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 When Truly Plaice’s mother was pregnant, her belly was so enormous that everyone was sure she was having a baby boy. The child was not a boy, it was a girl, but so big that her birth killed her mother, who was already dying from secret breast cancer. So began Truly’s life; always large, ugly, and unwanted, especially in comparison with her beautiful, perfect, and desired sister Serena Jane. But Truly’s heart is bigger than her body and as the novel moves forward, even Truly realizes that beauty may be on the inside.
It took me a little while to get into this book, especially given that it starts out with Truly taunting Dr. Robert Morgan. “Wait, this is the girl with the heart?” I thought. When we finally got into the more linear story with Truly’s birth, not too far in, and the progression of her life, I started to enjoy it. I loved Truly after a while. She’s a wonderful girl but her life experiences, based solely on her appearance, really scar her. Somehow, she manages to rise above that and become someone worth a great deal more love than she gets. Her friends, Amelia and Marcus, are similarly endearing. The story itself is compelling, even though we know she’s going to end up taking care of Robert Morgan. The questions are how she gets there – and what she does after his death. I thought the conclusion was perfectly suited to Truly’s journey and just what she needed to work out who she was.
Recommended for those who enjoy literary fiction. I really enjoyed this, you might too!
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is released today. Thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for my copy!
 The Walls family is probably unlike any other you’ve read about. Jeannette spends most of her childhood traveling around the country whenever the family gets in trouble, eating surplus food that they can find, playing games, and searching for a way to “make it big”. When they settle down, they are unhappier than they ever were before and in the end, each sibling must make their own way in life.
At first, I was amazed that anyone could ever live this way, more so that Jeannette seemed content with her adventurous life, although perhaps that’s just her memory speaking. It was clear to me that her parents, while completely crazy, loved her and her siblings. I think it’s moving that the book is titled The Glass Castle – the name of the house that her father always planned to build for the family, though he never manages it and becomes a simple drunk instead. Underneath this veneer of thrilling adventure, there is a strong sense of unhappiness, and as the book goes along, the unhappiness just gets stronger and stronger and I really started to feel the frustration of these children. It is certainly a tribute to them that at least three of them turned out to be successful adults, while the fourth is an unknown quantity.
This is a wonderful memoir, a triumph of the human spirit over adversity. It made me very angry at times, particularly given the incompetence of the Walls parents, but I think it was a worthy read. I can certainly see why its popularity endures.
Buy The Glass Castle on Amazon.
 Today’s question from Wendi: Did you know that there are 1497 authors participating in LT Authors? If you haven’t checked it out, head over for a moment and see if you can find out something new about an author! If you don’t have time to go snooping, have you ever looked at the LT Author page before? Did you know that it is for authors and readers alike? Have you ever looked up a favorite or new author on LT to see what they read and if they have left any comments or reviews themselves? Have you ever told an author about LT Authors and encouraged them to check the site out?
I have looked at the LT authors page before and I recognize a number of the top names. I don’t recall encouraging any authors to join LT, I’m not sure I’ve been on enough of a personal level of contact for that and most of the ones that I do email are already on there. I definitely check out their libraries and I’m always disappointed when I acquire a book by a new-to-me author who is on LT only to discover that their library contains very few or no books. I liked it better when they had to add 50 to be recognized, but I can see why they would prefer to attract new authors by eliminating that rule. In any case, it’s an awesome feature of LT and I hope it’s still around if I ever manage to publish a book – it will be academic and not very high up on the list, but I can dream, can’t I?
 Cassia Xiao is an impoverished girl whose aunt is determined to get her to Shanghai. Cassia has no objection to this and begs Madame Emerald, the owner of a fancy brothel, to take her on as a servant girl. Madame Emerald buys Cassia and does indeed set her up as a servant girl, but Cassia’s life is not grand until one of Madame Emerald’s lovers, Master Chang, takes a look at Cassia and sees something more. He doesn’t mind her unbound feet and takes her as his lover, insisted that she be set up like the other prostitutes, spending every day and night with her. They fall in love and Cassia is initiated into the secret Hong brotherhood. At one of these meetings, Master Chang is killed and Cassia falls from favor. It is only her determination that brings her back up from the streets to become one of Shanghai’s most revered figures.
Let me start off by saying that this book felt like it was taking me forever to read, although it only took me about a week in reality. The story is not bad at all when you look at it in summary. Cassia’s life would make for great fiction. On the whole, it reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha; a tale of a slightly scandalous woman that is framed as if realistic but is actually fiction. The early 20th century Chinese setting was very interesting as well, particularly with the mafia-like “brotherhoods” and the difference between the country and the city. These are things I rarely come across in fiction.
The execution, however, for me left a lot to be desired. The prose is completely awkward. The dialogue is about as far from realistic as you can imagine. Worse, it was far more erotic than I’d bargained for and I’m sure some of the scenes should be up there as the worst written sex in fiction. I think the novel would have been far, far better off with just suggestion rather than going into the details.
I’m not sure if any of this is the fault of the translation or the original story and I know that I have been appalled by writing which other people don’t seem to mind in the past. So it might be just me. In all honesty, though, I really can’t recommend this book, except perhaps to look at the lovely cover. The model is the author herself.
I’m working hard to achieve my reading goal of 200 books this year. Starting out by reading as much as possible while I don’t have any work to do! So I’m up to four books, but the problem is, none of them have been particularly good. For example, I just finished a book called Nox Dormienda by Kelli Stanley. It’s publicized as Roman noir, a new mystery genre, as she tried to use noir language in ancient Rome, thinking they went together fairly well. And they do, surprisingly enough; the book reminded me a lot of film noir. The trouble is that I didn’t like it at all. I know the problem lays with me here because I have little patience for mysteries, but it sounded so interesting. Now I have to write a review when I think someone else would like this book much more than I did.
