Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Day Three with no power, and now for something completely different, Day One with no hot water!  *sigh*  Because we're in such an area of low importance, I have a feeling we won't get either back until at least the end of the week.  At least, I am trying to prepare myself for the disappointment of going home every day and finding the power still out.

A silver lining (there is one, I think) is that I am tearing through books faster than I can review them.  I actually finished this book on Sunday, and I've finished another besides.  So here it is -- Lauren Oliver's much-touted Delirium.

Lena Haloway is terrified of love.  Love is the disease that has been eradicated by her government -- all citizens receive "the cure" at age 18, and go on to live completely normal, healthy lives free of amor deliria nervosa.  Love is what drove her mother to commit suicide when Lena was only six.  Love casts a shadow over every aspect of life, every part of Lena's dystopian society.  Love is the last thing that Lena wants any part of.  But less than 50 days before her cure, Lena realizes that love is the one thing she can't live without.  And now she has to make a choice -- live a lie forever, a life without love, or leave behind everything that she knows.

After The Hunger Games and Divergent, I've been definitely riding the wave of dystopian YA literature.  Abandon, while not dystopian, was a complete bust, and so I was hoping that Delirium would renew my faith in YA lit.  It did.  I liked Delirium, unfortunately not as much as HG or Divergent, but I liked it nonetheless.

Lena, as a character, is interesting in her mediocrity.  She's no Bella Swan -- quick to tout her mediocrity, yet unable to explain why everyone loves her (I still don't get the attraction).  She's not Katniss Everdeen, superwoman and queen of survival.  And she's not Tris Prior, a rebel without a cause from the right side of the tracks, rushing headlong into conflict.  Lena is...plain.  She's not attractive.  Boys don't like her.  There's nothing "special" about her.  Her main concern, unlike Bella, unlike Katniss, unlike Tris, is being singled out.  If it was up to Lena, she'd be completely ordinary forever, as long as it guarantees that she won't fall into the same trap her mother did.


The theme of love as a mental illness is an interesting one.  Lena is terrified of becoming like her mother -- so blinded by amor deliria nervosa that the disease eventually took her life.  It's interesting to see a writer talk so candidly and go so in-depth with the story of a child's response to the mental illness of their parent, and the question, in the end, of if the mother is the one who is sane, and not the authorities, after all.


The turning point of the book, for me, was the climax at the end.  Up until that point, I wasn't sure if I'd actually read the sequel.  Not that Delirium was bad, but that I had pretty much assumed I knew how everything would go, only to have the end come as a surprise.  I don't know if I'll be reading the sequel, Pandemonium, but I wouldn't rule it out.  We'll see.


Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

Sometimes I get a hold of a novel that doesn't strike me as that alluring at first.  I don't have difficulty putting it down to do something else, I don't really "get into" the story.  And then all of a sudden, something happens, and I fall headlong into it, and wind up loving it.  That happened with The Pillars of the Earth, it happened with The Hunger Games.

And it happened with Daphne Kalotay's Russian Winter.

Boston, present day.  Nina Revskaya, a former ballerina and star of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet, now confined to a wheelchair, is auctioning off her priceless and legendary collection of jewels to benefit the arts.  In doing so, she hopes to finally close off the painful past, memories of the years before her defection from Stalinist Russia, once and for all.  Drew Brooks, the curious young woman who is in charge of setting up the auction, is fascinated by Nina's jewels and the history behind them, and wonders why she can't figure out Nina or her motives as she sets up the final sale of these priceless gems.  And when Grigori Solodin, a middle-aged professor of Russian studies, produces an amber pendant that appears to belong to the collection, all three are intrinsically linked in the uncovering of a mystery that changed the course of Nina's life -- and Grigori's.

First of all, this book has everything in it that I love.  Russian history.  Ballet.  Jewelry.  Poetry.  Boston.  There was really no way that I wasn't going to love it.  But the writing style was what sealed it for me.  Everything was so beautifully written, so well described.  My favorite parts were Nina's flashback episodes, which take up the majority of the book.  Kalotay really paints a vivid picture of life as a ballerina during the Stalinist regime -- living as one of the elite in a period where so many people were poor and had nothing, the balance between being fortunate and being afraid of the fall.  There is so much that we in the West still don't know about life in the Eastern Bloc, behind the Iron Curtain of communism, during the reigns of Stalin, Kruschev, etc.

Although Nina is not overtly made a sympathetic character, I had to pity her so many times throughout the novel.  She has made mistakes and lived to regret them, but feels that now, fifty years later and across the ocean, it is too late for her to redeem herself.  I love novels with a theme of redemption, and I loved Russian Winter.  Another five-star, and one of my favorite books of 2011.

Rating: *****

Surviving Irene

Aaaannnnd looks like we're back!  Unfortunately my apartment is still without power (one of only three houses on our block without power...*sigh*), but we never lost water, which is something to be thankful for.  And of course, we're okay.  My parents are okay; no trees fell on their house, and all we suffered are a few downed branches and some loose shingles.  But we're okay, and that's what matters.  So regardless of David's moaning (all of his interests are electronic-based), we are fine, and hopefully the power will be back on soon.

So how did I spend Hurricane Irene?  Saturday was my cousin Melinda's wedding (finally; they've been engaged for over two years now!), and although it was nail-biting (the weather was kind of rough that morning), they still had a beautiful wedding!

