The Bibliophage

True Literary Skill

2011-03-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Some novels are good because they have a great story. Not because of the writing so much, but because of the unique plot of the novel. Take the Harry Potter series as an example. Others are good because they have great characters. The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can certainly be included in this category (though they also include great writing and great stories, as well).

But some books are a pleasure to read merely for the writing. The way in which the author creatively uses language to describe the story of the book and to develop the characters often makes some books as good as they are.

Rabbit, Run certainly figures into this class of literature. John Updike's eloquence and mastery of the English language creates more than a novel with three chapters and long paragraphs, but a work of art. The way he beautifully weakes his words together seems to put this book in a separate realm of literature altogether, one where books are written to showcase the author's skill for writing.

Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is the protagonist in this fine novel. Rabbit was a basketball star in high school, but now, in his early-20s married life, has sunk to a level of monotony and near depression uncharacteristic of the exciting, flighty young man. Finally realizing his wife's stupidity, Harry leaves her on a whim one night, driving from his home in Pennsylvania all the way south to West Virginia.

The novel involves a variety of characters: some who implore Rabbit to return to his wife, some who beg him to not, and others (like Rabbit himself) who are not sure what to do. Updike seems to keep the story in the back seat, however. The book moves along at a somewhat slow pace, though this can hardly be noticed in the face of Updike's superb writing style and excellent characterization. The character of Rabbit seems to be definitely an anti-hero, almost despised by some readers and critics though definitely respected by others.

This is the essence of Updike's craft. He presents each character exactly as a person would be in real life in order to allow the reader to formulate his own opinion. Updike does not create "good" or "bad" characters, but living people who make questionable decisions. It is no wonder Updike was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

http://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Run-John-Updike/dp/0449911659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299300768&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

The Hunger Games

2011-01-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

After a very long hiatus, I thought I'd start 2011 with a review on most certainly one of the greatest young-adult series in recent history.

Suzanne Collins is a favorite author of mine. Her first popular book, Gregor the Overlander, is one of the best I have read, and the next four in the series are worthy successors to such a great beginning (see "The Underland Chronicles"). However, when this series came to a close, Collins diverted her attention to a new trilogy of books that has become very popular in mainstream literary critical circles, both for children and adults.

The Hunger Games is the acclaimed first book in the trilogy. It takes place in a post-revolutionary America centuries in the future. America, now called Panem, is composed of the central Capitol and 12 districts, the thirteenth destroyed in the war 74 years earlier. Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old in the impoverished District 12, is the novel's resourceful and skilled protagonist. An intelligent young woman, she brandishes a bow as fearlessly as any man and cares for her family after the untimely death of her father, a miner.

Every year in Panem, a Hunger Games is put on by the Capitol as a reminder to the districts of who is really in charge. A 12- to 18-year-old boy and girl from each of the 12 districts are taken from their homes. They are paraded on national television (mandatory viewing for every denizen of Panem) in gorgeous attire, trained for weeks in fighting (skills, strength, and strategy), and then put in a massive arena, a sort of miniature world for the children for the duration of the Games. There they are to fight until only one child is left living.

After Katniss's sister's name gets called, Katniss quickly volunteers to take her sister's place in the brawl. She and an acquaintance, Peeta Mellark, are to be District 12's representatives in the 74th Hunger Games. As the Games draw near, they are trained by District 12's only previous champion, Haymitch Abernathy, an inveterate drunk. In the Hunger Games, Katniss must struggle with self-preservation, disapproval of murder, and the desire to show the Capitol that nobody can control Katniss Everdeen.

While being to some degree a children's book, it is quite violent and traumatic in many places. The Hunger Games is just what it sounds like: a bloody, fight-to-the-death gladiator battle. Though Collins is certainly not as great of a writer as, say, Salinger, Steinbeck, or Twain, she more than makes up for it with a balance of fast-paced action and feminine sentimentality that easily appeals to adults as well as younger ones (or at least those who have the stomach for it).

Without giving too much away of the events of the trilogy, I will just express my love for the second and third books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, respectively. Catching Fire takes place a year later and revolves around the events of the 75th Hunger Games, while the final novel has Panem's revolution against the Capitol manifest itself after three-quarters of a century of waiting. Though the first book is the best in my opinion, Cathcing Fire is almost as good, and Mockingjay, though slightly more far-fetched than the previous (what can be far-fetched about a postapocalyptic America where children kill each other for national enjoyment?), is a worthy conclusion to the fine trilogy. It is an action-adventure series that, at its heart, is a coming-of-age story in the face of violence and mortality. Now we all eagerly await another series by Suzanne Collins, the queen of young-adult literature.

Grade (The Hunger Games): 9
Grade (Cathcing Fire): 8.5
Grade (Mockingjay): 8

http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Trilogy-Boxset-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0545265355/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1295749536&sr=8-5

A Non-Horror Stephen King Masterpiece

2010-05-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

When one mentions horror novels, one name that invariably comes to mind is Stephen King. While considered to be one of the most prolific horror novelists of our time, many do not realize that some of his greatest works were not of the horror genre at all.

The Green Mile is certainly one of the best books I have ever read. This tale is about John Coffey, an enormous man brought to death row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary for the rape and murder of two young girls. The narrator, prison supervisor Paul Edgecombe, has worked at the prison for many years. He treats most inmates the same way: He is kind to them if they behave, but is not afraid to punish them.

Resident prima donna on the ward is Percy Wetmore. The only reason he still has his job as a guard after years of sadism and incompetence is that his aunt married the Governor. Percy is a terrible person, and one of the worst villains in literary history. His thoughtlessness and his cruelty are his two great faults as he thinks he runs the ward with an iron hand.

When Coffey enters the ward, Edgecombe knows that there is something different about him. Something special. He knows that Coffey is a good man and would never hurt a fly. As the story progresses, he learns more about this man as he learns more about himself.

King writes this novel excellently. Though it is almost 600 pages, it never has a dull moment, and it is difficult to put down. As the reader learns more about the interesting characters of John Coffey, Paul Edgecombe, Percy Wetmore, and the other prisoners on the ward, the novel gets very interesting. The characterizations are interestingly subtle yet shocking. The Green Mile is most certainly one of the best novels I have ever read.

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Mile-Stephen-King/dp/0671041789/ref=cm_lmf_tit_22

Grade: 9

A Great Character in a Great Novel

2010-03-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye. Ender Wiggin, Ender's Game. Jack Merridew, Lord of the Flies. Randall Flagg, The Stand. Miles, The Turn of the Screw. Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird.

These are some of the greatest literary characters of all time. Some for their intelligence and resourcefulness, others for their portrayal of society at the time, and others for their unique character traits.

Now I can add to that list another amazing character, definitely one of the best characters of all time: Randle Patrick McMurphy.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is, quite simply, an amazing book. Its portrayal of lunatics in an insane asylum was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1975, being the second of only three movies to win Best Picture, Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), and Best Screenplay.

The novel is told from the point of view of Chief Bromden, a half-Indian who pretends to be deaf and dumb. He experiences hallucinations throughout the novel, making him a somewhat unreliable narrator. The novel takes place in the psychiatric ward at a hospital in Oregon. The two groups of mental patients in the hospital are known as the Acutes and the Chronics. The Acutes are patients who could still be "fixed." The Chronics, of which Chief Bromden is one, are patients who can never be changed from their insanity. These two separate groups live together yet separate in the hospital.

Enter Randle Patrick McMurphy. This cantankerous man was sent to a prison work farm for battery and gambling, and figured he might as well spend the rest of his sentence in the hospital, since it would be a lot easier than working every day.

R. P. McMurphy soon tries to change the way things work around the ward. The oppressive antagonist of the novel, Nurse Ratched, controls the patients with a dictatorial touch. McMurphy finds this control unfavorable to his wandering heart, so he challenges Nurse Ratched every opportunity he gets.

The novel is excellently written. McMurphy's and Nurse Ratched's battles throughout the novel display an excellent allegory of man against government. Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is certainly one of the best books ever written.

http://www.amazon.com/Flew-Over-Cuckoos-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141181222/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270092735&sr=1-3

Grade: 9.5

A Disappointing Finale

2010-02-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Beginning with Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card created one of the best series of all time in his story of the life of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a boy who gets sent to outer space at the age of six to join the intergalactical army. He shifted to a more philosophical mood in Speaker for the Dead, before creating a more "hard science fiction" mood with Xenocide. All three were amazing books. The final novel in this quartet, Children of the Mind, had a large standard that it had to meet.

It is with great misfortune that I declare that it did not live up to its predecessors.

Don't get me wrong, Children of the Mind is a good book, but it cannot even cast a shadow when compared to the amazing work of literary genius Ender's Game. Orson Scott Card combined just the right amount of childhood with intellectual and brute strength into the boy called Ender and his life on a military spacecraft. In Children of the Mind, however, Ender plays a small role as an old, weak man trying harder to rebuild his marriage than to save the planet on which he lives, being satisfied to delegate this to his resourceful, if not occasionally annoying step-children and brain-children.

The planet on which Ender and his family live is called Lusitania, and Starways Congress is fixing to destroy it because of the horribly deadly virus vital to the survival of every native species on Lusitania, to which the humans on the planet have invented an antidote. The destruction of the planet, however, would kill many humans, as well making extinct three sentient species: the pequeninos, small pig-like creatures; the buggers, large insectoids; and Jane, a sort of supercomputer who lives in the networks all over the Universe. Starways Congress has sensed Jane, who was before known only to Ender and his step-son Miro, and is planning to shut off every computer simultaneously so as to destroy Jane.

Meanwhile, we are trying to find out about Peter and Wang-mu's mission to change Starways Congress's mind about their decision to destroy the planet, and Miro and Valentine's mission to save Jane's life. These young people out in space leaves the dying Ender with nothing to do but try to salvage the last strands of his marriage and await his own death.

The lack of focus on one of the best literary characters ever conceived is somewhat troubling. Why would Card make a sequel with the main character of the preceding novels as only a minor character? Not a smart move. This unintelligent decision made the novel not nearly as good as it could have been. Was it a good book? Yes. But in light of Card's previous successes, Children of the Mind did not meet my expectations at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Children-Mind-Ender-Book-Quartet/dp/0765304740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266726635&sr=8-1

Grade: 7

Hail to the Chief

2010-01-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

With Barack Obama now celebrating his one-year anniversary, I dedicate this review to the current president of the United States of America.

George Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegory for the death of Lenin and the rise of Stalin as he brought about totalitarianism in the U.S.S.R. In the very first chapter, the aged pig Old Major is dying. He represents Vladimir Lenin, the communist who essentially started the whole demise of the nation. He passes on his blessings to the farm, telling everyone to try to start a rebellion.

The rebellion occurs, and it works perfectly. The farmer, Mr. Jones, runs away, and the Manor Farm is changed to the Animal Farm. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, soon take control. They write up the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the seven morals by which all animals should live their lives. The seventh and most important of these is "All animals are equal." The Seven Commandments represented the hope that the animals had for a better future.

Snowball starts teaching the animals how to read and write, while Napoleon makes speeches in front of the animals to instill principles of Animal Farm. The two pigs each try to gain more power than the other. One day, Snowball declares the idea of building a windmill, and Napoleon attacks his idea and chases him off with dogs. Soon after, he said that building a windmill was his idea all along, and Snowball just stole his idea. After this, things started getting worse around the farm.

Snowball is the character who represents Leon Trotsky, commander of the Red Army and one of Lenin's successors. Snowball's departure from the farm signifies Trotsky's exile from Russia to Mexico. His skill with writing reflects Trotsky's actual character as well. Napoleon represents the cruel leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin used his power to inflict cruel policies on the people of Russia, while Napoleon also did terrible things to the animals who trusted him.

Animal Farm is an excellent depiction of the fall of Russia and the rise of communism. Orwell's novel seems hauntingly realistic in the fact that everything starts out well, but eventually grows worse. It should be used as a warning to our government today. Mr. Obama should take heed so that America does not turn into a mess like the Manor Farm did.

http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Farm-Centennial-George-Orwell/dp/0452284244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264913449&sr=8-1

Grade: 9

So Why Did She Write This?

2009-12-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Upon reading Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, one question I asked myself was, "Why would you write about this?" The book contains several short vignettes in the life of a young tween living in poverty named Esperanza. Every episode has a random little snippet from Esperanza's life, some of which are only in her mind, others of which are actual events. Many of the events are either autobiographical or inspired from Cisneros's own childhood. Although there are a couple vignettes that are interesting, the large part of them are just plain boring.

Take "Hairs," for example. In this vignette, Esperanza compares the hair of each of her family members, likening them to oil or bread. This story is nothing more than a drab monologue over hair.

We continue to read "A Rice Sandwich." Though this may be the best story in the book, it too is pretty pathetic. Esperanza wants to eat in the school cafeteria, but her mother wants her to come home for lunch every day. Esperanza's mother finally gives in, but the nuns will not let Esperanza eat there until she cries. Not interesting at all.

