Category Archives: reviews

Review: Reawakened by Colleen Houck

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Featured imageReawakened is a fun adventure but for anyone who has read Colleen Houck’s other series, Tiger Saga there may be far too many similarities.  It’s pretty much the same story but instead of taking place in India, it’s in Egypt.  They both have a teenage girl heroine, an ancient cursed Prince and interactions with Gods.  We switch Kelsey for Lily, Ren for Amon and Durga for Horus and Anubis.  Like in the Tiger’s Curse, Lily is just minding her business when she is thrust into a world myth and magic to help an ancient Prince with his task.  The difference being that Amon’s curse is to save the world. Every 10 years, he and his brothers fight the evil Set to keep him from gaining power in this world. Lily meets Amon when she’s hiding out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He awakes from his sarcophagus and attaches himself to her until he is able to gain his strength back.  They are soon on their way to Egypt to wake his brothers and complete the ceremony to push evil back.  Lily starts to have feelings for Amon but he does everything to push her away.  Despite the drama, they continue to work together to finish the ceremony, fight those who are working against them and explore a little bit of Egypt.

I’m sure for fans of the Tiger Saga will enjoy it. It has the same romance and adventure and the nice mix of mythology to give it a more epic feel.  Egyptian mythology isn’t as well known as many of the mythologies out there.  If I hadn’t read Rick Riordan’s The Kane Chronicles, I wouldn’t know most of the Gods and Goddess mentioned and who was supposed to be good and who was bad.  But like I said, it did feel a little bit of a retread of what Miss Houck has already done.  She has even set up a possible love triangle between Lily, Amon and one of his “brothers” for the sequels.  All that being said, I enjoyed reading it.  I do want to see what happens next and see if she can do something else with her characters.

Review: Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

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Featured imageI remember years ago, Madonna was quoted as saying that she wasn’t a religious person but a spiritual one. For the life of me I can’t find the actual quote.  Internet, you have failed me! This seemed strange to me at the time because Madonna was very much in her Kabbalah phase and it seemed like everything in her life  was influenced by it.  Just listen to albums Ray of Light through Confessions on a Dance Floor for more evidence.  She has since have moved on from Kabbalah.  I’m not sure if she is still practicing or not but the presence is not as prevalent in her music as it used to be. Does one have to actively practice a religion to be that religion?  The one thing that stuck with me from my Introduction to Islam class I took in college (taught by New York Times Bestseller, Reza Aslan.  Yep, I’m totally name dropping!) was that in Islam, if you don’t practice you really can’t be really considered Muslim. Now, I took that class *gulp* over 10 years ago, so I apologize if that is not entirely accurate but I do remember that Islam is a very practical religion as well.  As Mr. Aslan explained, if you couldn’t pray five times a day at the right time that’s ok, as long as you get those prayers in sometime during the day.  If you can’t fast during Ramadan because of work, illness or other circumstances, that’s fine, too, as long as you make time to fast later to make up for it.  That last point was illustrated to me when a former co-worker had to skip a week of fasting during the month of Ramadan because she was having stomach pain.  As soon as she was feeling better, she completed that week of fasting.  This makes sense to me. If you think about it, you really don’t have to go to church or read the bible to call yourself a Christian.

