Space Station Mir

9. Legend by Marie Lu I gobbled down Legend today, but the aftertaste isn't very satisfying. Day is a renegade criminal from the slums, the most wanted man in the Republic, and he's only fifteen. June is a military prodigy, the daughter of a wealthy family, and, at fifteen, graduating from the Republic's most prestigious university. A terrible crime is committed and June is sent to track Day down. Can you guess what happens next? Every aspect of this novel is perfectly orchestrated. It's a stunning facsimile of a YA dystopian novel. But it doesn't ring true. Why? The two-dimensional characters. The insultingly simple language. The predictable plot. The last element I could have (and have in the past) forgiven. There's nothing wrong with borrowing an old plot. Shakespeare did it. Suzanne Collins did it. The trick is to infuse new life into it, to use language layered with meaning, o create characters that think and react like real people, to add quirky d...

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish . 1. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear Received for review from the publisher! 2. Legend by Marie Lu Can the dystopian lit/strong female protagonist combo continue to dazzle me? Legend , you're on! 3. School of Night by Louis Bayard I've wanted to read it since I heard Bayard speak at the National Book Festival, and finally picked it up at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA! 4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig A longtime wishlist book, just received from Bookmooch. 5. A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus Received for review from LibraryThing! 6. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisa Peshl Had it kicking around for a while, hopefully I'll finally get to it. 7. Insurgent by Veronica Roth Can't wait for it to come out on May 1! 8. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore I'm in the middle of this, but had to put it down for a review book. I expect to ...

8. Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie This recent biography of Catherine the Great received a lot of attention and praise-and I'm not entirely sure it deserved the adulation. I was very much looking forward to it considering my interest in the subject and my recent reading of The Winter Palace . This is the first biography of Catherine the Great I have read, although I have read her Memoirs , upon which the first half of the biography is largely based. I have two primary complaints with Massie's opus. The first and most problematic is that he is too ambitious in presenting her life from birth to death (in fact, from her parents' marriage to her son's ascension to the throne)and in attempting to demonstrate the scope of her reign. Massie writes what should have been, I believe, three separate books or at least two. I would have divided the book into three; Catherine's personal life before her reign, her personal life during her reign, and the state of Europe...