The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff

I think I promised I was done with polygamy books, but – it was a lie. I couldn’t resist picking this one up at the library. The premise is that it’s an intertwined story of the real life Ann Eliza – divorced wife of Brigham Young that caused quite a stir and may have contributed to the outlawing of polygamy and the fictional story of a “lost boy” of the Firsts (polygamist sect still living in Utah) and the story of his own mom who is suspected of killing her husband (of course, in a plural marriage).

I normally don’t love books with intertwined stories, but the twist of this book was that in addition to the two stories, there were (mainly fictional) articles from crusaders against polygamy and newspaper articles, etc.  It also used letters from Ann Eliza’s son, her father and the Master’s thesis from a modern BYU student. And that’s what I think I really enjoyed about the book – it gave more than just the point of view of the plural wife – but that of a husband, and of displaced boys.

I don’t think I am done with this subject yet. I still have to read “Under the Banner of Heaven”, but I would like to find some books about polygamy as told by men thrown out of the sect and of polygamous men. Anyone know of any? Fiction or non-fiction?

American Gods – Neil Gaiman

The entire time I was reading this book, I was thinking about what an awesome blog entry this was going to be. I was thinking that, because I was enjoying the book so much. Then I finished, and it came time to blog – and I am at a loss for something really interesting to say.

People have been bugging me to read Gaiman for awhile now, and I am not a big sci-fi/fantasy fan. I read “Good Omens” and wasn’t blown away, but this finally crept up to the top of the list. I am really glad I did.

The basic premise of the book is that the gods exist, and when people move, they take their gods with them. So, incarnations of gods and all other manner of mythological  being follow people to the countries they move. And apparently, America isn’t too hospitable to the deities of the Old Country – no matter what the old country is. And now the gods of myth and legend are dying, and being usurped by American gods of technology and media, etc. They get this guy Shadow wrapped into their drama. There is of  course more to it, but I barely have the space or energy.

The characters of legend appear from all sorts of countries and pantheons, with a specific focus on the old Norse. Which, while I am not super familiar with – I really love. The whole Viking archaeology thing and all. I also got to learn a little bit about the mythical folks from other traditions. Never even heard of some of them!

As a kid, I loved the Greek myths – I knew them all by heart. And now, I love how they all help me finish a crossword puzzle. I really wish I read this book when I was a teen and in my pagan phase. I loved it now,  but I would have gone over the moon, then. Looking forward to reading a little more Gaiman.

Song of the Sparrow – Lisa Ann Sandell

What a pleasant surprise! I had this book on my “to read” list for awhile, and I don’t remember where I heard about it. All I knew was that it was YA historical fiction, and that the cover art was very pretty (I am a sucker for girls with flowing locks and flowers in their hair).

So, when the library told me it was in, I picked it up and shoved it in my bag for the subway ride. After a very, VERY long day at work, I settled in and cracked open the book. The prologue is a poem. I generally skip poems. First page  – another poem.

Oh no.

It’s a book written entirely in free verse poetry.

Don’t get me wrong – I like poetry. In moderation. A whole book? In a book that was meant to be some YA frivolity? Free verse? But, it’s late – I am too keyed up to sleep on the train and I decide to give it a few pages.

So, here’s my thing with poetry – I don’t understand it (expect a blog post on YouShouldOnlyKnow about this soon!). I can read it, and I can comprehend it, but I am not entirely sure what made this poetry other than seemingly randomly placed line breaks. So, I lucked out, and just read it as I would any other novel.

It’s the story of Elaine of Ascolat from the Arthurian legends. Awesome! I love alternative re-tellings of classic stories, and by coincidence, the only stories I know from the Arthurian traditions are these alternative ones. It was very pretty, and told of the unrequited love of Lancelot, the complicated emotions of Guinevere and some cool Pictish battles. I heart the Picts.

Some other stuff I liked? It brought in Tristan, of “Tristan and Isolde” fame. Double alternative re-tellings. Score! Stuff I wasn’t so fond of? This story had a happy ending. The “real” story has a rather tragic one. I wouldn’t mind them doing some sort of twist, that would explain this happy ending, but acknowledging the more traditional one, but this was kind of a re-write of fake history. Kind of a cop-out for my tastes.

I did a little reading about the author, and apparently she was inspired by a painting of Elaine (The Lady of Shalott) by John William Waterhouse. I wonder how the aforementioned cover art was chosen.

The Seduction of the Crimson Rose – Lauren Willig

Okay. I am now caught up on my flowery spies.

