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New fantasy novel - Ravenheart by K. A. Thomas

Elizabeth — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:34:10 -0400

I love this book! I sat down with it some time in the afternoon with the expectation of some light reading before dinner, and quite suddenly the book was over and it was past midnight; and immediately I wanted to read it again.

Reading _Ravenheart_ is not so much like stepping into another world as exploring a forgotten corner of ours, a place that is exciting and wonderful but still very close and—possible, I suppose, is the word I’m looking for. Everything about the book—the setting, the characters, the adventure—was exciting and captivating and yet not quite out of reach, so that Ayla was a real person, sympathetic and straight-thinking, with heartfelt struggles that drew me in from the beginning. Each of the other characters was also deftly portrayed, creating a colorful world and making the book highly enjoyable for readers of fantasy or anyone else looking for a tale of adventure. I certainly enjoyed it!

Summer in Iran

Linda — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:25:43 -0400

After seeing the movie "Persepolis," I wanted to read the book, especially because I haven't read many graphic novels. Fortunately for me, a wonderful librarian at the Cary Public Library suggested that I check out ALL of Marjane Satrapi's novels, not just "Persepolis." She gathered the books for me, and I gobbled them up in a couple of days. Satrapi is such an engaging writer, and I learned more about Iran (particularly the lives of women there) than decades of news reports could provide.

If you've seen the movie, you'll also know how charming Satrapi's drawings are--very simple, but powerful. I'd recommend that everyone seek out "Persepolis," its sequel, and any other Satrapi novels you can find.

Summer Reading

Slow Reader — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:17:24 -0400

Our little neighborhood book club (six mothers of school-age/teenage children) read Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. This is an amazing book, and honestly, I would make it required reading for every student before they graduate from high school in North Carolina. Due to the writing expertise of David Relin, the narrative prose is beautifully-written, and Relin's descriptions of the physical settings in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the hardships there, are stunning. Throughout the book, I was amazed by the perseverance, patience, endurance and vision of Greg Mortenson in his quest to build schools, especially for girls, in these remote, treacherous mountain villages; his story is such an inspiration. The authors also convey an impressive understanding and awareness of Muslim culture, and how we cannot generalize an entire culture based on the action of a terrorist subpopulation of that culture.

Summer books.

Stephanie — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:56:41 -0400

Looking through my blog, from June 29 til my last journaling of books, I've read 61 books this summer! Not a bad haul, I guess.

My most recent favorite is Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher. He writes for the YA market, but adults will be moved by the powerful story and Crutcher's honest writing. Time after time, this book brought tears to my eyes. A few times I wanted to flat-out sob. This is the kind of book that stays with you, and I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon was a fun summer read (but really, anytime is a good time to relax with a book, right?). It's a coming of age story, set in 1960's Alabama, at a time when there's just enough magic left around the edges of Cory Mackenson's childhood to liven things up. McCammon has a gift for storytelling.

I've seen A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on a lot of 'My Favorite Books of All Time' lists, but I don't often see anything else by the author. Betty Smith's Joy In The Morning is just as amazing. Her writing is distinct enough that it's impossible to not recognize her style all over Joy, if you've read Brooklyn. This one is set in 1928 and tells the story of newlyweds Carl and Annie. Carl's working his way through law school. They've got next to no money, their parents don't support their marriage, and things aren't always easy, but love, commitment and a strong sense of determination conquer all. This is fun to read if just for the historical bits- at one point, Annie and Carl discuss if they can make it on ten dollars a week. Can you imagine?

If you didn't get to read everything you wanted during the summer, fall is a great time to curl up with a good book. ;)

"Eat, Pray, Love"

Kelly — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:58:28 -0400

I'm listening to the audiobook of "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert for the third time sine buying it earlier this year. I highly recommend it to anyone who knows what it's like to try to define yourself in life. Or for anyone who enjoys travel. Or, well, for anyone.

"You Suck: A Love Story"

Kelly — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:53:56 -0400

Although "You Suck: A Love Story" is not nearly as funny (in my mind) as "Lamb", it is still a great piece of work from Christopher Moore. It's about two vampires living in San Francisco and trying to figure out how to be vampires and early-20-somethings at the same time. But with a really sarcastic overtone. Not for the light of heart.

