24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 3

Just drove to work this hour, so it was audiobook instead of regular book.

This hour
Book read: Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: ~1/2 a disc
Time spent reading: 35 minutes
Food and drink consumed: coffee, toast, green juice

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 118 (plus ~ 1/2 a disc)
Time spent reading: 1 hour 20 minutes

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 2

This hour's mini challenge is to pick a quote or paragraph from the current book you're reading. I went with "Gramps was the only person that still pulled at the gravity in me." because that sentence stopped me in my tracks as I was reading.

This hour
Book read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Pages read: 118
Time spent reading: 45 minutes
Food and drink consumed: 

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Pages read: 118
Time spent reading: 45 minutes

Let the 24 Hour Readathon Begin!

It's that time of year again - that time when I (and many others across the internet) ignore everything for 24 hours and just READ! I sadly can't just drop everything, since I have to work today, but I will be doing as much reading as possible.

This is my third time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon. I have far, far too many books stacked up, waiting to be read. So many, in fact, that I'm sure I could read for a WEEK straight and still have plenty left.

I'll be trying to update here hourly (not really until after 5pm eastern, though, since work), and I'll be on Twitter as well.

And to get me started, here is the kick-off meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I'm just outside Boston, MA.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Probably The Winner's Curse. I've been hearing so much good buzz about it!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Thai food for dinner!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm a Young Adult librarian (which is why the majority of the books I'll read tonight are YA).
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? This is my third readathon. The biggest thing, I think, is to remember to get up and walk around frequently.

Review: Rose Under Fire

Sometimes a fictional world is too rich to want to give up. I adored Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, the story of a female British spy captured by the Nazis in World War II France, so completely that I reread most of it as soon as I had finished the book. Fast forward to this summer, when I managed to get my grubby hands on a copy of its not-quite-sequel Rose Under Fire, and I cried the same stupid-ugly tears (although maybe not quite as many) that I had for Code Name Verity. Ultimately, though, I found Rose to be lacking when held up alongside Verity,

Rose is an American who has volunteered to fly for the Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying damaged or recently repaired planes around England (yes, the same ATA that Maddie flies for). Through a variety of events, she ends up captured by the Nazis and taken to Ravensbruck, a women's concentration camp in Germany. She is housed with a variety of women, mostly Polish and Russian political prisoners. This is notable because there are so many Holocaust novels out there, and there are relatively fewer about the people who were put in camps because of things other than being Jewish.

Rose certainly doesn't have the worst time at Ravensbruck, but its not like its a cakewalk either. A rather important character from Code Name Verity shows up at the camp, and Rose talks about her without knowing a fraction of the things she's done. But while Code Name Verity left you wondering what was going to happen to Verity, you know fairly early that Rose is fine because of the way she's writing her story. All in all, this is just another World War II book, but it also happens to have links to the wonderful Code Name Verity that make it interesting to those who have already read the first book.

Rose Under Fire could be read as a stand-alone book, but you'd get so much more out of it as a companion. If you only have time for one WWII book in your life right now, opt for Code Name Verity, which is much more inventive and emotional.

Donna Tartt and The Goldfinch

When I say I was excited for Donna Tartt's new book, The Goldfinch, that's something of an understatement. I'd been dying to get my hands on the book since the moment I heard about it. Her first book, The Secret History, is probably the book I've read the most times (well, adult book. Madeleine L'Engle probably has more rereads for me.), and I end up rereading it every few years.

So I was also a little worried about getting my hands on the new book. I still haven't read her second book, The Little Friend; I had heard such abysmal things about it that I didn't want it to ruin The Secret History for me. That's how much I love The Secret History.

The Goldfinch, however, does not disappoint. It is still VERY different from Tartt's first book, but the fluid prose is still there, painting gorgeous pictures with every sentence. The Goldfinch follows Theo, a boy living in New York City, as he deals with profound loss and inescapable confusion. The title of the book refers to a painting that Theo sees on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the beginning of the book, and the painting itself is as much a character throughout the story as any other.

