Thursday, January 9, 2014

Thoughts on some books.

Memoir in an Ant-Proof Case by Mark Helprin I should have realized that this was a Baron Von Munchausen story. Instead I took it at face value (some people do, after all, live larger than life stories) and did not realize until half way through the book that the narrator was lying to me. And then his lies got more and more egregious. I realize that it's silly to resent a fictional character in a novel lying to me but I had to force myself to finish reading the book, and I did so resentfully. The writing is wonderful with perhaps a hundred or so metaphors and similes per page, many of them striking, several thought provoking, some dead on arrival, and some absolutely baffling. Because of the "adult" content, I'm not sure who I would recommend this book to.

Storm Chase by K.M. Carroll    I did like this YA about teenagers acquiring magic powers and saving the world even though it was not great literature. It was fun. I did not date in high school, but I did watch the kids around me going through the dating/jealousy/angst etc, as do the kids in this book. I think any teens who like animorphs, Twilight, Grimm etc would enjoy reading this book with close calls, danger, and exploration of self and roles.

Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren   Once you get past the wish-fulfillment trope of a teenage girl able to kill adult men with her sword (her dad did train her) and just say, okay, it's a given, you find an exciting story of love and hate with teen from modern times thrown into medieval city-states in what later became Italy. Girls and women who love shivery love stories and history will like this series a lot.

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