Get Lost in Literature

  "It was unseasonably warm for June. The table was set as though for a banquet: Cornelius must know of her taste and refinement, that she honored him and would provide a gracious home." Asta Eicher is mother to three wonderful children: Annabelle precocious and imaginative, simple but sweet Grethe, and protective Hart. She takes care of her sick mother-in-law Lavinia, and is loved deeply by her on/off again boarder Charles. But Asta is a widowed artist who finds herself in debt, on the edge of losing everything she and her husband had worked so hard for... So she must find a new husband, one of means, and with room in his heart for her whole family.  Then the family goes missing. Our main characters disappear and are replaced with new ones, Emily Thornhill and William Malone. Emily is an investigative journalist charged with finding out the truth about what happened to the family. William Malone, a banker, is driven by guilt; he knew something was wrong and couldn't stop...

"Dimly, distantly, I realize three things: the wind has come up so strongly that the small Meade tent that J.C. and I have been crouching in is flapping and banging like wash hung out to dry in a hurricane (I'd thought the noise was only in my throbbing skull)..." -Dan Simmons, The Abominable Jacob Perry is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. After four mountain climbers go missing, he and his friends contact the mother of one of the missing men and promise to bring her son home, alive or dead. Their true goal: be the first climbers to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.  Let's start with what I liked about it.  The book was very very detailed. Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about mountain climbing is in this book... and probably some things you didn't care to know. Dan Simmons wrote this adventure in such a way that you'll feel like you are hanging off the face of a mountain, trekking waist deep in snow, and struggling for breath in the...

“Your duty is to society, and the dead have always been a part of society. How we treat the dead says much about us.” ― Alex Grecian, The Yard I know we're supposed to use a certain number of words in our A-Z Challenge blog posts, but I'm keeping this one short and sweet. There are multiple murderers on the loose and the murder squad, headed up by Detective Day, is going to put a stop to it. The writing style took a bit of getting used to, but the storytelling is on point. The characters are great, the setting is iconic for all the wrong reasons. There's a chill in the morgue...as there should be. The only thing that irritated me was the overuse of italics for a specific character... unnecessary given the number of characters involved, especially when that specific character's identity is finally revealed. I did give this a four star rating, I know it's hard to tell by my lackluster review, but I really did enjoy it and its proximity to Jack the Ripper adds an extra...

  “Tell your secret to the wind, but don’t blame it for telling the trees.” ― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns This book was very moving. It chronicles the lives of two women Miriam and Laila, who will become child brides under very different circumstances, to the same man. Takes place from the time of Soviet occupation to Taliban and finally Al-Queda. I feel like I want to focus on some of the more abhorrent character interactions for this review, the things that sensitive readers are bound to hate (and there's nothing wrong with that, if it isn't your cup of tea). Miriam is given to a man significantly older than herself by a family who is ashamed of her, while Laila chooses to marry this man to cover up that she had a family that loved her. Rasheed then proceeds to consummate the marriage, which by our modern day, first world standards, is a crime. By basic humanitarian standards, this is a crime. It's statutory rape, it's legal pedophilia. This is also a th...

The Mongoliad (Book 1) by  Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, E.D. deBirmingham, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo "Boys who had been brandishing wooden swords a moment ago were suddenly armed with long steel." I don't know why, in my head, I thought this story was going to be a fantasy. Not that it wasn't fantastic, it was just surprising to find this is more along the lines of historical/speculative fiction. And there's a lot going on this book. Mongol's have taken over Europe and Asia. Cnan a Binder--a Binder is someone who helps people find their paths--is sent to guide a small band of knights on their quest to overthrow the Khan of Khans. Gansuhk, is a mongol warrior, ordered away from his comforts of roaming the steppes on horseback to the court of the Khan of Khans...Why? To control the Khan's drinking habit. I admit, I'm not familiar with any of the authors of this book, so I have the luxury of not being able to pick out one author...

“You want to know what weakness is? Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.” ― Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing SPOILER ALERT!  I couldn't make myself cut down my review to avoid them. I feel like this book should be taught in schools. It's basically about the birth of racism in America. It starts in Africa, where villagers on the Gold Coast strike a deal with the Europeans. The locals are willing to facilitate the trade of other Africans from other villages in exchange for payment. Effia and Esi, two sisters who will never meet, are unfortunately worlds apart. Effia will marry into a life of luxury, while Esi will be sold into slavery. I couldn't really figure out how to review this book, without giving spoilers. I had a US History teacher lecture once on slavery: He said during the days of slave trade, a black woman had more value to a plantation owner than a black man because a woman could be used to make mo...

  "I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world." The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, is a retelling of Homer's Iliad . The story is narrated by Patroclus, a young prince who is nothing that a prince should be, undersized and seemingly untalented in every way, he begins his life as his father's disappointment. After another child dies, Patroclus is sentenced to exile; sent to live out the rest of his childhood in King Peleus' household as an orphan being trained for war.  Young prince Achilles, is Patroclus' polar opposite. The son of King Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis, he is his father's honor and the pride of his kingdom. He is beautiful, bold and brilliant, destined by Fate to be "the best of the Greeks," doted on by all who meet him. Everyone wants to be his friend, but Achilles only has eyes for one...