How about "Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays"? Rafaela is married to a very oppressive husband who locks her at home on Tuesday nights while he plays poker so that she will not escape. She throws a dollar bill out her window so that Esperanza and her friends can buy her coconut or papaya juice. Though this does show Esperanza how not to live her life, is it trying to prove to young girls that you can never find happiness?

Much of the book concerns Esperanza's search of a home, and her insecurity concerning a lack of a sense of belonging fuels many of her emotions throughout the book. She always strives to be in a better place, and dreams about running away from Mango Street, the neighborhood she lives in, to her own happily ever after. This may be the sole redeeming quality for the novel: the message to young people in oppressive environments that they can someday be happy.

The House on Mango Street is not a good book. It is not interesting, and many of the vignettes concern menial events in life. Though it is not as bad as the horrendous Living Up the Street, also an autobiography about growing up in the barrio, it is drab and unappealing. I still cannot figure out why she wrote about the stories she did.

Grade: 4

Not Really a Slaughter...

2009-11-29T17:59:00.001-08:00

One of the most acclaimed science fiction novels ever written is Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. It is also one of the most weird books I have ever read. The novel takes place in many different settings, and jumps back and forth between these places several times. Also, the novel is not written chronologically. The spasms between space and time can be very difficult to understand, and this does have a drawback on the strength of the novel.

Billy Pilgrim is an American soldier in World War II. Also, he randomly and uncontrollably travels through space and time. He could be inside a slaughterhouse as a prisoner of war in Dresden, and then be on the planet Tralfamadore inside of the zoo, and then be in his future as an optometrist, and then be in his past as a six-year-old. Because of this unpredictability, Billy as a narrator is often unreliable, and the reader never truly can separate fact from fiction.

Two of the major themes present in the novel are those of death and time. Whenever someone died on the planet Tralfamadore, the Tralfamadorians would say, "So it goes," suggesting that death was in the ordinary course of events. Vonnegut uses this expression as well. Whenever the novel says something about a death in the war or elsewhere, he says "So it goes." This is to lessen the pain of death. Another philosophy of the Tralfamadorians is that every moment has always existed, exists now, and always will exist. This is the fourth dimension that they can view. This is the basis for Billy's time travel, as he does not really go back in time, because every moment that has existed exists now.

Vonnegut had a very unique idea when he set out to write this story. The concept of traveling unwillingly and unexpectedly in time must have been a very unusual one at the time. The only fault with this (and it is a major one) is that it is too confusing. Vonnegut definitely did the best he could with the basic details, but it was not enough to make the novel more than a good attempt. While it is not a bad novel, it is certainly not as good as other classics of science fiction, such as Foundation and Ender's Game. Read this if you choose, but do not put it first on your list.

http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Novel-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259545959&sr=8-1

Grade: 6.5

With a Capital 'G'

2009-11-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

While many classics in our time concern the lives and persecution of the lower class, a select few are about the ease of living in the upper class. F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated The Great Gatsby is perhaps one of the best examples of this genre of literature.

The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway, a man of the middle class who lives next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a man who everybody seems to know but nobody seems to know anything about. In addition, his cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, who live on the other side of the town, are wealthy. The novel is basically about the doings of Daisy, Nick, and Daisy's friend Jordan Baker, and Nick's fascination and envy of the easy life he sees so often in his friends.

Jay Gatsby holds parties every weekend at his mansion, and one day, Nick decides to go to one. There, he finds out that although everybody claims to know Gatsby, nobody knows what he looks like or, in fact, anything about him. While Nick is looking, an odd man presents himself to Nick as Gatsby. They soon become very good friends. Although one has all the money he could ask for and the other has almost nothing to himself, Gatsby enjoys spending time with Nick, and Nick is too fascinated to think otherwise.

The novel is excellently written. The characters represent the wealthy and carefree people of the 1920s. Nick represents the bourgeoisie, constantly looking up to the rich. As Gatsby's character is developed, we learn more and more of his past, and we see the reality of people in his position as well.

The Great Gatsby is a very interesting historical fiction novel of an important time in our nation's past. Its acclaim is well-earned. Gatsby is definitely Great, with a capital 'g.'

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Gatsby-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0743273567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259531797&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

Neither the Best of Books, Nor the Worst of Books

2009-11-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

Arguably the most famous literary quote of all time comes from A Tale of Two Cities, a novel about the French Revolution by Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison alone."

That one quote can quite possibly sum up the entire novel. While it has some amazingly intelligent parts and quite unforgettable characters, it also can be extremely boring in other sections. The action of the novel is often juxtaposed with a chapter of introspection and ambiguity. However, the good parts eventually outweigh the bad, and it results in a satisfying read, if not completely interesting.

While there is not a definite main character of the novel, there are many protagonists and antagonists who define the social classes of the French Revolution. The story opens with a drab banker, Mr. Jarvis Lorry, on his way to Dover. There, he is to speak with Lucie Manette, a beautiful young woman. Her father, thought dead, has actually been imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years, and he is finally being released. Dr. Alexandre Manette, though once a happy, young doctor, is now a near insane and socially awkward shoemaker. Soon brought into the story is Charles Darnay, a handsome man on trial for treason against the throne, and Sydney Carton, a depressed barrister who looks almost exactly like Darnay. These five people comprise the main protagonists of the novel, who live and work in London.

Meanwhile, across the English Channel, the Defarges live together in Paris. M. Defarge is a wine shop owner, who has moderate revolutionary ideas. His wife, Mme Defarge, is a violence-driven bloodthirsty revolutionary with no thoughts but to destroy the nobility and as many innocent Frenchmen as possible. These two, along with their various comrades, form the antagonists of the novel.

Dickens tells the story of the French Revolution as both parties mentioned become involved in it. His recurring themes of resurrection and redemption throughout the novel are very good means by which to tell the tale, although the delivery of it occasionally falls flat. The novel starts out slow, accelerates quickly, drops to a high level of monotony, and then becomes extremely suspenseful and exciting in the last hundred pages. While this is certainly not as entertaining as Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities is a fulfilling novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Cities-Charles-Dickens/dp/1448625025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257981704&sr=8-1

Grade: 7.5

A Strange Symbiosis

2009-10-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Many authors have explored the concept of the relationship police officers have with the shadier drug dealers, but none in a more straightforward and surprising manner than Philip K. Dick in his novel A Scanner Darkly. This book analyzes the possibility that maybe policemen are not only in league with drug dealers, but perhaps they are actually the dealers themselves.

The novel concerns Fred. Fred is the alias for a policeman who always wears a scramble suit when acting as himself. The scramble suit flashes billions of combinations of physical features very quickly, so the person appears as a blur from head to toe. Also, it masks the wearer's voice by disguising it with a computer voice. This is all to ensure that Fred's appearance and identity are kept highly confidential.

The novel also concerns Bob Arctor. Bob Arctor is the name of a drug dealer who sells and takes massive amounts of the drug Substance D. Substance D eventually splits the user's mind into two distinct, battling halves.

Bob Arctor is also the alternate identity of Fred the policeman.

Fred's mission is to find out information on all the drug dealers he can and report it back to his boss. That means he needs to tell about all his friends, and, yes, even Bob Arctor.

A common book and movie idea is that policemen and the criminals they are supposed to punish are actually in cahoots, but this is one of the only stories where the policemen are actually the drug dealers. It provides a fresh take on the war on drugs and also provides a very suspenseful and intelligent read. When Dick dedicates the book in the afterword to all his friends and family members who died or were greatly diseased or disabled because of narcotics, it gives a personal reason for writing and, for some, reading the novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Scanner-Darkly-Philip-K-Dick/dp/1400096901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257978849&sr=1-1

Grade: 8.5

Half Moon is More Than Half Bad

2009-09-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Eoin Colfer had a terrific idea when he decided to write his best-selling young adult series Artemis Fowl. The idea of a young criminal mastermind who gets untangled with underground fairies in Ireland is just quirky enough to be a very good series. The writing, though at times could be corny, was for the most part very good. I had thought that any book written by Colfer would be just as fun and interesting as Artemis Fowl.

Apparently I was wrong.

Colfer's book Half Moon Investigations, while interesting enough for a young child, is not written with the same adventurous style that made Fowl so appealing. It tries to be a dark detective novel, but the stereotypes and false portrayals of children, and also the fact that the main character is a kid, more of an anti-hero, will make sure the book will always be outside of the spotlight that Artemis Fowl deserves.

Half Moon Investigations is about Fletcher Moon, a 12-year-old Irish schoolboy who graduated from the detective academy top in his class to get his official detective's badge. He spends most of his day bragging about his badge or solving paltry crimes around school. He must be one of the most obnoxious protagonists of any story. Colfer tries to make him seem like the martyr who is teased because of his love for detectiving, but he comes across as an irresponsible weakling who thinks the world revolves around him.

The main story of the book is about the Sharkeys, a mafia family connected to most of the crimes committed in the area. Fletcher is hired to find a missing lock of hair from a famous singer that one of his schoolmates lost and suspects Red Sharkey, the eighth-grade child, of taking. As Fletcher examines this crime, it leads to him seeing a chain of crimes around his town that he believes are connected to the hair robbery.

The book has conspiracies, underground organizations, and unrealistic events that have Half Moon Investigations cross the line. Colfer's Artemis Fowl series was very good, but here he has jumped the shark. Apparently nobody ever told him that children do not belong to or, especially, run evil schemes and detective agencies.

Grade: 5.5

A Message For Our Time

2009-08-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly the most influential novel in American history and certainly one of the best was the author's debut novel. It was also her last. After writing To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee never wrote another book.

This may have been due to claims that the novel was in fact written by Truman Capote, another famous author and Lee's lifelong friend. To show the world that she did not support these theories, she decided to never write again.

That is all hearsay and legend and has no solid evidence to prove it, but, whether or not Lee wrote it, it stands today as a great book in American fiction for its depiction of racism and bigotry in the southern United States in the 1930s. The story of the rape of a young girl is only a subplot to the major themes of prejudice and coming of age.

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. Scout Finch, the young narrator of the novel, is growing up with her brother Jem and her father, the famous lawyer Atticus Finch. She and Jem explore life in Maycomb together, meeting interesting people such as the precocious Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, the vile Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, the gossiping Stephanie Crawford, and the incompetent teacher Caroline Fisher.

The story does not have a solid plot until about halfway through the book, when Atticus is to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape of a girl. Robinson is obviously innocent, yet Atticus has a great struggle in the court against the Ewell family, the degenerate clan of white trash who scrounges off the charity of society for survival. Regardless, Atticus must strain to pass this apparent fact past the skulls of the racist jurymen.

The main story of the novel, however, is Scout and Jem's coming of age in an area stricken by prejudice and bigotry. The friends that they make and the relationships that they make, both good and bad, echo of all children everywhere.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent coming of age story set in a depressing period of time where racism ran rampant in the hearts of everyone. The character Atticus, as the voice of wisdom and equality for the town, can serve as an example for life today. This is definitely one of the best and most meaningful American novels ever written.

http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0060935464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253374759&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

Three Out of Four

2009-08-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

When an anthology has three-quarters of its stories adapted to films, that is a hint that it probably has some pretty good stories, especially when one of them is often at the top of best movie lists.

Stephen King, an author who writes a lot of horror, took a break from his thrilling style to write Different Seasons, a four-story collection with the short novels "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption", "Apt Pupil", "The Body", and "The Breathing Method". Although the latter does seem to be an attempt at scariness, it sends nothing more than a slight shiver up the reader's spine.

"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption", which was turned into the Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins movie The Shawshank Redemption, is about a man named Andy Dufresne who goes to Shawshank Prison. He was convicted of killing his wife and her lover, a hotshot golfer. He was framed, as the narrator, a man nicknamed Red, is sure to point out. Red, the man who can get items for prisoners from his connections outside of the prison, is interested by the sorts of things that Dufresne wants, including a rock hammer and a rock blanket, as Dufresne was a geologist in his earlier life. As Dufresne becomes accustomed to Shawshank and the way things work in a prison, his friendship with Red grows.

The story is a clever tale about a softspoken man who must get used to the terrible realities of prison, including the cruel security guards, the unfair wardens, and the "sisters", bands of marauders. King writes a story about one man from another man's point of view smoothly. Although the idea seems like it could be quite cumbersome, it is handled with literary finesse. This is a good story that was even better than its acclaimed film.

"Apt Pupil" is a quite different story. It is about a young boy named Todd Bowden. He is mostly a normal kid--a B student, excellent pitcher, good family. However, Todd is also fascinated sadistically by the German concentration camps during World War II. Much to his surprise and happiness, there is an ex-Nazi commander living in his town, not to far away from his own house. Todd goes to meet the Nazi, a man named Kurt Dussander who assumes the name Arthur Denker. As the two talk to each other, they each get a hold on each other, and will not let go.

