The Mosaic of Shadows

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The Mosaic of Shadows

By Tom Harper

Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur

ISBN: 0-312-33867-8

3 stars

The Mosaic of Shadows had a perfect setting, Byzantium, a mystery which I was willing to accept under the guise of historical fiction, and some interesting characters.  Unfortunately, the story fell a bit flat for me.

In Byzantium in 1066, an assassin narrowly misses the emperor with an arrow.  Knowing the implications if the emperor were to die, the palace wants the assassin found.  Demetrios Askiates, a man known for uncovering mysteries, is called to the palace and given orders to uncover the assassin’s plot and catch the would be killer.  Demetrios, whose usual cases have to do with finding lost items, ends up in an unknown world dealing with princes, slaves, and mercenaries.  When an army summoned by the emperor appears at the city’s walls, the hunt for an assassin takes on a new urgency.

The setting of this book was wonderful but the characters, with the exception of one, weren’t so wonderful.  Demetrios is in over his head and doesn’t seem like a person you would hire for this type of job unless you wanted him to fail.  He has a family but they’re mostly an afterthought and the love interest is barely thought of until she’s needed.  All of this made Demetrios rather unappealing.  He was supposed to be a solver of mysteries but he was more like a bumbling detective you would hire to find a cat in a tree.  I wanted to like him but I couldn’t find his redeeming value.

Some of the more interesting characters didn’t get developed as much as I would have liked.  The Varangians, who guard the emperor, are known for their fierce devotion and fighting abilities and the captain of the emperor’s guard, Sigurd, was a character I would have liked to have seen more of.

The ending, however, was exciting and I was glad that I stuck around for that.  Unfortunately, the mystery part of the story didn’t feel much like a mystery for me.  The person who “did it” was a person I wanted to see gone anyway so it’s wasn’t much of a surprise when his association with the killer was revealed.

This is the first book in a series and I don’t know if I will be following up with the others.  However, if I find out that the Varangian guards are featured, I may change my mind.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

By Mary Roach

W.W. Norton & Company

ISBN: 978-0-393-06847-4

5 stars

Space is not my thing; neither is watching the NASA channel.  Most days I don’t have any interest in space travel or NASA but this book may have turned that around for me.

Packing for Mars is about the strange research that goes into sending someone into the void.  Humans are not suited for the journey, will never adapt to it, and need to be prepared for every possible contingency.  What I tend to think of when I hear NASA is the monstrous budget and Roach sheds light on why and how that money is spent, and oddly, most of it is spent on the ground testing every piece of equipment that will be hurled into space on a metal tube attached to a rocket.

Astronauts are an odd bunch, and most who own up to that title, never actually spend any time in space.  Most spend their days endlessly testing things like space suits and tools rather than flying a spacecraft.  In addition, it was interesting to read about some of the first thoughts NASA scientists had about space and the affect on the human body which included — will blood still flow in a man’s veins without gravity (The use of the word man is intentional.  Woman weren’t being considered for astronaut positions at the time.), will the digestive system still function without gravity, and what will those astronauts eat after all?

A large portion of this book is devoted to bodily functions.  I wouldn’t recommend reading this book while eating unless of course you have ambitions involving space travel, then I would say you must read this while eating to get any vomit reaction you might have under control.

Bizarre simulations are something NASA excels at.  They use monkeys, cadavers, and even living and breathing people to find out how g-forces, food additives, weightlessness, and isolation will affect a person in space.  Some of the isolation simulations recounted here are quite amusing and also disconcerting as I would have to seriously consider why anyone would want to undergo some of these tests, and maybe even their commitment to sanity, for a chance to look down at the earth from space.

The best part of this book — the footnotes.  I never thought I would ever say that considering I mostly skip footnotes but Roach has a very engaging and funny style that makes you laugh at some of the odd things that actually go on at NASA.

