Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is probably one of the best books I have ever read. The story is simple, straightforward, with the kind of stark and brutal honesty that comes with the narrative of life with all its ugliness. In fact, that simple way of saying: this is how it was is one of the best characteristics of this book. Our main character tells us the story of her life, and in some detail the life of her “old same” which, for this story, is a female friend equivalent to a soul mate.
One of the hardest things for me to accept was the straight-faced way the narrator recounts the ritual of foot-binding. I had thought that the feet were bound when the girls were still young and therefore their feet just never grew any bigger. I was working on very limited information. In this story, the reader is taken into the experience in great detail; the first binding, the bending inward of the feet until the toes break under the pressure of the binding and carrying the weight of the girls as they are forced to walk around the room in endless circuits. This is never seen as cruel, though. It is just the way it was. Read the rest of this entry »
On Tuesday, October 30, 2007, Random House issued a press release updating the status of the “Inheritance” book series. Notice that it’s no longer the “Inheritance” trilogy, as the third book has gotten too long to be published in one book, and will now be published in two “volumes” to make it more viable.
[cynicism]Â And maybe to make us pay for one book twice? [/cynicism]
The only other real news contained in the press release is that the date of the third book has been set: September 23,2008. Remember boys and girls: Press Releases aren’t really news. If they contain news, it’s merely coincidental. Press Releases are advertisements, though sometimes something useful can be gleamed from them.
Here is the rest of the press release in its entirety:
Read the rest of this entry »
The following is a review of H. G. Bissinger’s “Friday Night Lights”:
Bissinger is a hack. Â Avoid this book.
The second half of Blood Books, Vol. 3 is a compilation of short stories involving the series characters. They are wonderful, and fill in some of the gaps that you find present between stories. All in all, I’ll say little else other than that I highly recommend reading each volume of the Blood Books series along with seeing the episodes of Blood Ties on Lifetime now that Season 2 has started.
I would give the series an 8 out of 10. I loved these books, and I think you will too. Just go read them!
This is the third book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Much as I hate to admit it, I initially became interested in the series because of the cover art. However, in this case, judging a book by its cover was one of the best ideas I ever had! I have to admit that I gave Twilight a so-so review. Good, but not grand. My opinion of the series as a whole went up after more time to consider the story, the target audience, and after reading New Moon which is the second book of the series. In face, after reading New Moon I was quite eager to go out and buy Eclipse.
This may not seem out-of-place for someone who reads as much as I do but, considering that I’m also a miser, I hate spending money for hardcover books because I can devour a book a day and it seems like a waste of money. I mean, no matter how great a book is, it’s just one day. So considering that; I’m trying to convey a high opinion of these books with my long-winded explanation. It was worth the $20/day to go out and get both New Moon and Eclipse.
The following is a review of the paperback edition of “Blink”, written by Ted Dekker.
This is my first time reading the current king of Christian Fiction, Ted Dekker. His books have sold millions, and they’re impossible to miss in any Christian bookstore, and the same can probably be said for most mainstream bookstores. I bought this book at a discount store, mainly because it featured Frank Peretti’s endorsement of the author. I figured, if I didn’t like it, I was out $5. No big deal.
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Read the review for Grave Sight here.
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Grave Surprise is the second book in the Harper Connelly series.
Called in to give a demonstration to an occult class at Bingham college in Memphis, Harper is asked to identify the cause of death for each of the people in an old graveyard on campus. Easy money, right? At first treated with sneering disbelief by everyone, including the professor who invited her, Harper successfully works her way through the graveyard only the have trouble with the last grave. Instead of the one, old, body that Harper expects to find, there are two bodies and one of them is much, much more fresh. What is frightening to Harper is that she knows exactly who the new body is.
When the police are called in, they treat her first with contempt. They think they’re having to exhume an over one-hundred year old body just to prove that she is lying; that there is no second body in the grave. A waste of time, a waste of manpower. But, they find it. The remains of an eleven year old girl that went missing from her home in Nashville two years earlier: the one body that Harper failed to discover. Shocked, and suspicious, the police want to keep Harper around. So Harper has to deal with not only the family of the deceased, but law enforcement and the media. Somewhere among those people is the murderer, and since Harper can’t live her life until that person is discovered, she’s put on her investigative cap because Harper knows that the finding of this body was no coincidence.
From Barnes&Noble.com:
–”When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.”
So begins The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold’s astonishing, brilliant, and daring new novel. A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this unforgettable work by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky.
For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.
Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers; the meaning of devotion; and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.–
Why, with so little information, do I want this book? I’ll tell you why. Having read both Lucky and The Lovely Bones I have come to the conclusion that Alice Sebold is a profoundly imaginative, blunt, deeply intuitive and creative writer. Both books bring a stark, and sometimes painfully harsh reality, to the stories she’s telling whether it is a true-life memoir as in the case with Lucky or a brilliantly written, though difficult, fiction such as The Lovely Bones.
Sebold is a writer of current classics, in my opinion, and even without having read this book I would recommend reading it. Though if you aren’t interested in taking my advice since I can’t know what I’m talking about in this case, I would say; then go read The Lovely Bones go read Lucky. See if this next book does not turn out to be yet another profound piece of literature.
And for the love of Pete, someone buy me this book! :p
If there’s one thing I can admire about the Dresden Files series, it’s this: Jim Butcher can bring to life and “reality” a scene that is so improbable that, without a gifted writer, even Sci-Fi and Fantasy readers would have to dub not only improbable, but ludicrous. For example – and I’m sorry if I’m giving this away – in one of the previous books someone is killed by a frozen turkey that had fallen out of the sky. Cartoon-ish? Maybe, but the way the scene is written makes it not only funny, but somehow believable because of the circumstances (and of course, Harry’s response is perfect).
In Dead Beat, Butcher manages to take it to a new level. The story is wonderfully written, and the pace is perfect. I’ve noticed that as the series wears on, the pace seems to pick up just a little with each book and that suits me just fine. Some old questions are revisited and answered – at least enough to satisfy me for the time being – new questions are raised (of course; it’s a series) and some interesting twists come into the story that I never saw coming (and for someone who complains about guessing the endings as much as I do, that’s a rare thing and I’m grateful for it). Read the rest of this entry »
Season two of the TV series “Blood Ties” (actually, it’s really the second half of season one, but Lifetime is calling it “Season 2″) returns to Lifetime TV tonight, October 12, 2007 at 10 PM Eastern. If you’re unfamiliar with Blood Ties, here is the description from TV.com:
Based on the novels by Tanya Huff, this show revolves around PI Vicki Nelson – formerly a detective with the Metropolitan Toronto Police. She was losing her sight, but quit the force rather than accept a desk job. However, her last case turns out to be a doozy, involving vampires and the supernatural. She decides to team up with a vampire named Henry and ex-lover Mike Celluci to battle the forces of evil both normal and paranormal.
You can also read a review of some of the Tanya Huff novels that inspired the TV show right here on this very site! You can read:
- A Commentary on Blood Ties and Dresden Files, both TV series inspired by books.
- A comparison between two of Tanya Huff’s novels and the TV show.
- A Review of Blood Books, Volume 2, with some commentary on Blood Ties season 2 thrown in for good measure.
Tune in tonight (and every Friday night through the Fall). If you like what you see, well, why don’t you pick up a book and see where it all started?