Book Report: The Chalk Circle Man.

When my eyes finally started to get back to normal instead of showing me two of everything, my sweet mother went to the library to get me some reading material. This was back when I couldn't really walk yet. She picked me up a couple Harry Potters and then headed over to the mystery aisle where she dug around for something that looked good. There was a man in the aisle and he suggested trying something by Fred Vargas so my mom took his advice. She checked out The Chalk Circle Man which is the first novel in the Commissaire Adamsberg series.

Vargas is a top selling French author so you kind of have to pay extra attention when reading as the locations are in French, due to the books being set in France. I really enjoyed this first book and so far have read about half of the series. I think there are 6 books but I'm not sure since every time I google it, all of the articles are in French, which I don't speak or read.

The books center around Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, a detective in Paris who is a little shabby, a little flaky, and completely brilliant. In fact, all of her (Fred Vargas is a woman) characters are quirky and interesting. To be honest, the murder in the first novel didn't happen until after at least 50 pages, but it's the characters that won't let you just set the book aside and decide not to read it. They're all so strange and yet the way they're written is very charming. Vargas is a historian so you also learn a lot of interesting things about the history of France as you read.

I also like that (so far) the crimes in the novels aren't described in a gruesome or creepy way. Sure, some of them aren't particularly nice, but it's not like an episode of some of those cop shows that leave you with nightmares later on. She describes these misdeeds in a way that gets to you, but doesn't leave you wanting to scrub your eyes with bleach.

In this first novel, someone is going around Paris drawing chalk circles on the ground and leaving strange objects in them, such as trombones, dead birds, and other random items. Everyone thinks it's a prank, until one night, they discover a body inside a circle. dun dun dun

If you're into a fairly quick, enjoyable, and different type of mystery, I'd definitely recommend these books, for the characters if nothing else.

Ender's Game.

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Ender's Game is one of those books that I've heard people say is amazing for just about as long as I can remember but I never picked it up until now. The main reason I never tried it out is because for a long time I had some type of prejudice toward science fiction. I had tried a couple of sci-fi novels and found that they really irritated me. I have come to realize that it wasn't the sci-fi that I found irritating but the overuse of detail in those particular novels. Some people love knowing every single detail, I don't. I don't need 700 meaningless characters with similar weird names I'll never remember. The only problem was that the author would make it so I needed to remember which character was which in order to know what was going on. So frustrating.

Synopsis, straight from the back of the book:

"Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked the Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses--and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games.'...Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?" -The New York Times

I'm just going to say it right out, I loved this book. I stayed up later than I should have to read it all in one sitting. Ender is a very young boy who was bred by the government when his siblings showed promise but didn't have the right personality characteristics to be the one to save Earth. At a very young age he is taken from his family and put into a school for geniuses where they play games in a zero gravity room, trying to outwit their opponents. The world created by the author is fascinating and I'm sad that I can't play the game in real life. It sounds really fun. I think one of my favorite things about the book is how everyone is manipulating each other. The government is manipulating Ender and Ender knows it. Ender's siblings are manipulating the masses and world leaders. I will tell you right now, the part that should be the climax ends up being a little anti-climactic but I sort of liked it that way and I especially loved the last couple of chapters. I can't wait to read some of the other Ender books.

Holy crap, they're coming out with a movie with an awesome cast. Hopefully it turns out well, it should be interesting to see how they translate this into a motion picture. 

Song of the Lioness Series.

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When I was young I loved the Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce. The other day I was at Barnes & Noble getting a book for my friend when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. I know my younger cousin Zoe is a bookworm just like I am and I thought she might like them too so I bought her the first in the series, Alanna The First Adventure. The books follow the story of Alanna of Trebond, a young noble, who at the age of 10 is being sent to the convent to learn to be a proper lady. Eventually she'll go to court and marry another noble. Alanna wants none of this and decides to switch places with her twin brother who is going to the castle of the king to learn to be a knight. They forge their father's signature and Alanna goes to the city disguised as a boy to learn to be a knight, while her brother Thom goes off to become a sorcerer. These books are filled with knights and kings, magic (not the Harry Potter kind so much), adventure, friendship, and destiny. A young girl shows her determination and learns to believe in herself.

