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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.

I started A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin a few days ago.  I haven’t had the chance to read much, but what little I’ve read, is fantastic.  Let me share…

“Bran pulled himself up, climbed over the gargoyle, crawled out onto the roof.  This was the easy way.  He moved across the roof to the next gargoyle, right above the window of the room where they were talking.” (86 of 787 on Nook)

Today’s Book

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I’ve been reading The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  The book is aptly named considering Grann spends almost the entire book talking about Percy Fawcett’s (an Amazonian explorer that disappeared) dogged need to constantly be trekking through the jungle searching for a city that almost no one but him believes exists.  And what can I say, it’s fascinating.

I’m coming to the part where Grann heads into to the Amazon to follow Percy’s last route and it’s interesting to see how he tempers his own obsession.  As others before him that have gone into the jungle to search for Fawcett, he too finds himself following any hint of information.  He even makes several trips to England and Brazil before going into the Amazon to read Fawcett’s papers and speak with family members in the hope of gleaming something useful for his own trip.

Grann’s writing is straightforward — he is a journalist — so there’s not a lot of flowery language which fits his topic well.  He does add some vivid descriptions of what a jungle disease can and will do to human flesh, and if you’re like me and find yourself at this point while eating lunch, it will make you want to stop eating but not stop reading.  He’s amusing as well especially when he talks about his shopping excursion to a Manhattan camping and hiking store to buy supplies.

This is starting to sound a lot like a review so that is all this morning.  Happy reading.

The House on Durrow Street

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The House on Durrow Street

By Galen Beckett

Ballantine Books

eISBN:978-0-345-52271-9

3 stars

The House on Durrow Street is the sequel to The Magicians & Mrs. Quent.  My review of The Magicians & Mrs. Quent is here if you’re interested in some thoughts on the first book.

After saving Altania from evil, Ivy Quent is living happily with her two sisters and her new husband in her father’s old house.  In the midst of restoring the house to its former glory, many odd things are found, but knowing her father was a magician, none of these things faze the rather unflappable Ivy.  Soon, Ivy and Mr. Quent are swept into the high circles of Altania society, Ivy especially attending party after party.  Nothing seems amiss in her world until she begins to experience a strange calling from the trees and finds out that the magic her father used to safeguard the house may not be as strong as she once thought.

Two things about these books: 1.) I like the world.  It’s sort of an alternative Edwardian England with magic and it’s very appealing.  And 2.) Ivy is a very likable character.  Two more things about these books: 1.) Ivy somehow got a bit dense after she got married; and 2.) I still felt as if I was reading different books only tangentially tied together by a few characters that crossed paths every once in a while.  I had this same complaint about the first book and that was not alleviated with the second.  There are characters and sub-plots in this book that go nowhere and seem to have no ties to the ending.  I do like these other characters and story lines and I especially liked the different look at the lives of those in Altania but having characters meet up in a bar doesn’t make the stories mesh.  And, it moves slow.  Very slow.  In The Magicians & Mrs. Quent, I felt like the pace moved faster but in The House on Durrow Street I kept waiting for something to happen and it doesn’t until 550 pages in to the 602 page book.

I’m a sucker for a series (probably something I don’t have to state if you’ve been reading my reviews) but I’m not sure about this one.  I so wanted to love it because I really like the world built by Beckett but I don’t feel as if the story is going anywhere.  For me, the world can’t be everything and I think that’s the way I feel about this one.  I still need things to happen and they don’t seem to be.  Then again, maybe it’s me so feel free to ignore at will.

A third book in the series is planned — The Master of Heathcrest Hall.  While I wasn’t so enthralled with the first two, something still nags at me and tells me I’ll be reading the third wondering what’s going to happen with Altania even if I’m not sure that I’m totally invested anymore.  Odd?  No.  Call me a book addict is all.

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.

Having finally finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, I’m happy to be starting The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  Let’s start with the preface shall we.

“I pulled the map from my back pocket.  It was wet and crumpled, the lines I had traced to highlight my route now faded.” (page 6 of 325 on Nook)

Magic Bleeds

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Magic Bleeds

By Ilona Andrews

Ace Books

eISBN: 978-1-101-18776-0

4.75 stars

Magic Bleeds is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series.  And, let me tell you right here how much I love these books.  I put off buying this one when it came out this summer (Why I don’t know?  I think it had to do with a book buying ban or some other foolishness.) but I gave in when I knew I would be traveling for work.  I wanted something that would suck me in, entertainment, and leave me searching out places to read.  Andrews provided me that little respite with this book, and also, how happy was I to find out there are three more books to come after this one!  So, now the gush is over…the review.

