It's the story of a failed — failing — novelist about to turn fifty. His long-time lover is marrying someone elWhat a soft-hearted bastard of a novel.
It's the story of a failed — failing — novelist about to turn fifty. His long-time lover is marrying someone else, and he's been invited to the wedding. To avoid the whispers and rumors that would abound, he takes the only course of action he can imagine: accepting every literary invitation he's been putting off, a journey that will take him around the globe and well away from the wedding of the man he loved. Loves.
It had me from the first page, and I'm not even precisely sure why. The prose is wonderful, to be sure. Playful, rollicking, sly, observant. The main character, the anxious and vain Arthur Less, is boyish and gentle and smart and I adore him. The narrator (whose identity I guessed with increasing hope and anticipation as the pages went on) guides us skillfully through present events and past ones, uncovering the parts of Less that need to become More in order to find happiness. The settings —San Francisco, New York, France, India, Japan — are wondrously and precisely evoked. Side characters caper in with delicious specificity and purpose, both thematic and human. Is one of those aspects what I loved? Is all of them what I loved?
I actually think I loved it because of what it believes. There's a line in the book — I had to fetch it to quote it exactly — that I think is what the book says on every page:
"Just for the record: happiness is not bullshit."
That belief in happiness and love is what makes this novel a comfort read. Every character is desperately flawed and every setting has a rainy day and every relationship is complicated, but its over-arching naive and wavering pursuit of happiness is what made this book feel like something I wanted to curl up in for a long time.
Although this book tells a story of people being cruel to themselves, it is a book about being gentle with yourself. It seems odd to call this novel kAlthough this book tells a story of people being cruel to themselves, it is a book about being gentle with yourself. It seems odd to call this novel kind, as it was often a savage read (it is unflinching in its portrayal of self-harm, homelessness, addiction, and desperation) but it has such a sweet heart, such a piercing desire for its characters to improve themselves in every way, that hope persists in even the darkest moments. Glasgow's use of adult characters to challenge, support, and mirror the teen characters is genuinely inspired, and the resulting fictional neighborhood dynamic felt intensely real. In general, the characters are wonderfully drawn, and although this novel is nothing like Code Name Verity, I think I might recommend it to folks who enjoyed that one. Girl in Pieces prioritizes characters and their complicated truths in a similar way. I'd probably recommend this one for older teens and adults who read YA, not because I believe in shielding kids from content, but because the characters in this novel make nuanced and morally gray decisions that might render them unlikable to a less experienced soul. I know I would have judged the narrator more harshly at 13 than at 18, and that would have been a shame.
This one earns a place on my keeper shelf. Will instantly pick up whatever Glasgow puts out next....more
Wish I would have had this book alongside all my Beverly Cleary books back in middle school. Like Cleary, Jason Reynolds clearly remembers what it wasWish I would have had this book alongside all my Beverly Cleary books back in middle school. Like Cleary, Jason Reynolds clearly remembers what it was to be a kid — the private humiliations, the silliness, the outsized misconceptions, the way the tiniest bit of support can change a day. ...more
Pretty much a perfect teen adventure novel. In a conflict-free world where humans have conquered death, elected Scythes must cull the human populationPretty much a perfect teen adventure novel. In a conflict-free world where humans have conquered death, elected Scythes must cull the human population. Two teens find themselves volunteered as apprentice-Scythes, and discover that of all the things that Scythes can kill, corruption is not one of them.
1. Over the years, I've heard many books touted as the successor to Hunger Games, but SCYTHE is the first one that I would really, truly stand behind, as it offers teens a complementary reading experience to that series rather than a duplicate one. Like Hunger Games, SCYTHE invites readers to both turn pages quickly but also furrow their brows over the ethical questions it asks. Tone-wise, I would place it solidly between M. T. Anderson's FEED and Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series.
