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.)

Romeo and/or Juliet

by Ryan North

Story summary: Two households, both alike in dignity... an ancient grudge and parent's strife... a pair of star-cross'd lovers... a battle with giant robots...

Why You Will Like This Book:

• It's so funny.
• The clever Shakespeare references!
• The clever geek references!
• It's Romeo and Juliet as a choose-your-own-adventure. How much more awesome can you get?*

And Why You Might Not:

• Some Christians could be bothered by some of the dislike of marriage that appears. It's not all like this, but there's enough that it's not just a passing remark one can ignore easily.
• If your sense of humour isn't the sort of self-referential nerdiness often seen on the Internet and such places, you're likely not going to get much out of this. (On the other hand, if it's not your thing, maybe this would the perfect introduction to just how funny it can be!)

Cuckoo's Egg

by C. J. Cherryh

Story summary: Summary from Goodreads:
"They named him Thorn. They told him he was of their people, although he was so different. He was ugly in their eyes, strange, sleek-skinned instead of furred, clawless, different. Yet he was of their power class: judge-warriors, the elite, the fighters, the defenders.
Thorn knew that his difference was somehow very important - but not important enough to prevent murderous conspiracies against him, against his protector, against his castle, and perhaps against the peace of the world. But when the crunch came, when Thorn finally learned what his true role in life was to be, that on him might hang the future of two worlds, then he had to stand alone to justify his very existence."

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Humanity from an alien viewpoint.
• The characters, the politics, the writing, ahhhhhh, so good.
• Father-son relationship.
• It's a fairly short book and a stand-alone, so it seems like a pretty good introduction to this author's work. (I haven't read anything else by her, though, so this is pure conjecture.)

And Why You Might Not:

• Not everything is explained simply, not every explanation is given to you straightly.
• The ending is a little open, in some ways. I think it's perfect and suits the tone of the rest of the story and it doesn't feel unresolved, but I think it could be found bothersome by some people.

Kingdom of Summer

by Gillian Bradshaw

Story summary: Sequel to Hawk of May. "Armed with his magical sword and otherwordly horse, Gwalchmai [Sir Gawain] proves himself the most feared and faithful warrior of Arthur's noble followers. But while defending the kingdom, he commits a grave offense against the woman he loves, leading her to disappear from his life and haunt his memories." (From the back cover.)

Why You Will Like This Book:

• A tale of a quest for redemption and forgiveness
• Deep character study
• Historical accuracy
• Inspiring Christianity (without being a "Christian book")

And Why You Might Not:

• It was pretty sad. Well, more bittersweet than anything else, I suppose. I don't want to spoil too much, so I won't be specific.

Hawk of May

by Gillian Bradshaw

Story summary: A retelling of  some of the Arthurian legends from Sir Gawain's point of view (called Gwalchmai here), and with historical accuracy.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Epic, personal, inspiring, gripping.
• Though it's not a Christian book, I found this very inspiring in a specifically Christian way.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's yet another Arthurian retelling, and there are so many of them. Really I think that shouldn't matter. If it's fabulous, it's fabulous. But it might turn you off if you're tired of so much Arthur.

Jinx's Magic

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: Jinx, the apprentice of the crabby and possibly-evil magician Simon, learns cool new kinds of magic, meets a werewolf with spectacles, gets his memory wiped by creepy elves, and gets even closer to his new friends, the trees of Urwald.
Sequel to Jinx.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Characters and relationships and humour and human insights and adventure! So good.

And Why You Might Not:

• Cause you don't like kids entertainment, even the awesome stuff like Narnia and Pixar? Only reason I can think of really, because these are great books.

Jinx

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: Jinx is abandoned by his step-father in the wild woods of Urwald, and then promptly kidnapped by a possibly-evil magician. He becomes his apprentice, starts talking to trees, meets a thief boy and a cursed girl--and another magician who has knives in his thoughts.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• THE CHARACTERS!
• THE FAMILIAL RELATIONSHIPS!
• Also the world and the humour and the adventure and the insights, but mostly those first two.

And Why You Might Not:

• The only reason I can possibly think of is if you're against kids' entertainment, even if it's fabulous. If you wouldn't read The Chronicles of Narnia and wouldn't watch Pixar because they're for kids, then yeah, you probably won't like this either.