Books I read this summer

Alice Osborn — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:50:29 -0400

I'm so glad I'm the leader of my book club (the Wonderland Book Club) or I'd never make time to read. I read quite a few books this summer starting with

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I planned to read this one and I did! Sylvia Plath's novel was deceptively fun to read, despite the heavy themes of death and depression. So many of her character's experiences (really her alter-ego) echo the experiences I've faced and that many young women face today. That's amazing, considering that this book was set in 1953! Now I want to get all of Plath's poetry books.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. On the surface, "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler is a fantasy thriller, but it's so much more than that. It's an examination of gender, power struggles, race, history and socioeconomic divides. This book is also a memoir -- Dana resembles young Octavia. Both Dana and Octavia's fathers died before they knew him, both worked in menial jobs and both grew up in Southern California. As usual, Butler creates a strong, yet sensitive heroine that readers can root for. Dana is a modern day intellectual black woman who is a writer and she is married to another writer, who happens to be white. On her 26th birthday, she time travels back to 1815 to save Rufus, her white ancestor from drowning. As the story progresses, she returns to this era for over a year in her time, but over the span of 21 years in their time. In every visit she faces more danger and increasing violence. Butler doesn't lecture the reader about the psychological effects of slavery on both blacks and whites, but we discover how slavery leaves mental/physical scars on master and slave. She also examines through her first person narrative and characters how black women had to negotiate a space in this culture in order to survive. All of her characters are complicated and I think this is one of Butler's strengths in all of her fiction. Her plot is tight and suspenseful and she doesn't over foreshadow -- she gives just enough dread for you not to stop reading. The only quibble I had with the book was that there was too much unattributed dialogue between Dana and her husband Kevin at the beginning of the book. We didn't see these characters talk or experience their actions -- it was just straight expository dialogue. However, the writing got a lot stronger twenty-five pages later. Butler's short, imagistic descriptions and Dana's thoughts made me quickly forget about the shaky beginning. I also loved the ending which I won't give away. After you've read this book check out "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents."

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg.As a fan of Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, I read her latest "how-to" book. I own the audio version of this title, but would like to experience the updated print version. It was a short read and I loved the exercises and how she blended her own failings and vulnerabilities into the exercises. A must for any writer's bedside table.

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek. I read this book because it was assigned to me as a book review for Pedestal Magazine, but reading this charming dubut novel never felt like work! Jayne Pupek's "Tomato Girl" was a book I couldn't put down. Well-paced, funny, and authentic with vulnerable and memorable characters, Pupek throws the proverbial rocks at her protagonist, 11-year-old Ellie Sanders throughout the book -- Ellie's troubles never seem to relent, except when she lets them go at the end. Beginning in a circular fashion with her mentally ill mother("a lily caught in a hurricane was how Daddy described Mama. If we calmed the winds around her, she would be fine") having a breakdown at the outdoor food market in town, Ellie recounts the events that led to her father leaving the family with "The Tomato Girl" a 17-year-old, fragile epileptic incest survivor. Then Pupek rushes furiously to the end where Ellie is taken into foster care and is told to let go of her troubles by Clara, a clairvoyant who saves Ellie's spiritual soul. The heart of the book takes place during Holy Week. Ellie's pregnant mother, Julia, falls down the cellar steps trying to retrieve an onion (Ellie believes this is her fault because she wanted to rush to her dad's store and pick out a new Easter chick instead of getting her mother that onion). Rupert Sanders manages the general store in town and has gotten close to Tess, the tomato girl, who sells him her produce. After Julia falls, Rupert has Tess come home with him (to help out his wife), which leads to tragedy for everyone involved. Ellie is now caught in the hurricane of her father's creation, as she struggles to help her mother, compete for her father's love with Tess, and witness her mother attack Tess and her father, both verbally and physically. She manages to hold on because of her two constants: Jellybean her baby chick and Mary Roberts, her know-it-all best friend, but these two don't remain by her side as the narrative unfolds. I loved how Pupek named all of her chapters: "Market Day," "Bad Letters," "Spoon,"The Gun," which allowed some clever foreshadowing. Pupek is also a poet and her taut verbal skills shine throughout the novel, especially when she uses analogies ("She (Julia) buys cabbages as twisted as a man's fist. Red radishes the size of a doll's heart.")without ever going overboard. Her images are grounded in the real world so I always could picture myself in the scene with smells, tastes and texture. "Tomato Girl" is sad, yet hopeful and is the book that should have been "The Secret Life of Bees". It's one of the best books I've read all year and I'm rooting for it to be a big hit.

