In My Mailbox -- July 31, 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme held over at The Story Siren.  I generally do my IMM posts (not that I've done too many, but still) on Sundays, but my dad, David and I are going to Cooperstown, NY tomorrow to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (Red Sox fans for life), so I figured I'd do my post two hours early.  I got a pretty big haul today (went to the bookstore with my neighbor, who is working in NYC during the week and needed more books).  I made out pretty well!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.  But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

This was highly recommended to me by a friend on one of the message boards I'm on.  I'm looking forward to it!

Russian Winter, by Daphne Kalotay.  When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago. 

Another book that came recommended by one of the bloggers I follow.

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, both by J.K. Rowling.  I KNOW.  I don't own either of these.  I own books 3 - 7, but the first two I didn't have.  Not anymore!  Both were on sale, so I grabbed them.  Plus I'm trying to convince David that he wants to give Harry Potter a try.  I haven't convinced him yet, unfortunately :( 

But my favorite find came right at the end of our searching through the shelves.  It was the LAST one there, and certainly not something I had intended on picking up.  But at $8.99, I snatched it.  I've always wanted a copy of my own, and now I have it.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  OMG, such a good book.  Everyone's seen the movie (well, everyone who was a kid in the 1980s at least), but I assure you: this is better than the movie.  You're probably thinking that isn't possible.  But it is.  Such a good book.  And in a surprising twist, this might be the book that David actually gives a decent shot to.  I told him how fantastic it is, and he LOVES the movie, soooo...

Just see.  I'll convince him that reading is fun yet.  :)

Have a good weekend!  Next post: hopefully pictures from Cooperstown.

The Demise of Borders

Last week, bookselling giant Borders announced that they would be closing their remaining stores, forever.  

And that's it.  The end.  Borders, Inc. is no more.  The remaining stock will be liquidated, the stores will be closed, the big red lights reading "BORDERS" will turn off forever (and probably be sold off, like the bookshelves and the furniture).  The only giants left in the bookselling world are Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble -- tellingly, the two chains with the most popular e-readers (the Kindle and the Nook, respectively).  It is anyone's guess whether or not Barnes&Noble will be able to survive as a brick-and-mortar institution, if they will completely go over to online retailing (a la Amazon), or if they too will slowly roll over into obscurity, bankruptcy, and ultimate liquidation.

I write to you as a longtime patron of Borders and Amazon, who never really felt a tear in the loyalties of either.  I bought my books from Borders, but I received a Kindle for Christmas from my husband and if I could find cheap books on Kindle, I would buy them.  Still, I loved seeing the Borders coupons in my email, and barely a week would go by before I would be in Borders at my local mall, buying something for 30 or 40% off.  I was never a Barnes&Noble fan, so the news that Borders would be closing, though I knew it to be inevitable, hit me pretty hard.

My best friend, Leni, was a bookseller at Borders for years until her store was closed in the mass culling this past March.  She wrote about her reaction to the final liquidation on her blog, The Girl Is In:

"As a former employee of the chain, with many friends still employed by the company, the news was devestating. While I understand why physical book stores are on the verge of extinction, as a writing student and book-lover, it is terrifying." 

Several of my friends sent me text messages or FB messages about going to Borders to the final liquidation sale.  People talked about the fabled "40% off" books.  The idea of going to Borders and scouring the aisles for the cheap books seemed to me like the actions of a vulture picking at the dying carcass.  I said that I wouldn't go on Friday, and I didn't.  But on Sunday afternoon, boredom and curiosity got the best of me, and I got in my car and drove to my local mall.

The parking lot should have indicated what I was in for.  While the parking lot outside of the Borders store has always been about half-full, it was absolutely mobbed on Sunday afternoon, a mere two hours before the mall was scheduled to close.  I could see the bright red-and-yellow "EVERYTHING MUST GO" signs from my parking space towards the back of the lot.  

When I went into the store, I was greeted with mass chaos.  Books were falling off the shelves, spilling everywhere, some of them even on the floor.  The harried Borders booksellers couldn't keep  up with the mess; some of them were even being accosted by patrons asking them "where the best deals were".  There were boxes of "bargain books" (mostly old stock that really didn't have a chance of being sold off otherwise.  Patrons walked through with armloads of books, looking more like looters at a riot.

I managed to squeeze my way into the fiction section; I had a mental list of the books that I've been thinking of reading and purchasing, and I thought that I would see if any of them were on sale.  Of course, everything in the store was on sale.  But the "sales" were deceptive.  The best books -- the fiction, the biographies, the YA fiction, even the arts and crafts books -- were all labeled "10% off".  I must have looked as puzzled as I felt.  For a store that used to hand out coupons for 30 - 40% off, plus the occasional 25% off your entire purchase, 10% was really not that much at all.  And in its heyday, you didn't even have to pay any money to get those weekly coupons.  You only had to have a Borders Rewards card -- which was free if you went the basic route, and only $20 per year if you wanted the Rewards Plus (which included 40% off hardcover bestsellers and 10% off almost everything else in the store, any day).  Why were all these people thinking that this was such a deal?  Even at Borders.com you could get a better deal than that.

