ten.10.ten

I finished Specials this week, the third book in the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. So here are my thoughts on all of them.

Uglies. I liked it okay. It was a quick read and a very interesting idea. Westerfeld creates a fairly believable far distant future of the world based on our current trends/social foibles, although some of it bugged me, but that's bound to happen when you are dealing with a completely fictional state based off of reality - everyone has their own view and interpretation. The main character, Tally, was likable in this book, less so by Specials. I don't want to get into the whole story line because a lot of stuff happens - but I was hooked by the end of the story. I previously mentioned that the book ends in a cliff hanger (which annoys me so very much), but I owned the next two books so I just picked up Pretties and moved on with the story.

Pretties. Tally turns from an Ugly to a Pretty. Pretties are "bubbleheads" who basically spend their time partying...well, not basically, that's all they do. But Tally is different and her ugly past comes back to help her escape the life of a pretty. I like the new love interest, Zane, but Shay becomes more and more annoying. I think Tally's priorities start to change in this book, but I like the idea that Tally changes herself and doesn't need a "cure" to overcome what's ailing her. She is confident and determined and those are good qualities for the main, female character in a teen fiction novel to have. On the other hand, she's far too involved with/concerned about her boyfriends. And now for a tangent.

I think authors (especially in teen fiction) get caught up in trying to always have some sort of love interest for their main character. This is mostly annoying with the female leads as the way they associate with the boy they "love" often counters their previously established characteristics. A prime (and recent) example of this would be Bella in the Twilight series. We are told that she is mature, independent and strong-willed. When she is with Edward, though, none of these traits really shine through. The same can be said for Tally (possibly to a lesser degree) and also for several other teen heroines. Am I the only one who sees this or is bothered by it? Perhaps this is just human nature and all girls can be this way at times (ie. change themselves to make someone else happy), but I'd like to think that in a book, where everything is being created from scratch, that maybe the heroine could truly stick to her character/morals/beliefs and still keep her boyfriend, best friend, etc. happy. Maybe I'm crazy.

Finally, we have Specials. The pace was slower and Tally was annoying. Also, Shay was MORE annoying. Shay redeemed herself in the end, which was good. Tally never really truly "fixed" herself in this one though. She just leveled out everyone else. Plus other things happened that I was not happy with but that I don't want to write here and spoil for those of you who haven't read it yet. Then, to top it all off, the ending! The entire series is turned into a politically charged environmental statement and a poorly worded one at that. I am to believe that in the space of one year, Tally has gone from ugly to pretty to special, has brought down a corrupt government, alienated most of her friends, lost two boyfriends, AND then chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader?! Is it sad that I was fine with everything I listed before "chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader"? The ended just made it cheesy and annoying for me. It felt like an afterthought. Like Westerfeld needed to make a statement so he picked one, scattered a few convenient lines throughout the last book to corroborate the ending and viola!, that's it? Meh.

I think there is actually a fourth book in this "trilogy" but I am unsure about whether or not I want to read it? It's called Extras. Has anyone read it? Let me know.

Overall, I would probably recommend these books if you wanted something quick and light to read. I guess they would be a B- all together (I really enjoyed the first book, but was disappointed by the last).

Can someone please tell me why book 8 is not in paperback yet?? It came out at the very beginning of July of last year. This was eight months ago! And until now I had heard nothing about its paperback release, although I just found something on a website that said the beginning of July 2008--which I will trust, since I have nothing else to go on, and which also makes me very sad. Why do you suppose this book will require a full year before its paperback release? None of the others took that long. Grr.

I just finished reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Great book, intriguing idea...but HOW could anyone have started reading these without being able to move directly to the next book? If I didn't already own the first three out of four when I started reading Uglies, I would have been very annoyed by the end of it. It just stops right before a big event...technically right in the middle of a big event. This isn't like Twilight or Harry Potter where each book has a subplot to further the major overall plot of the series - it's like a "to be continued" storyline on TV and those are never fun.

Anyone feel the same way about Uglies?

More to come...

Miri has just read the trilogy mentioned in my previous post and made a post about it on her blog - just thought I would reiterate it here since it was interesting and well timed.

The Sweet Far Thing, etc.

I just finished reading this book which was part of the Book Extravaganza of Christmas 2007 (ie: given to me by Krissie). Here's the synopsis:

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

When I started the book I thought it would be as silly as the synopsis made it sound, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a quick read, and silly at times, but I found myself getting pretty involved with the mystery of the story. It's relatively easy to relate to the "evil" things girls will do to one another, emotionally and socially as well as to the bond that is eventually formed within a somewhat mis-matched foursome. It also helped that I watched Phantom of the Opera (similar time periods - completely different settings, but it still set a mood) while I was in the middle of the book. The mix of the setting and subject was fun as well - there's a good juxtaposition on the girl's trials in preparing themselves for Society (dealing with suitors, facing their different societal roles, being proper) and their desire to break free from the rules (which results in the use of magic).

There were parts that were slow - things that could have gotten resolved much faster but were drawn out for purposes unknown to me, but overall I liked the main character, Gemma, and the story. Of course, now the sequels are added to my list of things to read. I can't read the first in a series and not follow up. Here's hoping they match up to the first installment.

