The Obsidian Mirror

by Catherine Fisher

Grade: 3 stars
Story summary: Time travel, fairies, secrets, wolves, replicated beings, desperate searches for long lost fathers/wives/friends.

Thoughts: Catherine Fisher is one of my favourite currently living YA/children's authors. For some reason, her style really appeals to me. This one wasn't my favourite of hers, though. Although there seemed enormous potential, it didn't really live up to it (I thought). I liked all the characters (which is rather unusual for me in most books, though not CF's books), but I didn't end up loving any of them. A slight criticism I had with Darkwater was that each character only had half the book devoted to them, and so it got spread a bit too thin. This one is even worse. I'm pretty sure there were at least five characters, maybe more, who got the point of view at one point or another. The plot was pretty cool--I mean, time travel and fairies and strange futuristic tech--but that was part of the issue too. There was a lot going on at once. Maybe the sequel will help cement everything together. (There will be a sequel, I'm sure, because this is decidedly an unfinished story.)

But I'm still giving it 3 stars instead of 2 1/2 because I love Catherine Fisher and I think the characters and plot have enough potential that I can see where they might go, even if Fisher doesn't actually get there.

The Discernment of Spirits

by Timothy M. Gallagher

Grade: 4 stars

Thoughts: I liked this one even better than the first book I read by this author, Meditation and Contemplation. It was longer, for one thing, and had more discussion and slightly less examples. Although, actually, I'm not sure that I found the discussion or example quite so helpful as the actual set of Ignatian rules, which I'd never read before. And these rules, of course, you can find anywhere--you don't need a whole book. But still--here they were presented in a non-threatening manner, something that can be used by normal people trying to become close to God.

I don't want to discuss the rules in detail--there are far better discussions out there, including this book. But to point out one small thing: I was comforted by the assurance that spiritual consolation is a real thing one can encourage and enjoy without fear. I have a tendency to distrust my emotions, and often try to bring myself out of that kind of joy in case I'm deceiving myself somehow. (Yeah, it's rather silly.) And spiritual desolation isn't something one should just grin and bear, but actually actively resist. (Page 86 was the part that struck me here.) I'd never thought about it this way before, and it was refreshing.

Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

Grade: 4 stars

Thoughts: I got this book from a co-worker, and had no idea what to expect. I assumed I would not like it because I don't tend to like the sort of book that would be given to me by a random person who doesn't read very much. And it was by a New York Times best selling author too, which unfortunately also doesn't endear something to me. And at first I thought I was justified in this assumption. It appeared to be a biography of a boy who was rather too much of a "bad boy" for my tastes. But a biography that was written in quite a novelistic style, with lots of "he thought"'s and "he felt"'s. But I kept reading, and all of sudden realized I was loving it. It got more interesting once the war started, and I actually found the descriptions of bomber training, etc. quite fascinating. But what really interested me was when his plane crashed at sea, and he had to survive for weeks at sea with two other men and no food. The descriptions of the quiet, meditative moments were rather beautiful, and included some Christian moments that surprised me by their presence  I didn't really expect that in a New York Times best selling book. Also, I discovered that Hillenbrand had extensively interviewed Louis Zamperini, and so all the feeling and thinking and not strictly factual parts were actually quite accurate.

In most descriptions of this book, it mentions the lost at sea, and then stops. But that's actually only the beginning. I thought the sea-survival story was testament enough to the "Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" of the cover, but it went from bad to worse. Torture, abuse, and loneliness was added to the starvation and despair of the lost-at-sea story, as Louis Zamperini landed on a Japanese-occupied island and went from one horrific prison camp to another.

All in all, a fascinating view of the war in the Pacific, of human nature, and of one very unusual man.

The Orphan of Awkward Falls

by Keith Graves

Grade: 1 1/2 stars
Story summary: Josephine's family moves to Manitoba, very near to what they don't realize is an insane asylum. Also next door is a large mansion in which lives a very strange genius boy, his talking cat, his robot manservant, and a myriad of strange experimental creatures. Then the most insane of all the inmates in in the asylum escapes, Josephine stumbles upon said genius boy, and adventures start.

