Category: Reviewing

Best Novel Hugo Nominees: Two Down, Two To Go

This week, I finished two (2) of the five (5) nominees for this year’s Best Novel Hugo Award.  I started a third one immediately, which leaves me just one left after that.

I enjoyed reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik until I surpassed the halfway point.  From then on, it became a chore and a struggle to continue listening to what seemed like the never-ending tale of corruption in the forest and the protagonist’s slow discovery of her power and identity.

Only a couple of the characters appealed to me and most of them just frustrated me with their actions.  This can probably be attributed to its intended audience (young adult).

If it had not been nominated, I might have just given up shortly after reaching the point in the story where the focus moves from the hinterlands to the capital, and all the political intrigue that comes with that relocation.

I would give this book 3 or 3.5 stars and it will land in the middle or lower standings in my voting for Best Novel.

On the other hand, I couldn’t put down The Fifth Season by N.K. Jimisin.  Well written, some of it using second person point-of-view.  Compelling characters and a plot that moves fast on multiple timelines and fronts.  Interesting new magic (or science, not sure which yet) and a lot of social commentary (but that’s to be expected from this author).

As an author, I’m very impressed with how Jemisin has honed her craft since I first read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  In fact, I’m probably going to read her duology as soon as I finish reading the other Best Novel Hugo award nominees.

I gave The Fifth Season 4 to 4.5 stars and it may get top honors when I make my final vote for Best Novel later this month.

As soon as I finished Fifth Season, I started listening to The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher.  That audiobook is close to 24 hours long and I’ve managed to squeeze in over three hours of reading in the last couple of days.  If the heat wave breaks soon, I’ll be able to get a few more hours of listening in when I go back to walking the dogs.

I’m not going to start reading Seveneves yet.  I’m going to give myself a break and work through some of the short fiction selections in the other categories.  Some of those stories can be finished over a lunch hour.

Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Elva (4 stars)

Excellent book review posted on my uncle’s blog:

Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Marta Elva Four Stars “Tragedy of condemning children to the consequences of their parents’ deeds.” Compelling and heart breaking. An already-fragile family rips apart in the border-straddling communities of El Paso and Cuidad Juarez, isolating its youngest member at a vulnerable time of her life. Inez’s sad tale of paradise […]

via Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Marta Elva (Four Stars) — As a Matter of Fancy

Abstract Art Juxtaposed With Muralist Book Discussion

Tour for FYI Book Group Saturday 3/19/2016
FYI book group given tour of relevant art by Nelson-Atkins Curator of Modern Art, Jan Schall, Ph.D.

I received an invitation from Kaite Stover, Director of Reader Services for the Kansas City Public Library, a few weeks ago, asking me if I would like to read The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro (also author of The Art Forger) and attend the discussion to be held at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Saturday, March 19th.  I readily agreed because the book sounded interesting and there was the added bonus of a special tour of the Contemporary Art gallery conducted by the curator, Jan Schall, Ph.D. Continue reading “Abstract Art Juxtaposed With Muralist Book Discussion”

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

GoodReads did something interesting today that I’m going to share here.  They created a nifty page that summarizes my ‘year in books’ for 2015.  Here’s the link to what they came up with:

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

But since I stop actually rating books on GoodReads a couple of years ago, the results of somewhat skewed.

To see what I loved in 2015, try this link:

Books I Loved Reading in 2015

To see the books I liked, follow this link:

Books I Liked Reading in 2015

To see the meh and other underwhelming reads, follow these links:

Meh

Disliked or Abandoned

I had to halve my Reading Challenge this year.  Normally I read close to or over one hundred books in a year.  Due to work pressures and family health issues, I had to severely curtail my reading time.  And, these days, I hardly actually read a print edition or even an ebook.  The only time I have to ‘read’ is while commuting (about 90 minutes per weekday) so most of my reading has been audiobooks.  Consequently, I also have not written many book reviews this year.  I just never seem to find the time.  I may write up some mini-reviews, especially on those fiction titles that were released this year and are still making the rounds.

