Mark of the Mage (3)

Mark of the Mage, by R.K. Ryals

And now for something a bit lighter. The news is depressing enough, I've decided to run away to fantasy land where people may be burned at the stake for being mages BUT on the plus side, it's a work of fiction and I don't need to write a letter about how this is obviously not ok.

First, I want to thank my friend who recommended this book to me, and I want to apologize for not loving it as much as you did. I have a hard time taking it seriously after reading three books in a row about racial/social justice - it's not this book's fault, it's mine.

In the year of the Dragon, a kingdom will be divided. Twins will be born to the sovereign. These male heirs will be greedy. They will seek power. They will war amongst themselves, and their kingdom will be split in two. 

Mark of the Mage is about Drastona, a 16-year-old girl living in Medeisia. In Medeisia, King Raemon has outlawed mages, and they are being systematically rounded up and burned alive at the stake. Mages are born, not made, and midwives have been trained to feel their power at birth and turn them in.

Drastona (Stone for short) is the daughter of the Medeisian Ambassador to Sadeemia, Garod, and wants nothing more than to study to become a scribe. But when King Raemon outlaws scribes and her father is called to King Raemon's court, her life is thrown into chaos. When her maid is burned at the stake for being a mage, Stone is marked as a scribe, and begins to find her own mage's powers as well. Stone is marked once but twice cursed and becomes part of a group of Rebels, meets dragons, and trains to be part of the resistance.

This is the kind of book I like to read in one sitting on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But I didn't finish it in one day so it took me three weeks to finish it because I have a hard time focusing on dragons who can take human form when the actual news is as terrible as it is. Again, that's more of a personal problem. I needed a nice sunny summer day to read this, not ground zero of the resistance. And it is still a little too close to home. In Medeisia, mages and scribes are branded, hence "mark of the mage," which seemed a little ridiculous. But here in the real world we've seen people branded (Nazi's made Jew's wear stars, and eventually tattooed ID numbers on their arms), and America's banning Muslims fleeing terror, or working for the country, from enterering or re-entering the country. So maybe my problem isn't that Mark of the Mage is too fluffly or far-fetched, but that it's too close to home without giving me steps to fight back. In books, evil is fought with swords and magic. I don't have swords or magic, only pens and the internet, but I want to be part of the Resistance too.

Fairest (4) Marissa Meyer

This is the fourth published book in the Lunar Chronicles series. The Lunar Chronicles is a delightful Sci Fi/Fantasy series taking beloved fairy tale characters and making them more badass. Cinder, the first book, is Cinderella-esque (ball and all!) but Cinder is a cyborg. I can't explain this series without making it sound ridiculous but I swear everyone I've talked into reading it has loved it. It's for the Once Upon a Time crowd more than the Game of Thrones crowd, it's lighter than Hunger Games and definitely leans on the prince/princess love stories. 

Fairest is the prequel to the existing series, where we see the origin story of the series' spooky villain Queen Levana. Winter, the fourth book in the actual series was supposed to be published in January, and instead we got Fairest. The book that nobody wanted. It's like the forth book of Game of Thrones* when we have to constantly listen to Cercei, and I almost quit the series. And I love this series. It's my new Harry Potter. Well, no, it isn't. But I need something to look forward to in my life, and Winds of Winter isn't going to be published ever.** 

Except it isn't actually. It's so dark and creepy and I couldn't put it down and begged my friend to read it so I could talk to her because I needed to talk about it with somebody. I think I gained a lot of respect for Marissa Meyer. I was worried she was more of a Stephanie Meyer and would name characters Renessme or some crap, but no! She can write a villain's story and you can understand her, and empathize with her, and still think she's scary and awful and hope Cinder and the rest of the original characters can defeat her. But maybe not too mercilessly because now you can see how damaged she is.  

Now I want to go back and re-read the series, but I can't quite bring myself to since I still need to finish The Bone Clocks (Day 77 and counting...). BUT GUESS WHAT?! As of this post, I have caught up! With this post. Which is adorable to look at. Oh, precious, you're 13 books behind? That's cute. Since I posted that I read 20 more books. TWENTY. And that's not even counting the daily doses of children's picture books I read. So what will I finish first? 20 blog posts or The Bone Clocks? Stay tuned...

