply so obvious in Miserable Mill that they were not just *hackcough* "business partners" and this was even more confirmed in PP. I mean, they're in the same hotel room, they go to the freaking sauna together (just when it's starting to get juicy the scene is interupted. damn), and Charles says "I care about you Sir." The thing is, the amusing thing, is that Sir and Charles are total opposites and Sir is borderline evil. They only stay together cause Charles is a total, well "pussy" I guess, for slang terms. He totally lets Sir walk all over him, and even though he cares for the Baudelaires, he is a total pushover and does what Sir says. It's such a screwed up relationship and they are screwed up characters, but then, so is everyone in the Snicketverse. And it's probably a slight allegory for real life screwed up relationships. Oh, and btw, how do know for positive it's canon? In the Beatrice Letters (which I've only ever skimmed, not read yet), in Lemony Snicket's incredibly long love letter to Beatrice, he writes "I will love you until C realizes that S is not worthy of his love" - among other things of course. See? Canon. Also, this brings me to another point, and that's the general lack of presence of teh gay in young adult fiction/fantasy - and I mean even as subtextually as Charles/Sir. Very, very little of it (and you know I'm always looking for it.) In fact, the only other young adult book I can think of with teh gay is Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. This definitely calls for a longer post sometime.

Kids' Books Are Dirtier Than You Think: The only I can think of here is Klaus eavesdropping on Charles and Sir while they're alone in the sauna together. But he was interupted very quickly, so you see.

Spoilers: Dewey Denouement is dead, oh woe. Only introduced in this book, but still, he was Kit Snicket's husband, and Kit Snicket is Lemony Snicket's sister (he's addressed her before.) And Kit doesn't know by the end of the book, and she'll have to find out.

Burning down the hotel at the end. Wow, just wow. Now, while I certainly would not have done this no matter how many Medusoid Myceliums there are out there, I can see why the Baudelaires did it. And it was a great ending for sure. The Baudelaires, whose lives were destroyed by fire, are now using it as a tool themselves. And the whole thing with the Baudelaires deciding they couldn't be all good if they were burning down hotels, even if it was to save people, that was cool too, in the sense that we're going deeper into their characters. Again with the spectrum of good and evil, and things not being black and white, even though they outwardly appear that way in this series. Also, it prefaced the very clever ending (well, minus Justice Strauss not coming with them, that didn't make any sense) where the Baudelaires end up by themselves with Count Olaf. Similar to hostile hospital here, where their only choice is to end up with their archenemy again. And once you read The End, you really understand why Olaf needed to be there.

Will this work?

2006-11-04T02:51:00.000-08:00

Yay, I have just figured out how to do the blogger equivalent of an lj-cut. Except, since Blogger is super lame, not only can I not specify what text the lj-cut should be called, I can't even put the cut only on the post I'm actually cutting, without dumping my head in a giant CSS book (or so I assume.) Click the link for more vitriol because I can. Blogger suuuuuucks. Yeah blogger sucks. The only thing good about blogger is the look and the layout, otherwise it is the most confusing, non-user-oriented site like ever. Did you know an lj-cut is an "expandable post summary"? What the hell, I never would have come up with that myself in a million years. Thanks, blogger, for being so cryptic. If I could come up with anything, I would insult blogger's mother right now. Unfortunately, I can't.

So, point is, expect spoiler cuts from now on. Amazing, I know! But I was feeling so bad for all the people that don't read my blog. So now we have spoiler cut tags. Because I don't want to be responsible for ruining A Series of Unfortunate Events for someone. That would just be a little unfortunate.

ASOUE predictions

2006-10-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

So, with any luck, and I very much do mean luck here, I will have finished penultimate peril and The End by the end of today. This is, of course, only if I end up seeing Lemony Snicket today, and there's enough seats left and whatnot. But just in case I do go, which I really hope ends up happening, I need to make predictions. So, here they are, really quick (longer commentaries coming later):

-lemony snicket said, in Newsweek, that 2 characters will die. Hmm. I don't know if these are good or evil characters; hard to remember if he said that or not. So (yay, it's a live or die segment!) my guess is that all the baudelaires will survive. I remember him in an interview describing the ending as "bittersweet" and it can't be that if our main character die. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if it were one of duncan, quigley, or isadora. That would suck yeah, but it is the last book. If snicket wanted to be really evil, I suppose he could kill off quigley just as he and violet finally meet again (if so, I will be disappointed if violet does not kill herself in a romeo-and-juliet type way - I'm kidding, don't worry). Or you know what? It could be kit snicket. Maybe. That would suck as well for the writer, since this is lemony snicket's sister. No, maybe not, specifically because it is his sister, and because he already wrote a letter to his sister embedded in a previous book. I might guess it otherwise. Or, hmm, what about Fiona, her dad, and the cook? Those are minor characters we don't care too much about. Eh, screw it, I don't know.

You know what, I bet Olaf should die. Maybe. Cause how else can this really end, unless Olaf dies or goes to jail (but he won't, as we've seen) ? Otherwise Olaf would keep pursuing the Baudelaires. It might be poetic, or something, if Olaf died but then so did Quigley. So one good thing and one bad thing, which is kind of how all the books are. The events aren't purely unfortunate. They're just not ideal.

Oh, and I bet Hotel Denouement's going to go up in flames before the end the series. Maybe even in PP, haven't finished that yet.

Okay, really should go take my 2 hour nap now, as these lame predictions aren't getting any more creative, and see if I can mostly finish my computer program enough to be able to go to LA tomorrow (since that's really the clincher.)

Library Excursion

2006-10-15T04:41:00.000-07:00

So on friday I had the pleasure of visiting a library in the san diego area I haven't gone to before, for the sole reason of getting grim grotto since my normal library didn't have it. Also was a bit of chance to explore the surrounding area. Turns out its right next to Hillcrest, which is like San Diego's Castro Street, the gay district. Omg, rainbow flags everywhere, it was so excellent. But, my point of this post, because this is a book blog, was to comment on the library.

You know how books have the sticker on the side that says "sci fi" or "young adult" or "fantasy" or whatnot? This library had a rainbow sticker, for the apparently gay genre. It wouldn't have been so hilarious, except that this was bright, carebearstare kind of rainbow, and that, I swear every 10th had said sticker. So like, this whole library was covered in rainbows. And I had fun going through the young adult/teen section and looking at the rainbow stickered books gong "read that one, read that one." That was, of course, before I realized that most of these types of books are actually rather the same, and sometimes lack a particularly interestng plot. But they can be so addicting, anyway.