The last book I read this summer was Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild." This book is a fine companion to the 2007 Sean Penn movie. After seeing the film, I wanted to know what made Chris McCandless tick and what made him so angry. As a mother, I can't even imagine my son going off and not telling us where he was for two years. And then when he's found, he'd dead. What a horrible thing to have happened to Walt and Billie McCandless, Chris's parents. Through Krakauker's fine details of the landscape of Chris's travels, his interviews with those that knew Chris and his descriptions of other bold and tragic adventurers, we gain a clear context of what made Chris escape his late 20th century life in favor of being alone in the Alaskan wild. Not only does Krakauer tell us why men must risk all to climb mountains and venture into the wilderness, he shows his vulnerability through his own personal narrative. When he was 23, he was determined to climb Skikine Ice Cap in Alaska -- alone. He made it, but it humbled him. From these experiences, he's the perfect author to understand Chris and give readers an idea of who Chris McCandless was. From this book, I know he was stubborn, arrogant, loyal, super smart, entrepreneurial and highly ethical. The people he briefly met on the road fondly remember him and feel that Chris positively touched their lives. He marched to his own beat. I made up my mind that Chris was born in the wrong century and just couldn't fit into postmodern America. My sentiments were echoed in the book by Andy Horowitz, one of Chris's close high school friends. While reading I felt two connections to Chris: he graduated from high school 4 years before I did from Woodson HS (I went to Robinson Secondary, about 6 miles away) and we both grew up in Annandale, VA, about 5 miles from each other. I, too, found NOVA a stifling place and couldn't wait to flee from it the first chance I got. Like Chris, I never went back after graduating from Virginia Tech. We were also both competitive runners and I understand what makes someone good at long distance running: sheer will and raw determination. Chris had these in great quantities. Yes, he didn't go to Alaska prepared, but he did survive for 111 days using his wits and living off of the land. Although it cost him his family and his life, McCandless lived his dreams and I believe he found redemption at the very end of his life. This books amply provides more of the answers and background information for fans of the film version.

I'm currently working on Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" which I look forward to reading when I get a few minutes of downtime and "Ahab's Wife" by Sena Jeter Naslund, which at 665 pages is a dense but worth the time investment from what I've read so far.

Cheers,
Alice

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"

Marie Wright — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:30:00 -0400

This is a beaautiful story based on lives of residents of Guernsey Island in the English Channel during and following World War 11. It is a very sensative story and and told in a very interesting fashion--do not overlook this one.

Student Poems from Governor's School

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:07:52 -0400

Thanks for sharing these poems. I'm glad to know these students have a showcase for their work. When our daughter Corinna was in Governor's School at Salem College in 1995, she wrote a stunning poem, which I was lucky enough to be in her class as a visitor to hear. She was asked to read it again. The room was silent for a good while afterward. If only the News and Observer had been publishing Governor's School poems then! I would often read her poem at my readings in the years that followed, and my audience nearly always commented on hers and not mine.
I invite readers of this blog to visit our ncarts.org site to read more student poetry, as well as my new laureate blog--ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com, on which I'll be featuring student poetry.
Kathryn Byer

summer reads

Visitor — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:15:30 -0400

I am doing a re-read of the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes). She has some other books out about one of the minor characters, the Lord John Grey books. I haven't read all of them, yet, but have all 3. (Lord John and the Private Matter, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, and Lord John and the Hand of Devils).