Carolann was right – I would have been totally lost reading this one, if I hadn’t read the others. And I liked it! It wasn’t my favorite, and it surprised me by not having a deflowering scene. But of course, there was an improbale love match, and ends in marriage – virtue intact. A lot of storylines appear to have gotten wrapped up, so now I am genuinely curious to see where it will go in the next one, but I am taking a break from Ms. Willig.

The Deception of the Emerald Ring – Lauren Willig

My apologies. I started this series and read two books and forgot to write about them. I liked the first in the series, so it explains why I also enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd – because it is almost exactly the same story as the first, and the two of them are almost identical to one another. It’s one of those dual-dealies. There is a modern love story thats going in random chapters, along with the love story of the flowery spies.  Essentially – girl doesn’t quite fit into the high society norm. An unlikely man comes along, despite their best intentions they fall in love. There is an elaborate deflowering scene (hehehe) and they live happily ever after. Story then picks up with a character mentioned in the previous book.

The modern day love story lost some steam though. Carolann assures me that while the first book was good, the fourth was really, really good, but I have to read the 2nd and 3rd in order to understand. So, I am ready! Bring on the Seduction of the Crimson Rose.

The Masque of the Black Tulip – Lauren Willig

Doesn’t say much about this book that I forgot to blog about it. Not that I didn’t like it – it was just very, very familiar. So familiar in fact, that I can give the review in my next post.

The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb

I picked this book for new office Book Club (and at about 800 pages, no one will ever let me pick again!) so I can’t really blog about it yet, because some of my loyal readers are members of same book club. By loyal readers, I mean Carolann.

So, this is kind of a placeholder until after February 12th, but you know me. If I don’t write something down about this, I will forget.

This book is intense. It’s loopy, winding and vivid. I was in either Junior High School or High School when the shootings at Columbine happened, and this made it feel personal in a way that it didn’t when I remember it happening. It really made me think about what ties we choose to keep, the families we are given and the families we choose, and the fragility of the mental condition.  Apparently, he probably wanted me to think about faith and higher powers and all of that – but that never really works for me.

I really like Wally Lamb. For my high school honor’s paper I did a comparison of his two previous books and had some sort of thesis about how mental illness affects more than the afflicted.  I know, groundbreaking stuff. *snort*

A few things I like about the book/Lamb – the “callbacks” to the Birdseys and Dr. Patel from “I Know This Much is True.” I really love when authors create these fictional mini-universes inside reality. I also love that he gives epilogues and tells us where the characters ended up. After 800 pages, I want answers,  damnit! He delivers. I also love the name Caelum, but hate the name Velvet.

The other thing that drives me nuts? Stories within stories. Like, manuscripts people are writing that I have to read in the story. Or histories I am almost sure won’t have any bearing on the story as a whole. Luckily, I didn’t gloss over this too much because it eventually became pretty important and it really was interesting. I just think the editor could have reigned him in a bit more.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay

This is the novel that the Showtime TV show “Dexter” is based on. I always love when I get to read both the book and see the movie/TV show because when done well, both mediums are pretty awesome. With a movie, I can see someone else’s vision of what something should or could look like. Sometimes it’s a disappointment, and sometimes it’s more awesome than my imagination could comprehend (LoTR). I really liked watching the whole TV series (so far) and then reading the book, because the TV show is awesome, but with the book, I can get some of the prose and inner dialogue that would make a TV show dull.

What’s so cool about this book? Almost  until the very last chapter, the book is a true-to-the-show mirror. And the writing is gorgeous. It’s very difficult (I imagine) to write about the mentally ill. I have read a lot of books about serial killers (gothy teen, remember?) and it either comes across as super technical or woo-woo-stream of consciousness stuff. Lindsay does a great job with these appropriately placed, euphonic, alliterative phrases along with decent dialogue and great direction.

So, I loved it because I could replay the TV scenes in my head, and overlay it with what I was reading (does that even make sense?) but I also loved it because the last chapter or so is such a drastic departure from the show that I am looking forward to read his next book (I think there are 2 or 3) to see where this “alternative, though original” storyline will go. I want to puzzle out why the TV folks went in a direction. It’s kind of like really well written fan fic.

The Schwa was Here – Neal Shusterman

Okay, okay – enough Shusterman, I get it. I really liked his other books, so I picked up this one.

