Currently

Currently reading:
Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones (re read)
Ice Land by Betsy Tobin (new, recently published)

I leave for college in a few days and will have to leave my local library system (where I get 98% of books) and my own bookshelves. I stopped in at Half-Price Books today and picked up 5 paperbacks for $4 total, don’t know how long they will last!

I hope to finish reading & reviewing the two above before I leave.

Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick

Rating: 7 out of 10

Zoe was born into a world of floods. All the land on earth is slowly being eaten up by the rising sea–her parents tell her things were not always like this: people didn’t used to have to scavenge in broken buildings for food, there used to be land all around, land so far as the eye could see, where you could walk for days on end and not reach the ocean. On the little island of Norwich, which is becoming smaller and smaller every day, Zoe and her parents try to live a normal life. Zoe’s dad teaches her to row, something he tells her might come in use one day.

Their small family tries to leave the island on the last supply ship to come from the “mainland,” but in the confusion and melee, Zoe is left behind on Norwich. Time passes and things get more and more desperate for Zoe living on her own, but one miraculous day she finds a boat–more precious than gold and diamonds in her world. She manages to escape Norwich and rows towards where she believes the mainland, and her parents, might be.

However, Zoe ends up on Eel island, a little lump of land even smaller than Norwich. The “eels,” as they call themselves, are a bunch of raggedy kids led by a charismatic boy named Dooby–things are even more savage and uncilivized here, and Zoe despairs of ever finding her parents again…

Sedgwick writes speculatively about the future of the earth after global warming, and its effect on ordinary citizens in the UK. His style is very simplistic and a little eerie, especially concerning the subject manner. This also a re-read, I think I first read it when I was younger, and was going through my apocalyptic, end-of-the-world, doomsday and hellfire reading phase. It’s very short, about a hundred pages.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy–an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages. (from bookjacket)

My Thoughts: This is classified as a book for children or whatever, but I really enjoyed it. I thought the whole idea and set-up was very original and intriguing–a boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard? I also like Gaiman’s writing style–I haven’t read too many of his other books, I kind of tried the first Sandman when I was younger but it was a little too scary for my taste–and I like how The Graveyard  Book sounded and felt a little like a fairy tale at times.

Bod grows up in the graveyard and learns all sorts of necessary and slightly ghostly things.

Bod studied hard, and asked questions. Tongiht Bod asked about Hauntings, getting more and more specific, which exasperated Mr. Pennyworth, who had never gone in for that sort of thing himself.

“How exactly do I make a cold spot in the air? he asked, and “I think I’ve got Fear down, but how do I take it all the way up to Terror?” and Mr. Pennyworth sighed and hurrumphed and did his best to explain, and it was gone four in the morning before they were done.

Just a little creepy, but kind of in a cute way. I liked Bod a lot, and how the book followed him growing up and figuring out things about his Graveyard world, and the real world outside. There’s also conflict and danger when he faces down his family’s killer, and there was a certain surprise and twist that I didn’t see coming at all.

An Update

I feel like I have been reading quite a bit lately, but I’m not finishing anything. I hate it when this happens, when I keep getting distracted by a new book and not finishing the 52 other ones that I’ve already started. And for some reason I don’t like to review books that I don’t finish. But perhaps I shall now in order to have something to post about…

Books I am currently reading:

-The Treasure Keeper by Shana Abe
-Genghis Khan: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
-The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: Blessed—or cursed—with an ability to understand animals, the Lass (as she’s known to her family) has always been an oddball. And when an isbjorn (polar bear) seeks her out, and promises that her family will become rich if only the Lass will accompany him to his castle, she doesn’t hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servents. Only a grueling journey on the backs of the four winds will reveal the truth: the bear is really a prince who’s been enchanted by a troll queen, and the Lass must come up with a way to free him before he’s forced to marry a troll princess.

Commentary: A retelling of the traditional fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon (other versions are Cupid and Psyche, as well as Beauty and the Beast). I thought this was very enjoyable. The plot had a nice smooth flow and our heroine was strong and determined, as all heroines should be. Highly recommended.

Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances (Volumes 1-3) by Masami Tsuda

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: Straight As, athlete and overall “Ms. Popularity,” Yukino, is the perfect student. Or at least that”s how she appears to the outside world. But when the curtains are drawn, a lazy young egomaniac lurks who will do anything and everything to be the top student in her school. Yukino finds her resolve put to the test as after years as the Idol of her class a threat emerges in the MORE perfect Soiichiro. A good-natured, studious and athletic boy he is her equal in every way but one – that behind the act is a genuine heart driven to succeed. Yukino is desperate to regain her status anyway she can, but through embarrassing flub-ups at every turn, Soiichiro remains untouched even as they find respect for one another, and maybe, after all the dust has cleared, something more.

Commentary: This was a reread, and I still enjoyed it this time around. Kind of a cliche plotline and I know it sounds pretty phony and shallow from the summary, but Masami Tsuda does a good job of injecting both depth and lighthearted humor into this series.

The version I have is a compilation of volumes one through three, though the cover I have with this review is just of volume 3.

What I like most about Kare Kano (in English: His and Her Circumstances) are the funny bits–it might be a little bit outrageous at times, but on several occasions I’ve laughed out loud. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of Tsuda’s drawing style, but the story moves along at a good pace, and all the characters are pretty fleshed-out and unique.

I can find myself relating to Yukino quite a bit, especially the bit about reputation. She’s a very likable character, and I like the way she develops through the story.

Romantic, funny, light read.

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary: The gold thread shimmers in the fading light . . .

It promises Charlotte Miller a way out of debt, a chance to save her family’s beloved woolen mill. It promises a future for her sister, livelihood for her townsfolk, security against her sinuous and grasping uncle. It might even promise what she didn’t know she needed: lasting hope and true love.

But at what cost?

To get the thread, Charlotte must strike a bargain with its maker, the mysterious Jack Spinner. But the gleam of gold conjures a shadowy past — secrets and bonds ensnaring generations of Millers. And Charlotte’s mill, her family, her friends, her love . . . What do those matter to a powerful stranger who can spin straw into gold? (from book jacket)

Commentary: My experience with novels that are fairytale retellings has generally been positive–East by Edith Pattou, various others by Robin McKinley, Juliet Marillier, etc–and this was no exception. If you couldn’t get it from the summary, Dark as Gold is a retelling of the traditional Rumpelstilskin myth. You know, the one where the strange little goblin man spins straw into gold three times, and asks for the nameless girl’s firstborn child as payment. In order to save her baby, the girl has to guess his name, she wins through some supernatural method, yada yada, everyone’s happy, the end.

I’ve always had several problems with this story–number one being who the heck was Rumpelstilskin? Why did he want her baby? Why did he even offer to help the girl in the first place?

Bunce’s novel fleshes out the myth and has a great story to answer all the questions. This isn’t your usual happy-go-lucky fairy tale though. There’s a sinister undercurrent running throughout the story in the form of unexplainable, supernatural happenings, amplified by the skin-of-your-teeth desperation from Charlotte and her sister in their attempts to keep their beloved family mill running.

The story Bunce creates is well-formed and solid–I can’t find anything wrong with it. The setting is a nice little village in a world on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution; there’s a bit of Big Evil Factory vs. Cute Handmade Peasant Things. But the nostalgia and politicking was kept low and didn’t overshadow the main plot. It takes a little bit to get started, about a 100 pages or so, but once it gets going, it really gets going. The plot moved along really well, and the twists in the story, while I could occasionally predict and see coming, were still interesting and entertaining.

Charlotte was a good, strong heroine, although at times I couldn’t exactly understand a lot of her motives for making decisions that she did. Jack Spinner, aka Rumpelstilskin, was fascinating and gave a really great backstory to all the questions I asked earlier. The romance was also fun and engaging–something I really liked about what Bunce did was that in many novels, the marriage/big get-together is The End, the Final Climax, and doesn’t happen till near the wrapping-up of the novel. However, Bunce showed that romance can and does continue even after the wedding, that marriage isn’t the end of the romance story (as it is so often in so man novels), but that it continues on afterwards.

My final words are: Great story, great idea, great characters, definitely worth your time. It’s classified as Young Adult or Teen fiction, but adults will be able to enjoy this as well.