Ancillary Mercy

Title: Ancillary Mercy
Author: Ann Leckie
Series: Ancillary Justice, book 3
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 2015
Rating: 8/10

Review:  I've been looking forward to the last book in the Ancillary Justice series since the previous two books were just excellent.

The book continues with the events on Athoek Station following the second book in the series. A new Presger translator arrives to take place of the killed translator Dlique and her behaviour is both curious and odd. The conflict between different races on Athoek station continues as the underground floors are evacuated following the events in book 2. And to add to it all Anaander Mianaai arrives to the system and it's not the one that favors Breq.

Overall, there's a lot of strategy and maneuvering in this book that make it not my favorite in the series, but still enjoyable. I liked the relationship bits between Breq, Seivarden, and the ship. Some of the things that were new and interesting in Ancillary Justice just sort of blended in the background in this novel (e.g. the non-gendered pronouns). I did find that the emphasis of the tea culture in the books was starting to get a little too overstated. One needs to hear only so many times that a particular character is regaining their composure by drinking tea from a particular tea set.

I did like how Leckie chose to close off the series. I didn't see Breq's request to Presger coming, though perhaps I should have. Leckie definitely brought Breq's motivations together quite well in this book -- Breq is no longer just trying to die while killing Anaander Mianaai, but it takes some time to see that. I thought it was a solid conclusion with a good twist. Overall, it's an excellent series and one I would definitely recommend to anyone.

The Martian

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 2011
Rating: 8/10

Review: I've heard a lot of buzz around The Martian after it got released by the mainstream press in 2014, but didn't actually pick up and read the book until I saw this xkcd comic.

The premise of the story is pretty simple. Mark Watney is a part of 6-person astronaut team sent to collect research data on Mars. Due to circumstances, he gets left behind on the planet with no way to leave or communicate, but with enough life support and food to survive for some time. The book heavily focuses on the how-to of the survival mechanics.

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I thought the book was great. It's hard to say there's that much happening in the book besides the description of how Mark manages to rig and debug various systems to make things happen, but those things kept my complete attention the entire time I was reading.  The descriptions felt quite realistic (except maybe for a couple of small things) and Mark has a great voice and a sense of humor that allows the reader to be drawn into the book that doesn't really have any dialogue.

We also get a glimpse of what's happening meanwhile on Earth and it was kind of interesting that despite being set in near future (e.g. to make travel to Mars by men possible), there is absolutely nothing futuristic about the Earth portion of the story. In fact, I would say the Earth parts of the story were the weakest by far. It was somewhat difficult for me to swallow that Earth would spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to save one man off of Mars.

All in all it's a thoroughly entertaining book and one I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys tinkering with things or space travel. There's also a movie version coming out later this year, so that might be fun too.

To Kill A Mockingbird

Title: To Kill A Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1960
Rating: 8/10

Review: I may be the last person to read this book. Somehow we passed each other like ships in the night -- my school did not have it on the curriculum. With the news of Harper Lee releasing a sequel fifty years after the original publication, I was curious to see for myself what I've been missing.

The story is told from the point of view of a six year old girl nick-named Scout. It's 1933 and she lives with her brother and father in a town of Maycomb in Alabama. From her innocent view, she describes the case her father works on, in which a black man is accused of raping a white woman. Scout's father is assigned to be the man's defense attorney just as town politics are heating up about the case.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a fairly slow-flowing book. Most of the action actually takes place in a chapter or two towards the end, while the rest of the novel focuses on the flow of life and the characters in Maycomb. It's an interesting juxtaposition of kindness and persecution that is shown throughout the book. It also touches quite a bit on racial politics of the time.

I liked Scout's voice as a narrator and it's easy to admire her father for his principles. But there's a wider study of character going on in the book and some of the minor characters became some of my favorites. I really like Miss Maudie, who likes her garden more than her house and takes difficulties in stride. Some of the less likable characters are interesting too, like Mrs. Duboise who kicks a morphine addiction before he death.

To Kill A Mockingbird is slow and thoughtful, but enjoyable. I just might pick up Go Set A Watchman when it comes out in July.

When You Leave

Title: When You Leave
Author: Monica Ropal
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2015
Rating: 8/10

Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: When You Leave starts out with a plot that is familiar to all who read young adult fiction. Girl transfers to a new school. Girl meets a boy. They fall in love. So far, it's pretty standard fare. Though there are some complications: they are in different social circles and hide their relationship from all their friends. But the real twist occurs when the boy gets murdered and the girl starts investigating his death.