Melinda's father, my godfather, John, died in 2007 of a heart attack, so she was escorted down the aisle by her two gorgeous daughters, Lauryn and Shealin. 

 

These two were made for each other.  I was so happy for them.

The much-talked of zombie wedding cake!  The cake topper is a groom running away from a zombie bride.

Me and my handsome husband :)  I got my hair cut just the day before and I love it.  It's so short and spunky.

My new favorite picture of the two of us.

Saturday night was more or less the same ol', same ol'.  We didn't lose power until early on Sunday morning, so we both took advantage of the hurricane (and lack of internet) and slept in.  I got a lot of reading done (reviews to come), and David...was really bored.

We ended up going to my parents' house for dinner (since they had a grill and we could get a hot meal).  And my father's birthday was on Saturday, so we celebrated it on Sunday instead.  When Dave and I got home, we were still without power...and still are this morning.  Boo.  Hopefully the food in our fridge won't spoil before the electric company gets the power running again!

How did all of you do?  Everyone alive out there?

Safety Third! Taking Precautions While Fire Spinning

My friend Matt is a fire spinner, has been for several years.  As a joke, stitched into his Duvetyne cloth (the flame-retardant cloth spinners use to put out errant flames) are the words "Safety Third"  (I asked what first and second are; he told me "audience" and "performance").  Cute joke, but in all honesty, safety is really crucial when fire spinning.  

As my friend Joe says, burns are somewhat of an "occupational hazard" (like any of us are getting paid for this -- though I do know some people who do...).  Most times, burns don't go beyond singeing your hair or eyebrows, if you are careful and have a safety spotting you at all times.  There are several steps you can take to assure that you are as safe as possible while fire spinning.

1) Wear natural materials -- no polyester.  As any knitter will tell you, polyester or acrylic yarn (and fabric) is not naturally flame-retardant (unless it has been treated).  When a natural material like wool or cotton catches on fire, it will catch slowly, and wool will often self-extinguish (not that you'll be giving it enough time to).  Acrylic and other plastic-based materials will melt and adhere to the skin -- which is very painful and requires professional removal from medical personnel.  And it hurts.  Wear cottons, linens, wools, denims -- any natural fabric.

2)  Limit the use of alcohol-based sprays and aerosols.  This includes hairspray, mousse, perfumes, and some bug sprays.  All of these are combustible, so if you're piling them on before fire spinning, you run the risk of igniting yourself.

3) "Spin-off" your performance articles after dipping them in fuel.  Often, when you dip the wicks into the fuel, the wicks soak up much more fuel than necessary.  To eliminate excess fuel, spin your performance object very quickly (I usually put one finger through the hole handle of my fan and spin it very fast), so you can either see (or feel) the fuel spinning off it.  This will eliminate the risk of fuel dripping down the object to your hands or skin.

4) Always have a safety.  Your safety should be someone who stands a few feet away from you with a flame-retardant cloth (about 2' by 2') and who keeps his or her eyes on you at all times throughout your performance, in case a trick goes awry and you catch something on fire.  If the safety sees errant flames, he or she should yell "DOWN" (not "FIRE" for obvious reasons), which will be the sign for you to immediately drop whatever performance article you have.  The safety will then use the cloth to first extinguish any flames on your person, and then (if necessary) extinguish the flames on the performance article.  Never spin without a safety.  Even when you are just practicing in your own back yard.  David and I take turns.

5) Always spin fire outdoors and away from pets or children.  This should go without saying, I know.  Keep all pets either tethered or held a safe distance away, and keep children away.  I have never spun in front of children before, but I have spun in front of animals, and you'd be surprised how many dogs think that fire spinning is SO AWESOME.  Or they think their masters are in danger and try to run to them.  It's best to not spin with animals there until you know how they're going to react to the flames...and even then, have them on a leash or tether for their own protection.

6) Know your props/fire toys, and choose accordingly.  When first learning how to spin, it is nice to start with a "stationary" toy, such as a fan or a staff, that has no movable parts.  In layman's terms, when you light the wicks of a fan, or a staff, they stay a continuous distance from your body.  Where you spin the fire, it will stay.  However, if you are using fire poi (wicks on the ends of dangling chains), you have less control over where you are spinning your fire.  I had a friend this past weekend at Wildfire light himself on fire with his poi, and he's been spinning for over a year now.  Start small.

From FireMecca.com

6a) LED toys are your friends!  If you don't think you're ready to spin fire (good for you for listening to your inner voice!), but you still want to spin, LED toys are definitely your friends.  LED toys are like regular toys, except that they have LED lights built-in.  You can get some ridiculously pretty results using LED props -- one of my favorite things this weekend was a "fire and ice" hoop, which had both LED lights and fire wicks.  The result looked like the picture to the right.  Awesome, no?

LED toys are great for learning how to spin, or spinning in places where fire is not welcome (such as your rented apartment backyard, if you don't happen to have a sympathetic landlord, or indoors).  You get beautiful results, it looks badass, you can practice to your heart's content, and you don't run the risk of hurting yourself or others.

Finally...7) Ask for help!  If you want to get into fire spinning, but you're not sure how to start, ask a fellow spinner!  Seriously, I don't know anyone who spins fire that doesn't want to help other people get involved and see how cool and fun it really is.  I joined a FB group yesterday for spinners in my home state (Connecticut), and someone else posted that she wanted to learn fire breathing.  Within minutes, two people had jumped in and commented that they'd be happy to help her learn. 