Why do I bring all this up?  Well, both of these things were going through my mind as I was reading this book. Anne Lamott talks to openly and honestly about her faith.  She puts to paper all her failings, fears and shortcomings. Even after finding a church and Christianity, she still struggles with keeping faith.  She still has moments of “Dear God, why is this happening?”  I’m a big fan of her two favorite prayers of “Help Me Help Me Help Me” and “Thank You Thank You Thank You”.  I appreciate how she talks about her journey but makes it clear that this is her journey.  She’s not forcing her beliefs on the reader but is more saying “this is what happened to me and this worked for me and maybe something like it will work for you”. I appreciate that.  I was truly touched by her story.  I haven’t been to a church going person since I completed confirmation when I was 13.  I’ve found many things that people who say they are Christians to be incredibly offensive and contrary to the Christianity that I grew up with.  I also studied a lot of Medieval History in college for my major and well, I haven’t really been able to look at Christianity the same since.  We seem to think that religious institutions are unchanging and infallible but anyone who has studied history has seen how much the church has changed to fit in with the times it was in.  Religions are always changing, growing and to say otherwise is just, well, naive and ignorant.  This is why at times I have called myself agnostic because I do believe that a God exists or at least a higher power exists. I wasn’t sure I could really call myself a Christian knowing all these things.  I didn’t want to be associate with the likes of the  Duggars and Westboro Churches of the world or have people think that I was like them.  I sort of backed way from all religions for awhile.  Now, that Madonna quote from the beginning makes sense to me.  I wouldn’t say I’m religious or even spiritual but I would say that I have faith. I would say I still believe in the basic Christian belief that God loves all his children when it comes down to it.  I don’t need to go to church or read the bible to be a good Christian.  I just need to be a good person and treat people with love and dignity because isn’t that what Jesus would do?   I came to this realization a couple of years ago so reading this book didn’t really change my mind but it did cement my thinking.  Miss Lamott found a certain peace in her faith and I have found it in mine.  We are practicing it differently but ultimately we have come to the same place and I know Miss Lamott would respect and love that. So Thank You Thank You Thank You

Now I am halfway through my Pop Culture homework assignment.  I’m looking forward to something that hopefully won’t make me cry while I’m on the subway.

Quick Review: Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

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Featured imageIn another retelling of a fairy tale, Mechanica takes on Cinderella. Nicolette is forced to be a servant in her own home and is called Mechanica by her evil stepsisters.  Nicolette is an inventor and thanks to her mother’s secret workroom, she starts to invent inventions that could one day buy her way out of her servitude. Along the way she meets the Prince and his best friend and they help her sell her wares.  It’s a good idea for a novel.  I like many changes from the story.  Nicolette isn’t at home waiting for the Prince to come rescue her.  She uses her own brain to create inventions that will help her win her freedom and there is a surprising twist at the end that has to do with her and the Prince.  I won’t spoil it but it really took me by surprise.  Either then that though, there isn’t really anything else to make this stand out.  I kept waiting for the something more to happen.  I like the message of the novel, though.  That girls don’t need a boy to rescue her.  They can do that themselves by using their own skills and smarts and that alone might be worth the read.

Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

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You know when you’re reading a book and you can see where the story is going and who is the villain and who is the hero before the heroine does and you just want to scream at her to wake up and pay attention! That was me with this book.  Despite this, I flew through reading it. It was exactly the distraction I needed after a few tough books.  Mare Barrow has no skills besides pick pocketing and in this world that means when she turns 18, she’ll be conscripted to the war front.  She is a Red, born with red blood and is forced to serve and work for the Silvers, those born with silver blood and who have extra powers.  When her best friend loses his job and will be sent to war, she tries to save him.  This leads to her finding out she’s more than red.  She has powers, too.  Silvers can’t let her walk away after this discovery so they try to cover it up and force her to live with them and marry one of the princes.  That doesn’t sound like such a punishment but she’s basically their prisoner whose life is at their whim.  At the same time, a rebellion is starting to take hold and Mare wants to be a part of it.  The more she becomes involved with the Silvers and the rebellion things get complicated.  She’s playing a game she doesn’t know the rules to and anyone can betray anyone.

Mare is strong but full of vulnerability.  She doesn’t have skills like her sister and jobs are scarce so she does what she can to help out her family, steal.  Her family isn’t exactly happy about it since her sister has a job and is their ticket out of poverty.  It’s hard to compete against.  She is loyal, almost to a fault.  If she has a fault is that she is so focused on her family and friends and what she sees as injustices that she fails to see the bigger picture and it gets her into trouble.  Her suitors are abundant.  First their is Kilorn, her friend that she will do anything to save.  Prince Cal, the perfect prince and Prince Maven, her betrothed.  Mare is one of those YA heroines that doesn’t think she’s pretty but has guys falling all over her.  I find this kind of annoying.  We’ve been there and down that but it does actually make sense here.  At least with her relationship with the Princes it’s not so much she thinks they wouldn’t fall for her because of how she looks but that she is beneath them.  As for Kilorn, her loyalty and feelings of having to take care of him blinds her to his feelings for her which is pretty obvious for the reader.