"Apt Pupil" is a great story that shows the coming of age of a disturbed child and his effects on an old man haunted by his past. King writes this tale excellently, showing the complete characters of Bowden and Dussander and the changes they make after they meet each other and try to get the best of the other. This is a story that truly shows King's ability as a writer.

"The Body" is about four kids grownig up in Maine, Vern Tessio, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Gordon Lachance, who hear about a child's death on the radio. Vern tells the others that he overheard his brother talking to his friend that they had seen the dead body while driving around, and Vern wanted to go find the body so that they could report it and be famous. The boys embark on the journey to the body of Ray Brower. On the way, they work their way through hardships together, so that the story becomes less of a trip to a corpse, and more of a bonding novel for young children.

This is the best story in the book. The short adventures the children go through to find Brower's cadaver are interesting and show the true friendships that the kids have with each other. It is not the story that is the good part about it, although the story is really good, but the relationship the kids have with each other, especially Gordon and Chris. It is a very good story, and is one of the best I have read by King.

The fourth story, "The Breathing Method", is about a man named David who is invited to a club by his business partner. He goes, but is surprised by the mystery and unusualness of the place. There are books in the club that the local library does not even have in their system. There are poems in anthologies that have never been written. Companies on machines never existed. Something is obviously odd about the place. And then when a doctor tells a story of an unmarried pregnant woman, the club is discovered to be a little bit odd.

"The Breathing Method" had great potential to be by far the best story in the book. The way the normalness of the building and the place was juxtaposed with the impossibilities inside of it could have made for a very interesting story. However, it seemed as if King did not want to work hard enough to come up with a good ending either for the doctor's story or for his own, and decided to just leave it with a mediocre, half-worked ending that does not explain anything. The book makes stabs at horror, but the only scary thing about it is how Stephen King could write something so under-average after three very good stories.

Like The Stand, also by Stephen King, this book has some very mature themes and language, especially "Apt Pupil". Younger readers should wait to read this, but should definitely pick it up at their parents' discretion.

King scores a three out of four with this anthology. My main suggestion would be to read "The Breathing Method" first, even though it is the last story in the book. All four novellas are unrelated except for minor references in a couple of them. That way you will not be disappointed with the last story. Except for a hiccup King had in one of the stories, Different Seasons is a very good anthology.

http://www.amazon.com/Different-Seasons-Signet-Stephen-King/dp/0451167538/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250965412&sr=8-1

Rating: 8.5

Not a Bore, But Not a Thrill

2009-07-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

At first, when I began to read The Bean Trees, I had quite low expectations. Barbara Kingsolver is not exaactly an author whose literature enthralls me; science fiction and the occasional fantasy novel are right up my alley. However, I was pleasantly surprised with my reaction toward the short novel. It had a compelling story, for being a dramatic, romantic chick novel, and had enough humor to not bore the fantasy reader.

The story concerns Marietta Greer, a girl from Pittman County, Kentucky. She finally leaves her small town to go west in her early 20s. While on her trip, she changes her name to Taylor. While at a bar in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, an old Indian woman walks up to her car and puts a small baby in the front seat. Taylor decides that she cannot abandon the child, so she takes the little child with her out west all the way to Tuscon. She discovers that the child is a girl, and names her Turtle.

Another main character of the novel is Lou Ann Ruiz, another woman from Kentucky living in Tuscon. Her husband, Angel, left her right after she gave birth to a son, who she named Dwayne Ray. Lou Ann Ruiz is having trouble coping with the loss of her husband, while having to care for another body and feed another mouth. Lou Ann and Taylor meet and become thick as thieves, so that Lou Ann lets Taylor live with her.

Taylor meets other people, including Mattie, the owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, and Esperanza and Estevan, a Guatemalan couple living with Mattie. They are very nice people, but the couple could be arrested for being illegal immigrants, and Mattie could be punished for giving them room and board.

The rest of the story shows how Taylor raises Turtle with support from Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray, the way Taylor makes a living and meets new people in Tuscon, and how Mattie deals with Esperanza and Estevan, with their legal and personal issues. Turtle grows to be a young child under the caring motherhood of Taylor, while Dwayne Ray matures under Lou Ann.

Kingsolver's first novel was a decent book. The plot was compelling enough, and the characters had personalities that did not make the book a complete bore. There was nothing deliberately bad about The Bean Trees, but there was not anything truly good about it, either.

http://www.amazon.com/Bean-Trees-Novel-P-S/dp/0061765228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247628924&sr=8-1

Grade: 6.5

A Satire For Our Time

2009-07-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

With the current American economy and the unhappiness people have with the federal government, it seems as if there can never be a perfect civilization. One literary example of this is William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a satirical novel about British children during a great war. This novel has been proclaimed by TIME as one of the best 100 English-language books of all time.

Lord of the Flies opens on a deserted island, at the wreckage of the crash of an airplane that had been carrying British schoolboys away from the war-torn England. Ralph, an older child whose father was in the navy, meets another child, who wore glasses, was fat, and had asthma. The child does not reveal his name, but is known only as Piggy. Ralph is calm, democratic, and charismatic, while Piggy is frightful, disliked, and bossy. The two boys find a conch in a small body of water, and Ralph blows the conch. All the boys on the island go to the sound of the conch.

The conch in the story represents order and democracy. It is used to unite the children, and only he holding the conch is allowed to speak at the boys' assemblies. The conch is probably the most metaphorical item in the entire book.

When the boys unite after Ralph called them, the character Jack is introduced. Jack Merridew is the head of a choir to which many boys belong. He proclaims his desire to be elected chief of the island, but loses the election to Ralph. Ralph gives the resentful Jack command over his choir as hunters for the boys. The civilization on the island is created.

The story continues to explain the rise and fall of the civilization, and the decisions that all of the boys eventually have to make to follow Jack or Ralph. While Ralph stands for order and reason, Jack's tribe is fun and puts a large emphasis on violence, especially the hunt for pigs. Jack and Ralph are perfect foils for each other and are allegories for evil and good, respectively. Other characters include Roger, the spearman and Jack's lieutenant, and Simon, the voice of reason for Ralph and symbol of purity.

Lord of the Flies is a great satire for today. The point that no government created by man can last forever without trouble is true. The way that Golding writes the novel using children, who are so innocent but have so much potential for evil, is chilling. This novel has lasted for years and will last for several more as an excellent novel for modern civilizations.

http://www.amazon.com/WIDEVIEW-PERIGEE-BOOKS-William-Golding/dp/B000FXT2LA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247432738&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

One Apple Short of a Basket

2009-06-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

After reading such pleasant novels and anthologies by Ray Bradbury as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, I was excited to pick up a copy of the Bradbury anthology The Golden Apples of the Sun from my library. While I had found some of the short stories in the previous books I had read slightly boring, the majority of them were good, Twilight Zone-type stories. I was expecting The Golden Apples of the Sun to please me just as much.

Sadly, this was not the case.

Most of the stories in the book were quite drab, with no interesting plot or twists that many of The Illustrated Man's stories had. Some of the stories seemed to have a lot of potential for a science fiction author like Bradbury to write something exciting, but they fell quite short of the cut. Regardless of many of the stories' lack of enthusiasm, three stories that I found quite appealing were "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl," "The Murderer," and "Hail and Farewell."

In "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl," Acton is at Huxley's house because he thinks the latter is cheating on his wife. The story opens with Acton standing over Huxley's corpse, shot by Acton's gun. As Acton is cleaning up the evidence, he notices some fingerprints on the house--fingerprints of his. He sees himself surely being caught and condemned for the murder if any of his fingerprints were found, so he starts polishing them off. And he does not stop. He keeps polishing, polishing, polishing....

The way Bradbury writes this story, it truly makes it seem like Acton is a normal man who was pushed to his limits by Huxley one time too many, and was not a cold-blooded murderer. The way he describes Acton's actions after the death is thrilling and chilling.

"The Murderer" is another great story. A psychologist walks through a large, clean office building while being serenaded by the sounds of today: telephones, music, computers, or other electronics. When he reaches a small room where his patient is waiting, he sees that the radio has been removed from the wall and broken. His patient, who calls himself "The Murderer," has not killed a single person. Rather, he has destroyed numerous technological items. The Murderer was upset with modern society's constant need for communication, where some of his friends call him for no apparent reason except to talk. So, he decided to destroy technology.

One of the reasons "The Murderer" stands out from the others is that Bradbury's portrait of a completely sane, normal man who suddenly has reached his point of intolerance with society is so realistic. The Murderer gave his rationale for each vandalism of his calmly and coolly, to the point where he is actually the hero of the story, and not the innocent psychiatrist.

"Hail and Farewell" concerns Willie, a young boy of twelve years old living in a Southern town. He has only lived there a few years, Willie never stays in one place for very long. In fact, one of the only things consistent with Willie is his age. Willie does not grow older. He stays in a town with a nice family for just as long as it takes for people to start talking about how the other boys grew right past him, and then he walks away, with barely anything at all.

This story is a great one because it shows the trouble with having one of the most-wished for blessings: the ability to never age. Willie can never have good friends because he has to move away very quickly. Bradbury describes well Willie's internal pain and grief, and also his physical conditions and needs.

Despite the fact that these three stories were great, many of the other nineteen were not very good or intriguing at all. The anthology fell short of Bradbury's ability, and should not be used as a judge for his prowess with writing.

Grade: 5

A Very Good 'Catch'

2009-05-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Lasting for many years as a symbol of teenage rebellion in American literature, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has been banned in many locations because of its ample amount of profanity, smoking, and drinking, as well as some other mature content. While banning may be a way to keep children's minds pure of these vile actions, it is a shame that such an outstanding book should ever be restricted.

The short novel begins with Holden Caulfield, the protagonist and anti-hero of the novel talking to the reader with a very unique talking style: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of c***, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all--I'm not saying that--but they're also touchy as h***. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my g***** autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy."

Caulfield is attending a private school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania. About a week before Christmas break begins, Caulfield is told that his grades are too low (he is failing all his classes except for English), and that he cannot return to Pencey the following term. Besides being slightly worried about what his parents might think of his expulsion, Caulfield is hardly perturbed about it. He figures that instead of spending his last few days at Pencey actually at Pencey, he should leave. And that is what he does.

The novel follows Caulfield's ventures back to New York, while rebelling against society. There is not very much action at all. But what the novel lacks in plot, Salinger makes up for in commentary. The way Caulfield talks to the reader and then goes off on several tangents to speak about his past at Pencey and before is delighting. Caulfield, while being the protagonist of the novel, is a very difficult character to like, with all his complaints, profanity, and talk about alcohol, smoking, and girls. But he has become one of the most well-known characters in literary history, probably because his personality is atrocious but believable. Only a few would not be able to relate with Caulfield at all.

The Catcher in the Rye is an extraordinary work of art. Any reader should read this when they are at a mature age. It is only a shame that Salinger did not write more books (he only wrote four), because, if they had been as excellent and successful as this one, they would be fine novels indeed.

http://www.amazon.com/Catcher-Rye-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244495767&sr=8-1

Grade: 9.5

A Depressing Journey

2009-04-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

One of the most heralded books of the 21st century was a short 2006 post-apocalyptic novel about a man and his son. There are few commas, barely any apostrophes, and no quotation marks to signal dialogue. There are no chapters. The protagonists are never named. But Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Road. It was chosen by the Oprah Book Club, and The Road came out on top in a 2008 Entertainment Weekly list of the best 100 books of the past 25 years. The movie adaptation is planned on being released later this year.

The Road is about a man (known simply as "the man") and a boy (known simply as "the boy") trying to survive in a barren America. While their main challenge is trying to find enough food and water to survive, they also struggle with the intense cold that had come from the unnamed apocalypse, the search for shelter, and the bands of cannibals that roam the earth, marauding any weak travelers to rob, kill, and often eat them.

McCarthy's writing style may be one of the main reasons The Road has been so acclaimed. His creative and unconventional nonuse of commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, names, and chapters marks the writing style as very unique. The depressing tone of the novel makes the reader care about the characters more than most other books. Here is one of the many conversations between the man and the boy:

He was a long time going to sleep. After a while he turned and looked at the man. His face in the small light streaked with black from the rain like some old world thespian. Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.
And we're still going south.
Yes.
So we'll be warm.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay what?
Nothing. Just okay.
Go to sleep.
Okay.
I'm going to blow out the lamp. Is that okay?
Yes. That's okay.
And then later in the darkness: Can I ask you something?
Yes. Of course you can.
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay.