Stick to all of the above, and you'll be well on your way to spinning safely!

Wildfire recap!

Wildfire was AMAZING.  I can't stress that enough.  Although I'm not a camper (and I REALLY hate the way that dew makes everything in your tent, including your sleeping bag and pillows damp), it was still the most fun I've had in a long time.  And I can't wait to go back next year.  There's another WF in September, but Dave and I can't afford it and to be honest, as much fun as it is, you come off the weekend feeling like you just took a ride on the world's biggest roller coaster.  Fun times, but you need a little while to recover afterward.

The whole thing takes place at a Boy Scout camp, so I was a little disconcerted when I walked in at first.  It reminded me way too much of the music camp that Kim and I went to when I was 15 -- which was terrible (mean, stupid people; I got the campsite a metric MILE away from base camp; everyone got sick or dehydrated; one of our friends was a douchebag the whole week; etc).  But this camp (thankfully) had plumbing, including flushing toilets and real showers, even if everything else was relatively primitive.  Dave chose to pitch our tent in the wooded area, which again, not my favorite place to be (reminded me too much of music camp).  Next time we go, we'll camp down on the main field with most of our friends.

The thing I hadn't anticipated at WF is the laid-back, comfort level of everyone.  Everyone hugs you.  Everyone says hi.  Nobody acts like a douchebag.  It's kind of amazing.  But it was weird at first.  I had a little bit of an uncomfortable moment when the fifth person I didn't know gave me a hug.  I am not used to being touched that often, and I had a little bit of an anxiety attack once I was alone.  But I got used to it.

  There ARE no superiors at WF, there are only organizers.  The teachers teach some classes and then go on to take some others, so everyone is on equal footing.  Everyone is required to do four volunteer hours (I helped cook lunch on Saturday and breakfast on Monday) to offset the costs of the retreat.  Cooking was a lot of fun, but tiring -- it's a LOT of work to feed 300 people!

I took a LOT of classes.  The classes took place in the main field and in the tents on the field.  This is also where we would spin fire in the evenings, once it got dark.  The field was clearly marked out by burning lamps and huge braziers, which is where we got fire for our fire toys.  You can't really see it from this picture.  This is daytime, so everyone was either taking a class or practicing what they had learned.





Dave wanted to only take classes that had to do with fire staff.  He wants to get proficient in one area of expertise.  On the other hand, I took classes in spinning poi (more fun than I expected), hoop (AMAZING), choreography for fan spinning (I learned how to do a thumb roll on the handles of my fans -- maybe a video to come if Dave and I can figure out how to work the video on the camera) and belly dance (my abs are still tingly!).  All of them were a lot of fun, but my body is SORE after this weekend!



This is my friend Lyndsey (the one who got us into spinning), spinning her unlit staff on Friday afternoon before dinner.  The circle of benches over there was where we congregated for our "newbie meeting", which basically explained what was going to happen during the weekend and how we were not to spin fire until we took a safety class on Friday night.



We were blessed with extraordinary good weather -- it only rained on Sunday evening, which was unfortunate because it meant that the Performance Class took place in the dining hall instead of in the amphitheater, so nobody could perform with fire.  It was super hot on Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday (see Dave above, drinking water), but Monday was beautiful.  Also, you're probably noticing that a lot of guys are shirtless?  No guys wear shirts at WF.  I don't know why.  It's just the way they roll.  Dave decided to become one of the shirtless guys and paid for it with a super bad sunburn.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

I came home sore, exhausted, slightly burnt (on my nose), but it was the most fun weekend away I've had in a LONG time.  We're planning on going again -- maybe next May, around David's birthday.  They have three Wildfire retreats a year -- in May, August, and September -- but we can't afford to go to all three, or even two a year.  It was an amazing weekend, and I can't wait to do it again.

Review: The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner

While I am a self-professed avid fan of English or British historical fiction, this book, number 70 for the year, is my first foray into French historical fiction, though it takes place around the same period of time as many of my Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory novels:  The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, by C.W. Gortner.

Last in line of the once-prestigious, now-reviled Italian Medici family, Catherine is only a girl when she is betrothed to the dauphin of France.  Forced to make her home in a strange country, given in marriage to a prince who openly keeps a mistress, it is years before Catherine is able to carve out a life for herself and her children, desperate to ensure her destiny and their legacies.  But she is beset by enemies from all sides -- the Protestant Huguenots, who struggle for equality and acceptance; the Guise family, who want to see the existing monarchy topple; and even the ones she loves.  And Catherine must use everything in her power to keep her crown, and her life.  

This is the story of France's most notorious queen before Marie Antoinette.  Catherine de Medici is almost constantly reviled for the dark decadence that surrounded her reign, and is well known for ruling the country through her sons with an iron fist.  Her lifetime is noted as one of the darkest times in French history (obviously before the French Revolution), involving wars of succession and religion.  Catherine has been accused of witchcraft -- she was a patroness of astrologers and particularly of the mystic Nostradamus -- and there are few tragedies during her lifetime that were not attributed to her, directly or indirectly.