The book is written from Cass's point of view and feels very authentic. Cass is fallible, confused, and often pretty awkward. She is not brilliant when it comes to investigations. Nevertheless, she persists with her inquiry and eventually figures thing out. Her journey from start to finish is mesmerizing. I had trouble putting the book down until it was finished.

There were other interesting characters in Cass's crew. Her voiceless friend, Mattie and the rest of the skateboarding crew were also quite believable, and each unique in their own way. The least well-written character is probably Cooper, who gets murdered. His motivations for doing various things seem feeble and his whole character comes off like a stock "perfect boyfriend" stereotype.

The plot kept me guessing on who the murderer was for quite some time, though I did figure it out towards the end of the book. All-in-all it was an interesting read and a new take on a coming of age and coming to terms type novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale

Title: Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
Author: Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Chris Samnee
Series: Serenity, vol 3
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: 2010
Rating: 8/10

Review: This volume tells Shepherd Book's life story. It starts at the end and keeps going backwards in a series of flashbacks. It's a pretty thin volume, but also one of my favorites because it explains the back story that I've been curious about for quite some time.

In episode Safe of Firefly, Book gets hurt, but then he gets medical care by showing his ident card to an Alliance cruiser. The viewer never gets to find out why they help him out and that mystery was never resolved until this comic.

This finally goes through Book's backstory, which is a rather twisty path. It resolves a lot of small mysteries about Book that we see in the TV series, but never have an explanation for. So, I definitely recommend this one to those curious about Shepherd Book.

Openly Straight

Title: Openly Straight
Author: Bill Konigsberg
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2013
Rating: 8/10

Review: The first chapter of Openly Straight strongly reminded me of Looking for Alaska. Both novels begin with the protagonist starting a new boarding school far away from home in order to get a fresh start. Both protagonists are left in their un-air-conditioned dorms by their loving parents to face their new strange roommates. Both novels involve characters drinking a fair bit -- if I were a parent, I don't think I'd let my kids go to a boarding school.

The main protagonist's name is Rafe and he decides to go to an all-male boarding school to escape his "gay guy" label back home. In Rafe's mind, everyone thinks of him as gay first and everything else second. So he decides to pretend to be straight, though according to him, he'll just avoid mentioning that he's gay. It's funny how he keeps saying that to himself and his parents and his friends back home, but in reality he lies about who he is almost immediately and continues lying.

From the start, Rafe gets in with the jocks at the school. He plays football and soccer and then feels much more comfortable ogling guys in the shower than he ever did before. He also slowly makes friends with his dorky roommate and his openly gay friend. Rafe also becomes very good friends with Ben, whom he meets playing football.

Of course, his little omission about being gay becomes pretty significant after Rafe gradually falls in love with Ben. I thought the romance aspect of the novel was very well done. It felt natural and realistic, though I have never known a straight guy to behave the way Ben does throughout the book.

There is a secondary narrative in the novel, written in the form of a diary assignment. Rafe is recounting his "gay" experiences in Boulder and each diary has feedback from the teacher at the end of it. While I liked getting the background on Rafe, I thought the whole writing diary thing was extremely unrealistic. I think most teens wouldn't share those sort of thoughts and experiences with an unfamiliar adult. It's just weird.

These details aside, I found the book was absorbing and enjoyable. I read it quickly and late into the night to find out what happens next. I think the ending was reasonable and realistic, even if I perhaps wished for something less realistic and more fulfilling. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA genre.

What Makes This Book so Great

Title: What Makes This Book so Great
Author: Jo Walton
Genre: Essays
Published: 2014
Rating: 7.5/10

Review: What Makes This Book so Great is a collection of book-review-like essays written by Jo Walton about various books she enjoys re-reading. All the essays were originally published on tor.com, so if you have sufficient patience for tor.com website interface, you can in theory just skip reading the book and read the website instead (but I am rather glad I didn't because their website lives on the border of clunky and awful).

I discovered Jo Walton a couple of years ago when I read Among Others. I enjoyed it immensely. One particular aspect that was great is the main character's running commentary on the variety of classic science fiction and fantasy novels. What Makes This Book so Great is basically a longer form of the commentary in the novel and written from the first POV of the author rather than the character.