I watched the mass chaos around me and I just felt sick.  KatieLeigh from Cakes, Tea, and Dreams wrote about her experience back in March at the Borders Closing Sale, and she said exactly what I was thinking on Sunday afternoon:

"On my most recent visit, I scored three trade paperbacks for $23. This was after picking through shelves of disorganized books, shoved into crooked lines under scribbled-over signs with discounts larger than the section names. And though I was glad to score a deal, I felt a little like a vulture, picking over the remains of a carcass...seeing the unruly shelves and the crossed-out discounts (replaced by higher discounts) and the empty space on the second floor, cordoned off like a crime scene with yellow Caution tape, really got to me. It felt like taking part in the dismantling of the store, though I know Borders’ problems go well beyond my ken. Nevertheless, I won’t be going back there."

I will not judge any of my friends for going to the sale, if they are looking for deals (as I said, I don't think that they are such "deals" right now, though they might be in a few weeks).  It's a personal choice.  I do know that as for me, I don't think I can go back and pick over the shelves any more.  Borders was a special store for me, and for a lot of other people who said that it was like "home" for them, a place to peruse the shelves, to sit and read, and to relax with a good book.  I don't want to be there to witness its death throes.  

RIP, Borders.  I'll miss you.

Review: Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer

Since I read John Krakauer's Into Thin Air back in April, I've been somewhat obsessed with Mt. Everest and stories about it.  So when I found out that Jeffrey Archer had written a fictionalized biography of George Mallory, who vanished in his attempts to climb Mt. Everest in 1924, I leaped at it.

Like a Quentin Tarentino film, Paths of Glory opens up in 1999, when climbers on Everest discover a body lying frozen on the landscape of the mountain.  A label, sewn in to the shirt of the deceased, reveals that this unfortunate climber is none other than George Leigh Mallory, the most famous Mt. Everest victim of all time.  Rewind backward, and Archer gives us scenes from Mallory's life, starting as an adventurous child at the beach, with no mind for danger, and culminating in the fateful climb years later.

I started reading this book because I was interested in Everest, in hearing about George Mallory and his fateful climb.  I didn't realize that the book was going to be mainly about Mallory's life, his aspiration as a teenager, his relationship with his wife Ruth, etc.   And I'm not naysaying that!  It was a little offputting at first, but I started to enjoy it around the midpoint.  I do think several of Archer's "childhood stories" of Mallory's life are thinly-stretched at best -- especially the idea of Mallory climbing a tower in Venice just to win the attention of his sweetheart -- and they gave me the eye rolls several times.  You can tell when Archer is making up stories as filler in this book.  But there is definitely enough to make it stand on its own.

I don't often cry at books, but reading Mallory's final letter to Ruth made me tear up at the end.  Like with Into Thin Air, I found myself enraged at Mallory and the other Everest climbers several times.  They had their whole lives ahead of them, they had families back at home, and why did they set out to climb a mountain that nobody had ever climbed before?  Just because, as Mallory put it, "it is there"?  That sort of mentality is alive and well in a lot of people; Krakauer wrote about some of them.  But to a nobody like me, I guess, it's going to make no sense.

Rating: ****

Spin Jam -- July 23, 2011

"Spin Jams" are the colloquial in our group of friends for evenings when a bunch of us get together and fire spin, usually in someone's backyard.  Last night, our friend Matt was kind enough to throw a spin jam, and everyone braved the obscene heat and came out to spin.

This is Nick, juggling fire torches (small batons with lit wicks on one end).  Nick can do all manner of fire-related entertainment...this is one of his specialties.

 

Joe, doing both fire poi and fire breathing.  In fire breathing, the individual takes a mouthful of paraffin or lamp oil (which I am assured is tasteless, although I refuse to try it and find out) and blows it into the fire, creating the burst of flame you see here. 

Lyndsey, executing fire staff.  Notice the incredibly clean circles, which come with experience.  I assure you that mine look nothing that neat!

David doing fire staff, mid-toss.  He went twice, once doing staff simultaneously with Joe, and then once by himself.

Jim, breathing fire.

Jim (left) and Matt (right) experimenting with LED poi, which are generally used in practice and for people like yours truly who aren't ready to use flame poi yet. 

Matt spinning fire poi.

Me spinning fans!  I had an awesome night last night spinning with my new fans.  I'm definitely getting used to the weight of each of them.  And and and...most exciting...I managed a toss and catch!  I tried three tosses during my spinning, with the fans lit.  I missed two, but I caught the third!  It was really exciting and made me feel really great.  I definitely want to get in more practice and get more comfortable with tossing the fans while lit.

All in all, a great spin jam.  Although spinning in 95 degree weather is rough (we were all really sweaty when we were done), we all had a fantastic time.

Fire Mecca's Passion Fire Fans: Review

Up until recently, when I did fan-spinning, I borrowed a pair of fans from my friend Lyndsey, which were three-prong, three-wick fans occasionally referred to as "bat fire fans" due to the distinctive shape, which resembles a bat wing (see right).  The one showed at the right is sold by Fire by Riz at $40 per fan or $80 for the pair.  The "wingspan" of each fan is 18" x 18" and each fan weighs 9 oz.  These are widely considered "practice fans."  They were great to get started on, because with only three wicks, they are much less hot, and they are lighter and easier to handle.

Compare these to my fans, which I wrote about in a previous entry.  The fans that David purchased for me for my birthday are sold by FireMecca, as I've state before, and they are called "passion fire fans".  They have five spokes and wicks per fan, and their prices vary (David bought my fans on sale, for much less than advertised now).  The wingspan on these fans is 17" x 26" and the weight is 2.2 lbs.  

My first reaction to these fans is that compared to the bat fire fans, these are heavy.  Each fan weighs twice what the bat fans weigh.  Also, it's unbelievable how much more heat is supplied by just those four extra wicks.  You can certainly feel the difference in the temperature after only a few seconds of spinning.

