Blog Hop: Creative Things to Do with Books

On March 14, 2014March 9, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations3 Comments

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: What is the most creative thing you have ever done with a book?

I have to admit, I’m not quite sure what this question is looking for…but vagueness does open wide possibilities! Mostly, the only things I do with books are read them or keep them on my shelf 🙂 but I do have two interesting stories.

Freshman year in college, I had a small TV that I wanted to put on my desk in the dorm room. Due to logistical complications, to really watch it I needed it to be about two feet higher on the desk. So I went to the school library, found eight enormous hardback books, and took them home to use as a stand. I’m not sure what the person checking the books out for me thought I was doing, considering not all of them were even in English… But they made a good temporary solution, until I could get to Office Max and buy a more proper stand!

And two, a much more recent story…just last weekend there was a WizardCon convention in my city. For those not familiar, it was a convention for all things geeky, with merchandise and celebrity guests doing presentations and signing autographs. One of the guests was Billy Dee Williams, who you probably know as Lando Calrissian from Star Wars. I decided that the one unique souvenir I wanted was to have my copy of The Lando Calrissian Adventures signed by Billy Dee Williams, General Calrissian himself. And I got it!

There will, of course, be more on WizardCon for future Saturday Snapshots… 🙂

The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu

On March 12, 2014March 9, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult2 Comments

Life seems to be perfect for M. T. in her senior year of high school–she’s a straight-A student who enjoys her classes, she has a great best friend she’s known since childhood, and there’s a cute boy interested in her. But M. T. has a secret. Her family is from Argentina, and they came into the United States illegally when M. T. was six. As high school graduation approaches, M. T. feels trapped with no future–unable to go on to college, get a job, or even get a driver’s license. With well-meaning pressure from friends, trouble at home, and a dearth of options, M. T.’s life begins to unravel.

The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu was a departure from my typical fantasy and sci fi, but it’s about a real life situation I’m particularly drawn to. My mom is an immigration attorney, so while I’m no expert myself, I’ve absorbed a fair bit on the subject. M. T.’s story felt tragically real to me, a very accurate picture of the situation illegal immigrants can find themselves in.

This book deals with a lot of heavy issues. The immigration is the core, but there are also boyfriend and academic problems, and the more serious topics of domestic abuse and suicide. In some ways this is a huge amount for one book, but Andreu balances it very deftly by keeping everything circling around the immigration issue. M. T.’s trapped feelings prompt her academic problems, and her father’s trapped feelings prompt the domestic abuse. That escalates in part because M. T. and her mother are afraid to call the police…because they expect they would be deported.

M. T.’s narration of the story provides a strong, natural-sounding voice that contributes to making such a heavy book work so well. The subject matter is heavy but the writing isn’t dense, and while the topics are hard, the reading itself is easy. M. T.’s voice propels us through the story.

The immigration issue is clearly the center of this book, but the themes are universal as well. That feels slightly contradictory, to say it’s all about immigration but it’s not…! I think I mean that M. T.’s fear of the future, her keeping of secrets, her struggles with family and friends and finding a place in the world, are universal…even if the immigration issue is at the center of her particular struggle.

I wasn’t surprised when I got to the author’s note at the end of the book and Andreu explained that she grew up as an illegal immigrant too. This is clearly a deeply personal, very real book. I’m glad to know that her immigration story had a happy ending–and I’m glad she ended M. T.’s story on a hopeful note too!

Author’s Site: http://mariaeandreu.com/

Buy it here: The Secret Side of Empty

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Chrestomanci as Deus Ex Machina–sort of

On March 10, 2014March 6, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I’ve continued my chronological reread of Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series with Witch Week, where the enchanter Chrestomanci plays a supporting (and somewhat deus ex machina) role. But on the other hand, can his convenient arrival really be considered out of place if he’s the main character of the series?

Witch Week is the most independent book of the series. Set in an alternate England where witches (with real magic) are hunted, arrested and burned, several children at a rather awful boarding school each come to realize that they have magic. Their experiments and mishaps create escalating chaos until they’re in real danger of their lives…but fortunately they find a spell to summon Chrestomanci to their aid to unravel a problem of alternate worlds and mistakes in history.