I started this book almost three months ago. It went really quickly at first and I enjoyed reading all the different reviews. But then at some point I just got distracted by another novel I picked up and forgot all about WMTBSG. Since each essay/review is pretty much stand alone, it's easy to read in short bursts. Once I remembered about this book early this year, I finished reading it, though sometimes it was hard to stick to it instead of going off to pick up whatever book the last review was praising.

I consider myself reasonably well-versed in the science fiction and fantasy genre, so I found it really surprising that Jo Walton reviews so many books that I have never even heard of. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. Most of the books she reviews in this volume are published last century (especially in 70's and 80's) at the time when I wasn't reading this genre yet.

From the books I did have exposure to before, I tried to figure out whether her taste matches mine. As one might expect, this varies. We disagree on Tolkien (I am not a big fan), but completely agree on Luis McMaster Bujold (Walton makes fifteen separate entries on the Vorkosigan saga in this collection). Generally, my to read list is now much longer both from reading this book and all the year-end lists.

Overall, I also enjoyed Jo Walton's writing style and her book commentary. It's embarrassingly fun to read a book about books. One of the things I didn't feel worked as well in the book were the series reviews. It was fun for Vorkosigan where I've already read the series, but for series I haven't read, e.g. Steven Brust's Vlad series, I really didn't want to read about each book in the series individually. I think the details Walton goes into on a per-volume basis are only interesting to those who have already read something in the series.

The nice consequence of reading this book is that now I know about Jo Walton's column on tor.com (which she continues to update) and now I can read her ongoing posts there, though I am still looking for an RSS feed as to avoid visiting the website. I am in progress of going through a group of 15 posts on The Name of the Wind re-read which discusses the finer points of the book's world and I am pretty excited about it (squee!). 

The Magician's Land

Title: The Magician's Land
Author: Lev Grossman
Series: The Magicians, book 3
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2014
Rating: 8/10

Review: It's been out for quite a few months now, but I completely forgot about the latest book in The Magicians series until I was looking for something new to read and stumbled upon it -- and then I was back in The Magicians world. I enjoyed The Magician's Land more than The Magician King. For one, Quentin is growing up and maturing in this book and moping slightly less, so that's really quite an improvement.

The book picks up where The Magician King left off: Quentin is back on Earth and trying to figure out what to do with himself. He heads to Brakebills and this time stays there as an instructor. I enjoyed his return to the school. We also meet one of Brakebills' students, Plum, who turns out to be a Chatwin, but doesn't know that Fillory really exists. Quentin and Plum get in trouble together and are both expelled and left to find their own way. Before long, they are together involved in planning a heist of a magical suitcase.

Overall, the book went at a good pace and kept my attention, though there were a few slower moments in the plot. At the end, almost everyone of significance in the first book is back, though not necessarily the same way they were in the beginning. I think the change in Quentin is the largest one and the one I enjoyed most -- less moping and more action, I like that :) A number of lose ends are tied and  I like the way things are resolved in the end. The ending is hopeful and happier than I expected it to be. 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Title: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Author: Robin Sloan
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2012
Rating: 8/10

Review: When I encounter a book review that sounds interesting I often add it to my wish list for later consumption. Often months later I will go through the wish list and pick out something that sounds appealing and read it. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is no exception to this. It's been on my wish list for so long that I have long forgotten what the book is supposed to be about or why I added it there in the first place. But its title just fit my mood at the time of browsing and 10 seconds later it was on my Kindle.

This novel, if it were read by anyone outside computer science profession, would qualify as an excellent page-turning mystery/adventure. For people familiar with coding, Mountain View, or Google, it's a bit like a fun house mirror: it's a reality all distorted to the point of being ludicrous. I don't know whether the author is just unaware of how things work in software industry or he just decided to take a very liberal dramatic license, but yeah, *face-palm*.

Here's a section that happens early in the book that had me in fits and giggles:

"Raj has been at Google a long time," Kat says. We're wandering away from the mess hall. I snagged an extra cookie on the way out, and I'm nibbling on it now. "He's pre-IPO and he was PM for ages."
The acronyms at this place! But I think I know this one. "Wait" -- I'm confused -- "Google has a prime minister?"
"Ha, no," she says. "Product Management. It's a committee. It used to be two people, then it was four, now it's bigger. Sixty-four. The PM runs the company. They approve new projects, assign engineers, allocate resources."
"So these are all the top executives."
"No, that's the thing. It's a lottery. Your name gets drawn and you serve on the PM for twelve months. Anybody could be chosen. Raj, Finn, me. Pepper."
"Pepper?"
"The chef."

