Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

I have to begin this post by saying that I absolutely loved this book. So this is going to be a rather gushy review, because I really just adored it. Even the cover is perfect. The only thing I really didn't like about it is the title, because I found it off-putting. To me it sounds frivolous, like a cheesy teen romance, but that is nothing like what it is. You'll see.
Anna and Frankie are best friends, and have been forever. They were always joined by Frankie's older brother Matt, an inseparable threesome, until Matt's tragic death the year before. Now it's summer again, and Frankie's family are trying to pull the pieces back together, deciding that the annual family trip to Zanzibar Bay will be the best thing for them. But instead of Matt, this year they will bring Anna. They will be there for 20 days, and Frankie decides that she and Anna will meet 20 boys, and just see what happens. Anna goes along with this, as she has gone along with every wild thing that Frankie has done over the past year. Because she has a secret, one that she is afraid will destroy her friendship.
Anna accidentally fell in love with Matt when she was 10 and he was 12. Last year, on Anna's fifteenth birthday, Matt kissed her for the first time. This began a sweet, and secret, love affair between the two of them. Matt wanted to be the one to tell Frankie, but he wasn't sure how to. He was leaving for college at the end of the summer, and he wanted to make sure he didn't leave on a bad note. He decided that their trip to Zanzibar would be the best time to tell her, and he made Anna promise she wouldn't tell first. But he died the day before they were to leave.
The love story between Anna and Matt is so sweet, and the way that Anna deals with her feelings for Matt, and the new feelings she has for Sam, a boy she meets in Zanzibar, is very well told. All of the things she goes through feel authentic. This really is an excellent book, for teens, but also for adults who enjoy authentic, heartfelt stories. I loved the characters, and the way they grow during these 20 days will change them forever, but for the better.
This book qualifies for many challenges, I'll just list them here: RYOB 2009, The New Author Challenge, The Pub 2009 Challenge, and the A-Z Reading Challenge.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party by MT Anderson

**Once again I must apologize - I have had an internet issue on my computer for the past few days - I have many books to review, now I just need to get the reviews up!!
Well that title certainly is a mouthful. I do enjoy the fact that Anderson is not afraid to give his book a long title, if that's the title it deserves. And Octavian certainly has an astonishing life. In this book, the story is mostly told through "testimony" that is written in first-person by Octavian himself. But there is a great middle section where the story is told in letters, and we see what happens to Octavian during that time period through someone else's eyes. Octavian was raised, along with his very young mother, by a group of scientist/philosophers who refer to themselves as the Novanglian College of Lucidity. All of the men there are known by numbers, rather than their names, whereas Octavian, and his mother, Cassiopeia, are not. It takes Octavian (and the reader) some time to realize that he and his mother are actually parts of some of the experiments that the men of the college are studying. He also eventually learns that they are slaves, and are owned by 03-01, or Mr. Gitney, the man who runs the place.
This book takes place right before the Revolutionary War, in Boston. War actually breaks out during the course of the book, and Octavian learns that freedom means different things depending on who you are talking to and where you come from.
This was a fascinating, very quick read, and I am looking forward to reading the second book. Anderson's descriptions, and his storytelling, both through Octavian and through the letters, are intriguing, and even more so often because he is one of those authors that leaves a lot for the reader to fill in for themselves. It's more immersive than I would have thought, and I wonder how it will end for Octavian.
I picked up this book because it was a winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. I am reading award winners for my 999 Challenge - you can see my whole list here. This book was also reviewed by Dewey, qualifying it for the Dewey's Books Reading Challenge. She pointed out that the language sometimes did not seem like something a teen would be interested in reading, and I think I would agree, at least for younger teens. But I think many older teens would find it interesting, and a challenge, something different than most other books out there. While we're at it, this book also qualifies for the New Author Challenge (I will definitely be reading more MT Anderson after this) and the A-Z Reading Challenge ("A" author).

