Tag Archives: Kate reads

It’s the first of November, and so today someone will die

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Since it’s the November 1 I thought we would take a moment and look at Maggie Stiefvater’s best book, The Scorpio Races.  I mean all of her books are good but this one is the best.  It’s filled with so much atmospheric goodness that’s it’s just luscious.  Every year they race on the sea horses. Some live and some die.  Sean is the defending champion.  The youngest ever but much older then his years.  Puck is the first girl to compete but circumstances make her take the chance.  I can’t speak highly of this book and I’m sure that Kate would agree with me.  If you are looking for a good book to read by the fire with some warm apple cider then you really can’t do any better then this.

Review: Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

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In Zoey Redbird’s world, humans are made into vampyres after they are chosen by the Goddess Nyx. They leave their families and go to live at the local House of Night which is a training ground/school for fledgling vampyres. But, that’s just background noise because she has to deal with whatever her best friend is babbling about, and her ex-almost boyfriend, and her mother’s new husband who is a elder in the People of Faith and who has taken over her mother’s life (and subsequently destroyed her relationship with her Mom.)

Did I say it was background noise? I meant it was exposition. Zoey Redbird is marked in the first chapter and has to go to vampyre school. She is visited in a dream by Nyx and she is asked to be the Goddess’s very own eyes and ears in the school. Talk about responsibility.

The rest of the book is taken up with typical school story narrative. People are terrible and fledgling vampyres don’t buck that trend. There are mean girls, there are the cool kids, there are the people you are lucky enough to have as friends. And, there is a mystery of dead or maybe not-so-dead fledglings. Zoey has to navigate the halls of the school and investigate the mystery.

This is the first book in the series, and as discussed in my Saturday Reads I liked Zoey Redbird very much. The second half of the book involved a lot of description of ritual, and while I liked that, it felt a lot using non-Christian cultural practices as a way to make the vampyre world seem exotic and interesting and special instead of pushing the plot forward by character development or by divulging more about the mystery. And, that’s lazy at best and appropriative at worst. Also, a lot of the references felt really dated or forced. Zoey and her friends make a lot of pop culture references.

Even with the low points, I liked the characters and I’ll probably read at least the next one in the series.

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

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This is the story of Cath, a first year college student who is super awkward, in love with characters in a teen series, and a writer of fan fiction. She moves into her dorm room with her new roommate (after her twin sister tells her she doesn’t want to room with her) and then proceeds to try and make it as far as she can without interacting with anyone. Her roommate, Reagan, and her roommate’s friend (boyfriend? friend? boyfriend?) Levi force her to interact with them. Levi forces the issue by snooping through Cath’s stuff and eating most of her supply of protein bars (forcing her to ask where the cafeteria is) and Reagan forces the issue by making Cath eat with her in the cafeteria. They slowly become friends. Cath and Levi realize that they have feelings for each other and the story spirals from there. Additionally, there are story arcs that involve both of Cath’s parents. Cath’s father has raised her and her sister from when they were very young and now her mother would like to have some involvement. Cath’s father also has bipolar disorder. Cath’s interactions with her parents were beautiful and at times heartbreaking.

I love Cath. I love her so much.

This book has beginning of school drama. It has tension between sisters (ugh, her sister drove me crazy!). There is romance. There is friendship. There is at least one douche canoe of a bro tryna take advantage of a young woman. There’s some really satisfying comeuppance for said douche canoe of a bro. There’s an awesome professor who gets it…but also doesn’t get it. And, there’s the fan fiction. Oh, the fan fiction. I finished this book in two days and I read it on my phone because I couldn’t get enough of it. I read it in every spare minute that I had. This was by far my favorite of the books that Beth assigned me this summer. I cannot wait for Carry On!, Cath’s fan fiction, to be published this Fall!

What I’m Reading Now: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

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Beth and I are in the same book club. I’m a little behind everyone else this month. I’m a little embarrassed by that because I recommended this book!

Pop Culture Homework Assignment for Kate

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So Kate,

I’ve thought long and hard about what your assignment was going to be.  At first I thought I would assign you a series that I’ve recommended to you.  I know over the years I have given you books that you haven’t read or finished but I’ve sort of lost track of what you have read and what you haven’t.  So then I thought maybe I would assign you to a new series I have read that you would like but I wanted to assign you a series that has been completed.  Which narrows things down quite a bit.  I’ve gone all over the pros and cons of each series and couldn’t come up with a clear favorite.  So, then I thought maybe I would assign you to finish a series that I know you haven’t finished like the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare but I think it’s only the last book in both of those series left for you to read and that’s not enough for summer.  Plus, that might be kind of mean, since I know why you haven’t finished the Mortal Instruments and I respect your decision not to.  It wouldn’t be right for me to force you to do so that idea was brushed aside.  Then I got a brilliant idea, thanks to twitter.  Well, a tweet from Rainbow Rowell.  Now, I don’t actually remember what she actually said or what it was about but she is usually thoughtful and clever. It made me think, have you read any of her books? I didn’t think so and well that needs to be corrected.

So, Kate your Pop Culture Homework Assignment is to read all four of her books in order of them being published (if possible).  All of her books are standalone with the only thing common with all of them is the state of Nebraska.  What I like about them is that even though they are in the most romances, they never feature your classic beauties.  All her leads are curvy, tall, have big foreheads and such.  They are very much set in reality with characters who are dealing with the same issues as you and I that they seem so real and well, since most take place in the Nebraska there are a lot of Midwestern humor that only those of us who grew up here could really appreciate.  You’ll  start with Attachments and get to know Lincoln and Beth (what a lovely name!) then go on to Eleanor and Park and probably cry over both of them and then laugh and cry with Levi and Cath in Fangirl and then end your summer with Landline with Georgie and Neal.  I know you will love all of them and I can’t wait to read and hear all your observations.

There you go, get to work.

Review: Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

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Under Heaven

This was a really different tale than I typically read. Set in what is a fantasy-version of Medieval China, it follows the lives of a number different people who have a huge impact on the course of the empire. The tale starts with Shen Dai who is spending his official mourning period following the death of his father at the site of his father’s worst memory, a battle field at the edge of the empire which was so devastating that many of the slain weren’t even able to be buried. He spends the mourning period burying as many of the dead as he can. This ends up having tremendous consequences for him because he is honored for his work with a gift of 200 of the strongest and most beautiful horses. This is cause for some alarm. He’ll probably be killed for these horses. So, he has to figure out how to navigate the world he’s been out of for two years without getting killed.

Meanwhile, his lover in the capitol has been taken as a concubine by a rival. That rival has moved up in the Palace ranks and is a hugely influential adviser to the king and his brother is that rival’s most trusted adviser. Additionally, his sister has been raised to a princess and has been sent to marry a border tribe leader to cement a treaty.

And, that’s not even half of it. The story follows the lives of Shen Dai, the rival, his brother, his sister, the concubine, an assassin, the heir to the throne, army leaders, border leaders and outcasts and the Emperor’s favorite wife. All of these threads weave in and out of each other in a personal tale about a crisis within the whole empire.

This was an immensely fun listen and I am happy to have read it. Although, it is full of an incredible amount of detail so I ended up listening to some parts of it more than once. (As it turns out, when it snows heavily during your evening commute, you have a lot of time for listening and re-listening to audio books.) If you’re looking for a break from teen romance, I recommend this!