But.  There is no denying that these just look better.  Their wingspan, combined with the extra wicks, illuminates the dance better, and looks more professional.  When I tried them out last night, a friend who was watching me said that I "looked like Kitana from Mortal Kombat" (which I took as a compliment, because I've played MK, and Kitana was badass).

(I'll also mention here that I had my first "fire-related incident" last night, when I swung one fan too close and singed my hair.  David was my safety, and made sure immediately that nothing on me was on fire -- I haven't lit myself up yet! -- but there was a nasty smell of burned hair, and I had a bit of a burned patch later when I checked it out.  Fortunately, I have short, layered, curly hair that covers up such things easily -- and I'm not too vain.)

Obviously they are going to take some getting used to, and I was prepared for that.  I was also prepared to be ridiculously hot when I was done trying them out, because we're having a heat wave all over the United States these days, and it was 98 degrees at 9:30 PM last night when I was spinning.  I'm hoping that after Sunday, once the heat finally breaks here, I'll be able to try them out more comfortably.  But for a first-time out, I really enjoyed using them!

Fire Spinning: An Amateur's Overview

Image from firegroove.com

A lot of people have commented on my FB about fire spinning -- what it is, how it works, why anyone would ever decide that THIS is the hobby that he or she wants to take up?  Isn't it dangerous?  And so on and so forth.  So I'm going to give a little background information about fire spinning, particularly fan spinning.  (Please keep in mind that these are my opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the whole fire-spinning community)

Fire spinning (otherwise known as "fire dancing" or perhaps more accurately, "fire performance") is a performance art that involves the manipulation of objects on fire.  Its page on Wikipedia is relatively informative, especially if you are looking for broad coverage of all the elements.  In fire spinning, the object of the performer's choice is made of metal, with thick (usually more than 1') Kevlar wicks.  The wicks are dipped in fuel (David and my friends and I use white campfire gas, usually used found in sporting goods' stores). 

The following are different elements of fire spinning or fire performance (this is not a complete list):

Fire fans are made of welded metal with the Kevlar wicks, and come in a varying range of sizes and shapes.  Unlike some of the other fire spinning disciplines, fire fan spinning is closely associated with dance, rather than sport or tech.  Granted, there is a rather large technical aspect to fan spinning (a lot of it is based on handling and grip techniques) but fan spinning is a lot like fan dancing or belly-dancing, which is what drew me to it in the beginning.  I love the fluid movements and the dance -- I used to take dance and figure skating lessons as a teenager, and that was a big part of my life.  I love expressing myself through dance.

A lot of fire-spinning techniques are largely technically based, rather than dance.  Fire staff (link to a terrible Wikipedia page) involves a metal staff with two large Kevlar wicks at each end and (usually) a soft grip in the middle.  Staff involves a lot of turning, contact motion, and tosses.  David's forte is fire staff, and his signature move involves bouncing the staff off of one knee, over his head, and catching it behind his back.

Fire hoop is pretty much exactly what it sounds like -- hula-hooping (or just hooping) with a metal hoop, from which extend spokes and Kevlar wicks.  Hooping employs both technical and dance elements.

Fire poi are two large wicks at the bottom of metal chains (in varying lengths, according to the height of the performer) that have small finger holes.  Fire poi are easily one of the most dramatic mediums for fire spinning, and have the least amount of performer control, since the chains allow the lighted wicks to go in all directions.  Poi spinning is another medium that, like fan spinning, utilizes dance.

Fire torches are small pins, almost like juggling pins, with Kevlar wicks.  They are juggled or used in other fire performance skills, such as fire eating or fire breathing.

There are two people involved in a fire spinning performance.  One, obviously, is the performer.  The other is called a "safety".  The safety stands nearby with a 2' x 2' (or about that size) piece of fire-retardant cloth.  David and I use a piece of Duvetyne, which is 100% cotton treated to be flame-retardant.  Frequently during spinning, the performer may miss a toss, or misjudge the distance between the flames and his hair/clothing/skin/etc.  The safety's job is to ensure that the performer does not catch on fire.

If at any point, the performer catches on fire, the safety's job is to shout "DOWN" (not "fire", because hey, obviously things are on fire) and then to pat out the flame with the cloth.  If the performer chooses to end his or her performance before the flames on the object burn out, the safety may also wrap the object with the cloth to extinguish the flames manually.  (I will be doing a post going more into fire safety in another post)

For those people who have said, on my FB wall, that "I could never do that" or "I would set myself/my dog/my house/my neighborhood on fire" -- if I can do it, you can.  I promise you.  I'm about as uncoordinated a human being as they come.  As David assured one of our friends last night -- it is not easy for the fire to catch and actually burn you.  We have a friend who has been doing poi spinning for 10 years, and he has never lit himself on fire to the point of injuring himself.  So if you are interested in fire spinning, and you're afraid of burning yourself -- please don't let that stop you.  Join a class, find some friends who are trained, have a good safety, and have fun!

Harry Potter and the DH, Part 1 -- some thoughts, eight months too late

SPOILERS (for those of you who, like me, are the last people on earth to see this film)

 Last November, everyone and their mother was buying tickets to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I.  I had originally planned to go see the film as well, but that was before I discovered two things.

