Travel Reading: Madonna House Part 3

During the four months of reading the below books, I've been at a farming community in the middle of nowhere (if anything can be called "the middle of nowhere", rural Canada can), with no electronics. It is far too difficult to write up proper reviews in these circumstances, so I'm continuing the Travel Reading series, where I simply write a couple sentences about each book read, and leave it at that. Here goes the third set of three:

"Poustinia" by Catherine Doherty
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
I love the idea of Poustinia--it's epic. And some of Catherine's ideas are just so true and beautiful, and not something you see talked about anywhere else (at least in our culture). But I struggled a lot with her style, especially her seeming anti-intellectualism. This was a very up-and-down reading experience for me because of that. But I recommend this heartily! I think almost anyone could get something new and helpful out of it, at least.




"The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene
Grade: 5 stars
SO Catholic, in the best possible sense of that phrase. Greene gets so many things--what real sanctity is, the silliness that is sin, and how people think deep down to themselves. He reminds me of a grittier version of C. S. Lewis in those ways. This is a book worth a good, long sit-down discussion over beer or hot chocolate. Yet all this might give the impression that it's a "difficult" book, or preachy, or only relate-able to Catholics or something, but that's totally false. It's easy to read, excellently written, brilliant characters, gets to the bottom of LIFE. Man, I don't even know how to describe my thoughts properly, but I am so glad I finally got around to reading this.


"In the Night Garden" by Catherynne M. Valente
Grade: 4 stars
The structure of this book! It totally thrilled me. A layered, interlocking series of tales and stories, with unexpected connections and call-backs and Inception-like depth. The unending nature of the structure was a little annoying for me personally, though. I wanted everything wrapped up in the end, in an incredibly complex bundle of imagination and creativity. Instead it emphasizes the fact that stories don't really have a beginning and end, which is probably actually the best route to take, despite my personal preferences.



"The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen
Grade: 4 stars
A beautiful little book that gives you a new appreciation for Rembrandt's famous painting. I didn't find it quite as helpful as the last Nouwen I read, but excellent none the less.







"Shirt of Flame" by Heather King
Grade: 5 stars
Profound and difficult and consoling simultaneously. It came at an absolutely perfect time in my life, and gave me a relationship to St. Therese for which I'll be forever grateful. Also good coming so soon after The Power and the Glory, since King also get the grittiness and paradox and beauty of Catholicism.






"Paladin of Souls" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Grade: 3 stars
The gods in this series! With the religion in this series, and how Bujold presents the theist character of Cordelia in the Vorkosigan saga, I can't help but think she's had some experience of Faith. She just seems to get how it works (though the Bastard weirded me out a bit...). The rest of the aspects of this story were good enough, and entertaining, but I think the first book, The Curse of Chalion, remains my favourite by a large margin.





(There are some personal notes below this break. Feel free to skip them; they are pretty unintelligible anyway.)

Travel Reading: Madonna House Part 2

The last four months or so, I've been at a farming community in the middle of nowhere (if anything can be called "the middle of nowhere", rural Canada can), with no electronics. It is far too difficult to write up proper reviews in these circumstances, so I'm continuing the Travel Reading series, where I simply write a couple sentences about each book read, and leave it at that. Here goes the second set of three:

"Discovering the Feminine Genius" by Katrina J. Zeno
Grade: 2 1/2 stars
It was a little simplistic for where I'm at right now--or perhaps it's complex enough but just made for a different sort of person? Despite the fact that she and I have a fairly similar background in some ways (Catholic upbringing, down to the playing spoons till midnight). Most of the book didn't seem to relate to me or be that helpful. Yet... a few key points in it were the starting off points for some major growth these last few months, so I can't help but recommend it.




"Wild Seed" by Octavia Butler
Grade: 4 stars
A fairly different feel to this book than what I'm used to. Quite intensely personal for a speculative fiction book, without being overly emotional or having that "literary fiction" style that isn't my thing. Don't really know what else to say about this book, but it was good stuff. Hopefully I'll get to more Butler soon.





"Spiritual Formation" by Henri Nouwen
Grade: 4 1/2 stars
This book helped me a lot. Nouwen has such insight into the human journey. Also there are some cool new ideas to try for me, like "Visual Divinia". I just wish I'd gotten around to studying my notes (found below) properly when the book was still in my possession and fresh in my mind...






"Fortress in the Eye of Time" by C. J. Cherryh
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
Entertaining and atmospheric with some great relationships of all sorts. The central friendship was my favourite (Tristen and Cefwyn), but there was a small element of romance that was really great too (Cefwyn and .... I forget her name). The Tristen & Mauryl and Cefwyn & Idrys (Master Crow!) relationships were also great. The main issue is that it wasn't quite gripping enough to make me seek out the sequels immediately, and I'm going to forget the myriad names and world-building details that are necessary to understand even a little bit of what's going on. Cherryh is not someone who explains things unnecessarily--one of my favourite things about her, but still, it's going to make this difficult...