If you’re interested in space, or not, this book is a fascinating read that will have you laughing and thoroughly disgusted at the same time but all in a good way.  I highly recommend it.

The Sunday Salon – October already! When did that happen?

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It seems the days/weeks/months are flying by this year.  While I will not admit to being ready for October, I am ready for fall — my favorite time of year.  Unfortunately, I don’t live in an area where the leaves turn colors.  They go from green to brown and then fall off; not exciting at all.  When you grow up in the Poconos, all other fall foliage is a disappointment by comparison.

Since it is October, I thought I’d do a September wrap-up.  Last month, I read nine books which actually surprised me because I didn’t feel as if I read much in September.

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara

Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor

The Mosaic of Shadows by Tom Harper

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

While I enjoyed several of the books, a few others felt blah but no overwhelmingly bad reads or DNFs so a good month in the end.  I hope to have reviews up for several of the above books this week.

I’m currently reading The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford and so far it’s a good read.  It takes place on an anthropological dig in Africa in the 1960s; a very interesting setting with a lot of potential conflict.  I wasn’t so sure about this one early on but it seems to have found its footing.  I hope to be able to spend some quality time with it today.  The weather here has been wonderful the last two days, and instead of reading, we’ve been outside enjoying the cool, dry days.  I’m hoping to combine my reading with some outdoor time later today.

Happy Sunday.  🙂

My Favorite Reads – Angela’s Ashes

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is…

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt.

From Amazon.com: Frank McCourt’s haunting memoir takes on new life when the author reads from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Recounting scenes from his childhood in New York City and Limerick, Ireland, McCourt paints a brutal yet poignant picture of his early days when there was rarely enough food on the table, and boots and coats were a luxury. In a melodic Irish voice that often lends a gentle humor to the unimaginable, the author remembers his wayward yet adoring father who was forever drinking what little money the family had. He recounts the painful loss of his siblings to avoidable sickness and hunger, a proud mother reduced to begging for charity, and the stench of the sewage-strewn streets that ran outside the front door. As McCourt approaches adolescence, he discovers the shame of poverty and the beauty of Shakespeare, the mystery of sex and the unforgiving power of the Irish Catholic Church. This powerful and heart-rending testament to the resiliency and determination of youth is populated with memorable characters and moments, and McCourt’s interpretation of the narrative and the voices it contains will leave listeners laughing through their tears.

My thoughts: I don’t read memoirs.  To be honest, this is probably the only one I have ever read.  They aren’t part of my regular reading fare and I somehow don’t think that will change.  This particular book was recommended to me by a former co-worker about nine years ago and she actually lent me her book so I would read it.  She kept telling me how funny and sad the story was and I kept saying, “That’s great except I don’t read memoirs.”  Finally, I gave in and loved the book so much I bought my own copy.

It is funny, it’s also so sad that it did make me cry in places.  The poverty he experiences growing up, the hunger, the death, and the shame he feels for his family’s position are heart wrenching.  McCourt writes in such a way that even though you feel so hurt by his situation you also want to laugh because he found humor is so many little things in life.

If you don’t like memoirs, this would be an excellent starting point.  I can’t say it made me go out and buy another memoir but I found an appreciation for this genre in Frank McCourt’s story.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

By J.K. Rowling

Scholastic

ISBN: 0-439-13635-0

5 stars

This is my favorite book in the series, and before I tell you why, there will be spoilers so feel free to look away now if you don’t want to know.

First, the short re-cap: Harry is off to his third year at Hogwarts, and before he gets there, blows up his aunt like a balloon, worries that he might be expelled, takes the Knight Bus to London, learns that a madman named Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban, finds out that Sirius is after him, and that he may not be safe even at Hogwarts.

