r e i f i e d

From chapters.ca:
Artemis is at boarding school in Ireland when he suddenly receives an urgent video-email from Russia. In it is a plea from a man who has been kidnapped by the Russian Mafiya: his father. As Artemis rushes to the rescue, he is stopped by captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon fairy police. But this time, instead of battling the fairies, he is going to have to join forces with them if he wants to save one of the few people in the world he loves.

I take back what I said about Artemis Fowl. I find so few series successful because they either give everything away in the first book and the rest of the series is just making up new characters/problems and dragging it along, or so few authors have the ability to reveal a lot about a character off the bat, and then continue to peel layers off and reinvent their key characters in the following novels. There were very few ‘new players’ in the second Artemis Fowl novel, and it’s absolutely unnecessary because all of the characters from the first novel changed into complex, round characters as they move into the next book.

The other brilliant thing about Artemis Fowl is that in the first book, it’s a bit odd because your protagonist acts like an antagonist, and your ‘antagonist’ seems to not to be antagonizing anyone. At first, it seems like a redundant and terribly planned plot - Artemis is awkwardly full of ‘characteristics’ and seems like an awkward character who doesn’t really come to life. Through the second book, you realize that this description is really who Artemis is, and as he comes to life - you realize that this is the way that Artemis is as a person, that there are many layers and initially it is cloudy; and not just to you, but to all the characters around him who are getting to know him.

Onto ploughing through the Eternity Code. Lookin’ forward to it!

From chapters.ca
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring….
In Coraline’’s family’’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.
The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it’’s different.
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there’’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to “change” her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

I found this story to be absolutely charming. While I have my doubts about the types of children who would enjoy this story (as opposed to finding it scary, which I definitely would have), it’s very much along the lines of Nightmare Before Christmas in that it’s a whimsical world where cute-eerie things happen, yet all is righted in the end. Coraline, the protagonist, is enjoyable in that she is very much a normal girl, with no excessive flaws or virtues, with a normal family, complaining about normal things (such as being bored). My only complaint is that the story is too short and the conflict is resolved too quickly. The trials that Coraline is subjected to could be so much more complex (and Harry Potter style) and with the set up, it could have been a much more grave and serious story. However, when you consider the target audience of this story, the length and plot seems sensible, but it doesn’t keep the older audience from yearning for more. I’m looking forward to hitting up Graveyard Book next. While it’s not entirely intellectually stimulating, it is thoroughly enjoyable.

From chapters.ca

Ken Follett is known worldwide as the master of split-second suspense, but his most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.
Everything readers expect from Follett is here: intrigue, fast-paced action, and passionate romance. But what makes “The Pillars of the Earth” extraordinary is the time–the twelfth century; the place–feudal England; and the subject–the building of a glorious cathedral. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape. Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters–into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life.
The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. Around the site of the construction, Follett weaves a story of betrayal, revenge, and love, which begins with the public hanging of an innocent man and ends with the humiliation of a king.
At once a sensuous and endearing love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of apassionate age, “The Pillars of the Earth” is without a doubt Ken Follett’’s masterpiece.

This book blew me away. When I picked it up, I was expecting a mediocre plot set in 12th century Europe (one of my favorite periods) and while the story wouldn’t be AWESOME, I would enjoy the medievalness of it. However. I was wrong. The story follows a larger than usual cast of characters and the most amazing aspect of this novel is the many and varied and complex ways that these characters weave in and out of one another’s lives. It is absolutely masterful. You know when you watch movies like Crash and Babel where it’s many storylines that seem unrelated, but as these move into one another, you have your ‘ohhhhhhhhhhhh’ moments? It’s like that, but very smooth. Very smooth transitions, yet they feel tumultuous and tragic enough that it doesn’t feel fake and intentional and it’s just very well written, really. I’d admit, it’s really long, but I think the trek is worth it IF you’re someone who enjoys epics, because this is definitely epic-worthy. The protagonist changes, the antagonist changes, and the novel just moves so swiftly and smoothly. There is also a large focus on the religious versus the political/monarchical and how it affects the lower working class and merchant trades, which was interesting to me. My favorite part is really the characters - you get very swept up and involved in their lives, and god, you just HATE the antagonist…

(this post has also been sitting here in draft for about a month….)

