My favorites for 2012

Hey, internet. It's, uh, been a while. Actually that's a lie; I'm on the internet a lot, just usually confined to Facebook and deviantArt now. So hi, Blogger, it's been a while!

2012 was a massive year for me. I went to San Diego Comic-Con; I began work on my honors thesis which I am--squeak of terror here--frantically working on finishing up now; I read over sixty new books and watched dozens of new films; I wrote some actual poetry and my first complete short story since I was fourteen; and I trimmed my hair for the first time by myself. All great accomplishments. But I'm here now to share my "Top 5" picks for what were my favorite films and books of 2012. Note that I limit the film selection to films released in 2012, not just films I saw for the first time in 2012, but the publication dates of the books I read are fair game. Also, these lists are arranged in no particular order. Except for the fact that The Hobbit is in fact my favorite film of the year. Other than that I can't really rank 'em because I'm indecisive.

So first of all: the books.



Top 5
The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy: Technically this is a children's book, but I love well-crafted children's books just as much as I love, say, Moby Dick and War and Peace. This book is funny. The characters are all super endearing, the style has this great deadpan humor to it, the subversion of the fairy tale is affectionate and really entertaining, and the illustrations are superb. I really, really want this turned into an animated film. I don't usually laugh aloud while reading but this book cracked me multiple times. After I finished I made my 18 yr old brother, 15 yr old brother, 12 yr old sister, and 9 yr old sister all read it and they all loved it just as much as I do which shows you how broad the appeal is.

Royal Assassin, by Robin Hobb: This I'm including in combination with the first book in the series, Assassin's Apprentice, which is equally brilliant. Hobb's mastery of language and of characters is simply awe-inspiring. I love how she writes her first-person narrative; it's one of the most convincing first-person voices in fiction, in my opinion, up there with David Copperfield and Ponyboy Curtis. Everything about this series is so inventive and powerful: the magic system, the feuding royals, the cut-throat politics, the frightening "Forged" ones, I could go on forever. This book is so good. I decided to spotlight it over Apprentice for a few reasons, mainly because while Apprentice's ending had a twist that literally made my jaw drop and had me holding my breath all through the climax, Royal did what I had thought impossible: the shock value and emotional punch of the ending was even more intense than its predecessor. Also, I adore the character of the Queen and it was a joy having her more prominently featured in this novel compared to the first one.

His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik: British Napoleonic warfare. With dragons. I really don't think I can say much more to convince you why you should love this book; if that doesn't convince you nothing will. I adore British writing from this time period and so what really makes this book is not just the creativity and fun behind the concept, but the way Novik so perfectly imitates the style of the time period, mimicking its descriptions, sentence structures, dialogue conventions, and so on enough to be entertaining and convincing but with a fresh liveliness that's entirely her own. I'm not usually a fan of dragons in fiction other than Tolkien dragons, but Temeraire is a fantastic character. Currently I'm making my way through the rest of the series and so far these books are all just as good, but I'm listing Majesty here because it is where the story begins.

The Rurouni Kenshin series, by Nobuhiro Watsuki: I am so not an anime/manga person. At all. But I am very much a story and character person, and this series is very entertaining on both counts. I only discovered it thanks to a friend, and while it doesn't make me want to seek out more manga to read, I did buy every volume of this series so I can read it over. And over. Again. As someone who loves both writing and drawing I really liked that Watsuki is both author and illustrator of this story; the art is very vibrant and the sense of motion in the panels is better, in my opinion, than most "Western" comic books I've read. But it's really the characters I fell in love with. I know I'm late to this party as this series' heyday was, what, over ten years ago now? But if like me you aren't really familiar with/interested in manga I'd recommend giving this series a try. It's funny and exciting and when the angst happens it really packs a punch.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente: To put it simply, I adore this book. It's as though Valente decided to write a story specifically for me, blending together many stories and fantasy conventions that I love with her own brilliant imagination, and the result is a quirky, beautifully told fairy story that's witty, heartbreaking, humorous, wise, and certainly, in my opinion, a children's novel on the level of Narnia or Oz in that it should be read by and savored by children and adults together for generations to come. This book deserves to be a classic and September is a heroine for the ages. I even wrote a college paper on this book because I love it so much. If you love imagination, or fantasy, or George MacDonald, or CS Lewis, or Neil Gaiman, do yourself a favor and read this book! And if you don't like any of those things then read it anyway because you should.

Honorable Mention: No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy

Ooh, Blogger's posting format's changed

I guess that's a sign that I've been away too long. Also it now apparently defaults to the default font setting for this browser, which I set as a joke as Tengwar about two years ago. And then promptly forgot about. I was a bit surprised when I started typing just now, but it's fixed now.

Well, the time-turner thing didn't work out but I'm managing anyway, slowly and linearly. Only two more final exams to do, one tomorrow and one on Friday, and then I am free! Free to go home and bake cookies with my siblings and read books to my baby sister who's not such a baby any more and watch The Avengers again with my brothers (one of THE best movies ever, by the way) and get back into proper dance training again and prepare to go to Comic-Con! It's my first time going and I'm extremely excited.

My proposal presentation, in what I still consider to be a not-so-small miracle, actually went well. I even won an award for best Arts and Humanities presentation. Hopefully this means the worst of this whole project process is behind me now, because honestly these past few months have been slow, agonizing torture. I've never had a worse academic experience.

In other news I am also going to be posting my creative writing a lot more over the summer, I hope. I've signed up for Camp Nano, no idea what I'm writing yet and maybe I'll just use it to finish The Outlaw's Hand, but I dunno. Also I'm back to practicing my drawing. And there's many, many books I want to read--the rest of the King's Assassin series, the first Gormenghast book, a Kate Elliot novel, the rest of Wives and Daughters, Great Expectations, and much more. In short--bring on summertime, I can't wait!

Top 10 Books that I want to see turned into (awesome) Movies

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (One of my newest reads but oh my Silmaril it would make an amazing film. Actually, arguably more amazing would be if the BBC made a miniseries out of it--imagine the previews. They start out looking like the usual British costume drama and then BAM! re-animated corpses and evil faeries and pineapples growing out of people's mouths. That'd be perfect.)

2. The Silmarillion (Okay, this is only half true. I want a Silmarillion miniseries. No kidding. I might be the only person on the planet who would watch it, but imagine how epic it would be! A Beren and Luthien episode? The Kinslaying? The Fall of Gondolin? EPIC, I TELL YOU.)

3. The Bartimaeus Trilogy (One of my favorite trilogies ever. Ever ever ever ever ever.)

4. The Mark of the Horselord (One of the less likely titles on my list to actually become a film, as hardly anyone knows about it, but that's a crying shame because it would be fantastic. Sutcliff is such an unbelievably visual writer anyway.)

5. The Once and Future King ("Camelot" just doesn't cut it. This would have to be like a Trilogy or something--Part I would be The Sword and the Stone/The Queen of Air and Darkness, Part II The Ill-Made Knight, and Part III The Candle in the Wind. And it would be beautiful.)

