I picked up two books from the library the other day, one is The Child Thief by BROM, the other is The Fallen Blade (the first in a trilogy, just published this year) by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. So far, I've finished Child Thief and I'm about halfway through Blade. Not sure if I'm going to finish it, though. More about that later.
Child Thief is a modern interpretation of Peter Pan that I actually quite enjoyed. It incorporates not only the various legends of Peter Pan, but also old mythologies of the horned god, the tree of life, and Avalon. Fairly well written, but there's a couple points I'd like to discuss if anyone else reads this.
Blade is actually similar in style (I thought), at least as far as the characters go. Can we talk about morally ambiguous? It's a political novel (as in: everyone is trying to further themselves and manipulate everyone else in order to be the ruler) set in 1400's Venice.
Rant time!
BUT, I'm a little bit distressed at the use of three of the (currently) most common mythical creatures in each of the books. Child Thief as the zombies- they don't call them that, but let's think here: slow, shambling walk, living long after they should be dead, generally not terribly smart... Yup, sounds like zombies to me! Blade has werewolves and a vampire. Nothing against wolves and vamps. I just wish that the pretty boy w/ weird powers could be something else for a change. A demon maybe?
meh. anyhoo, sorry if is sounds weird. I wrote between playing a game...
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Sound and the Fury
I just closed this one. Dear Faulkner with his many voices. I'll have more thoughts and questions later, but right now I'm noticing that he chose to tell the fourth and final segment of this novel not in various first person voices, like the first three segments, but in the third person attached to Dilsey. We don't ever enter her mind--she's a mute observer. For those of you who eventually read this...what do you make of that?
Also read: Marilynne Robinson's Home and the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Also read: Marilynne Robinson's Home and the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Oh, the joy of re-reading
I only enjoy re-reading very few books. Such as Wuthering Heights, my current bedside book. If you haven't read it, it's a must. The first several chapters are extremely difficult to get through, but once you make it, it's awesome.
In other news, I've finished The Lion Witch and Wardrobe. I feel like it would be way more entertaining if I was a kid.
I need to bookmark this page so that I keep checking it!
-Kaitlin
In other news, I've finished The Lion Witch and Wardrobe. I feel like it would be way more entertaining if I was a kid.
I need to bookmark this page so that I keep checking it!
-Kaitlin
Saturday, June 4, 2011
FAIL
Yeah, so I haven't touched my reading list at all...
I have The Sound and the Fury, but I'm pretty sure that's overdue... Also got Brandon Sanderson's new book. I still don't know if I'm really happy about his decision to try writing an "epic" series-you know, like Robert Jordan, et al. I liked his stand alone novels and the trilogy. Nice and short. Oh well. It was at the library, so I'm going to try it. I guess.
For my Japan trip, I down loaded a large portion of Amazon's free books to my kindle. I only finished one of them on the trip. I forget what it was called, but it was a collection of myths that was really quite good (as in, surprisingly good). It wasn't the simple children version of the myths and the translations were really good. Sometimes it was hard to remember that they weren't originally written in English.
Trying to reread LotR. So far, I've got through the Hobbit and to Weathertop. Rereading The Hobbit, I realized how undeveloped it was, in relation to everything else Tolkien wrote. Still good, but I really saw the children's book quality of it and noticed every time it didn't quite jive with LotR or the Silmarillion.
Speaking of rereads, yesterday I read through two teen romance books I gave to my sister awhile ago. Victoria and the Rogue, by Meg Cabot and 30 Guys in 30 Days, by Micol Ostow. The first was a typical historical novel: Victoria was raised by her uncles in India, comes to England to get married, is very independent and likes to help/interfere with the business of others. She meets an infuriating man, but comes to the realization that she loves him. meh. why can't she just be independent on her own? 30 Guys in 30 Days features a girl who begins college after breaking up w/ her HS boyfriend of 4 yrs, b/c a 4 hr distance between them equals a 'long distance' relationship. In order to learn how to talk w/ guys again, she decides to force herself to interact w/ at least on guy each day for 30 days. She was rather mature in her drinking and sexual habits for a freshmen, if you ask me. Somehow, the barkeepers will serve alcohol to anyone who asks? Also, she just became single! I can understand wanting to better your communication skills w/ the opposite sex, but why don't you just take a time-out for awhile? Rejoice in only answering to yourself! Suffice to say, I'm not sure why I gave my sister these books in the first place.