Of note, I was also able to pick up the 2nd and 3rd Pendragon books. I've been trying oh, all summer to find those books not checked out at a library, but had no luck. Now I do! Yay for me, and tiny libraries.

I hope to have more excursions like this in the future. I swear, if somebody would pay me to map, chart out, and made giant comparison graphs and take pictures of all the libraries in a certain area, I would do it. I have like a library fetish, of something. Maybe I'm a bit obsessed.

The Carnivorous Carnival and The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

2006-10-15T03:40:00.000-07:00

I'm like a kid in a candy store with these books, I swear. Ever since the 7th one, I've been eating them up like no other. And, maybe it's appropriate that I post today, because even though I haven't finished the series yet, many people have. The End came out yesterday, to the excitement and disappointment (re that it's over) of many. And hence my renewed interest in these books. Gotta catch up so I can read commentary, y'know?

Anyway, these books are just as cool and the others, and we finally get to know: what VFD stands for, and the importance of fire in these books. Actually fires are being all over the place starting with Carnivorous Carnival. It's crazy odd to read this, in the sense that it must be a metaphor for something. Basically, what Count Olaf and his followers don't like or find incriminating, they burn. So in a way it's like people who try to ignore or cover up their problems rather than confronting them. Since Olaf and crew were at the carnival, and who knows what's there that could get them in trouble, they burn it. And the hospital too, and VFD headquarters. It's crazy, and crazy sad too, in a way, because reading Snicket's description - the headquarters would have been an awesome place for the characters to go. Even in snicket's style of writing, you still have that disappointment that you didn't see what could have been. In fact, I really hope Snicket writes a prequel about the VFD as it used to be. That would be so cool, omg.

Sunny's growing up! This is just cute and great and everything. So many series fall into the old trap of never having their characters change, but Sunny can now walk, speaks with more recognizable words, and has developed a talent/interest in the culinary arts, which I find hilarious and great and every type of thing. See, she has graduated from Biting, to Cooking, and her thing. Go Sunny.

Speaking of which, Violet (who's 15) gets her first kiss in slippery slope. Yeah, so she only knew said guy for about a day, but you could so see this coming. Like from a mile away. Well, sort of. I half thought it might be Duncan, but he keeps disappearing, so not happening there. Plus, I like how daniel handler manages to get everything across subtextually, so well. "of whom Violet was particularly fond." Oh yes.

From that: Quigley's alive. Yep, I am spoiling the none of you that read this, because, come one, who didn't see this coming ever since we meet Duncan and Isadora and continually hear about how a dead triplet doesn't change their birth identity (which is by the way great, because how many people have every given any thought to that)?

The freaks at the carnival, whom, with the exception of maybe Hugo, weren't "freaks" or abnormal in any sense. The confusing of freakish qualities with talents. This could be something, if I would dig deeper. Oh, and the hook-handed man and some other's of Olaf's crew being confused with the freaks. This was great social commentary. Oh man. And while we're at it, the usual commentary of humans liking violence and the metaphor to the gladiator pit, which you've seen before but never get old if they're done right. And let me use this moment to comment on Kevin's ambidextrous-ity (holy crap, what is the noun form?) was sooo a metaphor for bisexuality, some sort of teh gay. Or that's how I read it.

*clears throat* "And why don't you want to stay here?' Kevin asked. 'Caligari Carnival hasn't been very popular lately, but there's nowhere else for a freak to go.'
'Of course there is,' Violet said. 'Lots of people are ambidextrous, Kevin. There are ambidextrous florists, ambidextrous air traffic controllers, and all sorts of things.'
'You really think so?' Kevin asked. " (page 89)

Ignoring my terrible quotation syntax, do I have a point? Maybe it's my tendency to see teh gay, (and my little joke mostly with my roommate about the Kinsey scale of handedness and how everything is a sliding scale) in everything, but er, still.

I loved slippery slope, also, for it's natury theme. I love stories that take place in forests, first of all because of my love of nature, but second of all because they bring out creativity, because they sort of have to. On the very surface, a forest is just trees. But underneath, it's so much more. And Lemony Snicket, made it utterly compelling, what with the wreckage and clues of the VFD headquarters, Violet's shoe invention for climbing up an iceberg, the toboggan for sliding down, the rolling carriage, the caves, and secret entrances in caves. Woot. (Oh, and Quigley and the Baudelaires speaking to each other in code by telling stories with the initials VFD was just about the best thing ever).

Esme Squalor smokes! Or would, if she could get her hands on cigarrettes. Because cigarrettes are "in." Social commentary on smoking plus the thing where only the villains smoke, thus sending a nice little message to the kids that read this? Best thing ever.

Ships: none in CC, but lots in SS. We have Violet/Quigley, as I mentioned, Madame Lulu/Olaf (oh wait, what woman doesn't Olaf try to charm) and then of course Esme/Olaf, which I haven't commented on but should because it's hilarious. It's all subtextual of course, but you can so tell they're using each other, either for sex, for status in Olaf's case, or adventure is Esme's case. And it has tinges of your stereotypical semi-abusive relationship where one partner has the upper hand. Has not stopped Olaf from charming other women and doing whatever he wants, in spite of what Esme wants. (Though occasionally he will acquiesce to her wishes in order to boss someone around.)

Kids' Books Are Dirtier Than You Think: Duuuuuude, Klaus and Violet sharing the same pair of pants and shirt in order to appear as a two-headed person. And that their fake names are opposite-gender specific. Really, honestly, need I say more.?

Willow and Tara + The Death of Buffy by uh, I forget

2006-09-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Why am I reviewing this? I mean, it’s even a comic book, and technically shouldn’t count. Plus, I have a life, right? Oh wait, no I don’t. Er, heh. I make this quick, though.

See, I wanted to talk about this in order to talk about comic books as a medium. First of all, these were more like comic books than graphic novels, which I have read and in some ways prefer, but I read these because of my Buffy obsession, and being in the woods with no access to a computer. And so you see, this led to Buffy comic books.