6. The Thief/The Queen of Attolia/The King of Attolia (I know another girl who'd be first in line to these films, but I'd be second. A very close second.)

7. The Last Unicorn (As much as I adore the animated film, I really wish there was a proper live-action version. There's been rumors about one being in the works for years, but so far nothing really has happened.)

8. A Tale of Two Cities (Like The Last Unicorn I love the film we already have (Ronald Colman is LOVELY) but it is from the 1930s and so suffers a bit as an adaptation in terms of editing the story. We need more Dickens in the cinemas again!)

9. The Hero and the Crown (Fantasy with strong female lead, visually impressive setting, and lots of eventful magic happenings. Why hasn't this been made yet? Same goes for The Tombs of Atuan which, I admit, could be a bit dull since half the time it would have to be set in pitch-darkness, but it'd still be cool.)

10. The Charwoman's Shadow/The Worm Ouroborous) (Another couple of great fantasies hardly anyone knows about. The Old Woman with a Young Shadow is such a great image, and Eddison's tale of Mercury-dwelling Demons and Witches is just gloriously weird.)

I need to post more often

This is getting ridiculous, really. Anyway, quick bringing-up-to-date stuff: I am currently back at school, classes are going pretty well with either my Argumentative Writing or my Fairy Tale courses probably being the best and Astronomy being the worst but all still in A-range, where I hope to keep them all semester! I've kept busy exercising a LOT in my spare time, and will be competing at Oireachtas this year, which is both frightening and exciting. Also I get to go home for Thanksgiving this year which feels really strange because I never have before. It'll be odd spending a week at home then coming back to Hawaii for a few weeks and then going home again so soon! I can't wait to see all my siblings again, they've all grown, especially the baby. I see her on Skype sometimes and she likes waving at me and things, so she probably thinks I'm just on the computer screen now, I hope she isn't frightened when I show up physically and real at the airport, that'd be awkward.

I have at least been keeping up with my book reviews, and as you may have noticed I have been doing a LOT of reading. September was a high point, I read like ten books or so, October has been a bit more full of school and midterms and things so I am not sure how many books I'll be able to finish this month. We'll see. I'm currently partway through about five. I tend to read many books at the same time.

Also, film. I went to the theatre to watch "Real Steel" a couple weeks ago and to my own surprise I enjoyed it; it's somewhat predictable (the fatal flaw of any sports movie really) but despite that I really cared about the characters, the robots were fantastic, and the humor and energy of the film was really fun. So as a light, silly piece of entertainment it was pretty good. Also, Hugh Jackman was in it, as well as the kid who played little Thor in "Thor", and Evangeline Lily from "Lost", as well as Kevin Durand, so the casting alone made it a pleasure to watch :)

I'm still rabidly following any and all "Hobbit" film news. Speaking of which, I am a Hobbit for Halloween this year. I put my entire costume together in a day (thank you Salvation Army thrift store!) thanks to being incredibly fortunate in finding the perfect pair of pants and even a long green woolen coat at the thrift store. Also, I am now very fond of the suspenders I bought for the costume too, I want to wear them all the time but I'm afraid that most people find suspenders to be stupid, not cool. Oh well. I even found a costume store that sells pointed ear tips and the gum to attach them with, so I am wearing pointy ears too! I'm going to save this costume so I can wear it to "The Hobbit" premiere next December, I think.

As far as films I'm interested in that are a bit closer, I am mostly keen on watching "The Artist" and "War Horse", but I'm also planning to probably watch "The Muppets" (I'm a huge Muppets/Jim Henson fan but have been really displeased with most recent Muppet things and so want to be sure this film is a return to form before I commit) and "The Adventures of Tintin" (I think I'm finally sold on the mocap visuals).

Hm, what else? Hawaii's nice, it's been a bit rainy lately but the humidity's mostly manageable, thank goodness. I like all my classes. It's great seeing old friends again. And yet I am eager to go back home for Christmas already--cookie baking and present wrapping and hot cocoa making and getting to goof around with seven younger siblings and two extremely awesome parents, what could there possibly be more delightful than that?

I'll pop back in in a few days with my book reviews for October, and then hopefully I'll keep to a more frequent posting schedule after. Cheers!

I took a walk to the library today

. . . and these are the books I borrowed:

Civil War: Frontlines
Civil War: War Crimes
Civil War: Fantastic Four
Civil War: Iron Man
Civil War: Captain America
The Sable Queen, by Brian Jacques
Assassin's Apprentice, by Robin Hobb
Shadow and Claw, by Gene Wolfe
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Suzanna Clarke

I managed to carry them the entire walk back to the apartment, too. Ha!

I also discovered a little ice cream parlor close to my university and tried some cantaloupe ice cream there, yum. And forced myself to sleep in for once. Tomorrow I head back to school again, and then that's my first week back completed! I'll write more later to bring you all up to date, as I know I haven't written in a while, but for now just know that I'm up to my eyeballs in good books to read and school books to read, have been exercising a lot, and am pretty well pleased with how my first week back in HI has gone.

(And I'll try to post my book reviews for July this weekend.)

Book Reviews for April, May, June

I'm back, with a shiny and newly repaired laptop, and piles and piles of book reviews! So here I'm putting reviews for April, May, AND June. I went to the library last week for the first time in a long time so I managed to get a lot of reading done right at the end of June. Overall it's been mostly mediocre stuff, but there's been a few definite gems. So without further ado:

APRIL

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
This book I thought for sure was going to be my Book of the Month. It's an absolutely fantastic romance--comparisons to the works of Jane Austen are unavoidable--but what really made me love it is how very real all the characters are. The inner monologues of the heroine, Margaret, were extremely endearing to me and startlingly true to thoughts that I've had myself, making her easily identifiable. John Thornton, the male protagonist, is also an extremely likable character, far more so than the infamous Mr. Darcy, and the whole cast of characters are fantastic. I also liked how Gaskell uses the love story to explore her society and indeed social reform, in a way that was interesting without being preachy. The ending of this book is one of the most charmingly adorable and satisfying endings I have ever read. Definitely give this book a go. Oh, and after you read it go track down the BBC production starring Richard Armitage, because it's wonderful.

The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud
I consider Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy to be the most well-written, emotionally satisfying, and consistently excellent trilogy ever written aside from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It was with mixed feelings therefore that I picked up Solomon, Stroud's new 'prequal' to the series. How can one expand upon perfection? I both wanted to read more about Bartimaeus, and was loath to attempt it, being afraid that the experience could only be disappointing. Was it? Well . . . yes and no. It's a great stand-alone book, but also is a fun read for people who have read the trilogy (Bartimaeus' pre-Ptolemy attitude is very interesting, for instance, and Faquarl gets lots of page-time) and features some great characters and a truly scary villain, along with numerous trademark 'Bartimaeus moments'--Snarky footnotes and crazy escapades galore. But it is not as emotionally satisfying as the Trilogy, perhaps because there is no real sense of danger. We know that Bartimaeus survived to meet Nathaniel in London, so narrative tension is automatically compromised. Still, I'd recommend it both to Stroud newbies and fans of the Trilogy alike.