As I said at the beginning, I knew that Mare was being played by some of the characters but despite that I kept wanting to read to see how it plays out.  It’s paced well, the characters are interesting and I do look forward to the sequel.

Quick Review: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

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Featured imageI’m going to be brief because I don’t want to be spoilery and also want to wait until Kate finishes it to talk in more detail. I will say it was a truly powerful novel.  A dystopian novel set on the African continent.  Onyesonwu is born from rape and because of it is an outcast but she has a destiny that will change the world. I admit that I haven’t ready many books that take place in Africa so this was a new voice for me. At times it confusing and it was also horrifying.  Nnedi Okorafor does not shy away from the ugliest and violent moments of the novel and it’s equal parts terrifying as it is uncomfortable.  It’s an unflinching portrait of racism and sexism and how both corrupt a society.  Onye is not only a woman but also Ewu, a child born of violence from an Okeke women and Nuru man.  She is shunned by most and seen as both worthless by many more.  When it becomes clear that she is more then normal, she repeatedly turned away from the local sorcerer not because she isn’t extraordinary but because she is a woman.  One has to wonder, how differently things would have turned out if she started training when she first asked to but I guess we will never know.  When she finally unleashes her power and saves the day it’s a sight to see.  My favorite part of the novel is the friendship from Onye and Luyu.  At first, they are just two girls who are in the same class, who are forced together thanks to a common experience shall we say but as they grow they become closer.  They give each other strength and support.  They each show bravery and different ways.  I truly don’t believe that Onye would have made it through without her.  Mwita may be the love her life and soulmate, more then a soulmate really but it’s Luyu who is the back bone.  She keeps everyone grounded in a way.  Her bravery is truly inspiring because unlike Onye and Mwita who have varying degree of powers, Luyu is nothing but human but she knows there are bad things happening and will do anything to help Onye stop them.  This isn’t an easy book to read but what the characters go through are not meant to be easy.  If you feel uncomfortable because it’s supposed to be uncomfortable.  You should be horrified at the lengths people will go for an idea and belief.  It truly was a great book.

Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

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I am halfway through my Pop Culture Homework Assignment!

This book repeatedly punched me in the stomach.

Eleanor and Park meet when Eleanor gets on the bus for her first day at the new school.  Eleanor immediately gets on the wrong side of the cool kids on the bus by almost sitting in someone else’s spot.  Park growls at her to just sit down next to him.  Everything after that awkward and totally real meeting is beautiful and painful and awkward and wonderful.  Eleanor and Park are so fucking cute together I actually just swore at you in a review of a YA novel.  This was a beautiful, painful and real novel about teen romance. It was also a novel about negotiating identity (when you’re not really sure how to be what people think you are.  Are you that thing?  Are you not?  Does it matter?), being there for your loved ones, and dealing with crappy things in your life.
This book was great also great because of the main characters.  Eleanor is a chubby red head and Park is half Korean.  Others have talked about the need for diverse characters in teen novels and I think this is a good example.
Spoiler alert and trigger alert:  This book deals with domestic violence in a very honest and very real way.
More spoilers ahead.
Eleanor and Park’s relationship grows slowly over a few months.  At first, they are just sharing a seat on the bus.  Then, they are sharing comic books.  Then, they were sharing comic books and music.  (I’m actually making a mix tape inspired by the music mentioned in the book.)  It just snowballs from there.  Eleanor loves her time on the bus because she hates being at home with her Mother’s husband, who is an alcoholic and a wife beater.  The story builds until it becomes obvious that the creepiest of the awful things that have been happening to Eleanor aren’t being done by the awful girls in Eleanor’s gym class but are being done by Eleanor’s step dad.
I cried and cried and cried throughout this book.  The relationship between Eleanor and Park was wonderful.  Eleanor’s relationship with DeNice and Beebi was great.  Park’s parents were A+ and their attempts to interact with their son’s first real girlfriend were awkward and beautiful and also very real.  Sabrina, Eleanor’s mom, was heartbreaking.  (At one point she tells Eleanor she’s so lucky and good for staying away from boys and then implies that there are two types of women in the world:  women who are with a man and brave women who aren’t.  I think my heart is still breaking from that interaction between mother and daughter.)  Eleanor’s brothers and sisters were also heartbreaking.
God, this book.  It was so good.  It was so good, I’m still crying over it.

Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

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Featured imageThere was a recent discussion on Twitter about whether or not you avoid reading popular books.  Is the fact that the book is popular and “You just got to read it” a turn on or turn off.  Whether a book is popular is not really a selling point for me but I’m not going to avoid reading it if it is.  Unless it’s an Oprah book. Now bear with me.  Oprah’s Book Club has done so much to get people to read and for that I applaud her.  It has also been a boom for the publishing industry, it has promoted authors that probably would never get exposure or that level of exposure but as a former bookseller, it made my life difficult.  I know, it sounds weird but ask any bookseller.  For years, Oprah wouldn’t announce her new pick until she did it on her show.  People would immediately come into stores asking for the new Oprah book and we wouldn’t have a clue what they were talking about since we were working and not watching Oprah.  And rarely would people who watched the show know the title of the book they must read and would come in with no information.  Now, it’s a little easier.  Oprah works more with publishers to make sure her picks are ready to go with her sticker already on the book when she makes her announcements.  Also, now with the internet, if customers come in for her books and we were left unaware, they could look it up more easily but yeah Oprah.  Also I found that a lot of her picks were the same.  Different authors but all carried the same theme and that didn’t appeal to me.

Why bring this up? Wild was the first book in Oprah’s book club 2.0 and quickly became the “You just have to read” book.  It’s also a memoir and  I think we have established I don’t read much non-fiction.  So I had no interest in reading it.  I still had no interest in reading it when  Kate assigned it to me but I’m glad I did.  I was truly touched by Cheryl’s story.  I was in tears when she was describing the death of her mother.  I don’t even want to think about losing my mom and I think I could understand her downward spiral.  To decide to go on a three month, thousand mile hike by herself is not only crazy to me but unbelievably brave.  To do something like that when you are not really prepared to so is even more crazy and brave.  I laughed through her struggles with “monster” aka her pack.  I was anxious for her when the reservoir was out of water and she hadn’t brought enough.  With every new person she met, I was just as nervous about meeting as she was but most were nice and helpful.  As a woman alone, meeting strangers, particular men can be dangerous but the danger was mostly from the trail itself and Cheryl’s own mistakes not from people she met.  I enjoyed reading her journey and could see as the hike went on how much she grew.  By the time it ended, I knew she would be ok.  Not just because I know that Cheryl has had a successful writing career but because through her hike, she was able to see truths about herself, admit the ugly truths and accept things about herself that are unpleasant but all of that, everything that happened, led her to that moment and made her who she is today.  Maybe we all should take a break from our lives and go wild.

Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

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I ripped through this novel like a knife through tissue paper. it was so good. Better than good. It was a delight.

The book takes in 1999 and early 2000.  Lincoln works for the newspaper in Omaha in the IT department. Most of what he does is monitor the webfence, a program designed to monitor internally for the inappropriate use of email. Everyone at the paper now has email and the higher ups are worried people will abuse it. Mostly what Lincoln does is he checks the folder, sends out warnings, and then does whatever he wants for the rest of his shift.
Beth is a reporter for the newspaper who inappropriately uses her email. Well, she uses it for personal messages and not just for business. Most of the time she emails her friend and coworker Jennifer.  Lincoln sees the messages but decides not to say anything. And, then he just keeps reading them and reading them.
When I figured out the premise of the book, that Lincoln basically falls in love with this woman by snooping on her emails I thought, “Oh. That is so gross.”  Because it is. But, everything we know about Beth we know from her emails that Lincoln reads. That is the only way she’s in the story. And, she’s easy to like. Beth is smart and she is funny and she really cares about her friend Jennifer. Thankfully, the creepiness of snooping through someone’s email is actually discussed in the book. There are moral compass characters (who play d&d!) There are comic relief characters (Justin, Lincoln’s friend, is fantastic. As is Lincoln’s mother. And, Lincoln’s lunch buddy Delores.).
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The subplots about Jennifer’s marriage and complex relationship with having children was wonderful and something that I would like to see more of in literature and media. The decision to have children is really huge and shouldn’t be taken lightly and so to have it discussed at all (and to have a woman’s doubts about having children discussed) was amazing.