The character of the man is pitiful. He is living out a harsh punishment for no crime at all. He does not care at all about himself; every move he makes is for the well-being of his son or the safety of himself in order to protect his son. The boy is, if possible, an even more depressing character. While he is generally more optimistic than his father, most readers will find themselves halfway to tears reading about a child at his age surviving sights and events that nobody should ever have to endure. Cormac McCarthy describes the love of the man and the loss of innocence of the boy with vivid and realistic dialogue and actions. As the novel says, the man and the boy are "each the other's world entire."

While The Road is an excellent addition to literature and should become a classic in future years, many children and weak readers will find this book to hard to bear. Throughout the novel, the depressing tone and some events may not be pleasant to some readers.

Cormac McCarthy wrote an excellent story with The Road. This book has brought him more renown than he has ever had with his previous books. The austere book should continue to enchant readers for many years to come.

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Movie-Tie-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307472124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241288865&sr=8-1

Grade: 9

The Underland Chronicles

2009-04-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Young adult literature can often be very inane. An author does not need to work very hard to write a story that appeals to teenagers--shallow humor, constant action (or teenage drama, in the case of females), and a simple plot seem to be the elements of a bestselling young adult novel. Take Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan, for instance. The series, while appealing to many young adults I know, failed in appealing to me.

One young adult series, though, that seems to go against the norm is Suzanne Collins's The Underland Chronicles. While it does have its occasional stabs at humor and quite a bit of action, The Underland Chronicles has a good story and is much better than most other novels in youth literature.

The first book in the series is Gregor the Overlander. Gregor is an eleven-year-old boy living in an apartment in New York City with his grandmother, his mother, his seven-year-old sister Lizzie, and his two-year-old sister Boots. They had been very impoverished ever since Gregor's father disappeared. One day, Gregor and his sister Boots are in the laundry room of their apartment, and Gregor follows his sister through a grate in the floor. They realize that it leads to the Underland, a world that exists underneath New York City. The Underland has humans, giant bats (fliers), giant spiders (spinners), giant cockroaches (crawlers), and giant rats (gnawers). The humans live in a city called Regalia. The Regalians realize that Gregor is the warrior mentioned in "The Prophecy of Gray", a prophecy that says that a warrior from the Overland will save Regalia from the gnawers by going on a quest.

Gregor the Overlander is an excellent piece of children's literature. The plot, including the characters, the quest, and especially the prophecy marks this as a great series beginner. Readers will enjoy following Gregor and the others as they fulfill the prophecy, even if not the way they originally anticipated.

http://www.amazon.com/Overlander-Underland-Chronicles-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439678137/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238866992&sr=8-5

Grade: 9

The second installation in the series, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, brings Gregor back to the Underland to fulfill the Prophecy of Bane. The Underlanders kidnap Boots in order to lure Gregor down, because the Prophecy of Bane calls for the warrior again. This time, the Regalians want Gregor to go on another quest to kill a white gnawer called the Bane. If the gnawers get hold of the Bane, they will be able to rule the Underland.

Collins achieves every author's aspiration: to write a sequel as good as or better than its predecessor. She uses the same formula as the first: Gregor's quest through the Underland as a segway for the development of the prophecy, as well as the surprising actual meanings of many of its ambiguous lines. Another great story in the Underland Chronicles.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Prophecy-Bane-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439650763/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239233487&sr=8-1

Grade: 9

Gregor returns to the Underland for yet another prophecy in Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods. A plague has struck Regalia and the rest of the Underland. It only affects warm-blooded creatures, thus affecting all humans, gnawers, and fliers. The Prophecy of Blood states that the warrior must go on a quest to find the cure for the terrible plague. At first, Gregor's mother insists that he will not go on another quest, but when she gets the plague, Gregor decides to go so that he can save her life and the lives of every warmblood in the Underland.

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods is not as good as the first two. The main events of the third novel seem to be much less intricate, as well as much fewer, than those of the first two books. The Prophecy of Blood is much more straightforward than both the Prophecy of Gray and the Prophecy of Bane, which provides for much less room for misinterpretation, the element that truly made Gregor the Overlander and Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane stand out from other young adult fantasy novels. Although it was not a bad book, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods did not live up to its wonderful predecessors.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Curse-Warmbloods-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439656249/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239234541&sr=1-1

Grade: 7.5

The penultimate Underland Chronicle is Gregor and the Marks of Secret. Gregor returns to Regalia one day for a birthday party, and while with one of his Underland friends, gets a distress call from the mice (nibblers). The nibblers had been forced from their homes by the gnawers for many years. Finally, it seemed, the nibblers needed help from the humans. Gregor must go on another quest if he wants to save a whole species of Underland animals.

This fourth episode in Gregor's life is another disappointment. It, like Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, does not have the same intricate plot as the first two. Furthermore, there is not even a prophecy that Gregor and the others must fulfill, which makes the book almost like any other action/adventure children's book. It is good, but again, does not capture one's attention as much as could be hoped for. While Gregor and the Marks of Secret is above average, it does not show Collins's full writing prowess.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Marks-Secret-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439791464/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_title

Grade: 7.5

Gregor and the Code of Claw completes the story of Gregor and his adventures in the Underland. A war between the humans and the gnawers is coming into full swing, and Gregor is needed to help Regalia as well as fulfill the Prophecy of Time, perhaps the most enigmatic and ominous prophecy of all.

This novel is the longest of the Underland Chronicles by far. With 412 pages of writing, Collins can expand on every facet of the war, as well as the characters that serve as Regalia's protection against the gnawers. Even without a quest, the novel has enough physical action as well as psychological suspense to keep the reader hooked on its events. Regardless, Collins must not realize the importance of having a prophecy that at first is misinterpreted by the Regalians, and then the true meaning of which is startlingly revealed to the reader. Although the Prophecy of Time may be one of the best of the entire series, it is not a main focus in the novel. The formula that made the first two stand out so well is not followed. Although Gregor and the Code of Claw is very good and exceeds the quality of the preceding two by far, it lacks the element that made Gregor the Overlander and Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane stand out. Readers will find this a very fun read, while not as fun as Collins could have made it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_6_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gregor+and+the+code+of+the+claw&sprefix=gregor+and+the

Grade: 8

Collins turned a good idea for a story into a superb series. While she had a few flaws in a couple books, this is still one of the best selections of young adult literature.

Exceeded Expectations

2009-03-18T21:27:00.001-07:00

Out of all the great authors that have ever lived and made their mark in literary history, one of the most prolific may have been Charles Dickens. While he was not as prolific as some authors, many of his works are incredibly well-known: A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and A Tale of Two Cities, to mention a few. And what may be his most renowned work is the story of Pip, the young English gentleman: Great Expectations.

The lengthy novel begins with a young Philip "Pip" Pirrip, sitting next to the tombstone shared by almost his entire family in the cemetery near the village church. Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister, his only surviving family member. Pip, Joe (Pip's brother-in-law, the blacksmith), and Mrs. Joe (Pip's sister) all live together in a small house. Theirs is not a happy life; the small household is plagued by poverty.

Charles Dickens wastes no time in getting to the action of the novel. On the second page, Pip meets the mysterious escaped convict in the cemetery who threatens to kill Pip is he does not bring the convict food. The next day, Christmas, Pip takes a plethora of food for the convict and watches while the latter gobbles it up greedily.

Dickens's original portrayal of Pip is that of a gullible, fearful young child. Because the story is told through the eyes and voice of Pip, Dickens could characterize Pip to make one feel like he actually was a good friend of the boy.

Somewhere around Pip's teenage years, he is introduced to the old spinster Miss Havisham and the young, beautiful Estella, Miss Havisham's adoptive daughter. The stinginess, pessimism, and woe of Miss Havisham and the elitism, pride, and cruelty of Estella act as true foils to Pip's innocent blitheness.

Great Expectations goes on to summarize the rest of Pip's life: his relationships, fortunes, misfortunes, and demeanor. Dickens wrote very well through the voice of Pip. As Pip matured in age and disposition, the writing style grew more and more solemn. Great Expectations is truly a classic for the world, and proves the writing prowess of Charles Dickens.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Expectations-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486415864/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237436590&sr=8-3

Grade: 8.5

Farewell to High Hopes

2009-01-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Even after over 50 years, World War II internment camps are still a touchy subject to many people. The horrors that the Americans inflicted on innocent Japanese people are, although considered by many a good idea at the time, now but a memory of one of the dark ages of America.

One of these terrible internment camps is the subject of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's novel, Farewell to Manzanar. Manzanar was a scary place for the Japanese forced to leave their homes and move there, but the Houstons' effort, although being an American classic, does come across as a little bland. From 1942 to 1945, the Japanese living in Manzanar were in terrible conditions. It seems like the Houstons should be able to make the novel a bit more dramatic.

The main characters are the Wakatsukis, a family of Japanese-Americans. Jeanne Wakatsuki, co-author of the book, is the youngest. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, no one had any idea what had happened. All they knew was that about four months later, they had to go to Manzanar, an internment camp in California. One of the best scenes in the novel occurs before they leave, when Mama is trying to sell everything she owned. A dealer tries to buy many expensive china articles for a paltry sum. Mama gets each article and throws them down, one by one, to shatter on the hard ground. The dealer, after trying to coax Mama out of her actions, just walks away.

The Wakatsukis arrive at the camp. The living arrangements are fit for animals. The bathrooms are filthy, with no dividers. Sand enters their shack through knotholes in the wall. Although the Japanese establish cultural activities (Jeanne was for a while a member of a Japanese dance class, taught by an old geisha) and the Americans that run the camp try to make it seem as much like home as possible (Japanese food is served daily), Manzanar is portrayed a terrible place.

Here is where the trouble sets in. When the war ends, Congress issues an order to send every Japanese person in an internment camp back to their home. But even though the Wakatsukis and every other person hated Manzanar while they stayed there, they do not want to leave and procrastinate as much as they can before they finally decide to go home. This just did not make enough sense to me. They should be relieved that they can go back to their old way of living.

Farewell to Manzanar described a terrible time in American history through the eyes of a little girl. It is not a complete failure of a book. It just does not live up to its legendary name.

http://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Manzanar-Japanese-Experience-Internment/dp/0553272586/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235699573&sr=8-1

Grade: 6.5

The Twelve Passengers

2008-12-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express may be one of the most difficult mysteries ever written. Her narrative of the detective Hercule Poirot on the Orient Express seems to have no solution at all. All twelve suspects have excellent alibis. All evidence seems to contradict itself. And it seems that even M. Poirot is baffled.

The mystery begins on the Orient Express as the train is traveling through Europe to Calais. One night, during a terrible snowstorm, the train is snowed in and cannot proceed. That morning, one man, a Mr. Ratchett, is found dead in his carriage, stabbed numerous times with a knife. Hercule Poirot sets to work on the case with his friend M. Bouc (the director of the train and representative of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits) and Dr. Constantine (a medical doctor from a different coach). Not much is known about the case from the beginning, but there is one fact everyone is sure of: the murderer had no way to leave the train, ergo, he or she is one of the passengers.

There are twelve passengers on the Calais Coach of the Orient Express, each of which are viable suspects for the murder:

Countess Elena Andrenyi: wife to Count Andrenyi
Count Rudolph Andrenyi: a Hungarian diplomat, travelling to France
Col. Arbuthnot: a British colonel, returning from India
Mary Debenham: a British governess, returning to Great Britain from Baghdad
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff: a Russian noblewoman
Antonio Foscarelli: an Italian businessman
Cyrus Hardman: an American typewriter ribbon salesman
Caroline Hubbard: an American woman, returning home after visiting her daughter in Baghdad
Hector MacQueen: the American secretary to Mr. Ratchett
Edward Masterman: the British valet to Mr. Ratchett
Greta Ohlsson: a Swedish missionary, travelling home for a vacation
Hildegarde Schmidt: the German lady's-maid to Dragomiroff

Christie makes this case as difficult as possible, taking the reader for a thrilling ride through lies, plot twists, and stunning revelations. While Poirot gets closer and closer to finding out the identity of the murderer and the solution to the mystery, the reader gets more and more enthralled in the plot of the book. Every clue discovered brings M. Poirot, the funny little Belgian, closer and closer to the solution. Every mystery lover will delight himself in using his little grey cells along with Poirot as he discovers the solution to the murder on the Orient Express.

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Orient-Express-Hercule-Mysteries/dp/0425200450/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231822795&sr=8-2

Grade: 8.5

Second Foundation

2008-12-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Second Foundation very successfully wraps up Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. In the second book, Foundation and Empire, the Mule searches for the elusive Second Foundation. In Second Foundation, the search for the Second Foundation is the main plot of the book.

The Second Foundation is the organization that was established by Hari Seldon at the same time as the Foundation. Seldon created the Second Foundation as a philosophical and psychohistorical organization to contrast with the First Foundation's affinity to science. It was originally meant to assist the Foundation in its upholding of the Seldon Plan, but had now started spoiling the Empire's plans and also infiltrating the minds of some of the greatest scientists of the Foundation.