Next up is either Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (which I must read before Friday, it’s a heavy hardcover that just isn’t coming on a plane with me) or Mr. Cavendish, I Presume? by Julia Quinn. Vastly different books, but I hope I manage to enjoy both of them. Tomorrow I’m going into NYC to visit a friend, with long bus rides there and back, so I hope I get plenty of reading in!
Finally, a non-book-related completely geeky note. Way back in 2001 or 2002, I used to watch a TV channel called TechTV. My brother and I just loved it and we were very unhappy when it was bought by a gaming channel designed for teenagers – no more gadgets or geekery. They gradually eliminated our favorite personalities and shows. Today I discovered that many of them are on twitter, so I went through and followed my favorites. Yay for getting my geek news back!
Have a good week and once again, Happy New Year!
 A dinner party held in celebration of Japanese businessman Katsumi Hosokawa, with his favorite opera singer Roxane Coss as entertainment, goes horribly awry when a group of terrorists capture all of the guests. Their target, the president, is not at the party. At a loss, the terrorists continue to hold the hostages and to everyone’s surprise, an entire world develops in this one large house.
This is a compelling and intricate novel, full of unexpected little details. I’m not sure that it’s realistic, but it tries its best to show us the universality of human nature. Terrorists got on just well with multi-millionaires; people are more than just their day jobs. I think that’s really what this book is about. People have vast dimensions that are invisible to those around them until crisis brings them out.
Not much else to say really; this book left me reeling for a few days and I struggled to get into my next read; I’m not sure I’ll call it one of my favorites of the year, but it’s deeply moving and I would definitely recommend it.
Buy Bel Canto on Amazon today.
 It’s a struggle to summarize this book because there are so many plot threads running through it. Dustfinger is still dead and Farid is determined to revive him, even if it requires working with the oily Orpheus. Mo becomes more and more like the Bluejay and not like the bookbinder he originally was. Resa becomes increasingly intent on returning to the real world. Elinor begins to hate her life among her books when she could be living in one. And Meggie? She’s still in love with Farid and mainly, very confused.
Like I said, there are almost too many plot threads running through this. It had been a while since the first two for me so it took me a good few pages to recall what was actually going on, let alone figure out who everyone was again. After that, the book dragged. I dreaded Elinor’s chapters in particular. The woman sat around complaining for a few pages each time until she finally got placed into the story, at which point she nearly vanished in the barrage of other characters. What was the point there? Meanwhile, Meggie, the supposed main character of this entire series, is relegated to the sidelines where her main focus is weeping about her father and worrying about who she actually loves. I read one professional review that said that while Cornelia Funke is actually a great storyteller, the books have lost their original focus. I agree with that.
That said, this book is still a great story once you get halfway into it, and it wraps up in a very satisfying way. I enjoyed the ending very much and I didn’t regret reading it or anything like that. I just didn’t quite get what I bargained for, and I can see the merit in wishing the story had ended with Inkheart. I think, however, that the series is still worth reading. It just has a few slow spots in the middle and I’m not sure it will keep a child’s interest. It did keep mine, though.
Buy Inkdeath on Amazon.
For those of you who haven’t been following this blog very long, you may not know that my younger brother passed away of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on December 7, 2005. He was only 18. Since then, my dad has been involved in raising money and running for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through Team in Training, an organization that collects money for research and treatment of those affected through donations supporting runners. I’d like to ask that you consider sponsoring him in his first full marathon. It doesn’t take much; every little donation helps. If you’ve been lucky enough to have them, think of how grateful you are to have had your family around you this holiday season and consider helping those who may not have theirs.
If you’d like to help, you can read more or donate on my dad’s website.
 So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?
Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!
My main resolution is to read 200 books. I don’t know if I can do it, but I’m willing to give it a try. In reality, I’d just like to top this year’s total of 184. I’m sure that’s the most ever! One of my other goals is to re-read more. I have so many books I’d like to read over again, but with a now 300+ TBR pile, it’s nearly impossible to justify that to myself. So I want to focus more on what I want to read, not on what I’m supposed to be reading. That said, I’m also on a mission to clear out my ARCs. I think I’ve received almost everything I requested and plan to only ask for books I really want to read from this point forward. Before I go back to England, I’m trying to read all my outstanding books for review; i.e., the ones that have already been released. I still have a few there and those will be my first priority when I arrive.
Finally, I’d really like to complete some reading challenges! I failed miserably last year so I’m trying again. I have three small ones on tap, along with the big 200 one, and with the number of books I read, I really should be able to complete them.
 I didn’t participate in this challenge, organized by Dawn at She Is Too Fond of Books, last time it ran, but I think this is the year for it! I already have five books by LT authors in my TBR pile, so it should be easy enough!
First, the rules:
- The LibraryThing Author Challenge 2009 runs from January 1 – December 31, 2009
- Join anytime now through 2009; last day to post reviews is December 31, 2009
- Make a list of 5 LT Authors and books that you’d like to read (keeping in mind that the list of possible authors is always growing, so your wish list may change)
- Crossovers with other Challenges are allowed
- Post your reviews on your blog and on LibraryThing
- Leave a comment on my LT Author Challenge 2009 Reviews post with a link to your review on your blog.
My list:
LibraryThing Author Challenge 2009
- The Master of Verona by David Blixt
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- The Coffee Trader by David Liss
- Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn
- Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark by Donna Lea Simpson
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