Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

I am confused by this book. I am less confused by this book after I did some research and found out that it's the first book of a series. Excellent.

So I was fooling around on twitter one day (as I am wont to do) and I saw that there was a giveaway from Razorbill - it's absolutely no secret I've been on a YA book kick for the past few months (can't help it, what's coming out is awesome) and they were doing a giveaway for some new titles. I did what I always do, googled for the plot, begged for the book, got nostalgic over a past job a Razorbill author and I shared, won the book and then got worried because I really really wanted to love the book, and that tends to end poorly for me.

It's also no secret I tend to buy books for their covers. I know, I know, but I do. I not only really dug the cover, but I loved the title. I'm Newfie enough it was one of the phrases I remember hearing from my Grandpa fairly constantly and quite simply, I really wanted to be charmed by this book.

Whelp (yes I went there) stars aligned and I was completely charmed by this book. Violet is charming, River is sufficiently dark and mysterious to make the teens and tweens smitten and even I half love him when I know I shouldn't. The character development is haunting - generally the novel is. I'm about to get really folky here guys - but the magic in this book is magical because it's not actual magic. It's the magic any of us raised by people who were raised with myth and legend can identify with - the local folk magic that's in what we wear, the shadows by our bed and the fact that we remember why you leave fairy bread out by the window. Tucholke manages to make the book creepy, disturbing and really you should probably read it with the lights on.

I'm not going to get overly into it because it doesn't come out till August, but it's well worth reminding yourself to pick up a copy.

March Madness

So right off the bat, and to be perfectly clear Harper Collins Canada doesn't know who I am, there's pretty much no chance they'll even read this and I'm not writing it to give them publicity blah blah blah. I'm writing this for you - yes, you, one of the handful of people who's reading this, because for reasons beyond Marketing you should be paying attention to Harper Collins Canada's March Madness contest.

HCC March Madness is basically a basketball tournament with books - 64 books that face off until one book is named ultimate champion of all of the books. Book vs. Book. Literary smack down for the ages. HCC is clever - along with one book crowned winner, one person wins all of the books.

Ok, so why do you care? Other then winning 64 books (that I can impartially say over half of which actually rank on my list of favourite books ever- Amelia Bedelia, The Giving Tree, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Goodnight Moon, The Gruffalo, To Kill a Mockingbird all made it past the first round, and I will say that a Tree Grows in Brooklyn being up against Stardust is basically a personal tragedy) which is damn cool, and minus the fact it's basically a popularity contest for books, the question of why we love what book is one that's just fun to think about.

It's a pretty safe assumption that the majority of kids who grew up in Canada grew up being read the Giving Tree and The Gruffalo. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made me love science fiction, and told me it's ok to be ridiculous sometimes. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was the first book that made me cry. Mr. Penumbra's is a terrifyingly accurate snapshot of both where I want my career to go, and exactly where I am in life. Stardust will always break my heart in the best possible way.

So beyond the marketing, I kind of love the idea of pitting The Giving Tree against Goodnight Moon because if you made me chose, I actually don't know which way I'd go. It's no easier to me to pit Goodnight Moon over To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe it should be - American classic versus childhood memory. More to the point, it made me think if I actually had to chose one favourite book - I don't actually know what I would chose. Books that changed my life, books that shifted my worldview, books that made me feel better, not alone, I don't know which way I'd go. It's cool, I'm a Librarian, I know I'm a dork about this stuff.

The Colossus Rises

So I tend to have 0 expectations when it comes to books like this one other than I want it to be fun, and as far as I'm concerned Lerangis did that. I was impressed with the characters - the Professor (ha!) was clearly using the kids as pawns, but it's clear at times he cares for them more than he lets on. The kids also are very clearly kids, which is very well done on Lerangis' part. They all had their own personalities, questioned authority, fooled around and missed their parents. I think that's something that's often not mentioned, but it's a very real aspect of this book and a detail I appreciated.

It seems a lot of the buzz about this book touches on how it was slow, did a lot of world building and people were a little confused as to where the series is going to go. I'm not going to argue with that, but I will throw in my two cents that the books target audience is middle school kids - and I think the topic is unfamiliar enough to that audience that a little world building for a series is probably a good thing.