Arriving at Amen

by Leah Libresco

Why You Will Like This Book:

• A new convert explains her unique perspective on the Faith and how she learned to integrate these totally new concepts into her life.
• For a cradle Catholic such as me, this is a very refreshing look at familiar and old-hat aspects of the Faith.
• Plus there's Les Miserables! and cognitive biases! and Shakespeare! and other such awesome things!

And Why You Might Not:

• There are a lot of references to math and logic and musicals and things not everybody enjoys. Leah has a particular kind of brain, which is pretty much mine except smarter, but I know it isn't for everyone.

The Rithmatist

by Brandon Sanderson

Story summary: I remember reading summaries for this long before I got around to reading it, and they always sounded slightly boring. It's why I took so long to get around to reading it. And though I've thought about how to do this, I can't seem to do any better than anyone else. Which is a great shame, because this is an awesome book.
So read the following very short summary if you want, but don't take much from it:
Although Joel can never be a Rithmatist (people who have the ability to create animate chalk figures), he still hungers to understand as much of Rithmacy as he can. His crashing in on the school Rithmacy classes causes unwanted attention on him, which is quite a bad thing when talented students start mysteriously disappearing.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Brilliant world-building, including snippets from ancient texts, explanatory diagrams, etc.
• But not the confusion that often comes with brilliant world-building: this is exciting, fast-paced, funny, and just generally entertaining.

And Why You Might Not:

• It does not answer all your questions by the end, instead finishing on a "To Be Continued". The next book isn't supposed to come out till 2017 at least. The wait might very well kill you.
• You may be put off by alternate-universe religion, I suppose, but that's pushing it. Especially since we don't even know how it works or what exactly's going on. (Come on sequel, cooooome to meeeeeeee.)

This Is How You Die

ed. by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki !

Why You Should Read This:

• It's an even more brilliant sequel to the awesome collection The Machine of Death.
• So in a similar fashion, it is original, and thought-provoking, and twisty, and awesome.
• But there's also more inventiveness, more world-building, and more science!

And Why You Shouldn't:

• It's all about death, so obviously somewhat dark and creepy. Frankly, that's actually a selling point for me, but it could be an issue for some.
• And...nothing else really. It's an awesome book.

Retro Friday Review: High Wizardry

by Diane Duane

Retro Friday introduction:

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Angie @ Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be a favourite, an under the radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print etc.

Story summary: The third book of the "Young Wizards" series, set after the events of So You Want to Be a Wizard? and Deep Wizardry. This time, it's Nita's little sister Dairine's turn. As she is only eleven, her acceptance of wizardry results in an explosion of power that sends her across the universe, to a planet of silicon where strange things are happening.

Thoughts: This is perhaps my favourite book in the entire series, tied with A Wizard Alone. Outer space! Computers! Artificial intelligence! (Except not really artificial in this case.) Emerging sentience! Learning of all the things! Everything I love, in one very exciting and well written book. Although it might take a particular kind of person to love this book as much as I do. The description of the rise of the nearby galaxy on pg. 160-2, though perhaps not poetical and interesting enough to quote here, moved me greatly. So did the whole part where Dairine first began interacting with the aforementioned emerging sentience. Man, as a computer nerd, that was amazingly cool.

Page 333 describes, in more poetical terms, this series's idea of heaven: Timeheart. "[A] reality that burned like fire but still was sweeter than water after thirst, and fed the thirst itself, and quenched it again in delight and more desire; a state so much more solid and real than mere physical being and thought that Nita held on to herself for delight and terror, afraid she would fade away in the face of it like a mist in full sun. Yet she wanted to see and feel more of it--for she knew that there was more. How many more realities like this, piled one on another in splendor, towered up into the burning depths of creation, each more concrete, more utterly real than the last?"
I found it interesting how similar some of these ideas sound to C. S. Lewis, especially the idea of "heaven" as described in The Great Divorce: it is more solid and concrete, more real than this reality. Part of it also sounds a little like the "further up and further in" idea from The Last Battle.

