BOOK REVIEW: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

Title: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Author: J.K. Rowling
Publisher: Children's High Level Group
Year: 2007
Purpose for reading: Once Upon a Time Challenge III

First line: The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches.

My sister gave me this book at Christmas (thanks A.!) since she knew I had so much fun reading the Harry Potter series. It was a nice fit for Carl V.'s Once Upon a Time Challenge III that just ended.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a piece of fantasy that purports to be "a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches." It was, of course, translated by the fictional Hermione Granger with extensive footnotes by the equally fictional Professor Dumbledore. The very non-fictional J.K. Rowling has clarified Dumbledore's notes, when needed, for us muggle readers.

The tales seemed very similar to the old slavic folk tales I remember from my own childhood (e.g. Baba Yaga, etc.). I loved the tales of Beedle the Bard, but was more intrigued by the continuation of the Harry Potter world that this book provides.

Don't you just love the titles of these tales?

The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
The Warlock's Hairy Heart
Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump
The Tale of the Three Brothers

The Fountain of Fair Fortune was, hands down, my favorite tale. The Warlock's Hairy Heart was the most disturbing and made me shudder. And I can't stop saying "babbity rabbity," so Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump gets my vote for best title.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard was a charming way to keep the Harry Potter magic alive.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Sunday Salon: Catching Up!

This year has been a difficult one so far. Blogging has been rather sporadic for me due to my earlier unexpected medical episode and then the "race" to catch up in all areas of life after that. I'm beginning to feel a little more in control of my time now. Hope it lasts for awhile!

To celebrate, I've spent some extra time in the last week or so doing some blog maintenance and writing some book reviews. I was delighted to see that I wasn't the only one feeling the need to give my blog some attention and do some writing. Natasha at Maw Books Blog hosted Bloggiesta! last weekend. I wasn't quite up to full participation, so I joined in unofficially. I was able to clean up my tags (labels) a bit and also added a social bookmarking button to my posts template. I've got a list of other things I'd like to improve/change, but it felt good to get this much done.

I've written six book reviews in the last two weeks. I haven't been terribly prolific in this area, so three per week is quite good for me. Not sure that I'll keep up THAT pace, but I would like to be more disciplined about writing reviews. Soooo ... one of the things I will be trying to do is to write a review immediately after finishing a book instead of jumping right into reading another. Anyone else have this tendency?? I know I'm not alone!

Books reviewed in the last two weeks (links are to my reviews):

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
In the Company of Ogres by A. Lee Martinez
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman
A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

The books I completed for Carl V.'s Once Upon a Time Challenge still need reviewed and are patiently waiting for me on my desk. Still to come:

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Even with all of these reviews to write, I'm still reading! On my "nightstand" now:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
This is for the Battle of the Prizes challenge hosted by Rose City Reader. It is beautifully written with much to think about.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
I'm reading this one because so many of you have recently written about this charming book and I want to be charmed!

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron
Eva at A Striped Armchair vlogged about this book recently and it sounded fantastic. I'm also starting up something new on the library blog at work. I will be functioning as the editor for book reviews submitted to the library by our faculty and students. So far I've got one student lined up and several faculty. Not bad for the summer when there aren't many people around campus. I will also be contributing reviews and thought that this book would work well for one of my own submissions.

Read about the Sunday Salon and find out how to join by going here.

BOOK REVIEW: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

Title: Wife of the Gods
Author: Kwei Quartey
Publisher: Random House
Year: July 14, 2009
Reason for reading: LibraryThing Early Reviewers

First line: "The forest was black and Darko was afraid to enter."

Inspector Darko Dawson is part of Criminal Investigations in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. He is called to the small town of Ketanu to help solve the murder of a young NGO volunteer and med student named Gladys. Gladys has previously clashed with a local fetish priest and a local healer, yet a young ruffian is targeted by Ketanu law enforcement as the "doer."

Inspector Dawson has a history with the town of Ketanu. His mother was last seen here before she mysteriously disappeared twenty-five years ago. So it is with some apprehension that he returns to work this case and reacquaint himself with his mother's sister and her family.

One of the best aspects of Wife of the Gods is the character of Darko Dawson. He is a family man with strong loyalties to his wife and young son. He also has quite a temper and a keen sense of justice, the combination of which sometimes gets him into trouble. Among his other foibles is a lusty admiration for the female form and the occasional consort with a known thief in order to obtain the weed he smokes to unwind. Regardless, Inspector Dawson is ultimately likeable in spite of, or perhaps because of, his flaws. I look forward to the author's development of this character in future novels.