I don't even know where to start with that. If you don't know why the paragraph above has me rolling on the floor laughing, you will enjoy the book a lot. Because the novel itself is quite fun. But the number of absurd things that happen is a little overwhelming. I don't want to spoil anything, but in this book Google makes an executive decision to take all of the servers offline for 3 seconds. All of them. At once. For a fun side-project.

I think I could spend quite a bit of time nit-picking on the technological aspects of the book. Like Google servers stored in containers on a parking lot or Kat (the Googler) using Hadoop. (NB: For those who don't know Hadoop is an open-source clone of MapReduce used at Google). But I will stop at these examples and get back to the actual plot of the novel.

The book starts out with an out-of-job web designer Clay Jannon getting a night clerk job at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. The bookstore is highly unusual in that it's open at all hours, has almost no customers, and is filled with mysterious old books that Clay is forbidden to open. The books and the bookstore's mysterious owner, Mr. Penumbra, hold a key to a bigger mystery that begins as far as 15th century.

Despite all the technological snafus, I really liked the book and the characters -- all of whom are easily recognizable San Franciscans. The main characters love interest is a female Google engineer. His best friend is a nerd-gone-entrepreneur who made his money selling realistic digital models of boobs. His roommates eat crazy salads and create crazy craft projects in their living room.

The pacing is good and I finished the book fairly quickly and enjoyed the ending very much. I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone who's ever lived in San Francisco, or thinks books and puzzles are cool, or likes typography. As long as you are willing to overlook some things and fit one of the categories above, you'll probably like it.

Hate List

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2009
Rating: 8/10

Review: I enjoyed Jennifer Brown's Perfect Escape last Christmas and decided to pick up Hate List, which also seems quite highly rated (and praised by Chad). Turned out that Hate List, while quite different, is no less enjoyable in its own way.

The premise of the book is that Valerie comes to school one day, business as usual, and meets up with her boyfriend Nick, who proceeds to open fire in the cafeteria, killing students he and Valerie hate, shooting her, and killing himself.

The narrative jumps around telling of Valerie's recovery from the event, her first day back to school, and back to how she met and fell in love with Nick. I liked the way the book was structured, it kept up a sense of suspense despite the reader knowing pretty much what happened from the very beginning of the book. I stayed up late reading the novel and enjoyed every moment of it.

The compelling part for me is that Valerie was very easy to relate to. The way she reacts to events, her relationship with her friends and family, her coping, it all felt natural and genuine. She is a regular teenager with bigger problems than most and watching her cope is touching. It's interesting to watch the variety of reactions to the event: is she a villain or a hero or both?

Overall, it was a very quick and enjoyable read, I will definitely keep an eye out for Jennifer Brown's novels. 

Fables: Vol 3 & 4

Title: Fables: Storybook Love and March of the Wooden Soldiers
Author: Bill Willingham
Series: Fables, vol 3 and 4
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: 2004
Rating: 8/10

Review: I kept thinking about the Fables characters. There's just something irresistible about the stories involving all these familiar personalities, but done so differently. I noticed that the local library had the next two books on the shelves and seized the moment to grab them.

In Storybook Love, the action centers around Bluebeard, Snow, and Bigby again. They deal with a too-inquisitive reporter together and then Bluebeard hatches a scheme of his own. Snow's and Bigby's relationship takes a step forward and then two steps backwards. I enjoyed the focus on them in this comic. In March of the Wooden Soldiers, the Fabletown gets a letter from The Adversary and goes to war. I really liked the Boy Blue's backstory and we get to meet Red Riding Hood. Also Baba Yaga and her hut make an appearance, which is pretty fun.

These books may also be channeling GRRM with all the character deaths that occur in the two volumes. It's pretty sad to see some of the characters who were fairly prominent in the previous stories die. I just hope they stay away from Bigby -- he's definitely my favorite so far.

There is something in these stories that's also reminiscent on Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. The humour and the mix of normal and supernatural are done really well. And then there's all the drama. I am definitely picking up the next few volumes when I go back to the library.