Also, a quick little note that isn't really important to anything: on pg. 114 there is a quick conversation with an alien where he says he comes from "Earth", and Dairine remembers that most sentient creatures call their planet "earth" or "the world" or something. Which totally makes sense. It has been a small pet peeve of mine that often in scifi/fantasy, the planets all have strange names, and are called thus even by the inhabitants of the planet. All except Earth, which is called Earth by everyone, including aliens. Biased, much?

Grade: 4 1/2 stars

A Canticle for Leibowitz

by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Story summary: Through three eras, three distant periods of Earth's history, a single blueprint is discovered, and treasured. And I don't want to give away too much more of the actual plot, so that's all you get. You can read the Goodreads description if you want more. It's nice and not spoilery.

Thoughts: For such an excellent, classic, and well-loved scifi novel such as this, I really don't feel adequate to properly review it. I'd need to spend more time thinking about it and discussing it with other people, and what with the enormity of school's stress right now, I just can't do that. It really deserves it, though. It's a fascinating book, which manages to portray insights into humanity as a whole, whilst still having interesting and complex characters.

 So here are a couple points we'll have to make do with:
--It gave me a similar feeling to the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, in some ways. There were the contrasting eras of history, and how the future viewed the past. And there you were, outside it all and viewing the flow of time, and how certain small things unknowingly had huge repercussions.
--The view of the Church was excellently done as well, I thought. You could see how different ages of the Church had different difficulties and errors, but it still "flies thundering through the ages, [...] reeling but erect" (from Chesterton's Orthodoxy).
--The characters were a good example of these two above points. They were firmly trenched in their own period of history, with definitive faults and strange ways of thinking, but still people. I also got the impression that we would appear equally faulty and strange to those in the future, though I do think most people have a perhaps unconscious belief that we have now reached a new height of understanding in our age.
--I was happy to note that there was a short reference on page 213 to St. Augustine's evolution-like theory of creation. In fact, that whole section with the scientist discussing science with the monks was quite amusing and enjoyable. It quite annoys me how there is a tendency to think the Church as a whole was anti-science, when in fact, quite the reverse was generally the case.

Grade: 4 1/2 stars

A Severe Mercy

by Sheldon Vanauken

Grade: 4 1/2 stars

Thoughts: Amazing book telling the story of how the author, "Van", and his wife Jean ("Davy") met each other, married, met C. S. Lewis, converted to Christianity, and suffered through Davy's illness and eventual death (not a spoiler--he gives it away in the first chapter).

Beauty was a very strong theme in this book. Their journey started with beauty, with a pagan appreciation of creation, and ended with a fuller, though more sorrowful, appreciation of Beauty Himself. Here's a quote on beauty from right near the beginning:

"[Beauty was] for him the link between the ships and the woods and the poems. He remembered as though it were but a few days ago that winter night, himself too young even to know the meaning of beauty, when he had looked up at a delicate tracery of bare black branches against the icy glittering stars: suddenly something that was, all at once, pain and longing and adoring had welled up in him, almost choking him. It was long afterwards that he realised that it had been his first aesthetic experience. That nameless something that had stopped his heart was Beauty. Even now, for him, "bare branches against the stars" was a synonym for beauty." (pg. 7)

Linked strongly to beauty, and also mentioned frequently throughout this book, were ideas on eternity and timelessness. I've always found Lewis's descriptions of this to be the most inspiring I have ever read, and Vanauken obviously has similar ideas. The description of the "moment made eternity" (pg. 69) on their boat the Grey Goose is too long to quote here, but it is profound and I understand completely what he is describing, though I don't think I've ever experienced it to quite the same degree.

There were of course many other interesting observations and discussions. I liked his thought near the beginning about emotions, that "maybe girls with their tears and laughter were getting more out of life" (pg. 8). I liked the idea they had that "one might wake the other in the night and ask for a cup of water; and the other would peacefully (and sleepily) fetch it", and that "[they] considered it a very great courtesy to ask for the cup as well as to fetch it" (pg. 31). I try to explain this idea to people when they're feeling bad for asking me to do something--that they are actually doing me as great a courtesy as I am doing them. They don't often want to accept that, but I was happy to see someone agrees with me at least. I also found his discussion on women vs. men on page 194 rather interesting, although too short. It's a topic I think about frequently, and haven't yet decided my thoughts on. I believe he discusses this further in Under the Mercy, though, so I shall look forward to that.