With this novel, there have been countless comparisons to Dickens for Tartt, and deservedly so. This reminded me specifically of Great Expectations, where minor characters from the beginning show up near the end, having moved things in much more important ways than you could ever have guessed. The cast of characters is large and varied, and Tartt deserves accolades just for keeping all their voices straight in such a spectacular way.

Now, did I really enjoy this book? I'm not sure if I can say yes to that. I felt like I was slogging through it at times, and I definitely felt it could have been pared down a bit. Of course, any book with almost 800 pages will feel a bit like that.

However, I am left thinking about this book. It hasn't left me in the weeks since I read it, which is rare for me. I don't think I'll be able to shake the mood of this book for a long time.

Last night, I had the opportunity to hear Donna Tartt speak at Wellesley Books. I was in a pretty terrible mood when I got there, and some comments one of the booksellers made and the fact that Ms. Tartt wouldn't sign any backlist (ie The Secret History) left me in an even grumpier mood. However, hearing Donna Tartt read a passage from the book and talk about her writing process was wonderful. She knows the book so well that it was almost like watching a one-person play. It was also clear why it takes her 10 years to write a book, as her speech does not have the clarity or fluidity that her prose does. But she spoke at length about loving writing from a young age, and it is clear to anyone who has read her books that she absolutely does love writing.

The Goldfinch may seem like a challenging book to many, but I would definitely recommend it. The quality of the prose is superb, and like I said, it's a book that will stick with you for a while.

Review: Building Stories

From the moment I heard about Building Stories by Chris Ware, I was intrigued (and a bit daunted). It's a graphic novel of sorts, told over multiple works housed in one big box. It took me a while to get around to it (and a while for one of the few copies in my library network to make it to me), but once it was in my hands, I settled in for a marathon of reading.

The title would imply that the stories all revolve around one building (a 3-apartment building), and for a while, they do. The 14 pieces of the story can really be read in any order, but I read it from largest to smallest (mostly), which kept things more or less in chronological order. The later pieces veer away from the apartment building, following just one of the characters as she moves out of the building and moves on with her life.

And there lies my largest problem with the whole book. I wanted the story to completely remain within the apartment building, or at the very least, follow all the participants. Instead, by focusing more firmly on just one of the people, it made the stories of the other two apartments feel more trivial. In particular, there is the unhappy couple that lives on me second floor - why are they so unhappy? how long do they live in the building? Why should I care?

If you enjoy the graphic novel form, then you can't miss this one, based on its form alone. The nonlinear format trumps the not-so-fulfilling story. It actually left me pretty depressed, partially because nothing is wrapped up and partially because the content itself is not terribly happy. Don't read this in one go on a rainy day like I did.

Review: You

I will read just about any novel a that involves video games. Frankly, the gold standard on the subject, Ready Player One by Ernie Cline, has potentially ruined the genre, simply because it is just so damn good. That doesn't mean I won't keep reading, though.

So without knowing too much about You by Austin Grossman other than something vague about video games, I was eager to read it. And jumping into a world of video game development set in Boston in the '90s, I was intrigued. 

And yet somehow, I found that it took me more than a week to read. I don't normally read that slowly, except when a book can't hold my attention. I was rooting for this one all along, but it just didn't do it for me.

The biggest flaw in this book was the concept that gave it its title. Every once in a while, the reader is treated to a section written in second person ("you") describing the play of the video game. I really like the idea of this, because video games are usually about immersing yourself in a world (sights, sounds, actions, feelings, etc) enough to make you feel like you're really there. But in the book, I felt less immersed in the world than rushed through it. The narrator, Russell, is the one playing through the games, but I felt less like I was looking over his shoulder and more like he was telling me about it after the fact. Add to the fact that occasionally the second person reads like it's from the point of view of yet another character, the deceased genius behind the video game company, and I was really lost. Without these second-person interludes, this book would have been much, much stronger.

If you enjoy video games, then this would be a fun but not earth-shattering read. If you're not already a gamer, this is not going to make you one, and frankly, might just confuse you.