2. Over the years, YA has come to encompass a wide age range — one that I feel tends to skew ever older and sometimes forget the folks who are growing out of middle grade, but slowly. SCYTHE strikes me as a true teen novel, one that I will happily thrust into the hands of even reluctant 12-14 year old readers to show them what awaits them in genre fiction. It asks enough difficult questions to stick in the mind, but it never asks them at the expense of pacing or story. Although it's a series-starter and the end is tantalizing, it does feel like it satisfyingly stands alone (as is evidenced by its new Printz Honor sticker — the Printz is very rarely awarded to series books as the novel's merit must be contained entirely within the volume awarded). Moreover, it is very light on the romance, something that younger readers often prefer (and somewhat difficult to find in YA).
3. Over the years, I have grown too lazy to make note of when sequels come out. I've made a note on my calendar for this one, though — November 2017. I look forward to another good time....more
What a splendid and fun supernatural procedural. I read it in its entirety on a cross-country flight, while a weary moFIVE THINGS ABOUT LONDON FALLING
What a splendid and fun supernatural procedural. I read it in its entirety on a cross-country flight, while a weary mother's dictatorial three-year-old loudly terrorized my entire seating section from the seat beside mine. Even with a strange child's feet flailing in my lap and a strange child's popcorn arcing over my field of vision and a strange child's crappy diaper removed and instantly refueled inches away from me, this novel held me. So, without further ado, five things about it:
1. It's the first in a series: the Shadow Police series, book 3 of which came out last year in the UK and is coming here to the U.S. in May. I know that I'm a hypocrite to be saying I'm not a fan of series because I don't like waiting for the next book to arrive, but there it is, it's the truth. London Falling, however, wraps up book one's concern in a satisfying, sprawling climax, and although there is a decidedly open ending, it's better classified as a promise than a cliffhanger.
2. Cornell has writing chops. I knew before starting London Falling this was his debut novel, but I also knew that he wrote comics and had written a few episodes of Dr. Who. He brings that sprightly pacing to this novel, juggling four main characters with ease. It's a procedural at heart, so expect efficient, brisk characterization rather than lavished pages of introspection, but the main characters were nonetheless specific and intriguing.
3. The magic is just wonderful. Sometimes when a book tries to meld grit and magic, one or the other suffers, but London Falling delivered some lovely and toothsome magic that felt essential and old.
4. The first 50 pages are a slog. I'm saying this because I want you to push past it. There are a lot of characters introduced very quickly and a lot of unfamiliar workplace relationships strung across the page, and for me, at least, it meant that I sometimes had to flip back to earlier pages to see if I was remembering last names correctly. This may have been due in part to my airplane seatmate's shouting that she wanted her candy NOW, but I suspect not.
5. There is a very, very rewarding plot element three quarters of the way through the novel that I'd love to tell you about — but I won't. It is the result of a careful building of a plot and character house, and far be it for me to bring it tumbling down before you get a chance to climb the stairs. Suffice to say that I grinned on the plane when I read it. Well done, Cornell, well done.
I'll be checking out Cornell's other work posthaste....more
It's difficult for me to recommend thrillers to non-thriller readers. I grew up reading them and so have a high tolerance for the genre conventions. YIt's difficult for me to recommend thrillers to non-thriller readers. I grew up reading them and so have a high tolerance for the genre conventions. You know, men named Jack or Tom who will later be played by Denzel Washington or Liam Neeson. Shadowy figures from whichever country your grandpa thinks is sketchy. We need YOU, civilian man with no training, to help us with this investigation, or it will all fall apart. Machine guns referred to by brand, in case you were in the market yourself. A certain number of fridged relatives in order to grease the emotional gears of the plot machinations. Titles like DOUBLE-CROSSED and DON'T LOOK BACK and MAN ON THE RUN and TRIGGER HAPPY.
Look, I know.
But I think BEFORE THE FALL is a mystery/thriller I can recommend to non-thriller readers. "This," I will tell them, "is a thriller!" Actually I will mean, "This is what I always want thrillers to be."
The hook is simple: a small plane crashes with two fancy business moguls on it. Also in attendance are their families and a down-on-his-luck painter. Only the painter and a four-year-old boy survive. The narrative winds back and surges forward in order to examine the events leading up to the crash and the consequences after.
