Books

[elzefa]

I read Lament: the Fairy Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater. Ironically enough this was the funniest book I've read in awhile. Here are some funny nonspoiler excerpts:

"You're the piper aren't you?" she asked coldly.
James smiled firmly. He had already identified her as a piper-hater. "Yes, but I do it against my will. The aliens won't let me stop.
Delia's smile was iron. Not amused.
I said, "This is James, Delia. He's the number two piper in the state of Virginia this year."
"Soon to be number one," James said with a charming smile. "I hired a hit man."
Delia's face remained exactly the same.

Page 29

"When did you get so smart?"
He tapped his forehead. "Brain transplant. They put in a whale's. I'm passing all my classes with my eyes closed now, but I can't get over this craving for krill."

Page 130

Amazon.com: Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception (9780738713700): Maggie Stiefvater: Books
There is the Amazon page. I enjoyed it....
Dai,
elz

[EricG1793]

I just finished reading the Inkheart trilogy, and I loved it! It was strange getting used to the style of writing (using apostrophes instead of quotes, using correct preterit tense, etc.), but the storyline was amazing, and I always wanted to read more. However, there was one point in Inkdeath where there were so many bad things happening for such a large amount of pages that I was really, really depressed even thinking about continuing to read it. I only read for 15 minutes or a half hour in the evenings, so there were several nights in a row just about problems, frustration, false hope, etc. It sure was nice when good things started to happen.

I spend all of my Study Hall time in the library. My normal Study Hall place is in the cafeteria. I find it easier to concentrate in the library. I finished up my work and was looking through the children's section and came across The Diamond of Darkhold, the fourth book of Ember. I've read the previous three and loved them all. Starting out, this isn't nearly as exciting as Inkheart, but it's nice to switch series after weeks of reading Inkheart. And it's also nice to be reading typical American-style writing again.

I don't remember if I mentioned this here, but I got The End of A Series of Unfortunate Events, so I read the entire series, from book one to book thirteen. I might have started Inkheart after that, but I don't remember anymore.

I also have expanded my collection of The Last Apprentice. I might read that from beginning to most current, also. It's about time that I do the same for YW as well.

[Kathy Li]

So, I've been very very sleep-deprived and tired and stupid lately, so most of my recent reads have been romance novels. But there is one recommendation I got through my romance reading that I thought I might share with those of you who don't mind the love-shtuff.

The author's name is Sarah Addison Allen, and she's written three books so far. These are mostly shelved in the "general fiction" section, not SF or Romance, and most of the reviews will use the dread phrase "magical realism" (which is code for Fantasy that you don't have to be embarrassed as a book reviewer to like. ). But they're awfully fun. And foodie. Which makes me happy. There are sex scenes, but they're not particularly explicit. So, I'd put her books at PG-13.

All I'll say is that I was only a few chapters into the first one, Garden Spells when I realized that the apple tree in the backyard was one of my favorite characters. Seriously. Worth a look. The website has sample chapters.

I would also mention I recently went to a Charlaine Harris booksigning, but I'm not sure that would be completely age-appropriate for this board. She is, however, an absolute trooper (the signing was over six hours long), incredibly gracious, a total hoot, and one very nice lady. If you're a fan and have a chance to attend a signing, I highly recommend it.

[Birdhead]

Well, insert the old joke about being paid by the word here, I guess (but sheesh).

I did Lord of the Flies too and really enjoyed it (it's so lucid and terrific to study), in fact, I mostly enjoyed my English texts, but not always. I think studying a book you're ready for can be delightful, and of course studying old favourites is always fun (IMO), but it's definitely true that bringing something people aren't ready for (or even aren't in the mood for) into a classroom is a sure way to ruin a good book.

[Lazy Leopard]

People set Oliver Twist for 10 year olds? Yikes!

I suspect the teachers' logic went something like "This story's about a boy, so boys will like reading it, and it's by Dickens so they'll be reading something good." Apply similar logic to "Tom Brown's School Days", "Great Expectations", and a whole lot else...

The actual effect (at least on me) was to innoculate me against Dickens et al..