I think this may be the first Diana Wynne Jones book I ever read, long ago before I ever knew it was part of a series. I also think it was my first encounter with a reference to Guy Fawkes–and incidentally, when you don’t know who he is, you lose some of the impact of finding out that he successfully blew up Parliament in this world!

Witch Week is essentially a boarding school story with a bullying thread and a magical twist. We get into the heads of several of the children, and Jones paints wonderful portraits of believable, complex individuals. Charles and Nan stood out the most for me. Charles is generally disliked in school, but mostly left alone because of the power of his evil eye glare. Jones successfully makes him sympathetic, even though he really does mean that evil eye glare. When he finds out he has magic, he’s perfectly willing to turn it on his enemies (with disastrous and often hilarious consequences). I think I enjoy Charles because, much as I also like Jones’ typical earnest, well-meaning boy-hero, it’s fun to get one who isn’t well-meaning!

Nan is also a victim of the bullies, who are all too willing to accuse her of being a witch. When she finds out she really does have magic, she’s completely surprised by the jolt of confidence it gives her–not because she does anything with it, but just by knowing that about herself.

Chrestomanci’s arrival towards the end of the book should have deus ex machina written all over it, but Jones manages more skillfully than that. Chrestomanci does organize things towards their conclusion, but the children still play such an integral role that he doesn’t take over the narrative too badly. And besides, if he’s really the main character of the series, perhaps he’s just asserting his proper place in things?

A note on the ending in white text to avoid spoilers… If you’ve read the book, you know that the final conclusion completely alters the children’s lives, pasts and memories. As far as I can recall, I always accepted the ending on previous reads; this time it struck me as rather an unaddressed tragedy. Even if their lives are made objectively better, they still had to lose the people they had been through their previous experiences. It’s like dying to allow another version of yourself to live, which seems like a major existential question that is ignored. But I suppose we have Doctor Who for that discussion…

I think you could do worse than to start the series here, because it’s so independent of the others. Although knowing who Guy Fawkes (and Chrestomanci!) are would probably add to the book. 🙂 In any order, this is another fun read, with a more bleak setting but a lot of humor and excitement to set against the gray background.

Author’s Site: http://www.dianawynnejones.com/

Other reviews:
Reading the End
Readers By Night
Just Book Reading
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Witch Week

Favorites Friday: Movies from Books

On March 7, 2014March 6, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday3 Comments

In certain circles, movie adaptations of beloved books are a highly controversial subject! My expectations are usually low for movie versions of books, because I’ve been disappointed too many times. But…sometimes the movies do justice to their books–or, dare I say it, even do better!

I visited this topic once before, but I must have been watching (and reading) some good things in the last few years, because I find myself with a few more to add to my own list of great movie adaptations. In no particular order, and with links to reviews…

BBC’s Sherlock

Well, no particular order except for this one! Something amazing happens here because it’s a huge departure from Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes (like being in a different century) and yet it’s so true to the original too. I think the key is that the window-dressing (gas lamps and horse-drawn carriages) has changed, but the characters still feel the same…just told through modern story-telling. Besides, I went on a Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour in London, and the guide pointed out that at the time of writing, Holmes was set in the present-day–and it was actually several decades before retellers stopped modernizing, and started placing him in his original decade.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I liked the first movie in this trilogy too, but it was the second that really impressed me. With some very careful character tweaks, the movie stayed true to the book but made me like Katniss so much better. What had felt like a girl flailing helplessly became a girl trying her best, and that’s a character I can enjoy much more.

The Lord of the Rings

I made a conscious decision when I finally read the books to rewatch the movies at the same time (each movie just before the book, in fact). I enjoyed every book and movie, but I have to give the edge to the movies. Sorry, Tolkien. Actually, he might not mind–the movies brought the characters to life for me much more, but since Tolkien’s focus seems to have been on the lore and the history anyway, he might not see that as an issue.

Northanger Abbey (Masterpiece Theatre)

This is my favorite Austen novel, and the movie is delightfully frothy and fun. Colin Firth makes us wait six hours for a smile, but Mr. Tilney grins throughout this whole movie. It also features the wonderful Carey Mulligan as Isabella Thorpe, not to mention one of moviedom’s most adorable first kisses.