Regional novels are a favorite of mine. They allow me an enjoyable opportunity to learn about places with which I am unfamiliar and to revisit places that I love. Wife of the Gods was a chance to learn something about the place, people and customs of Ghana. For instance, some "teenage girls are offered by their families to fetish priests as trokosi, or Wives of the Gods" (from the back cover). This practice is a form of slavery and is controversial amongst the Ghanaians.

You may have heard this book compared to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith. I don't really find Smith's and Quartey's books to be similar except that they are: a) both regional detective novels, b) both character driven, and c) both set in Africa. Smith's books are set in Botswana and Quartey's book is set in Ghana. Quartey has his own voice which I found much grittier than the charm that infuses Smith's books. They are both fantastic storytellers, but they are different.

If you like character-driven-regional-detective novels, I encourage you to read Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey. It is a strong beginning to a new series.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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The author, Kwei Quartey, was raised in Ghana by an African American mother and a Ghanian father. Visit his website for more information about the author, his book, and the country of Ghana.

BOOK REVIEW: A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez

Title: A Nameless Witch
Author: A. Lee Martinez
Publisher: TOR
Year: 2007

First line: "I was born dead."

Yes, I'm on an A. Lee Martinez reading binge!

A Nameless Witch is yet another of Martinez' humorous novels awash in the supernatural. The humor in this book is more quiet than his previous two and tends toward the wry.

A nameless witch is on a quest ... a quest of vengeance and, hopefully, self discovery. But mostly vengeance. She takes along her contentious familiar, a demon duck. Ok, let me say that again. A demon duck. With a bad case of blood lust. As my husband noted at dinner the other night, this duck is probably the funniest duck in all of recent literature. And his name is Newt.

Along the way, a troll and a knight join the quest. The troll is rather endearing and the knight is virtuous. He is a White Knight. A dark skinned White Knight to be specific.

Nameless is a very beautiful witch. Of course, everyone knows that witches look like hags ... right? So every attempt is made by Nameless to hide her incredible beauty underneath rags and dirt and a carefully placed wart or two. Wyst, the White Knight, is able to see beneath the hag routine and falls in love. She too is smitten, but knows she must hide her increasing attraction to the knight in order to protect his virtue and his life. You see, Nameless is a witch who can not tell the difference between "a smitten heart or accursed appetite." She is afraid she will lose control in the heat of passion and eat him, literally. Ok, so moving on ...

One of my favorite bits pokes fun at the old Norwegian tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The questing party comes to a bridge guarded by a pack of surly elves, goblins and ogres who demand a toll. "As a troll, Gwurm knew something about bridge-tolling" so, of course, he negotiates. Various demands and threats are made by the leader of the surly bunch who ends his diatribe with a laugh meant to send chills down the spine. Unfortunately, "elf voices are terrible for sinister cackling." Not in the least intimidated, Newt asks: "Can I kill him?"

On the more thoughtful side, Martinez includes some passages like this one:

"Your conscience is your misery...."
"Conscience is my burden, but all worthwhile gifts have their price...."
"But it could be so simple" the ghoul hissed. "Why hold on to that which only makes your life difficult?"
"Because life is complicated and difficult. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't truly lived."

Martinez throws in a few philosophical musings in A Nameless Witch making it a bit more thoughtful than his previous books, but it remains overall a dark comedy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

BOOK REVIEW: Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman

Title: Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
Author: Tony Hillerman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2001

I was hesitant to read this book since I love Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee mysteries so much. I've found that sometimes it is better not to know too much about the author and to just enjoy the writing! This wasn't the case for me with Seldom Disappointed. The first two thirds of the book deal with the author's childhood, WWII service, and marriage to his wife Marie. The last one third of the book was more interesting to me as Hillerman describes his tenure in academia as a professor at University of New Mexico (some HILARIOUS stories there for those who are familiar with academia from the faculty side of things) and then moves on to talk about writing his various novels. In his memoir, Hillerman continues to display the fabulous descriptive abilities that he is known for in his mysteries.

The title of the book takes on added poignancy knowing that Hillerman is no longer with us. To know that he felt he had lived a good life and was "seldom disappointed" brings a smile to my face.

This book is an overall joy to read for fans of Hillerman.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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See also an essay/review in the Internet Review of Books titled, Tony Hillerman: A Gentle Man.
(Hat tip to Rose City Reader for pointing this one out to me!)