The first part of the book, "Search by the Mule", concerns the Mule and his Empire. Two Imperial subjects, General Han Pritcher and Bail Channis, are sent by the Mule to search all over the Galaxy to try to find where the Second Foundation could be hidden.

The second part of the book, "Search by the Foundation", is about a few members of the Foundation. The bigger part of the second part concerns Arcadia Darrell, a young teenage girl. She, her father (the renowned scientist Toran Darrell), and a few of her father's friends make it their mission to figure out as much as they can about this Second Foundation that has been controlling the minds of so many people.

Second Foundation is the excellent finale to the acclaimed Foundation Trilogy. The plethora of characters with varying personalities and knowledge contrast with each other to make the reader guess where this Second Foundation can be hidden. Asimov keeps the reader's eyes bound to the book until the very last page. It is a superb novel with an excellent plot and an excellent writing style. It is a very successful ending to a very successful trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293362/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229745970&sr=8-2

Grade: 9

Foundation and Empire

2008-12-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

My previous book review was written about Isaac Asimov's book Foundation. This science fiction book has come to be one of the most famous in science fiction history. The first sequel written about this book, titled Foundation and Empire, is the subject of this review.

Foundation and Empire is even better than its predecessor. The novel is split up into two parts: "Part I: The General" and "Part II: The Mule". The whole novel is mostly about the war between the Foundation, the organization established by Hari Seldon; and the Empire.

Part I is about General Bel Riose of the Empire as he plays a key role in the war between the Foundation and the Empire. It is also about Emperor Cleon II (current monarch of the Empire), Ducem Barr (a man from the planet Siwenna), and Lathan Devers (a trader from the Foundation). The Foundation is a small entity compared to the beast of the Empire, but they must hold their ground if they intend for the Seldon Plan to succeed.

Part II takes place about 100 years later, after the Empire is much weaker than it had been, and it relates the rise of the Mule. The Mule is a very powerful man whose goal is to reinstate the Empire, thus becoming the sovereign of the Universe. Under the Mule, the Empire fights the Foundation, and it seems that they have met their most dangerous foe. Not much is known about the Mule at all, and Part II is told from the point of view of Toran and Bayta Darell, a newlywed couple from a trading planet belonging to the Foundation.

Foundation and Empire surpasses Foundation in my opinion. Whereas the first book had five short parts to it, each with their unique characters and scenarios, the second book has only two parts. The characters are much more developed and the story-line is much easier to understand in Foundation and Empire. Isaac Asimov proves here for the second time his prowess at writing.

http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Empire-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293370/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229053943&sr=8-2

Grade: 9

Foundation

2008-11-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

Isaac Asimov was one of the foremost science fiction authors until his death in 1992. Among his many achievements is the fact that he has written and edited over 500 different books, and having an asteroid named after him (the 5020 Asimov). But what may be the most amazing is winning the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966 for his Foundation Trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation).

Foundation, the first book in this series, has five parts, four of which had been previously published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction. This novel is about the psychohistorian Hari Seldon and his quest to save the Galaxy from 30,000 years of chaos.

The novel opens with a young mathematician named Gaal Dornick as he is flying to the planet Trantor to meet Seldon. Hari "Raven" Seldon was looked upon by some to be a very intelligent and extraordinary man by most as a trouble-maker. He invented the branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. With psychohistory, one could predict the likely outcome of events in the future. Seldon discovered that the Galactic Empire would indeed fall within the next 300 years, and then would follow 30,000 years of chaos in the galaxy before the Empire rose again. But if Seldon and his followers and their descendants could create a society known as the Foundation, the 30,000 years would be reduced to a mere millenium.

And so follows the chronicle of the Foundation on the planet Terminus, at the very edge of the Galaxy. At first, the Foundation's only goal, as given them by the long-dead Seldon, was to make the Encyclopedia Galactica, a conglomeration of all the information known to mankind. They were governed by a committee whose only care was for the Encyclopedia. But, as with the rest of the Galaxy, many changes were stirring within the Foundation.

Asimov's story of how one man sought to save the Universe 29,000 years of misfortune is a success. Although it is very brief--only 255 pages--it successfully chronicles several years in the life of the Foundation, its struggles and failures, its successes and discoveries, and its role in the eventual deterioration of the Galactic Empire. This is a very good beginning to a highly-spoken-of series.

http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293354/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227312127&sr=8-2

Grade: 8.5

What a Guy

2008-11-11T11:52:00.001-08:00

Some authors write their autobiographies so that we can read a good, inspirational story. Others write stories about their lives so that we can see how they overcame challenges in their lives to rise to greatness. Still other people are just very interesting to read about. But try as I might, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Gary Soto wrote an autobiography.

Living Up the Street tells about the circumstances involving the childhood of Gary Soto, a writer from Fresno, California. From the very beginning, the story is not interesting. The first chapter, titled "Being Mean," tells of how Soto and his brother Rick greet their new neighbors by getting in a fight with them. When Gary and Rick lose, they find a stray cat, and put it and their own cat in a bag to hit their neighbors with. Oh boy, that sure makes me want to be like you, Soto.

And the time when he talks about breaking into his friend's recently married sister's house to steal her radio, food, and lamp, and then return it before she gets home just because he did not have enough money to escape to San Francico with it, that sure makes me feel good inside.

Oh, I almost forgot about the highly inspirational part where Soto talks about hanging out with his friend Jackie on the weekend. They sure are good citizens, knocking over trash cans and breaking into stores to steal their mannequins so that they can fight with them. Gosh, Soto, you're like George Washington, such an asset to society.

Living Up the Street is a very terrible autobiography. The events written about are so base as to be slightly offensive. Does Soto actually think that readers will learn something from his book, that they will want to be more like him after reading it? Because no one will. This book is not worth the ink and paper that was used to make it. I am sorry, Soto, but we just do not care.

Grade: 2.5

Miss Marple, Detective Extraordinnaire

2008-11-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

There is something about murder mysteries that seems to make the individual want to read more and more. Murder, which is frowned upon in modern society, has continued to captivate readers everywhere for many, many years.

One of the most renowned names in murder was the author and playwright Agatha Christie. Her novels are some of the most well-known in mystery fiction, including And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. Her play The Mousetrap is the longest-running play in history. And there have also been T.V. shows made on her characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Miss Marple is the detective in The Tuesday Club Murders (also known as The Thirteen Problems), an anthology where Miss Marple solves many mysteries without leaving her armchair. The thirteen stories in the book all feature Miss Jane Marple, detective extraordinnaire, as she solves both criminal problems for Scotland Yard and miniscule, everyday problems for herself and her friends. My picks for the best stories in it are "The Blood-Stained Pavement", "The Blue Geranium", and "The Companion"

The narrator for "The Blood-Stained Pavement" is Joyce Lemprière. Joyce was on vacation in Cornwall, England, when she noticed a husband and wife next to her. They were Denis and Margery. Pretty soon, a woman drove up. Denis recognized her as his old friend, Carol. They go off swimming together. That afternoon, Joyce sees blood on the driveway near her rented house. Denis and Margery return without Carol. They go back to look for her, the blood is not there anymore, and Margery is found dead a week later. This sounds like a case for Miss Marple.

"The Blue Geranium" is about Mr. George Pritchard. His wife was a semi-invalid who was very prone to complaints, and had many nurses at different times to take care of her. One day a fortune-teller comes to the Pritchards' house. She tells Mrs. Pritchard to beware blue flowers. A number of days later, the Pritchards get a note that says that a blue primrose is a warning, a blue hollyhock is danger, and a blue geranium is death, and to beware the full moon. On the next full moon, one of the primroses on the wallpaper in Mrs. Pritchard's room turns blue. Four weeks later, on the next full moon, a hollyhock turns blue. Four weeks later, on the third full moon, a geranium turns blue, and Mrs. Pritchard is discovered to be dead.

"The Companion" another very interesting conundrum. Dr. Lloyd tells Miss Marple of a story that he encountered while living in the Canary Islands. He sees two women traveling together. They are not special at all; they are the most unimportant-looking people one could see. But the next day, while they were swimming, one of them started to drown. The other one tried to save her, but to no avail. He questions the would-be heroine and some witnesses. A few months later, a suicide note written by the survivor of the women is found and the woman drowned herself, although the body was not found. Of course, Miss Marple must discover the answer to this mystery.

The Tuesday Club Murders is an excellent example of Christie's writing skill. The thirteen stories in this book all seem very strange and confusing, but Marple solves them with the utmost ease using her incredible brain and past experiences. While it cannot be compared to novels of hers such as And Then There Were None, it is very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Tuesday-Club-Murders-Christie-Collection/dp/1579126901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225581086&sr=8-1

Grade: 8

A Worthy Sequel

2008-10-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Orson Scott Card has continued to dazzle and impress readers and critics alike with his excellent stories and intelligent writing. What might be his most well-known work, Ender's Game, has spawned many sequels, including Speaker for the Dead, a winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Ender's Shadow, a book which, along with Ender's Game, has earned him a lifetime achievement award from the Young Adult Library Services Association. He wrote "The Ender Saga" (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) and "The Shadow Saga" (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant), as well as other novels in the "Enderverse" (First Meetings and A War of Gifts: An Ender Story).

Xenocide, incidentally, is the book which I just finished enjoying.

The book takes place on Lusitania in about the 53rd century. Lusitania is the only known planet in the universe on which is found the pequeninos, the only living sentient species besides humans known to mankind. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is living there with his family. Unfortunately, Starways Congress, the head of all humanity, sees it fit for Lusitania to be destroyed by a extremely powerful bomb.

As can be expected, no one on Lusitania favors this idea very much at all. So Ender's intelligent and almost living computer cuts off all communication between Starways Congress and the fleet sent to destroy Lusitania. It is as if the fleet just disappeared into thin air. People on Lusitania wonder if this is enough to save their lives and the lives of the pequeninos, while some people elsewhere, especially a young Chinese girl named Han Qing-Jao, are trying to figure out how to get the fleet back.

Card makes a book that lives up to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. It is a worthy sequel that explores such philosophical questions as "When does a computer become more than a computer?" and "Should humanity sacrifice itself for other species?"

The characters in Xenocide are made realistic. They are believable people who seem to act just like most human beings in their capacities would. This all forms to be a book that should not be looked over.

http://www.amazon.com/Xenocide-Ender-Book-Quartet/dp/0312861877/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224356085&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

An Ordinary Voyage

2008-10-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that in the past few years, 3-D movies have become much more numerous than they were before. One of the more recent movies of this kind is "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D," starring Brendan Fraser. It did very well in the box office, but I doubt it will have the same legacy as its namesake.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne, was written during the time of the American Civil War. That was a very long time ago, and yet it is still a very well-known story. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is told through the eyes of Axel, a nineteen-year-old living with his strict Uncle Lidenbrock.

When Lidenbrock buys an ancient tome at a bookstore in town, he is very pleased to see that the book was once owned by Arne Saknussemm, a very famous Icelandic alchemist. He is even more thrilled when a note written in Icelandic falls out of the book. Axel and Uncle Lidenbrock proceed to decipher the mysterious note, and, after days of fruitless searching, they finally figure out the answer.

The note tells of a secret passageway in a crater called Sneffels (in Iceland) that leads to the centre of the earth. Axel and Lidenbrock depart immediately. With the help of their guide Hans, they embark on their treacherous journey to the interior of our planet.

Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Centre of the Earth over a century ago, so the writing style is often humorous how old it seems. The book is very slow for the most part; it does not have very much suspense or edge-of-your-seat action. Yet Verne wrote an interesting tale that has survived many years of history. Even if this "Voyage Extraordinaire" does not have the same features that a modern adventure novel today would have, it is still good, and should be read and enjoyed by present and future generations.

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Centre-Earth-Puffin-Classics/dp/0141321040/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223751127&sr=8-4

Grade: 7

The Twilight Anthology

2008-10-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

"It was a warm afternoon in early September when I first met the Illustrated Man." That is the first sentence in Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. That is not true for myself (it was actually an afternoon in March), but I am definitely glad that I read it.

Bradbury has a very peculiar style that is distinct, but excellent. Though he wrote a few novels (Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes being two of the more-well-known), the bulk of Bradbury's writing was made up of short stories. And he was definitely good at writing them.

In The Illustrated Man, Bradbury writes dark stories with chilling lessons and creepy plots. Eighteen stories (plus a prologue and an epilogue) make up this excellent anthology. My three favorites are "Zero Hour", "The Fox and the Forest", and "Marionettes, Inc." (in no particular order).

"The Fox and the Forest" concerns a couple in Mexico, 1935. They are from the future (the year 2155, actually), and used the company Travel in Time, Inc. to get to the past. Their trip was only supposed to last a few days, but they evaded security and escaped so that the husband in the relationship would not get drafted for the war in 2155. But the government figures them out and tries to catch them....