PS Winter will be out in November and Facebook is already showing me adds for it. Facebook knows me too well. 

*Yes, it's called A Song of Ice and Fire but everyone knows it as Game of Thrones and I try not to sound as pretentious as I actually am. 
** Maybe 2017? GRRM stopped writing the show so he could work on it but I don't trust him. 

American Gods (5), Neil Gaiman

Shadow is days away from being released from prison. Days away from seeing his beloved wife Laura when he gets the phone call. His wife has died in a car crash with is best friend at the wheel. But time ticks on and Shadow is still released from prison, but where to go? What’s the point anymore? Enter Mr. Wednesday, who hires Shadow to do…odd jobs. Like, really odd jobs.

(Spoiler alert?) Mr. Wednesday is old. Like, centuries old. Like, used to be a god worshipped by thousands. When settlers came to America, they brought their gods with them. Now, these abandoned gods are left to live as best they can, hunted by the new gods.

This book was crazy. I don’t even feel like I can rate it because I feel like if I give it less than a five it means I didn’t “get it” the way everyone else did. It was also super weird to read after The Ocean at the End of the Lane which feels so innocent and simple by comparison. American Gods is dense and awesome. If you’re ready to hibernate for the winter with a giant, creepy book, this one’s for you.

Fun fact, Neil Gaiman was on NPR's Ask Me Another last week. It was hilarious and reminded me about how adorable his British accent is. I wish he read all of the audiobooks I listen to. He also mentioned that, when people ask him what American Gods is about, he replies, "oh, it's a big book," because he doesn't really know how to explain it. Which makes me feel a lot better. 

This is a super belated post, this is the book I read before The Bloodletter's Daughter, I'm trying to play catch up! 

Previous Reads 

Eleanor & Park

The Bloodletter's Daughter

Outlander

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (3)

First things first, sorry for the radio silence! I did a show in August. It was awesome, thank you for asking. Then two days after it closed I started grad school. And did some staged readings. And started directing a children's show. I've been mostly "reading" via audiobooks as I fall asleep, so I haven't been paying as much attention as previously. 

Second, this post needs a giant, flashing SPOILER ALERT sign at the top. 
You have been warned. 
I get into spoilers pretty quick, and while I may not tell you what characters live and die I spoil some pretty big moments. 

I gave it a 3/5. Three stars means I liked it. I wasn't bored but it didn't change my life. I will probably some day read the next one maybe. Time will tell.

Outlander is the story of Claire Randall, a former combat nurse recently reunited with her husband after the conclusion of World War II. While on their reunion-second-honeymoon in Scotland, Claire wanders off and falls through a mystical stone and ends up in Scotland, 1743. Stuff happens, she tries to get back to her own time but kind of falls in love with this other dude. 

Claire and Jamie from the show.

I say "kind of" because they get married so that the Scottish don't have to turn Claire over to the villain because plot. And then she starts to admit to liking him. But mostly she likes her real-time husband. And eventually she's just really in love with her Scottish Highlander husband, James "Jamie" Fraser. 

I was actually way more into the plot than the love story. I really, really like Claire. Claire is super interesting and fierce. Jamie really likes her, which is cool I guess but I found the not-love story part more interesting than their love story quite frequently. Which is saying something, because I love a good love story.

There are also some things I found problematic about the book. 
1. That time Jamie beats Claire for not doing what he says. 
"But Jana, that's how the world worked back then!"
Nope. Don't care. Nope.
"It made them closer as a couple."
Definitely nope.
"He kinda sorta apologized when he found out Claire was from the future."
Nope.
"Later there was a character who beat his child ALL THE TIME FOR NO REASON, and he was a bad guy...so it's not like Gabaldon is saying it's ok to beat people..."
...unless they really deserve it. NOPE. 