1. The film was being split into two parts.  I have never liked nor understood this idea.  One book = one movie, right?  If Peter Jackson could turn the Lord of the Rings trilogy into...well, a trilogy, then the myriad directors of Harry Potter should be able to do the same.  Yes, yes.  I am aware that I have to eat my words now, since Peter Jackson is splitting J.R.R. Tolkein's famous prequel The Hobbit into two films. 

2. David and I got married on November 5th, and were on our honeymoon until November 14th.  At the end of that weekend  of festivities, followed by a week in Montreal, we were just too damn tired.  Neither of us wanted to leave our apartment, much less drag our lazy butts to the movie theatre and deal with lines, screaming fans, etc.  David also hasn't read a single Harry Potter book (I know right?  It's a sore point), so he definitely wasn't going to fight me on waiting to see the movie until it came out on DVD.

But eight months later, and with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II finally released into theatres, my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked David to put Part I on our Netflix queue, so I could finally see it.  We watched it over two days (Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, due to some interruptions and visiting my parents) and here are...I guess, some thoughts on the whole thing?

What I Liked About Part I

- The opening scene with Hermione modifying her parents' memories in order to protect them before they went into hiding.  Obviously, since the book is told mostly from Harry's POV (and occasionally, Voldemort's), we didn't get to read about this in the book, with the exception of a brief explanation by Hermione.  It was really heartbreaking, and I thought very well done.

- Every scene at the Malfoys' manor.  I realize that the most difficult thing about reading the book first is that you will constantly compare the movie to what you imagined in your mind while reading.  But that scene was exactly how I pictured it.  Loved it.

- Recurring, awesome characters.  Snape.  Fred and George.  Bellatrix Lestrange.  All of them were so good.  Alan Rickman makes me actually love watching the films.

- The animation of the "Deathly Hallows" explanation.  Really interesting use of animation, and it broke up the movie a bit.  I loved it.

- The characters pretending to be Harry/Ron/Hermione using Polyjuice Potion.  I know.  I've already explained my hatred of that stupid "cure-all for every major plot-point".  But I love watching actors pretending to be other characters, and doing it well.  The scene at the Ministry was very well done.

And now...

What I Didn't Like About Part I

- No redemption for Dudley Dursley.  What?  The kid's been an asshole for all six of the preceding books.  He gets one moment of shining goodness in book seven...and it gets cut?  Fail.

- Too Much Exposition.  I wondered how they were going to work Bill and Fleur's wedding into the film, considering that, in the first six films, we haven't seen Bill at all.  Never fear!  We'll just throw six books' worth of exposition into about 30 seconds.  While we're at it, we'll also talk about Lupin and Tonks' wedding, and maybe hint at the baby (but we won't directly say it).  Sheesh.

- Major deaths are only hinted at.  I had to explain to David why Mad-Eye Moody's eye was stuck into the door at the Ministry, almost two hours into the film.  Because Mad-Eye's death is completely glossed over.  I hear it gets worse in Part II.  But since Rowling did that in the books, I wasn't completely surprised.

- Wormtail's death.  In the book, Wormtail is forced to kill himself when Harry recalls that Wormtail owes Harry life for sparing his own.  Very dramatic.  In the movie...Dobby fires a spell at Wormtail's back, Wormtail goes "...Oh", and drops to the ground.  David didn't even know that he was dead until I told him.  And that is the one thing I will never understand about these movies.  Why take out perfectly good drama and put in...something seriously less dramatic?

IN CONCLUSION: I feel the same way about Part I as I expected to feel about it, and the way I regarded all the other movies.  Taken alone, they are okay.  They just aren't on par with the books.  I will admit that I do see the merits now of cutting the book into two films, considering how much they are actually cramming into the films, and staying true to the story as much as possible.  (I'll never understand why they are cutting Mockingjay into two parts...but that's a story for another time.)  I do want to go see Part II, but we'll see if I get to it in the theatre before it leaves, or if I wait until it comes out on DVD, like I did with Part I.

Words On Fire

Well I changed my domain and my blog name.  I chose my original name Read ~ Knit ~ Blog in reference to the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love (ironically, before I'd even read it).  And then over the past seven months realized, as I mentioned in my past entry, that my blog has expanded, or has the potential to expand, into more than just books and knitting.  So I changed my title and domain, and...here we go.

My birthday is Sept. 12, but my husband decided to go out and buy my birthday present two months early.  And the package came today:

(I know, I know...I look like crap.  Ignore my terrible hair and sweaty face).

These are my first fire fans!  At the suggestion of our good friend Lyndsey, who first introduced me to fan spinning, David ordered them from Fire Mecca, purveyor of all sorts of fire dance/spinning-related goods.  Thus far, I have only used smaller, practice fans (with three wicks, rather than five).  It was a whole different experience to hold and handle these heavier, wider fans!  But I couldn't be more excited!  I can't wait for the first day I get to light them and try spinning them to music.  I was practicing my grips and transitions tonight, but I still have a long way to go.

If you want to see some really awesome fan spinning (WAY above my technique level), this is one of my favorite fan spinners.  Her name is Sasha (link goes to her website), and she's one of the best.  Unfortunately whoever shot this video took a lot of extreme close-ups, so you can't see her technique as well as you could if she was in wide-shot.  But you can still get the idea.  Her dancing and technique are beautiful.

I'm hoping to get in some practice this weekend.  I'm also hoping to obtain a better camera shortly so I can stop taking blog pictures with my cell phone.  Hopefully I'll have some better pictures soon.

It's not just about the books and yarn

I've been feeling lately like this blog needs a bit of an overhaul.