About the only set book it didn't put me off was "Lord of the Flies", and that's because it contained some very recognisable characters and a very familiar atmosphere.

[Birdhead]

People set Oliver Twist for 10 year olds? Yikes!

Yeah, it seems to really depend for some people. Me and all my besties read a lot more when we were kids than we do now (for example, I didn't go to primary school, I was homeschooled, so I used to get my schoolwork over in the morning and in the afternoons and on weekends I would mostly read. And hang out with the siblings and the friends, but there's just a lot of extra time for reading when you only have to work for three hours a day.) Now I'm busy, and I'm widely read so therefore I'm also picky and judgemental, and a book has to work hard to keep my attention for a thousand pages. But some people equally have a longer attention span when they get older, so.

Also, especially after you take an English class or psychology class or women's lit class, you start seeing the stuff you talked about in class in those stories. Pretty much all fairy tales are ridiculously sexist; lions as an allegory for God. It's almost sad to grow up and see all of your beloved childhood stories stripped down to the messages put in there by the authors.

Well, I was a teenaged English major, so. Re: lions, I don't know, sometimes I feel like a lion is just a lion. Except for that bit in the Dawn Treader where he turns into a lamb, which I have always felt was a little too on the nose and rather like that totally mysterious pagan chapter in the middle of The Wind In the Willows where they meet Pan. But my broader point is that, while I like allegory as much as the next person, one can have too much of it. For example, last year I studied Maurice Gee's Halfmen of O series - which I'm guessing very few of you have read, which is unfortunate but what can you do - and the prof was really pushing the idea that there was nothing at all problematic about the two main characters being a girl who was caring and loving and in touch with the environment and motherly and had emotional intelligence, and a boy who was clever and interested in technology and thoughtful and not very caring and had analytical intelligence - because, get this, the two characters were supposed to be an allegory for the Jungian whole. Uh, no, you don't get a pass on sexist stereotypes because you included two of them!

[dorotheia]

I, Robot and his novel, The Positronic Man. (Don't bother reading the earlier novella version of the latter... The movie Bicentennial Man took the idea in a more emotional direction, but I loved it, too. In some ways better.) I've been reading his Foundation series and The Caves of Steel and sequels, but so far they haven't hit so deep. Any suggestions? Did he ever write a novel about the Ugly Little Boy?

Also, anyone on the lookout for a rebuttal against Meyer's sparkly vampires should look at Catherine Jinks's The Reformed Vampire Support Group. It takes the genre to the opposite end of spectrum and back again.

[illiriam]

Yeah, I agree. I was reading shorter books when I was about ten. The babysitter's club books, and Nancy Drew, and even the occasional Shakespeare, not that I understood everything in it. But I read a lot, and even then loved sitting down with a book and finishing it in one sitting.

Also, especially after you take an English class or psychology class or women's lit class, you start seeing the stuff you talked about in class in those stories. Pretty much all fairy tales are ridiculously sexist; lions as an allegory for God. It's almost sad to grow up and see all of your beloved childhood stories stripped down to the messages put in there by the authors.

And I might have to stop by the library and see if they have some of these books you guys have been talking about. I haven't read anything my Terry Pratchett, but I think you guys have me sold on giving one a try.

[Lazy Leopard]

Whereas I feel that in some ways it's better to read epic fantasy when you're younger. The older I get, the more I become aware of the latent sexism, racism, and heteronormativity in epic fantasy

I think I needed to be old enough to be aware of that and yet allow the story to flow in its own universe, even though my own universe doesn't follow the same rules. Sure, there's plenty of fantasy and SF that's so dated I'll never enjoy reading it, but there's more good stuff out there than I'll ever manage to read. While there are books I read in my teens that I'd find utterly unreadable now, LotR isn't one of them. Nor is it one I have a burning desire to re-read.

Also, I have to tell you, when I was 7 (I think that's how old I was the first time I read LOTR; I might have been 8) I had a lot more tolerance for extremely long books, as well as more time to read them in without being distracted by homework/partying/television.