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, which is why it was in my pile of books to read. I also went to a book club discussion about it.
The book is really difficult for me to describe. It is basically the story of Oscar, a hugely obese "Dominican ghetto-nerd" who is a character you love to root for, but at the same time he is incredibly pathetic and hopeless (and thus frustrating!). Oscar's family is from the Dominican Republic, although he and his sister Lola mostly grow up in New Jersey. Their mother's family did not survive the Trujillo dictatorship, and she herself fled to the United States as a teenager. Most of the story, including the history of the family, is told by Yunior, a sometime-boyfriend of Lola's who tries to help Oscar out of his depression in college. Two of the sections are told by Lola, but she only speaks of her own view of the situation, and she seems to be writing to Yunior, though it is difficult to tell.
What I liked best about this book was the writing - it was so much fun to read, even if it was hard to follow at times. Yunior throws in a ton of Spanish, as well as a tremendous amount of nerd-slang that I found really amusing. Most of it you can figure out from context, because it is certainly not explained for you at all. Yunior's voice is entrancing, in a way that I would not have expected.
As one of the 12 Mini-Challenges that I am doing this year, I went to a book discussion (#10). It was really interesting to discuss this particular book, because it is difficult, and sometimes inaccesible. There were seven of us at the meeting, I think three of whom had not finished the book. We brought up some topics that we thought were interesting, though we did not delve very deeply into any of them. It was more of a sharing of our thoughts, rather than really digging into the book. One thing that we didn't talk about much was the mysticism in the book, the presence of the golden Mongoose and the Man Without a Face. But it was otherwise a good book chat. I also read the book for my 999 Challenge, for which I am reading all prize winners (my list for this one is here). And, not to leave out anything, I am also reading this for the New Author Challenge and the A-Z Challenge.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

For those who don't know the plot, Coraline is a little girl who moves into an old house with her mother and father. Her parents certainly cannot be accused of paying too much attention to her, and prefer not to be bothered by her for the most part, as they both work from home. So Coraline must amuse herself. While exploring their new home, she finds a locked door that, when opened, reveals nothing but a brick wall on the other side. But for some reason Coraline is drawn to the door. And after opening it a couple of times on different days, one day she opens it to find a hallway leading somewhere, no more brick wall. Of course she follows it.
On the other side she finds her Other Mother and her Other Father, and all of the characters that live in her building are there, they are simply creepier versions of themselves. And they all have buttons for eyes. Coraline soon comes to realize that the one in charge in this creepy place is the Other Mother - it is she who wants to keep Coraline there forever, and will stop at nothing to fulfill this desire.
I loved this book, which was sort of expected. I saw the movie first, which is not something I usually do, but it did not really spoil anything for me. The two are different from each other, with additional characters being added in the movie, but for the most part the stories are the same. This is a fast-paced, creepy story that would be enjoyed by any older kids, as well as teens and adults. And one thing I have to say about movies made from books by Neil Gaiman - they seem to turn out okay. I have been so horrified by what Hollywood does to some wonderful books (exhibit A - The Golden Compass), but both of the book-to-movie adaptations I've seen have been slightly different from the book, but still very good. I really enjoyed both the book and the movie of Stardust, and the same goes for Coraline.
Coraline was reviewed by Dewey back in October of 2007. I think my favorite thing that she has to say about it is that rather having Dakota Fanning in a movie version, she wanted to see a 1988 Winona Rider. The Unshelved Book Club also did a comic strip about Coraline. It's pretty funny, so I thought I would share it with you. If you would like to see the challenges for Dewey's books and the Unshelved Book Club, you can find them here and here (respectively).