It's fast-paced and tightly plotted, which is always on the menu of Genre Thriller Cafe. But BEFORE THE FALL also has a playful turn of the phrase, a decidedly character-driven story, and something to say about the media. It means that while you're devouring this particular menu item, you'll find that you might have to stop to chew, a welcome request in a genre that in both print and film has been overflowing with lump-free puddings since the 80s. I'll be putting this one on the plates of both my thriller-loving friends and those who normally stick with more literary fare.
I'd like to think this book LOOKS like my novels FEEL.
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What do I mean by that? I'm not precisely sure. TALES FROM THE LOOP is an art book, a haI'd like to think this book LOOKS like my novels FEEL.
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What do I mean by that? I'm not precisely sure. TALES FROM THE LOOP is an art book, a handsome matte collection of a dreamy alternate 80s. There's a bit of text, but the text is mostly besides the point. Really, TALES FROM THE LOOP is about the images: hyper-realistic paintings of Swedish life with decaying robots, inquisitive dinosaurs, rundown hovercraft, and well-worn androids. It feels like our world, but just a little strange. Sometimes this strangeness is magical, and sometimes this strangeness is off-putting, and sometimes, deliciously, it is both.
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I read it first on my own, paging through slowly, and then I paged through it again with my eleven-year-old son, who found it an even more wistful experience than I did.
Sometimes a book feels like it has always existed. It’s not that it’s predictable nor unadventurous, merely that you can’t shake the feeling as you tuSometimes a book feels like it has always existed. It’s not that it’s predictable nor unadventurous, merely that you can’t shake the feeling as you turn pages that it is familiar — you’ve read it before or just known that it existed for so long that it feels as if you had.
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill was that way for me. Other blurbs for it compare it to The Secret Garden (it does have a secret garden) or The Chronicles of Narnia (it does have tiny British children in big houses), but really, I think what they mean is this: it feels like it has been sitting invisibly on the shelf next to those classics for decades, waiting to be discovered. It feels old. Right. Uncovered, rather than written.
It is a simple story: a girl in a World War II children’s hospital —Emmaline — has been seeing winged horses in the mirrors of the building. When she discovers that an injured pegasus has arrived in a secret garden, an intimate and wintery quest unfolds as Emmaline performs tasks for the Horse Lord. It is a book about the magic of hidden places and the colorless misery of war and also a book about kindness in all its forms. Originally, I had typed that it was also a book about illness, but the draining fight against the “stillwaters” in Emmaline’s lungs is really just another battle in the war devastating Britain.
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill is a morsel of a book, just 231 pages on my e-reader. I read it in a single hour and a half session, which felt perfect: the ability to linger in the shivering atmosphere of the book without interruption seemed right. Theoretically this is a middle grade novel, but I can’t decide how I feel about that. I would hand this immediately to someone who had enjoyed CODE NAME VERITY or FROM SALT TO THE SEA or any of the other YA historicals I’ve loved within recent memory and I’d also hand it to any adult who grew up with the classics mentioned above and expect them to enjoy it, but I’m curious to know how my eleven and twelve year olds feel about it. So much of what made this book poignant to me was empathizing with the unsaid experiences of the adults around the children in the book, and although the book would work fine without that insight, there is one beautifully heartbreaking moment in particular that becomes muted if you aren’t paying close attention to the adults in the scene.
I adored it. It is not a bombastic novel nor an epic novel. It’s a sweet, sad, beautiful whisper in your ear. Enjoy....more
It's a very particular kind of book done very well, which is not remotely a promise that you will like it. ThI don't know if you will like this book.
It's a very particular kind of book done very well, which is not remotely a promise that you will like it. The jacket copy is not untrue, but it also isn't helpful. Yes, this is book about the end of the world as we know it, yes, this is a book about a post-apocalyptic Shakespearean troupe, yes, this is a book about a Hollywood actor's dispiriting love life. But that doesn't tell you how the book feels — what the experience is like reading it. This is less a novel of plot and more a novel of theme, a precisely painted mural of people living in extreme circumstances. Some of the chapters take place after the apocalypse, and some take place before, but it doesn't change the tone — the characters' personal worlds are under duress in both timelines.