Basically the book is the beginning of the kids tracking down the seven powers - or seven wonders of the ancient world. I love this, because I'm enough of a history/classics geek and I think every kid should get to be awed by the ancient world once or twice. I also admittedly love searching for things that have been long lost to history - it throws in just enough reality to make a fantastical book plausible enough for imagination to go wild.  I'm fairly sure this book was a set up for the series, and I certainly wasn't disappointed with it. I think it's appeal to a middle grade crowd is really strong - I feel that by the end of the book it was already setting itself up for a fun action filled ride, and I can't wait to see where they take the rest of the series.



***Full Disclosure - I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher at OLA Super Conference, not specifically for reviewing but because they're promoting it to librarians. So I feel half bad about not getting my things together enough to do an early review, and then for doing a post-publication review on an ARC. Generally I'm fairly confident not enough has changed, but apologies none the less.

RUSH

So I wasn't sold on this book from day 1. The premise is the main character is pulled from her real life, into what appears to be a real life video game, where she has to eliminate an alien life form. Basically, kind of Hunger Games meets Books of Valor - so I was half sold, but half leery because this will either end fantastically, or in a slightly painful tug of war.

So the thing is Silver pulls it off. RUSH is a lot of fun - Miki is clueless, frustrated and terrified because there are aliens and what is going on because guys, aliens, but if you die in the game, you die in real life. Her teammates try and fill her in, but when she goes back to real life (I'm old, so I kept having Matrix flashbacks)  she tries to find out what's going on but that's harder than she expected. Miki is a pretty great character - she knows how to fight and despite her being confused she picks up quickly - strong young female characters I'm generally a fan of, especially when authors don't fall into cliche's.  I will say that this is the first of a series, and does end with a cliffhanger. We've discussed that this drives me insane. I get why authors do it, I think they have to do it, but you know. Insane.

I think generally this is a book that teens can grab on to - first person shooter games, anime, MMO are all aspects that will grab the reader's interest. The originality of the book is also a draw - I certainly haven't read a book with a similar plot and I read a lot. I've recently been on a young adult specific book kick, and this one's plot stuck out (in a good way) when it comes to originality. I liked it because the book started out a bit slow, but that makes sense because the reader grows and learns with Miki - the pacing actually ended up being fantastic. I would basically throw this book at any teenage reader - it's a refreshing change from the outright supernatural (even though I admittedly do love the supernatural).


**I recieved an ARC copy at OLA Super Conference.

Archon

So it straight up kills me to write this review. I'd been glancing at this book on the shelves of the bookstore for months. The cover is gorgeous, the summary hooked me from the first time I read it and the ideas Benulis puts forward are ones that hit every point in something I would usually love to read. The first third of the books straight up confused me - the protagonist Angela dreams of Angels and no matter how hard she tries can't die. She's a Blood head which is a read head who is possibly a witch, and also possibly "the Ruin" who is the vessel for a dead Angel come back to life.  The above two aspects firmly bring to mind Constantine and Supernatural to me, and both of those pre-dispose me to like this book.

So help me I couldn't, and I tried. I tried SO HARD to like this book. The characters weren't overly likeable to me and I ended up really wishing that there was going to be some sort of thematic shift where the bad guys were actually the good guys because the Djinn's and Deamons were fantastic. So the thing about the mythology behind the book is that I have 0 expectation of angels being noble - but there was a bit too much of a glaring gap between the angels/demon nobility gap for me to get behind. Angela is fairly emotionally flat, and it makes it a little hard to get behind her as a heroine. Her history was touched on, but it's an awkward mix of either too much or too little background to give you an understanding of her.

The awkward part for me is that even though I was pretty thrown by the fact that even though I really disliked the book, I really did like Benulis as a writer - she tends heavily towards a Gothic feel, and I have absolutely no issue with it because she does it well. The middle of the book is really interesting, and as much as I hate to say it I wonder if the book being the first of a series, or maybe having too heavy of a copy edit had something to do with the beginning and the end feeling and reading almost like they were two different books. That also being said, I think the editor needed to take a bit of a heavier hand so, take that for what you will.  I will also say it's clear Benulis has an excellent imagination, and the subtlety and I did like that she didn't make romance a big part of the plot. So well done there. But the fact is the book seemed unnecessarily complex, in a way that didn't add anything to it. Another reviewer said it best - the setting outshines the characters - the back story to that would be fascinating.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Sometimes there are those books. You know, those books that you pick up on a whim because you like the cover (yes, really, I judge books by their covers. This is not news) and then you read them and all of a sudden you realize that this author gets it.  I'm basically going to fight waxing poetic about this book because I *hate* those reviews. Also because this book is better than that. I don't know if it's the biblio-tech focus this book has, my (not-so) secret desire to work for Google, my also (not-so) secret desire to own a book store, my fascination with immortality questors (this is a real thing) or just Sloan's way of writing that led to my first literary crush in forever but go buy this book.