Yet it is difficult to hate Catherine in this telling of her story.  In the afterward, author Gortner says that she struggled to look beyond the evil reputation that surrounded de Medici to find a sympathetic character underneath.  The incredible tragedies of Catherine's lifetime include the deaths of eight of her children -- only two survived her -- and an often brutal war for religious tolerance.  During a time in history where religious persecution was rampant and the Inquisition was wreaking terrible cruelty in Spain, Catherine de Medici struggled for the first part of her life to keep religious intolerance at bay.  Yet she is blamed as the ringleader of the terrible St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of French Protestants, although there is no direct tie between her and the orders.  Gortner struggles to make Catherine a character that the reader does not despise, trying to show her obvious motivations of keeping her sons alive and her title intact.

The book is very good, and the further I got into it, the more difficult it was to put it down.  While the names became difficult to keep straight at times (there are so many Francois and Henris!), it was a compelling story.  I didn't manage to feel quite 100% sympathetic towards Catherine -- I felt at times like Gortner was modeling her after The Lion In Winter's Eleanor of Aquitaine: scheming and manipulating her children onto the throne, whatever the cost may be.  But whatever her motives or disposition, she makes a compelling and fascinating heroine.

Rating: ****

Review: Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

While David and I were visiting our good friends, Lyndsey and Joe, the other night (the same two people who taught us how to fire spin), I was looking over Lyndsey's book collection and realized that she had allll four of the books of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles!  Having read only book one (Dealing with Dragons) before, I asked if I could borrow book two.  Lyndsey was kind enough to lend me the remaining three books of the series.  Since they are short and snappy, I started and finished book two today!

Searching for Dragons takes place one year after Dealing with Dragons ends.  Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest, is fed up with royal protocol and being nagged to marry.  So he takes the day off and escapes into the Enchanted Forest, only to discover that someone has been stealing magic from the Forest itself, and framing the dragons of the Mountains of Morning for the theft.  When he goes to ask the King of the Dragons, Kazul, for advice, he encounters the Cimorene, the most unlikely princess in the world, who tells him that Kazul is missing.  Together, Mendanbar and Cimorene take an adventure through the Enchanted Forest itself, to find Kazul and the thieves before the magic is sucked from the Enchanted Forest forever.

Maybe it is my extreme devotion to Dealing, but I didn't like this book half as much.  I think it might be because Mendanbar is the star of the story, and not Cimorene, the heroine of book one.  Mendanbar is a nice enough guy, but he's not as gutsy and plucky as Cimorene, and he doesn't appeal to me as much.  The plot of the story moves faster than Dealing did, as well.  It's not difficult to follow, it's just not as interesting IMO, especially since you know from the get-go (especially if you read the first book) who the culprits are, whereas in Dealing, the perpetrators remain a mystery until the end of the book.

It's a good second novel, and I'm planning on reading books three and four shortly.

Rating: ***

Review: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

After the travesty that was Abandon, I needed a palate-cleanser (can you blame me?).  And having been left with a cliffhanger after reading The White Queen, I was eager to pick up it's sequel, Phillippa Gregory's The Red Queen.

As the heiress of the Lancaster family and cousin to King Henry VI, Margaret Beaufort is raised from birth to believe that she is destined for greatness.  Exceptionally pious, she thinks herself holy and that God speaks to her of his great intentions for her, and for her son, Henry Tudor.  But when the weak king of England is overthrown by members of the rival House of York, Margaret throws herself headlong into a fight for the crown that will forever go down in history as the Wars of the Roses.  Only one house can win.  Margaret is determined it will be hers.

This is not a terrible book.  As with The White Queen, Gregory displays commendable research and very descriptive battle sequences.  The book is not a sequel so much as a counterpart of the The White Queen -- it tells the same story from a different point of view.  Margaret Beaufort is the Red Queen to Elizabeth Woodville's White.  The characters are similar from the start: both are strong-minded women, fiercely loving mothers, each with an ambitious streak a mile wide that gives her the courage to push her son on the throne, above all else.

But again, the repetition.  In The White Queen, we heard Elizabeth wax endlessly about her supposed lineage from the goddess Melusina and her powers of witchcraft.  In The Red Queen, our heroine, Lady Margaret Beaufort, will kill you with ceaseless repetition of sanctity, piety, and the legend of Joan of Arc.  Though Margaret doesn't believe she is descended from Joan (the two were contemporaries), she is inspired by her story...and you will read about it on every other page.

The massive flaw in this book isn't even the repetition though.  It's the leading lady and narrator.  Margaret Beaufort is -- and there's no nice way of saying this -- completely unlikeable.  Although she prides herself on being holy, having the ear of God, and having "saint's knees" (what the hell?), Margaret's biggest fan is Margaret, and you know it.  She constantly sings her own praises, starting at age six when she believes that she, like Joan of Arc, is beloved of God and special (why does nobody realize it though?  Poor Margaret), and continuing throughout the book to the end.  She is pretentious, stiff-necked, arrogant, and rude.  Although she faces a similar plight as Elizabeth Woodville, her counterpart, in The White Queen (both women are separated from their beloved sons), it is impossible to feel sympathy for Margaret; she makes herself completely unsympathetic!

Finally, my last complaint:  Spoilers here for those of you who haven't read either book and who don't know 15th century English history.

Why didn't Gregory finish the book?  At the end of The White Queen, Elizabeth Woodville is reunited with her son Richard, who has been living in exile this whole time, and has returned to her under the alias "Perkin Warbeck."  The book ends on that note, and I figured that Richard-alias-Perkin's fate would be addressed at the end of The Red Queen.  NOPE.  Nothing.  And so the hapless reader, who is unaware of who Perkin Warbeck was and what happened to him, is left wondering how that whole side plot turned out.  I thought Gregory took an interesting turn by hypothesizing that Perkin the pretender really WAS Richard.  But why cut off that meaty little bit to the story?  It makes no sense.