When I began it in December 2010, I was writing mainly about my plan to finish 100 books in 2011.  Well, I've finished 61 books for the year, and it's only July.  I could fall off the wagon any time between now and December 31st, but chances are that I'm going to finish the 100 books, and chances are that when I do, I'm going to be re-reading a lot of them.  I'm a consummate re-reader of books, and I've read so many good ones this year that beg for another go-around (The Hunger Games, Into Thin Air, The Help, etc).  But what will I write about then, when I'm not writing book reviews?  And I'm certain my readers (all 13 of you) aren't going to want to read reviews of books I've already read and reviewed once before.

(And honestly, I don't think many of you read for the reviews.)

It's been only seven months into the year, and already I'm discovering a whole lot of other stuff about me.  For example: I realized that *gasp* I actually do  like reading YA lit.  I discovered fire-spinning, and realized I have a whole new hobby.  I've been on Weight Watchers for the past month and a half and I've actually lost some weight.  Not much, 10 lbs., but 10 lbs. is a start, right?  I've made new friends, I've explored a little more of my personality...and these are all things that I haven't written about at all in my blog.

(Also, the knitting?  Yeah, I didn't realize until I started heavily documenting everything I knit, how incredibly SLOWLY I knit.  It's kind of embarrassing.)

I'm not sure where to go from here.  I can't really find a "niche" to put this blog in.  I don't really want it to be just a "book blog".  It's not a weightloss blog.  And there are a ton of people who write "married blogs" just because.  I didn't want to look like I'm just going along with a trend, or that I felt that once we got married, I had to blog.  There's more to me than just the books and yarn (or really, just the books, since how long has it been since I did a knitted FO post?  Yeah, a long time).

I had a blog before this one, about living with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and I ran into the same problem.  I felt like I was more than that.  More than just a label.  Why should that define me?  And if just writing reviews of books isn't enough, why should that be all that I write about?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've never thought I'm interesting enough to throw my life out on line for people to read, and find that entertaining, you know?  My life is pretty dullsville, as happy as I am with it.  I'm a secretary, my husband is an environmental tech who is finishing his EMT testing within the next few weeks, and we live with cats.  How interesting could that be?

I'm not looking for anyone's approval of what to write in my own blog.  I don't really know what I'm looking for in writing this.  I'd like to start documenting a little more of my life (not the seriously personal stuff, that doesn't go online), the parts that I would share with friends, the things that I would like to talk about on a daily basis.  And...well, go from there.  So it's not just about the reading, or the knitting.  So it's a little more about myself.

And you can decide for yourself if it merits reading. :)

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Like almost everyone else in America (and the world) I waited excitedly for the LAST Harry Potter book to come out. I pre-ordered my copy, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and the first time I read it, I did so within 24-hours. My feelings about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are twofold: I was thrilled, and I was disappointed.

It's been seven years since Harry Potter learned that he was a wizard and how his parents truly died.  It has been three years since the dark wizard Lord Voldemort rose to corporeal form and full power again.  Now, in the final book of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry and his friends must find a way to vanquish Lord Voldemort once and for all -- before he destroys their world forever.

I alternately love and hate this book.  I hate it because it is the end of a franchise that I loved so much, my first true literary obsession.  I discovered Harry Potter when I was 15 years old, after my sister took the books out of the library and insisted I read them.  Having the end come, finally knowing what happens, who wins, how it all goes down -- is bittersweet.  Of course you want to know what happens, but you're always sad to see the end of a series you loved so much.

All of the old favorites are back -- but reader beware.  Some of the wrong people are going to die.  Usually Rowling doesn't kill off her characters (or at least, not the major characters) until the end of the book.  Three chapters in, a much-beloved character is lost, and I realized this is the direction she's taking it.  Rowling definitely isn't writing for children anymore.  Deathly Hallows is much more raw and gripping than any of the other HP books.  

I feel again that Rowling tried to cram too much in to one book (sort of like Goblet of Fire). There was so much to take into account, that I'm not even really surprised that the directors cut the final film into two parts. The first whole half of the book has been described as "wizard camping", and while during my re-read I decided this wasn't really fair to Rowling, it does get tedious in parts. The Battle of Hogwarts is terrific. I did like the ending -- the part about the wands was quite a surprise, and I thought she did that up well. The Deathly Hallows was an interesting concept, I wish that they had been hinted at early in the books, but Rowling probably didn't think of how to tie it up up until HBP or so, so it's to be expected.

SPOILER ALERT: My three major issues with this book are the following:

1. Polyjuice Potion. When it first makes an appearance in Chamber of Secrets, Polyjuice Potion is not only an extremely difficult and time-consuming potion to make, it also requires ingredients that are damn impossible to find. Remember how Harry and Hermione have to steal some of the ingredients from Snape in Book 2? And Hermione had to get the potion from a book from the Restricted Section in the library. So why is it that by Book 7, everyone and their MOTHER is using Polyjuice Potion? It made some sense that Alastor Moody would have the ingredients in Goblet of Fire, though it was a bit of a stretch that Barty Crouch Jr. knew how to make it. But in Half-Blood Prince, REALLY? Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle can make it? Come on, Jo Rowling, I expected better. This is a plot hole you can drive a truck through. In Deathly Hallows, Hermione, Harry, and Ron make it through a series of scrapes by utilizing -- you guessed it -- Polyjuice Potion. It's a cure-all for everything in the HP universe -- and it just doesn't make sense.

