The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

Last fall, in a Newberry Award streak, I picked up Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale (a 2006 Newberry Honor book).  I loved the book, and the fact that Shannon Hales lives near me.  In fact, I recently went to one of her signings.  Anyway, after Princess Academy, I read Book of a Thousand Days and Austenland.  I hadn’t, though, delved into her Bayern series.  Thus, when my book club picked the first Bayern book, The Goose Girl, for this month’s read, I was thrilled.

The Goose Girl is based on the fairy tale of the same name.  I knew the basic plot of the fairy tale (princess goes to marry a prince in a foreign land, her lady-in-waiting switches places and tells everyone she is the princess, the princess becomes a goose-keeper, eventually the true princess is restored to her rightful place and the lady-in-waiting is killed), but Hale’s retelling of the book was intruiging and magical and heartfelt.  I was swept along with Ani/Isi (the goose girl) and her tale of becoming a princess by being a commoner.  The character development was a little spotty with regard to most of the other characters, as with most fairy tales, but the development of Ani was amazing.  I felt her uncertainty and longing and the building of her character and sense of self.  (Also, I loved the prince.)

Some of the more fantastical elements, like Ani’s the communications with the wind, were a little much for me.  But I loved Ani’s mystical aunt and Ani’s communications with Jok, the goose, and Falada, her horse.  There was a bit of everything in this story: heartbreak, intrigue, murder, royalty, love, friendship, betrayal, loyalty, bravery, and self-discovery.  And, most importantly, they all lived happily ever after.  At least until the next book starts.  Sigh.  I’ll read this book again.  And again.

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale (75) * * * * *

Other reviews:

A Striped Armchair

The Written Word

Melody’s Reading Corner

Things Mean a Lot

Farworld Blog Tour

I finished my ARC of Farworld: Water Keep last night! I won’t yet reveal my thoughts on it, since I’m participating in J. Scott Savage‘s Blog Tour. I’m scheduled to be a tour stop, complete with review and interview with the author himself, sometime in “Late July.” Hopefully, “Late July” = July 16th-ish? Mark your calendars!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

I am quite delighted with this book.  I’m so glad that I picked it up from the library today on a whim.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret was awarded the 2008 Caldecott Medal.

With a combintion of black and white pen sketches and black and white printed words, this book is unlike any I’ve ever read.  At 526 pages in a hardbound binding, it looks a little daunting.  However, I read it carefully in less than an hour and a half.  At least half of the pages are beautiful sketches, with a few black and white photographs thrown in.  The presence of the pictures and the opening instructions to “picture yourself sitting in the darkness, like the beginning of a movie” set a magical tone to the book.

The story is (though I don’t like to use the term) heartwarming.  Little Hugo Cabret has been orphaned and is living a precarious life as a clockkeeper in a train station.  His father died trying to fix an old automaton, and Hugo has taken it upon himself to fix it.  This quest leads him through a fantasical and yet very believable adventure that ends with him finding his true self.  The writing itself is simple and rich.  The combination of the pictures and the story is a beautiful work of art that defies proper description.  I cant wait to see what Brian Selznick does next. 

Everyone needs to read this book.  Go on.  Go read it.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick: (75) * * * * *

The Magic of the Information Age – A Blog Tour

J. Scott Savage is writing a five-part YA series. To launch the first book, Farworld-Water, he is holding what I’m sure is one of the first blog tours ever. See the announcement here.

I’m signing up to get an ARC to review here on the blog. Look for that this summer.

The Sweet Far Thing, Part V

So, I finished it. I slept better afterwards. I’m glad it’s over. I enjoyed the process of reading the book, but I’m glad it’s over. I think that says a lot. Some books (most recently The Shell Seekers) stay with me for days after I finish them. This book, though, stayed with me while I was in the midst of it, but a purging occurred the moment I turned the last page.

Some reviews have mentioned some disillusionment with the ending. I was okay with the somewhat less-than-perfect ending. The only issue I had with the ending was the sacrifice of two of the characters for the apparent sake of sacrificing the characters, rather than propelling the plot.

I don’t want to say too much. I liked the book. I liked the series. I liked Gemma Doyle. But, overall, I was disappointed by the last installment. Also, I must note that the ending of this book reminded me of the ending of the movie The Return of the King. I kept finishing chapters that felt like the end and there would still be more. Overall, it gets three stars.

The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray: (75) * * *

Sigh. Today, I ventured again into Sam Weller’s in Salt Lake City. I bought Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje’s new book. I might have to venture there before getting back to The Golden Notebook.

The Sweet Far Thing, Part IV

We have turned a corner! I see resolution and falling action in the near future. Gemma has finally resolved to do SOMETHING. Sure, she’s leaning a little toward the evil side, but I think she’s already beginning to see the error in that path. Also, the love story is beginning to come together. At last! Only a mere 200 pages left to go! (I think I’ve used up my daily quota of exclamation marks!)

There are too many questions left to answer at this point, so I haven’t quite arrived at the “lets create thought questions” stage of the book. I believe that may happen on the morrow, though.