All in all, I wasn't really disappointed.  I neither liked nor disliked The Red Queen.  It certainly wasn't as bad as The Boleyn Inheritance, but I'm afraid it fell short of its prequel.

Rating: ** and 1/2

Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

I have long professed my dislike for the Twilight series.  I don't like it.  I've tried it, and I just don't like it.  In fact, my dislike of the Twilight series ran so deep that for awhile, I gave up YA literature.  Well, that was a stupid decision, and I've since amended it, and I've read a LOT of YA fiction this year.  When I heard the Meg Cabot had a new book out, Abandon, I decided to pick up a copy and give it a try.  Years ago, I ate up her Princess Diaries series.  I figured I'd like this too.

Wrong.  So wrong.

Abandon markets itself as a darker tale of Hades and Persephone -- the Greek god of the Underworld and the young girl he kidnapped and made his queen.  Our heroine, Pierce Oliviera, has been to the Underworld before.  She died a year and a half earlier in a freak drowning accident.  And while she was there, she met John, who gave her a beautiful necklace to "protect her from evil."  Pierce, frightened, ran away from John, managed to escape the Underworld ,and returned to the land of the living.  But her life didn't go back to the way it was before the accident, and after too many incidents, Pierce is forced to return to her mother's homeland of Isla Huesos, the "Island of Bones", Florida, where darkness and evil seem to follow her wherever she goes.  Pierce knows that she escaped death once, but Death wants her back, and she isn't sure she'll be able to escape again.

*sigh*  Okay.

First.  The character of Pierce (the name, OMG, I realize it's supposed to be a throwback to "Persephone" but dear God).  If you like Bella Swan, or any other "heroine" who gets herself into stupid situations and suddenly finds herself rescued by an overbearing male suitor, congratulations, here's Pierce Oliviera.  It really makes me want to cry that this generation of teens "relates" to this type of literary character.  Pierce died.  I get it, that sucks.  I think it would especially suck to be fifteen years old and find out what happens when you die.  But for the first half of the book, Pierce's mental meanderings (I can't call them "thoughts") went along the lines of What does it matter?  Why do all these other peons think that anything they do in this life means anything?  We're all just going to die anyway.  In short, Pierce is that teenage emo wannabe goth that sat in the corner of the cafeteria not talking to anyone and cried during classes in high school.  Why are we glorifying this again? 

When she's not talking about how useless life is or emo-ing about her trip to the Underworld and back, Pierce is incredibly shallow, narcissistic, and stupid.  She doesn't know who Homer is (the Greek writer, not Simpson) and she doesn't know any Greek mythology, which most of us learned in elementary school (Pierce is supposed to be 17 and a senior in high school).  But it's okay, because John's mysterious necklace will protect Pierce from evil, so naturally, anything terrible that happens to anyone else is obviously HER FAULT for not stopping it.  So when she thinks she can "help" somebody, she puts herself in danger (so John comes swooping in yet again all Edward Cullen-like to save her AGAIN), and causes damage that WOULD be irreparable, except that Pierce's daddy is a multi-billionaire (what?).  So Daddy can just write a seven-figure check and get her out of all of it!  Tee-hee!  *headdesk*

Then we have John, our brooding and devilishly (pun intended) handsome male lead, who is just...too Edward Cullen.  Except that Cabot exchanged ten million references to bronze eyes into ten million references to silver eyes.  Sweet.  And unlike Edward Cullen, he spends the majority of the story trying to bring Pierce back to the Underworld, instead of pushing her away.  Admittedly, I thought in the beginning that this would be a nice change of pace.  But the two characters have zero chemistry for 90% of the book, and that 10% is supposed to make the reader believe that they are meant to be?  I realize that teenage relationships are supposed to be rushed and insipid, but come on.

All of the other characters (besides John and Pierce) are flat and one-dimensional.  And I couldn't get it up to care about any of them.  Close to the climax of the book, one of the characters dies.  And not a single fuck was given that day.  Seriously.

Second.  The writing.  I understand that Abandon is supposed to be Book One of a trilogy.  But there is no story arc.  This is the first book of a trilogy that I ever read that couldn't stand alone at all.  Nothing is resolved at the end of the book.  Everything is left hanging.  There are so many side-plots that it is impossible to follow everything.  Everyone in Pierce's family has a hidden agenda -- but you don't find out what any of them are, or how any of them relate to the main plot of the story.  The climax is truly unbelievable, and didn't make me excited to find out what was going to happen next.  The story fizzled out at the end.

The chronology of this book is one gigantic tangle.  The narrator, our "heroine" Pierce, jumps around so many times it's like reading a story written by someone with untreated ADHD.  The story jumped from present-day, to past-tense, to present-day, to WAY-past-tense, and back again.  It didn't give me time to really wrap my brain around what was going on.  Cabot doesn't give the reader a chance to really envision what is going on in the story, what the setting is, any subtleties.  It's just a whack on the head and THIS IS THE UNDERWORLD.  Okay.

