Get Lost in Literature

"To Harry Potter -- the boy who lived!" Strange things are happening in the suburbs of England, all over town, all over the countryside, when Harry Potter is left on the doorstep of his Uncle's house. Harry Potter is lone survivor of a murder plot, left in the care of relatives, to live out his childhood in relative normalcy. On his eleventh birthday, letters start arriving, inviting him to enroll in an unusual school... Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I have long regarded this story one of the best pieces of children's literature to come out of the 90's, I think my grandkids will be reading it, and I think someday it will be taught in schools.  It has the themes we've been brought up to expect in children's lit: made up words to add an air of silliness, a few funny rhymes, a child from a broken home who wants to do what is right. (See my late night ramblings on OrphanLit  Here ) Additionally, the story adheres to the rules set down for f...

I've been having trouble focusing, having trouble reading. I took a step back, and decided to relax with some old friends. Which led me to pick up a Harry Potter book and subsequently to a decision and a breakthrough. The decision of course, was if I was reading the series again for the umpteenth time, I really ought to come up with some kick ass reasons as to why the story is so good. The breakthrough, came when thinking about things that make HP standout. One of the things, isn't how it's different, it's how it's alike. I want to examine (or ramble about) patterns. The most common theme in young adult media is a protagonist from a broken home. It occurs in Harry Potter, but if you're a movie fan, maybe you notice that Disney built its entire franchise upon this idea. Neglected, belittled, abandoned, or orphaned, children from broken homes tend to do really well in mainstream media. Even if an individual observer comes from a loving family, these stories of t...

Ever heard of Jeff Kinney?  Well, Jeff Kinney bought an abandoned building last year, that was destined to be bulldozed flat, with the dream of turning it into a bookstore and Café. He made that dream a reality and just had the grand opening of  An Unlikely Story , which went from the ugliest building to the prettiest building on the street.  The only thing beautiful enough to compete with the blue and gold façade that looks similar to old encyclopedia bindings lined up, was the irresistible smell inside: new book smell and fresh coffee. Jeff Kinney is a brilliant mind, not because I read the books (I haven't), but because he's filling in a massive gap.   There was a time, when I could drive 10 minutes any direction and wind up at a Borders Bookstore... Borders who basically committed suicide, when they promoted reading tablets and e-books but failed to up the price of books, and miscalculated how much inventory they could move when digital down...

"His first instinct was to leave without being seen, and this puzzled him. He was a federal agent with the full authority of the United States government. This meant people had to do what he said. Even nurses and doctors. They didn’t want him to leave? Tough shit." Special Agent Ethan Burke of the US Secret Service, wakes up in the woods outside of a quiet little town called Wayward Pines. He's been in an accident and he's having trouble with his memory. He knows he needs a hospital and somewhere to stay, but he can't find his wallet... or a working telephone. The longer Ethan stays in Wayward Pines, the more he realizes the town's got a secret, and the residents will kill to protect it. I know this book was big when it came out. I downloaded a sample from Amazon and passed judgement the same day; the writing was simple, and quick to the point. This was light reading dressed up as horror. There's nothing wrong with that, but at the time I'd want...

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Robert Walton failed writer turned sailor, opens the story by writing to his sister Margaret. He is sailing far north, when the crew rescue Victor Frankenstein who is lost upon an ice flow. Victor is a broken man with a story to tell. Even if you haven't seen the movies, even if you haven't read the book, you're probably familiar with the concept of Frankenstein: a mad scientist sews a body together and restores life to dead limbs, creating a hideous monster. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. After Victor's mother dies he sent away to university where he studies science and discovers how to reanimate the dead. He becomes obsessed with his science experiment shunning all social contact ...

"You and me, everybody, we’re a set of stories..."  This was a very smart story written in a very silly way. The narrator is telling a story about a homeless Native American man, who goes by many names, but refers to himself as Coyote. He left his home a long time ago and lost himself. Coyote likes to scam and drink, but mostly Coyote likes to tell stories... This is a story about the importance of stories. Stories help us avoid painful truths and bring us comfort when there's nothing else. Stories speak to our heritage and remind us who we are, where we come from, and why we're living. They remind us that no matter what other people think of you, you are your own story, and it can't be summed up in one sitting or one hurtful word, it will take a lifetime to tell. Stories have the capability of unifying us, and a person's story lives on in the minds of those who witnessed that first story, to be retold and incorporated into other stories. Maybe w...