I love this book for so many reasons.  Aunts blowing up, Knight Buses, werewolves, dementors, boggarts, Quidditch, Firebolts, and Maurader’s Maps, ahh, yes, we’re back at Hogwarts.  Let’s start with a favorite, Professor Lupin.  He, for the first time, teaches the students practical applications in his Defense Against the Dark Arts class and his classes add a lightness to an otherwise gloomy year with dementors and escaped killers running around.  Lupin teachers Harry new skills and gives him hints into his parents’ lives from the perspective of an old friend.  He’s kind and a friend to Harry when he needs one.  The dementors are a dark turn in this book and become, sadly, a way for Harry to connect with his parents.  The attacks on him cause him to grow stronger though and he uses the sadness that he didn’t know existed, to move forward.  Hagrid, now the teacher of the Care of Magical Creatures class, is still finding odd things to harbor.  And it is thanks to Hagrid that we get to meet Buckbeak the Hippogriff, creatures I just adore for some reason.  Hermione is still being her good self in this book and when she causes Harry’s new Firebolt broom to be confiscated for fear that it might be cursed, she makes no friends and even I get annoyed at her.  Does she not know the Quidditch season it right around the corner?  And then there is Sirius.  He’s a dark figure in Harry’s past and one he didn’t even know existed.  He’s Harry godfather, a fact Harry never knew until this book.  One thing that does annoy me — when Sirius explains everything and offers Harry the chance to come and live with him, Harry jumps at it.  He doesn’t know this person and it just shows you how quick he is to make decisions before thinking about anything.  Harry?  Really?  Yes, I know the Dursley’s are awful people but this man just escaped from prison, and while I like him too, give it a second will you.

I realized while reading this book that I remembered the ending from the movie better than the book.  The incident with Hermione’s time turner is much different and I was pleased by this happy little discovery and was trying to figure out where it was going the whole time I was reading.  It’s nice to be surprised by books you’re read before.

I also forgot that Hermione doesn’t get Crookshanks until this book.  For some reason, I just always thought of the cat as there but it’s really not until the third book that he arrives and plays a much larger part than I remembered.  Poor Scabbers though.  While I don’t feel anything nice for Peter Pettigrew, I did feel for Ron having to watch his rat deteriorate.

The Prisoner of Azkaban is where I feel the story begins to take a turn and you know that no one is safe anywhere.  Sirius’s escape is even announced on the muggle news which is a warning that Hogwarts or not, there is no safe place.  The dementors with their soul sucking abilities remind the students that life will not always be filled with joy.

And to end this — Snape, still disliking him greatly.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

Today I start Mockingjay by Suzanna Collins.  When I put this book on hold at the library, I was number 48 in the queue.  I figured I wouldn’t get a chance to read the book until next year considering how slow my library can be with popular books, but then something miraculous happened — my hold came in!  So today, Mockingjay.

“I run my fingers through the thick layer of bubbles in my tub.  Cleaning me up is just a preliminary step to determining my new look.” (59)

What are you teasing us with this week?

Dracula in Love

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Dracula in Love

By Karen Essex

Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0-385-52891-7

3 stars

I’ll be upfront, I read a few early reviews and wasn’t so sure this book was for me.  I decided that I still needed to give it a chance though.  After reading it, I decided that it wasn’t the book for me and I like vampire stories and have a very deep affection for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  This book followed the same epistolary style but was told from Mina Murray’s point of view.  Mina is a character that I happen to like from the original and that was the reason for my deciding to give it a go.

Mina Murray is teaching and happily waiting to become Mrs. Jonathan Harker and begin her married life.  Wanting to be prepared for their future together, Jonathan takes a short sojourn working for a foreign count to help their finances and further his career.  While Jonathan is away, Mina visits her friend Lucy Westenra and becomes involved in her friend’s love affairs.  She also starts having odd dreams and feelings that she can’t share with anyone.  When she gets a letter telling her that Jonathan is gravely ill, she rushes to his side to nurse him back to health.  In the coming weeks, Mina’s strange dreams start to become her reality, her husband confesses an affair, her friend dies, and somehow she ends up in an insane asylum.  It is then that her dream lover comes to her rescue.