Thoughts: Possibly this would be loved by an actual child. I often love children's books--as books, and not just nostalgically or out of a desire to study them or something. But children still do have different tastes sometimes, and this could be an example of this. It wasn't bad, per se. The grading doesn't reflect the quality necessarily (thought it certainly wasn't a brilliantly written book), but more my enjoyment of it. It reminded me of Roald Dahl a bit. Lots of slightly unpleasant people and rather gruesome things. A cannibal with a snake living in his back, weird experimental creatures that are mixes of existing creatures, clones and cats with strange accents. Theodore, the genius boy, was interesting, but also rather unpleasant. Which might have been ok, and even a benefit, if the book wasn't filled with hybrid creatures and cannibals. The adventure wasn't really exciting, and there wasn't really much else to recommend it particularly. Or at least for someone of my taste. Perhaps a pre-teen boy would greatly enjoy it? I'm not sure.

Meditation and Contemplation

by Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V.

Grade: 4 stars

Thoughts: A short, but very useful book about the Ignatian style of praying with Scripture. I appreciated the clear descriptions and practical suggestions. For someone like me, who is not yet at the point where I am following a steady schedule of deep prayer, it was a book I felt like I should buy and read over again more carefully. Perhaps the most helpful points were the analogies to a deep conversation with a close friend. I have been having quite a few of those recently, and I can see that many aspects of these could often apply to one's prayer as well.

The only part that was strange to me was the emphasis on imagination. NOT because I thought it was wrong in any way, but because that's something I'm not naturally good at or comfortable with. I feel suspicious of it. Which is one of the primary reasons why I am very glad I read this book--I really should learn to get over that.

Sword of the Rightful King

by Jane Yolen

Grade: 2 stars
Story summary: Gawain and his brothers leave their home in the Orkneys and their witch mother to go to King Arthur's court. Meanwhile at King Arthur's court, Merlinnus comes up with an plan to solidify Arthur's standing as king of Britain, and a mysterious boy shows up to be apprenticed to Merlinnus.

Thoughts: There was great potential here, I thought. The story of the Orkney princes (Gawaine and his brothers Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth, and sometimes even Mordred), their cruel, clever mother, and strange, isolated upbringing could make a fascinating story, if told in the right way. And King Arthur is almost always a fairly complex figure, generally struggling with insecurities and betrayal and all those things kings have to deal with. The problem is--frankly, I just don't think this was very well written. There was Gawaine and his brothers, interrupting the Arthur/Merlinnus/Gawen storyline, for no apparent reason that I could see. Did the two storylines ever really mesh? I mean, Gawaine & brothers arrived Cadbury (this book's version of Camelot), and spoke to Arthur and all that. But they could have been skipped entirely without any change to Arthur's story, as far as I can tell. It gave a general lack of coherence to the book. Many of the characters could have fleshed out a lot more as well, and I thought the dialogue could have been much more interesting.

Perhaps it's mostly that all the best ideas in this book have been done much better elsewhere. The Winter Prince and The Once and Future King properly get into the twisted familial relationships usually present in the King Arthur legends (although I think they were both  a bit too dark for this kind of book). Robin McKinley did a similar sort of story line to Gawen's in Outlaws of Sherwood (again a retelling of a legend), except much more exciting and well put-together. And finally, while reading, I was frequently comparing King Arthur's scenes with similar ideas in The King of Attolia. Now that is how you write a king winning over his people.

In the end, I would still suggest this for people who, like me, will read anything they can get their hands on that features Sir Gawain in an at least semi-positive light*. Or maybe for younger teens, who might be able to glean some of the themes only passed by here, and won't notice the missing depth.

*Sir Gawain has always been my favourite of Arthur's knights, for his growth in character after his first miserable adventure (chopping of that women's head) and the Green Knight adventure, for his brothers and mother and their weird dynamic, and for the fact that he wasn't Sir Lancelot.

Reflections on the Magic of Writing

by Diana Wynne Jones

Grade: 5 stars

Thoughts: This is a collection of essays, transcripts of talks, and interviews by and about the fabulous, amazing children's author Diana Wynne Jones. She was one of the few people that I could always count on to write a book that I would greatly enjoy, and her books were unique and funny and full of awesome characters. When she passed away recently, I was sad and mopey for an entire week. She and this book deserve a much more brilliant review, but I can at least point you towards Neil Gaiman's introduction at the beginning of this book. (I mean, Neil Gaiman writing about Diana Wynne Jones. You practically can't get cooler than that.)