  “She wanted to say 'I love you like a thunderstorm, like a lion, like a helpless rage'...” This book was probably my most ambitious read of the year. A story over 900 pages, that covers decades of life. The characters were richly fleshed out: Tom Mason who dreams of building the greatest cathedral England has ever seen. Philip, youngest Prior of a defunct monestary, determined to raise it to glory. Young noble lady Aliena, betrayed, assaulted, robbed of her home, and fighting back for her rights in a time that favors patriarchs. William Hamleigh, cunning and cruel, who can't decide whether revenge or power is more rewarding. This story was a fine example of how characters should drive a plot and not be controlled by a preconceived notion of what should happen. Ken Follet crafted a world on paper where the characters didn't just live a little; they breathed and they bled into the soul of the book. I cried when they cried, I hoped when they hoped. My review does not do ...

"Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled." I'm a long time fan of the film, just reading the book for the first time. The story takes place in rural, 1980s Mississippi, where two men brutally assault a ten year old girl. Her father, Carl Lee Hailey, believes they'll get away with it because his daughter is black while the perpetrators are white... and he seeks revenge. Jake Brigance is a criminal lawyer who is called to represent Mr. Hailey and defend him from the ultimate punishment: death. I've never been to Mississippi so I can't say as to whether or not the public racial tensions depicted in this book are entertainingly cliche or disturbingly spot on. Segregation legally ended, but in the hearts of the citizens of Clanton, it ended too soon. White on Black on White crimes invite protests, Klansmen, excessive use of the N-word, more violence, and the National Guard... It also illu...

T. Kingfisher's  What Moves the Dead,  is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher.  I've never read anything by T.Kingfisher before, I couldn't resist the temptation offered by this ARC from NetGalley. I'm a longtime Poe fan, and The Fall of the House of Usher is my favorite. Alex Easton, a retired Gallacian soldier, receives a letter from his childhood friend, Madeline Usher. The letter is urgent, she doesn't have long left to live and now her brother's health is failing as well. He rides out to the House of Usher, to find the manor decrepit; its occupants too poor to maintain it, and too sickly to leave it. An American surgeon, Dr. James Denton, has been called to treat the Ushers' strange malady, but admits to not knowing what it is or how to help them. As Alex tries to help his friends, he begins to realize there is more to the mystery than meets the eye. Out on the heath, the animals are acting strangely... The first two par...

“They would just trade one type of shackles for another, trade physical ones that wrapped around wrists and ankles for the invisible ones that wrapped around the mind.” Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi My rating: 5 of 5 stars I feel like this book should be taught in schools. It's basically about the birth of racism in America. It starts in Africa, where villagers on the Gold Coast strike a deal with the Europeans. The locals are willing to facilitate the trade of other Africans from other villages in exchange for payment. Effia and Esi, two sisters who will never meet, are unfortunately worlds apart. Effia will marry into a life of luxury, while Esi will be sold into slavery. I couldn't really figure out how to review this book, without giving spoilers. I had a US History teacher lecture once on slavery: He said during the days of slave trade, a black woman had more value to a plantation owner than a black man because a woman could be used to make more slaves. (view spoiler) [When Es...

Historical Fiction  is a literary genre the has a historical setting... Despite being set in the past, historical fiction is under very little obligation to be historically accurate.  There's Historical Romance like Water for Elephants;  where Jacob Jankowski, having experience a financial and familial loss during the Great Depression, runs away with the circus and falls in love...With a circus performer named Marlena and an elephant named Rosie. I personally thought that the Marlena character was a bit weak and Rosie was just so easy to love.  There's Historical Fantasy  like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter . Where magical, mythical, supernatural events are often involved in the retelling of real historical place / event. In Seth Grahame-Smith's book, Abraham Lincoln (real person) is plagued by the undead (supernatural) and realizes that vampires are using slave labor as a means for survival...  Alternate History (Speculative) which involve ...

“Peter Lake had no illusions about mortality. He knew that it made everyone perfectly equal, and that the treasures of the earth were movement, courage, laughter, and love. The wealthy could not buy these things. On the contrary, they were for the taking.” Winter’s Tale starts with as a poetic an image any fairy-tale could manage: a white horse traveling through scenic New York City on perfectly snow covered dawn. This is a story of winter romance, magic and miracles, good vs. evil, spanning the industrial age to modern times, as the characters search for reason and justice in the world. My initial reaction to the book? If you liked Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus , or any of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, you’ll probably love this story. The painstaking attention to surreal descriptions and the weaving of the fantastic into a canvas as bleak as a city filled with violence and sickness…Well, it dragged me right down to a time where a person could believe anything was pos...