"Marionettes, Inc." is also very good. Braling and Smith are two good friends who just had a good night at the bar, when Braling says that he has to go home. They walk to Braling's home together, and Braling shows Smith how he was able to leave the house, even with his over-protective wife. It is because he has a robot that looks and is just like himself, tailored personally for him by Marionettes, Inc.

"Zero Hour" takes place on a futuristic Earth. All the kids in a certain town are playing a game that they call "Invasion" with each other. Their parents can hardly get them to do anything, they are so busy with the game. Mrs. Morris finds out that in fact it is a game that kids all across America are playing all at the same time. Very interesting.

Bradbury made an excellent collection of stories in The Illustrated Man. They all have the feel of a "Twilight Zone" episode. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a passion for reading and a taste for things a little bit quirky.

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Man-Grand-Master-Editions/dp/055327449X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223680907&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

A Household Name

2008-09-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

Agatha Christie has proved herself to me to be a great author in And Then There Were None, a book which I consider one of the best books ever written. The plot was excellent, and it just showed the great mind that Christie had.

Again she shows her talent in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the book which claims to be "the book that made Agatha Christie a household name."

The book opens with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, an old widow. She was accused of killing her husband Ashley, and then committing suicide years later. Dr. Sheppard, the narrator of the book, goes to his friend Roger Ackroyd's house for dinner one night, and they talk over the death of Mrs. Ferrars. Later that night, Mr. Ackroyd, a widower, is found dead in his house, a dagger in his neck.

The suspects include many people: all of Ackroyd's servants, especially Parker, the butler; Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Roger's sister-in-law; Flora Ackroyd, Mrs. Ackroyd's daughter; Ralph Paton, Roger's stepson; and Hector Blunt, another one of Roger Ackroyd's friends and a big-game hunter. The evidence does not seem to point to anyone in particular, and almost everyone seems to have a motive, but no one the opportunity. Enter Hercule Poirot.

Poirot, Christie's most famous detective, comes out of retirement to inspect the case. He is a small Belgian who speaks French very often, and is confident in his skills. With Poirot on the case, some very astonishing things are found out.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is an excellent story that shows Christie's ingenuity at finding a good case and an even better investigation. The story has suspense, humor, and many quirky characters that make it a very good book that every mystery novel epicure would enjoy. Small wonder it made Christie a household name.

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Roger-Ackroyd-Christie-Collection/dp/1579126278/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221346239&sr=1-1

Grade: 9

Good, Very Good

2008-09-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Pop quiz! From what famous book series are these items: a dry martini, shaken, not stirred; a mysterious man named M.; a license to kill; and the immortal line, "My name is Bond, James Bond."

That's right, they are all from Ian Fleming's James Bond series, one of the most famous and imitated book series of all time. James Bond, British superspy, was created in Casino Royale, the movie of which was created in 2006.

Casino Royale is an excellent work of spy fiction. James Bond is the epitome of spies. He is cold, dark, and dangerous. Everything he does is carefully thought out. He is one of the most well-known characters in literature history for good reason. Fleming created an excellent, intelligent character in Casino Royale.

The book opens with James Bond at the Casino Royale in Royale-Les-Eaux, France. He is on an assignment for MI6, given to him because he is MI6's best gambler. Bond, armed with a double-O license to kill, has a very exciting mission.

At Casino Royale, Bond must play the international Russian criminal Le Chiffre in baccarat and win. Le Chiffre is running from the Russian government, with a lot of money from a Communist society he belongs to. He too goes to Casino Royale to make a lot more money.

Le Chiffre is the bank in a baccarat game, and James Bond must exhaust the bank. The game ends, and later that night, Le Chiffre and his henchmen kidnap Bond's beautiful assistant, Vesper Lynd. Bond goes after them, and meets up with Le Chiffre in the climax of the novel.

Fleming writes the book excellently. His portrayal of Bond as a superspy who is a master at his trade does not make him completely invincible, but it shows how tough he is. Every assistant of his, including the British Vesper Lynd, the French Rene Mathis, and the American Felix Leiter, are good characters, but they pale in comparison to Bond, James Bond. This is a very good book.

Note: While Casino Royale is very good, it has some mature material, and is not appropriate for younger readers.

http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Royale-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141187581/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221015124&sr=1-11

Grade: 8.5

The Man of Many Genres

2008-08-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Orson Scott Card is one of the most superior science fiction authors of our time. In one of his most recent novels, Empire, he disregards aliens and space shuttles to write about presidential assassinations and Al Qaeda actions. At first I was not sure whether Card should write political fiction as opposed to sticking with his science fiction bestsellers. It turns out, Card can write anything and surpass most authors easily.

Empire begins in a Middle Eastern village. A small team of Americans led by a Captain Reuben Malich are gaining trust to the civilians so that they can catch some people that the United States suspect to be Al Qaeda operatives.

The first chapter may be the weakest part in the book. Yet it too is very good. After Malich and the others get back from the Middle East, Malich gets his gold oak leaves, the insignia of Major in the United States Army.

Soon, Captain Bartholomew Coleman gets assigned to Major Malich. They are together when they see and almost prevent the assassination of the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The plot thickens when the readers discover that Malich's Special Operations job three months ago was to figure out a way to kill the President so that the White House could take necessary precautions against this event.

The precautions were not taken, Malich's plan was followed to the tee, and now Malich and Coleman know two things: one, there is a leak in the White House that would give the information to terrorists, and two, Malich is going to get a lot of bad publicity as the soldier that supposedly tried to save the President after figuring out how to kill him just a few months before.

The story goes on from there with new enemies to the government, more of Malich's friends, and plenty of intelligent writing and action. Card creates an excellent story that will soon become a video game by Chair Entertainment, and the film writes of which have been acquired by Warner Bros.

Card shows that he is an excellent novelist of every genre in Empire. It is a very, very good book. No political fiction collection is complete without Empire.

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Science-Fiction-Orson-Scott/dp/0765355221/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218846971&sr=8-3

Grade: 9

Mission: Accomplished

2008-08-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a busy year for Alex Rider.

Rider, protagonist of the best-selling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, is a fourteen-year-old superspy for England's intelligence agency, MI6. His adventures take him all over the world, from Cornwall, to the French Alps, to Venice.

The first book in the series, Stormbreaker, starts off with Alex Rider's uncle, Ian Rider, dying. He was orphaned as a young child and had been living with his uncle and an American student named Jack Starbright ever since. Alex learns that his uncle was not just a businessman. He was a very successful spy from MI6. And Alex learns that now they want him to take Ian's place. They send him to Cornwall, where he is to inspect the businessman Herod Sayle. Sayle is planning to give out free Stormbreaker computers to every school in England, and MI6 thinks he is a little too shady for comfort.

This first book in the series is an excellent beginning to one of my favorite series. Horowitz makes us feel suspenseful as we wonder what Alex's next move will be. It is an interesting story to which the recent movie does not do much justice. Stormbreaker is very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Stormbreaker-Rider-Adventure-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406112/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Grade: 8

The second book featuring Alex Rider, Point Blanc (or Point Blank in the United States), sends Alex on another adventure. MI6 wants Alex back. There are several murders that occur that the British spy agency thinks are related. One is of a billionaire named Michael Roscoe, and another is of billionaire Viktor Ivanov. Alex goes to Point Blanc Academy, high in the Alps in France, posing as the son of a billionaire. MI6 suspects the headmasters of Point Blanc as being related to the murders.

The second book in the series might be my favorite one. It is even better than its predecessor, combining plot twists, murder conspiracies, and heart-throbbing action to make an excellent story.

http://www.amazon.com/Stormbreaker-Rider-Adventure-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/014240165X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218576420&sr=1-2

Grade: 8.5

Alex Rider returns in Skeleton Key, the third novel in the Alex Rider series. Alex's help is required by the Secret Service again, but this time, America's. Alex goes to the United States to assist the CIA in a case involving Russian General Alexei Sarov, who is a Communist living on Cayo Esqueleto, or Skeleton Key. He is to meet up with the President of Russia in a few days, and the CIA thinks that foul play might occur. Because Sarov has a nuclear weapon.

This third book is tied with Point Blanc as my favorite in the series. Horowitz writes a thrilling story with plenty of action and surprises in stock for both Alex and the reader. Horowitz weaves an excellent web in this novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Skeleton-Alex-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406147/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218676422&sr=8-1

Grade: 8.5

Book 4 in the series is titled Eagle Strike, and is the first novel where Alex's services are not required by the CIA nor MI6. The superstar and philanthropist Damian Cray is one of the most famous and celebrated men in the world, but Alex thinks that this man may not be all that he seems. He knows that Cray has dealings with shady people, but MI6 does not believe his suspicions. Alex decides to use vigilante justice and reveal Cray's true identity for the world to see.

Eagle Strike, while not as good as its two predecessors, is very good. It has excellent scenes and people, along with stunning events and revelations. From the beginning on a French beach to the finale on Air Force One, Eagle Strike is a very good book.

http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Strike-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406139/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218676869&sr=1-2

Grade: 8

The fifth book in the series, Scorpia, again has Alex working for no one but himself. He is on vacation in Venice, when he decides to delve into the mysterious world of Scorpia, the criminal organization whose name stans for Sabotage, CORruPtion, Intelligence, and Assassination. He discovers that his late parents, who had died about the time Alex was born, had worked for Scorpia. Alex is torn between his urge to help MI6, who had lied and blackmailed him before to do what they wanted, or Scorpia, who had killed many, many people, just for money.

Scorpia is not the best Alex Rider book. It is good, but there are many far-fetched scenes. For example, Alex should not be able to fight and win many people who had been doing karate their whole lives, or follow a speedboat through the canals of Venice on foot, while there are crowds and crowds of people surrounding him. I would recommend this book, but it is not the same Alex Rider adventure as the previous four.

http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Strike-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406139/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218676869&sr=1-2

Grade: 7.5

The sixth of so far seven Alex Rider books published (and the last one I have read) is Ark Angel. Alex is in a very prestigious hospital, recovering from a sniper bullet that he received just above his heart, when kidnappers from the ecoterrorist group Force Three attempt to kidnap the patient next door to Alex. Alex prevents them from doing this, but gets kidnapped himself in the process. He escapes, and finds out that the patient next door was Paul Drevin, son of the multibillionaire Nikolei Drevin. Drevin is planning to build the first commercial hotel in outer space, Ark Angel. Drevin lets Alex stay with him for a couple of weeks in return for him saving Paul. Adventure abounds.

Ark Angel is much like Scorpia. There are some far-fetched scenes. But for the most part, it is very good. It is filled with double-crossings, action, and well-thought-out plans. If you can ignore the few ridiculous events, Ark Angel is very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Alex-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142407380/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218677835&sr=1-1

Grade: 8

Anthony Horowitz has definitely written an excellent series with Alex Rider. It is much like the James Bond series of books, the first book of which I will soon write a review for. Horowitz started strong with Stormbreaker, wrote excellently with Point Blanc, Skeleton Key, and Eagle Strike, fell down with Scorpia, but rose again with Ark Angel. (I have not read the seventh book, Snakehead, yet, but I hope I do soon. All in all, Horowitz has a Mission: Accomplished.

Baby, I Can Dig This Book

2008-08-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am not a horror reader. When I was in elementary school, I used to occasionally enjoy reading a scary story, but, to use a phrase very ironically, "nevermore." I assume it is for this reason that I have never gotten around to reading a single Stephen King book, even though he may be the most renowned author of our time.

Well, I have been missing out.

Just recently, I finished Stephen King's The Stand. It is an excellent book, that is not very scary, but is very powerful and well-written. The Stand is a post-apocalyptic story. The United States government creates a superflu with a 99.4% death rate. The virus leaks out into the country through a morbid mistake. Within a few weeks, only .6% of the world is still alive. In 1985, when the story takes place, that would leave almost 29,000 people in the whole world.

Among the survivors, of whom the story is obviously about, are the following important characters:

Larry Underwood, singer of the hit song "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?";

Harold Lauder, a teenager with impure thoughts;

Frannie Goldsmith, a pregnant unwed young woman;

Stuart Redman, a tough Texan who does what he can for others;

Glen Bateman, a retired sociology professor;

Nick Andros, an intelligent deafmute;

Lloyd Henreid, a convicted murderer from a Nevada prison.

These people and all the other survivors of the superflu are spread out across the United States. At night, though, they have strange dreams. One dream is of a very old black woman in Nebraska, the picture of goodness and purity. The other dream is of a very dark and evil man west of the Rockies. Every person is drawn to one of these two for their own reasons.

King writes the story excellently. It is not a quick read (800+ pages), so he can truly tell the story of every person and their quest to make a new life when all others have gone. Anyone who loves fiction or science fiction should read this excellent addition to writing.

