Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. by Robert Asprin

Posted by melydia on April 7, 2006 No comment

Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. by Robert Asprin: This is the twelfth and final volume of one of my favorite series of all time. A word of warning: read the rest of the series first. And if it’s been a while (as it had been with me), at least reread Sweet Myth-tery of Life. I was a little lost here and there, as some events in this book take place simultaneously with its predecessor. Also note that as this is a book with M.Y.T.H. Inc. in the title, it is not narrated solely by Skeeve, but (in this case) mostly by Guido. His incessant Guys’n’Dolls-esque speech gets a bit tiring from time to time, but if you enjoy old mafia movies there are certain scenes that are just a hoot. I would share the plot, but there isn’t much to say. Ostensibly it’s about a popular uprising against The Great Skeeve for raising taxes, but really it’s just a tying up of loose ends. The ending is optimistic, and it’s nice to have some closure after all these years.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Asprin

Posted by melydia on April 4, 2006 No comment

Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Asprin: It’s been at least a decade since I last read any of the Mythadventures books. Luckily, I’ve read the series at least twice (probably three times) so reading this book was like getting reacquainted with old friends, especially since it takes place between books three and four (there are twelve total). Here’s the plot in a nutshell: our hero Skeeve, his grumpy mentor Aahz, and their lovely ex-assassin friend Tananda find a treasure map that leads them to a dimension of vegetarian cowboys who fear something that comes out at night. It’s a silly and somewhat convoluted story, as all the Myth books are, but a bit more disposable by virtue of having been written out of order. I can’t fault Asprin for this; he admits in the Author’s Note that this was written as a way of easing back into the characters after a seven-year hiatus. In short, I would not recommend this book on its own (though it does a fine job of filling in quite a bit of the backstory), but definitely as part of the series. The Myth books remain some of my favorite fantasy comedies of all time, and it was nice to finally revisit them after all this time.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Ready, Okay! by Adam Cadre

Posted by melydia on March 30, 2006 No comment

Ready, Okay! by Adam Cadre: The very first sentence of this book tells you that it’s not going to end happily. Lots of people are going to die. Within the first couple chapters you realize that they’re going to die in a shooting, probably reminiscent of Columbine. And you are not mistaken. Don’t get me wrong – this book is very funny. The characters are memorable, unique, and yet stunningly familiar to anyone who went to high school in the last decade (and perhaps longer; I don’t know what high school was like before the early 1990s). Granted, my high school years were notably lacking in the sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence departments, but adolescents are still adolescents regardless of whether they’re being self-destructive. The narrator’s commentary on child and teenage communication is hilariously accurate, and I felt myself nodding along with a lot of the inanity.

However, during the last hundred pages or so it starts to drag a bit. Tragedy after tragedy strikes, people start acting very much unlike teenagers (or real people at all), and there is a lengthy and rather disturbing discussion of nudism and incest. It’s one of those books that I’m glad I read, but I’m also not surprised it wasn’t what you might call critically acclaimed. Ultimately I think I would recommend this book to teenagers. It’s most relevant to their lives; the rest of us are lucky enough to have lived through it already.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

ARC reviews

Posted by melydia on March 28, 2006 No comment

Another review of mine showed up on the Harper Collins First Look pages, this time of Maybe Baby. Amazingly, they reprinted the full text.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Posted by melydia on March 26, 2006 No comment

Life of Pi by Yann Martel: From the cover art, this appears to be about a boy and a tiger in a boat. And it is, though it’s conspicuously lacking of seafaring felines for more than the first quarter of the book. Up to that point it talks mostly about Pi’s life as the son of a zookeeper in India and his quest to find religion (which he does – three of them, in fact). At times it’s a little preachy, others a little graphic, but all in all it’s a fairly believable tale about survival in a lifeboat. In a nutshell: Pi Patel’s family decides to move from India to Canada. They travel by cargo ship with many of the animals from their zoo which are now being shipped to other zoos around the world. The cargo ship sinks, leaving Pi stranded on a lifeboat with a few animals who escaped the ship. He spends 227 days on the ocean, his thoughts taken up by survival: how to get food, how to get fresh water, how to avoid being eaten by the 450-pound Bengal tiger that shares his lifeboat. It’s a classic man-versus-nature story, and if you enjoy movies like Castaway you will probably like this book as well.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Posted by melydia on March 24, 2006 No comment

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult: I finished this book on an airplane, all hunched over in seat 16D, hoping my hair would disguise the fact that I was totally bawling. I haven’t cried at a book in many years, though I knew this one would probably be a tear-jerker from the beginning. After all, it’s a premise straight from a Lifetime Original Movie: Kate is diagnosed with a rare and particularly nasty form of leukemia at age 2, and after much deliberation her parents decide to concieve a genetically engineered child to be a perfect match for their sick daughter. And so Anna is born for her umbilical cord, her blood, her bone marrow. As the story begins, Anna is 13 years old and has decided that she doesn’t want to be an automatic donor anymore.