Also, found a new online comic (although it's not a comic, like funny. It's really a korean manga. But for simplicity's sake, we'll call it a comic). It's called Noblesse. You can check it out here in English:
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/noblesse/
Or the original here:
http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=25455
Basic plot: Some random guy stands looking down over the city. He disguises himself as a student and soon finds himself enrolled in a local HS. We soon find that he is a vampire who has been asleep for the past 800+ years. While he learns how to fit into the modern world, various things happen to him, which lead him to return to the home of the vampires, where he is currently in the middle of a hostile takeover (it's not finished yet). Has all the aspects of a good manga: humor, plot, advanced science/enhanced humans, nonhuman beings (vamps and wolves), good looking men... highly recommended.
Tried to post a pic, but can't figure out how. Any pointers?
I'm going to have to post more online comics in the future.
Well, that certainly got long enough. Signing off for now!
-Heather
I have The Sound and the Fury, but I'm pretty sure that's overdue... Also got Brandon Sanderson's new book. I still don't know if I'm really happy about his decision to try writing an "epic" series-you know, like Robert Jordan, et al. I liked his stand alone novels and the trilogy. Nice and short. Oh well. It was at the library, so I'm going to try it. I guess.
For my Japan trip, I down loaded a large portion of Amazon's free books to my kindle. I only finished one of them on the trip. I forget what it was called, but it was a collection of myths that was really quite good (as in, surprisingly good). It wasn't the simple children version of the myths and the translations were really good. Sometimes it was hard to remember that they weren't originally written in English.
Trying to reread LotR. So far, I've got through the Hobbit and to Weathertop. Rereading The Hobbit, I realized how undeveloped it was, in relation to everything else Tolkien wrote. Still good, but I really saw the children's book quality of it and noticed every time it didn't quite jive with LotR or the Silmarillion.
Speaking of rereads, yesterday I read through two teen romance books I gave to my sister awhile ago. Victoria and the Rogue, by Meg Cabot and 30 Guys in 30 Days, by Micol Ostow. The first was a typical historical novel: Victoria was raised by her uncles in India, comes to England to get married, is very independent and likes to help/interfere with the business of others. She meets an infuriating man, but comes to the realization that she loves him. meh. why can't she just be independent on her own? 30 Guys in 30 Days features a girl who begins college after breaking up w/ her HS boyfriend of 4 yrs, b/c a 4 hr distance between them equals a 'long distance' relationship. In order to learn how to talk w/ guys again, she decides to force herself to interact w/ at least on guy each day for 30 days. She was rather mature in her drinking and sexual habits for a freshmen, if you ask me. Somehow, the barkeepers will serve alcohol to anyone who asks? Also, she just became single! I can understand wanting to better your communication skills w/ the opposite sex, but why don't you just take a time-out for awhile? Rejoice in only answering to yourself! Suffice to say, I'm not sure why I gave my sister these books in the first place.
Also, found a new online comic (although it's not a comic, like funny. It's really a korean manga. But for simplicity's sake, we'll call it a comic). It's called Noblesse. You can check it out here in English:
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/noblesse/
Or the original here:
http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=25455
Basic plot: Some random guy stands looking down over the city. He disguises himself as a student and soon finds himself enrolled in a local HS. We soon find that he is a vampire who has been asleep for the past 800+ years. While he learns how to fit into the modern world, various things happen to him, which lead him to return to the home of the vampires, where he is currently in the middle of a hostile takeover (it's not finished yet). Has all the aspects of a good manga: humor, plot, advanced science/enhanced humans, nonhuman beings (vamps and wolves), good looking men... highly recommended.
Tried to post a pic, but can't figure out how. Any pointers?
I'm going to have to post more online comics in the future.
Well, that certainly got long enough. Signing off for now!
-Heather
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