An added bonus are the letters by C. S. Lewis to Vanauken (shown in this book in their entirety), which are little gems of Lewisian wisdom. I am very glad I discovered them. I found his letter about homosexuality (pg. 146) particularly interesting. (You can find the relevant part of that letter online.)

I would love, in conclusion, to quote the last chapter on loss and beauty, sorrow and joy, but this is not the place for it. Go read it yourself.

Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

by C. S. Lewis

Grade: 4 1/2 stars

Thoughts: It's C. S. Lewis. It's obviously going to be fabulous. The first section of this book is a collection of essays about writing, with an emphasis on speculative fiction. In the second section, there are four short stories, again with a SciFi/Fantasy bent.

The first part was especially good. These essays, among many other important things, defended views I've held for a long time, but never been able to defend very well. Such as: children's books can be as good and well worth reading as adult books, it is not lame to re-read books many times, speculative fiction is not worthless escapism, and SciFi is awesome. I could fill this review with quotes discussion, but that would deprive you of the pleasure of finding things out for yourself. (Plus it would be way too much work.) So here goes a much smaller selection (but still very long, compared to the rest of my reviews).

"No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often more) worth reading at the age of fifty--except, of course, books of information."
"On Stories", pg. 15
Hah! Take that, people who think people who read children's books as adults are weird and immature!
There's also some interesting discussion in this essay about film vs. "popular" fiction (in other words, the pretty badly written stuff). There's a section early on that is talking about excitement, and how the film of King Solomon's Mines lost what made the original book special by (among other things) exchanging the particular  and atmospheric fear of being shut in the dark cave, with general "excitement" and violent danger. I thought it very applicable to most modern action movies (although I do actually enjoy many modern action movies).
Also:
"If you find that the reader of popular romance--however uneducated a reader, however bad the romances--goes back to his old favourite again and again, then you have pretty good evidence that they are to him a sort of poetry."
"On Stories", pg. 15

"I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story."
"On Three Ways of Writing for Children", pg. 24
In this essay, he also has a whole defence of fairy tales being read to children, even though they can be terribly frightening. (Have you read the original fairy tales? They are dark.) "Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage." (pg. 31) It also reminded me of Doctor Who (the awesomest), and how people remember hiding behind the sofa whilst watching it, but loving it all the same.
Another fascinating discussion was concerning the idea that kids who read fantasy will lose themselves in escapism. I strongly disagree with this, and thankfully, so does C. S. Lewis. In fact, he basically argues the reverse, that love of fantasy makes people less inclined to escapism, especially compared to real-world stories.  "[A child] does not despise the real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted." ("On Three Ways of Writing for Children", pg. 29-30) He talks more about escapism, but from an adult perspective, in the essay "On Science Fiction".

I could quote so much more, sigh... But this is getting too long already, so I'll leave the essays and go on to the stories.

Somewhat unexpectedly for me, I didn't enjoy these as much as the essays. My favourite was actually the unfinished story, "After Ten Years". It had enormous potential to be the kind of story I would treasure for my whole life. And strangely enough, it was the least scifi of the lot, being about the aftermath of the Trojan war. The more actual scifi stories almost seemed a little dated, especially "Ministering Angels" and "Forms of Things Unknown". I liked "The Shoddy Lands" a bit more, but seemed to fit more with The Great Divorce (splendid book), and more interesting when you came at it from that point of view than expecting cool scifi stuff.

The Vor Game

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Grade: 4 1/2 stars
Story summary: Starts with a short, seemingly unrelated story about Miles being stuck in a position on a remote, frozen island. But of course, even on a remote, frozen island he can't help making enough trouble that he's sent far, far away on a secret mission. Here he just so happens to come across the emperor of his planet, who has run away in a fit of depression. So now he has to rescue the emperor and fulfill his mission, as well as defeat all the other complications that constantly spring up around him, and generally save everything.
See also Shards of Honor, Barrayar, and The Warrior's Apprentice.

Thoughts: Miles Vorkosigan is my new favourite character, and since I already waxed poetical about him on my review of The Warrior's Apprentice, I'm not going to do it again here. I'll simply make do with stating that he's brilliant and clever and I love him.