2. The only gay character, Jonathan Randall, is a horrendous villain. (This part gets REALLY spoiler-y so please stop reading now if you don't like knowing really climatic scenes)
Am I being super liberal here or is that weird? WHY is there this super big plot scene where Jamie literally sacrifices his body to Randall to save Claire's life? 
I feel all kinds of uncomfortable about all of this.
Oh DID I MENTION he's also super into torture and people being in pain? So it's not that he's a villain BECAUSE he's gay...but it does feel like Randall being gay is almost as big of a deal as him loving to torture people. 

Again though, I really liked Claire. I found the novel really interesting and the problematic elements were surrounded by stuff I cared more about so I accepted it. I kind of judge myself for looking past it but we can't all be super liberal all the time can we. Can we? 

Now, please excuse me, it's time for my semi-annual re-read of The Hunger Games, because I'm an addict.
Neither Peeta nor Gale would beat Katniss.
And if one of them tried, she'd kick his ass. 

Does anyone love Outlander? Is it all camp 50 Shades of Grey people or am I just crazy?

The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

Out TODAY! 6/10/14

"Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her 'our little genius'. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad."                                                               - Goodreads description, because it's too good to try and do my own.

So, this is pretty uncharacteristic of me, but I haven't actually finished this book yet.

Wait, that is actually SUPER characteristic of me. Once I went on this LONG rant about how AMAZING Angels & Demons was and how much I appreciated that Dan Brown was depicting a priest as a good guy (as opposed to The Da Vinci Code)...and then the next page I read all insanity broke loose and everything I said was wrong.

Whatever, take this with a grain of salt because I only read the 10 chapter excerpt that's free on GoodReads right now. But I was just browsing Goodreads, deciding what to read next while taking a break from all of the three books I'm currently reading (more if you count the ones I haven't admitted to myself I've abandoned). The Girl with All the Gifts looked interesting, and I saw there was an excerpt, so like any good procrastinator, I clicked on it. And WHOOPS looks like I'm not getting anything done till I read this lengthy excerpt of a generous 10 chapters.

It's so good you guys. It kind of reminds me of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, but with more of a horror/SciFi element. It's got the perfect amounts of thriller oh-god-whats-going-to-happen-next and actually-makes-you-question-society-and-humankind.

*Real review out tomorrow 8am! Historical fiction/romance*

June Books For (& About) Kids

(for the littlest readers)

Cute little story about a little panda named Chu who might have to sneeze. Bad things happened when Chu sneezes. 

(slightly older)

A fun nonfiction read about the life of mathematician Paul Erdos. What I love about it is that it shows math as being a) creative and b) social and NOT c) boring. The illustrations are filled with colorful numbers and real-life uses for math. Its all about why math is cool. 

For more picture books check out my May recommendations

(middle reader)

When mom leaves dad with the kids for the week, disaster strikes at breakfast. There is no milk. Not for breakfast cereal, and not for dad’s tea. Dad goes out to get milk but takes ages and ages to get back. Upon his arrival, he regales the epic story of his hunt for the milk, filled with time-travelling dinosaurs, aliens, wumpires (NOT the sparkly kind), and other mayhem.

Verdict: A fun bedtime story for the kiddos. It reminds me of a Shel Silverstein poem that I memorized in elementary school. If they liked it, try reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to them. If YOU liked it, try TheOcean at the End of the Lane, also by Neil Gaiman, which I would not recommend reading to the kiddos.

The book was also gorgeous, and used all of the illustrations (and even the fonts) to tell the story and add emotional colors to the book. It’s definitely worth getting the physical book as opposed to the kindle version. 

For Grown Ups, but About Kids

In How Children Succeed, journalist Paul Tough explores the education system and current research on what factors make a child grow into a successful adult. The story told to children now is that if you study hard and get good grades AND good test scores, you will get into a good college and then you will get a good job and be a successful adult. According to Tough's research, intelligence and a good SAT score will only get you so far, and children who are well equipped with skills like grit, curiosity, conscientiousness, and optimism will be more successful in college and beyond. Having these skills can help a child/adult more than raw intelligence or even growing up in a more financially stable home. Tough discusses how we can teach children these skills and how they will help them in later life.