"The Psalms Are Our Prayers" by Albert Gelin
Grade: 3 stars
If I hadn't read The Case for the Psalms by N. T. Wright earlier in the year and loved it, I might have been more impressed by this. As it was, it was good but not particularly new or striking. I also found the style a bit disconcerting--perhaps it was the translation? My spiritual director recommended this book and this author, though, so I'd like to try another book by him at some point.




(There are some personal notes below this break. Feel free to skip them; they are pretty unintelligible anyway.)

Travel Reading: BC Summer

It is far too difficult to write up proper reviews when I've been away from regular internet access for extended periods of time. Thus I started this Travel Reading series, where I simply write a couple sentences about each book read, and leave it at that. So from a trip home to my family and friends in BC comes the following:

"Owl in Love" by Patrice Kindl
Grade: 3 stars
Strange little book, which seems to be Kindl's style. I like her best in fairy tale land, where strangeness doesn't seem unusual (Goose Chase made me very happy). But this one was surprisingly entertaining. The strangeness was less disconcerting than in The Woman in the Wall. Owl's voice is unique, even from Kindl's other heroines; her inhuman-ness was treated well. And I still want to read every one of the rest of her books, if only for curiosity's sake. 2 1/2 stars because I think it was a little young for me, but then an extra 1/2 star for the fact that I couldn't really stop reading it.



"A Coalition of Lions" by Elizabeth Wein
Grade: 3 stars
A sequel to the Arthurian retelling The Winter Prince, but not nearly as heart-wrenching and impactful. I still enjoyed it, especially in the enormous potential for a favourite new character that was young Telemakos (the future books follow him as a protagonist). The setting and politics were cool as well. But it felt too short, and like some of the relationships (especially Priamos and Goewin) and characters needed more background and build up.





"Port Eternity" by C. J. Cherryh
Grade: 2 1/2 stars
Not as good as the other Cherryh I read (Cuckoo's Egg) but that was expected. I'd read reviews beforehand that indicated this. I only read it as my next Cherryh because it was an Arthurian retelling of sorts, and I've been on a bit of an Arthurian kick recently (see A Coalition of Lions above and the Top Ten (Or So): Arthurian Retellings list). I think I would have preferred even more character development, though maybe that wouldn't be possible with the kind of characters these "people" were. Or maybe what I wanted was more action... It happened at the end, but there seemed to be a big, slow build up to some large character explosion, and that never happened as much as I expected. The mythic, idyllic ending seemd to suit more conflict and events than actually happened.



"The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
It was a little slow to start out with, but once I got far enough through, the Bujold-ness showed up, especially with the main character, Cazaril. The interaction between gods and men was great. There are certain elements of theism that Bujold seems to understand much better than most people (this also showed up in the Vorkosigan saga with Cordelia's beliefs).
Note: everything about this edition (the back cover text, the inside cover picture) indicates there's a cliched main romance, which there isn't. Just putting that out there because it turned me off for a while.



"Tomorrow When the War Began" by John Marsden
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
I appreciated the realism of this YA post-apocalyptic Australian survival story. The teens seemed to me to act and think much like real teens. There was even a religious (not just "spiritual") girl who wasn't stupid or puritanical! That was hugely refreshing. The Australian element also gave it a bit of exciting exoticism for me as a Canadian. I think I'd like to read the sequels, once I come back from my travels and adventures and start a normal life again. It won't be that high on my list, since I didn't become passionate about any particular element. But it was a great and exciting and highly readable start to a series, and I'd recommend it to people who were mature enough for the small amount of sexual content.

And All the Stars

by Andrea K. Höst

Story summary: At first: survival under weird, mysterious circumstances! Then: friendship and The Three Musketeers! After that: plot twists and aliens!

Why You Will Like This Book:

• See all the exclamation points in the story summary?
• It's very Australian!
• At least one of the twists made me want to go back to the beginning and reread from there. (That's by far the best kind of twist.)

And Why You Might Not:

• There are definitely reasons why you might not like this book, but as I discuss in my thoughts below, Höst's books confuse me somewhat. You'll have to read my thoughts to get a better idea, but my recommendation is to read one of her books yourself and figure it out.
• For those concerned about sexual content in YA books, there is some here. Not a lot, mostly just one particular scene.

Acedia & me

by Kathleen Norris

Why You Will Like This Book:

• It's about what I believe is one of the primary sins of our age: sloth (in all its forms).
• There are so many fascinating points to ponder, scattered throughout the book. And so many differing points of view on this one, ever pervasive issue.