As in The Warrior's Apprentice, this features Miles flying by the seat of his pants, trying to accomplish six impossible things before breakfast, and generally being awesome. There was also, of course, much more of Emperor Gregor Vorbarra; I loved his character development here. And...I don't really know what else to say. I'm rather blown away by these books, and unable to express myself very well. Plus there are so many better analyses, reviews, and thoughts out there. If you are at all a fan of adult scifi; space opera; or brilliant, short, manipulative lordlings that run around being clever, you really ought to give these books a try.

To sum up the awesomeness, here is a spoilery quote from the best website ever, tvtropes.org (helpfully encoded using rot13.com so you don't ruin your reading experience):
"Va Gur Ibe Tnzr, Zvyrf naq Rzcrebe Tertbe chyy bss gur eneryl-nggrzcgrq Flapuebavmrq Gnaqrz Vaql Cybl, naq fbzrubj znantr gb pbzcyrgryl bhg-znarhire n Zntavsvprag Onfgneq bs n Purffznfgre juvyr hanoyr gb pbbeqvangr jvgu rnpu bgure ba bccbfvgr fvqrf bs n fgne flfgrz." (Taken from the Literature folder of the TV Tropes page on the Indy Ploy.)

Travel Reading Part 4

For the last two months, I've been gone on a backpacking trip to Europe. My cell phone was the only internet access I had, and the reception was often spotty. Plus I was just super busy. So TONS of reading, but no posts. There were too many books, and I read them too long ago to make individual posts for each one. So I'm dividing them up into a couple posts, and just writing a couple sentences for each. Here goes the fourth and last set:

"Goose Chase" by Patrice Kindl
Grade: 4 stars
Retelling of the fairy tale "The Goose Girl". The goose girl is stuck in a tower for her own safety, courted by two men she highly dislikes. She plans a daring escape, and that's when her adventures start. A light read, but I loved it. It was pretty much the perfect comfort read for this particular time. The geese were hilarious, the goose girl was bad-tempered and awesome, and the romance was unusual.



"Shards of Honour" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Grade: 4 1/2 stars
The first book in the Vorkosigan saga. Cordelia is the captain of a scientific expedition, and she gets captured by the captain of a military ship from another planet. She has to survive for 5 days on an alien planet with him, and then there's politics and  battles and more survival and stuff. Faaabulous book (my description SO does not do it justice), which I'm guessing is the start to an amazing and unforgettable series. Where has this been my whole life? One of my favourites parts of this book is a little difficult to describe in so few words, but suffice it to say: it's titled perfectly. I loved the way the theme of honour was dealt with. This book and then next (Barrayar, discussed a bit below) are contained in an omnibus called Cordelia's Honour; this is very aptly named, for truthfully, Cordelia "pour[s] out honour all around [her], like a fountain". Also--Bothari. He is...quite something. There's not enough room to describe it all here, but his story was one of my favourite parts of the book.

"Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities" by Mike Jung
Grade: 2 stars
A couple of fanboys of the superhero Captain Stupendous have to help him out when all of a sudden he's not acting as stupendous as usual. This books subverts some common tropes (girl power, non-white characters, and more), which I always like, however it didn't really manage to keep my interest very well. Maybe my time of loving Middle Grade fiction more than most other kinds is slowly coming to an end, because it seems that the complaint "this book is too young for me" has come up a lot recently. (There are of course important exceptions, like Ordinary Magic, books by Frances Hardinge, and by Stephanie Burgis, and more.) Or maybe the book is simply a bit too simplistic. Not sure.

"Barrayar" by Louis McMaster Bujold
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
Begins right after Shards of Honour, so I don't want to discuss it too much because of spoilers. But there's a lot of Cordelia acclimatizing to a different culture, having lots of trouble with the horrific Barrayarian politics, and trying to save her unborn son. I liked it less than Shards of Honour, but it was still really good. My main issue might have been that it seemed to have less of a main theme and be less self-contained than Shards of Honour, but then I've read other reviews which have thought pretty much the opposite. So I don't know. What matters is that it has confirmed in my mind that this series is definitely worth reading. I am now going to go out and read as many Vorkosigan books as I can get my hands on.