The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
I'm a big fan of Rothfuss' first book, The Name of the Wind. It wasn't perfect, but it has a lyrical quality and beauty and power to its language that not many fantasy novels manage, as well as a clever narrative structure and a very compelling protagonist. So I was looking forward to this sequel considerably. Was it worth the wait? Ultimately it was a let-down. There are many moments that I absolutely loved, but the book was so over-stuffed and over-long it distracted from those moments, so that by the end of the book I could only remember vaguely that I had liked parts, not really clearly recall what I liked about them. Their impact was smothered. There's also a lengthly section of the book which focuses mostly on Kvothe's sexual escapades, which was utterly unnecessary and irritating. Call me a prude if you like, but I hate it when authors put sex in their fantasy novels. So I'm still looking forward to reading the third book in the series, but this second installment didn't live up to my expectations.

The Mists of Everness, by John C Wright
Another sequel which did not quite live up to its predecessor. The opening half or so of this book is simply brilliant--the perfectly-pitched fairytale opening in particular is genius, especially after the madcap ending of the previous book, and conceptually and visually the book excels as usual. The ending however feels rushed, and not up to standard with the rest of the book, and all in all the first book is much better (although the return of Galen was extremely welcome and well done). Raven is a great character. If you like urban fantasy/sci fi, then check it out.

Book of the Month:
The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Turner's first novel, The Thief, but nowhere near as surprised as I was when I read this sequel. It is simply, brilliantly nothing like you would expect a sequel to be. Most of it consists of just characters talking to each other and sometimes to themselves, action is kept to a minimum, and the main character, well, I want to keep it spoiler-free, but he gets put into situations that you absolutely would not expect. None of this is a bad thing; it could have been, easily, but instead Turner works her authorial magic and weaves out of these elements a story that is breathtaking and captivating, filled with emotion and tension and honest drama, wonderful characters, and of course a protagonist who has quickly become one of my favorite fictional characters ever, Eugenides the thief. It is worth noting that Turner does not let his character stagnate; instead she is constantly challenging him, evolving him, changing him, and yet never letting him stray from his core identity, keeping him completely--and sometimes even painfully--real. The new character of the Queen (well, she was briefly introduced in the last book but only really becomes a main character here) is just as well-defined and interesting, terrifying and cruel and pitiable and sympathetic all at once, no mean feat. There is also a surprising romance which is decidedly unlikely but which Turner again manages to make both real and perfectly fitting as well as properly beautiful. I simply can't praise this book enough. Do yourself a favor and read this series ASAP. After I finished it (in one day) I could not wait to get my hands on its sequel, The King of Attolia, which I am happy to report is equally good. More on that later, though, as it's a June read ;D

MAY

Can you believe I didn't finish a single book in the month of May? I read a few books mostly to the end, but didn't quite manage to finish them, so I had to count them in the June list. I also read a lot of "Wives and Daughters", a novel I still haven't finished.

JUNE

The Wild Knight and Other Poems, by GK Chesterton
If you like Chesterton's poetic style, then you'll like this book. As I love his writing-style, I found much to like here--some really beautiful imagery as well as thought-provoking philosophizing and the welcome scatterings of that unique Chestertonian wit. I recommend "Cyclopean", "The Mariner", "Gold Leaves", "Behind", and "The Woodcutter" as the best of the poems gathered here, but of course your tastes might be different than mine. Any poem that talks about "the green wine of the sea" is great, in my opinion.

At the Mountains of Madness, by HP Lovecraft
What a disappointment this turned out to be! My brother has been badgering me to read it for months, I finally got around to it, and then was heartily disappointed when it was nowhere as gruesome or terrifying as I had hoped it to be. For such a famous story it was surprisingly dull; the characters were beyond irritating, behaving so irrationally I could not really believe in their peril or sympathize with them, and the building up to the reveal of a monster was so blatant there was no shock when it finally arrived, and so everything just felt really anti-climatic. I did get a kick out of visualizing a bunch of flying squid-y monsters fighting abominable snowmen from outer-space, though, I must admit. And Lovecraft seems to have had a phobia of penguins, or something. Basically I kept hoping for something terrifying, horrific, or shocking to happen, and . . . it never did.

The Hidden Kingdom, by Clare B Dunkle
Oh wow, where to begin? This book is so unintentionally hilarious. It should have been called "Magical Stockholm Syndrome: A Novel". The plot is extremely thin, the characters extremely bland, the main romance . . . beyond creepy. I had a good time reading it just because it's so ludicrous. There is a smattering of great dialogue, including a line about forks being insulting to food because it's like you're killing it twice, but other than that . . . it's just a really strange mess.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
This isn't a bad book by any means. I became interested in it because it seemed to be a fairytale-ish book and won the Newbery Honor. After reading it, I recommended it to my seven-year-old sister and she loved it. But that's its problem--unlike really great children's literature (and Medal winners) like The High King and Johnny Tremain this book is not equally satisfying for an older reader. I enjoyed the narrative structure, with so many fables and stories weaving together and then having an impact on the present of the tale, but ultimately Lin kept things too simplistic, and so stunted the impact and ingenuity of that structure. It's a great kids' book, but not complex or well-written enough to be a great book.

Book of the Month:
The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
Aaaaand Turner wins again! I actually listened to this book in audiobook form, as my library did not have it as an actual book (silly, I know), but the reading was quite good. Costis, the main new character introduced, is excellent. Again Turner delights with the intricate plotting and wonderful character development/interactions which I have come to expect from her, and although I was doubtful she could write a sequel which could live up to the excellence of Queen, she somehow managed it. Best of all, it seems effortless. The language is as lively as ever, by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, and even legitimately chilling. Great stuff here; I'm planning on just buying this and the rest of the series already, because the quality is just that good.

Book Reviews for March

I only have three books for you from March, but as of this writing I have four books on the way that I ordered from Barnes and Noble as well as only one chapter each to go before I finish "North and South" and "The Mists of Everness", so there will be PLENTY of reviews for April, I think.

All March books are also by the same author, John C Wright. I got basically all his books for my birthday, and he also authored last month's Book of the Month, "The Golden Age" (have you read it yet?). As each of his books are about 400 pages long, this means getting through three of his books in one month isn't that shabby :)

Orphans of Chaos
I found this book to be a bit disappointing, actually. The premise (four young people are kept trapped in a British boarding school only to discover that they are children of Titans, kept prisoner and hostage by the staff of the school--who are in fact mythological characters like Boreas and Grendel) was great, and this is perhaps Wright's strongest book stylistically, especially in how alive he makes his first-person female narrator; she's perhaps the most completely believable narrator I've read since "David Copperfield". There is, however, a lot of innuendo as well, and crass sexual jokes made by the teen male characters, etc., which really dragged the story down in my opinion. Which is a pity, because the easter eggs for mythology fanatics like myself are also numerous and greatly enjoyable and the narrator's voice is, as I said, superb.