And Why You Might Not:

• I found it a little meandering sometimes. It was just the style, and this is not a criticism per se, but sometimes I prefer books which state their point a little clearer, without circling.
• For Catholics, there are a couple of weird points theologically speaking, but these are few and far between, so I wouldn't worry overmuch

Rags & Bones

edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Neil Gaiman! Garth Nix! Gene Wolfe!
• Unlike many collections of retellings that I've read, these retell literature instead of folklore and fairytales. Not that the latter are bad things, but it makes it unique.
• There are some great little scifi gems with ideas that make you think.
• And great little fantasy gems with worlds that make you dream.

And Why You Might Not:

• The stories were of mixed quality. (Or at least mixed in nature. Some reviews I read had pretty much exactly the opposite opinion from me, so I suppose it depends on what you're looking for. Point is, it's likely that you'll really like some and not like others.)
• There were a lot of romances I didn't like: adultery, great passion, sex with a stranger, marriage rejection, etc.

A Tangle of Gold

by Jacqueline Moriarty

Story summary: Don't want to spoil too much from the end of the previous book. So I'll leave it vague: The royal family still has difficulties with forgetting who they are, the colours are still attacking in larger and larger numbers, and there are yet more political factions with their own agenda. How are the Royal Youth Alliance and a girl from Cambridge going to save the whole Kingdom?
Sequel to the other The Colours of Madeleine books: A Corner of White and The Cracks in the Kingdom.¹

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Complicated human relationships
• Dysfunctional but interesting and realistic families
• Unique and beautiful fantasy world
• Strange and unexpected plots twists
• It's the kind of book that makes me want to research all these historical figures (huge plus for me)

And Why You Might Not:

• The writing is somewhat stylized, in a way which usually doesn't work at all for me, so I can see it not working well for someone else
• I liked the plot twists as well, but I did see many of them coming ahead of time.

Not God's Type

by Holly Ordway

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Conversion stories FTW!
• Ordway is a fencer, an academic, a lover of Lewis and Tolkien. Sounds like just my cup of tea; I would love to meet her.

And Why You Might Not:

• I wouldn't recommend this to non-Christians, unless they were really open to Christianity.

Truthwitch

by Susan Dennard

Story summary: Meh, don't feel like doing a summary. Here's a shortened version of the Goodreads description instead:
"Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.
Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Gripping--one of those books you can't stop reading.
• Devoted female friendship.
• Awesome magics and fighting skills.

And Why You Might Not:

• It wasn't particularly memorable for me.
• The romance was a little quick and passionate for my taste (though it bothered me less than I expected)

The Woman in the Wall

by Patrice Kindl

Story summary: Anna is so shy that she hides in the secret rooms she built in the walls. She does this for so long that her family forgets about her, assigning her memory to foolishness and youthful playfulness. But she is very much alive, growing and changing and falling in love.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Growing up
• Learning self-confidence
• People are better than you think they are

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a strange little book. The fantasy elements are only really present at the beginning and are quite small, but they're weird. Why are they there at all?
• The main character herself is obviously a little on the odd side as well.

Ink and Bone

by Rachel Caine

Story summary: Burners of books, hoarders of books, preservers of books, eaters of books. The world is now all about books and the flow of information, with the Great Library of Alexandria on top. You'd think that would be a good thing, wouldn't you?

Why You Will Like This Book:

• BOOKS!!!
• Schools for learning cool things!!
• Relationships slowly growing from enmity to friendship!
• And excitement and adventure and romance and mystery and conspiracy and all that.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's hard to judge some of the aspects of this book until we see how it turns out in the sequels.
• There is a important gay relationship present, if that bothers you.

Voice of the Lost

by Andrea K. Höst

Story summary: This is a direct continuation of the first book, The Silence of Medair. Thus any detailed summary of the story is going to involve major spoilers for that. So I'm just going to say: think the first book, with all its fantastical world-building and 500-year-old backstory, except more personal and romantic.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Some subtle relationships from the previous book are revealed. Definite pay off for getting through the (to me) slightly less enjoyable first book.
• There is lots of interesting pondering of ethical questions.
• New worlds, new races, new cultures.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a continuation of the first book, and you really can't read it at all without having first read The Silence of Medair.
• It's a lot more romantic than the first book, which is actually a plus for me because I like the romance better in the second book than the first. But if you don't like the second-half romance better, it's going to be seriously annoying how much time is spent on it.
• Not everything is resolved properly. Kind of bothersome, that.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

by Brandon Sanderson

Story summary: Evil librarians plotting to take over the world! An epic search for a bag of sand! Amazing skills gained in tripping and breaking things! 13-year-old warrior girls with grumpy attitudes! And maybe even young adventurers being tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias and sacrificed to the dark powers?