Fables: Vol 1 & 2

Title: Fables: Legends in Exile and Animal Farm

Author: Bill Willingham

Series: Fables, vol 1 & 2

Genre: Graphic Novel

Published: 2011

Rating: 8/10

Review: Since I enjoyed 1001 Nights of Snowfall, I've decided to continue with Fables by reading volumes 1 and 2 of the series. Conveniently, they were loaned to me by a friend to whom I gave them for Christmas.

The premise of the story is that the characters of various fables, having escaped their respective worlds because of The Adversary, now live in two communities. One is in New York proper, where human-looking Fables live and the other one is upstate New York, hidden by spells, Animal Farm.

In Legends in Exile, Rose Red's apartment is discovered completely trashed and covered in blood. Bigby Wolf is the detective on the case with all the tropes of the genre written into the story. I liked the story-telling and all the nuanced pokes at the original identities of the characters. At the end of Legends in Exile, there is also a short story telling how Bigby came to look human and move to New York, which was a nice touch.

The second volume centers its action on the Animal Farm, the community of non-human fables. Snow goes to the community for her semi-annual visit and interrupts the conspirators in the middle of a revolution against their human community. References to Orwell's Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies are pretty fun to see and the ending has quite a bang to it.

I am pretty curious to see how the characters turn out, especially with a certain romance brewing in the story. I just might have to pick up more books in the series.

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

Title: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
Author: Alan Bradley
Series: Flavia de Luce, book 6
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2014
Rating: 8/10

Review: The latest installment in Flavia de Luce mystery series has been waiting for me to read it since January when it got released. Despite being pretty excited about the novel, I didn't get to reading it until a few days back. Then, of course, I gobbled up the whole thing pretty quickly and now I am left with the wait for the next book in the series (which I have learned will have 10 books in total).

This particular installment breaks the mold of the previous stories. In the past, each story contained a murder investigation which Flavia would solve. In this story, the plot circles around the corpse of her long dead mother, Harriet. The body is finally discovered after 10 years of uncertainty and brought back for a funeral at Buckshaw.

The tensions are high in the household. Visitors flood the estate. Flavia's cousin Lena arrives with her daughter Undine. A dashing pilot Tristram Tallis flies in on Harriet's plane. Adam Sowerby shows up, and Aunt Felicia is there too. We even get to see Winston Churchill for a brief moment. And in the center of it all, Flavia, trying to cope, and planning her mother's resurrection.

I enjoyed how The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches finally advances the story line to reveal a number of family secrets. Flavia learns much more about her mother and father in this book than she does in the whole series prior and it changes her relationship with the various members of the family. I am quite excited where the author has decided to take the story and will be looking forward to finding out what happens to Flavia in the next book.

In terms of the mystery itself, this is probably the first time where I figured out the identity of the murderer before Flavia does in the story. I am generally happy to let Flavia explain what happened without trying to figure things out myself -- I enjoy her process of doing so. However, this time around the solution just dawned on me a little bit earlier than usual. Or maybe it dawned on Flavia a little bit later than usual. The ending still contains a few surprises and did I mention I want the next book now? Setting my alarms for next year to look out for more Flavia adventures.

City of Dragons and Blood of Dragons

Title: City of Dragons and Blood of Dragons
Author: Robin Hobb
Series: The Rain Wilds Chronicles, books 3 and 4
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2012 and 2013
Rating: 8/10

Review: I've read the first half of this series a few years back and enjoyed it (except for the fact that it was split into two books while being one logical piece of fiction). So I've waited for both of these volumes to get published to make sure I didn't run into the same situation again. I saw them both on sale on Amazon recently and seized the chance to finish the series.

I have forgotten some of the details from the previous two volumes, so it took me a little while to get back into the story again. But once I did, I had no trouble staying with it. I find Robin Hobb is very good at making the reader care about the characters of the story and their lives just kept me captivated in the books.

The books continue telling the stories of the dragon keepers who have discovered the mythical city of Kelsingra and now need to make sure they survive the winter in the Rain Wilds to tell of it. Their dragon's survival is questionable too since the dragons are weak and cannot fly. Many hurdles have to be overcome before the characters can find their way.

Again, the two books were pretty closely plotted. I felt that reading them both one after another was the right way to go -- City of Dragons didn't have a particularly strong ending as a stand-alone book. But at the end of the series I was rewarded with one big wrap-up for all the major story lines. I especially enjoyed the Alise/Sedric/Hest resolution. So very satisfying -- I think the author must've enjoyed writing those scenes. I certainly enjoyed reading them.