I had a surprising amount of fun with my first A-Z Challenge ! It made me remember why I started a book blog in the first place: so I could give my opinion on bookish subjects, to people whether they wanted my opinion or not! My blog had grown a bit stagnant lately, I was growing bored with memes and there was a lot of time lapse between reviews. I felt unsure of myself. The A-Z Challenge made me realize that I don't need to wait for a book to review or meme to schedule; if I have something on my mind, post it and someone will read it. It also got me a little more exposure as my follower count has doubled, and I'm hoping they will continue to follow (and interact with me) now that the challenge is over. I've also found some great blogs that I otherwise never would have seen, and added to the list of blogs I want to read more from. With that let me take a moment to share the love and list my newest reading material: The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experimen...

"We live in a consensual reality where things exist because we want them to exist." A wizard named Bramley Dapple entertains Jilly Coppercorn's questions; she wants to know why she can see things other people can't. Things like Goon, Bramley's goblin butler who is serving tea... This is a story about belief. It's important for anyone who's ever felt different or out of place. It's important for anyone who's ever wanted a little more magic in life. And whether you're a devout Catholic looking for the hand of God or just a dreamer looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary place, your belief and strength of conviction is paramount. Because what you believe in life matters, regardless of what other people think. Short Story Sunday

Z is for Zombie! I want to end A-Z Challenge with a look at a popular modern day obsession: the reanimated corpse! It's really bizarre. At least with vampires you can point and say: thats a metaphor for something.  But more often than not zombies are rooted deeply in science fiction than entities of fantasy; they were once human, then by disease or scientific hubris, (occasionally by miracle and magic) they died, and then tried to eat someone. It's impossible. It can't happen. But we can't stop asking: What if? What if the dead rose up to wage war against the living?  In Max Brooks's World War Z, he examines the zombie apocalypse from a pessimistic but eerily realistic viewpoint. You see the confusion in the initial stages of the outbreak, the fear of citizens and the people who will try to profit from that fear. You see government reactions across the globe, as they struggle to contain the outbreak and later, their people.  The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Gra...

Young Adult Fiction, is fiction written and/or marketed to adolescent readers, between the ages of 12-18 -- although advanced readers may have been reading these well before 12. For me, Young Adult maybe the most important literary category; while picture books introduce us to words, introduce us to morals, its not until YA that we really start to understand how powerful words are and what you can do with them. And what we read in that formative, angst-filled, and confusing time period can shape how we view the world.  The Sight by David Clement-Davies, is probably the first book I put my hands on after I ventured bravely from the children's section at my local library. I couldn't have been 10 yet. It was a shock to my system, this fantasy world where wolves waged a war of good versus evil, nurture and nature. Where an evil she-wolf wants to enslave her species to create an army to overthrow man...and the wolf pack that will fight for freedom. I just enjoyed the ride, b...

Xan·a·du (noun) used to convey an impression of a place as almost unattainably luxurious or beautiful I'm rather pleased with myself for finding a X word and figuring out a literary tie in. Given the definition of Xanadu, I wanted to pay tribute to stories with impossibly beautiful settings described in extraordinary detail. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is at the top of the list. Welcome to a circus, each room uniquely enchanted with the magic of warring magicians. You can smell the carmel popcorn, taste the excitement in the air...Erin Morgenstern left no sense deprived of fantasy experience, in her debut novel. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin is a story of good and evil, true love, and miracles, passing down through the generations in an unforgettable snow-covered New York. You can feel the cold on your cheeks, feel the burn of grief in your heart in this story of love and redemption.  Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente; a seductive and imaginative story o...

Today, I want to talk about books that keep you up all night. I'm talking about those books that make you say, "Just a few more pages..." And then sometime around 2:30 AM you close the book that you've just finished, glance at the clock and realize, "Aww, crap it's late!" And then no matter how hard you try you still can't fall asleep because you're thinking about that book and that ending .  We've all had those books. Much like book quotes, the story that stands out to the individual might not be the story that stands out to the crowd. But in that book that you can't put down, there's an edge of suspense that appeals to you personally and it pulls you in and forward. And I don't know where I'm really going with this train of thought beyond: those books are fantastic! Those blue rings under your eyes from those books are less fantastic. It's sort of grand that someone could write a book as if they knew exactly t...