So, Willow and Tara was clearly the better of the two - The Death of Buffy was just lame, not because the story was so bad - there was a demon that feeds on grief, so it’s reasonable - but because the dialogue between the characters was so squicky and out of character, and whenever the writer didn’t know what to do, he/she just reused plots from sixth season. Like dude, Willow hasn’t brought back Buffy yet, why draw it or bring too much attention to it? Yeah, bleh. Willow and Tara was a lot better, partially because it was co-written by Amber Benson, who clearly wasn’t doing it for the money, but for love of her character, and also because yay lesbians and cuteness and witches, and oh btw, I’m obsessed with Willow and all that. (And did I mention; harry potter reference! Dawn mentions “expelliarmus.” This make two so far in Buffy that I’ve seen, the first being when Willow likens Giles to Dumbledore, which made me grin.) This comic book was more what I’d expect from a Buffy comic, with a plot clearly and obviously separate from the ones in the actual TV show, yet still interesting, and also, not too out of character. See, something actually happens in this one.

Getting back to the medium topic, I think reading these really indicated to me why I much prefer books than comic books or, graphic novels sometimes. You just can’t get lost in a comic book. Not really. I mean sometimes, and I have, a bit, but it’s just not the same. Add that to my terrible pictoral comprehension of I dunno, anything and I just can’t get terribly into graphic novels/comic books. Though there are a couple notable exceptions, where I really saw the power of graphic novels: this one about spirals that my friend’s girlfriend lent to me awhile ago, read it in one sitting - rather frightening and creepy, I’ll never look at a spiral the same way again, etc., and also this one called “I was a Rat” which I read in one sitting in my highschool library after school one day, about a girl who was sexually abused by her father, and escapes and is taken in by this other farm family. I really liked that one because it absolutely used the visual effectively, something I have a really difficult time with. But that graphic novel really made it effective and necessary, down to the expressions on the characters’ faces.

Ships: Willow/Tara of coure, cute as usual. A bit of possibly intentional Spike/Xander, oh yeah, only the dialogue was so terrible I couldn’t quite squee about it. Also, a couple of the Wicca girls were ambiguously non-straight, so that was kind of cool.

The last section’s not here, cause, well, it’s not a kids’ book! Even though there is dirty fodder of course, it doesn’t count since it’s not a kids’ book.

The Fireworkmaker’s Daughter by Phillip Pullman

2006-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

A tiny, cute little book, found on the “summer reading” shelf of K-mart, I believe. It was 94 pages, large-ish print, and I read it in one sitting, I think. But I liked it, as a tiny and cute story that wraps up quickly. Actually, what it is really is is a fable, or a long fairy tale (though short for a novel.) It has a short conflict, some supernatural stuff, a tiny moral, I suppose. And I love all the creative firework making terms, it just makes me grin. It’s very descriptive and visual, and makes me wish they actually had fireworks like that. And the moral where only you yourself can decide if you are ready to be what you really want to be - that’s a powerful and neverending little moral, and always important. It’s all about growing up. The main character (whose name I’ve forgotten) figures out that she is ready to be a firework-maker and the test isn’t a test so much as imparting a general knowledge that you know what you’re doing. Plus cute sideplot where she saves an elephant and her father. And what, really, is better than writing “Chang loves Lotus Blossum” on the side of an elephant? I’m going to graffiti that somewhere someday I swear, cause it’s just so subtly comical.

Also, yay for an incidentally non-white main character! I swear, this never happens in young adult fiction, especially the young adult fantasy I read. Everyone’s always white. Seriously, I will do a study on this some time, or an informal poll of the young adult section of the library. Somehow racial representation is incredibly slanted, and it’s more the case in young adult fiction than teen fiction, I have noticed.

Ships and Kids’ Books are Dirtier Than You Think: So not even worth it, this time. Book’s too short, and plus it’s a fable/fairy tale. Not the point or anything. That, and I can’t even remember anyone’s name in this book, so I can hardly remember subtle shippy points.

The Vile Village + The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

2006-09-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

These two books are the seventh and eighth book of the the 13 book long A Series of Unfortunate Events, and as far as I can tell, a real turning point for the series. The first six were more separate entities as books, each an unfortunate event - but the Baudelaires get away (barely) at the end - but starting with the seventh, these books get more epic and plot arc-y, which I love. When each book starts connecting back with previous information, and with the Baudelaire’s learning information that changes their lives forever, they aren’t just single stories anymore. The characters are moving, evolving, and we learn that the whole situation is a lot more complicated than that their parents died in a fire and Olaf is after them. It’s a whole lot more complicated and sinister than that, which the Baudelaires are just beginning to figure out.

Oh, and my favorite favorite premise/part of this is that the author, “Lemony Snicket” is really most definitely shown to be a character in this book. The author isn’t just a pseudonym anymore, he’s an actual character, who actually had some vague influence on the events of the Baudelaires’ lives, and has a whole complicated history himself. We find this out originally when the character of Jacques Snicket is introduced (albeit briefly) - that’s when you know he has a connection to the Lemony Snicket character, and that made me rather excited. Also, Snicket’s reference to having a tattoo on his left ankle - yep same one as Olaf, and so that means something, but we don’t know what yet. Let’s just say I’m very glad I haven’t spoiled myself on this series, cause each new fact is exciting for me.

I love the way Hostile Hospital ends. Well, Vile Village too, but in HH, the only option they are left with at the end of the book is to escape in the trunk of the car of their arch enemy and it ties up so beautifully that you find yourself half-grinning towards the end because you know exactly what they’re going to have to end up doing before the characters know themselves.

Ships: Yeah, yeah, ships in an ASOUE book, say what, etc. The only ship worth mentioning at all in any context or any sense is Violet/Klaus because, uh, it’s the only ship people find interesting fanfic-wise online and because Violet, Klaus and Sunny are the only significant recurring characters, at least at this point. (Well, yeah, there’s Mr. Poe and Olaf, but they’re still only there briefly.) Still, I have fun snorting at the rather subtle Violet/Klaus in there, admittedly usually stuff for the bait of fanfiction writers (Like, they’re stuck in a cell with four walls and that’s it, and Klaus is like “I’ll give you anything you want for your birthday, even though we’re stuck in a jail cell. Anything at all. Well, hmm, that only leaves us with a few options, doesn’t it Klaus?))

Kids’ Books are Dirtier Than You Think: The subtle incest above, plus the following: in VV, one of the rules of the town of V.F.D. is that “citizens of V.F.D. may not use their mouths for recreation.” *hackcough* times a million. Daniel Handler, you do not know what it is that you write! Sure so Sunny will be sad that she can’t bite things for fun, but I bet a bunch of other people will have problems with that rule for other reasons.

Also, in HH we have, casually mentioned, the “Cathedral of Alleged Virgin.” I laughed muchly when I read that.

Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy + Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors by Jenny Nimmo

2006-09-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

I start too many of my blog posts with “oh, I loved this book(s).” So I won’t, even though I did. But yeah, the third book, Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy, definitely stands out as the best book in the series so far. This book just had so many nice plots and side plots that all tied together neatly at the end, it really felt like I was reading a sort of a harry potter book. It was just beautiful, really. It’s been awhile since I read this but yeah, Paton is mysteriously gone, Tancred is getting all angry and hiding out in the Thunder House and upsetting the balance, Ollie is the invisible boy hiding in the attic and needing to become visible, there’s the mysterious blue snake which ends up being important, the usual evil aunts’ antics, and some other stuff I forget. Anyway, Charlie ends up going on a quest for some plant he needs, thereby curing Paton of his odd disease-thingy and burning down one of his evil aunts’ houses in the process, which is just an excellent way to end a book, really.

Nimmo has stopped going overboard on mentioning that omg, Billy is albino. Um, let’s just say, thank god. So sick of that. All, as I pretty much predicted, Billy becomes “good” or good-ish in this book. He’s only 7, which is really young in general for him to be doing the stuff he does in this book, but it’s also too young, in my opinion, to have clear ideas about good and evil. Billy has certain desires and goals - like wanting to have parents, and not be stuck at Bloor’s all the time, that, really, how can you blame him? It’s not a good way, but Billy sees working with the evil guys as a means to an end, so he wavers a bit. It makes the story interesting. Plus, the adventure with Billy and oaths was just great - I mean, flying deadly oaths! It’s just great. Reminds me of the over-zealous howler-thing Mrs. Weasley sends Ron in Harry Potter. Paper being evil is just cool in general.

For the most part, I liked the Olivia plot in the fourth book. Yay for Olivia having a secret and needing to accept her true self (note to author: Olivia needs to be a lesbian next. Cause that would be just cool. Yay, metaphors.) Though, really, I don’t understand why Nimmo presents being “endowed” as a bad thing. Who wouldn’t want to have cool magic powers? Well, apparently all the characters in her books. I don’t get it.

The new student, Joshua Tilpin, who’s endowment is magnetism. Oh, brilliant. I kept thinking of “animal magnetism” when I was reading this, because that’s really the type of magnetism he had. Everyone loves him, if he wants them to. As such he hooked Tancred into wavering to the wrong side (ooooh, Tancred cheating on Lysander with Joshua! Fanfiction, where are you?)

Just to play around a bit with one of Nimmo’s premises in the book, let’s talk about balance. So, let’s first say that I actually rather like this, but the premise is that there needs to be a “balance” among the Red King’s children at Bloor’s academy - a good and evil balance, pretty much. So we have, normally, Charlie, Emma, Tancred, Lysander, Gabriel, occasionally Billy, and the new one, Olivia. When Charlie and Billy are gone and Tancred is being all chummy with Joshua in the fourth book, the balance tips and so, apparently, does Cook’s floor (Cook is the undercover mentor at Bloor’s and she knows stuff. When the author needs to give Charlie information, she turns to Cook) in her secret room, which I thought was rather unusual, and Charlie has to bring Tancred back and bring Olivia into the fold in order to right the balance. Anyway, my whole point with this, is, what if the balance tips the other way - you know, a dearth of the good side instead of the bad. What happens then? They make such a big deal about the balance, but seriously - you know the good side always wins, not the least because there’s no scary coercion, and in the end you like that. But anyway, that was my rather pedantic food for thought of the post.

Ships: nothing any different than what I’ve said before, but I’m still vacillating between Charlie/Emma and Charlie/Olivia, which both have potential - although, Emma/Olivia, why not? And the ever-present Tancred/Lysander. So canon. Oh, and again with the I-know-these-are-children’s book’s thing, and these being for the future, and that I like analyzing personalities and what not. Just the standard disclaimer.

Kids’ Books are Dirtier Than You Think: Yep, I’m adding a new section to most analyses, in which I mention the euphemisms that you’d only pick up if you were older. And not necessarily “dirty” by the way - just somewhat unkosher, etc. In this book, it’s yay, incest! This is a theme with kids’ books, have you noticed? yay, incest! Yeah, Billy’s parents are second cousins - see, they both had the same last name, and so doubly giving Billy his speaking-to-animals powers. And then there’s the whole thing where all the king’s descendants are technically related though really, not by very much at all. But yeah, this amused me because it made me think of the Harry Potter books and how much not-so-suble incest there is in those books too (Possible Tonks/Sirius, for instance. Plus all pure-blood families.)

Grand and Humble by Brent Hartinger

2006-09-19T01:23:00.000-07:00

So, I finally got my hands on this book (the library will always buy one Brent Hartinger book, so I’ll have to wait awhile to check it out - but they’re learning, though slowly, I think.) I love Brent Hartinger, but I have to say, I think I liked his other books better. But still, in comparison to the glut of stuff out there, this was a great read. Hartinger knows how to make a cohesive, fast-paced young adult fiction book that you can read in one sitting. So that’s what it is. It’s also very surrealist, because you can never figure out exactly what’s going on with Harlan and Manny. I’m not going to reveal the ending, but suffice to say I didn’t get it until about the second to last page, because I am teh lame. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I can say without spoiling the ending, though that’s pretty much all I would say anyway. It’s cohesive, short, when it’s done you get it, and I’m having a hard time thinking of any further analysis. Although there is a line in there I really like, about the “intersection of Grand and Humble,” where they meet and it all comes together. It’s pretty and lyrical, and yeah, I’m pretty much done.

Chronicles of Narnia - the Lion, the Witch, and the Warddrobe by C.S. Lewis

2006-09-19T01:22:00.000-07:00

I read this about 3 months ago, at the beginning of spring quarter, but naturally I was lazy and never updated my book blog all quarter. I read it, you guessed it, because of the new movie that came out, which I saw and loved, and I wanted to compare the two. I got through the first half rather fast, actually, but the last half dragged, maybe because I’d been going through that story too many times. Since I’m reviewing this a million months later, all I remember is that the book, written in the 1950s used the word “wireless” - it took me a moment to realize they probably meant telephone and not internet - and that if Susan shot the arrow in this book, I totally missed it. She does in the movie - once - but it doesn’t look like she did in the book at all, unless I missed it. Actually, it’s extremely interesting for me to read this book, if just from a historical perspective. I’m so used to concentrated my reading on, you know, young adult fantasy books that came out a year to 5 years ago, but it doesn’t prepare you for what older young adult fantasy books were like. Let’s start with the big glaring one: gender stereotypes. Now, I’m not ranting or whatnot here - let’s remember, it’s 1950, and this is a devoutly Christian author - but it’s makes me extremely curious as to what other books were like in this regard. You only have Edmond and Peter fighting, but the author is very upfront about it - girls shouldn’t fight, stated matter-of-factly there. But interestingly, he does give Lucy the healing potion, reinforcing the caregiver role, blah blah. It is very interesting to me (and yes, I know I keep using that word) how the modern day movie changed the story to fit what a modern audience would expect, namely that Lucy and Susan’s nonparticipation in the war is incidental to their characters and situation rather than the author keeping them in their “women’s roles.”