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E Lockhart

Frankie is a sophomore at an expensive New England boarding school called Alabaster. Her father is an Alabaster alum, and he has many happy memories of his times there; in fact all of his closest friends are from high school. So he sends his daughters off to Alabaster, even if in many other ways he is no longer a part of their lives. Frankie's freshman year at Alabaster is spent in relative obscurity, following her older sister who graduates, leaving Frankie on her own for sophomore year. Frankie has changed over the summer however, and now people (mainly senior boys) who never would have noticed her before begin to see her in a new light.
When Frankie starts going out with Matthew, she thinks she couldn't be happier. But Matthew has a secret - he is a member of the secret society, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Frankie knows about the Loyal Order because her father can't help bragging about his time with them. She desperately wants Matthew to share with her, but he continues to keep it a secret. And Frankie begins to realize that Matthew does not take her seriously, simply finds her adorable. She is back to being Bunny Rabbit, the hated nickname given to her by her family. Frankie is tired of feeling powerless when she knows she is not. If Matthew won't tell her about the Loyal Order, she'll just take matters into her own hands.
I really don't think that I can explain this book well enough to really get through how terrific it is. I absolutely loved it. It is definitely my favorite teen book, and I would recommend it without reservation to just about anyone, especially teen girls. Frankie never accepts the role that society has laid out for her, although she does think about it. She thinks about how lovely it is to be Matthew's girlfriend, and she wishes that she could just be sweet and simple and not complicate things. But she is not sweet, and she is certainly not simple. Frankie is a fantastic character, and I loved her conflicted-ness. But she still stands up for herself, in a way that shows how smart she is. Lockhart does a good job of not making her the hero of the school, however. Most of the students still don't understand the point behind the pranks, whereas Frankie had hoped to open minds and make change. Most students just find the pranks funny or weird or at least an interesting diversion in their day. For Frankie, it proves to her what she is capable of, and forces others to acknowledge that as well.

The Fearless Fish Out of Water by Robin Fisher Roffer

I have not been keeping up with the 2009 Mini-Challenges, so I thought I would use this book for one of them. There are twelve mini-challenges, and while it would make sense to do one a month, I obviously haven't done that. So I'll do a couple a month to catch up. This book is for challenge # 3 - read a non-fiction book.
The Fearless Fish Out of Water: How to Succeed When You're the Only One Like You is a book about using your uniqueness to do well in your career. The idea of the book is that many of us feel like fish out of water when it comes to corporate settings, or maybe just in particular situations. Roffer suggests that we use that outsider feeling to our advantage. There are seven chapters, each one with an overarching theme, like "Go Fishing For the Real You" or "Swim in Their Ocean Your Way". Obviously she keeps up the fish theme throughout the book.
This would be a really good book for anyone who fears losing their individuality in a corporate setting. Roffer advocates being true to yourself, while still maintaining good business relationships. She does not want her readers to stand out just for the sake of standing out however. She makes it clear that you should always be true to yourself, and not try to force or emphasize difference just to make a statement. And she counsels conformity up to a point, in cases where it shows respect.
As someone who would definitely be a fish out of water in a corporate world, this book made a lot of sense to me. However, I think I would rather eat my shoes than go back to a job in an office, so I won't be trying this advice out in that realm. It does apply to other types of jobs as well though - this advice could be useful in many fields. In the library field, at least where I work, uniqueness is a strength, and it is encouraged. Roffer's suggestions would still work well even in a field that embraces the fish out of water.