They're undead, they feed from the living. They scare us, they seduce us. They can save or condemn us. And whether your favorites are good or evil or somewhere in between, there is no denying that despite the hundreds of legends, myths, monsters, and all around paranormal and supernatural tales, there is something about the idea of vampires that human beings cannot let go. So what is it about vampires? Are they a cautionary tale, showing us the price of living forever is too steep to live with? Does it speak to a primal fear of a pretty face hiding a deadly secret? Or the burning curiosity of needing to know more about the dark and mysterious forces of nature surrounding us at any given moment, dictating whether we live another day or die alone in an alley? Whatever the reason, you can't escape vampires. They've been in books for decades. They conquered movie theaters without even trying. Now they've made themselves quite at home inside your television....

I'm inventing a theme for Sunday. I have not yet decided whether or not it will be a permanent fixture, but right now I like the idea of it and I'm going to see how it goes.  My first short story collection ever reviewed on this blog was by Scott F Fitzgerald and there was a problem. How do you review one book when it's full of many stories? I wound up trying to do both: review the book as a whole and acknowledge each individual story inside. This made for one long ass review.  So instead I thought: why not review each individual story as an individual and then upon the books completion review the book as a whole? That way short stories have short reviews and the book review looks a little bit less like pretentious word vomit.  So when the A-Z Challenge is complete, I will be starting Short Story Sunday. It will feature the first story of the following:   Second order of business: when the AZ Challenge draws to a close, I will be shutting off th...

Tranche de vie  is a French phrase that means "slice of life". In literature it refers to a storytelling technique where a character does seemingly arbitrary everyday things in a plot with little or no conflict. This is a weird literary device, and I don't see it used a whole lot. I think most modern writers learn young "must have plot" and not necessarily "must-have theme". Plenty of stories are meant to be enjoyed and not necessarily analyzed. But on the rare occasion tranche de vie pops up, I get to ask the fun question: What does it mean? Sometimes it means the story is incredibly well-thought-out; the author is using an arbitrary and otherwise dull moment in a person's life to illustrate a point. Sometimes it means the opposite: the author simply got carried away and had no point except that he didn't know how to end one scene and move onto the next.  If little else, tranche de vie offers an opportunity stop and think, to  compl...

S is for science fiction and all its glorious nuances! Science Fiction is imaginative fiction that often deals with futuristic societies, technologies and discoveries.  Popular themes include time travel, space travel, extraterrestrial life, and parallel universes. Unlike fantasy which requires readers to suspend disbelief in the supernatural, science-fiction usually offers logical and scientific explanations for how impossible things are made possible. Sometimes Science Fiction even inspires real life inventions!   Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which the world as we know it has been devastated and changed by war, pandemic, or some ecological  or astronomical event. It's known well by it's currently popular sub genres, dystopian and Utopian. Dystopian which depicts a futuristic society where you wouldn't want to live... And Utopian which depicts a futuristic society where everything is peaceful and you might want to live there; except in Utopian is usuall...

Today I want to talk about some of my favorite contemporary stories. No witches , wizards, time travelers,no vampires, aliens, or zombies or anything else like that. I want to talk about realistic fiction  and characters that are just like you and me, except maybe more entertaining.  I adore Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill. It's about a little girl who falls down an abandoned mine shaft and the miracle of her existence. It's not just about the little girl, it's about her ancestors who nearly didn't live, who nearly didn't conceive children of their own. How a chance survival affects the future.  The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. The best part about this story is that I could look at these characters and point to their mirror image in my own town. The busybodies, the teenagers who think they're so smart, the moms who don't know when to grow the hell up, the power-hungry and the downtrodden... The town of Pagford is at war over whether or not they should ex...