The Phoenix Exultant
Just as strong as the book it is a sequel to, "The Golden Age", this was a novel completely enjoyable from beginning to end. Which is a real marvel because really, NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS. The scene rarely changes. It's very talky. And yet, and yet, and yet . . . it works, really works. I really liked the greater role given to Daphne this time, and look forward to reading the conclusion of the series.

The Last Guardian of Everness
Book of the Month time! This is the best 'modern settings' fantasy I've read since "Prospero's Children", and it's the rare high fantasy set in America, too, which I found quite interesting. It involves manipulating and traveling in dreams, lots of dreaming, as well as an exploration of what happens when the realms of dream and reality bleed together; it's a tale of a very classically influenced version of the apocalypse; it's got magical weapons and corrupt military; yet MORE cameos by such literary and classical figures as Lancelot (sensing a pattern in Wright's work now?); and I will never be able to look at seals the same way again (SHUDDER). There are moments of superb beauty, of frantic action, and moments that scared me more than any book has scared me since I read either "And Then There Were None" or "The Golem's Eye"--I can't remember which I read first :D

The characters are all very well done, and in many ways more alive even than characters in his later books, for they are imbued with a bit more personality instead of philosophy; one of his weaknesses is that of Asimov: The inclination towards using the characters to illustrate a story instead of inhabit it. Thus far he hasn't gone too overboard though, but I'd say that "Everness" fits the standard fantasy novel as far as characters go a bit more cleanly than, say, "The Golden Age". All in all, a fantastic read. It really transports the reader, which is what all good fantasy should do, after all! A warning for language, but other than that I think it was pretty clean. I'd recommend it.

The Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss' newest novel and the second part of the fantasy story which he began in The Name of the Wind, was published earlier this month--on my birthday, in fact. I am a fan of his work--though not without its flaws it is much more lyrical and the characters are much more interesting and the story is more original than most contemporary fantasy--but I have yet to read the new book, as I'm trying to decide where the best (aka cheapest!) place to purchase it from would be. Anyway, I am going to have to re-read The Name of the Wind before starting the newest volume anyway because it is a long, dense, complicated novel, though it flies by quickly due to the stellar writing quality.

I recommend giving the book, and by extension the series, a try. If you like high fantasy, first person narratives, engrossing characters, Harry Potter, the Bartimaeus series, or simply the art of writing itself, you will find much to love.

If you have already read the first book and are beginning the second, Rothfuss has put up a humorous 'summary' of the 'key' bits of The Name of the Wind on his blog as an easy refresher. It is not merely a written summary, however; it is basically a comic strip retelling of those key plot points. Awesome. You can check it out here: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/our-story-thus-far/

As to my own story--it's coming along! New chapter to be posted soon :)

A long overdue 'Farewell to 2010' post

So the final book count of 2010 is . . . 62! Yep, I managed to read 62 new books this year, a final tally I'm quite pleased with, although I had hoped to read 10 a month. Life, and lack of library access, sometimes gets in the way of lofty ambitions. You'll find reviews for most of these books scattered throughout my blog posts of the last year, if you wish. I'll include a full list of titles below.

Also worthy of notice are the films I watched for the first time this year! I may be a bookwyrm at heart, but I also love film, and so although I don't review the movies I watch really on this blog I still think they deserve a shout-out in this post. I'm counting not just films that came out last year, but any movie I watched for the first time in 2010. I watched 24 films this year. And here are my favorite three live-action films, followed by my favorite three animated films that I discovered in 2010:

Live Action
1. Lawrence of Arabia- A glorious epic, thought-provoking, emotionally devastating, and brilliantly filmed.
2. Inception- One of my most anticipated movies of the year, and it surpassed my expectations. I love films that make you think and that make me emotional, and this was both.
3. Sunshine- It's flawed, sure. But it's also one of my favorite movies now. The climax of this film gives me chills, and there are a few scenes that are absolutely some of the most beautiful and heartwrenching moments I've seen in any film.
Runner Up: (Tie) Memento, (500) Days of Summer

Animated
1. Toy Story 3-I really can't place this film above the other two, but it did provoke more philosophizing from me than any other film. I think on the whole that it stabbed my heart more than won a place in it--affected me profoundly but I'm not keen to watch it again and again, that'd be too painful XD
2. How To Train Your Dragon-I expected this film to be lame, and by the time it got to the 'Hiccup drawing Toothless' scene I was practically in tears because I was so happy and completely taken aback. I really truly love this movie, and would say without hesitation that it's one of my favorite films, period. Gorgeously animated, completely endearing characters, a bittersweet ending that shocked me and was basically the perfect icing on the cake--This is a winner.
3. Tangled-This is the film that probably is closest to my heart, though. The animation is stunningly beautiful, the story basically exactly the sort of thing I love best--self sacrifice, humor, drama, a cute romance, great characters, Alan Menken music, fantastic songs, lotsa teary-eye moments, magic, 'twoo wuv'--I could go on and on, but I have already in the past, so basically I'll just make it clear that my three favorite animated films are basically tied for number one this year for different reasons. Yeah, I can do that!
Runner Up: The Secret of Kells-A less-well-known film, but the hand-drawn animation is stunning and the story is excellent. Add to that an enormous dose of Celtic goodness and you have a winner! I really recommend you track this one down and give it a watch.

And below is a full list of my 10 favorite reads of 2010. I'm not even going to try to crown one of them king, though. Note that some are Books of the Month, and some aren't. Since I'm just grouping my reading into one year instead of separate months for this final reckoning, there are a few times where I read multiple books in one month that I liked better than another book that got the BotM title due to lesser reading material during its month. I'd recommend reading all of the below:

The Mark of the Horse Lord
The Shield Ring
Neverwhere
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Fahrenheit 451
All Creatures Great and Small
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Caves of Steel
Prospero's Children
The American Revolution

So there you have it, my favorite films and books of 2010! Now here's to a brilliant 2011, hm? I know I'm super late on posting my newest reviews--or, indeed, anything this year!--so I'll be fixing that over the course of the next few days. My reading is off to a good start though, thanks to some Christmas money and a few trips to the local library. Book reviews for January will be posted soon.

As to film, I'm mostly excited about The Hobbit which of course isn't even being released this year! But there's plenty of movies I really want to see this year, too, most of them frivolous sorts: Captain America, Thor, Cowboys and Aliens, Sherlock Holmes 2 . . . We'll see how many I actually go watch.

Righto, I hope your 2011 is treating you kindly so far, and I look forward to continuing my blogging once more!