So here's my dirty librarian secret: I've never read the Twilight series or the 50 Shades series. Believe it or not, not because I think they're useless, but because I just don't get it. Believe me, I'm all over the light-reading bandwagon, I've talked at length about how I love Urban Fantasy other arguably light reads (I think there's more to them then that, but that's preference and bias).  The thing is I think there are other books that are better, and if you could see my reading list you'd see why I just keep putting it off and then, oh oops, don't care.  I can not emphasize this enough. If there were any justice in the world, this book would skyrocket to the top of the book charts and everyone would read it and love it.  It's a book about hackers, and immortality, and bookstores, and living, and dreaming, and just plain figuring your shit out while you try and grow up. It's a fun book, well written, and I think the best way I can put it is it's fantastically real. Maybe it's a generational thing, maybe it's that the book touched a lot on my graduate degree, but it's a winner.

Basically I'm kicking myself for taking so long to grab it. Guys, I bought it. I work in a library, get sent ARC's and I not only bought it, but if I lose it, I'll buy it again. Do yourself a favour, and go buy it.

Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy New Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year - no really. I love December, Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, whatever it is you celebrate (and I celebrate most of them with equal love).  I love this time of year because it's the time of year when you get together with family, keep traditions, mourn the loss of old ones, and create new ones. It's been a year of change for me, personally and professionally, and I have nothing but hope for 2013.

My family and friends know me really well - well enough to know that when they're at a loss for what to get me (hell, now even when they aren't) they just get me a gift certificate for books. Seriously, I broke into the triple digits for book gift certificates this year.  I used to get actual books - I'd write a list and divide it up between everyone who liked buying me presents and then they'd pick and choose which books they wanted to get me. We all got over that, and everyone realized just handing me a gift certificate wasn't actually a cop-out.  That's a lie. My best friend actually bought me a real book, but she's allowed because she gets me.

That pile of books you see is part of the pile of books I bought with the big-chain bookstore gift certificates (the used book store ones will require more thought).  Here's the thing: I'm a librarian. I love the library. I really really do. Go to the library, we have books and not books, and movies and tons of awesome stuff. But I love having books - actual books, that I can read more than once, and lend out, and maybe get back and read again. So far one of these books is now arguably my favourite book ever (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore), I finally replaced JPod (seriously, I've owned about 6 copies of this book and they keep mysteriously disappearing), and sorry library hold list a mile long, I just bought Escape from Camp 14.


So come at me 2013.

A Murder at Rosamund's Gate

I love historical fiction. Love, love, love. Ariana Franklin's Mistress in the Art of Death is one of my favourite series, brilliantly written with a fantastic plot.  I've been looking for something to fill the void, and so was excited to get sent this ARC. I also admit, I'm one of those people who generally guesses if I'll like books based on the publisher, and while I admittedly haven't read much of Minotaur, I love St. Martin's Press (no they didn't pay me to say that, I get nothing for it. I mean, feel free to send me books, but really, I won't, and I just generally like them as a publisher).

Anyways, so I was sent A Murder at Rosamund's Gate, and lo, I had my holiday reading. Except I read it before the holidays. Oops.

I think first off I'm guessing they're setting this up as a series, though I could very easily be off in guessing that because the book stands pretty solidly as a stand-alone. Generally I really loved the books. The characters are endearing and well written - Lucy Campion is fun heroine because she's not really a heroine. The other characters aren't just there as props, you get drawn into the class politics that permeated 17th century England (A topic I admittedly can always get behind) and the story itself rather cleverly brings together a murder mystery, socio-economic politics, religious drama (The Quakers are coming!) and the looming of the plague. Calkins does so in a way that doesn't make it seem like she's just throwing it all in because she has to, but really makes it into a wonderful story that doesn't feel at all crammed together. Calkins also clearly is a excellent storyteller with a knack for character writing.

I'd wholeheartedly recommend this book to a pretty wide variety of people - personally I loved it and it both met, and exceeded my expectations of what I wanted from it.