I think you were fairly unusual. At 7 or 8 I was reading short books, or books consisting of a series of short stories, not novels. At 10 I wasn't reading any particularly long novels, and I was hating (and taking all term to read, and still not finishing) the class set books ("Oliver Twist", "A Tale of Two Cities", et al.). The majority of my classmates were much the same, but there were usually two or three kids who'd read more than one book a week. I was 12 before I stared reading and enjoying novels of any length.

[bookgirl]

illiriam: I just started reading the Uglies Series. I'm really enjoying it so far.

[illiriam]

I didn't know that Scott Westerfield had anything new out. I really enjoyed his Uglies series.
And if you liked his new one, and maybe read the Uglies series, you might want to try Skinned by Robin Wasserman. I first tried it because it actually had a review from Westerfield on the cover. There is a sequel too, but I haven't read it yet.
The theme is kind of similar to Westerfield's obvious favorite: taking humanity in a new direction from some sort of scientific invention or discovery. That is what Uglies did, and it sounds like his new one did too.
And I see Tally as a strong heroine, even if she is a bit shallow at first.

Still working on The Fellowship of the Ring. It's been slow going because of a kind of hectic schedule, but I am still enjoying it and am a little more than halfway done. I wish I had read them before, but it may be better that I waited. I may get more actual enjoyment and understanding out of the books than I would have if I had read them when I was younger.

[Birdhead]

I didn't get round to reading LotR until my second year at university. I don't think I'd have got much out of it more than a year or three earlier.

Whereas I feel that in some ways it's better to read epic fantasy when you're younger. The older I get, the more I become aware of the latent sexism, racism, and heteronormativity in epic fantasy (and classic science fiction, but I'm pretty sure I noticed the sexism in golden age SF the first time I read any. It's pretty hard to miss.) When you're younger, it's much more easy to be idealistic about quest-romances (I mean romance in its old-fashioned sense here), which is why a lot of the old romantic novels are children's books - Treasure Island, for example, or King Solomon's Mines if you think that's in that category, or whatever. The older I get, the more I think about how smelly these guys probably are, and how predictable their responses to problems are, and how annoying it would be to be any non-Eowyn female Rohirrim.

Also, I have to tell you, when I was 7 (I think that's how old I was the first time I read LOTR; I might have been 8) I had a lot more tolerance for extremely long books, as well as more time to read them in without being distracted by homework/partying/television.

Don't get me wrong, I still spend a lot of time reading epic fantasy. But I tend to do it now in spite of some of the conceits, rather because of them, and if I had read LOTR as an adult, I would have really hated it.

[Lazy Leopard]

I didn't get round to reading LotR until my second year at university. I don't think I'd have got much out of it more than a year or three earlier.

I started reading Pratchett when Mort came out, so I read the Discworld books in order (on PeterM's reccommendation). There were only four, after all. The I read Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun. Then I waited for the next one. Mostly, I've read them in published order. For younger readers there are the Nomes (Truckers, Diggers, Wings) and the Johnny Maxwell books (Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead, and Johnny and the Bomb).

[EricG1793]

Oh, by the way, what's your sig from?

Taran is a member here... I don't think they come around much anymore.

My dad and I read LotR several years ago. I was barely unable to understand it and Tolkien's long descriptions bored the heck out of me. I guess I should put that series on my list of things to reread.

Did I ever mention The Last Apprentice series, by Joseph Delaney? That's one of my favorite series. I think other YW fans would enjoy it because, like the YW series, it deals with good vs. evil in a form of earthbound beings, rather than higher levels such as the Lone Power. Also, rather than using wizardry to battle the evilness, they use more physical, hands-on methods.

[meteorite]

Another one I recently enjoyed was Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld. It's kind of a steampunk-y alternate history of the events that began WWI. The world is developing two alternate, competing technologies: most of mainland Europe has gone machine, with huge, steam-driven clanks for battle wagons. Britain, OTOH, has gone biological; Darwin cracked the genetic code in addition to formulating evolutionary theory, and his proponents bioengineer huge beasties to wage war. It's part 1 of what I hope to be an ongoing series. I inflicted it on my father-in-law, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.