Book Reviews for November

Not much reading done this month, as I was busy with Oireachtas. I still got some reading in though, mostly fantasy books. I've been in a 'light reading' sort of mood. Here we go then:

The Naming, by Alison Croggon
This is a very entertaining book. It reads as though Croggon subconsciously absorbed all her favorite fantasy novels and then regurgitated them into one plotline unknowingly. This should irritate me, but instead it amuses me a lot. The characters are fun at least, even though there's actual dialogue and events clearly ripped from other, far superior works: I recognized The Lord of the Rings and The Tombs of Atuan easily, and then shades of others. Another thing to giggle at is how very often characters seem to drink alcohol. Anyway, despite all the story's very evident faults, I enjoyed it and want to read the rest of the series now. Hopefully Croggon emphasizes her own originality more later on?

1602, by Neil Gaiman
A graphic novel reimagining of Marvel superheroes as men and women living in . . . 1602 AD. The premise alone makes me happy, and the writing is superb. I'd probably enjoy it more if I knew more about all the superheroes featured, but even as I am it's great. The art's pretty good. Overall it's fun but not going onto my favorite books list.

The Pirate's Son, by Geraldine McCaughrean
I can't even remember much about this book, which shows you how poorly written it was. Not worth your time.

The Time Machine, by HG Wells
This is the first Wells book I've ever read, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's pretty short, which surprised me . . . Wells' explanation of how the time machine works was brilliant in its simplicity, I really liked that. Also his portrayal of the future was very thought-provoking and entertaining. I liked the ending too. If you like science fiction I'd recommend this.

Book of the Month:

Prospero's Children, by Jan Siegel

This is an excellent fantasy novel. Siegel is an author who understands the power of words; the novel reads like poetry. The characters are strongly and fully developed and the storyline is fully engrossing and unfolds beautifully. The pacing is perfect, there's nail-biting tension and intense emotion. It also has a distinctly British flavor, which I love. There's mysterious characters, a dark old gothic mansion, time travel, and more. The story did let me down severely towards the end, but the main plot remained sound, so overall it was definitely one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Highly recommended.

Book Reviews for September

Ha! You thought I'd never get back to doing these, didn't you?

I did my research on my library's online catalog before visiting it a couple weeks ago, so I actually got a good amount of books, as mentioned in an earlier post. That's the way you have to do it on the mainland, apparently. Otherwise you'll never find anything you want, grr.

So I managed to squeeze a few new reads in this September. It'll be a short list, but a little is better than nothing!

HMS Surprise, by Patrick O'Brian
This is definitely my favorite of the Aubrey-Maturin novels I have read so far. It's very exciting, and almost unbelievably well-written. Although written in the 1970's, I think, you could easily be fooled into believing it's a bona-fide 1800's novel. Mind-blowing. What makes it more than merely a really well-done period novel, however, are the wonderfully three-dimensional characters (especially Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin themselves, but also the infuriating and yet pitiable Diana and a few others) and the extremely wry and unexpected darts of humor that O'Brian weaves into the story when you least expect them. This novel has the added plus of moments of genuine pathos, particularly the Diana/Maturin subplot and one moment during the crew's stay in India that I'll not describe further in case you care to read the book for yourself. To sum up: I'd recommend this it, and I have now added 'Use the phrase "You have debauched my sloth!" in conversation' to my bucket list. The whole Maturin and the sloth side-plot (there's lots of subplots and side-plots in this book!) had me crying with laughter. The only negatives in the book are the fact that the very stylized writing could certainly be wearisome to some readers, there's some hard old sailor swearing, and the story is more set up as a chronicle of a certain amount of time in the main characters' lives, which means it's not really tidily plotted with loose ends tied up and all. This can be seen as a strength or a weakness of the story, depending.

Nathan Hale, by M. William Phelps
I on occasion enjoy a good biography, and this is a good biography. I've long been interested in Nathan Hale, so I was delighted to find a biography that looked good at the library. I like learning about history from the original contemporary sources, eg. reading Thucydides and Xenophon to learn about Greek history instead of just reading modern history books. So I always appreciate it when historians quote letters and things like that in biographies. There's a good scattering of quotes like that in this biography, as well as a lot of stories about Hale as told by his friends and family, along with excerpts from his diary and stuff. The book seems well-researched, and is engagingly written. Phelps doesn't try to glorify Hale, but he doesn't try to tear him apart to 'reveal the man behind the legend' either, like so many biographies do to their subjects. Instead, he does his best to give the reader a basic understanding of the contemporary events and issues, and to let Hale speak for himself, which I really liked. The book sometimes get a bit circuitous though, because of all the information the author tries to cram in.

This leaves The Dreamer (Vol. 1) by Lora Innes as the Book of the Month!
I won't say too much about it now, since I already raved about this webcomic earlier. But basically it's a time-traveling romance/adventure story, with a heavy emphasis on wallowing in American Revolutionary War history. The characters are wonderful in both times/realities(?), the script is extremely solid, and the usage of history here? Simply fun. Innes' devotion to detail in both her script and her art is that of a real history fiend, which is lovely. There are plenty of historical characters in the story as well as original chararacters, though: Thomas Knowlton, Alexander Hamilton, William Howe . . . Nathan Hale himself actually features as a very prominent character, which is just another bonus. I found the printed collection of the first few books of this webcomic at the library and snapped it up to peruse it in hard copy form for the first time, which is why I decided to include it on this list. The colors are much brighter in book form than on the internet, details are easier to see, and there's a cute little sketch summary of the American revolution on the front pages which serves as a run-down on what you need to know in order to fully appreciate the historical setting of "The Dreamer". I'm not usually a webcomic person, but this book is both entertaining and informative, with all the historical cameos a history geek could wish for. Definitely give it a look!

Oireachtas Coming . . .

Oireachtas practicing officially started today, and I have the aches and pains to prove it. Plus, after losing my beautiful old hard shoes at my last competition due to a mix-up and REALLY poor management by the feis committee, I have a brand new pair to break in which, as any Irish dancer can tell you, means I'm going through a torturous time. I mean, I have blisters on my heels. Blisters, Gandalf! And I never get blisters any more, or at least not for a good many years. It's sad :(

Dance itself, however, remains wonderful. Frustrating at times of course, but always well worth the effort put into it, and more. Blisters become calluses, with a little time. I'll be fine.

Books! I've already finished my Nathan Hale biography, the first of the O'Brian novels I borrowed, and am now happily devouring both "The Mauritius Command" and my book on the American Revolution. So there will be a real proper Book of the Month this month, as well as a good number of reviews, huzzah!

As to writing, I've been determinedly plodding along, and it's going splendidly, actually! I'm really excited to actually be making this much progress in my novel. In addition, I am just getting more and more excited about NaNoWriMo! I've written up a little blurb about the story I'm planning to write--the type you'd see on the back of a book--but nothing more than that, so I can have enough creative freedom to actually write the 50,000 words without hitting a block. I'm trying not to plot ahead at all, which is difficult for me, but hopefully will prove a helpful exercise. I'll post the blurb here once October hits.