Fullmetal Alchemist

written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa

Grade: 4 1/2 stars
Story summary: Far too complicated to explain the whole thing. The gist of it is, there are two brothers who lost all or parts of their bodies through a dangerous alchemy experiment, and now they're searching for the philosopher's stone to help them get their bodies back. Also there are anthropomorphic personifications of the seven deadly sins, political intrigue and military overthrows, centuries-long plots, and really funny bonus strips at the back of each volume.

Thoughts: The plot! Wowee. I don't want to spoil too much about the plot details, but it seemed to me to be one of the more well-plotted series I've seen (including TV series). As far as I could tell, most of the questions were answered by the end. All the little things you'd forgotten about popped up again near the end and clicked with everything else.

And the characters! The main relationship of the series is the two brothers, Edward and Alphonse, which I love. Sibling relationships are always my favourite. Colonel Mustang is just one of the coolest people ever, and I'm thinking of writing a Top Ten (Or So) list of people associated with fire, mostly so he can be on it (with Zuko from A:TLA). Unlike Death Note, there are tons of great female characters as well. My favourite would Lt. Hawkeye. In fact, all the military characters were great, and I greatly appreciated the nuanced take on the military. They tend to be either decidedly the good guys or the bad guys in most things, while here they were very, very flawed good guys who contrasted nicely with the central brother characters. Here are the best of them, in their cool blue uniforms:

Whatever you do, by the way, don't just read the first volume and think, "Ah, this review was all nonsense," and never pick up the second volume. The first volume was by far my least favourite, and didn't seem to have much to do with the rest of the series.

Also, like Death Note, there is some philosophical weirdness, especially at the end. I might not bother with mentioning it, except that it centres around one of my top theological pet peeves. There is this view of God, which pops up all over the place, as essentially a creature--someone or something inside of creation that whose powers can be grasped and taken. Totally non-transcendent. Anyway, I can go on about this for ages, but I won't, because it only comes up in a few small places and didn't really detract from my reading pleasure. (However, you can read this article for clarification on what exactly I mean, if you want.)

Now, for your pleasure, the seven deadly sins incarnate. SPOILER ALERT FOR THIS PICTURE!!! (I hope it isn't already too late... Try to forget what you saw, ok? I know I shouldn't have put it up in the first place if I was going to say all this, but I couldn't help it! It was such a good picture! And they're so cool!)

Ordinary Magic

by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Grade: 4 1/2 stars
Story: Magic, special schools, large families, kidnappers, subtle romances, close friendships. As Abby is now twelve years old , it's finally time for the Judgement to determine her magical skill level. She gets an extremely unusual result, and then of course, everything changes.

Thoughts: That was one of the most delightful books I've read in ages. So delightful that I'm having a hard time writing about it, because it seems that everything I try to say either makes it seem too normal and underwhelming, or accidentally makes it seem like the greatest book of the 21st century. But let's say this: it was the best book of that sort that I've read since I finished off Diana Wynne Jones. Before her recent passing, DWJ was one of my favourite living authors, and one of the few authors I would buy on the spot if I found an unread one. The similarities are many, but hard to pinpoint exactly: there is the great assimilation of magic and the real world, unique and loveable characters, families who actually love each other, and a young main character who finds out they are extremely special when it comes to magical abilities.

Except of course, this book has one hugely important difference: the magical ability is actually a lack of any magical abilities whatsoever. This is cool twist on the common trope of "specialness", and there were all sorts of surprising plot developments that came out of it.

But the thing I loved most, more than anything, was the characters. Every single one of them, from Abby and her friends and her family to the teachers at the school and the main villains of the story, were indisputably awesome. The central family...well, this is where I find it difficult to describe, as I stated at the beginning. I don't want to spoil too much either. But they were so cool. And it was fascinating how cleverly the villains were given motivation and sympathy, while remaining entirely villainous and disagreeable.

MAIN, GLARING, HUGE ISSUE: It ends with several loose ends, so I don't think it's a single book. And I want the sequel. Now. Right now. Give it to meeeeeeeeeeeee.

Forming Intentional Disciples

by Sherry A. Weddell

Grade: 4 1/2 stars

Thoughts: Fascinating book about the state of the Catholic Church today, and how one as a Catholic should evangelize. There are ton of statistics (Yay, reading about statistics! Bleh, actually doing statists!) in the first chapter or two, followed by discussion about charisms, different states of discipleship, and how to engage with the many people inside the Church who are lonely and distrustful of Her.