I take back what I said about the jacket copy being true, by the way. It says this book is "suspenseful." I think that's an unfair and incorrect descriptor for a book that shines for other reasons. I couldn't put this book down, but that is not the same as being suspenseful. My attention was held by the sharp insights on every page, not by a headlong plunge toward the end. Like I said, it's a book of theme, not story. Station Eleven follows a few central characters faithfully enough to satisfy my need for a human thread, but it might not be enough for those who strongly prefer plot-driven novels.
Verdict: unsentimental and clear-eyed portrait of what humanity considers civilization....more
I can't tell if this novel is a dream wrapped in razor wire or razor wire wrapped in dream. It doesn't really matter which it is — either way, I woke I can't tell if this novel is a dream wrapped in razor wire or razor wire wrapped in dream. It doesn't really matter which it is — either way, I woke up satisfied.
This is a novel for lizard-hearted girls looking for other lizard-hearted girls in fiction. If you enjoyed Isabel Culpeper, this novel is for you....more
If I say that this novel didn't require me to do any work, it sounds like a vague insult, as if I'm saying that tWhat a generous caretaker of a novel.
If I say that this novel didn't require me to do any work, it sounds like a vague insult, as if I'm saying that the story or the characters were slight, and that's not at all what I mean. I mean that the novel, both through format (a very self-aware narrator's journal) and authorial intent (with a firm eye on the sort of story-telling pedigree that brought her there), anticipated my readerly needs and desires with such swiftness that I felt agreeably anticipatory and satisfied at all times. I did not have to tell myself to be patient to wait for one plot line to play out, because the book helpfully plied me with a pleasant drink while I waited. I did not feel done after it had given me a good meal, because right before the last course, it promised dessert.
The summary is accurate and pointless. It is about Cassandra writing about herself in a journal. Their family is penniless. They do live in a castle. She is, as it promises, deeply, hopelessly in love.
But not with any of the men in the book. They're all intriguing in their own way, don't get me wrong, and she does love many of them, in many different ways. The novel takes place in one of my favorite intellectual time periods to read and study, and this book plays across all of its nuances: artists' models and intellectuals, servants' quarters and vicars, romanticism and mysticism, the religion of church and the religion of a well-turned-out drawing room. But all of that is sort of beyond the point. The point is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly in love with life, and her utter, wry engagement with the castle she adores is what pulled me through the pages. Her voice is kind and self-deprecating, generous and wondering. The humans she observes — Topaz, her often-nude step-mother; Rose, her selfish and hungry sister; Mortmain, her once-famous father — are all seen through this well-meaning gaze, and even terrible events are colored with love (even when I thought characters could do with a polite punch in the mouth).
This book took very good care of me. It goes onto my comfortable re-read shelf immediately. ...more
This middle-grade graphic novel is a series beginning in all the satisfying ways and none of the frustrating ones.
Hicks takes her time setting up mulThis middle-grade graphic novel is a series beginning in all the satisfying ways and none of the frustrating ones.
Hicks takes her time setting up multiple characters and drawing the world (literally), showing us how many alleyways she could have turned down but didn't, hinting at the stories she might have told but hasn't yet. By staying the course on Kaidu's budding friendship with a girl from another part of the city, Hicks keeps the story cohesive and suitably intimate. There were three things that struck me the most: 1) I read this with Thing 1, who is 11, and both she and I were very pleased with the parkour-visuals of Kaidu learning to run over rooftops. 2) There's a monkish tower centering both the city and the book, and as a sucker for hermit-mythology-magic-people-hiding-in-trees-towers-cars-whatnot-tropes, I'm keen to learn more about it as well (luckily for me, I think, as the second one is called The Stone Tower). 3) This entire volume gently touches on the words we use for each other and for ourselves, and I think it offers kids a hard-to-teach lesson in a way they can effortlessly digest.