I'm currently typing this with only half of my attention; I'm mostly absorbed with an animated short I'm watching on Youtube, "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello". Steampunk and silhouettes and adventure and creepiness, oh my! A friend recommended it to me, and I'm loving it so far.

Tomorrow I make a birthday card for my littlest brother, who will be turning five this week! And then I'll read some more, write some more, and attempt to make tapioca pudding with the contents of a really old box of tapioca I found in a kitchen cupboard the other day. Hopefully it'll be yummy, instead of poisoning me or something. We'll see, I guess . . .

PS: Just finished the film. Strongly recommend you check it out :)

LIBRARY!

I went to the library today! Yes, this means I finally have a plethora of new reading material. I've been beaming all day.

I discovered a fantastic webcomic last week called "The Dreamer", available here: http://thedreamercomic.com

In brief, it's a gorgeously drawn and very well-written story about a 21st c. era girl who seesaws between living a normal high school life in the 21st century, and living during the American Revolution. The conceit is that whenever she falls asleep, she dreams vividly of her Revolution-era existence, but when she is awake, she is in modern times. Of course, the question is, are they really just dreams? Both lives seem very real, and are both filled with compelling characters, not the least of which is an American soldier who claims he has known her since childhood and who is in love with her. I really like the story's style: the cameos by historical figures like Alexander Hamilton, the complicated but sweet romance, the deftly alternating moments of humor and pathos and action. I'd really recommend it. The author/illustrator's name is Lora Innes, and she is obviously in love with history, for her illustrations are lively and accurate and her characters are all very endearing but appropriate to their respective times. I have a banner link to her site on the right hand sidebar of this blog now. Check it out!

As a person who really likes learning about Revolutionary War/Civil War history myself--and who likes the clothing styles of those times, too--this has really restoked my own interest in the time period and the people who lived then. This is reflected in the reading material I picked up at the library today.

So, complete list of books I have to read now:

• "The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale", by Lora Innes (the first issues of her webcomic have been combined into a print copy, so I'm more re-reading this!)
• "The Fortune of War"
• "The Surgeon's Mate"
• "The Ionian Mission"
• "Treason's Harbor"
• "Desolation Island"
• "The Mauritius Command"
• "HMS Surprise", by Patrick O'Brian (not in that order. I'm returning to the Aubrey-Maturin series in a big way, folks!)
• "The American Revolution", by Bruce Lancaster
• "Voices of the American Revolution", by Kendall Haven (I prefer reading about history from contemporary sources whenever possible, hence my liking for Rousseau and the Federalist Papers)
• "Nathan Hale", by M. William Phelps (Biographies! I also love reading good, thick biographies)
• "Alexander Hamilton", by Ron Chernow (Hamilton has fascinated me ever since I was small, so it's about time I read a book entirely devoted to him, even if it's . . . *checks* . . . 700+ pages long!)

I also borrowed "The Amulet of Samarkand" audiobook, since I've been wanting to give it a listen for years. I'm currently listening to Chapter 6, and the reading is very good so far.

At last I have more reading material! I've been floating on air all day because of it. I even have proof:
See? That is my happy library face being happy.

So if you don't hear from me for a few days, it's not because I'm in trouble; I'm just reading and reading and reading. Oh, and "Fringe" and "Supernatural" both return next week, so that might have something to do with it too ^_^

Ta!

It's September Already? Wow.

Hello again, everyone, it's been a while! Life's been keeping me busy--mostly battling off one infection after another, it's ridiculous--but I hope to start blogging more regularly again now. If I were back in Hawaii now, this would be my second week of my Junior year; as it is, I am keeping the brain cells busy by writing, dancing, studying for my driver's license, and, of course--reading!

Sadly, I have STILL not managed to snag any new reading material. An entire summer without one trip to the library--I just might explode with the frustration. As a result I STILL have no Book of the Month feature to regale you with. I will, however, list for you all the books that I have been reading. I've read them before, which is why they don't count for my list of new books read this year, but they were good enough for me to read them again--some for the second time, some for the umpteenth time--so perhaps you'd be interested to have a list of titles:

• The Shield Ring, by Rosemary Sutcliff
• The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
• Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
• The Pearls of Lutra, by Brian Jacques
• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
• Watership Down, by Richard Adams
• The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

So, as you can tell, I've been re-reading a lot, and mostly lighter books too. Perhaps that is what comes from being around kids 24/7 now; I lapse back into enjoying books written for young adults and children instead of centuries-old literature. This is in no way a bad thing, as all the above books are among my favorite books ever (or at least most of them are) and settled snugly on my shelf next to my Iliad and War and Peace and Moby Dick, but it's still interesting. I go through 'reverting back to obsessing over childhood favorites' phases at time. I guess this is one of those times.

Dance is going well, but I'm trying to figure out a design for my new competition dress; mine is about 4 years old now, and in a competitive arena where dresses go out of style in mere months . . . yep, I'm wearing a relic. My family and I always design and sew my own dresses instead of shelling out a fortune on designer dresses like most other people do, so my dress has lasted longer than most, but it does look old now. Sigh. I've also promised my little brother that I'll dress up as Toothless the Dragon for Halloween so he can ride on my shoulders as Hiccup, so I have that to figure out too!

(Absolutely not-relevant side note here: I'm currently watching Star Wars on my computer as I type this, and just realized that one of Vader's officers is the same actor who played that American rocket captain in "Tomb of the Cybermen"! The one with the annoying fake accent who kept calling Victoria 'Vic'! This just made my day.)

I've been writing a lot, and even though it's pretty hard considering I've got a spot of writer's block, this means my novel is coming along now almost despite itself, haha. Yesterday I baked banana bread; my six year old sister was disappointed initially, but now says she loves it, especially with cream cheese. My little four year old brother however loves banana bread, and basically was asking me if he could eat it every five minutes after it came out of the oven until it was cooled enough to be cut. I do like baking! And making soups, too. I really want to make this lentil soup from a recipe I found recently; I like lentils almost as much as I like baking :)

That's enough rambling from me from now, so I leave you now only with a promise that I'll try to post more regularly and interestingly this month. Oh, and I've been drawing and doodling a lot, so I'll start posting those too.

And I'm 19 1/2 today. I should have made a cake or something, haha. Does this mean I get a wish half-fulfilled today? Hm.