Pendragon: Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

2006-09-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

Oh, I loved this book. You can really tell you love a book when it absolutely makes you grin when you finish it, and this one did. I picked it up because I kept hearing about it, and now I totally see why. It’s not a book you could make a discernible fandom out of, I should think, but it’s the first book in a series and I surely plan to read the rest.

What’s interesting about this book is that it has a very standard sort of plot line, the kind of thing you think you’ve read a million times, but it still manages to be absolutely captivating and intersesting. The premise is that a “normal” 15 year old boy, Bobby Pendragon, one day gets wisked off to another world, finds a problem, and saves the world. Yep, you’ve heard it before. But it’s the details that make it interesting. Harry Potter. same thing: a boy goes to a school of magic. But authors manage to make it interesting by making it their own brand.

I guess my one gripe with this book is that the solution was too “easy.” I mean, the Bedoowan have been enslaving the Milago for centuries, resentment isn’t going to end just because Bobby accidentally created an earthquake. Similarly, the adventure Bobby has at the end of the book, while fast-paced and very much keeping my attention. It was waaay too Indiana Jones-ish. I don’t like Indiana Jones because of the ridiculous implausibility - there’s no true sense of struggle or deeper meaning, and that as he gets out of one impossible situation he is immediately thrown into another one, and miraculously gets out of it, in addition to creating peace with the native people and getting the girl at the end. I mean, come on. But anyway, Indiana Jones I will save for another time. At the end Bobby throws a small piece of tak, which incites a bunch of events that just happen to save the day, and he gets out of a burning mine and earthquake alive, while pushing an unconscious girl in a mine cart and being thrown off into the ocean. At then the earthquake seems to magically alleviate Bedoowan and Milago tensions. I’m all for long-term cause/effect events but this went a little farther than I was willing to believe.

But. The wriiting is seriously fantastic. I have said this, and still believe it, but it’s the way something’s written that’s the most important, not the plot per se. I mean usually the two go hand in hand - if one’s good, the other’s good -but even if there are unbelievable elements or plot holes, if a book is written such that you want to continue reading it, that’s the most important thing. That, and the characterization was excellent. That’s important too. There were no dry characters; I really felt them come alive. There weren’t too many characters, but it was the right amount I think, because each one had the time to become something: Bobby, Mark, Courtney, Uncle Press, Osa, Loor, Figgus, Mallus/Saint Dane, Rellin, Alder, Queen Kagan a little, and I’m likely forgetting someone.

Lots of creativity here: the quigs, the flumes (still managing to be a little different that other time travel/ world travel), the lore behind being a traveller (I love that, and I love how a lot is left open to future books), how the quigs change on different worlds, the secrecy and elusiveness of Uncle Press that make him an intriguing character, the bigger idea of Halla (okay, that whole concept is a bit whack, especially with what’s up with Mallos in regards to it, but I’ll let it slide for this book), the ring that glows and expands and acts as a mail carrier. Actually the book itself was written in a very clever way, with Bobby “writing” journals to Mark, and with occasional “commercial breaks” from the action where we get to see Mark and Courtney reading them. I rather liked that format, even though it was a bit unrealistic that Bobby could remember that much detail and dialogue about what happened to him, not to mention write like a novelist with the whole withholding details and adding suspense thing.

Okay, I always end with shiptalk (if appropriate) and I have to say, this book didn’t have too much in the way of shipping. There was the canon Bobby/Courtney - for the first page at least, it kind of died after that, understandably I suppose. Well, actually, it wouldn’t be interesting if Bobby had spent enough time on Earth to kiss Courtney again. It’s always good to keep the reader waiting. So we’ll see what happens with that in later books, plus if Mark and Courtney get to do more world-saving stuff. But yeah, no other ships even possible. Except I totally think Mark is gay, or he should be, but that’s hardly my jurisdiction.

And, Ginny's end-of-summer ETA: Dude, these books are nowhere. This is unfair. They are always checked out from the library, with many holds. I'm starting to think it's amazing I even got the first one. May even consider buying the 2nd one, cause otherwise I'll never end up reading it. I always knew they were popular, but wow. Not this much.

Midnight for Charlie Bone and Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo

2006-09-19T01:17:00.000-07:00

Ahha, I love these books. I can so see why they’re are among the best sellers of young adult fantasy, because they’re fast paced - any oh yeah, complete harry potter rip-offs. Not in a bad way, just, let’s go over the evidence: a boy, who’s 11 I believe, or close to it, suddenly getting taken from his humdrum life to go to a boarding school to learn magic, because he just found out he has magical powers. He meet all the expected archetypes, and people are pegged at on the “good” or “bad” side. He breaks rules and has adventures and sneaks out of his bed at night, and oh, it is so very harry potterish. Speaking of which, I picked up the third book yesterday, and it starts off with “An owl swooped over the roof of number nine Filbert Street.” (Nimmo, 1) I mean, c’mon, can we all think of a book that started that way? Down to the single digit street number, which is actually pretty rare these days?

This book is chock full of things for me to comment on, but granted, I writing this so late that I’ve probably forgotten most of them. So, let’s start with gripes. First of all, oh my god stop referring to Billy Raven as “the albino boy” simply as a way to vary your nouns. This is so third grade writing. For a professional writer, it is only appropriate when the main character doesn’t know said character’s name yet, and can only define him or her by physical appearence or character traits. But if you keep doing it, it’s like this is the main defining character of him, which is so dumb. It half borders on albino discrimination, which I know, I know, I need to get over myself, but still, major pet peeve. Oh, and then she goes and makes Billy evil, to further my annoyance. He was a cool character! Pssshh. Well, maybe he gets a reprieve in later books.