*** I was sent this book by the publisher - all opinions are my own.

http://vivalakt.blogspot.ca/

The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios

So fun facts about me: I great up in Stratford (Ontario, not England) and the Festival was a huge part of basically everyone's lives - your parents worked there (yes, my mom did), you knew someone who did, your family business supported the tourists, or you worked there (yep, I did!) and it was basically non optional that you'd go there as a school and then camp field trip (True story, I saw Alice through the Looking Glass 6 times because of school and various camps) (I also hated it) (Sorry Sarah Polly).  Unlike most elementary schools (or so I hear) we also studied Shakespeare all through grade school- one of the other schools did this whole big thing where they painted pictures, and their teacher re-wrote the plays to be accessible. My slacker school just had us read these books, and watch cartons.

So basically I'm saying that while I'm in no way claiming to be a scholar, I got Shakespeare. My favourite play is Pericles, my favourite character is King Lear and I can explain to you in detail why the Globe, and therein Main Stage have thrust stages. So I was tentatively excited to have won this book, because with great power, comes great responsibility. By that I mean if people find out you're from Stratford, everyone becomes and expert and tells you AT LENGTH everything they know about Shakespeare and blah blah blah. From that, I do know that arguably the First Folio of Shakespeare is one of the most important publications in terms of modern English (the others probably include the King James Bible and a terrifying number of others I'm too tired to be clever about), and I also knew (because this is something we all know in Stratford (you're thrown out if you don't)) that about 1000 copies were printed, and apparently 232 have been accounted for.  We know this, because Eric Rasmussen has a crack team of Folio Hunters. True Story, when I was a kid, I wanted to be on this crack team but then oops I got distracted by something shiny.

But this is a review, so here you go:  Rasmussen formed his team in the mid-90's with the goal of documenting as many surviving copies as possible and determining their provenance - this books is kind of a best of of what his team did. The world they discovered was... fascinating, obsessive and mildly terrifying. I don't really want to get into the stories, because I think that that ruins things, but it includes Cubans, a Pope, a bricklayer and a playboy. I don't really want to get into it, because if you're interested you should just go read it because it's a fun romp through a thoroughly obsessive and mildly insane group of people who are trying to do the impossible because you know that the next copy is hidden in Great Great Aunty Muriel's attic, under a million fur coats and possibly in a trunk that you lost the key to.

So here's the thing. I wouldn't recommend this to someone unless I knew they a) loved shakespeare b) loved anecdotes or c) were really into the tracking of loss of historical record (it's a thing, I promise).  That all being said, I really did enjoy the book. It's a fast read that make me laugh, taught me things about how books are lost, found and faked and generally was clever and interesting. A lot of the problems I've seen people have with it is that the author didn't get into a lot of detail about the stories - Rasmussen kind of flung the story at you, but glossed over the heavy investigative/academic work that you all know they did. I don't actually have an issue with him having done this- and I think it was the right choice. That stuff he glossed over  is intense, and usually not in a way that would be interesting to a lay person reading it. I do admittedly wish he got into a bit more detail with some of the stories I found more interesting, but I think he was going for a kind of overall quick "Hey, this is what we're doing isn't it cool" thing with the book. Basically? Yeah, yeah it is cool.


*** I was sent this book by the publisher- all opinions are my own.

Born Weird

Born Weird is... Weird. I know, I know I'm ridiculously original  with saying that. So clever, people should pay me to write this stuff. So I knew nothing about Kaufman, other than I had heard about him vaguely at the only Toronto literary thing I've been to literally in 3 years when someone told me he was funny.

The thing is, everyone's family is weird.  We all say that, right? I'm pretty sure we all also say "ha ha you think your family is weird, but compared to mine they're normal".  Well folks, we're basically all mad here, and that's kind of the core of Born Weird. Kaufman drags a family who was blessing/cursed/blursed by The Shark (aka Grandma, and really, who's Grandma wasn't a shark?) so they could survive being raised by their too young kind of crazy parents.  Grandma Weird (ok, so to clarify, really, their last name is Weird) decided the blessings-turned-curses need to go, and says she'll get rid of them on the day she dies and her (youngest?) grandchild Angie proceeds to go on a mildly mad-cap journey across Canada and randomly Upliffta (it's a thing. If I explain why it's a thing, I'll ruin the thing, so I'm not ging to explain the thing) to gather her siblings so they will no longer be cursed. Obviously, they all show up, or the curses don't get lifted.  It's a fairy tale guys.

So also hilariously, Goodreads has this on the Fantasy shelf. That confuses me a little, but it does have a princess so I guess I'm ok with it. The book is strange, quirky and full of family drama.  It's a quick read, and  admittedly adorable (though I kind of feel the author will hate I called it adorable) even if it is a little confusing.

*** I was sent this book by the publisher - all opinions are my own.