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Rainbows End won the 2008 Hugo Award, which is why I decided to pick it up and read it. I am a fan of science fiction, although it is not my favorite genre (that would be fantasy - similar, but not the same). This book is almost in the realm of speculative fiction, as it only takes place a little more than fifteen years in the future, and relies on the world remaining pretty much the same.
The book takes place over the course of several weeks, with most of the action happening in a single night. It is 2025, and our world looks very similar, although there are obvious differences. Technology has continued moving forward in leaps and bounds, paving the way for medical miracles and wearable computer hardware. Most young people have grown up with "wearables" - contact lenses and clothes that allow them to surf the internet and communicate as long as they are in range of the network (which means pretty much anywhere). The world has suffered from some horrendous events, which are mainly unspecified, but seem to be terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters. Two of the characters in the book are high-level Marines, and it is interesting to see how the past affects the way the military does things.
The main character is Robert Gu, a former world-renowned poet who lost much of his life to Alzheimer's. The medical establishment was able to cure him, and now he is making his way back in this strange new world. He lives with his son and daughter-in-law (the Marines), and their daughter Miri. In order to get up to speed with his clever grandaughter he goes to a local school for retraining - he is there with high school students and other elderly people who are trying to learn the same as him. From this point the plot gets rather complicated, and it is difficult to summarize without taking up paragraphs.
I really enjoyed Vinge's look at the future. It is easy to see how our world could become such a virtual place. One of the most entertaining and fascinating pieces of this future is the "belief circles". These are virtual realities created by fans of a particular author or work. An example from the book is the world that Terry Pratchett fans have created, which, if you tune in to their network, makes your world appear to be Discworld. It is very interactive and creative, as fans all over the world contribute to their particular belief circle to make it more fun for everyone. Vinge also does a great job of showing how not everyone is up to speed with all of the new technology. It's very much like today - some people are super internet-savvy, while others barely know how to use a mouse.
This was a great read, and I would recommend it to any science fiction fans, or anyone interested in speculative fiction. I read it for my 999 Challenge, for which I am reading award-winning books. It is also my "V" book for the A-Z Challenge, and Vernor Vinge is a new author for me, so I am counting it for the New Author Challenge as well!

The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick

I am still not quite sure what to make of this book, although I certainly enjoyed it. The Dragons of Babel takes place in a post-industrial Faerie, fully inhabited by so many types of mythical creatures I didn't even recognize them all. The main character is Will le Fey, a young man who has grown up in a village with his aunt. Then one day a wounded dragon shows up in the village and takes over. In this world, dragons are great mechanical beasts of immense power, but they need a lieutenant with mortal blood to help carry out their orders. Will becomes that lieutenant, allowing the dragon to become a petty tyrant over the village. When he finally breaks free of the dragon's control, he is banished from his village, becoming just one refugee among many fleeing the coming war. His wanderings eventually take him to the Tower of Babel, the capital of Faerie. There he struggles to find his destiny, while being continually manipulated by those who would find it for him.
I really enjoyed both the world-building of this book and the character development. The world of Faerie in this book is so different from what we are used to seeing. It reminded me of Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers, although this book is much more dark and grim. There are no real heroes or villains, all of the characters Will meets are conflicted in multiple ways. I was never quite sure where the story was going to end up, though the ending was quite satisfying. I have never read Swanwick's other book that takes place in this same world, The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I am not sure if there are any connections between the two books, but it would be interesting to read it now and find out.

Everything is Fine by Ann Dee Ellis

This little book affected me more than I thought it would. It is the story of Mazzy, a girl of twelve or so (it's kind of hard to tell, maybe thirteen?), who is trying to pretend that her life is fine, that she and her mother don't need any help. The story is told in short, staccato sentences, and short chapters, almost verse form, but not quite. It really gave me the feeling of being inside Mazzy's head, which is not always a pleasant place to be.
The story is hard to piece together at first, but you get a better idea of what has happened the farther you go along. There has been a tragedy, involving Olivia, who seems to be Mazzy's younger sister - a character who is obviously no longer in the story. This tragedy has sent Mazzy's mother into a downward spiral of severe depression, so that she no longer gets out of bed or responds to her daughter. Meanwhile, Mazzy's dad got a job offer that took him to another state, so he basically flees, leaving Mazzy to make sense of everything. And in order to protect her mother and herself, Mazzy tells everyone, from neighbors to social workers, that everything is fine.
I really loved this book, although it is very difficult. It is very sad, although there is hope at the end. Ellis does a fantastic job putting us inside Mazzy's brain; from her thought process to the illustrations that Mazzy begins when she breaks into her mom's art studio, you can see how difficult life is for her. This book would be great for a lot of teens, although I would definitely not recommend it for anyone who would have difficulty reading about the tragedy involving a small child. I found it incredibly upsetting, but I guess that's why Mazzy's mom doesn't get out of bed anymore. So, recommended, but with that reservation.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

