Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Why I read it: This was the January pick for a bookclub I participate in called the League of Extraordinary Dorks.  We meet in a virtual space that allows for any costume you can imagine.

It is important to keep in mind that I am reviewing this for what it is - a YA paranormal romance. For my own tastes, this would be a solid 3 stars, but there are a handful of things that I think make it better than an average YA paranormal romance (*cough* Twilight *cough*), which combine to take it to a solid 4.  Skimming a bunch of reviews online, some people love this book.  Obsessively.  I hope to offer a slightly more objective opinion.

First of all, the world. The author has chosen Prague as the location for where Karou, the main character, lives. It is mysterious enough, but we soon discover that she uses certain gateways to travel between that city of the 21st century and Elsewhere.


I saw this picture of Prague at night in the fog in Pinterest, and it pretty much matched what I see in my head as I listen to this book.  There could so easily be magic here.

The storytelling kept me interested, although I was rolling my eyes at some of it - I'm just not the intended audience. I'm not going to swoon over a desperately handsome seraphim in a star-crossed lover type scenario, but I can see how that might be appealing to a slightly younger crowd (honestly, I don't remember ever quite being that girl, but maybe I was.) I did appreciate some of the details. The description of Madrigal's dress, little tidbits like Karou being given the gift of knowing a new language on her birthday, those burned handprints that come back in the end, and so on.

Even better, the story takes some interesting twists. The story of Madrigal may be the most interesting part, and it isn't even introduced until the last fourth of the novel.

I listened to the audio version of this book, from a free download I got last summer when the publisher was trying to promote new books alongside YA classics. Khristine Hvam does a nice job with the accents, although Brimstone sometimes sounded Nigerian, which didn't seem quite right. Most of the time, I wasn't thinking about the reader at all, which to me is a good sign. She also is a great reader of emotion, and captures Karou well.

View all my reviews

The Devil, a Secret, and a Giant Robot

Week 1 of Scott's attempt to keep up with Jenny:

Stories Read:
"Young Goodman Brown" (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Secret Place" (1966) by Richard McKenna
"Farewell to the Master" (1940) by Harry Bates

Young Goodman Brown, what are you doing walking down a well-worn path in the woods with Satan? And Nathaniel Hawthorne, why would you send this poor guy out there? This is a terrific story that's full of ambiguity and symbolism. After thinking about it, my best interpretation is that Young Goodman Brown had a dream, and through that dream realized that not everyone's a saint. And he took it hard. The realization affected the rest of his life.

In 1966, Richard McKenna (1913-1964) won a posthumous Nebula Award for Best Short Story. The story was "The Secret Place", and it's first appearance was in Damon Knight's Orbit 1. I don't believe I've read a Richard McKenna story before, but I enjoyed this one. It was about a World War II soldier who was given the job of keeping his eye on an area of desert in Utah where a Uranium rock was found. Despite the military's efforts, no further treasures were found there. The soldier's job was to drive the property every day with a geiger counter, and to accomplish this the military gave him an office and a secretary. The secretary, though, had a strange connection with the property. When she went outside, she saw a completely different place.

We're watching The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) over at Good Story, so I thought I'd read the story that inspired the script. Harry Bates published "Farewell to the Master" in the 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction that also contained "Slan" by A.E. van Vogt. It's a ripping good tale from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. There are plenty of differences between this and the movie, but the giant robot was there (named Gnut, not Gort). The story opens with a guy taking photographs of giant Gnut, who had appeared out of nowhere in a ship with a guy named Klaatu a while back. The robot never moves... or does it? An entertaining story with a surprise or two at the end. I listened to this one from Blackstone Audio, read by Tom Weiner.

I am keeping pace with Jenny so far. I better up my game, though - at this rate, I'll read only 182.5 stories this year and that won't do! I better cancel that walk in the woods I had planned for tomorrow morning, and read a story instead.