I'm irritated that I spent the money on this book.  I'm mad because it's yet another YA novel glorifying the emo, nancing teenage heroine and the brooding, overprotective male hero.  The starting premise was interesting and showed some promise; I'm tempted to say that Cabot could have salvaged this book with another read-through and some heavy editing.  But I don't think that's going to happen with the sequel, Underworld, and I have doubts that I'm going to read it and find out.

Rating: *

Wildfire: Eleven days to go!

I'm going to my first Wildfire Retreat next weekend in Ashford, CT, and though I could not be more excited for it, I am nervous and feel like there is still way too much left to do!  (Such as find coverage for that Monday...).  A whole weekend of spinning classes, training, performing, etc. is making me jump out of my skin.  Tonight I'm going with David to visit some friends of ours, the same two that got us into fire spinning in the first place, just to some practicing (unlit, since it gets dark so late these days).  They're preparing us for what the weekend is going to entail and what we need to bring.

Before Wildfire, I still have to obtain the following:

- A tent (we might be borrowing one from our friends -- must find that out soon)

- Mattress pad or air mattress (might be able to borrow from our parents)

- Bug spray

- Flashlight

- Two canteens or other drinking containers

David is off tomorrow and Thursday, so he said that he would go procure anything we don't have at that point.  Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow if we can borrow the tent, or if we have to buy one.

The final class list is out, and these are the following classes that I am (hopefully) going to be taking during Wildfire:

Poi for the Complete Beginner OR Beginning Hoop (I haven't decided and probably won't until that day)

Introductory Fire Fans

Intro to Fan Tech

Fan Choreography

Fan Figures: Spinning with Shapes

How to Spin to Music

Can you see why I can't wait now?  Eleven more days!

Review: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Before you ask...no.  I don't know.  I don't know why I keep coming back to Philippa Gregory, after I admitted my problems with her after reading The Other Boleyn Girl, and then was completely disgusted by The Boleyn Inheritance.  I have no excuse for my hypocrisy, either.  Blame it on a ridiculous devotion to historical fiction?  A passionate interest in the Wars of the Roses?  In any case, it's sufficient to say that I have absolutely no excuse for myself, and I bring you book 66 for the year: The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory.

Elizabeth Woodville is a beautiful widow with little more on her mind than securing her dead husband's inheritance for her two sons.  But she catches the eye and the affections of Edward IV, the king of England and head of the house of York, who marries her hastily and makes her his queen.  Quick to take advantage of her new power and prestige, Elizabeth puts her family members in high places and snubs the House of Lancaster, Edward IV's rivals for the crown.  But when her husband dies suddenly, and with the Wars of the Roses still swirling about her, Elizabeth realizes that the bill for her actions as queen has come with a vengeance.  The price is too high, and it may just cost her her crown, her throne, and her two priceless sons.

I never thought I would say this, but here, finally, is a novel that made me actually respect Philippa Gregory.  MARK IT DOWN, because I haven't read the sequel, The Red Queen, yet, and my opinion may change!  But here and now, with this book, I feel that Gregory has finally broken free of the historical bodice-ripper genre, and into some hardcore historical fiction.  This is the first time that I finished a Gregory book wanting to read more.

Another reviewer on Goodreads scoffed, "Here is a thought that has probably never occurred to anyone while reading a Philippa Gregory novel: You know what this book needs? More politics!"  I respectfully 100% disagree!  Having read TOBG and The Boleyn Inheritance, I picked up this book with some eye-rolling, and sighing, expecting another fluffy Harlequin novel with some historical facts thrown in.  But no.  This is an embroidered tale of the Wars of the Roses, the only time in English history when two rival houses, York (white) and Lancaster (red) fought brutally for the crown.  The battle scenes are real.  This is true history, and Gregory obviously has done her homework.

The character of Elizabeth Woodville (or Wydville, depending on your history texts) is captivating.  I still can't decide if I like or dislike her, but I'm leaning toward the latter.  She holds the place in history as the first commoner ever to be elevated to the crown as Queen, and the concept of a youthful king marrying a common subject for love is romantic to the core.  History tells that Elizabeth was the daughter of a woman convicted of witchcraft, and many of her contemporaries believed that Elizabeth seduced Edward IV by mystical means.  Gregory, true to form, elaborates on these rumors, not always in the most believable manners, but certainly making a compelling story.

Gregory's nemesis, once again, is her repetition.  Elizabeth's mother, and Elizabeth herself, believe that they are descended from the French mermaid goddess, Melusina, from whom they believe they draw their powers.  An interesting note, if it was not drummed into your head every other page.  We get it, Philippa: enough already.  There is some historical inaccuracy (which I've come to expect) -- one reviewer pointed out that Gregory has Elizabeth Woodville living in Nonsuch Palace, which was built years after her death by King Henry VIII.  And several of the male characters (Edward IV, Richard III) who should have been at the forefront of the story, are relegated to mere bit parts, and bland ones at that.  Though it was a nice change to not have the men gagging all over their women and making insipid declarations of love, I will admit.

Still, I have to admit that I was impressed, and this is the first time I have really been impressed with a book by Philippa Gregory.  TOBG was good, but clearly a work of fiction from the midpoint on (Mary Boleyn was never allowed back to court after her banishment) and The Boleyn Inheritance was boring, trite, and ridiculously fabricated in places.  But I liked this book, I really did.  Congratulations, Philippa, you have raised my expectations.  Here's hoping that The Red Queen doesn't bring them back down again.