Several of the reviews I read noted the amount of sex; some found it too much, others didn’t seem to think anything of it.  The story takes place in Victorian England so sex, while deeply thought about, wasn’t much talked about, and yes, that is a big part of the story here as it was in the original as well.  The sex, amount of or lack of depending on how feel about these things, didn’t bother me but the silly references about it were annoying and slightly cumbersome in places.

While most of the same characters appear (Dr. Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Jonathan Harker, Dr.Van Helsing, Lucy Westenra) they have been changed slightly and some have become so maddening that I wanted to slap a few — Seward in particular who seemed to diagnose each and every woman he met with some sex related disease of the mind.  What I found annoying about this was that I felt I was once again being reminded about the Victorian sex mindset and I didn’t need that.

The last 100 pages of this book were much better than the 267 preceding pages.  And though I won’t mention it here, Mina’s character is given a new, life shall we say, that adds an interesting, if somewhat strange twist, to the story.  It didn’t work for me, but as long as you’re not a purist, it probably won’t provide the “really?” moment for you as it did for me.

If you’re looking for a vampire/Dracula story with a little different take, this one might be for you.  I found it a bit sluggish but a relatively fast read for a weekend.

This book was sent to me by the publisher for review.

The Sunday Salon – The National Book Festival

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The National Book Festival was this weekend in Washington, DC and I braved the still 90 degree weather to see two authors — Diana Gabaldon who wrote The Outlander series and Elizabeth Kostova who wrote The Historian and The Swan Thieves.  Gabaldon was very funny especially when she started describing how and why she decided on a Scotsman for the male character.  She drew a huge crowd, and as always, a lot of questions about her next book since she left everyone hanging in An Echo in the Bone.  Two years at least.  Yep, another two years or so before I find out what happened.  She does have a graphic novel coming out that does feature Outlander characters so I guess that will have to do for the moment.  Kostova was good as well and spoke about her writing process which I found interesting.  For whatever reason, I’m always fascinated to hear about authors’ writing processes; when they write, how they put the story together, and where they find inspiration.  This week I’ve been reading The Historian for the read along and hearing Kostova speak about the book provided a lot of insight on why and how she ended up writing about Dracula.  I’m surprised to see how much I’m enjoying it the second time around too.  I always worry that when I pick up a book to re-read that I’m not going to enjoy it as much as I did the first time and that my experience and memories will be ruined somehow.  That doesn’t seem to be happening with this book.

Because of the heat, I ended up spending time in the National Gallery looking at Edvard Munch prints instead of listening to more authors and by 2PM I decided that I had lost enough fluid thanks to the heat and left so not much else to report.  C-SPAN’s Book TV will have coverage up soon if you’re interested in seeing any of the authors at this year’s festival.  I’ll probably end up watching a few that I missed this way.  If you want to see the list of authors, the Library of Congress which sponsors the festival has a complete list.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire was my other re-read this week.  I hate to admit this but I remember more from the movies than I do the books, but thanks to cable, I have seen the movies more than I have read the books so it does make sense.  It’s nice to be surprised by a book on a re-read though.  While I knew the ending, there were details I had forgotten which make the story much different to read than to watch.

I started The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin this weekend.  He’s an Australian author and this is his first book.  It’s dark, disturbing, and sad and I have decided that I will probably be finishing this one while the sun is shining today.  Come to think of it, it would have been perfect for the Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge which I meant to enter and then didn’t.  Maybe next year.

I was planning to include a few pics from the book festival but I can’t figure out how to get them off my phone and hubby is working.  Since I want to be able to spend some time with him today, away from the computer and the blackberry, I’m not going to ask him how to figure it out.  Besides, they aren’t all that good so you’re not really missing anything.  The woman in front of me kept moving and her head appears in every single one of my photos.  Oh well.

That’s it for me this week.  Happy Sunday!