Next up: "Sister Emily's Lightship" by Jane Yolen

Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Why I read it: One of the January selections for the Great African Reads Group, and because it included several countries I hadn't yet covered in my Around the World reading - Niger, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Benin

This book brought me to tears, multiple times. I actually had to put a little bit of distance in between finishing it and reviewing it. The author, Uwem Akpan, wrote these stories to draw attention to the children of Africa and the struggles they face. It is tempting to dismiss it as merely fiction, to reassure myself that people surely do not live this way, but I know too much of the reality to be able to do so. The stories themselves are fiction of course, but pull from very real events.

I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Be prepared; these are heavy.

Story by story, may contain spoilers:

The Ex-Mas Feast - This takes place in a Nairobi shantytown, where a family tries to plan for holidays when they don't have money for food. Chemicals for sniffing are given as gifts instead. My younger sister went to Nairobi to visit with missionary friends of the family a few years back, and I was reminded of her photos.


Fattening for Gabon - A story of two children, who already lost their parents to AIDS (they don't seem to understand this), being prepared to be sold into slavery by their uncle. The way it is told, heavy on dialect and food description, almost serves to mask the horror. But then I would stop to realize what was going on, ugh. I kept thinking maybe they are going to be adopted! But no. This story is very long, more of a novella.

What Language is That? - Highlighting the turmoil created in communities by religious groups encouraging violence. Could you explain to a 6 year old why she can no longer see her best friend?

Luxurious Hearses - Another very long story, more of a novella, about people fleeing a violent city on a bus. The main character is trying to hide that he is Muslim because of tensions. I liked how everyone on the bus had to have an opinion about everything, it gave a good sense of the cultures involved and what was valued. It gets more and more violent as the story progresses, and yet I was still hoping for a better end!

My Parents' Bedroom - This is the story I wish I hadn't read. Horribly violent, horrifying, I just can't even recall it enough to summarize it. Ethnic cleansing is something I will never understand.

View all my reviews

Book Beginnings: Shadow Country

I was too drained to do any book blogging last night (classes start Monday), but I'm going to take a break from my syllabus tweaking to post my book beginning on a Saturday!  

One of the things I love about GoodReads is the number of groups a reader can join.  It is easy to find community based on what you love to read.  I joined On the Southern Literary Trail last year in an attempt to read more southern lit, since I moved to the south in 2006.  I haven't always been able to join in on the book selections, but the discussion is always very in-depth, and people are always bringing in additional research.  I learn so much more than I would on my own!

Most of the time, there are two books a month - one that falls pre-1980, and one that falls 1980 or after, in an attempt to read both "classics" and contemporary literature from the south.  This month, there was a tie in the contemporary category.  I only have time to read one of these books, but this one was already on my shelf at home to read for my Around the USA in 52 Books challenge.  It was $1 at a used bookstore, and I had never heard of the author, so I decided to take a chance.

The book is Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen.  It is a mighty tome, originally published in three volumes.  The author always wanted it to be one cohesive novel, so he rewrote it, removed 1500 pages, and republished it.  Shadow Country ended up winning the National Book Award for fiction in 2008.

Basic description: Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.

I've read about 30 pages so far, and that isn't much of a book that is 900 pages.  The chapters are really short, introducing characters, but as you'll see from the first few lines, the atmosphere is dark and violent.  I'm looking forward to learning more about this historical figure, and experiencing a part of Florida that I haven't yet visited.  

Prologue: October 24, 1910
"Sea birds are aloft again, a tattered few. The white terns look dirtied in the somber light and they fly stiffly, feeling out an element they no longer trust. Unable to locate the storm-lost minnows, they wander the thick waters with sad muted cries, hunting seamarks that might return them to the order of the world."

Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman

Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got a review copy of this audiobook from the publisher. I wasn't sure what to expect; I was new to the author (this is her first book, although she has previously published short stories) and had no expectations. The book came out in print in March 2012, but the audiobook was new in November.

The title is apropos - while the stories aren't about birds exactly, most of them do seem to include animals in some way - many birds, but also ferrets, dogs, sheep, cats, even a chinchilla.

The author is at her strongest when she writes about relationships, particularly when they have failed because of issues the people can't control - death, disease, savior complex, you name it. The most powerful story to me was the first one - Housewifely Arts - that tells the story of a woman and her young son, driving to visit her deceased mother's bird, just to hear her voice one more time. Wow. I will remember it for a long time. It also takes place in a city that I know well on the coast of South Carolina, which also brought it to life.