From chapters.ca

When it was published more than a decade ago, this special story within a story captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers worldwide. In Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story, a lonely boy named Bastian is drawn into a beautiful but doomed world. Only Bastian can save this enchanted place of dragons, giants, monsters and mysteries… but will he have to stay there forever? Beautifully repackaged, this hardcover classic continues to lure readers into its wondrous world.

You know, it’s odd that I’ve never watched this movie. I loved the plot, and I loved the story. There’s a few things I’m not sure how I felt about. The main character is intentionally annoying (I believe), and while it does mean that his accomplishments and fate is that much more pronounced and meaningful, I’m still not really rooting for him. I’m rooting much more for the secondary protagonist (the protagonist of the first half of the book), and I feel like he deserves his victory so much more - possibly because he’s not looking for it.
There was a very clear transition in the middle of the tale, and I’m not sure how I felt about it. In ways it feels like two different stories, and I loved it so much that I wish both halves were longer… I think that would have made it better. I wasn’t ready for it to move onto the second half. It’s also disappointing that this book was in translation, because I think it must be so much better in its original language! Sometimes, I felt like the story didn’t have the words that I think it should have, and I think that’s why..

From chapters.ca
Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling’s legions of readers–as well as Aesop’s wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm–each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling’s new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle’s collection “take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe,” and that “magic causes as much trouble as it cures, and to this day it is often Beedle’s stories that help the parent explain this fact of life to their young sons and daughters.”
But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard’s-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered “among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives,” the venerable wizard’s ruminations on the Tales allow today’s readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that “Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles” during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.
Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led “a certain Beatrix Bloxam” to cleanse the Tales of “much of the darker themes that she found distasteful,” forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through “Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump” that “many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead.”
Both a wise and delightful addition to the Harry Potter canon, this new translation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is all that fans could hope for and more–and an essential volume for the libraries of Muggles, wizards, and witches, both young and old.

Fascinating. After Twilight, this was a breath of fresh air! Basically, J.K. Rowling has written five fairy tales that are ‘popular’ in the Harry Potter world. Like, Aesop in ours, kinda thing. The morals are kinda typical in that it’s stuff we’ve heard and read all our lives, but the creativity invested in adapting them to a different world is so interesting. Plus, there’s a commentary from Dumbledore after each story, which is very cute. Entertaining. Delightful. But not the most challenging or engaging read.

From chapters.ca:

Bella Swan’’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

stephenie meyers wrote this book in 3 months, and it took me 3.5 hours to get through it. i think that says a lot right there.

so i’m going to be really critical about this book. i am the queen of tortured vampires (between those on Buffy and Anne Rice) and this is not good stuff.

the main female character (narrator) was over omniscient and spoke/narrated way beyond her 17 years. she has no real character flaws except that she was accident prone, but she is written to be brave and witty and brilliant. nuh uh. no realistic appeal. she’s too observant (unbelievably observant) and her inquisitions and successes in investigation came way too easily.

the whole tortured vampire thing was not believable, this guy had NO depth in his torment. i didn’t FEEL it. it was like, he speaks his torment, but it isn’t expressed. what i know of his anguish is from his words, not his anything else, and all he’s really upset about is his lack of ability to control his thirst around her but after a few sniffs, he’s learned to control it! woohoo!

in any case. yes, this plot could have done up a great novel. the characters could have had depth, but it was expressed terribly. it wasn’t expressed so much as ’spoken’ by the characters. this can be equated to how you have a great script (plot), but the wrong actors (author) doing it. stephenie meyers has very little skill in writing. the word choices were all off. too many unnecessary adjectives and the wrong adjectives.

i’ll concede that it’s good to get young’uns to read, regardless of how crappy. and sure, learning adjectives even if used poorly is good. and i’ll concede that it’s a very fertile storyline but god, written so, so terribly. so, so terribly.