Other annoyance: there’s blatant good and evil, and then there’s a blatant middle. Oh, it’s so weird, I don’t know how to explain it. It is rather black and white, though, with each character seeming to half a good, bad, or middle label. Not nuanced enough, maybe. But then, its weirdness is also part of its appeal. I’ve never read a book quite like this, in that sense. The history is that the Red King had 10 children, 5 good, 5 bad, who were all magic users, or “endowed.” (P.S. to author: I know it’s a children’s book, but man, couldn’t you have picked a better word?) So, his descendents sometimes have certain powers, that come from this line. Somehow the principles of genetics were possibly lost on the author, who you’d think wouldn’t have realized how many descendents the 10 children of the Red King, born in the 12 century, would have by now, even if some of them didn’t have kids. I don’t know what’s up with this, but somehow there are only 10 “endowed” children at Charlie’s boarding school - the rest are talented in music, dance, art etc.

An interesting aspect of this book I rather liked was that the kids all had specific, sometimes odd powers, rather than just talent for general magic use. Manfred is a hypotist (also evil), Gabriel Silk can feel the feelings of the previous wearers of clothes (so his parents have to get all new clothes for him), and Charlie can hear people in photographs, and sometimes go inside them and talk to him. So you can see how this would aid him in solving mysteries and discovering his past, etc. Oh, and there’s a catch here, which I love: if the person in the photograph is alive, he or she will see Charlie’s face, kind of as a hallucination in front of them. So Charlie can’t be looking at pictures willy nilly.

The character of Charlie’s Uncle Paton is a great one as well. He can’t go out during the day because he unconsciously bursts light bulbs. Now, I’m not sure how much this makes sense, seeing as how there are more lights on at night than during the day, but it’s interesting because it’s all Paton’s-got-a-secret kind of thing. Furthering on that note, there should be a nice blatant metaphor for Paton being the ambiguously gay uncle, but no such luck. He keeps going on dates (interrupted by bursting lightbulbs of course) with Miss Inglewood.

Ships: As usual, kids’ books, so there’s not much canon-wise other than Paton/Inglewood, but, for when the kids are older, I have come up with the following: either Charlie/Emma or Charlie/Olivia - Olivia is pretty much my favorite character, because she’s spontaneous and impulsive, and creative enough to do what needs to be done. The people person, rather Hermione-like in fact. Emma is kind of elusive, at least as compares to Charlie, but she can fly and she has guts, sometimes, so I could see her liking Charlie in the future. Also, I am a terrible person, but: Tancred/Lysander. It is slightly slashy and there, in the sense that it’s extremely vague, and totally isn’t but I totally like to think it is. It’s the whole best friend thing, you know? Take it out of context, and yeah. See, Tancred and Lysander had a fight, so Tancred locked himself in his room and started creating storms for like a week. Lovers’ quarrel right there.

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony Deterrlizzi

2006-09-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a summer's worth of books posts written up but never actually posted, so here goes I guess:

I’ve read the first four of these, out of five, and they’re quirky and I love them. They also take about 2 seconds to read, hence why even normal people (well, internet normal people) of my age have actually read them. Unfortunately I don’t remember a thing about the plot, at least of the first two cause it’s been so long, but suffice to say that they do fit the bill of good young adult fantasy (actually chidlren’ts fantasy; they’re pretty much I-can-read books) with a kind of haunted house, a mysterious disappearing but important book, odd creatures with similarly odd motives and just general quirkiness. Meanwhile, the adults in the book are totally oblivious to the kids’ adventues, which is always a plus. And remember, they come in audio book format. So they’re worth a listen/read, maybe.

The Underland Chronicles, by Suzanne Collins

2006-04-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

These have been my main reads during the last two quarters, and can I just say how much I adore these books? So far, the series is comprised of three books:

1. Gregor the Overlander
2. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
3. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Seriously, these books are the height of young adult fantasy/fiction, and in my opinion exactly what this genre should consist of. They're about 300 pages, which a decent amount of print on the page (not the tiny print adult books that you can't read), and are very plot driven. Suzanne Collins knows how to write for young adults. She also is an excellent world builder - the Underland is just a mysterious place that keeps the reader wanting to come back. I should explain breifly, I guess - the basic premise is that Gregor, an 11 year old boy who lives in New York City, suddenly finds himself falling, with his 2 year old sister Boots, into the Underland through his laundry room. This is one of the two New York City entrances, and as soon as you fall down there, you find yourself in a whole other world with, apparently, light-skinned violet eyed people (enough difference to get stares in the Overland.) Here animals talk, and we have the "good" ones - for the most part, these are the bats, mice, cockroaches, humans, and the rats as "bad." (The spiders or "spinners" are a breed unto themselves.)

But there are exceptions, and that is a huge premise of the book. Yes, the humans and rats are enemies for the most part, but does that make one or the other "bad"? And then there are the exceptions, the rats, such as Ripred and Twitchtip (Twitchtip is officially the coolest character ever), that are on the humans' side, for the most part. And the humans themselves, the Underlanders for the most part, have ingrained prejudices that Collins addresses - mainly, quite frankly, their disregard for rat life compared to human life. I hate good and evil as a dichotomy, and Collins challenges this, because as soon as you've figured out how you think things are down here, you run into something you totally didn't expect, that throws your assumptions out the window. A good example is what happens once Gregor finds the Bane, but I won't go into too much detail so as not to spoil.

These books are endlessly creative - when was the last time you used root beer as a weapon? Collins puts a lot of little stuff like this in the books, that really makes me grin. Whatever Gregor ends up taking in his pack, he'll end up using in some creative way, and the books all have a sort of "twist" ending that keeps you constantly guessing, although you usually don't end up guessing right. Although, and I am proud of myself, I totally predicted part of the ending of Gregor and the Prophecy of the Warmbloods. I was reading the prophecy going hmm, you know, I wonder.... and I was so right. Not with the details, but with how the quest would end.

Okay, a couple more things:
1. Collins does not shy away from certain topics, despite these being books for younger readers. The Underland judicial system is worse than ours - if they find a slight bit of evidence against you, it's the death penalty. Characters die in these books, characters you like too. Now, Gregor and Boots are never going to die, but the others? It's up in arms.

2. The plague in the third book - I wonder if Collins was going for an AIDS similarity? I mean, you even get purple boils on your skin before you die. Now, obviously it's not sexually transmitted (it's vector-ly transmitted, ie by bugs. Ginny forgets the proper scientific term), but the symptoms, the fear, is similar - even though it is short-lived and a cure is found, which is hardly true for the AIDS epidemic.