From School Library Journal
Eighth-grader “Antsy” Bonano recounts how his accidental relationship with three quirky characters winds up being mutually beneficial. The catalyst in this social collision is Calvin Schwa, a classmate who has an almost supernatural knack for going completely unnoticed. When Antsy decides to become an “agent” for the “nearly invisible” Schwa by entertaining wagers on what he can get away with by being able to fly almost entirely beneath the social radar, the boys enjoy temporary success until they accept a dare requiring “The Schwa” to enter the home of a legendary local eccentric and retrieve a dog bowl belonging to any one of his 14 Afghans. Crawley, a powerful restaurateur who also happens to be severely agoraphobic, nabs the unlikely young intruders, and the crusty shut-in orders them to return daily to walk his dogs in exchange for their impunity. Once Antsy has gained Crawley’s trust, he is asked to perform another task: to act as a companion for the man’s blind granddaughter, Lexie. Antsy is then flanked by two peers–one who cannot see and one who cannot be seen–and, together, they overcome their collective liabilities through friendship, improving their own lives and the lives of those around them. Antsy tells his story in a bubbly Beastie Boys-meet-Bugs Bunny Brooklynese that keeps the pages flipping, and Shusterman’s characters–reminiscent of those crafted by E. L. Konigsburg and Jerry Spinelli–are infused with the kind of controlled, precocious improbability that magically vivifies the finest children’s classics.

While this was a cute book, it had none of that thought-provoking content that made me really enjoy Shusterman’s other books.  The main theme was all “if no one remembers you, is it worth existing?” which would be really awesome if I was an actual Young Adult, but didn’t hold my interest as an older Young Adult. In short, I liked it – it was cute, but not for the same reason I liked his other books.

Downsiders – Neal Shusterman

A long, long time ago, when I was a mere undergrad – I read a book about “The Mole People” – an anthropologist’s account of a group of people who have chosen to make a life under NYC, in the subway tunnels, etc. I becamse enamored with the concept – people leaving the “rat race” and setting up their own functioning culture and economy, just under the busy streets. What was justice like? Medicine? Who did which jobs? How were children raised? Unfortunately, it was bullshit, and the author widely discredited. But – I still loved the idea.

I have been reading a bunch of Neal Shusterman lately and was looking for more and I came across the Downsiders novel. Awesome! It’s the mole people! Fictional mole people. Like, the original mole people, without all that pretense of reality.

Review From School Library Journal (Note: Some spoilers here)

The Downsiders live in a subterranean world far beneath New York City. Taboos forbid them from going Topside, but the two worlds collide when Talon, a Downside teen, ventures up looking for medicine for his critically ill sister. There, he meets Lindsay, a Topside girl who intrigues him so much that he breaks a cardinal rule and takes her into the tunnels, showing her an amazing place filled with cast-off items-dryer lint, subway tokens, soda-can tabs-that have become useful, even beautiful. Her visit sets in motion a dangerous chain of events. Talon’s friend betrays him to the authorities and Talon is sentenced to death (by being flushed through a sewer pipe). The story takes a fascinating twist when Lindsay discovers that Downside was founded about 100 years ago by Alfred Ely Beach, a 19th-century inventor and scientist. Facts about this historical figure and about the old New York subway system are blended with the fantasy until it is difficult to tell where truth stops and fiction begins. Unfortunately, there is no afterword to explain the connections and readers might miss the fun. There is also a good deal of sophisticated social satire, as Topside is seen through naive underworld eyes. Sometimes the plot lapses too far into the absurd and there are a few weak spots. The often mock-serious tone of the narrative may be lost on some readers. Overall, though, this is an exciting and entertaining story that will please fans of adventure, science fiction, and fantasy.

And now, my favorite review form – the list of thoughts!

• I really liked the inclusion of Alfred Ely Beach. I love when some actual history and bits of real information fall into novels. It was part of what made Shusterman’s Everlost really great, and the Beach stuff really appealed to my love of Forgotten NY.
• I think its probably a spoiler – but I really love how the world was created. It just conjures images of explorers in the jungle being annointed kings, or something like that. Very Gary Larson.
• I think I am growing up. Or at least cynical. I could really care less about whatever love triangle was happening with these characters.
• The “biting commentary” on modern life is probably awesome for a teenager, but I already had my days of fighting “the man” and scoffing at sheep. Now I work in marketing.  Directed at teens.  My inner angsty teen gives my oh-so-mature adult self icy glares all day long.
• My “Post 9/11 Fiction Trend Theory” (remember that one?) is pretty much dead, but there is a scene in an airplane while landing at LaGuardia that references mid-air collisions. I thought I had another entry for my files, but then got chills when I realized it was written in 2001. I don’t know why that freaks me out (crashes and terrorism DID exist prior to 2001), but it did.
• I loved the goofy things about the book, that “explained” some of our regular every day mysteries. For example, “downsiders” pay for the things they borrow with single socks left in dryers. Well – it was funny the first time the author mentioned it. Then it became a little too self-aware.