Quotes are often personal things; a sentence here, a passage there. They might have a deep philosophical message or just be a beautifully crafted sentence that you could never forget. “For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.”  -- John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things “Music explains itself...It is the road and it is the map that shows the road. It is both together.”  -- Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear “Before cruelly vilifying them from a great height, the mudslingers at newspapers and journals should bear in mind that all artistic endeavors were by and large a mixture of effort and imagination, the embodiment of a solitary endeavor, of a sometimes long-nurtured dream, when they were not a desperate bid to give life meaning.”  -- Felix J Palma, The Map of Time “Every hour wounds. The last one kills.”  -- Neil Gaiman, American Gods “the love had grown cold, and in the night he ...

It drives me crazy when I hear people say, "I don't like books...Reading is boring." I have a suspicion this stems from how we're taught to read as children. We go from having cute picture books and silly rhymes read to us by the people we love, to school where the teachers pick out the most brutal and boring and occasionally upsetting books and force children to read them for grades. I love books, but I remember reading in school and it sucked. Bad things were constantly happening to people and animals... I didn't like that. The writing was so dull, I'd rarely make it 3 pages in to find out what horrible thing was happening in fiction this semester.  I remember my mother yelling at me, "How can you be have an F on a book report! You read!"  That's true. I read. I never left the house without a book, and that was before I was ever enrolled in school. I didn't have a security blanket, I had a security Where the Wild Things Are (and a...

Today I'm talking about literary pet peeves; those little things that shouldn't ruin your day but inevitably drive you crazy! Love at first sight. Not the cutesy fairytale kind, where the author wants to save space and get to the point, but the other kind: The kind where the main character goes, "Oh my God, he's so hot! I'm in love...because he's hot! " Bitch, please. If that's you're only reason for loving him, you need help. I've met pretty faces, nice abs, and soft hair... I understand the appeal, I do. But if the pretty face belongs to a jerk, no amount of manscaping or money is going to impress me. I have little respect for women characters who don't know the difference between love and lust. I especially don't like this concept in young adult fiction. Is that what we ought to be teaching kids? How important looks are to a relationship? Needless to say, I avoid most contemporary romances. Failure to world build . You see ...

Neologism , is a new word or phrase -- or new meaning for an old word or phrase --that enters into commonly used vocabulary. This is a word I think every modern day human being should know, as it is basically the evolution of language! And we're seeing language evolve faster than ever as the digital world grows and people look for more effective ways to communicate with each other... But this is a book blog ( blog is a neologism!) not a communications seminar. Neologisms are commonly found in fantasy and science fiction to help readers dissociate from the world they know and believe in a world they don't know. Obviously, not all words found in fictional worlds are going to be accepted in ours, but some take off. For example, most people understand 'chortle' is another word for 'laughter', but this word didn't exist until Lewis Carroll wrote Through the Looking Glass . Books that contain themes of totalitarian governments and anti-utopian societies ...

* What is it? Malapropism , is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound. It is a form of wordplay. * Why is it used? Malapropism , can be used for a few reasons. One reason is just because it's funny. A character saying a word with confidence, when the audience knows it is the wrong word, can be comical. Another reason is to show a character's state of mind; stress, confusion, or in Jack Sparrow's case, drunkenness. The character is flustered, knows the word he wants to say, but says the wrong one instead. A third reason, is use by accident or ignorance. The speaker simply doesn't know he or she is using a word incorrectly. The word they use sounds similar to the one they want to use. They know the definition of the word they want to use, but they don't know the word that matches that definition. The third example of malapropism is especially hilarious, when used by real life politicians! Got any favorite exampl...

What is a library? A library is basically the nexus of the universe. It's where ordinary citizens can go and be transformed into Time Lords; see what happened, what's happening, what could happen. See every dream and every nightmare ever pulled from the minds of mere mortals. Just pull a portal off a shelf and go to Hogwarts, Narnia, or Middle Earth; go to 1922, 1590, or 3306. Go watch Hitler commit crimes against humanity, watch Monet create a masterpiece, or visit with your favorite Intergalactic Queen... What ever adventure you desire can be located at a library... Unless it's in your head, then you need to write it down and add it to a library. Some libraries can be quite beautiful, like this one in Austria's Melk Abbey. Some can be very large, like Trinity College Library in Ireland. Or oddly shaped like Stockholm Public Library. Some can be built for comfort and accessibility like Prague Public Library, Oklahoma. What libraries, b...