2. House unity.  Throughout the books, Rowling has the constant message -- from the Sorting Hat, from Dumbledore, etc. -- that the Hogwarts houses must set aside their differences and unite.  Granted, she spent six books making Slytherin house and all its inhabitants and graduates the bad guys (I wonder if Rowling has a serious aversion to snakes?), but I figured that MAYBE, especially in light of Draco Malfoy's hesitation at the end of Half-Blood Prince, there was a chance that Slytherin House would be redeemed.  NOPE.  At the Battle for Hogwarts, Slytherin House is the only house that doesn't stand and fight with Hogwarts.  All of the children abandon their classmates and teachers to death.  So much for "house unity".  AND, in a move that really did surprise me to the point where I had to read it twice, Potions master and Slytherin House Head, Horace Slughorn, in the final hour, turns and fights on Voldemort's side.  Really?  Even though Dumbledore himself said in Half-Blood Prince "Horace is no Death Eater?"  Apparently it doesn't matter; if you have an ounce of Slytherin blood in your veins, that clearly makes you 100% evil in the Harry Potter Universe (makes Sirius Black even more of an anomaly, no?).

3. The epilogue. OMG, the epilogue. I am not the first person to say it, but seriously: it is terrible. It reads like Rowling just went on to Fanfiction.net and grabbed the first story she could find, and ripped it off. So disappointing. Especially since the book didn't NEED an epilogue, it could have ended right after the battle, and everything would have great. Guess not.

As an avid Harry Potter fan, I have to be honest. I would rate the books in the following way. Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets are the introductory books -- you can't compare them to the later books, they are simply too different. Rowling was writing for children then; she had no idea how her story was going to take off. Prisoner of Azkaban was, is, and will always be my favorite. I think it is the best book Rowling wrote, everything ties up neatly, so much is explained, and -- almost most importantly -- there is no Voldemort. Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix left me disappointed -- I didn't like the story pattern Rowling was sticking to of "action action action climax Voldemort someone dies conclusion." I also didn't like the emo kid that Harry became in Order of the Phoenix (after witnessing the death of a random schoolmate), but I couldn't understand his sudden disappearance in Half-Blood Prince (after Harry witnesses the death of a close friend). After Prisoner of Azkaban, I thought that Half-Blood Prince was the second-best book. I was disappointed in the ending (I had suspected who would die for quite a while before reading it) but allover, I thought it was a very good book, and I waited impatiently for Deathly Hallows. 

The book is good, and it does tie everything up. I enjoyed it. But it's not perfect, it's not quite on par with some of her earlier works, and I can't give it more than four stars. 

Rating: ****

Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Room, by Emma Donoghue, is one of those books that I heard about and never wanted to read.  To a claustrophobic person, the idea of reading a book about a boy and his mother confined to an 11' by 11' space paralyzing.  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't last 10 minutes without going insane.  But enough people raved about it, and I decided to give it a chance.

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

(From Goodreads) To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

I've read many reviews that say the first half of this book is tedious, and it can be.  Donoghue chooses to tell the story from the POV of Jack, the five-year-old who was born and has spent his entire life in "Room".  I thought that was a much more interesting decision than to do the POV of Ma, the girl who was originally shut up in Room and has been there for seven years, obviously taking in and understanding a lot more of what happened than Jack did.  But, as one reviewer pointed out, reading a five-year-old's thoughts can get very tedious after even a page; within twenty pages, I was wondering if I had made the wrong decision in picking up this book.  It isn't until about 75 pages in, that the reader finds out exactly what Room is, and what Ma and Jack are doing in there (although it is fairly easy to figure it out for yourself without Ma spelling it out for you), and that is when things start to pick up, when Ma and Jack begin to plot their escape.

The escape plan is, at best, seriously contrived, and I found it hard to believe that Donoghue would imagine that such an plan would even have a chance in a million in working.  I was even more surprised when Jack was successful and Ma and Jack were freed from Room.  This is, of course, the turning point to the story, the part that we all seem to forget about when we talk about people like Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Duggard.  What happens after?  Are you ever the same again?  Nobody wants to talk to Ma or Jack about how they are feeling now, or what they want, or how has the world changed?  They only want to hear about Room, turn Ma into a martyr and Jack into a hero, and all Jack wants is to go back to his little routine, his little space, back in Room.

I disliked Ma once they were out of captivity.  Granted, she was finally out of a terrible ordeal, but she immediately stopped all of Jack's routines and thrust him into a new life, thinking he would adapt right away.  And then when she "couldn't handle it", she foisted him off on his relatives, seeming to not even give a damn that he was lost and frightened and seemingly alone in the world that he knew nothing about.  You can't help but feel for Jack.  He really is a remarkable child in the book.

I give this book three and a half out of five.  I originally planned to give four, but the second half kind of did me in.  It's a good book, I just don't know if I'll read it twice.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Early birthday present

My birthday is September 12th (little bitta trivia for you there).  My wonderful husband, David, decided to buy my birthday present two months early.  He bought it -- or should I say, them -- today:

These are Passion Fire Fans, from Fire Mecca.  I've been borrowing fans from my good friend Lyndsey when we go to spin jams together, and now I'm going to have my own pair!  I'm so excited.  I don't know how I'm going to wait the five days it's going to take for them to ship.  

Even more exciting, I'll have them in time for Wildfire Retreat in August!  It will by first one ever, and David's too.  I mainly do fire fans and I'm planning on taking classes in fire hoop and poi.  David is getting really good at fire staff, and he wants to learn poi as well.  We've been practicing spinning for about two months now, but we have friends who have been firespinning for at least a decade.  We're learning from some of the best :)

(Really terrible picture of my first time using fire fans.  I assure you, I have gotten better since then.)