I have finished the books that I had set aside for this challenge! Yay! Sure, it's a month late, but I have enjoyed sticking with it. I'll have a challenge wrap-up post up soon.
For the Medieval Challenge, two of the books I read were texts that were written during the medieval period: Le Morte D'Arthur and The Canterbury Tales. I learned my lesson after the first one, and decided to go with a Modern English version for Chaucer. I chose David Wright's Modern English prose translation, written in 1964. I decided on a prose version because I really just wanted to know the stories, and if I'm reading a translation anyway, I might as well read it in prose form. As Wright points out in his introduction, it can be difficult to translate poetry while trying to maintain the poem, creating difficulties for the reader. One thing I found interesting was that for two of the tales, Wright simply gives the reader the gist of it, and does not bother including them in the book. He seems to feel that, even translated, these pieces are unnecessarily long-winded and unwieldy, and we would be better off without them. These are "The Tale of Melibeus" and "The Parson's Tale".
I was so surprised by the vulgarity, sex, and humor that were present in these tales. It was fascinating how the tales swung back and forth between morality stories about the saints and stories about wayward wives and their sexual exploits. I found some of the stories very very funny, which was another surprise. It's fantastic that even though this was written over 600 years ago, we still can find so many points of commonality. Of course, our views of women have changed (for the most part), and the overall culture's views towards God and the Church are different, but these details only make the tales more intriguing. I think it is truly incredible that we have this opportunity to read stories that give us a glimpse of what life was like centuries ago. And it is so much fun to read. Really, this is a very highly recommended translation for anyone who is considering reading The Canterbury Tales.
Reading classics is so much fun, I'm doing it for multiple challenges! This book fits right in with the Really Old Classics Challenge and the Centuries Challenge. It is also my "C" book for the A-Z Reading Challenge.

Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis

Amber and Blood is the third book in the post-War of the Souls trilogy in the Dragonlance series of books. This trilogy is called Dark Disciple, and it focuses on Mina, a character that was introduced in the War of the Souls trilogy. For those who know nothing about Dragonlance lore, this review is not going to make a whole lot of sense, and I feel compelled to tell you that there are series spoilers in this review.
In the last book in the trilogy we discovered that Mina was actually a god - all this time she thought the gods were working through her, but it was really her power that was working. She was created at the beginning of time as a god of Light, but as her existence upset the balance between Darkness and Light, she was put into eternal slumber. She awoke when Takhisis stole the world, which precipitated the War of the Souls. Takhisis convinced Mina to work for Darkness, and Mina never discovered that she was meant to be a goddess on the side of Light. It's no wonder that at the beginning of Amber and Blood, she goes crazy and appears as the aspect of a six-year-old child, before she became a vehicle of Takhisis' will. Amber and Blood follows Mina's journey to Godshome, where she is drawn for some inexplicable purpose. She is joined by Brother Rhys, a monk, and Nightshade, a kender (with common sense), and their dog Atta. The choices she makes could upset the balance of power in the universe, but no one seems to no what she might do.
I really only finished this book because I wanted to see how Weis would end the trilogy. The book itself was definitely not great. I enjoyed it for the Dragonlance storyline, but even that really wasn't enough to make me care about what happened. It's disappointing, because I know that Weis can do better, at least I have read better books by her and Tracy Hickman together (The Deathgate Cycle is a must read for anyone who enjoys fantasy). But the latest Dragonlance books, especially this series, have really been a let-down.
This book qualifies for a few challenges I am participating in. For the What's in a Name Challenge, it serves as the "body part" category. For the Read Your Name Challenge, it is my "A" book (now I just need J-E-S-S-I). And it is also my "W" book for the A-Z Reading Challenge - I'm reading authors a to z.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Here is another book for the Medieval Challenge that I was unable to complete before the challenge ended. Only one book to go! I chose this book because it is historical fiction that takes place during the Medieval period - the twelfth century to be exact. The final book I am reading is another Medieval text - The Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer, in a Modern English prose format.
The Pillars of the Earth is a rather difficult book to describe for a review, but I will do my best here. It begins in 1123, with a description of a hanging, where the lover of the man being hanged puts a curse on the three men who have sentenced him. From there it jumps to 1135, where we begin to learn the story of Tom Builder, an out-of-work mason who's greatest dream is to build a cathedral. After this point it is a little bit difficult to give any kind of coherent synopsis without just telling you the story of the entire book. We meet Prior Phillip, a monk with a big heart who constantly underestimates the cruelty and maliciousness of others; Ellen, the mother of Jack, who is the girl who cursed the three men in the prologue, who now lives with her eleven-year-old son in the forest; William Hamleigh, the son of a power-hungry mother and father, with a mean streak in him that makes him the obvious villain; and Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring, who follows her own heart, even when it ends up costing her family everything. These are the characters that the novel follows over thirty years, as they are all tied into the fate of the building of the Kingsbridge Cathedral.
This book is an incredibly in-depth and well researched story of this time period, known as The Anarchy, a time of civil war in England between Empress Maud and King Stephen, after the first King Henry dies without leaving an heir. The town of Kingsbridge is not a real place in England, but modeled after an amalgam of many such towns of the middle ages (I think there is actually a Kingsbridge in England, but this is not supposed to be the same place). The characters are all very well drawn, although Follett's efforts to make us hate William are a little bit over the top (how many women does a man need to rape before we get the idea that he's the bad guy?). And all throughout the book Follett does an excellent job of really making us care about the characters, through the tradgedies and disappointments, as well as through the good times. The other issue I had is minor, but it seems that Follett does not trust his readers to remember what happened 100 pages ago, so he reiterates the story for you to the point where you want to say, "Yes I am reading this book, I know about that." But maybe for some readers, that is helpful. Either way, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys family sagas or historical fiction, or anyone who just enjoys a good story.
In addition to the Medieval Challenge, this book is another one I am using for both the A to Z Reading Challenge and the New Author Challenge. I am also using it for the What's in a Name Challenge. That is a fun one where you read books with a specific theme in the title. This title is for category number five - a book with a "building" in the title ("pillars" are part of a building, right?).

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

Terra Cooper is a control freak. She has found that it gives her comfort to control those things that she can - she has pushed herself through school to graduate a year early, and she is compulsively neat and tidy. She also works hard to control her appearance. Terra is very good-looking, except for the large port-wine stain covering her right cheek. She knows more about make-up then most girls her age, as she layers it on precisely every morning in order to try and cover her birthmark. She works out obsessively, to show the world that she is attractive despite the birthmark, and to show her father that she will not become like her obese mother.
But Terra cannot control her family. She cannot control the way that her father treats them, especially the way he maliciously harangues her mother. Her father has them all in his control, forcing Terra and her mother, and her brothers when they come home for the holidays, to tiptoe around him, being extra conscious of all his needs. When Terra meets Jacob, she realizes that feeling in control is not the same thing as knowing where you are going. And when she and her mother get a chance to go to China, without her father, Terra begins to realize that both she and her mother have been missing out on a lot of life because of him. Terra learns that she does not have to cover up her birthmark, or hide underneath her make-up. Her mother learns that she is stronger than she has been led to believe by her husband. They both come back changed.
I really enjoyed this book, and I loved all of the map symbolism that carries the book. Terra's father is a disgraced cartographer - she has grown up surrounded by maps. Headley uses the map theme throughout the book, as Terra finds her own map for her life. It is a very effective way of drawing the reader along through the story. I also loved the characters, all of them were richly detailed. Terra herself is more complex than the beginning of the book (or many plot summaries) would have you believe. This was an easy book to read, but it deals with some tough issues. It would definitely be enjoyed by high school age girls, and would probably be fine for most eighth graders as well.
I am excited to have gotten a chance to read this new book - it just came out February 1st. It also qualifies for a few challenges. The first is the New Author Challenge - I have never read any books by Headley, but I will definitely be on the lookout for them now, and will surely recommend them. I am also using this for the A to Z Reading Challenge ("H" book) and the RYOB Challenge.