i have all sorts of theories about why this book is so popular. one of my favorite ones is: do you remember sailor moon? the ‘allure’ of the guy and the way he treats her is VERY much the same thing that darien and serena has/had/will have. like, the guy is constantly saving her life because she’s super accident prone, but he’s irrestible to her because he’s very confident and SMIRKY like darien was/is. you know what i mean? it’s that thing where she’s constantly infuriated with him because he always seems to be laughing at her but she likes the attention, etc etc. and like, after they get together, he’s VERY softcore porn. not that they do anything OTHER than kiss, but like, the descriptive words and whatnot have a very strong softcore porn melty undertone. words like..irrestible and sultry and words like that. it’s all too blatant.

stolen from the chapters website: “Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. ”Be very still,” he whispered, as if I wasn’t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat. “

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. With two trusty sidekicks in tow, he hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn’t foolish enough to believe in all that “gold at the end of the rainbow” nonsense. Rather, he knows that the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnap one of them and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to put his plan into action, he doesn’t count on the appearance of the extrasmall, pointy-eared Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit–and her senior officer, Commander Root, a man (sorry, elf) who will stop at nothing to get her back.

Disappointed. This has been on my bookshelf for so long (along with book 2, 3 ,4) that I forgot who recommended it to me, and where I heard that it was the next Harry Potter. It really freaking is not.

The whole time, I felt like it was trying too hard to be a novel that could both appeal to children and adults, like Harry did. The character of Artemis acted mostly like a maniacal criminal genius, with occasional, awkward glimpses of the child inside Artemis. It even ends with a stereotypical suggestion of innate goodness inside him. BLEH. He didn’t come to life as a character for me - he had no evident inner struggle (just blips of his childish vulnerability), no mature thought (all his genius plans are SO brilliant and SO developed, that they seem rather contrived). He is either a very badly written character, or a child with very severe psychological issues. I found some of it clever, though. The supernatural characters (the aforementioned Captain Holly and Commander Root) were quite admirable as characters - they didn’t have their qualities beaten over the head over and over again to the extent of Artemis’ and I quite appreciated them.

Will I read the Book 2 and 3 and 4? Well, I have them. And I’m not sure if the character was meant to develop over the books, because the reviews are still good for them. So, probably.

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

Shaena, you would LOVE this one too.

I admit that I have never watched/read the wizard of oz (which is now in my List), so I don’t really have the adequate background to read this book… but it was good! It was difficult to get into because I couldn’t quite remember which one was the Wicked Witch of the East and which was the Wicked Witch of the West, and I had no idea which bits Maguire made up or which ones he took from the original story… And when I purchased it on chapters.ca, there were lots of people who did NOT like it, and I was a bit skeptical…

There’s another review on chapters somewhere for this author who said that his greatest talent is to make these characters human, and I couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly. Elphaba, our main character, so genuinely and conflictedly struggles to identify herself as either good or evil, this is never fully resolved. You never REALLY like her because she doesn’t actually do anything that I can admire a person for, but you do get attached to her - it’s actually quite strange. And, underlying the entire story are question of conspiracy and fate. Very well done and subtle.

I can’t wait until the musical comes to Vancouver. There’s a sequel to this book called Son of the Witch, and I’m definitely going after that, and maybe even his ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.’ I’d like to read the Wizard of Oz, but that stupid movie that kept showing when we were kids from the 80s has really turned me off of it. Anyone else know which one I’m talking about?

During our lives, we struggle to forget… And forgetting can sometimes be the most creative and life-sustaining thing that we could ever accomplish

Soucouyant, David Chariandy’s dynamically lyrical and poetic first novel captivatingly addresses the very common human desire of wanting to escape from our personal histories, while maintaining those beautiful parts of our memories.

Set in a rickety house, in a “good neighborhood” near the Scarborough Bluffs, the story follows a son’s return to his mother, Adele, who is suffering from dementia. A soucouyant, an evil spirit taken from Caribbean folklore, has symbolically taken her over, as traumatic memories of her past fester within her. The story fittingly progresses in a “stream of consciousness” style, having the story drift from the present tense to the past, where the narrator becomes occupied with becoming one of his mother’s caretakers, in addition to bearing the responsibility of remembering. The narrator recounts the details of his mother’s life from her difficult childhood in Trinidad during World War II through to her immigration to a Canada still rampant with racism and prejudice.