(David's first attempts at fire staff.  He too has improved, way more than I have!)

Five days isn't that long, right?  And I have a lot to look forward this to this weekend.  I'm seeing my friend Kim for the first time since David's birthday two months ago, and we're going to fireworks on Saturday night (can't wait!).  And...yeah that's probably it.  My life is nothing if not dull.

Review: Belles On Their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Ever have one of those days where you can't find anything to read?  My bookshelves are looking quite bare these days.  I've read most of my books, and right now I'm kind of on a hiatus from buying any (although I do troll Amazon.com each day in search of cheap or discounted ebooks).  But this one has been on my shelf as a throwback to when I was a little kid and my mom read it to me.  It's a quick read, and one I love because of the background.

My mother grew up in a very large family.  My grandparents had nine children, two boys and seven girls, and adopted another girl late in life.  My mother was number seven of the ten.  When we were growing up, my sister and I were fascinated by the stories she told about growing up in a big family with so many kids.  And my mom, who read to us a lot, read us the stories of the Gilbreth family -- a husband and wife engineering team who had a dozen children, six boys and six girls.  Two of the children went on to write a book series about their lives.  The first was called Cheaper By the Dozen (which is nothing like the Steve Martin knockoff film), and featured mainly stories from the early years, as each of the children were born, and life with both parents.

The sequel, Belles On Their Toes, begins in 1924, after "Dad", Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr., has passed away.  In order to keep the huge family together, their mother, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, an engineer in her own right, must work hard to keep her husband's business afloat.  Left alone with the eldest girl -- Anne, age 18 -- in charge, the children must work together, save their pennies, and do their best to make ends meet so that the family won't be divided.  Despite the tremendous odds stacked against her, Lillian is determined to fulfill her husband's dream of putting every single one of the dozen children through college.  She refuses to listen to the naysayers who tell her that a woman can't run a business, the family won't survive on its own, and she'll never manage to send them all to school.  Through a series of vignettes, the authors (daughter Ernestine and son Frank Jr.) tell the humorous stories of making ends meet and growing up in a riotous family, while honoring their mother and giving credit where it's so due.

The major character who is sorely missed in Belles is Frank Sr., who provided a lot of the comedy in Dozen.  But Belles is meant to honor Lillian, and really gives her a chance to shine, and her own personality to show through.  Where Frank ran the household like a factory (efficiency charts, regimentation, etc), Lillian (as a psychologist) struggled to treat her children as individuals, and insisted that they remain so.  It shows -- Belles highlights the children individually, with their own stories and memories, rather than referring to "the dozen."  There is much more stressing on the individuality, especially of the oldest and youngest children.  The ones in the middle, such as Frank Jr., Lillian, and Bill, don't seem to have a big part in the sequel -- unfortunate, since Bill was one of my favorite characters in Dozen.  

Still, it's a cute book, and funny (though I know a lot of reviewers complain that they have trouble relating, since the book is set almost 80 years ago).  And I still can't read it without thinking of my mom :)

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: The Silence of Trees by Valya Dudycz Lupescu

One of the 5-point categories in the Summer Book Challenge is to "read a book chosen based on its cover."  While surfing Amazon.com for cheap or new books, I found The Silence of Trees by Valya Dudycz Lupescu, for 99 cents.  I was very intrigued by the cover of the book, which features a pysanka, a Russian painted egg.  I once painted pysanka in a high school art class (although my mom accidentally dropped and destroyed mine).  So it worked out perfectly for filling that category in the SuBC.

The Silence of Trees' heroine, Nadya, is sixteen years old when a Gypsy fortune-teller warns her that she will have to leave behind great sadness and pain to reach her destiny.  Returning home that night, she finds her home burned and her entire family gone -- victims of the German army, which has come to Ukraine in the Soviet invasion during World War II.  Nadya flees for her life with her sweetheart, Stephan, but tragedy separates the two of them, and Nadya makes the decision to continue on with her life and try to find happiness in her survival.  Fifty years later, Nadya is living in Chicago, Illinois with her husband, surrounded by children and grandchildren.  She appears to have a happy life, but she is still haunted by what she left behind in Ukraine, and the ghosts of her unhappy past, which she has never revealed to anyone in her family.  Spurred on by their whispers, Nadya begins to tell the tales of her life in the Ukraine, hoping that by letting go of the past, she will be able to finally move into the future.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  While I loved the history (the German invasion of the Soviet Union) and the traditions that Nadya tried to hard to keep alive with her family, I felt that the story jumped around a lot.  This might have been more a technical issue with the book (it was downloaded onto my Kindle, and I have found that sometimes there are typos or issues with spacing in Kindle books).  There weren't larger spaces between Nadya's memories and her real, present-day life, which could get confusing at times, especially since several of her children were named after people she had met when she lived in Ukraine.  Without the obvious change in font or space, it would be confusing for several lines before I would realize where and when that part of the story was taking place.  Nadya's memories and stories were much more interesting to me than her present-day life in Chicago -- which I suppose is to be expected, considering that in Chicago she was an old woman with a very peaceful life, so different from her violent past in Ukraine.  It also dragged a little bit in parts.  This book was short (only 312 pages) but it took me almost five days to read.  

I would recommend it to someone who really likes Soviet history, or Russian folklore, and who likes exploring the emotions of their main character.  That's really the majority of this book.