DWJ had a fascinating life. She went to lectures by both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in university. ("Lewis booming to crowded halls and Tolkien mumbling to me and three others." (pg. 290)) She once lived in the house that the kids from Arthur Ransome's book lived in, and Arthur Ransome himself lived in a houseboat nearby. (He would complain about all the noise DWJ and the other children would make. (pg. 135)) Beatrix Potter also lived near this house, and once slapped Diana's sister and her friend for playing on BP's front gate. (pg. 135) It's so strange to think of all these writers as real, actual people (with faults and everything!). Her parents were neglectful and her life was full of strange people and events. But perhaps the most insightful essays were the two by her sons at the very end of the book. After all the descriptions of the nastiness of her parents and the strangeness of her life, her sons' perspectives gave a sudden twist on all of that, and gave a whole new view on who DWJ was. It was the perfect end to this collection.

But my favourite thing about this book wasn't the biographical details of a strange and interesting life, but her ideas on writing for children vs. writing for adults, and her thoughts on fantasy. "Two Kinds of Writing" (pg. 33), about children's vs. adults books, was one of my favourites. "[S]everal grown men confessed to me that, although they were quite shameless when it came to hunting through the juvenile sections of libraries and bookshops, they still felt incredibly sheepish on a train reading something that was labeled Tenn Fiction. Why? I wondered. The assumption underlying their sheepishness seemed to be that teenage fiction counts as just close enough to adult fiction to be seen as regressive, whereas if they are seen reading a children's book, that counts as research. In neither case are they assumed to be enjoying the book for its own sake." (pg. 33) She talks a lot in this essay about how in writing for adults, you often end up having to explain more, not less, which I've always thought, but I doubt many people would believe me. To quote DWJ again, "Here we have books for children, which a host of adults dismiss as puerile, overeasy, and are no such thing; and there we have books for adults, who might be supposed to need something more advanced and difficult, which we have to write as if the readers were simpleminded." (pg. 35) I could talk forever on this topic and elucidate a lot more, but this is already the longest review I've ever written, so I should go on to the next part of this topic.
I also especially loved "A Talk About Rules" (pg. 99), which talked about all the pre-conceptions about fantasy, and what people considered (wrongly) the absolute necessities of the genre. She talks about a man who could manage to read  The Fellowship of the Ring because he pretended it was all an allegory, but then once he came to the Ents, he completely gave up, because walking trees could only possibly be for children. (Man, it bugs me when The Lord of the Rings is listed as a children's book. IT'S NOT. Yes, children can read it (I did), but it is NOT A CHILDREN'S BOOK.) She talks about how people often insist fantasy (and children's books in general) must "teach" something (about divorce, bullying, etc. etc.), or  that any fantastic lands children travel to should be shown to be in their heads. Oh, there is so much here--I really can't get into it properly.

Couple other random notes:

• It was nice that although DWJ was not Christian, she could still enjoy C.S. Lewis a lot. I find it quite a annoying how many people nowadays seem to a) misunderstand a lot of the points Lewis was trying to make, and b) think he's not worth reading because he often writes Christian allegory (while often simultaneously lauding Philip Pullman for writing what's basically the atheistic equivalent).
• "Less than five years ago it was a truth generally acknowledged that anyone who could follow the plot of Doctor Who could follow anything. Maybe that was going a bit far the other way, but.. anyway, most adults professed to like their books simpler than children did." (pg. 112) YAY, Doctor Who!!! Nice to see its genius recognized. And see, I KNEW children's books (or in this case, TV) could often be far more complex and subtle than many things written for adults!
• "Most recently, I have had a whole crop of letters from guilt-ridden students. These are mostly in their first year university and not altogether happy in it, and they are afraid that there is something wrong with them because they're still rereading and enjoying my books at the advanced age of eighteen or nineteen." (pg. 177) Hah! Silly people. This whole book makes me feel very vindicated for being a university student who still revels in the joys of children's books. (Also see pg. 179 for more on university students' somewhat erroneous view on children's books.)
• The Tolkien essay, "The Shape of the Narrative in The Lord of the Rings", was rather magnificent. As much as I adore Peter Jackson's movies (and always will), I think this essay would have been good for him.
• "The Heroic Ideal: A Personal Odyssey" (pg. 79) was another one of my favourites. Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourites of all her marvellous books, and it was amazing how much structure and shape and thought went into this book. As Neil Gaiman said in his introduction, "It [is] easy [...] to forget what an astonishing intellect Diana Wynne Jones had, or how deeply and how well she understood her craft." (pg. xi) Man, though, she made writing seem like a lot of work in this essay.

NB: All the quotes and references are taken from the hardcover edition, from Greenwillow Books.