I don't know if you've heard yet, but I'm going to grad school to get my Masters in Teaching. I've always been very interested in teaching, but that whole being super interested in acting thing took over my life for a little while. I always assumed I would one day be a teacher, but what and where I was going to teach were questions that kept me from getting my BA in Education.

I feel like it got a little lost near the end, when we got so involved in the chess world I sort of forgot what was actually being discussed. Overall, this book reminded me of all the reasons I want to get involved with the public school system.

For more on teaching, read The Book Whisperer

Timebound (4)

I got this book for free from Amazon First Reads, and I was super pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It's young adult Sci-fi/Fantasy blend, so if that is not your cup of tea, you're not going to like it. That's fine. If you want to point and laugh at me for my soft spot for the genre, that's also totally understandable.

Sixteen-year-old Kate Pierce-Keller's life is turned upside down when her estranged grandmother decides to move to town to get to know her only granddaughter. There's more to Kate's grandmother tenements the eye, as Kate learns when she comes into contact with a strange blue medallion keychain.

And that's when she finds out she's a time traveller. Her grandmother was a historian in 2200 or something and did a lot of field work, often travelling with her husband Saul. But Saul had greater plans then to idly watch history unfold. He wanted to change it. To control it. And now Kate is the only one with the power to stop him.

DUN DUN DUN!! For a YA book about time travel, I thought this book was incredibly well thought out. Often things get sloppy as soon as time travel is introduced, but Rysa must have really laid out the timelines for herself because it is really well explained.

The love interest falls for Kate instantly in love with her and basically doesn't have a personality besides thinking she's the best thing ever. That's pretty normal for books trying to capitalize on the popularity of Twilight, and Kate is a much stronger character than Bella, so it's not obnoxious, just more of the same old thing.

It's the first book of a series, so jump on the bandwagon early! If you're in the market for a fun quick read, I'd totally recommend this book.

The Golem and the Jinni (4.5)

I started listening to this way way back in October, and it was the perfect after-rehearsal book to listen to. I'd been working hard for hours, now it was time for someone to entertain me! I had a whole system, I would listen to the news in the morning on my way to work, I would sing in the afternoon on my way to rehearsal, and then I would listen to a story at night on my way home.

This worked for the first third of the audiobook. It started slow, because it's long and there's a lot to cover. Halfway through part two my show ended so I had one less commute to listen to things. Which meant I stopped doing my wonderfully productive and necessary singing and instead listened to this story. By Part Three, the only thing I listened to in the car was this book. I wanted to fall asleep listening to it but I was loathe to miss anything. I listened to it at the gym or on runs, I listened to it while cleaning, anything where I was alone. It still took me what felt like forever to finish because it was so long, but I loved it.

New York City

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, moves between a few different narrators far flung through the world, and sometimes through time, and during the course of the story these strands are knit together into a seamless story. We start with The Golem, a being made of clay with the strength of a dozen men, usually meant to protect its master above all else. This golem, however, was built to be the wife of a lonely, wealthy man moving to America. He wakes her during the journey, then dies and she is left alone, masterless, purposeless and completely brand new set adrift in a world she doesn’t understand. In America, she is taken in by Rabbi Avram Meyer, who names her Chava, and knows what she is, and teaches her how to become part of the world.

Then there is the Jinni, a powerful creature made of fire who comes out of a flask that a tinsmith was trying to fix. We see his story in the present as well as the distant past, before he was put in the flask he has been trapped in for hundreds of years. Now he is trapped in human form with an iron band about his wrist. Boutros Arbeely, the tinsmith, takes him in as an apprentice, but the jinni, who Arbeely names Ahmad, doesn’t need as much help as the Golem, and runs about New York creating mischief as he always has.

kinda like this guy...

Until one day, the golem and the jinni meet. Their unlikely friendship, the woman made of earth created to be obedient and the man made of fire who could fly about the world in an instant and enter the dreams of men and toy with them, is necessary for both as they are each the only creature of their kind, who never need to eat or sleep as humans do, but are forced to live among them and hide their true natures.