3. It took me until the second book to realize this, but these books are really a shorter, more concise, probably better written type of Redwall. They're very similar indeed - in Redwall it's the mice against the rats, in the Underland it's the humans (and others, maybe) against the rats. But the Underland is more complicated, less dichotomous. Redwall, if I remember correctly, was still doing the all-rats-are-bad thing.

4. Prediction: Gregor/Luxa. They are the same age, and there is so subtext on this. But they're still young and whatnot. But for the future, I have great plot bunny: see, Luxa's going to be queen when she's 16, so hey maybe Gregor falls in love with her and then has to make the painful choice of whether to stay in Overland or Underland. Or the worlds could be closing up, and he has to choose. Like, you know what happened to Lyra and Will at the end of the Amber Spyglass? Something like that.

5. I wish there were a fandom for this, cause Hamnet/Mareth would be a great slash pairing. Not because there was any particular subtext in the sense that we never actually see them hold a conversation in the books, but because they have such a Remus/Sirius dynamic. They start out as best friends (or more, lol) fighting in a war, Hamnet unleashes this mass of destruction he never intended, and so goes off to live on his own in the woods, sort of like Sirius going to Azkaban for 12 years. All of Regalia (the human city in undeland), including Mareth, think him dead. Then he is about to return to Regalia - and to Mareth, maybe - but yep, kicks the bucket (apolizes for spoiling you, but you'll half expect this anyway.)

So you see, I wish these books had a fandom. I love them so.

I was at the bookstore yesterday...

2006-04-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

and, while poking around found that there were things to be noted:

1. The Order of the Poison Oak (I <3 Brent Hartinger, ask me more) has come out in paperback, and has a new cover. This amuses me greatly, because the new cover is much less, uh, suggestive, than the hardback cover. Having heard people's opinions on this and whatnot (and the author doesn't get a choice in the book cover, by the way), I think this is better. If a cover is too suggestive - and this is a teen book note, not a dopey romance novel - people won't feel as embarrassed about picking it up. And plus, while Hartinger's books do not shy away from "adult" topics in their books, they are hardly graphic

2. This book, and I've seen it advertised, called "why do men have nipples" is actually better and more scientific than you might think. Now the authors are trying to make it accessible to the average joe, and so don't get as technical and pedantic as I like. But it's still not entirely frivolous as the title might suggest. I stood there and read the whole first chapter - a fair bit I knew, but I learned some things too (for instane, did you know that your fingernails grow faster on your dominant hand? Or so they say. I wish there were more detail on this, but this is clearly something I will be curiously observing. And, I bet it's not "true" as such, but that simply using your dominant hand causes the fingernails to wear down more. They didn't clarify that either.) However, there some things that should be more in depth, so as to answer people's followup questions.

3. I picked up Tamora Pierce newest book (I forget what it's called, but it's the newest one about the four mages), which stood about a bit, as, like with Harry Potter books, she gets a shelf to herself. Now, despite rereading the Alanna books a ridiculous amount of times, I never could get through the mage books. So while I've skimmed them, I've never read them as such (but I plan to!), but nevertheless, know a fair bit of the story. Anyway, my point is that I was excited to read that one of the girl mages gets a girlfriend (at least for a little while, and I suppose I won't spoil you any more than that.) This is exciting because this is the first time Tamora Pierce has put an openly gay character in one of her books (there were subtextual ones, which you can find out from the forums, and Pierce goes on the forums as so can confirm this stuff.) So, kudos to Tamora Pierce. Now gosh darn it, I need to get back to actually reading her books. Am so behind.

4. Those ttyl books written all in IM speak. Oh dear, kill me now. I needn't say more, I think

Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach

2006-03-31T03:50:00.000-08:00

****This was written last summer, when I was bored out of my mind waiting for school to start. See, teachers, this is what happens when we're not in school. We learn on our own!******

(I should probably start with “omgwtfbbqspoilersahead” but, as no one in their right or left mind is going to read this book or this review anyway, I shan’t bother)

My first reaction, on finishing Ecotopia, is that it seems a book written on an idea, and a book written for the beginning and the end, because indeed, these are the parts that were the most interesting to me. But seeing as it took almost three months for me to slog my way through it (and it’s like 167 pages, note), I will say that the middle was much more like filler, and not as satisfying. Second note, to put it in context, is that you should know that it was written in 1975, which is longer ago than you think; I mean durr, no internet, how did people survive.

Yes, warning. This book is RIDICULOUSLY boring. Really. Or maybe I read too much young adult fiction, and this is the second book this year I’ve read for fun from the adult section that I’ve actually finished (The first was Maurice.) So why did I read I read it? This has to do with my theory of books, reading and interest; in any case, what keeps me going. A book must be interesting or compelling, preferably both, but if it’s just one it’s okay. Ecotopia is certainly a compelling book, compelling in the way history is compelling, but possibly less so, as this is like reading a fictional account of a dry history book (I mean, dude, at least when you’re falling asleep over poll taxes, you know it actually happened.)

Now, it’s appropriate, I think, to start with a summary, since I know full well no one’s actually going to read this. The premise is that California, Oregon, and Washington all secede from the union (okay, the US) in order to create an environmentally friendly stable state society; the back of the book says “takes charge of its biological destiny.” (Side note: the US only has 47 states! Dude, they have to change the flag! And songs like “50 nifty united states”! *mocks*) They do this is a variety of ways, which I may or may not get to, and may or may not be ecologically feasible (the back of the book seems to imply they are; I’m going to remain skeptical though. But this is an environmentalist classic; incidentally, why I bothered to read it.) Anyway, the reason it reads like a textbook is because the “plot” of the book is that Ecotopia has been existing independently with no contact with America for decades.... until now (dum, dum, dum). So William Weston, that’s the protagonist, write lots of journal entries and newspaper articles, which are compiled into said book.

On the back cover it says “Ecotopia is not science fiction, but politics fiction.” This is a very important statement, and indeed my first sort of ponderment with the book. I was very curious, trying to figure out what kind of political ideology Callenbach infused into this book. Now, having finished it, I can only tell you that it’s very hard to say. Ultimately it’s liberal - the care they put into the environment, socially liberal in the sense of free love hippiness, although also in the sense of culture, that Ecotopians are more trusting, don’t mind being naked, have sex all the time with anyone, etc (Maybe it’s a note of the 1975 publishing date that there’s nothing whatsoever about STDs.) However, whenever you get to other issues such as economics or some others, it’s hard to say. My first thought was that omg, Ecotopia is so communist, or at least socialist (dude, they live in communes!), but later they’re talking about vicious decentralization, so it seems a little more libertarian, there. It retains ideas of welfare - everyone has a right to a certain amount, barely enough to live off of, but since the government has mandated a 20 hour work week, there is not shortage of either jobs or leisure time really - not to mention that, as Callenbach writes it, there is little distinction between leisure time and work - we’re back to the cottage industry, guys. (Although, what I consider leisure time is holing up in my room with a book or my computer, and what they consider leisure time is smoking marijuana and debating environmental politics, while or not while doing work.)