What I found interesting is that I definitely had a negative emotional reaction to some of the things she was saying. NOT because they were wrong or bad, but rather the reverse. I was evidence of the fact that Catholics are not used to speaking very openly about their faith in that manner.

Otherwise...well, like most books that actually have depth or try to argue a specific position, I feel somewhat inadequate trying to explain my thoughts on the internet. So I'm going to leave it at this, and if I ever meet someone in person who has read this book, I will gladly become involved in a highly absorbing discussion/debate/argument/whatever.

EDIT: Ok, upon request, here are a couple random thoughts.

--The percentage of people who label themselves as atheist or agnostic but BELIEVE IN GOD is astounding. So is the percentage of people who label themselves as Catholic but DON'T believe in God. Just as an example, according to Weddell, 55% of people who label themselves agnostic believe in God (14% in a personal God) and 29% don't believe in God. So only 16% actually follow the technical meaning of "agnostic" and say they don't know whether there is a God or not. That's so weird... But it does actually make some sense to me. People nowadays seem to use labels less for the actual technical meaning of the label, and more for some of the connotations that go along with it. Thus, people call themselves agnostic if they are not part of any organized religion but still believe in God; or they don't believe in God, but also don't care what anybody believes (as opposed to many atheists who do).

--Here's an observation by a professor Weddell quoted that I actually found weirdly accurate:

"Contemporary culture does not provide the average iGen with a profound grasp of what is right and wrong apart from the conviction that assaulting the self is clearly wrong... Because of trends like the self-esteem movement and the impact of relativism, he concludes that iGens are pre-moral. Mann suggests that they do not feel guilt as much as they feel shame for not achieving what they are designed to accomplish." [pg. 176]

That last sentence, unfortunately, really does apply to me.

--Weddell mentions several things which somehow, to Catholics, just seem too Protestant. Such as actually mentioning Jesus's name:

"I have been part of many conversations about the Catholic discomfort at using the naked name of Jesus. We talk endlessly about the Church but so seldom about Christ as a person with whom we are in a relationship. Few things trigger the fear of being 'Protestant' more quickly than naming the Name. A witty friend summed up this dynamic in a memorable way: Jesus is 'He who must not be named.'" [pg. 141-2]

And again, I find this weirdly accurate. Certain things just smack of Protestantism somehow, even if they are actually really good things we should be doing/thinking ourselves.

--She also talks a lot about discerning charisms. Which I don't really have any idea what I think of, because I've...well, never thought about it. It's a really interesting topic, though, I just don't seem to hear/read anyone talk about it much.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling

by Gideon Defoe

Grade: 4 1/2 stars
Story summary: Sometime after their adventure with scientists, the pirates are in need of a new ship. So they rashly buy one from Cutlass Liz and get into terrible debt as a result. Chaos and escapades ensue as they try out gambling at Las Vegas, performing shanties and monologues, and finally, whaling. (Also called, "The Pirates! In an Adventure With Ahab".)
See also the next book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists.

Thoughts: Awesome, tiny, utterly hilarious.

Evidence:
--It has a recommendation from Eric Idle (one of the Pythons) on the front. (Actually, it's a recommendation for the first book, not this book. But this one is pretty much as good.)

--It was written by  guy to impress a girl. What better reason to write  book? Apparently it didn't work. Silly girl.

--He includes lots of random footnotes. Awesome footnotes put any book high on my list.

--It is full of hilarious quotable passages. I had one picked out for evidence, but then I lost the paper that I wrote the page number on, and I'm too lazy to look through the book to find a good quote.

To sum up: very light and funny. Aptly named. If a book with an exclamation point and the word "adventure" in the title appeals to you, you'll probably like the book a lot. This book also includes pages listing non-existent sequel titles at the end (e.g. "The Pirates! In an Adventure With Public Sanitation" and "The Pirates! In an Adventure With Boggle"), and fake chapter titles making the book sound very exciting and adventure-y, even if it isn't (e.g. "Skull Hunt on Pygmy Island!" and "I Knifed My Way to a Diamond Pit!"--nothing whatsoever to do with the actual plot line).