The News From Paraguay by Lily Tuck

This National Book Award Winner is historical fiction that takes place mostly in Paraguay, in the 1860's. The story mainly follows Ella Lynch, the young, beautiful Irish woman who comes home with the president's son after his trip to Europe. It is difficult to say whether or not Ella and Franco actually love each other, but they do stay together, though never marry, throughout the fifteen years that Ella is in Paraguay. During those fifteen years Ella gives birth to seven children, five of which live to be teenagers. Franco's father dies, giving him the opportunity to take control of the country and embroil it in a seemingly senseless war against the surrounding countries. Franco becomes a dictator, forcing his people to give up everything for his pointless war, becoming more and more paranoid, arresting and killing people for no reason. Ella continues to support him, more because she doesn't know what else to do, than because she actually believes in the cause. She considers leaving many times, but always stays, until the war has destroyed the entire country, killing almost all the men, including Franco himself.
I really enjoyed reading this book, although it wasn't necessarily due to the story. The book is written in a very interesting way - we are given brief glimpses of parts of the characters' lives, usually in short sections that are only a handful of paragraphs or less. This makes the story feel like it is moving very quickly. Tuck does not just focus on Ella and Franco, either, but gives us pictures of many of the other characters, major and minor, and leaves it up to the reader to make a whole story out of it. Her choices of what to show about each character are very deliberate - some of the characterizations seem rather shallow at first, but get deeper as we get more glimpses of them. This is one of those books that is more interesting to read for the way it is written, rather than for the story itself.
About the story - it is about real events, Ella and Franco did exist, as did many of the other characters in the book. I always find it fascinating to learn about history in this way, and also to learn about what came from history and what came from the mind of the author. In this case, events of the war are not particularly well documented, and many of the minor events were never documented. But the book is obviously well researched, and I think that Tuck does an excellent job of describing Paraguay during the 19th century. In the Author's Note she quotes a friend who says, "Nouns always trump adjectives, and in the phrase 'historical fiction' it is important to remember which of the two words is which."

The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra

The first thing that I noticed about this book was before I even began reading it. It was originally written in French, translated by John Cullen. And the woman's name Yasmina is actually a pseudonym for an Algerian army officer. He used the name Yasmina Khadra so that he would not have to submit his work to army censors while he was still in the army. Knowing who the author of a book is is not always important when you're reading a book, but I found this detail intriguing.
The Swallows of Kabul is a story about two couples in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban. The book begins with an execution, another death that has almost no effect on anyone, as death has become so normal. War is the normality, and the Taliban has taken such control over everyone's lives that Mohsen, one of the main characters, has to convince himself that it was not always this way. He remembers being able to laugh in public, entertaining guests with his family, being happy. But he has not experienced these things in so long, they seem like the swallows of the title - they have fled with the arrival of war.
This book is a quick read. The almost 200 pages fly by. Yet it is not easy to read. It is tragic, the way the main characters' lives are torn apart by the week or so the story covers. In a sense, this is a book that mourns for all of the things that were lost because of the wars Afghanistan has endured: beauty, freedom, the ability to love, Kabul itself. It is a eulogy.
I have owned this book for awhile, but of course it took the RYOB Challenge to get me to read it. This is another book that I am using for the A-Z Reading Challenge as well (it's my "K" book). It also qualifies for two challenges that I have not yet read anything for: The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge and the Lost in Translation Challenge. For the Well-Seasoned Reader, I have chosen books that have the name of a place I have never been in the title. And of course Lost in Translation is rather self-explanatory.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