Once Upon a Time III: Challenge Completed

Carl V.'s Once Upon A Time Challenge III ended this last weekend. I was having so much fun reading for this challenge that I didn't want it to end! I originally signed up for "The Journey" which only required that I read one book. I surprised myself by reading five, though I did read almost exclusively outside of the original list I presented. My original choices were:

Widdershins by Charles de Lint
Moonheart by Charles de Lint
The Little Country by Charles de Lint
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean

What I actually read were:

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

I have yet to actually review any of these titles, but hope to do so soon. They were all fantastic reads and I can't wait to GUSH over them.

It was hard to pick a favorite from this list of books, but Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint turned out to be the one that I liked the most. de Lint is a new author to me and I am so glad I chose to read him. I've got quite a few of his other titles lined up on my TBR shelf now and look forward to reading each one. I like de Lint's take on urban fantasy, which seems different than that of other authors. It will take some more thought on my part in order to describe just what it is that is different and why I find it so appealing.

Thanks to Carl V. for hosting this fun challenge. I can't wait until next year!

BOOK REVIEW: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Title: How I Live Now
Author: Meg Rosoff
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books a division of Random House
Year: 2004

First line: "My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that."

How I Live Now is Meg Rosoff's first novel and won the Printz Award for young adult literature. That said, I would recommend it for the more mature YA due to certain ideas presented.

Daisy is a New York teen exiled to live with her aunt and cousins in the English countryside. Daisy's "evil" step-mother is about to have a baby of her own and is not interested in handling a smart-aleck teenager with an eating disorder. Daisy settles in easily with her British relatives and lives a rather idyllic country life ... until the unthinkable happens. While Daisy's aunt is out of the country at a conference on terrorism, England is invaded by an unknown enemy. Living in the countryside the children are far from the bombs and trouble and they continue to laze away their summer days, as children will. These happy and peaceful days are highlighted by Daisy's passionate and secret relationship with her cousin Edmond. Daisy knows that this relationship is wrong, but with no adult supervision Daisy and Edmond give in to their attraction to each other.

"The real truth is that the war didn’t have much to do with it except that it provided a perfect limbo in which two people who were too young and too related could start kissing without anything or anyone making us stop."

I am not sure why the author included a forbidden relationship in this story. The love story is integral to the novel, but I remain baffled by the author's choice of family relation.

The atmosphere of the novel takes a dark turn when their country home is sequestered by the British military, and the children are separated and sent to live with other families. The enemy is placated by the docility of the populace for a time, but tensions soon rise and nearly every encounter is highly charged and fatal to someone. Electricity becomes non-existent and food is scarce. As everyone around her begins looking gaunt, Daisy realizes the irony of her situation now that starvation is not self imposed. The children witness terrible atrocities and are left to struggle against the elements and hunger in their search to find a safe place and, hopefully, each other.

How I Live Now is a terrifying story made more so by an unknown enemy with an unknown purpose. It is a love story and a war story that tells how war changes people, sometimes devastatingly so, and how love can heal even the most destroyed souls.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Also reviewed by:
nymeth at things mean a lot
tanabata at in spring it is the dawn
3m at 1morechapter.com
raidergirl3 at an adventure in reading

BOOK REVIEW: In the Company of Ogres by A. Lee Martinez

Title: In the Company of Ogres
Author: A. Lee Martinez
Publisher: TOR
Year: 2006

I know I said that Martinez's first book, Gil's All Fright Diner, was hilarious ... but In the Company of Ogres is about four times funnier. Oh, and if you are a Terry Pratchett fan this one has even more similarities.

In the Company of Ogres is another comedy of the supernatural featuring a goblin who insists he's an orc, ogres who like to play a game called goblin crush, "a walking tree with a chip on its shoulder" (from the back cover), a feminist Amazon, a daredevil goblin pilot named Ace, and a human named Never Dead Ned. Of course, Never Dead Ned can die ... he just never stays dead.

Never Dead Ned is sent to a military outpost to command an undisciplined company of ogres and others. He has six months to whip them into shape or face having the company dismantled. It takes the threat of waking the Mad Void and bringing about The End of the Universe to pull this unruly group together into any semblance of an army. Of course, you'll have to read the book to find out if this group of misfits will indeed save the universe ... or not.

Rating: 5 out of 5

I don't give a lot of "5 out of 5" ratings, but this book made me LAUGH OUT LOUD on multiple occasions (which I rarely do when reading) hence the nifty 5 star rating.

Bloggiesta!: My New Social Bookmarking Button

I'm not able to officially participate in Natasha's (Maw Books Blog) fantastic Bloggiesta!, but since I've had blog maintenance and catching up on book reviews on the brain for awhile now, I'm unofficially participating.