This was the first fantasy series I ever read and it's fabulous. Since I bought the first one for Zoe I decided to read it again really quickly before I sent it off. This led me to getting a library card here in Utah so I could check out the other 3 books. That led me to checking out the series that comes after Alanna which follows a young girl named Daine who possesses wild magic.

Isn't the cover hilariously awesome? The book was originally published in 1983, plus most fantasy novels have terrible covers.

A note to my sister: these books take no more than a few hours to read so they'd be great for baby napping times.

Whimsical Art.

I saw this image and I absolutely love it. In fact, I love pretty much all of the art in this shop. Her style is adorable.

That print reminded me of a book I read awhile ago and have passed along to my sister. It definitely isn't the greatest book I've ever read but Hector and the Search for Happiness was cute. Hector is a psychiatrist from France (the author is apparently also a psychiatrist) who is wondering what makes people happy. In his search he travels the world, finding questions and some answers. He has a one night stand with a call girl, he gets accidentally kidnapped, and he has other misadventures on his search. This is a little book, it only takes a couple hours to read, great for a wait at the doctor's office or if any of you are subjecting yourself to the TSA, for a flight. The thing about it though is that it's written in a childlike prose which can get a little annoying after awhile, and Hector is pretty naive, so it's good that the book isn't long. If it were longer, it'd stop being charming and start being really annoying. Overall, it's like a self help book on the lite side.

The Hunger Games!

So I've recently read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Hello, AWESOME! Supposedly they're young adult novels but whatever, they were kick ass. I would definitely say that if you're looking for a quick but completely engrossing read that you should pick these up. The final book just came out yesterday. Anyway, so The Hunger Games are these games devised by the Capitol, who is in power after a huge war in North America, to keep the remaining 12 districts in line. Basically, it's just another one of their devices to maintain their level of oppression. So, each of the 12 districts must send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to the hunger games, which is a fight to the death in a booby trapped arena where there can be only one victor. A drawing chooses the children who will go. Every child's name is put into the drawing, more slips are put in the older you are. It's completely fucked up but the actual novels are less bloodthirsty than they sound. There's love, friendship, rebellion, etc. 

These books can be read in less than a day each. I know when I picked up the first one I just had to read to the end. There was no way I was going to be able to take breaks from it. 

Villa Incognito.

Another great book I've recently read is Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins. It's Robbins eighth book but the first that I have read. It was awesome. I found it to be funny, interesting, and difficult. There are several stories going on that can be loosely tied together. The first is of the mythical Tanuki who is a badger like creature with a giant scrotum. He's an alcoholic party boy who likes to wreak a little havoc on the world. Another story is that of three MIAs who choose to remain "lost" in Laos after the end of the Vietnam War. These three engage in intellectually stimulating conversations. In fact, the whole book is filled with political and philosophical ideas that you can spend lots of time pondering if you so choose or you could kind of just skip over them and remain in the story of the the tanukis and the Vietnam guys. It's your choice. I really liked this book, it was fun, hilarious and thought provoking. 

The Last Days of Dogtown.

I recently read The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. So I don't really know how to describe this book. It's historical fiction set in early 1800s Massachusetts in a very poor, dying town. I didn't dislike it at all but I didn't really love it either. I read it one day when I was bored and enjoyed it, but not immensely. It's the kind of book that was fine to pass the time but I won't remember it in the future. Some reviews have touted it as a great character study. She does do a great job with her characters and I did end up wanting to know the outcome of the main character but it was kind of a depressing book. I've never read the author's other, more popular work The Red Tent which got stellar reviews. So maybe you should try that instead. 

A Trip to the Stars.

A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher is one of the best books I have read in a really long time. This is the kind of book I couldn't put down but didn't want to read too quickly because I didn't want it to end. It follows the journey of Loren who is abducted at the age of 10 from a New York Planetarium and whisked away to a new world in Las Vegas where he lives in a building full of people searching for lost things. Loren was an orphan twice over and under the care of his 20 year old Aunt, Alma, when he was taken. This event alters the trajectory of her life. Once a dedicated Classics major she now traverses the globe searching and trying to change her past. 

This book is magical. It's filled with imagination, folklore, some of the most interesting characters I have come across in awhile, and astrology. The author takes a nice mellow tone as he alternates you through the lives of Loren and Alma and all of the wonderful discoveries and heartbreak they encounter over the next 15 years of their lives. 