I may finish one or two more books yet before 2015 ends.  I do not plan to change drastically my reading habits for 2016.  Work projects should ease up by February so I may actually get more reading done.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and hope your stockings are stuffed with books.

 

Lansing Community Library Snack & Chat Tonight

http://www.lansing.ks.us/CivicAlerts/#1331_SingleEntryView

The Lansing Community Library is hosting its first “Snack and Chat” on Tues., Nov.3 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Library, 730 1st Terr. This new quarterly event gives community members an opportunity to meet with the Library Board and Director. Patrons can share thoughts, suggestions and ideas.

For more information, contact Lansing Community Library Director Terri Wojtalewicz at 913-727-2929 or by email at twojo@lansing.ks.us.

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I made chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread.

Hope to see you there.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Local Book Club Begins With Banned Book

Last month, my local library, the Lansing Community Library, sponsored a new adult book club.  About half a dozen people met initially to get to know each other, make book recommendations, decide on when to meet and what book to read first.  Since “Banned Book Week” occurs annually at the end of September, at our request, Director, Teri Wojtalewicz, recited a list published by the ALA of the top 100 banned books.  We determined that Sophie’s Choice by William Styron was a book that most of us had not read yet and thus became our first “Book of the Month” read.

On the second Thursday of October, we met again and gathered in a few new readers.  We had a lively discussion, as can be expected from a book that is challenged frequently for some of its content.  Those who had read it in their 20s and re-read it for the group felt like they were reading a different book from what they remembered.  I’ve had that same experience many times when returning to books I read from much earlier in my life.

Other readers mentioned and appreciated the use of music for the emotional apexes and nadirs Sophie experienced.  Another recurring comment involved the writing style of the author (or Stingo, whose life seemed to somewhat mirror the author’s protagonist), which involved the use of large unfamiliar words and incredibly long sentences.  Since I was/am reading the ebook edition, I took occasional advantage of the built-in dictionary available at the touch of a finger.

Continue reading “Local Book Club Begins With Banned Book”

C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937

A world for children: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: or There and Back Again (London: Allen and Unwin, 1937) The publishers claim that The Hobbit, though very unlike Alice, resembles it in being the work of a professor at play. A more important truth is that both belong to a very small class of… Read More »

Source: C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937

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A small early birthday gift to myself on the 78th anniversary of this review, originally published in the Times Literary Supplement (2 October 1937), 714.

An Attempt to Unconfuse This Year’s Hugo Award Debacle

I’m not nearly as excited about voting in the Hugos this year as I was last year.  I’ll get much more excited next year when World Con actually comes to my home town (or close to it) in Kansas City.

Meanwhile, if you need some help decoding what all the hullabaloo is about the Hugo Awards circa 2015, peruse IO9’s excellent article here.

Book Review: Clash of Eagles by Smale (3.5 stars)

Clash of Eagles

by Alan Smale

3.5 to 4 stars

Good but not great.

As other reviewer(s) have noted, this ends up being a one-man show almost exclusively – Marcellinus, the Praetor of the XXXIII Legion, marching west across the Appallacians towards the mighty Mississippi years before Horace Greeley penned the phrase “Go West, young man.”  The Romans, and their Norse scouts, encounter various Native Americans with startlingly advanced technology for a stone-age culture lacking even the wheel*.

Marcellinus is the only truly fleshed out character.  All others – Romans, Norsemen, Native Americans – are barely cardboard cutouts in comparison.  Some of the Cahokians, in the latter half of the book, get more interesting, but not by much.

Continue reading “Book Review: Clash of Eagles by Smale (3.5 stars)”

Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)

Testament of Youth

by Vera Brittain

4 out of 5 stars

Read in January/February 2015

Synopsis (via GoodReads):

In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life—and that of her whole generation—had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era. Testament of Youth is Brittain’s account of how she lost the man she loved, nursed the wounded, survived those agonizing years, and emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time. It still retains the power to shock, move, and enthrall readers today.

My Thoughts:

I heard about this book during the inaugural discussion of The Things They Carried by O’Brien last fall.  The professor leading the discussion listed it as one of the better memoirs written post-conflict (didn’t matter what conflict).  Continue reading “Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)”