Rating: *** and 1/2 

Review: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Confession: I have a soft spot for faerie tales.  I don't read them very often, but I do love them.  This book, number 65, is one of my favorites from my pre-teen years.  I managed to snag a copy for $3 the other day, re-read it, and realized how much I still love it.  Number 65 for the year is Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.

Princess Cimorene, of the Kingdom of Linderwall, feels as if her title is a prison sentence.  She's too tall for her age, she's opinionated, and she's a dreadful trial to her royal parents, since she would rather fence and cook than learn embroidery and etiquette.  She tries to take it all in stride, but when her parents betroth her to a dimwitted prince whom she cannot love, Cimorene takes her future into her own hands -- and runs away.  She takes the drastic step of volunteering to be a "dragon's princess" -- a title usually reserved for those princesses who are kidnapped by dragons -- and amuses herself by cataloging treasure, conjugating Latin, and cooking cherries jubilee for her mistress, the dragon Kazul.  But when she discovers a plot concocted by the dragons' sworn enemies, Cimorene must use her wits and skills to save the dragons' throne, and their lives.

To me, this book is one of the only true "feminist" faerie tales.  Cimorene is the world's most badass princess -- she's got survival skills, she's gutsy, and most importantly, she's independent.  She doesn't want to be rescued, and there's no need for her to be rescued; she's got everything she needs and wants already.  Wrede created the "Enchanted Forest Chronicles" to be a world unto itself, but it's very tongue-in-cheek, with the constant message of "the way that faerie tales are supposed to be, isn't always the best way."  Cimorene is a princess, but she's the only one with sense, much as Morwen the witch is the most powerful witch in the Enchanted Forest, but she's young, attractive redhead with a feisty, no-nonsense attitude.  The idea that "sometimes different is better" rings throughout this book, and I like it.  I very much look forward to reading this book to my children someday.

Rating: **** and 1/2

Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I'm on a bit of a Harry Potter kick lately (you don't say, Meg?) so I apologize, and I promise that the next book will NOT be HP.  But having finished book 7, and film 7.5, I wanted to go back to the beginning while it was all fresh in my memory, and see the differences between the start and the finish of the series.  And so book 64 for the year was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Seven years before the Epic Final Battle...Harry Potter doesn't know any magic.  He's not even famous (well he is, but he doesn't know it yet).  He hasn't got a clue what he's doing, or where he's going.  He's an orphan who has lived with his mean-tempered uncle and aunt and his bullying cousin ever since his parents died when he was one.  But when Harry Potter turns eleven years old, a mysterious visitor tells him the truth: that he is a wizard, he's just been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and his parents were not killed in a car crash as he was told, but murdered by the most feared and evil wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort.

Re-reading Sorcerer's Stone after so many years (I first read it in 1999, when I was 16 years old) was like a breath of fresh air (excuse the cliche), especially after seeing how everything ends in Deathly Hallows.  Harry is still young and naive, has low self-esteem, and lacks the "hero complex" that a lot of people say he has in the latter books.  It's funny to see Ron and Hermione as their pre-teen selves as well: Ron is still a scrappy little redhead with an inferiority complex, and Hermione is a bossy know-it-all who hasn't learned to reign it in for diplomacy's sake yet.

The plot is much more subtle as well.  I feel that in later books, J.K. Rowling hits you over the head with plot points, or becomes repetitive.  In Sorcerer's Stone, the villain is much more subtly revealed, and I like that.  I like how Rowling doesn't reveal too much about Harry's past, or what makes him special in the books to come.  It's definitely written for a younger audience, but that is really what made Harry Potter so appealing -- he grew up as we did.

Rating: ****

Harry Potter and the DH, Part II -- some thoughts on the end

Well, it's finally over.  Harry and the crew have rung down the curtain on the epic series that pretty much changed pop culture from the 1990s until now.  And David and I went to the theatre (bargain night Tuesdays -- $2.50 off tickets) last night and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II.  So in the same vein as I wrote about Part I, I wanted to sum up my experience and my feelings about Part II.

Again, spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet.

I will say that I was exceptionally pleased that the scriptwriters kept as close to the book as possible in Part II.  After cutting the book into two films, they had plenty of time to write in everything.  Very little was cut, and I liked that.

However.  There were some huge changes that I wasn't expecting at all in Part II.  So I'll start out my review with the things I disliked, rather than the things I liked, in order to keep this review positive.

What I Disliked About Part II

- Important deaths glossed over.  This was an issue for me in Part I, too.  We only see the Weasley family sobbing over the body of one of the completely-indistinguishable-from-each-other twins.  There is a brief moment later when Neville (?  I think?) says who it was...but if you blink, you miss it.  Also, the death of Remus and Tonks is completely omitted -- but that was in keeping with the book, so I'm not entirely surprised.

- The omission of Ariana Dumbledore.  The side story about Dumbledore's youth, his battle with Gellert Grindlewald, and especially his family -- Aberforth and Ariana -- was such a crucial part of the book.  I was upset that the filmmakers chose to omit it.  Also, the scene in "King's Cross" with Harry and Dumbledore was drastically altered, which also saddened me.  I felt that this would give Dumbledore's character a little meat.

- The "final battle" and the aftermath.  *sigh*  I don't understand why the filmmakers wanted to put Voldemort and Harry off someplace remote for their "final battle".  I don't understand why, after eight movies, that crucial scene was so rushed.  I didn't get why they omitted the explanation for why Voldemort's wand didn't work until after the scene was over.  Just...does not compute.