If I could, I would shove this book into your hands that's how absolutely wonderful it is. I came away feeling like I had just read an amazing story and learned a lot in the process. Please read it if you're in need of a book. 

More Twilight Shit.

So my sister just text me "51 minutes!" referring to when the new Twilight movie comes out. I think I'm going to vomit. The fact that I'm related to someone who is watching that shit on opening night makes me physically sick. So, Buzzy brought me The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner which is the Twilight saga's latest money and hype making scheme. I tried to read it so I could make fun of it on my blog. I eventually succeeded but it took almost a week. The book is only 178 pages at about the 2nd grade reading level so that is pretty pathetic. It was awful. It was a hell of a lot worse than the original Twilight books. It reeks of, "Hey crazy Mormon chick, please pull a book out of your ass in the next week so we can publish it and make tons of money before the next movie comes out, k thanks!" The only part that was readable was the end which had basically been copied from one of the other books. This was one of the worst books I've read, ever. Ugh, I'm disowning my sister. 

Jeffery Deaver.

Have you ever seen the movie The Bone Collector with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie? Well, like many movies, it started out as a book. This particular book was written by Jeffery Deaver. There are many subsequent books featuring the characters Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs. My mom subscribes to some crazy mail order book club thing and she needed to order one more book so I ended up getting The Burning Wire as a birthday gift. I've never been much of a mystery reader and I doubt I'd be very into it if I read them continuously but he only writes one Lincoln Rhyme novel every other year which is a pace I can deal with. The stories are fairly quick paced I like the characters, Rhyme is a genius forensic scientist who solves crimes from his wheelchair as he is paralyzed. Sachs is his sidekick/love interest who isn't too shabby herself in the brains department. Anyway, for a nice easy read I would definitely check out some of Deaver's work. Oh, p.s. they're not scary mysteries. 

Bukowski

Sometimes a simple gift given without too much thought turns into a cherished possession. For my ex's birthday a few years ago I presented him with my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. A few months later on my day I was given the two expansions to World of Warcraft and his favorite book, Ham on Rye. I had never heard of the author Charles Bukowski before but as it was my then boyfriend's favorite book I was eager to jump in and see if he had poor taste in authors. I got my iced tea, went to my porch and started reading. As it turned out, he didn't. I immediately fell in love with Bukowski's sentences, his words; they're beautiful. A lot of people may not like his subject matter of alcohol, women and how work is debilitating but you can't deny that he is brilliant. Ham on Rye is about the childhood of Henry Chinaski who you can follow into adult hood in Bukowski's other books. 

I'm not big on poetry. Most of it annoys the shit out of me but Bukowski has some pretty awesome stuff. Check out Betting on the Muse, it's a collections of poems and short stories. 

My Abandonment.

Guess what I did today. That's right, read another book. This particular book was My Abandonment by Peter Rock. It's not a true story but the idea came to him from one. He saw a brief article in the Oregonian about a 53 year old man and his 13 year old daughter found living in Forest Park, which is a huge nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. The girl tested above where she was supposed to be for her age level on all of the tests the state gave her as her dad had been "homeschooling" her in the park. There were then two brief updates about the two in the newspaper. Rock took these brief little clips and flushed them out into a very engrossing book. 

It was a quick read, perfect for a flight as it only took me a couple hours to finish. It's told from the viewpoint of the young girl, Caroline. The first 3/4 of the book was completely engrossing but somewhere near the end it started to get weird and I felt like the author was losing me. Also, I'm not really sure he was particularly successful in making me feel like it was a young girl telling the story, the narration was great, but not necessarily believable from a little girl. There was a very unsuspected twist near the end which I loved because it took the book in a completely different direction. Overall though it was an interesting story and I definitely wanted to know how it ended. 

The Secret Life of Bees.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was a New York Times bestseller and has been made into a movie. I've never seen the movie but I quite liked the book. It's one of those books that you know will have a happy ending and everything will work out okay but that doesn't take away any of the enjoyment. The protagonist is a young white girl living in South Carolina in the '60s who runs away with her black maid, Rosaleen, from her asshole father and ends up living with three black women in a pink house, one of whom owns a honey business. The story is of the girl, Lily Owens, coming to terms with her past (she may have accidentally killed her mother at the age of 4) and working through her struggles. It's your basic, generic, feel good novel but I enjoyed it as the story is interesting and paints a picture of life and the changes that were taking place when the Civil Rights Act was put into effect. 