I didn’t follow through on the newspaper resolution yesterday, but I did spend some time reviewing the Super Tuesday results at http://cnnpolitics.com. Does that count?

My other reading activities of yesterday included the first chapter of Genesis. I think I’m going to give the Old Testament a looksie. We’ll see how that goes. At a chapter a night, I’ll finish some time around February 2011. That’s a long row to hoe. Indeed.

The Sweet Far Thing, Part III

So, this very cool website, www.kevinandamanda.com, makes fonts out of people’s handwriting-for free, if you’re lucky. This font that you see here is made from my very own handwriting. It’s crazy.

Anyhow, on to the books. I’m STILL reading The Sweet Far Thing. I’m now about 500 pages in. I still like it a lot, but I think, at this point, I’m just reading it to see how it ends, not for the joy of reading. And that’s okay with me, I guess.

Some elements of the book are a little aggravating though, so hold on for some light venting. Gemma, the heroine, has a bit of a problem making decisions. Any decisions-big ones, little ones, ones that might save the whole universe. Also, it’s driving me crazy that there is absolutely no one in the book that you can trust. I think it takes a special skill for a writer, of say a mystery novel, to create suspense while still maintaining appropriate sanity levels. The fact that Gemma, in this book and in the other two in the series, has absolutely no one to confide in or bounce ideas off of drives me completely insane. I know that Gemma’s aloneness is one of the themes of the book, but I think Libba Bray has taken it too far in this case. Grrr . . . Also, some of the more lubricious elements make me uncomfortable. There. I said it.

In other reading news, I have left The Golden Notebook forlornly collecting dust by the side of my bed since Saturday. Maybe I’ll be able to plug through the last 300 pages of TSFT and return to TGN tomorrow. Here’s hoping.

With the recent swarm of interest in politics and the article on reading I talked about yesterday, I’ve made a resolution to read the newspaper everyday. We currently subscribe to The Deseret News, mostly for the crossword puzzles (me) and the movie/tv news (husband). This week I’m going to spend a little time after work perusing the news sections. We’ll see if my life is altered for the better.

Cheerio.

-Jessica

The Sweet Far Thing, Part II

So, I’m 350 pages in to The Sweet Far Thing, and I’m not even half way!! What is it about trilogy writers? (Or series writers in general, for that matter?) The first book is a good solid 300-500 pages. The second book adds perhaps a hundred or so pages more. THEN, the third book is monstrous. A few examples illustrate my point:

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, by Libba Bray

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty = 432
2. Rebel Angels = 592
3. The Sweet Far Thing = 832

The Twilight Series*, by Stephenie Meyer

1. Twilight = 512
2. New Moon = 608
3. Eclipse = 640
4. Breaking Dawn = ?

*The Twilight Series was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but the third book was so long they made it into two books!

The Lord of the Rings*, by J.R.R. Tolkien

1. The Fellowship of the Ring = 398
2. The Two Towers = 725
3. The Return of the King = 1137

*I think The Lord of the Rings was originally written as one book and was then broken into three books by a publisher.

His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman

1. The Golden Compass = 368
2. The Subtle Knife = 304
3. The Amber Spyglass = 480

The Bourne Trilogy, by Robert Ludlum

1. The Bourne Identity = 544
2. The Bourne Supremacy = 646
3. The Bourne Ultimatum = 672

The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling

1. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone = 309
2. Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets = 352
3. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban = 448
4. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire = 734
5. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix = 896
6. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince = 672
7. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows = 784

Okay, so my theory doesn’t ALWAYS hold up, but it seems that publishers are more willing to let authors be verbose as the series or trilogy goes on. (Also, I have a related theory that editors and publishers get more lax about the editing process as the series and the author becomes more and more popular.)

The Sweet Far Thing, Part I

So, I caved on Saturday and purchased the final book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy in hardback. (Sam Weller’s, my local independent bookstore, was having an awesome sale so Matt and I went crazy.) Anyway, I am about 300 pages into The Sweet Far Thing. Each chapter I read in the series makes me change my mind about Libba Bray and her writing style. The books are set in Victorian England, largely at a finishing school for girls. However, many of the elements and character traits are pretty modern. For example, one of the main characters, Ann, cuts herself. Another character, Felicity, was sexually molested as a child by her father, a well regarded admiral. Further, the heroine, Gemma, thinks a lot like a modern girl would. She often makes witty asides in her head. Also, the book makes a clear statement about the limitations on women’s lives during that time and, perhaps, during these times.

One of the most frustrating things about the story, for me, is the relative lack of knowledge any of the characters, and therefore the readers, have about the “realms”—a kind of alternate, magical universe. Without a list of rules to follow, it is hard to suspend disbelief and allow the characters to flitter about in the realms. Also, it sometimes feels as if the author makes up the rules as she goes along.

In any case, the books are terribly readable. I find myself reading several chapters in one sitting. I would recommend the books to older teens (say, over 14) and adults who are not turned off by teenage wist.

*More on The Golden Notebook soon.