Note: This book has two versions. I read the original version, although there is also an uncut version of the story that I have not read. Also, younger readers should wait to read this, as it has a lot of mature content.

Original Version:
http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Modern-Classics-Stephen-King/dp/0517219018/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217964325&sr=8-1

Uncut and Expanded Version:
http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Expanded-First-Complete-Signet/dp/0451169530/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217964325&sr=8-2

Grade: 9

A Well-Rounded Pi

2008-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

After reading 20 pages of Yann Martel's Life of Pi, I was not enthusiastic at all about reading it. It was a very weird book about a kid named Piscine living in India who just talked about random things.

But I am so glad I stuck with it.

Life of Pi is an excellent book. It is much like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but much, much better. The first half of the book is devoted to Piscine explaining himself. He is an Indian teenager. His father is a zookeeper. Piscine Molitor Patel was born and raised a Hindu, but adopted Christian and Muslim beliefs in addition to his Hindu faith. Piscine was teased by the other schoolkids because of a word his name sounded like, so he gave himself the nickname "Pi", and it stuck.

Near the middle of the book, Piscine's family gets fed up with Indira Gandhi and the Indian government, so they decide to sell all of their animals and move to Toronto. The second half of the book is the main storyline. While in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a great storm arises. Piscine is the sole survivor. The bad news is that now Piscine is in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a Bengal tiger.

Life of Pi is very introspective. I personally loved it, but most of my friends did not. The book has little or no action at all, and can be very boring to any reader that thrives on adrenaline. A good 200 pages is just Piscine talking about himself and his interests (while foreshadowing events from the second half of the book), so that may bore many people.

All in all, I implore any patient reader to get Life of Pi. It is definitely worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156030209/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215633260&sr=1-1

Grade: 8.5

This Is What I'm Talking About

2008-06-02T09:29:00.001-07:00

Rick Riordan has gone up and down on the scales with his books. The Lightning Thief was a good book, that I gave an 8 out of 10. The Sea of Monsters was terrible, and it earned a 3.5 out of 10. The Titan's Curse was not bad, but it was not the best, so I gave it a 7 out of 10.

I was not even going to read Book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Battle of the Labyrinth. The second two were not good enough to make me want to come back. I was over with the series.

Lucky for me, my friend convinced me to read it by saying it was the best of the four and had a lot of action. My inner bibliophage instincts told me I coul not resist reading it, and I was sold. And thank goodness for that.

The Battle of the Labyrinth starts out with Percy at high school orientation. Soon enough, just like every other year, he gets himself into trouble. He and his friend get attacked by empousai, monsters from Greek mythology. The school gets set on fire, all Hades breaks loose, and Percy and his friend escape through the window before the principal catches them. That is pretty much what happens to Percy in every book.

But the story quickly changes. Percy and his demigod friend Annabeth (a demigod is a half-Greek god, half-human) go to Camp Half-Blood (a half-blood is another name for a demigod). Camp is different: for one, their satyr friend Grover is in trouble; for two, the head counselor Dionysus is gone; and for three, Kronos's army is about to attack the camp.

Percy and some of his friends soon embark on a quest to stop Kronos from taking over the camp and the Greek gods. If he wins, the Titans will rule again. But Percy must go into the very depths of danger...into the Labyrinth.

Riordan does try for humor, but not as often as with his other books, which makes The Battle of the Labyrinth the best one of the four, humor-wise. I do like humor in books, but, to put it mildly, Riordan is not funny. The jokes are dumb. But in this book, the "humor" is deficit. I applaud Mr. Riordan for that.

The plot is also worthwhile and enticing. While The Sea of Monsters has a plot that is not great, The Battle of the Labyrinth has suspense, escapes, and plot twists that make for a good story.

Riordan has suffered terribly with his second and third books in the series, but the fourth try reminds me of the first. It is so good it is worthy to be in the same series as The Lightning Thief. This is what I'm talking about!

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Labyrinth-Percy-Jackson-Olympians/dp/1423101464/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1

Grade: 8

Something Average This Way Comes

2008-05-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Ray Bradbury has proved himself to be a great author before in The Martian Chronicles. That novel had suspense, mystery, twists, and even a little horror. It was a really good book.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, though, does not live up to that high standard.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good book. But my expectations of Bradbury were a little bit higher after reading The Martian Chronicles. I liked the book, but not as much as I wanted to.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is about two boys: Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway. Jim is impulsive and can't wait to be older. Will is more practical and hesitant. They are inseparable, and the best friends in the world. Enter the carnival.

Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, as can be guessed from the title, is a very evil and subfusc group of people. They appear normal, but strange things happen at night. Will and Jim have to fight hard to stay friends...and to stay alive.

The novel has quite a bit of horror. Darkness is everywhere at the carnival. It makes for a chilling piece, if not terribly scary.

Maybe the best part of the novel is Bradbury's style. His writing is so unconventional and different from the norm that it is perfect for the book. He makes Jim and Will truly seem like one person. The writing alone is enough for me to recommend this book to someone.

Bradbury scores another home run with this novel. If only it were a grand slam.

http://www.amazon.com/Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes/dp/0380977273/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210980737&sr=8-2

Grade: 7.5

What Matters?

2008-04-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

I am not a big fan of historical fiction books, and definitely not a fan of historical nonfiction. I just thought I'd say that right now, just to let you know that I have nothing against the book that I'm reviewing, just the genre.

In fact, Ann Rinaldi's The Secret of Sarah Revere is pretty good, considering its genre. But a beautiful rat is a rat nonetheless.

The book revolves mainly around Sarah Revere, daughter of the legendary Paul. Sarah constantly asks herself, "What matters? What's true? Or what people think?" This is one of the main themes of the book. That's where it is better than a normal nonfiction book, or even some historical fiction books. The characters seem dead, as in a history book. In Sarah Revere, however, this is not the case. The characters are as lively and sentient as most books.

Sarah lives in a world full of strife. Her mother, of whom she is named after, died years before. British soldiers are constantly terrorizing the colonists living in Boston, Massachusetts. Suspicious acts revolve around her stepmother Rachel and a family friend, Dr. Joseph Warren. The many brothers and sisters (Debby, Paul Junior, Mary, Frances, and Elizabeth were the ones who didn't die at birth) all have their own problems and fears and lives. Sarah struggles to survive emotionally through all this.

The story can get to be kind of confusing at times, and a little boring in other places, but for the most part, it works. The book, though historical fiction, is a decent story. I would recommend this for people who like historical fiction or that time period (American Revolution times), but would be very hesitant to do that for anyone else. So I ask myself: What matters? What's true? Or what people think? And for books, it's what people think.

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Sarah-Revere-Ann-Rinaldi/dp/0152046844/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208555276&sr=8-1

Grade: 6.5

Parallax to More Than the Plot

2008-04-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Orson Scott Card, as you know if you have read my previous reviews, is my favorite author. He wrote Ender's Game, one of my favorite books (see post "Ender Scores" and "My Favorites"). There have been three sequels to that book as of yet, one forthcoming sequel, six short stories that take place in the universe, one other novel that takes place at the same time as Ender's Game, and one short story collection about the Ender universe. In addition to all these, there is a parallel series, the Shadow saga, the first of which is Ender's Shadow (as Card calls it in his foreword to Ender's Shadow, a parallax).

And just like its parallel, Ender's Shadow rocks.

The book opens on the streets of Rotterdam, in what used to be called the Netherlands, but what is now International Territory. A four-year-old (who is the size of a two-year-old) is sitting by himself, homeless. He scavenges for food sometimes, but usually just watches the other homeless kids, inspecting their hierarchy. He is incredibly smart. Soon enough, he has the whole order of Rotterdam inverted and mixed up. A recruiter for the International Fleet takes the kid to Battle School, where Ender Wiggin (the protagonist of Ender's Game) is a student. The kid is Bean, one of Ender's friends in Ender's Game.

As expected by his intelligence and his incredible entry test scores, Bean thrives in the school. He advances quickly, and has many adventures (and misadventures) in Battle School.

Card doesn't write with humor per se, but with his incredible wit and intelligence that made me fall in love with Ender's Game. The amazing story, incredible characters, and the superb writing combine to form an amazing piece that anyone could enjoy.

When writing a parallel novel, a writer could easily fall into the trap of making events that don't go with the book it is parallel to. Card, though, successfully makes it so that nothing contradicts anything in Ender's Game, and so that there is enough different to make it not just another interpretation of Ender's Game. It seems like a completely different book that just takes place at the same time and place. Many characters are cast in completely different lights. Many events are interpreted completely differently by the two characters. And most importantly, even though both Bean and Ender are cognitively incredible, they think differently enough to make both books worth reading.

After reading this, I feel Ender's Shadow is a parallax to more than the plot of Ender's Game. It also parallels the excellence. I can hardly wait to read the other Shadow saga books. Thank you, Orson Scott Card.

http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Shadow-Ender-Book/dp/0765342405/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

Grade: 9.5

A Great Return

2008-03-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

You may have seen my previous reviews for Rick Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians (see "Riordan Makes it Work" and "Ridiculous"). If you haven't, then here's a summary: The Lightning Thief I liked. It was a good idea, and the author delivered it pretty well. The Sea of Monsters, though, was not good at all. The jokes were ridiculous, and it stunk.

But Riordan made a successful comeback with the third book in the series, The Titan's Curse. It wasn't perfect, but compared with his last try, it was worthy of Zeus.

The Titan's Curse opens with Percy Jackson going to a military school with some companions of his. They heard that there is a new half-blood or two there, waiting to be brought to Camp Half-Blood. (A half-blood is a child of both a human and a Greek god, and Camp Half-Blood is their summer camp.) Soon enough, both members of Camp Half-Blood and some Hunters of the godess Artemis are on a search and rescue team to find half-blood Annabeth and Artemis, both of whom have been captured by the titan Kronos.

Riordan is definitely not my favorite writer. (As a side note, that would be Orson Scott Card and J. R. R. Tolkien.) He cannot write particularly well, and he can be borderline offensive in some cases. But The Titan's Curse was really good for his standards. Some of the jokes were actually kind of funny. The story was pretty good and pretty well developed. The characters were plenty and had their own personalities. I wouldn't recommend it per se, but it was definitely better than its predecessor.

Riordan made a great return with his third book in the series. Hopefully the fourth will follow in its footsteps.

http://www.amazon.com/Titans-Curse-Percy-Jackson-Olympians/dp/1423101456/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206984644&sr=1-2

Grade: 7

Time Rages Not

2008-03-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

When writing a book that takes place 50 years in the future, there is a large element of danger and a small margin of error. If it is read when the setting takes place and it is too far away from reality, it becomes history (literally and figuratively). If one were to read a book that takes place in modern-day but has too many differences from modern culture, it's a joke. Some authors can make it work. But there are not too many people who could make it near perfect.

Enter Ray Bradbury.

The Martian Chronicles, the second book by one of science fiction's most renowned authors, is one of those that work. True, there are a few instances where a 1950s writer can mess up in foretelling the 2000s. A modern-day rocket cannot fit as many people as it did in the book (at least to my knowledge). And there is one chapter which, if it were to take place today, might cause a small uproar. But there are not too many of these instances, and it's not like Back to the Future Part II, where there are already flying cars and 3-D posters in 2015.

The book takes place from 1999 to 2026, mostly on the planet Mars. People seeking new lives, astronauts, and murderers alike come to Mars looking for adventure. The Martians don't take it all that well, but, as one character near the beginning of the book says, since when has humanity cared about anyone but itself?

The book provides suspense, terror, philosophy, and adventure alike for anyone who reads it. Even though it is 50 years old and takes place today, there are only minor inconsistencies. Bradbury successfully tells a tale using several short stories, each from a different person's perspective, to create a whole novel. Anyone interested in science fiction should add this to their collection because, as Ray Bradbury can prove, time rages not when you're talking books.

http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Chronicles-Grand-Master-Editions/dp/0553278223/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206463171&sr=8-2

Grade: 8.5

A Seventh Son's Saga

2008-03-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

Orson Scott Card is an excellent author, as I said in a previous blog (see "Ender Scores"). He has written many books, most renowned of which are the Ender Saga books (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). Card has proved his skills again in Seventh Son, the first book in The Tales of Alvin Maker.

The story begins with Alvin Miller's family crossing the Hatrack River. It is a raging current, and the mother is about to go into labor. It is very important that they get to safe ground. If the child is born, he will be seventh son of a seventh son, said to have certain qualities, or hidden powers, that separate them from everyone else.

Years later, Alvin Junior is a young kid, growing up with his parents, brothers and sisters, and a new church being built that Alvin Senior and his wife disagree on. The father is not much of a Christian, but the mother would rather die than be a heretic. There are many characters that have different sides in the church, and others with no sides at all.