To begin this review, I have to say that I am a big Geraldine Brooks fan, this being the only novel by her that I had not previously read. Unfortunately, this is not her best book.
Year of Wonders takes place in the 1600's, in a tiny mining village in England. The narrator is Anna, a young woman who has lived through the year, and helped to bury more than half the people in this town. Her lodger was the first person to die of the Plague, which takes her children and many others as well, eventually. In an effort to confine the disease, the town decides to cut itself off, allowing no one in or out, and receiving help from the neighboring towns only when that help can be left at a distance. Their efforts keep the disease from spreading any further, yet perhaps causes more deaths in their own village.
The heroic efforts of this small village come at a great cost. This book is definitely more violent than I had expected. Some of it is simply the violence of the time: witch trials, punishments for theft. But some of it seems unnecessary, although I understand that Brooks was trying to convey the madness that some of the villagers struggled with in their grief. The book is wonderfully well researched, which makes for a story that feels true. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the Plague, or in this time period, but it it not easy to read about what these people went through. Life was hard enough in the Medieval Period without the Plague.
This is my first review for the Medieval Challenge. I am really looking forward to the other books I'm reading for this challenge. Hopefully I can get it done by February 8th! This book also qualifies for the A-Z Challenge. As I am doing a to z authors, this book will stand for my "B" author.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

First book of the New Year! This is a wonderful book that I finished in three days. I was honestly not expecting it to affect me as much as it did, although when it was given to me, or course I knew that it had been very well received in general. I was a little bit put-off by the premise of it: sixteen-year-old Pi Patel is trapped in a lifeboat crossing the Pacific Ocean with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. But this book is about so much more than that.
The fact that the first third of the book has nothing to do with being stranded out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger is something that I think needs to be mentioned. Everything I've read about this book gives you the idea that that is the only important part of the plot. But the whole first part of Life of Pi is about Pi's life and family before the accident that strands him on the lifeboat. Pi's full name is Piscine Molitor Patel, Piscine Molitor being the name of a pool in Paris. Pi's family has never been to Paris. The fact of Pi's full name is just one of the ways that Martel does an incredible job characterizing Pi and his family. Pi himself chooses his nickname, in full awareness of the fact that it is a Greek letter that is used in mathematics. With this nickname he takes control over his life by taking control of the use of his name. Pi's father runs the zoo in their formerly French town, Pondicherry, in India. It is the 1970's, and Pi's father is increasingly concerned with the way his country is going. So he decides to pack up and move his family to Canada. Along with his family, he has made arrangements for the sale of most of the animals in the zoo, who will be coming along on the trip with them, at least as they cross the ocean.
I really can't say enough about what a wonderful story this is. Martel is an amazing storyteller, one who can make the simplest details profound, and who can make you feel like you are a part of his story. When reading this book, it is important to pay attention to how he is telling the story, as well as what he is saying. The chapter breakdown alone is something that leads you to think more about what it means to tell a story. This truly is a beautiful book that I expect is only more enjoyable the more times you read it.
This is the fourth book I've read for the From the Stacks Challenge. I got it as a gift at least two Christmases ago. So far this is my favorite read from this challenge. I am also using it for the RYOB (read-your-own-books) challenge, which is obviously very similar. I need help when it comes to reading the books that are on my shelves, as opposed to library books, so these challenges are excellent for me.
This book also qualifies for two other challenges that I signed up for. One of those is the A-Z Challenge, where I signed up to read books by authors a to z. So this is my "M" book.
The final challenge that I read this book for is the only challenge that I picked books out for ahead of time. Generally I dislike making specific booklists for challenges, but in this case, I decided to do it. The challenge is the 999 Challenge, a Librarything group challenge. The idea is to pick nine categories, and then read nine books in each category. I picked prizewinners as my categories. So one category is the Man Booker Prize, which Life of Pi won in 2002.
Here's hoping that more of my books will fulfill so many challenges.