Kate Daniels is making good on a bet she lost to Curran, the Beast Lord.  When he stands her up, she does her best not to make her way to the Keep and rip his head off knowing that as an employee of the Order of Merciful Aid which deals with all magical problems, it would make relations between the Pack and the Knights of the Order even more difficult.  Instead she goes about her days cleaning up magical messes trying not to think about Curran.  Without knowing it, she stumbles onto a strange phenomenon, magically poisoned individuals that emit plagues.  These infectious people start showing up all over magic-ridden Atlanta and all seem to become her problem.  While trying to deal with and contain a possible plague, Kate’s aunt, a god who loves to demolish worlds, appears and it’s not a happy family reunion.  In the midst of trying to figure out how to kill her aunt, she finds herself falling harder for Curran who seems intent on making her his mate.

As the fourth book in the series, I will say this — you can read this book on its own because much is explained and the story here is self-contained enough to make it easy to follow — but why would you do such a thing?  There’s too much fun to be had reading them all.  What I love about this series is the world itself.  The Atlanta in these books is subject to waves of magic that flood the city with craziness.  There are shapeshifters, vampires (But of a different type than most are used to so don’t let that turn you off.), mages, beasts, and everything else you can possibly think of.  Kate is crass, hardheaded, crazy, and funny.  She cracks jokes at the most inappropriate times and she makes the story fantastic.  It’s an odd mix I’ll grant you but you have to trust that somehow all of the ways in which magic makes things happen in these books will work and it does.  Andrews takes a number of fantasy elements and staples and tweaks each one so that it becomes gritty and dark.  For me, it’s like brain candy of the highest caliber.

The love story between Kate and Curran finally comes to some understanding in this book and I couldn’t wait for it to happen.  In fact, I had been waiting for three books for this one so without wanting to ruin this if you haven’t read it yet, I won’t say more.  While I’ll admit to not always being a huge fan of love sub-plots, this one worked for me.  Kate and Curran are two great characters and the reason I keep reading this series.

If you’re looking for different, dark fantasy, you might want to try these.  It’s not your standard fantasy telling but this is a world that will pull you in and you won’t want to put the book down.  The three previous books in this series are: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes.

Peter Pan

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Peter Pan

By J.M. Barrie

Barnes & Noble Classics

eISBN: 978-1-411-43289-5

5 stars

My mom once told me that as a child I wouldn’t sleep until she read me Peter Pan.  It usually took three or four reads since I was a child who didn’t care much for sleep.  My mom had the story memorized and said if she turned the page too early, I would stop her to let her know she wasn’t done with the page yet.  Apparently, I also had the story memorized. 🙂  The version I was read while tucked snuggly in bed was not this version but rather an illustrated book probably courtesy of Disney.  Whatever version of the book I was read as a child, this one held true for me and every bit of it was fantastic.

Peter Pan is a young boy who simply refuses to grow up.  He lives in Neverland with the Lost Boys, the Piccaninny tribe, the mermaids, pirates, a ticking crocodile, and of course, Hook.  Peter is the captain of the boys and they do whatever he tells them to.  One night, he meets Wendy and her two brothers, Michael and John, and takes them all away to Neverland to share in his adventures.

One thing I noticed about the book was the violence.  There’s open talk of killing Hook, Peter is not shy about telling anyone that he cut off his hand, and that he plans to finish him.  While no one says what happens to the Lost Boys that get too old, one doesn’t have to look very far for the reason for their disappearance.  Peter is extraordinarily arrogant (Maybe that’s not the right word for describing a child; cocky?) and nothing happens without his say.  Even when danger lurks, not one of the Lost Boys questions his authority even when they are told to kill the pirates.  That astounded me and made me happy to see that Barrie didn’t dumb this story down.  Bad things happen in life and he brought it down to a level that was understandable for a child.  As an adult, I obviously have a different view but was interested in the way he portrayed Peter and the fact that even though he was just a boy, he was a boy with responsibilities for others even if he didn’t think much about it in those terms.  Well, at least until he brought in Wendy to be the mother which solved some of his responsibility issues.