The memories Chariandy imbeds throughout this story are witty, haunting and sometimes quite heart-breaking, but incredibly vivid, painted with such passion and vibrancy. The novel touches on something deeply moving; perhaps, because of the fleeting nature of memory itself and because of our very complex understanding of mortality.

This narrative voice of Chariandy is exceptionally beautiful and I imagine he writes magnificent poetry and short stories. However, as a whole, there was something missing from this novel. You know those novels where you come to the end and you just want to know more about the characters? This novel was sort of like “Oh, that was pretty” and you completely forget the characters. The story he weaves is touching, but maybe the sordid nature of dementia and watching your parents slowly deconstruct in any context and with any narrative is going to be touching. The tone was lovely and he had some very profound quotes, but all in all, the way the story and the metaphors came together was a little “English 101″ (and I’m not just saying that because he’s a prof at SFU).

The memories, ideas and imagery Chariandy writes about are very beautiful, but the novel as a whole was a bit empty. Or is that Chariandy’s ironic method of conveying “dementia”? This novel won a couple awards, and I mean, everyone loves a winner, right? I recommend this book primarily because I can’t figure out if I like it or not and because I have a copy of it I wouldn’t mind passing along. It’s short too, if that helps.

2.75/5

From Publishers Weekly
Though Bushnell’s fourth book opens in familiar Sex and the City territory—a fashion show in Bryant Park where attendees sport Jimmy Choo and Baume & Mercier—the novel quickly takes off for deeper waters. For once, men—how to get them, how to keep them—aren’t Bushnell’s central focus, and her three main characters, all women in their early 40s, are surely her richest to date. Two of the three are married with children; all are at the top of their field. Wendy, a movie executive at the Miramax-like Parador, struggles to finish a potentially Oscar-winning flick while placating her unemployed hubby at home. Nico, editor-in-chief at Bonfire magazine, juggles the Machiavellian politics of her corporate parent-company with the needs of her naïf boy-toy lover and her savvy Columbia professor husband. And while fashion designer Victory Ford may date a Mr. Big-like character, she takes the relationship lightly. Most of her energies are directed to saving her business, which has fallen on hard times since she launched a new, more innovative line. Bushnell herself won’t face the same problem. There’s plenty of the old razzle-dazzle to satisfy her fans. Her characters lunch at Michael’s, go on dates to the Whitney Biennial and shop for ponies at the Palm Beach Polo Club. There’s a make-out session in a bar bathroom, panty ripping on a kitchen countertop and many frank descriptions of urban sexual mores. But Bushnell’s emphasis on female friendship and career ambition may also win her a legion of new readers. Her characters want “the sweet, creamy sensation of power,” and it’s Bushnell’s account of how they got it, and how they keep it, that will really keep readers turning pages. Expect a splashy debut, followed by a long run of sales.

Having just watched the 7-episode first season of Lipstick Jungle, I picked up the original novel. The show and the novel follow each other closely and are about three highly successful careerwomen working, living and thriving in New York. The gender role/battle of the sexes/men are evil themes run throughout -Wendy Healy is the successful careerwoman is our role reversal example as her husband is a “mousewife” - as does the theme of the vicious corporate world -Nico O’Neilly’s plots to oust her boss, the leathery-skinned, artificially tanned Mike Harness, before he does her. The novel’s plot includes everything that you would expect, from affairs with younger men, balancing life as careerwoman and mother, luxury brand name-dropping, jetsetting romances and career-climbing. The whole novel is about clichés surrounding a modern world in which women are rising to positions of power and influence and the obstacles and trials which greet them, all of which, in some form or another, originate from m-e-n. Bushnell packages the novel well, as our heroines are glamorous but not perfect, the children of our heroines are predictably naughty and cute and the men are two-dimentionally deficient and sub-par. Bushnell may have chosen to diminish the development of the male characters in order to emphasize the sisterhood (another theme) of the three female protagonists and thereby, not allowing readers any sympathy for nor any knowledge of the male characters. And as a result, the sisterhood theme comes off as artificial. Lipstick Jungle is a cry to the Girl Power urge in female readers and you can bet that there’s a happy ending if, of course, you happen to wear stilettos and have two X chromosomes and if as a reader, you’re looking for harmless, inconsequential reading on a lazy day.