And, the subplot about Beth’s partner Chris was infuriating. If someone is “just too much” for you. Break up with them.  Don’t try to make them feel bad about it. Ugh. What a jackass.

This book had everything and I’m so happy that it was part of my pop culture homework assignment!

Review: Adultery by Paulo Coehlo

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So, you could read my spoilery review of this book or you can follow this link to this video of Bill Nye on Inside Amy Schumer and pretend that I am Bill Nye and the book is all of the women in this video.
Bill Nye on Inside Amy Schumer

When I requested this from the library, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I’ve read other Coehlo books before. I know what his writing is like. I expected that something would happen and that it would lead to some kind of inevitable communion with the infinite, the one, God. I wasn’t wrong.

What I did not expect was to so thoroughly loath the main character. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I’m not married so I certainly haven’t been married for ten years. I don’t have children. Her life is just different from mine, I kept telling myself. Don’t be a hater!
I’m totally a hater.
And, I’m a hater because the main character dismissed people’s attempts to help her. I’m a hater because she assumed that all treatments for depression are just pills and you’re fine. I’m a hater because the main character didn’t talk to her husband about her feelings until way past the point that she should have and then failed to connect with him. I’m a hater because when she sought therapy (finally) she was unhappy that it would take six months for her to make progress that she dismissed them all and looked for a quicker cure (that wasn’t a cure-all pill.  Which no one offered her, by the way).  And, when this Swiss woman finds her “quicker cure” in the words of a Cuban shaman (who tells her to go ahead and have the affair), it still takes her at least six months to have her effing epiphany.

I get there are many paths to God and I get that lots of people are different and I get that sometimes you just got to get something out of your system. But, this book was terrible and the main character is a horrible person. I don’t often finish books that I don’t enjoy but I did finish this one. And now that I have, you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.  Do not read this book.

Review: Losing at Love by Jennifer Iacopelli

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This was a good follow up to Game. Set. Match. With the French Open now behind them, Penny, Indy, and Jasmine look to make the quick turn around of Wimbledon.  Probably the most underrated difficult thing to do in any sport, go from the super slow clay courts of Roland Garros to the lightning fast grass courts of Wimbledon.  True, over the years, The All England Club has slowed down their courts in an attempt to encourage more rallies but it’s still unbelievable achievement to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.  Borg did it multiple times, Nadal has done it twice and Federer only once.  Ok, so you get the point.

All three girls are in very different places.  Indy had a successful French Open, in more ways than one.  She won the juniors and got Jack. Penny beat the World number 1 again but sprained her ankle in the process.  And poor Jasmine, crashed out the first round of the juniors and now is being pushed to play college instead of going pro.  All of their careers are going in different directions and the stakes are getting higher.  How does one balance friendships when your playing for thousands of dollars in the most prestigious tournament in the world?

Now, there are a few things I do have a problem with from a tennis fan perspective.  Indy and Jasmine have to qualify to make the women’s doubles field but when Indy is given a wildcard, she pulls out.  The reasoning is her coach and agent think that she can’t play qualifying and focus on her singles.  For someone who has followed tennis as long as I have I feel this in inaccurate, for lack of a better word.  Young players are often encouraged to play doubles when they are younger.  It gives them more match play, a chance to get real life experience of playing in tournaments.  It gives young players a chance to compete and learn how to compete on a more consistent basis while their singles game improves.  Winning is winning.  However, I understand from a drama point of view, why Miss Iacopelli would decide to go this way and really, I’m being nit picky here.

I do like the friendships.  I like that they are messy.  I like that for the most part, when they do fight, it’s not about boys but about their games.  They all may have dramatic love lives but for all three of them their tennis comes first.  I think it’s important to show that girls can be ambitious, that they can have drive but also have the love and respect of a man.  I hope that there are more of these because now that Wimbledon is over I can’t wait to see what happens at the US Open.