Books I Currently Want to Read:

• The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by GK Chesterton
• The Light Beyond the Forest,
  
• The Road to Camlann,
• The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup,
• Chess-dream in a Garden,
• Flame-colored Taffeta,
• Bonnie Dundee,
• Song for a Dark Queen,
• Brother Dusty-Feet,
• Sun Horse, Moon Horse,
• Blood Feud, by Rosemary Sutcliff
• Phantastes,
• Lilith, by George MacDonald
• True History, by Lucian
• The Mahabharata
• The Achilleid,
  
• The Thebiad, by Statius
• The Throne of Scone, by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison
• The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
  

Book Reviews for June

Hello again! Although I had a plethora of free time this month (in theory, any way, with school out of the way), I have only read two new books. There are a few reasons for this: Firstly, I have very limited access to new books at the moment, and Secondly, I'm working on finishing a load of really long and/or dense books that I started last summer but was unable to finish due to being in Hawaii. So instead of speeding through a tall stack of new books, I'm currently reading "Le Morte d'Arthur", "The Portrait of a Lady", "The Pioneers", "Great Expectations", and other books like that which require a bit more time to get through than, say, "Neverwhere"--I'm making progress and enjoying myself, but have not quite finished them completely. Also, I've been really busy taking care of siblings, cooking, cleaning, dancing, and writing. Yes, writing! I should have the next part of "The Sons of Cwendor" available both here, on Facebook, and at "The Radish Room" sometime over the course of the next week, so stay tuned!

Anyway, here's my reviews of my two reads of June.

Heir Apparent, by Vivian Vande Velde

My brother really likes this book; I also like it, just not as much. The premise is an entertaining one: A girl playing a full-immersion fantasy role-playing computer game must win the thing before a computer error crashes the system--and thus fries her brain. This book would be especially entertaining for fans of such computer games. I've played (and enjoyed) a few, so some of her frustrations, like how whenever she dies in the game she has to go all the way back to the beginning and start anew, were hilarious. Unfortunately, however, to make a book with such a premise really effective, the player's difficulties must be believable. I had worked out a way by which she could win only a few chapters into the story, and it took her almost two hundred pages more to finally come up with a way to win on her own--which ended up being remarkably similar to the one I had theorized way back when. This ultimately made the story become very tedious at times, as I was impatient with the heroine. Also, the ending is a bit lacklustre, and there's some political, preachy aspects of the plotline that I didn't care for.

Fahrenheit 451

My only other read, and thus my book of the month! I actually did really like this book, though. It's scarily accurate in its depiction of a futuristic society where people walk around with music-playing 'seashells' plugged into their ears all day, obsess over television shows which are projected on screens which cover living room walls 360-degrees, and pedestrians are so rare, they can be arrested. Sound familiar? The story is intense and thought-provoking and sprinkled with terrifying moments, beautiful moments, and sharp sorrow, as well as being an overall ode to books and reading. Bradbury's writing is so poetic and lyrical that I sometimes was confused by it--when he first started talking about a Mechanical Hound, I thought that was a metaphor for something, like the Locusts of the "Martian Chronicles", and it took me a while to realize that, no, this really WAS a robotic dog!--but when that is my biggest problem with a story, that means the story is very, very good. I strongly recommend this book. It's not as good as "Martian Chronicles" in my opinion, but it's certainly as good a read as "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

I'm really, really home.

My grandmother left to go to the airport about an hour ago, so now I really am home, settling back into normalcy, my old pre-college routines. It's a bit weird how comfortable it all feels. I thought I'd be experiencing a bit more of a culture shock or something, but nope. I haven't gotten as much writing done yet as I had been planning, but this week is when I really settle into a new schedule instead of just sleeping in every morning and watching my favorite films on dvd repeatedly, hehe. The new daily to-do list:

1) Practice my dance at least an hour
2) Read
3) Play with the siblings
4) Write at least a page of my novel
5) Go running

Of course I'm also going to mix baking, needlepoint, and art in there too, along with schooling my siblings. I haven't been able to draw since coming home because I used up all my charcoal in Hawaii, and left all the art supplies I bought in Hawaii there too, which is sad. I hope to make a run to a good art supply store soon!

Also, I hope to go to the library soon. I really miss the school library and even the Hawaii public library system, because it was so easy to keep a fresh supply of new books in my room at all times. Now I'm stagnating and hunting the backs of my own bookshelves for reads I never completed or forgot to complete. So far my search has turned up "Rob Roy", "Portrait of a Lady", and "Warrior Scarlet". A nice selection, sure, but I also want to finish the Aubrey-Maturin series and read some more Faulkner after falling in love with "As I Lay Dying" last semester!

Still, being back at home is mostly pleasant. I'm really enjoying my dance practices again, and am feeling much more motivated at classes than I used to, I think because after being starved for so long, I really appreciate anew just how much I love Irish dancing and how much it means to me. I've also enjoyed hanging out with my siblings again; today in the car Lathspell and I spontaneously burst into a rousing rendition of a medley of songs from "Les Miserables", I introduced my youngest brother to the joys of playing in a ball pit at his cousin's birthday party despite his initial reluctance to jump in (having a very serious four-year old cross his arms firmly across his chest, glare at you, and say "I refuse!" to your suggestion that he play in a ball pit is an extremely adorable and hilarious experience!), my two-year-old sister saw I was wearing a necklace and a straw hat to the party and so insisted I find a necklace and straw hat for her too (I did), and my dad is borrowing "Eagle of the Ninth" to read while he chaperones my eldest brother at a home school high school ball tonight (I can't wait to hear what he thinks of Sutcliff's writing when he comes home!). Also, I really enjoyed taking the siblings to see "How to Train Your Dragon" last week, and they've already scoffed the first batch of chocolate chip cookies that I baked and are demanding that I now prepare scones, lembas bread, and watercress soup. I think I'll tackle the lembas bread tonight. We haven't had it in a while, and it's very good!

Book Reviews for April

Happy First of May, everyone!

You remember the surplus of amazing books that I was fortunate enough to read last month? Neverwhere, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, The Caves of Steel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Frontier Wolf . . . Yeah, it was amazing! Unfortunately, I can't say the same about this month. I managed to read eight books, but none of them qualify as amazing. In fact, most of them were boring or utter disappointments. It just goes to remind me of the sad fact that there are, in fact, many more bleh books out there than there are beautiful ones.

Still, the month was not a complete loss. So here you go, my book reviews for the cruelest month!

Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
I've heard a lot about how this is one of the best science fiction novels ever written. So perhaps I began reading it with too-high expectations. No matter what the reason, I was very underwhelmed. I need characters to attach to and care about, otherwise novels just don't work for me. While this book was chock-full of brilliant concepts and interesting ideas, it was too disjointed and too lacking in developed characters for me to really like it. Asimov has a tendency to use characters only to illustrate the plot instead of the plot to showcase the characters, and that is (sadly) very evident in this story. So although many science fiction lovers may adore this one, I am not so enthused.

The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov
This was pretty much the month of Asmiov; I read three books he authored. Unfortunately, I didn't love any of them. This was by far the best of the bunch to me, but the mystery was not as interesting as the mystery in the first novel of the series, "The Caves of Steel", and I felt that Olivaw was criminally under-used aside from a very compelling and brief scene towards the end. More Asimov philosophy and cleverness, and more Asmiov lack of interesting characters. Gladia really grated on my nerves, I couldn't bring myself to care for her at all. Sorry. That might just be my problem.