And one day, Yehudah Schaalman, the golem’s creator, decides that he is getting too old and must find a way to live forever. He’s known since he was a young man that God was angry with him, and he would find nothing but eternal suffering on the other side of this life, so he needed to find the key to eternal life. He creates a spell which leads him to New York City, the golem, and the jinni.

It is a beautiful story that weaves in themes of god, creators, natures, predestination, and free will. 

Miss. Peregine review (3.5) & Cress is coming!

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.” - Miss. Peregine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs 

Jacob, 16, is a quiet loner who has one best friend, a misfit like himself, and is closest to his grandfather. As a child, his grandfather told him many stories about a magical house he lived in as a child during World War II, the kindly matron who protected them from the monsters, and the peculiar children he lived with. As Jacob grew older, he came to realize that the monsters were really the Nazis, and the pictures of magic merely illusions. But after he finds his grandfather half-dead in the woods, torn apart by an animal who he glimpses, Jacob begins to wonder if the stories were real after all. He ends up travelling with his father to the island his grandfather had spoken of, to find the house where it all began. 

This book started out really strong, but the more fantastic it got, the less connected to the characters I felt. I thought it was going to be a great, creepy, Halloween read but it turned into a less interesting X-Men meets Harry Potter and ended on such a blatant to be continued, I felt a little cheated. Maybe if I had known that it was the first book of a series, I would have accepted this more, but I thought it'd been out for awhile (only 2011) and was just a book all on it's own. 

Now, in the book's defense, I did read it immediately after finishing The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which became more beautiful as it got more fantastical, so it did have a lot to live up to. And the author's note that all the creepy pictures of fantastic children were actually real pictures he found in thrift shops was pretty cool. And the next book comes out January 14th, so you don't have long to wait if you want to know what happens. 

I, personally, am feeling a little overwhelmed by the authors/series I'm following, and If you're into YA, I am in love with the Cinder series, and the third book is coming out in exactly two months!! If you missed my earlier post about Cinder (which was really short), it's another one of those fairytales re-told, which I have a soft spot for. I am especially obsessed with retellings of Cinderella, so I probably like this series more then I should. I may have already read it twice this year. I tried really hard to say it was just ok, but it's the perfect fast read if you're into that prince falls in love with ordinary girl and you can see it all but she doesn't because she's just so ordinary except she really is special if only she could just see it. SPOILERS, sorry, but it's based off Cinderella, so you  have to see that part coming. Cinder's a cyborg, it's the year 3000-something, there are cyborgs.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane (5)

"Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but aren’t." 

This book was beautiful. I listened to the audiobook, read by Neil Gaiman himself, which made it even better. Driving home from rehearsal every day I would turn it on, and Gaiman would tell me my bedtime story.

This is one of those beautiful stories where Gaiman puts you in the head of a child and opens up the world as seen by a seven year old boy. Everything he said was a quote I wanted to write down and live my life by. Every description of person, place, or thing was poetry, and I was absolutely in love.

The boy's parents have become lost some wealth and have had to take in borders to help make ends meet. The Hempstock farm down the road is home to the grandmother, mother, and daughter Hempstock. Something about them is both strange and comforting, and when the boy befriends young Lettie Hempstock (who has been twelve for a long, long time) he begins a journey which will shake the framework of a world he couldn't imagine.

 

Rob Woodcox

Enter Ursula Monkton, who is tall, thin, and pretty and everyone likes her, except the little boy, our unnamed narrator. He knows that there is something wrong with Ursula Monkton. Lettie Hempstock could help him, if only he would be allowed to go visit the farmhouse down the road and let her know what has happened. Is it the little boys fault that Ursula Monkton came to his home? Is it his fault that Ursula Monkton has been allowed to enter the world at all?

Gaiman does a masterful job of writing a book much like Alice in Wonderland, but writing it for adults. I don't even know what to tell you, but you should probably go read it right now. It was my first Neil Gaiman, so I'm not sure how it stacks up with his very large body of work, but if you like a bit of lyric fantasy, this book is definitely for you.

If you like to remain fully immersed in the real world, then this book is not for you. Otherwise, read it. It's short and sweet and scary and lovely, and if you're into audiobooks I'd definitely recommend it.