- "19 Years Later".  Or, as David whispered to me in the theatre, "More like 19 months later."  Though, I have to admit, the "epilogue" was better in the film than in the book.  Probably because of the lack of shitty writing.  But why does Ron have an enormous beer gut?  Why?

Enough of the negativity.  Let me talk about the good parts.

What I Liked About Part II

-  Snape, Snape, Severus Snape.  OMG, Alan Rickman.  Absolutely amazing.  He played his part to the hilt, and brought me as close to tears as I have ever come watching Harry Potter.  He delivered the flashback scenes exactly like I had predicted.  Just...perfect.

- Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) pretending to be Hermione.  I mentioned in my review of Part I how I enjoyed characters pretending to be other characters (under the Polyjuice Potion).  But I loved Carter as Hermione.  Brilliant.

- Small redemption for Draco.  Not shown in the book, and admittedly it was a change, but I liked Harry and Draco's confrontation in the Room of Requirement.  In the book, it's Draco trying to stop Harry.  In the movie, it's Draco trying to get his wand back.  You see a hint of humanity in Draco -- though I would have liked to see it fleshed out.  Though, as I mentioned before...in J.K. Rowling's world, there is no room for snakes, or people who like them.  Ever.

- Neville-FREAKIN'-Longbottom.  Oh.  My.  God.  I love this kid.  I love the development of his character throughout the seven books -- especially after Book Five, when he begins to really cultivate his skills -- and I love seeing him come to life in the movies.  His unprecedented display of badassery, at the exact moment when it counted, makes this movie (and the book) wonderful.  The only other thing I can say about it is what someone on my FB feed said in a status update a month ago: Chuck Norris' Patronus is Neville Longbottom.  'Nuff said.

The film was good.  I'm sad to see the series end.  Although, considering that J.K. Rowling is about to launch the "Pottermore" website, I have a feeling she's going to be milking this cash cow for a good long while.

Review: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

William Goldman's The Princess Bride is one of those books that every child of the 1980's should read.  Well, IMO, everyone should read it regardless of when they were born, but especially those of us who were young when the movie starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright came out.  The movie is everything that a good fantasy/adventure film should be -- with the fencing, kidnapping, beautiful princess, handsome rogue, villainous prince, Cliffs of Insanity, Pit of Despair (called the Zoo of Death in the book), etc. etc. etc.  The book, if possible, has more.

Summary: The most beautiful woman in the world is a teenager named Buttercup, who has spent the majority of her lifetime avoiding male interest and taunting the family farm boy, Westley.  After a chance encounter leaves Buttercup jealous, she realizes that she is in love with Westley, and tells him.  Westley confesses that he loves her too, but that he must leave to make his fortune before he can marry her.  Whilst seeking this fortune, Westley's ship is captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who never leaves prisoners alive.  Buttercup is devastated and vows never to love again.  Of course, the most beautiful woman in the world can't avoid marriage forever, and Buttercup receives a proposal from Prince Humperdinck, the greatest hunter in the world: marry him and provide him with a son, or die in terrible pain.  Buttercup agrees to a loveless marriage, and goes off to become queen.  But she is kidnapped by three men who wish to harm her...and then by the mysterious man in black...and that is really only the beginning.

 I'm going to do my  best to describe the writing technique employed by Goldman, but I'm going to fail miserably, considering that I tried to explain it to David the other day and left him thoroughly confused.

Goldman is not writing the typical fairy novel -- this isn't J.R.R. Tolkein, where the world he creates is just that, and there's nothing else.  Goldman writes the book as an abridgment -- giving credit for the original story to the fictitious writer S. Morgenstern, and claiming that the original story was writing as a long-winded satire, which he only discovered after his son tried desperately to muddle through the book and got hopelessly bored.  In the prologue, Goldman writes that his father read The Princess Bride to him when he was recovering from pneumonia, always skipping through the dry sections and only reading "the good parts."  Goldman has created this fictitious author and backstory in order to frame the real Princess Bride fairy tale -- which he himself invented.

(Confused?  I know I was for quite some time.  I'm not even going to admit how long it took me to realize that "S. Morgenstern" wasn't a real person, and that The Princess Bride unabridged version didn't exist.  It's embarrassing.)

A lot of people on Goodreads complain about Westley and Buttercup's relationship in the book, as opposed to the movie.  I have to say that I agree with them in passages.  For example, in the film, Westley threatens to backhand Buttercup during a fight -- bad enough -- but in the book, he literally slaps her.  Granted, William Goldman is writing about an era when "wife-beating" was prevalent, but still -- someone reading in this day and age doesn't expect "true love" and "backhanding" to go hand-in-hand.

What I love about The Princess Bride (the book) is an explanation of the backstory behind the other characters.  Buttercup and Westley are all well and good, but I haven't found a single guy who has watched this movie who hasn't loved Inigo Montoya, the revenge-seeking Spanish fencer, the best of all the characters.  Who doesn't cheer for Inigo as he ruthlessly pursues the six-fingered man who killed Inigo's father when he was only a child?  But how much more do you cheer for him once you've read the backstory, what Inigo's childhood was like, what his relationship with his father was...and why the six-fingered man killed him in the first place?  That is why I love the book as much as (or more than) the film.

Rating: **** and 1/2