Why You Will Like This Book:

• The humour!
• The meta!
• The strange gadgets!
• The mysterious happenings!

And Why You Might Not:

• It's definitely for a younger audience than Sanderson's other books I've read. Although it was still very enjoyable, this made it slightly harder to read for me.

Jinx's Fire

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: The trees are panicking because the forest of Urwald is being cut down and burnt. The wizards are panicking because they might have to actually do something together for a change. Sophie is not panicking because she's smart and sensible, but she feels like panicking because her husband Simon is caught in life-sucking elvish ice. Jinx is panicking because it's all down to him to save everything.
RED is panicking because she can't think up a better story description than this, and what if it turns people off a really excellent series?
Sequel to Jinx and Jinx's Magic.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• It has all you could want in a children's book. Friendships and familial relationships, vivid imagery, human insights, surprising humour, magic and adventure.

And Why You Might Not:

• I really can't think of any good reasons, unless you're not a fan of children's entertainment like Narnia and Pixar. I suppose the battle could be a little scary for younger readers? But yeah, that's pretty much it. Great books!

Making Habits, Breaking Habits

by Jeremy Dean

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Full of lots of helpful ideas & thoughts to get you to effectively change your life.
• But unlike many "self help" style books, this is backed up with many, many scientific studies.

And Why You Might Not:

• Sometimes he presents the studies in a way that is too generalized for my taste. (Academic studies are often misread in this way, I find. People misunderstand how specific these sorts of results are supposed to be.)

The Forever War

by Joe Haldeman

Story summary: William Mandella, one of Earth's best and brightest, is forced into the military to fight the new war against the aliens. But this is a war of the stars, where unimaginably huge distances and the effects of relativity cause time dilation--where a few years of Mandella's life mean centuries on Earth, and the war goes on for endless ages.

Why You Might Like This Book:

• Fascinating view on what interstellar war would actually be like (complete with fancy new tech, time delays due to relativity, interesting and unusual war tactics, etc.).
• Written by a real veteran of the Vietnam War, so has a distinct realism (despite the sci-fi elements).

And Why You Might Not:

• There are parts of this story that take place in what was then the near future, and is now the present. People who try to predict the near future are almost always wrong in many ways, and it brings me out of the story somewhat.
• Many people have found it too grim for them. I didn't personally, but it might be an issue for others. It was written by a war veteran, after all.

More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

by Jen Campbell

Why You Might Like This Book:

• Hilarious, sometimes even hysterical. Man, people are weird sometimes.
• Makes you feel very glad you read.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a really slim book, and some of the entries are even duplicates from the first book.
• A bunch of the entries are dependent on you knowing a bit about literature (e.g. "Do you have The Girl With the Dragon and the Baboon?" is not going to be funny unless you know what the original book was called).

Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Story summary: A retelling of Snow White, where the seven dwarfs are space outlaws, the evil queen is a mind-controlling ruler of the Moon, and everything is awesomely science fantasy.
Sequel to Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Such great characters, especially the mentally unbalanced title character.
• Revolution and romance; cyborgs, hackers, and princesses; battles and plagues and kisses and last-minute rescues.
• The last book in one of the more surprisingly entertaining series I've read in the last few years.

And Why You Might Not:

• There are too many points-of-view for one book, and it changes between them too quickly, making the book a little scattered.
• I think partly because of this, some of the relationships aren't given the depth and focus they deserve to be interesting.

Lockwood & Co: The Hollow Boy

by Jonathan Stroud

Story summary: Our trio of intrepid young ghost hunters is now a quartet! But even the addition of the super-efficient Holly doesn't mean they don't have to deal with bloody footprints, near death, and annoying teammates.
Sequel to The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Really fun and entertaining, with great characters, exciting swordplay, and terrifying supernatural events.

And Why You Might Not:

• There are ghosts, blood & guts, dark stuff. I was totally fine with it, but I suppose it could be disturbing to some people.
• The jealousy the two female characters had towards each other got tiresome.

Knife

by R. J. Anderson

Story summary: Knife is a faery, a befriender of dangerous humans, a hunter of Crows. And when it becomes clear that something mysterious is very wrong in the Oak, she isn't going to stay in safety and ignorance.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Stars a fiercely inquisitive heroine whose name is Knife. (I mean come on, awesome name, no?)
• For me as a Catholic, I love Anderson's tiny references to her Faith. (Though don't worry if you're not religious; it's a very, very small part and not at all distracting.)

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a little simpler than I'd like, especially with regards to the growth of Knife and Paul's relationship (which I liked--I just wanted more exploration of it).