The story is very interesting and intriguing, and has many thought-provoking lines. The characters are very interesting, and if the story has a fault, it is that it ends all too quickly. With only 200-odd pages, I feel I could go on for another several-hundred more. But I guess that's what the six sequels are for, including the one that has yet to be released.

I hope to get my hands on the second in the saga of a seventh son of a seventh son soon, for Orson Scott Card has proved again just how good of a writer he is.

http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Son-Tales-Alvin-Maker/dp/076534775X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204931910&sr=1-1

Grade: 8.5

Never Thought I'd See the Day

2008-03-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

I love to read books, as it is obvious from my previous entries and the whole subject of this blog. And there are almost no books that I would quit reading in the middle because of their worthlessness.

Notice the word "almost." That wouldn't be there before I started Donita K. Paul's DragonSpell.

The book was so terrible that I stopped reading it in the middle of the book. The story isn't very good, the author is not a good writer, and the only appealing part of the book is the front cover.

The story is about a girl named Kale, who finds a dragon egg and is sent to the center of the country she lives in. She has to deliver the dragon egg and figure out what to do with it. But she gets sidetracked from her quest, and then is told by people from the center to not go there. It is not bad yet, but read on.

There are so many characters and weird words that it gets confusing to the point of ridiculous. What is an o'rant? Who is Paladin? What are the seven low races, and what is their difference from the seven high races? What in Wulder's name (by the way, who is he?) happened to the people that were sent to help Kale but were lost on the quest, or were they even lost?

Is this confusing to you? If your answer is yes, don't read the book. It is full of several characters with weird names and weird roles, characters who disappear and never show up, and weird species (o'rants, emerlindians, mariones, grawligs, etc.) And Donita K. Paul cannot write. It is like reading a novel by a teenager who thinks she can be like Tolkien or Shannara author Terry Brooks. Most good authors can do good descriptions. Paul thinks she can, and tries to, but can't. She describes a cup of tea at one point of the story, and it is ridiculously boring.

One of the things I despise in most books is when one author tries to copy another. Reading DragonSpell is like reading Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, but worse. Most of the themes are the same. A mind-link with dragons. Dragons cannot be owned, only befriended. Try to block your mind so others can't read it. You almost expect to have Saphira, the dragon from Paolini's novels, appear. It is like a terrible rendition of the Inheritance Cycle. Don't get me wrong, Paolini is a great author, and his stories are really good. Not so for Paul.

I never thought I'd see the day where I would actually quit reading a book in the middle. But after reading a boring 100 pages of DragonSpell, I couldn't stand 200 more. I'm sorry, Donita K. Paul, but you can't write.

Grade: 2

Death: A Comparison

2008-02-29T13:50:00.001-08:00

There are many, many, many books that have been written that include death as one of the events, topics, or even themes. Not all writers, though, portray death as the same thing. This blog entry will be devoted to studying death in books, and how it is portrayed.

Most books view death as a very, very sad beast that claims the lives of innocent souls. This is how most people view death in real life, too. There are many scenes in books where the hero or heroine dies, and people crowd around his or her corpse, as tears drip off their noses to the body before them. There are many scenes where people are sitting around silently, thinking of the dead one's life, and their legacy. Death as a beast, a sad, sad, creature, is very common.

Other books, such as the Harry Potter series, view death as not the worst thing that can happen. Some characters do not realize that there are much worse things than death, and that is what brings them down. Others do believe this, and it makes them much stronger. Books such as these think that moral values should be more important than whether you live or die.

Like that theme is the theme that books such as The Bible and parallel stories use. Jesus died for the sins of the world. By laying down his life, others could live. This is repeated in many other books, of which I will not write their names for fear of spoiling the end. Death is necessary, in some novels, for lives to be saved.

The character Peter Pan, who was appeared in many stories throughout the years, has a different take on death. "Death would be a great adventure," he says. Death in Peter Pan's perspective is just part of the fun of life (oxymoronic, I know). This view of death is not offensive, because Peter Pan is all fun and adventure, and he thinks death would be a great addition to his repertoire of adventures.

But one series that is very offensive and annoying is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I have previously commented on the first two novels of this series (see "Riordan Makes it Work" and "Ridiculous"). Death is a joke. At the summer camp Percy goes to, he is warned to do what the camp director says or he'll be eaten by harpies. If he's late in leaving, he'll be killed. In the camp's training, he could die by lava. No one actually does die by these causes, but the mere suggestion of it I find offensive and grotesque. I cannot believe an author would actually make the good guys be so bad as to kill their companions, and even worse, the children they are supposed to look after. It slaps death in the face. And anyone who has ever known someone that died knows that it is not something to be mentioned jokingly.

Death is viewed differently in different books: monstrous, bad but not terrible, necessary, an adventure, or a joke. Some work, others don't. But an author that successfully makes their idea work, as long as it is not too offensive, is a great author indeed.

Two Months, Three Weeks, and One Day

2008-02-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

That's the time it took me to read what is for good reason one of the best-selling series of all - Harry Potter.

I started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on December 3, 2007. Yesterday, on February 25, 2008, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

J. K. Rowling is one of the richest women in Great Britain (if not the richest), and for good reason. Her books are written with a good mix of literary elements, from humor to action to suspense. The plots are very enthralling and have little, if any, weak spots that would bring the series down.

There is and has been much controversy over the Harry Potter series. Many schools have banned the series, and many families do not allow their children to read the books. After reading the series, I believe that there is not as much sorcery and witchcraft as the name of the school suggests (Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry), but it is still a safe choice for parents to not allow their children to read it, especially because this very day I read a quote by a Potter fan saying she sometimes wished she was a witch.

The first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is Harry's first year at Hogwarts. He is confronted with the facts on his lineage as the son of magical people, and brought into the wizarding world.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has Harry returning to Hogwarts to much fear. It seems the legend of the mysterious Chamber of Secrets and the Heir of Slytherin may be true.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is Harry's third year at Hogwarts. The dangerous criminal Sirius Black has escaped from prison and is heading for Hogwarts. Harry may have something to do with it.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the wizarding event known as the Triwizard Tournament will take place for the first time in years, a tournament between Hogwarts and two other wizarding schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Through different challenges the competitors must go to claim the title of Triwizard Champion.

In the series's longest novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the good guys are beginning to fight against the forces of evil by recreating the Order of the Phoenix, an anti-Dark Lord group.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince may be my personal favorite of the series. Harry returns for his sixth year at Hogwarts. Strange things are happening, and some people have already died over the summer. Harry gets help in his classes by the mysterious Half-Blood Prince, an anonymous wizard.

And the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I do not want to give away any of the last book's plot, but it is also one of the best in the series, filled with action and adventure.

The Harry Potter novels will for years to come be a much-loved book series by youngsters and adults alike. Filled with characters that are both helps and hinderances, lovable and hated, and traitors and friends alike, the series has heart and humor, action and adventure, mystery and suspense. And whether or not they can read the series in two months, three weeks, and one day, I hope many other readers for years to come can enjoy the spell cast by Harry and his friends.

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Boxset-Books-1-7/dp/0545044251/ref=pd_bbs_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204088378&sr=8-6

Grade: 8.5

Ridiculous

2008-02-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

When reading Rick Riordan's The Sea of Monsters, one word that comes to mind is "ridiculous."

The first novel in Percy Jackson of the Olympians, The Lightning Thief, was a promising start to the series. Its humor was good enough, and the story was good (see previous blog, "Riordan Makes it Work").

Not so the second.

Here's an example from the book of the characters' logic: Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Tyson are in the woods. Annabeth tells Tyson to go find donuts just so he'll get out of the way. In under five minutes, Tyson returns with a box of donuts. Instead of congratulating Tyson on his find, or even eating the pastries, Annabeth gets scared and realizes that the Hydra is near. Because everybody knows that every time a Hydra's head gets cut off, another donut shop pops up somewhere. Duh.

The jokes Rick Riordan thinks are funny are not. Whereas the first book had some good lines and an interesting plot, the second has no lines even remotely amusing, unless you have the sense of humor of a four-year-old. The main idea is fine, but it does not live up to The Lightning Thief in the least.

Percy's summer home he shares with his other half-blood friends, Camp Half-Blood, is falling. The magical borders are dying. Someone has to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back in order to save the camp. Meanwhile, Percy has to save Grover from the Cyclops Polyphemus. Not a terrible idea, but the delivery stinks like Pegasus dung.

This book could've been a lot better. It could have been a really good book, but Riordan fails to make it enticing. The series just took a dreadful dip to Tartarus. And not even Percy can save it.

Grade: 3.5

Ender Scores

2008-02-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

There are not many books that truly excite a person, seduce them into a series, captivate their interest, make them crave for more. There is an even smaller number of authors who are able to put this spell upon a person.

Orson Scott Card can.

In Card's novel Ender's Game, a futuristic science fiction novel, a young boy is forced to go to a battle school in outer space. His older brother Peter was too violent to be given this honor, and his older sister Valentine was too soft. They were both close, but no cigar. So the government allowed Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin to have another kid. That's where Ender comes in.

The idea of a two-kid limit is a theme used in many books, including Lois Lowry's The Giver and Margaret Peterson Haddix's Shadow Children series, both of which were published after Ender's Game. Yet this book does not focus on that idea too much, and thus makes it very original.

So Ender is sent to Battle School with the warning that he might never see his parents again until he is an adult. But six-year-old Ender goes with many other boys, to learn how to fight, and more importantly, to win, against the alien buggers, who are coming back for another war, even bigger than the last.

The book does not portray Ender as a superhuman, mindless fighting machine, nor as an over-emotional wimp. It has very realistic characters, an exciting plot, and is filled with action and thought-provoking lines. It has spawned several sequels (the first of which is Speaker for the Dead) and parallel novels (including Ender's Shadow). In my opinion, it is one of the best books ever written. Orson Scott Card has joined the ranks of the authors who can weave the spell of captivation. Keep writing, Mr. Card, and I will keep reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0765342294/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203115439&sr=1-1

Grade: 9.5

Riordan Made it Work

2008-02-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Rick Riordan had a good idea when he decided to write the first book in his series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." The Lightning Thief mixes humor, adventure, and mythology to create a pretty good book.

The story starts with Percy Jackson, a failing student at Yancy Academy in New York, on a field trip with his class to a museum. There, he gets lost and ends up alone with his math teacher, Mrs. Dodds. Instead of being the friendly teacher, she tries to kill him, but Percy gets saved by his Latin teacher. Starnge, huh? But the odd thing is that no one has any recollection of ever having a math teacher named Mrs. Dodds.

Percy goes home, and gets taken by his mom and his friend Grover to a place called Camp Half-Blood. They reveal the shocking truth about his true parentage: his father was a god.

Using knowledge of Ancient Greece and the gods, along with a prophecy and an enticing plot, Riordan made the story good for anyone up to the age of 15. The humor can sometimes be over the top, but is also a good help to the story.

This could have went dreadfully wrong, if the jokes were too dumb, or the allusions to mythology were too few (or too much) or too unrealistic. But this is a good read for mythology and adventure lovers alike.

http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Thief-Percy-Jackson-Olympians/dp/0786838655/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203116540&sr=1-1

Grade: 8

My Favorites

2008-02-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

These are my favorite books:

Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game
Card, Orson Scott - Speaker for the Dead
Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Shadow
Card, Orson Scott - Empire
Christie, Agatha - And Then There Were None
King, Stephen - The Stand
Paolini, Christopher - Eragon
Paolini, Christopher - Eldest
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Snicket, Lemony - The Bad Beginning
Snicket, Lemony - The Reptile Room
Snicket, Lemony - The Wide Window
Snicket, Lemony - The Miserable Mill
Snicket, Lemony - The Austere Academy
Snicket, Lemony - The Ersatz Elevator
Snicket, Lemony - The Vile Village
Snicket, Lemony - The Hostile Hospital
Snicket, Lemony - The Carnivorous Carnival
Snicket, Lemony - The Slippery Slope
Snicket, Lemony - The Grim Grotto
Snicket, Lemony - The Penultimate Peril
Snicket, Lemony - The End
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Hobbit
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Two Towers
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Return of the King

Introduction

2008-02-09T09:28:00.001-08:00

bib - li - o - phage [bib-lee-uh-feyj] - noun

an ardent reader; a bookworm

Most people have an obsession. Maybe it's coffee. Maybe it's football. Maybe it's music.

Mine is books.

Ever since the age of two and a half, I have felt an urge to read. Nothing would satisfy that urge but books. At two and a half years old, my life changed. I entered the world of reading.

My repertoire of books read include the Lord of the Rings trilogy (in fourth grade), the first six Harry Potter books (read within two months and one week), and A Series of Unfortunate Events (the first of which I have read no less than six times, including once or twice in Spanish).

I have come to share that love of reading with the world, and write book reviews for some of the best -- and worst -- books you can read. Every blog will emphasize a different book, be it old or new, long or short, happy or sad.

I am the bibliophage.