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Alice Osborn — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:37:46 -0400

I just finished reading Sylvia Plath's only novel, "The Bell Jar." I've heard about this book for many years, most notably in "In Her Shoes" by Jennifer Weiner (2002). Knowing a month after this book's publication Plath killed herself and left behind two children when she was only 30, I thought that "The Bell Jar" would be a very serious "literary" novel. It is literature, but it's also funny. Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, is 19 years old and feels lost. After not sleeping for weeks, she feebly attempts suicide and then she takes 50 sleeping pills. The rest of the novel describes her decline in the bell jar (a vacuum-sealed laboratory jar) and then her eventual recovery. Esther is Plath's alter ego and this book is almost creative nonfiction with the names/places changed, except she called it a novel.
I really liked Esther and even though she is extremely depressed, she rationalizes everything so she appears like a "typical" person. She also observes people and hits upon their idiosyncracies so well, I knew these people too, like the poseur, the rich bitch, and the misogynist. Although all of the novel's events take place in 1953, the novel still feel fresh and modern. Esther wonders how she can balance being a woman writer in a man's world. She doesn't want to marry the wrong person and she wants a meaningful career. This novel (written in 1963) deals with sex, birth control, depression, and even homosexuality (in a small scene). Her images are poetic: "A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and then and essential as the blade of a knife." She uses her black patent leather shoes and her old beach town as reflections of her mental journey.Although it's not appropriate to say that reading about depression and suicide makes a fun read, I had fun reading this book. Esther's voice is clever and ironic, yet authentic. I feel that Plath was born 20 years too early. If she was born in the 1950s instead of the 1930s, maybe the intense pressures she faced as a writer and mother would not have contributed to her suicide. Perhaps we would have enjoyed more of her novels and her intelligent wit with words. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Black or Green Who Cares

needlepointernc — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:39:16 -0400

We watched the movie 2 saturdays nights ago and by the middle of last week I had already finished the book. The movie is close to the book, but the book ends a lot differently. I would see the movie first and then read the book.

I didn't know what color the Mustang was supposed to be... this is a book of fiction so who cares what color. Maybe when he saw the movie in Kabul, it looked black. I think you missed the point of the book.My copy had study questions in the back. Why not concentrate on those. Maybe you didn't like his writing style. Well that is okay. Did he write it in English first or did he translate it. Maybe that is what you didn't like. I read half of a Faulkner novel and couldn't read another page of it.

You aren't supposed to like Amir... at least that is how I feel. He didn't like himself much did he? I learned a lot from this book. I learned that history repeats itself over and over and over again. There is always one class that hates the other class. Wars are fought over who thinks they are better - sounds just like 2nd grade on the playground.

I also learned that most people just want to live and let live and why can't we just do that. Think about that when you go to vote in November. Out with the old and in with the new.

I couldn't find his second book at the store but will order it online.

Peace is Patriotic.

Firefly Lane

alice — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:30:05 -0400

Saw this book in the library yesterday and was intrigued by the title. Had not heard of Kristin Hannah before and the story looked like it might be good. WOW! I cannot put this book down. Make yourself comfortable because you will not want to put this book down once you've started. An amazing, wonderful story of friendship. I am about the same age as the two central characters in this novel and could relate to every word. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!! Buy this book today for your best friend!

The Knitting Circle

alice boyce — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:56:59 -0400

I finished this book last week -- highly recommended for anyone who has experienced grief in any fashion. 4 stars from me!

The Kite Runner

Alice Osborn — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:59:41 -0400

The Wonderland Book Club (my book club) discussed "Kite Runner" on Friday and we collectively enjoyed it, yet as a writer, I always deconstruct novels and try to figure out what works/doesn't work. I loved Hosseini's characterization and images, BUT he is the most unsubtle writer I know -- so many lines started with, "and that was the last time I ate..." "and that was the last time I saw Hassan smile."" DUM, DUM, DUM. Cue soap opera music. AND I'm a Mustang enthusiast and he states that Amir's (the protagonist)father drives him to school in a black Mustang, like the one Steve McQueen drove in Bullet (1968). BUT, McQueen drove a GREEN Mustang -- this missed detail totally distracted me. In addition, Amir was the most unlikeable narrator I've encountered in a long time -- anyone else out there feel this way?