The Robots of Dawn, by Isaac Asimov
And this was by far the worst of the bunch. If you read "Caves of Steel", please do yourself a favor and skip this last book in the trilogy. The plot was inane and boring, the characters even worse, Olivaw was again underused, and I was even disliking Baley by the end of it all, which is a tragedy, since I loved him in the first novel of the trilogy. This book is basically just long, dull, and morally questionable essays on sexuality, strung together by a repetitive and very thin plot. How sad. I will forget I ever read this one and just reread "Caves".

The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor
I forget why I became interested in this book months ago, but I did, and this month I finally managed to read it. And again--what a disappointment! The writing was painfully bad--I mean, come on, 'tarty tarts'? You really expect me to read stuff like that with a straight face?--, and although some characters were intriguing, they were ultimately left flat and fake-feeling thanks to the poor prose. The plot was also lackluster. When compared to the real "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", in particular, this book is, in my opinion, a complete waste of time.

Fall of a Kingdom, by Hilari Bell
The description on the back of this book described it as a blend of Persian mythology and Roman military history, which sounded really compelling. Unfortunately it, too, was very dull. I don't know exactly what was wrong with it, but I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters or the politics at all. I won't completely dismiss it, but I don't really want to read it again either, nor do I want to read any of its sequels.

Never After, by Rebecca Lickiss
This was an entertaining book, full of fairy tale spoofing. I liked the idea that, after struggling through a castle full of sleeping people and bashing his way through a hedge of thorns and all that, a questing prince discovers that sleeping in the tower is no princess, but instead a prince. That's pretty hilarious. There were some other good elements too, like a wizard being cursed to only speak in Shakespearean quotations. But there were grammatical errors. And clunky prose. And plenty of dull moments and characters to combat the good. So, basically, this one was ultimately a dud as well. I've read better fairy tale spoofs.

Only You Can Save Mankind, by Terry Pratchett
This story's premise is great, but it should have been a short story; it got old fast. Again, a disappointment. Sigh. If you see this book, I'd recommend reading the first chapter, and then the last page, but that's it.

Snow-Walker, by Catherine Fisher
Aaaaand, here's the Book of the Month.

There's a lot to like about this book. I liked the play on the idea of 'reflections'. I liked much of the style. I liked a few of the characters. But it wasn't fantastic. I felt it was okay, but it could have been much better, which is frustrating. There is a part, for instance, where the bard burns his harp so that his friends can keep warm. Sound familiar? It should, if you have read Lloyd Alexander's "The High King" (and if you haven't, go read it now). Fflewddur's sacrifice in that book makes me emotional whenever I read it, no matter how many times I read it. The harp-burning in "Snow-Walker" barely registered to me other than as failing in comparison to Alexander's version. Also, events move too quickly for any sense of real peril to thrive. And Fisher gets stuck using the same words and phrases to describe characters in a way that tends to be more distracting than poetic--I got tired of reading that Kari is 'pale' on practically every other page, and he did a lot of 'pushing the hair out of his eyes'--But this was still a good book, imaginative and refreshing in its originality, and I'd recommend it to my younger siblings. It also had this winning bit of dialogue:

'"I thought Ironwood was just a place in tales."
"So it is," Skapti said promptly, "but all tales are true. They're just the way we struggle with the world."'

So bravo, "Snow-Walker", you are the Book of the Month! And, moreover, the only book of the bunch that I'd really be interested in reading again or recommending to others. Let's hope that May has better reads forthcoming!

Monday, Monday

Just another Monday. One of many Mondays. But no matter how practiced I get in dealing with Mondays, it never becomes any easier. I met with a medley of advisers today, and will continue to do so over the course of this week and the next. I also accidentally walked through a particularly populous ant trail in my stocking feet this morning before realizing that I was walking through an ant trail in my stocking feet. Yuck. Ants really disturb me for some reason. I don't like spiders, but ants make me feel sick. There's something both really human about them and really alien about them that bothers me. Anyhow.

I've begun reading "Snow-Walker", and can't believe how thick it is. It's about 625 pages long, but so far it's pretty good. Not remarkable, but pretty good. So far, it's still worth reading. The style's good, the characters are likable, I just wish they were developed a bit deeper.

That's all for now. I need to get some sleep to rest up for tomorrow's English 321 exam. And, as you can probably tell by the rambling nature of this post, I'm pretty tired. So I'll catch up with you folks later!

A Rambling Ramble

A lot happened over the past few days. After finding my library card literally as I went out the door to go to school, I left school early so I could hop on the bus and make it to the library to pick up my books which were on hold. After arriving at my stop, however, I was extremely not delighted to discover that, thanks to new furlough days, the libraries here are ALL CLOSED ON WEDNESDAYS. Oh, and it was a Wednesday.

So. Not. Right.

Anyway, I was stranded at a downtown bus-stop for forty minutes or so as a result. And didn't get my books, because I had no time from my crazy schedule for the rest of the week to pick them up, and anyway that was the last day I could have kept them on hold. Sometimes the world has an ironic sense of humor. Yesterday (Saturday), however, I walked to a library that's closer to where I live but much smaller, and borrowed four different books. And used my school's online library catalog to put about five more books on hold at school--I don't even remember the exact number, haha. I don't know how I'm going to read all of these before school ends and I'm flying home, but that's okay. It's better to have too many books than too few.

On Friday I finally got to watch "The Secret of Kells", a fantastic and beautiful Irish animated film about the Book of Kells. The animation is riveting, and the story is compelling too . . . the big conflict in the story, the big question, is whether to spend manpower building walls to keep out the Viking invaders, or to spend it illuminating beautiful manuscripts like the Book. If we devote all our energies to producing works of art, and to writing and knowledge and beauty, are we being foolhardy? Or is it really better to spend our time being practical and building those walls at the expense of building art and knowledge, because then we don't really have anything worth protecting? The power of the abstract vs. the practical; light vs. dark; imagination vs. reality; myth vs. mundane . . . That's some heady stuff. And of course the film is completely saturated in Irish-ness and Celtic-ness, which means I'd have loved it even if it hadn't been as good as it was, ha. The music was great too, and I did get sniffly towards the end. When this film (which, sadly, is being released only in very limited numbers of theatres in the US) is available on dvd, I strongly recommend you at least rent it. The animation alone, hand-drawn and inspired by the illustrations in the Book of Kells, is mesmerizing and unique. Here's a trailer, to give you an idea of what this film is like :)



After going to the library yesterday I had dinner with a whole side of the family I had never met before--the side I get the Hawaiian from. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and got to try all sorts of foods I've never had before--poi, lomi salmon, laulau . . . there was also some really tasty tako. All in all, it was a very good day.

And now I have to get ready for yet another crazy, busy week. Only a few more to go until I get on the plane to go home, though. Whee!