Rating: ***

Review: The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

My third Alison Weir book of the year!  With the 2011 Summer Book Challenge in full-swing, and waiting on some more books to come in, I jumped to one I have read before, to fulfill the "historical nonfiction" category.  And so here is the review for The Children of Henry VIII.

When King Henry VIII died in 1544, he left behind three talented, intelligent children to rule England, three children from three very different mothers and ways of life.  Mary, born to Henry's first wife, Katharine of Aragon: nervous, anxious, and piously Catholic.  Elizabeth, born to the infamous Anne Boleyn: beautiful, flirtatious, and cautious.  And Edward, the long-awaited legitimate son and heir: insensitive, brilliant, and a committed Protestant.  In the wings was Henry's intelligent and piously Protestant niece, the Lady Jane Grey, never desiring the crown yet having it thrust upon her to her own detriment. These four "children" (Mary veritably middle-aged, Elizabeth a teenager, and Edward and Jane only nine years old) were left to continue in their father's famous footsteps, but quickly discovered that differences of religion, combined with old rivalries never buried, would divide their paths and bring about tragedy.  

 

This book is the "sequel" to The Six Wives of Henry VIII (my review is the link), and continues through the next 14 years of the English monarchy.  Weir describes the juvenile reign of Edward VI, who ascended the throne at only 9 years of age and ruled for six years, turning England into a completely Protestant state and ruthlessly executing those who opposed him, even his relatives, and disinheriting his biological sisters in favor of his cousin, Jane Grey, who was a Protestant like he was.  Jane followed Edward, and won herself the title "the Nine-Days' Queen" in honor of her brief reign before Mary took control of England and took what she felt was her rightful place.  The next five years were devoted to Mary I's rule of England, the Counter-Reformation which turned England into a Catholic nation again, and won the soubriquet "Blood Mary" due to her fanatical burning of Protestants.

Weir's history is just as thorough as before, though unlike Six Wives, this reads more as a history book than as a novel.   I find the first half of the book, about Edward VI, less interesting than the other parts, although I am fascinated with the short and sad reign of Jane Grey and the sad and turbulent years of Mary I's rule.  The book ends with Elizabeth (her 45-year reign earned it's own sequel), which does inspire me to (finally) finish Weir's The Life of Elizabeth I...but I think it's time for a break, and to get to something more lighthearted and fictitious.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: Legacy by Susan Kay

Happy Fourth of July!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful, happy, safe Independence Day.  I spent the last three days in Massachusetts, visiting my in-laws and other friends.  It was a very happy, exciting weekend, and today I am spending quietly at home, waiting for H to get out of work.  Tonight: fireworks :)

And right now I am reviewing my 56th book of the year, and my first for the Summer Book Challenge: Legacy by Susan Kay.

Elizabeth Tudor was the second daughter of Henry VIII, born of the "infamous courtesan" Anne Boleyn, who was executed when Elizabeth was only four.  Susan Kay tells the story of Elizabeth's turbulent and unfortunate youth to the violent rules of her younger brother, King Edward VI, and elder sister, Queen Mary I.  She was crowned queen at only 25 years old, the first Protestant queen of England, and sought to unite the religious tensions that had split the nation since the rule of her father.  As the years pass, Elizabeth becomes known as a gracious, merciful ruler, who unites England and gives her people a sense of national identity.  But as Elizabeth discovers to her great dismay, the price of becoming a just, fair ruler and loving England is high, and may cost her the joy of personal love.

I first read Susan Kay's Phantom, the story of the life of the mythical "Phantom of the Opera", on the recommendation of a friend when I was in high school.  The book is one of my favorites, and when I discovered that Kay had written a historical fiction about the life of Elizabeth I, I jumped at the chance to read it.  Unfortunately, I was to be disappointed.

Don't get me wrong.  Legacy is a decent biography.  But therein lies the problem.  It is mainly biography, and there is very little in it that reads as historical fiction.  If you are a fan of Philippa Gregory (more talk than description) you are not going to enjoy this.  Consequently, on the flip side, if you are a fan of biographies with a lot of action, you are going to also be disappointed, as Legacy glosses over the more "exciting" points of Elizabeth's reign (such as Mary Queen of Scots and the defeat of the Armada), relegating them to simple descriptions over a small number of pages.  I feel as if Kay tried to make her book the best of both worlds, and ended up falling short on both accounts.

I was also confused by the subtitle, "The Beloved Novel of England's Most Passionate Queen -- And the Three Men Who Loved Her."  As a MA history student, I was fairly certain that I was sure who the first two would be.  Anyone who has seen the film Elizabeth knows that her "true love" was Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.  And within the first few chapters of Legacy, we read all about Elizabeth's teenage romance with Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron of Sudeley.  But even by the end of the book, I was left wondering who the third man was who was so entranced with Elizabeth?  Was it her loyal "Spirit" and right hand man, William Cecil, Lord Burghley?  Or was it her late-in-life favorite, Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex?  I have my theories, but the book unfortunately leaves much left unsaid.

However.  The writing style is good (just as good as Phantom, though she deals with tougher subject matter) and the theories about Elizabeth's mystical reign were intriguing.  The idea that Elizabeth gave up her wishes for marriage and children out of a logically-based favor of her country is an old and established one in biography, but seeing it in print in historical fiction is an interesting experience.  Also, I have to say: I loved the epilogue.  I guess I do have a romantic bone in my body somewhere, because I thought it tied everything together beautifully.

Rating: ***