Have you ever noticed that some bloggers have a nice little button at the end of each post to make it easy for readers to bookmark or share that post? Maybe I'm a little slow, but I noticed this the other day and I WANTED ONE TOO! I come across many blogger book reviews that I'd like to save, so I add them to my Delicious account making it easy to find and return to those reviews. Doing this is so much easier when a blogger includes a social bookmarking button to the end of each post. Of course, figuring out how to add this button to my blog posts was a little bit of a challenge.

I looked over all of the Blogger settings and found nothing which would allow me to "checkmark a box" and add this feature. That would have been too easy. Hmmmphh. My next step was to Google this task and I quickly came up with an easy-peasy way to do just what I wanted. Take a look at the end of this post and notice the nifty new "Share" button. If you want to add a button to your posts, go to AddThis and find out how!

Personal Space ... NOT

A familiar sight!

BOOK REVIEW: Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

Gil's All Fright Diner is a hilarious romp into the supernatural. Meet Earl the vampire, Duke the 800 pound werewolf, and Cathy the lonely ghost as they fight zombies, an evil teenage witch and Armageddon itself at an all night diner in the middle of the desert.

What makes this book of supernatural terrors so funny? Picture Earl the vampire with his bad comb over and worn out overalls, and 800 pound ex-truck driver Duke with his bushy hair exploding out of his truck driver hat. Now listen in as they squabble like an old married couple about EVERYTHING. Hang out with Loretta, the plus size woman who runs the diner despite nightly visits by ghouls. Go the rounds with the Sheriff, Marshall Kop, as he tries to keep the peace in his small desert town despite the mayhem created by zombie cows run amok.

So, does good triumph over evil and is the world saved from Armageddon? I can't tell you that! It would spoil the fun!

If you like Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, you'll probably have a screamingly good time reading Gil's All Fright Diner.

Rating: 4 out of 5

BOOK REVIEW: The Road from La Cueva by Sheila Ortego

Title: The Road from La Cueva
Author: Sheila Ortego
Publisher: Sunstone Press, Santa Fe
Year: 2008

This beautifully written novel tells the story of one woman's journey of self-discovery. The novel not only contends with Ana Howland's increasing sense of being smothered by a domineering and controlling husband, but also shows her growing realization that she has always lived under the overbearing weight of an oppressive relationship. Neither her authoritarian mother nor her dictatorial husband can accept her as a separate and imperfect person.

The Road from La Cueva is full of metaphor and in the hands of Ortego, the use of this device brings a richness and poetry to a topic that might seem trite in other hands. We are given a deeper glimpse into Ana's struggles through the images of the hostile road from La Cueva, the stubborn clay shaped by the potter, and the Changing Woman Ceremony (sometimes called the Sunrise Ceremony).

The road to and from Ana's home is a very tangible representation of those oppressive relationships in her life. When this dirt road is dry, it is as hard and unyielding as rock ... ready to tear up and break what dares to pass over it. Wet, the road is even worse. It oozes over and sucks everything into it with "a satisfied, brown belch."

The beauty of the imperfect is gorgeously represented through the craft of pottery. As Ana learns this craft from Michael, a co-worker, she notices that one of his creations has an uneven rim.

He ran his fingers around the rim of the cup. "See how this isn't even? The Japanese call this shibui, the flaw that makes something beautiful. The shape has to have some room, some freedom." ... "Like with people," he said, and she nodded.

It is this very room and freedom that is lacking in Ana's life. She has allowed the oppressive behaviors of others to weigh down her very being and she knows that it is something only she can change.

One of the most beautiful chapters in the book is the one describing the Changing Woman Ceremony, a Native American ceremony celebrating the change from girlhood to womanhood. Ana already knows that the means to change her life is within reach. It becomes more apparent as she watches the ceremony and recognizes her own internal strength and power as a woman. No longer will she be passively shaped by others. Ana already has the ability to gain command over her weaknesses, to be physically and emotionally strong, and to endure and suffer with dignity. Before the readers' eyes, "[she is shaped] ... into the woman she [is] to become." Her deep compassion and resilience form a strong core around which to emerge.

The Road from La Cueva is an encouraging look at the power we all have to shape our own lives. The passion and beauty of the writing is something that will draw me back to this story repeatedly.

Rating: 5 of 5

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Author Website:
For more about Sheila Ortego, visit the author's website.

Articles:
Article by Sheila Ortego about The Road from La Cueva at The Huffington Post.

Awards:
2008 New Mexico Book Awards Finalist
Finalist in the ForeWord Magazine 'Book of the Year' contest

Also reviewed at:
In Spring it is the Dawn
Terra's Book Blog