The Chairs' Hiatus is an intimate portrait of a musician who's lost both her music and herself, and the quiet journey back to understanding. Highly reThe Chairs' Hiatus is an intimate portrait of a musician who's lost both her music and herself, and the quiet journey back to understanding. Highly recommended....more
This swift-footed, kind-hearted historical is intensely satisfying in just about all the ways a novel can be satisfying. Without further ado, here areThis swift-footed, kind-hearted historical is intensely satisfying in just about all the ways a novel can be satisfying. Without further ado, here are five things you should know about it before picking it up:
1. A lot of times, historical fiction shows its work. As a history major, I don't mind a research-filled brick of a book, but I'd think carefully about who I recommended it to. Historical can be dense. Salt to the Sea is not that book: Sepetys chooses her word battles carefully for an incredibly fast read. Short chapters elbow you and say "read just one more, right?" until the book is all gone.
2. I wanted to call this a thriller when I first started typing up this recommendation, but the term's not quite right. It's quite fast-paced, but THRILLER feels wrong: it's not quite got that frantic electricity. ADVENTURE is closer, but still wrong. Shouldn't there be jeeps and a comic relief side kick in an adventure? There's mostly just soldiers and frostbite and abandoned soup in this one, which is not the same. Nevertheless, you should know: it's not a depressing book, although sad things happen in it.
3. The characters are lovely. There are many of them, all deftly and lightly-drawn, and because they come from all ages and backgrounds, the dynamics between them are ever-changing. It's told from four points of view to allow the reader to spin around the story from all angles, and because each of the POV characters brings something very different to the table, this swapping of eyes is satisfying rather than frustrating.
4. Sepetys has two other historicals out that I enjoyed a lot, but this one has headed briskly to the top of the list. it's confident and stylish in a way that is really satisfying to see.
5. This novel is the natural successor to Code Name Verity: a character-driven, accessible, YA historical with all the feels you could desire and enough research to bring down an elephant. If elephants were brought down by research.
The theme of this book is that nothing is perfect, but this book is a Liar McLiar, because this book is perfect.
This is a wise little tome of fairy-fuThe theme of this book is that nothing is perfect, but this book is a Liar McLiar, because this book is perfect.
This is a wise little tome of fairy-fuckery in the guise of a wasp nest. It's a magical story, and a kind one, and a giant in few words. I wish I had had it to give to my wry and unsentimental 11 year old anxious OCD-ridden self, but I'm very glad that I had it to give my wry and unsentimental 11 year old anxious OCD-ridden daughter. My favorite novel back then was The Fairy Rebel by Lynn Reid Banks; THE NEST grew from similar DNA.
1. It's told entirely in e-mails. As a writer, I understand that yes, this is a gimmick. I have a high-gimmick tolFIVE THINGS ABOUT THE 52-HERTZ WHALE
1. It's told entirely in e-mails. As a writer, I understand that yes, this is a gimmick. I have a high-gimmick tolerance, though, as long it doesn't get in the way of my emotional or intellectual enjoyment of a book. With 52, it worked for me. It might not for you, though, so I'm putting it right here as #1. Full disclosure. Emails.
2. With that out of the way, I can tell you that I found the two main characters of this book — a disenchanted, heartbroken film student and a socially challenged, maybe-Aspergers whale lover — revoltingly charming. Both of them have terrible things happening in their lives — fractured relationships and public humiliation — but the conceit of e-mail-chapters means it is funneled through their wryly self-deprecating and dutifully factual voices, respectively. The novel is ultimately uplifting without being saccharine. I know I use the word big-hearted a lot to describe the books I love, but it fits this little novel well.
3. There is some deft portrait-making in this book. 52 doesn't have a lot of words to do it in, since there's no description and a fair number of characters sending e-mails, but I nonetheless felt I knew all the parties involved. It is nothing like SOME DAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, apart from also possessing a narrator named James, but it touched me in the same way. I felt I'd met real people.
4. My teen years were populated by many non-teens, and I appreciated that this teen novel was populated by non-teens as well. It made what could be a rather claustrophobic contemporary into a roomy narrative.
5. There are really not any whales in this book. I mean, there's one, but he spends a lot of the book dead, so don't get excited. Spoiler? I just want you to be prepared if you're coming for the whales. Come for the whale, stay for the human dysfunction....more
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