Yesterday's Whales demonstrates what happens when your life deters from your Values, while Every Vein a Tooth demonstrates what can happen when you stick to them. Both are heartbreaking and memorable. The Right Company, with the weird salve of the obese food writer, is one story with unique, super southern characters.

The Artificial Heart was probably my least favorite story, because the vision it attempts of a post-fish dystopic Florida was not quite as successful as the painful realities of the other stories.

Most of the stories are set in the south, which is where Bergman grew up, with one set in Vermont where she lives now. The stories are read by Cassandra Campbell, who does a great job with subtle changes in accents, vocal tone, and pacing. (I've heard her before, as one of the readers for the Cloud Atlas audiobook.)

View all my reviews

Scott Lays Down the Gauntlet

I was texting (via Skype) with the good folks over at SFFaudio a few weeks ago: Jesse, Tamahome, and Jenny. I noted that Jenny was approaching 200 books read in 2012. 200! Being an envious sort of guy, I jokingly said, "I bet I could read 200 short stories in a year. Ha."

A few minutes later, that became "Hey! I bet I could read 200 short stories next year!"

After fierce negotiations with the brain trust behind Reading Envy, here I am. Terms will not be disclosed, other than my goal: To read as many short stories as Jenny reads books in 2013.

This blog likes a good list (and I do too), so I made a list of short stories that I want to read. It's cobbled together from a list of award-winning stories that I've been meaning to finish, the contents of some collections I want to read (like The Best of Gene Wolfe and Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor), and some outside suggestions. After the list was complete, I randomized it because that's exactly the kind of thing I do. The result? A list of 313 novellas, novelettes, and short stories.

I'm sure I'll edit that list this year, and I won't stick exclusively to it, either. How could I, with things like Analog and Lightspeed Magazine coming out every month? And there are Hugo Award nominees to read this summer.

The contract says that I should post more or less weekly to keep Reading Envy up-to-date on my progress. I plan to comply because the stated penalty involves "No Books For Me" for a frightening length of time. *shudder*

First up? "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I'm hoping that Jenny hasn't started yet. Someone distract her with something shiny!
 
 
A few words about me: I'm Scott D. Danielson - I use the D in the middle because there are a few of us Scott Danielsons haunting the internet. I'm co-founder of SFFaudio, I co-host a podcast called A Good Story is Hard to Find, and I published a short story of my own a while back.

I'm on Twitter, Google+, and Goodreads. I'm also on Letterboxd - a bit like Goodreads but for movies.

2012 in Review - The Numbers

I'm taking these numbers from GoodReads.  Rather than linking to each shelf, if you want to know the details, you can rummage through my various shelves and books on your own.

Books read total: 202 (around the same as 2011)
Pages read total: 53639 (6k less than 2011)

Books read by format (in this case, one eBook and audiobook were the same title):
Print (hardback/paperback): 145
eBook: 32
Audiobook: 26

Books read by genre:
(Many of these duplicate each other, but I track these categories.  Some like music and techie include both fiction and non-fiction.)
Around the World: 65
Biography/memoir: 11
Books on Books: 2
Cold Weather Islands: 7
Foodie: 5
Graphic novels and comics: 6
History: 1
Librarianship (and anything relating to work, really, so teaching too):7
Music: 4
Poetry: 14
Post-apocalyptic or dystopia: 12
Science fiction/ fantasy: 47
Short stories (individual or compilations): 25
Southern lit: 2
Techie: 8
Travel: 4
YA: 4

Books read for other reasons:
Award nominees: 46 (not sure I'll do this again, this was 25% of my reading!)
Book clubs: 20
SFF Audio Podcast: 8

I expect poetry and southern lit to go up considerably in 2013 because of various challenges I will be participating in, and I have been stockpiling poetry to read for National Poetry Month (April.)  I'd like to read more history, the others I don't really have goals for, I just like to see.  I'm happy that I'm reading about 25% science fiction and fantasy.