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...

7. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower has been on my reading list for a while and I picked it up recently at Capitol Hill Books , a used bookstore near Eastern Market in D.C. that really does seem to have everything. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives in a walled-in cul-de-sac in a suburb of Los Angeles. The few times she has been Outside, her father, a Baptist minister and other adults from the neighborhood have escorted the children in an armed group. Although her small community helps each other, attends church together, and grows their own food, outside their wall lurks a constant assault of increasingly desperate, homeless, and drug-addicted people. Money and jobs, not to mention water, are scarce and the federal government is all but defunct. State borders are heavily patrolled and the incompetent police are only available for exorbitant fees. No child has a hope of a life better than their parents, who still keep insisting 'the good times wil...

6. King of the Murgos by David Eddings (Book 2 of The Malloreon ) I read Guardians of the West (Book 1 of The Malloreon ) a few months ago, but it's actually been a bit of a challenge to find these books on Bookmooch or at the library. I might have to give in and just buy the set, but not yet. Garion and Ce'Nedra of The Belgariad are now King and Queen of Riva. Garion slew the evil god Torak and settled the conflict between the Dark and the Light forever-or so we thought. Now, Garion and Ce'Nedra's son, the infant Prince Geran, has been stolen by Zandramas, the new Child of the Dark. The pair and a group of companions, new and old, has set out to recover the child and destroy the Dark once and for all. Unlike the original series, which featured the same crisp writing, compelling characters, and classic Hero's Journey structure, the gap between Dark and Light is not as clear. Some of the companions' new members are of deeply questionable loyalties and eve...

My house is being abducted by aliens? Sweet! Let me grab a notebook and pen, and I'm all ready for my new life among the extraterrestrials. When I was little, I always used to think about which books I'd save in case of a fire. I felt obligated to go for my Torah and Siddur and kept them on the shelf closest to my bed. Next closest to my heart? My father's copies of Lord of the Rings , which I brought into my room for safekeeping. Unfortunately, the family's copies of the Complete Works of Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice were stored downstairs, so I despaired of saving those. 1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Specifically, my father's old paperbacks from the 1970s, but I have multiple copies... 2. The Torah I have a nice copy and if I needed to start a new civilization or educate aliens about human society, I'd want this. 3. Siddur (prayer book) See above. Also, got this for my Bat Mitzvah. 4. A Tangled Web by L.M.Montgomery I can ...

Today's topic at the Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books That Broke My Heart A Little Lot. The change is mine. I dare anyone to read Where the Red Fern Grows and NOT cry. The final three books are Holocaust memoirs, I went through a stage of reading those as a kid, I would highly recommend all three of these to anyone interested. 1. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls 2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 4. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 6. My Antonia by Willa Cather 7. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 8. Night by Elie Wiesel 9. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank 10. I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Honestly, this week's topic for the Broke and the Bookish often stumps me. Because anyone who knows me knows I am a huge bookworm, I am often asked to recommend books and sometimes to people who say they don't like to read. I don't know what it feels like not to love reading. I have always loved stories and was read to even before I could read. I remember the mechanics of learning to read were difficult and I recall struggling with it, but that's the only disincentive to read I remember. And I still wanted people to read to me. I have a lot of sympathy with kids (or adults) who are learning to read, and especially with kids I've worked with and known personally, reading a fantasy book with them, such as Harry Potter or The Hobbit or even Eragon , has inspired them to want to read or read more. But for adults who don't like to read? It's complicated. Some look down on fantasy or science fiction, refuse to read on principle or just have no interest. S...