And I have to add that I kind of love the cover art. It doesn't tell you anything really about the stories - other than it's probably set in the 1800s-ish time period - but it's simple and pretty and I like that. Although I think I like the last one (to the right) the best.

1. I was at Borders tonight, and I gave in and bought Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I'm so excited!

2. I figured out what that Indian book was! There's nothing about butterflies on it, so I'm not sure where that came from, but I can't believe I actually found it just by walking around and looking at the shelves hoping to see something familiar. It's called The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

I restrained myself and only bought one, but I'm going to have to buy the second one soon. Probably after I finish reading this one. So there you go.

I am very excited for/jealous of everyone's new books, and Lindsey, you got an amazing haul this Christmas! That is so fantastic. My unplanned-for splurging is usually books, but just before Christmas I had a rare clothes splurge, so now I can't buy any books for a while. But there are definitely several that are on my list.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Water for Elephants

There's also one that I saw at Borders a while ago and I can't remember the name of it but I know I really wanted to read it. It was by an Indian writer and I've read enough to know that I want to read the rest of it now. I'll let you know if I figure it out, and also if you have any thoughts on what it might be, please let me know!

There are also a few books on my bookshelf that I've been meaning to read for quite a while. These are the top of that list.

March
The Accidental Tourist

Right now, however, I am reading a book that I borrowed from Curt called You Don't Know Me. It took me a long time to start it but the style of writing is really interesting and I got into it pretty fast once I started. I'm also getting out Through the Looking-Glass again, because I didn't finish it when I read Alice in Wonderland, and I'm reading a book my parents gave me for Christmas called You Can Heal Your Life. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like, and it is a fabulous book. I don't even have to finish it to tell you that you could all benefit from reading it yourselves.

Along some previous lines, The Great Hunt is being put on hold... indefinitely. I'll get around to it, but not now. Something else I would like to get is The Sweet Far Thing, which I've been waiting for for a long time. I'll have to check it out from the library, cause I can't buy it until it's out in paperback.

I just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's been sitting on my shelf for several months now (I found it at Costco for about $7, which is amazing) and I finally decided to dive in because I want to see the movie. And friends, it was AMAZING. I absolutely loved it even though it was very sad in lots of places. Or maybe because it was. I don't know. But it was a really fabulous book, and I'm now very much looking forward to seeing the movie ASAP.
Also, I'm sorry that my posts aren't really very exciting here... I don't know why they aren't, but...oh well. Yay books!

I don't usually make New Years Resolutions, mostly because I break them in a day - I tend to spread out resolutions and make them as the need or desire arises in my life. This one just happens to coincide with the new year because my book club chose this book for the month of January. The book is the Book of Mormon.

I haven't set a time limit (except perhaps before the next new year) because I never reach that goal and frankly, I would rather take my time reading the Book of Mormon this go round. I've read through the whole thing before, straight through, in order, in a timed fashion several times, but my goal this time is to really learn from it every time I read while still going in order. That means no jumping around, but also not speed reading to finish three chapters before being tested on the "subject matter" in a religion class and this means cover to cover in a traditional triple combination (Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price). I'm going to go at my own pace and see what happens. I'm hoping I will be disciplined enough to actually accomplish this the way I would like to accomplish it (if that makes sense).

I know when I read my scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) things seem to calm down in my life. I don't get as stressed over little things, I'm not as critical of myself and other people, and I am generally happier. Even through the war chapters. haha. You are getting a constant reminder of how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love YOU for who YOU are. How can that not make you happy and not make you want to treat everyone around you better?

I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm going to read every day because that will give me more time and make life easier because that's just not the case for me - when I try to do that I end up missing five days in a row and then getting discouraged because I am so far behind. Hence this new approach for the discipline-impaired.

So there you have it. The Book of Mormon will remain on my list of books I am reading until I finish reading it. That may mean it will be there until 2009, but as long as I am making the effort it's better than not reading it at all. So wish me luck!



For those of you who may happen upon this site and are not familiar with the Book of Mormon or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, feel free to visit www.lds.org or www.mormon.org to learn more.

That's what I got this Christmas, thanks to my lovely friends and sister. Well, to be specific, I got gift cards to Barnes and Noble which I went out and spent (along with a little of my own money) on tons o' wonderful books.

I got lots of teen fiction (also thanks to Krissie who bought me four awesome books) and The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. I am especially excited about that one because I have been wanting to read Through the Looking Glass again.

So...here's the list.

From Krissie:
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Loser by Jerry Spinelli

From my gift cards:
The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (the complete box set, she co-wrote Sorcery and Cecilia and I really liked the cover art so I thought I'd give it a try)
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Just because they were on sale for less than $5:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
The Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon's Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar by Robert Hartwell Fiske (it was $1.99 and I like reading about grammar misusage)
The Musee D'Orsay (which was 50% off and has beautiful pictures of the works of art from this museum in Paris, which was one of my favorites when we visited in the spring)

Okay, so I think that covers it. Actually I know I bought a couple more I just can't remember them at the moment. All in all, though, I am very pleased with my Christmas presents and tried to buy books that would last a long time and remind me of the people who made the buying of them possible. Hence the box set and the Works of Lewis Carroll. I am excited to start reading!!