"I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me." Death has a story to tell about something that happened in 1939 Nazi Germany. A story about newly orphaned Liesel Meminger and her new foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. A story about Rudy Steiner, the boy who wants to steal a kiss from her, and Max Vandenburg, the Jew who lives in her basement. This is one of those books that exceeds expectations by such a degree, I'm left awestruck. This is not what I expected from a book labeled YA. The language in this book is simple yes, which I suppose is for the benefit of the Young Adult, and about a child growing up in Nazi Germany, but the story is complex enough for the Old Adult, with a pile of emotional triggers ( code for I cried...a lot ). The story itself, is narrated by Death. That Death would take notice of anything besides ferrying souls between worlds, lends the ha...

Booklover and scholar, Edward Glyver, starts his story with murder and delusions of grandeur. To his own mind, Edward Glyver should have been a great man, but that future was stolen from him by his arch-nemesis Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. Now nothing will deter him from seeking out vengeance against the man who ruined his life. It was okay. It started great, don't get me wrong. The plot, the long winded descriptions, the well timed confrontations or lack there-of... If you like Victorian storytelling this started in brilliant style, like a firecracker set loose in a library. But by the time I hit page 500 or so, I began flipping forward to see how much longer I had to actually read. I began having to psych myself up to make myself keep going. Instead of being pulled along, I started clawing at the pages, looking for a way out. And when I finally hit the last page, I thought "Thank you God! It’s over!" The problem isn’t that the book was slow. Most of the Victorian-s...

“Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see. To be the playthings of tyrants. But you...you were born to fight tyranny.” I was really surprised by this book; fact and fiction blend seamlessly together as Seth Grahame Smith tells the story of Abraham Lincoln from childhood to his assassination: a lawyer, politician, family man and vampire hunter. Things I liked: The Intro -- To my surprise, the story does not start with our 16th president's birth... Instead, it starts with modern day times and a failed novelist. The Horror -- These vampires aren't nice, they don't want to be your friend, and they certainly don't want to carry on an epic romance with teenage girls. But the horror is introduced artfully, first as an unseen foe Abraham struggles to name, and then growing more violent and more cunning over the years. The Dreams  -- In novels, you don't need to docu...

The Map of the Sky (Trilogía Victoriana #2) by Félix J. Palma, translated by Nick Caistor This book is drastically different from the first installment, but continues themes of time travel, romance, and individual perceptions of the world, while introducing a new theme: extraterrestrial invasion. This storyline moves a lot faster than The Map of Time, whether that's because Wells is in charge or because of all the explosions and carnage...But the storyline is definitely easier to follow. HG Wells, is no longer just a face in the crowd, in this story he is cast as a main protagonist. We meet some new people, and reacquaint with some familiar characters, and of course the writer of the story continues to interrupt his own tale; this time with purpose. Seeing as FJP is determined to write stories near impossible to summarize without ruining everything, I'll try to be careful: Part 1 is the start of Wells's adventure as an impudent fan invites Wells out for a couple ...

The Map of Time (Trilogía Victoriana #1) by Félix J. Palma, translated by Nick Caistor Overall, I thought this book was spectacular. This is a long, heavy book, not for light reading…More likely to be read during a snowstorm where you cannot leave your house or turn on the tv, but no less brilliant for its length. The one vice I found, was that the author takes time to speak to the reader. Although it isn't an unusual tactic, and in some books it is even necessary, in a book written with an omniscient narrator I don't feel the dialogue between narrator and reader added anything… Because he only interrupted the flow to remind the reader that he knew everything… Which the reader already knew due to the story being written in third person. Although I should note the interruptions were comical enough that they didn't detract anything either. Book One was by far my favorite of the collection. It sucks you right into the story by introducing a main character who is deter...

Main character Jacob Jankowski narrates this story, blending past and present life into brilliantly paced tale. I loved the idea of the narrator in a nursing home; the sad reality is, an old man who can't remember his age, isn't guaranteed a happy ending...So every page turned is a page closer to an ending I wasn't sure I wanted to see. When he reveals his past, it isn't much better; Jacob suddenly orphaned, broke, and homeless, hops onto a train in the middle of the night. The setting was pretty amazing; a Depression era traveling circus complete with freaks and sideshows, but it was the characters that really sell it. Jacob is relatable in both old age and young; as an old man he reveals his frustration at being the one left standing, at being taken care of like a child. The horror of having a mind fairly intact, and being surrounded by people a few decades younger who are barely living. Pointing out, that even though we all age differently, we're all going t...

A friar, a poet, an epileptic psychic, camping on a battlefield. Searching for a knight to guide them through the gates of Hell... The book starts dark and mysterious and quickly pulls the reader in. Pestilence is ravaging the countryside and three friends on a mission from God, are looking to descend into Hell... But here the book loses steam. The prose is decent, dark and to the point; but David Wisehart makes a couple story-structure errors. First the Latin; no translation is offered with the Latin, and the sentences don't necessarily arrive at "Those Moments". You know those moments, the ones where the characters could speak any language they want and the meaning would be perfectly obvious. So if the book had been written without the Latin it would be almost exactly the same as the book with the Latin, except maybe a few sentences shorter. Second complaint about structure is in the poetry. Its cheesy. I skimmed the first few lines of each poem before moving on. P...