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked; my point, sort of is that while this is clearly a quite political book, it’s more like describing a culture than it is anything partisan, and in a lot of ways, reverting to “living off the land’ like the Native Americans did, and the efforts, political or social, that will get them there (hence the vicious decentralization.) In addition to living in communes which are rather like tribes, they also have a tradition of tribal warfare games (it was obvious from the start, that Callenbach is making the usual comparison of war and football.) These are supposedly to keep people’s fighting skills sharp, since this is no war (except for the war for Independence, and the Helicopter War) and they aren’t expecting any.

In terms of reusable energy, Ecotopia seems to apply to the same ideas that I wish people would get a clue with here: solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal (steam energy from hot springs, is what they say here), and nuclear fission, although they say that some of these are temporary, like nuclear because of radiation (I’m not a big fan of nuclear and I don’t think most of the public is either) and hydroelectric because it destroys river banks and some habitats. Their main sources of energy seem in a word preposterous, but hey, I’m not knocking anything until it’s been tried, anyway. One idea is using photo cells as big as satellites, and basically harvesting the chemical energy, the natural energy of plants, to get electricity and other sorts of energy. The second idea is that of using tides, which are another constant source of energy, much like solar; I really like this idea. Callenbach’s idea here is that since water is so great at storing energy, even a small change in temperature will yield a large change in energy, so that’s where you get your energy from. (pages 102-105)

Next, let’s talk about gender stereotypes and sexism. This is also where we talk about the protagonist. Now, this being a “progressive” society, Callenbach, through William Weston, makes a big deal about how there is gender equality in Ecotopia and that women are more prone to run things, etc. But, and let me be nitpicky about this - it is so stereotypical to have a woman president to “show” your reader that the sexes are equal in your book. But this is more the “tell” aspect of the book. What the book shows me is that this is not the case. Now, I hesitate to say it’s Callenbach’s bias, when it may just be Weston’s bias, but some of the contradictory nature of what it says and what it implies seems to indicate to me that there’s some bias on the author’s part. Sure it’s small stuff, but the military soldiers are still referred to as “men” - and I’m not sure if women are in the military, it was rather unclear about that. Secondly, are their tribal war games, which women are not allowed into. This probably bothered me the most, because there was no good explanation for it (although, while it’s being compared to football, there are no women in professional football, but drr, this is supposed to be a progressive society). It seemed something along the lines of, that only men get overwhelming urges to fight and need to take it out in war games so they don’t kill each other on the street, etc. Also, it was just a feeling I got, from the protagonist and all, that women hadn’t stopped being treated as sex objects, anyway, that’s how some women were portrayed.

Ecotopians also have an interesting, progressive education, of which I rather like some aspects. True to their insistence on decentralization, it is, I believe, all private schooling, and is only regulated such that there are two tests, one at 12 and one at 18, to make sure you’re on track. What Callenbach emphasizes here, and I think this is huge, and one of my gripes with schooling, is that just book learning is not enough. Practical lessons, not just in our core subjects, but in stuff like cooking, basic aid, knots, how to live on your own in the woods, how to recognize edible plants or bad plants, that sort of thing. This means that every Ecotoptian child has, at the end of their schooling, developed a number of practical skills, life skills, survival skills - the kind of things that I think schools should really teach more of. Second of all, is the idea of pursuing your interests over adhering to a strict curriculum. Another problem I have with schooling is the lack of this. Because Ecotopian children are in public schools and don’t need to be taught to tests, they can learn more about what they’re interested in -and indeed, they are still learning - and, I suppose, get career ideas much earlier on. Anyway, props to Ecotopian school system. Of course, this is nothing new, people have been saying this for years - it’s the most commonly made AP english speech, come on - but no one’s been able to change it.

The ending of Ecotopia - I liked it. It was very satisfying, anyway, this what the author was trying to get to, trying to show in his book all along. Basically, after his scheduled 6 months in Ecotopia, it’s time for him to go back to New York, but after being kidnapped back into Ecotopia, awwwwww he decides to stay in Ecotopia, with his lover Marissa and her people and culture there. I guess I just liked it because some books drop off like duds, but this has nice closure, and a logical followup to Weston’s changing attitude towards the place - he is first a little reserved skeptical of this eccentric society and its people, but then comes to realize that they actually have good ideas and it’s so wonderful, etc - awwwwww, as I said.

I’m going to close with my major problems with books, although maybe hard for Callenbach to anticipate in 1975. Now, I’m quite a globalist, and this book doesn’t seem to take globalization into account at all. Yes, Ecotopians have the best air and water quality we’ve seen in centuries, etc., but if your goal is to create a stable-state society, you can’t just ignore the rest of the world. While Ecotopians are stable-stating, Americans and everyone else in the world are producing just as much pollution as ever, and this is going to rebound back on Ecotopia, whether they like it or not. Bad water quality in America will mix with Ecotopia’s clean water, and polluted air, due to global wind currents and all, will mix with Ecotopia’s clean air. (America’s polluted air causes acid rain and other problems in what is mostly third world countries, because of the way wind currents are, this is what I am talking about.)

Second major problem with the book is that Callenbach could not have predicted the impact of the internet on today’s society - when suddenly contact with the rest of the world is at the tip of your fingertips, this increases the globalist perspective a lot. With information traveling this fast, you can’t feel or pretend to be alone anymore, not to mention it’s a great way to get the word out.

So this is where I cringe at Ecotopia’s decentralization, and reverting back to tribal life almost. A foresty life is great and all, but it’s also like sticking fingers in your ears and pretending that the rest of the world is going to to follow you, but it’s not, not unless you do something about it. And this needs to be Ecotopia’s most important effort.

ETA: I have been getting a LOT of spam on this post in particular - it's getting annoying. So I have blocked anonymous commenting. You have to have at least an OpenID to post.

First Post

2005-09-23T01:37:00.000-07:00

So, the idea here is for this to be my book blog, since I like reading books, and I also like reviewing them. Yes, I am entirely aware that no one will ever read this. What was your point?