The Handmaid's Tale

Recently I read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. If you haven't read this, go pick it up from your library right now. It was written in 1986 but felt like it could take place today; which is very scary. The U.S. government has been overthrown by the Sons of Jacob which is a society run by males where women are severely oppressed and they create the Republic of Gilead. After the war many people are not able to reproduce because of the atomic bombs and other toxins that were used to win the war. Because of this, any young, fertile woman is turned into a housemaid, placed into a married commander's home where she serves as a type of concubine in a very strange and strict ritual to try and further the human race. 

This is the story of Offred (not her real name, but is derived from the name of her commander, of Fred) who is a handmaid and it tells the story of her previous life as a wife and mother, and then of the attempts of the Sons of Jacob to brainwash the young women, and of her commander's dissatisfaction with his marriage and of his breaking the rules by engaging in intellectual pursuits with Offred. It's a very interesting novel and slightly scary because I can almost envision this craziness happening. 

This was such a good book I would highly recommend reading it. 

Judge A Book

Judge a Book by its Cover is an awesome blog that posts book covers of some of the most random and ridiculous books accompanied by funny commentary. This coloring book was one of today's gems. I kind of want it. Here's an example, not so much from the blogger but more from an amazon comment:

"...here's another potentially useful book. Not only can you color in the pictures, but you can learn new hairstyles for your vajayjay. My favorite comment on Amazon.com: "The Big Coloring Book of Vaginas isn't just a coloring book. It's inspiration. When first presented with this, I strummed through it thinking it was a joke. But I soon realized that this is a guidebook for redecorating your vagina, especially if it's been around awhile and you feel like you've run out of new ways to dress it up. I put aside the crayons, except to use to draw in accessories like scarves and snoods, in favor of spray glitter, various stick-on mustaches, mini-flower and seed arrangements. (I didn't like the seeds -- too elementary school, hence, creepy. You don't want a bean and seed turkey down there, believe me!) My current favorite is stick-on beadwork in an ornate Tiffany-esque peacock design. (Tip: surprise your ob/gyn with a beadwork speculum! He'll flip!) Also, if it's your bridal day, try a delicate self-adhesive Velcro surprise for your honeymoon. Your partner will never forget it!""

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Then I read Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. LOVED it! I've read other books by Palahniuk and have seen Fight Club a million and a half times, which is based on his book of the same name. Diary is a bit of a horror novel but not too scary or overly gruesome. The book takes shape as a "coma diary" that Misty Wilmot writes for her husband Peter so he'll know what happened just in case he wakes up from the coma he's been in since his attempted suicide.

Misty was once a bright and promising young art student but now she's "queen of the slaves" and works at the hotel on a small island overrun by tourists as she tries to scrape up a living to support herself, daughter and mother-in-law. The locals have other plans for Misty and her artistic talents though. 

This novel has some brilliant lines that I absolutely loved:

"Just for the record, the weather today is calm and sunny, but the air is full of bullshit."

"What you don't understand you can make mean anything."

"All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired."

Never Let Me Go

Next up was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was nominated for a 2005 Man Booker Prize, and was Time magazine's Book of the Year for 2005. It either won or was nominated for all kinds of things and I found it to be awful. Well, maybe not awful but I was bored out of my mind until roughly page 200 and the book is less than 300 pages so that's not good. The story unfolds very slowly, certain things are kept from the reader and slowly unveiled. This irritates the shit out of me. I would much rather know all of the facts and go from there rather than trying to figure out what the book is about, not that it was particularly difficult given the language the author used. 

The book is about a young girl, Kathy, and her life growing up in a special boarding school, her coming of age years, and her adult life. The boarding school section was especially slow going for me and that's the part that comes first. 