Princess Bride

I’m not sure I can think of any other book/movie combination where they feel so completely like they’re exactly the same thing. It may help that William Goldman wrote the book and the screenplay. There are some extra details in the book–but the movie has the adorable frame story–and really, everything that’s most important is in both!

Stardust

Neil Gaiman was being complex and innovative and subverting expectations with some aspects of this story. The movie decided to be funny and romantic and, yes, more traditional in its pay-offs. I respect Gaiman, but the movie makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and happy!

Your turn! What movies do justice to their books?

If History Was Different…

On March 5, 2014March 3, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Reviews, Young Adult4 Comments

I read The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson so long ago that pretty much all I remembered was that it was set in an alternate history, and there was a sequel I always meant to read. Clearly a reread was in order before going to that sequel!

The Explosionist is set in Scotland in 1938–but this is an alternate history, where Napoleon won at Waterloo. The Northern countries of Scotland, Scandinavia and Russia have united in the New Hanseatic League, in uneasy peace with a united but oppressive Europe. Sophie Hunter is 15, an orphan raised by her Great-Aunt Tabitha after her parents died in an explosion at a dynamite factory. Her world begins to unravel with terrorist bombs near her school, an unsettling encounter with a ghost through a medium who is later murdered, and hints of something sinister about IRLYNs (pronounced “Irons”), a patriotic training program for young women.

Sophie is a wonderful portrait of a very intelligent, slightly naive girl who is well-meaning yet often conflicted about what’s best. She felt very fifteen somehow, just old enough to grasp the magnitude of the conspiracy she begins to uncover, but young enough to still think she can somehow handle it herself–with her best friend, Mikael. There’s an intriguing thread through the book about the benefit or harm of strong emotions. Sophie herself is a committed rationalist, who believes that doing away with extreme emotions would be all to the best…though she can’t quite manage it!

This book is part boarding school story, part murder mystery, part conspiracy theory, and part ghost story as Sophie discovers an ability to speak with the recently-dead. All those pieces somehow balance together, creating an intriguing mystery with a series of surprises and turns.

The alternate history of it all creates some fascinating touches. The overarching changes to history and government are intriguing, though the small details may be even more fun (if a little silly!) Many people famous in our own history are famous in Sophie’s world–but for very different reasons, like Freud the radio host, or Einstein the poet…

By the way, I hate this cover–it has none of the character of the first one!

The Explosionist ends with a big shift and a lot of questions still wide open, which is how it stuck in my mind that I needed to read the sequel, Invisible Things. (Some minor spoilers for the first book to follow.) The sequel sees Sophie in Denmark with her friend Mikael’s family, volunteering at a scientific facility headed by Niels Bohr where nuclear fission is a hot new topic. Europe and the New Hanseatic League are rushing ever closer towards open war, while Sophie begins to uncover new truths about her family’s past. Halfway through the book, we see an abrupt shift with a terrorist attack (using a gas that alters Mikael’s personality), a new villain, and a quest for Sophie.

I enjoyed The Explosionist a lot, but I’m not sure how to feel about Invisible Things. Sophie, Mikael and all the rest are still likable and compelling characters. The premise and the alternate history are still fascinating. But while the first book had a busy and carefully balanced plot, this book feels like it lost its balance somehow.

Sophie has a very passive role for the first half of the book; there are revelations a-plenty, but Sophie herself doesn’t actually do much. The stakes get higher and so does the interest level in the second half of the book…but that part also seems like a big departure from everything that came before, and begins to strain credulity a bit in certain ways. The last portion of the book is a “Snow Queen” retelling, which is a cool idea–yet feels forced in places.

It’s unfortunate, because there are a lot of great pieces in here…they just fit together a little awkwardly. Still, it was worth the read to find out the answers to some of the mysteries left by the first book, and to see the continuing development of Sophie’s story. If you like historical fiction with a little fantasy thrown in, or enjoy slightly spooky conspiracies, these books are a fun read!

Other reviews:
Bib-Laura-graphy
Bookshelves of Doom
Frenetic Reader
Anyone else?

Buy them here: The Explosionist and Invisible Things