It’s a brilliantly written book, but very hard to take sometimes. Picoult did an excellent job of portraying the heartache of being part of a family wiuth a sick child without getting too sappy, too outrageous, or too grandiose. Make no mistake, this is a book full of Big Questions about the sanctity of life versus control over one’s own body, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it or force the reader to take a certain side. It’s one of those rare stories that put me in the shoes of several characters that are (fortunately) completely alien to me while still allowing me to make up my own mind about their actions. It gave me quite a bit to think about, and that’s some of the highest praise I can give any book.

I won’t promise that everyone will like this book. A lot of people will see it as nothing more than a weepy family drama and dismiss it out of hand. But it does raise some serious issues, issues most of us – especially with the continued advances in medical technology – will have to face someday: when is it time to stop trying and start saying goodbye?

Also posted on BookCrossing.

web drama advice

Posted by melydia on March 17, 2006 No comment

Most brilliant thing I’ve read in a long time: “They’re interested in what you have to say because they’re interested in [the subject matter], and they think it’s neat someone’s writing about them. Never confuse that with being more important than your subject matter.” (It was difficult, but this same article says marvelous things about self-promotion, criticism, credibility, retraction, agendas, pleas for affirmation, and thunderous silence. I had a lot of trouble picking just one sentence, but that one’s definitely in the top ten.)

Oh, oh, I found another passage, but this one’s so awesome that it needs to be set off in italics:

No one is under any obligation to you.

They’re under no obligation to agree with you.

They’re under no obligation to respond to you.

They’re under no obligation to link to you.

They’re under no obligation to acknowledge you.

The subject of your essay is under no obligation to listen, to change their ways, to acknowledge, to point their audience in your essay’s direction or to in any way make any indication they know who you are.

Your audience is under no obligation to give you feedback, to agree with you, to get the point of your essay, to understand you, or to come back for more, tomorrow.

Your peers are under no obligation to consider you a peer.

No one is under any obligation to take you seriously.

No one is under any obligation to you whatsoever.

He’s talking about blogging, and webcomic critiques in particular, but the whole essay applies to internet posts in general. And it’s fantastic. Read it. All of it. Now.

Brokeback to the Future

Posted by melydia on February 12, 2006 No comment

Brokeback to the Future: This is ten kinds of wrong. And funny as hell.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Posted by melydia on February 11, 2006 No comment

White Oleander by Janet Fitch: Astrid is the daughter of the brilliant poet Ingrid Magnussen, a gorgeous and distant woman who has travelled all over the world. When Astrid is 12 years old, Ingrid goes to prison for murder, leaving her in a series of foster homes, each with their own rules, their own lessons to be learned. The story chronicles her life through age 18, her journey always returning to the same question of how to escape her mother’s influence, and whether she really wants to after all. On the surface, this sounded like the sort of book I’d read to pass the time, with more interest in having read it than actually reading it. I was mistaken. Utterly. I was completely sucked in, to the point where I was thinking about it during the times I couldn’t read, and had trouble putting it down during the times when I could. I read it for my entire five-hour flight from Nevada; I can’t remember the last time I found a book so engrossing. I just had to know what happened next, what new mentor Astrid, so used to being told what to do and how to think, would choose. I don’t know that I would necessarily call this book “exciting,” but it certainly was a page-turner for me. Beyond the story, the language was intense, beautiful, and precise. I could picture it all.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

Posted by melydia on February 5, 2006 No comment

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire: Here is the story of Iris and her sister Ruth, famed stepsisters of the Cinderella tale. Like Maguire’s earlier Wicked, it is a retelling of a famous story from the villain’s point of view. Also like Wicked, the heroine of the canon is portrayed as self-serving and cruel, while the villain is merely a social outcast, trying to puzzle her way through the world as best she can. The Cinderella story is nearly unrecognizable for about two thirds of the book, while it discusses Iris’s love of painting and Clara (Cinderella)’s bizarre self-imposed seclusion, but in the end there is a prince and a ball and a lost slipper. Despite a general confusion throughout most of the story, I turned the last page feeling at least most of my questions had been answered. I don’t know that I will go out of my way to read more Maguire – I grew weary of so much unneccessary use of hundred-dollar words and such impossibly flowery dialogue – but I am glad I read this one. I like fairy tales and all their retellings; hopefully the popularity of Maguire’s version will not overshadow others’ attempts to show the other side of the story.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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