*If you might read this and you like surprises stop reading now*

So, once you get through all the mumbo jumbo b.s. this book is about cloning people and basically growing them for organ harvesting. The thing that really pissed me off about his book is that he just barely scrapes the surface of the ethics of this idea. I understand that the book isn't about that but it just made me dislike the book even more. I mean, they create these babies who grow into adults and are segregated, for the most part, from the outside world. These clones are used for parts, grown to die, except they have thoughts, feelings and possibly even souls. Whether or not this is okay and how society copes with it is an idea that is barely touched upon. UGH! Debating the ethics of this would be a good book, some sappy love story bullshit is not. 

Bailey's Cafe

I've been too engrossed in reading lately to post much about what I've actually read. My friendly local librarian (Buzzy) dropped a stack of books off at my work and I've been plowing my way through them. First up was Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor. I absolutely loved this book. It reads as several short stories about the lives of all of these misfits that congregate in the same place, Bailey's Cafe, which is kind of a way station for those who have been treated poorly by the world. They come to his cafe and Eve's bordello for safety when they have absolutely nowhere else to turn. Bailey's Cafe is a kind of mythical place as it only appears when a person truly needs it, otherwise you will never be able to find it, even if you had previously been there. None of the characters' stories were happy, they were all heartbreaking actually, but the book leaves you with an uplifted feeling, like they just might be able to find redemption. I would definitely recommend reading this, it's an easy read too, very quick. I might not suggest it for younger readers as there are frequent references to sex and sexuality. 

Eating Animals

It’s not often that I struggle for words, wrestle with them, search for them. Generally speaking, I have no issues with taking my thoughts and turning them into sentences, but what about when your thoughts are tangled? I recently read the non-fiction work Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and it left my mind in knots, numb, hurting, sad and hopeful. You see, the book is about just what it says it is, Eating Animals.

I made a personal decision 10 years ago to stop eating meat; I became a vegetarian.  At first, when people would ask me why, I would give impassioned speeches on animal rights which would be received with an eye roll or a dismissive “good for you!” I felt like I was getting nowhere on changing the world and at 14 that’s a tough blow. Over time my answers turned into, “it hurts my stomach,” or, “I don’t like how it tastes.” I would leave out the rest, “it hurts my stomach because I know how these animals were treated and it makes me physically sick,” or “I don’t like how it tastes because when I eat it all I can think about is that it’s the flesh of something that was once living and was treated terribly, I can’t eat it knowing the conditions in which it died.” People don’t like hearing that and I would save them, and myself from having to hear or say it, from the uncomfortable moments that followed. I was reminded when reading this about the power in advocacy. I can, and did make my personal choice but it’s not enough unless I share it with others.

Eating Animals began when Safran Foer and his wife were expecting their first child. He wanted to know what kinds of food were best for his son. The book isn’t long, about 265 pages of large font but it explores the world of factory farming thoroughly enough that a person can make an informed decision by the end on what they are comfortable eating.

The question is posed, “How much suffering will you tolerate for your food?” He invites you to take the morals with which you live everyday and apply them to the food you eat. Is it nourishing to your body? Not remotely. Meat is now stuffed with broth to give it any kind of flavor, it’s filled with antibiotics, which causes antibiotic resistance in humans, and it promotes obesity, causes global warming, and makes people sick.  Perhaps more importantly to some, is it nourishing to your soul and mind? That’s a question for each to answer on their own and it’s harder for some than others. It’s not wrong to love meat or even to eat it, but it’s not okay to not know what you’re eating and where it comes from, how it was treated in life and death, it’s irresponsible to be ignorant.  Safran Foer says that, “not responding is a response” and perhaps the easiest one to make is to just ignore it, to not care to know.

Don’t worry my meat eating friends, he’s not heavily pushing vegetarianism or veganism right from the start, this isn’t a manifesto, it’s not so much a book against eating meat as it is against factory farming, promoting responsible animal husbandry and being educated on what you are consuming.

I highly recommend reading this book and I wish I could give a copy to everyone I know. It’s the kind you can read in snippets here and there but still has a profound impact. It causes one to examine their beliefs and reassess, which is oh so important to continue to do throughout life. 

Noam Chomsky's AMA.

Reddit just posted their AMA (ask me anything) of Noam Chomsky. I'm 8 minutes in but I'm really tired since I haven't gone to bed yet as I was doing my linguistics homework. Crazy coincidence. Anyway, I'm going to have to finish it later. I hope it's awesome!