Wendy is playing the mother of the Lost Boys and Peter is somewhat the father as Wendy does say to him often how wonderful their boys are.  It’s slightly odd but I overlooked my wiggly feeling about it.  The boys so badly want someone to love them, and when Wendy comes along, they cling to her like no one else.  It’s almost sad how starved they are for love and attention.  She delights in telling them stories of her parents and tests them frequently so her brothers will remember.

Most of all, this story is all whimsy.  It’s beautifully told with an almost poetic quality to it at times.  It can be harsh and it can be so simple in the way it describes the games the children play.  It’s both amusing and sad reading it as an adult.

I did a few Google searches to find out more about Barrie and it turns out the idea for Peter Pan is based on a brother who died in childhood.  In his mother’s eyes, his brother always remained 14 years old, the age at which he died.  That made me so very sad but if this was the way he finally managed to immortalize his brother, it’s a wonderful tribute.

I wondered how I would feel about this story as an adult and I can honestly say that for me, it will always be a favorite.  It’s magical and I’m glad I got around to reading it again.  I had a whole new perspective as an adult and it gave me a greater appreciation for the story.  I do wonder what my mom would think of it now though…

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.

This week my teaser comes from The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett.

“The lumenal was far shorter than what the almanac called for, and the sunbeam that fell from the high window seemed to lurch across Eldyn’s writing table in fits and starts.

He did little work on the box of receipts.” (page 528 of 602 on Nook)

 

Kraken: An Anatomy

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Kraken: An Anatomy

By China Mieville

Ballentine Books

eISBN: 978-0-345-52185-9

4 stars

Billy Harrow is boring and nothing much happens in his life.  He’s a curator at London’s Natural History museum and has an uncanny ability to make creatures look alive in formaldehyde.  Giving a tour one day to a small group of people, a normal occurrence that comes with the job, he finds the museum’s most famous exhibit, a giant squid, missing.  The cops are called, interviews granted, and no leads emerge.  Billy goes home and tells two friends about the missing squid, or squidnapping if you will, and his odd day.  What follows is a strange tale of squid worshippers, encounters with Londonmancers who predict the city’s future, magicians, gods, familiars, gunfarmers, chaos Nazis, and Star Trek fanatics.

I’m at a loss as to how to describe this book.  In genre terms, it’s fantasy.  It’s a caper of sorts, but it’s really not.  It’s a mystery, but it’s not exactly.  There’s so much going on in this book that I feel that if I talk only about one portion, then I wouldn’t be doing it justice.  On the other hand, if I don’t tell you about it all, then I won’t make it come alive.

My first experience with Mieville’s writing was The City & The City.  It’s a dark, detective, police procedural and even though it wasn’t my regular reading, I enjoyed it.  I thought this would be somewhat the same but it’s not at all.  It’s funny, witty, strange, downright weird, and chaotic in parts.  He takes you to the story’s abyss and pulls you back in.  (Oh, come on, I couldn’t resist.)  There’s a long list of characters that range from the most bland to the oddest of people and one who actually is what his name suggests — a tattoo.  He talks by moving around on a man’s back, slightly creepy but very effective.  There’s a god who flits back and forth into stone statues and the odd Star Trek figurine trying to help Billy track down the stolen squid and at the same time he’s also trying to put down a strike by familiars.  Then there are soothsayers who cut holes in the skin of the city (the asphalt serves as the city’s skin) to read its guts and predict the future.  There are otherworldly hit men and a police force that deals in the supernatural.

Here’s the hard part about this review — I enjoyed this book.  A lot.  Thanks to this book, there are many new words that I want to incorporate into my vocabulary — Google-fu, Krakenists (people who worship the Kraken god), and squipnapping to name three.  Although, admittedly, squidnapping is going to be much harder to slip in during normal conversation.  It amused me, made me think of paperback thriller books you can buy at the grocery store, and made me add Mieville to my list of must-read authors but the books itself is impossible for me describe.

What I can say is that Mieville is a master story-teller able to incorporate a wide range of pop culture along with numerous religious arguments you never really knew you’d find yourself thinking about while reading a book about a giant squid that has been kidnapped.

I spent several days ruminating over this review and I still don’t think I’ve provided anything useful.  It’s strange book but a good mix of everything.  It’s fantasy (the story takes place in an alternate London) but offers so much more.

Here’s what I will say to wrap this up and staunch the bit of a love fest I have going on — if you’re looking for something completely out of the ordinary, try this one.  It won’t disappoint, just make sure you go in with an open mind and a good bit of, “Oh, OK, that’s where we’re going with this.  Then lead on,” attitude.