This is probably the first epic fantasy I've enjoyed in quite some time. You can always count on Robin Hobb to deliver, so looking forward to her writing more stories in this world.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Title: Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall
Author: Bill Willingham
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: 2006
Rating: 8/10

Review: I have never been a reader of graphic novels or comics. Someone bought me a few episodes of Buffy season 8 since I am a big fan of the show, but I didn't take a liking to them. I felt like something was missing in between those still pictures. I could barely pick up what the story was and the characters felt completely off.

However, I've seen some rather complimentary reviews of the Fables series by a reviewer with whom I find myself fairly consistently in agreement over books. That still hadn't persuaded me to read Fables. However, when I saw the books of my friend's wish list for Christmas, I decided that might make a rather neat gift. Well, Christmas is well over and my friend let me borrow the books, so I could try them for myself.

I knew the general premise of the series. It follows a number of traditional fairy tale characters, but puts a twist on their stories. The characters have all escaped their original worlds, pursued by The Adversary and made a new home for themselves in Fabletown, hidden within the mundane world of New York City. This novel is a prequel, telling the story of how some of the characters escaped their original worlds.

The author does some rather clever things with the story. It has the feeling of the traditional fairy tale, but with a dark twist and the novel is definitely not aimed at kids. Different stories are illustrated by different artists and while I enjoyed some of the drawings better than others, overall they are all good quality and pleasing. I think the combination of excellent story telling and pictures made me appreciate this novel despite the unfamiliar medium.

The stories are quick, they often pack a punch, and I was curious to see how the author would wrap up the overall story arch in the book. The ending was to my satisfaction, and I just wish I could have remembered some of the fairy tales referenced a bit better -- sometimes I felt like I was missing out on the joke underneath a story. I've got volumes 1 and 2 also waiting to be read and I am looking forward to them.

Perfect Escape

Title: Perfect Escape
Author: Jennifer Brown
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2012
Rating: 8/10

Review: I received Perfect Escape as a Christmas gift and read it in one sitting on the Boxing Day morning. On one hand it's clearly engaging enough for me to finish it in one sitting, on the other hand I have a hard time putting a finger on what exactly I enjoyed about the book.

The two main characters in the book are 17 year old Kendra and her 20 year old brother Grayson. Kendra is a model child, being perfect is her way of getting attention which she feels always goes to her brother. Grayson scores sky-high on his IQ tests, but is severely handicapped by an OCD, which causes him to hide out at a local quarry counting stones, panic about germs, and be deadly afraid of highway overpasses.

Kendra's perfection is threatened when she becomes involved in a cheating scandal and rather than deal she grabs her brother and drives off on a whim, heading from Missouri to California, where her best friend from childhood now lives. The trip is entirely unplanned, short on money, and keeps being justified by Kendra as exposure therapy for her brother.

The appeal of the book is in how Jennifer Brown captures the feel of the road trip. The highs and lows of being stuck together for long time and the exploration of the relationship between Kendra and Grayson. The journey is more about accepting each other than about the destination.

Right there, by the car, I realized that sometimes you don't have to say you love someone for it to be true. Sometimes you just have to hang out in that person's shadow and be okay with it.

I guess it goes without saying that there is angst, and misunderstanding, and Kendra blowing things out of proportion at times. But it's human, visceral, and I hung onto the story for every minute of it. This is definitely an author I'd love to read more of.

The Republic of Thieves

Title: The Republic of Thieves
Author: Scott Lynch
Series: Locke Lamora, book 3
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2013
Rating: 8/10

Review: In my second post on this blog, back in January 2009, I described the books I was looking forward to the most that year and The Republic of Thieves was pretty high on the list. However, it actually took another 4 years since then to actually publish the story, which meant that (1) I bought and downloaded the book on the day it was released and (2) when I did start reading the novel, I could barely remember anything that happened in the previous books.

Despite the second fact, I proceeded to read The Republic of Thieves and enjoyed it very much. The plot and structure of the novel is quite different from the preceding two books. First of all it's actually split into two separate narratives: one is an account of how Locke and Sabetha first meet and fell in love. The other takes place in present time and puts Locke and Sabetha in conflict with each other. The conflict consists of an election -- with Locke & Jean representing the Deep Roots party and Sabetha representing the Black Iris party. Presiding over the election are the Bondsmagi of Karthain -- whose politics are being represented and who ensure the continuing cooperation of Locke, Jean, and Sabetha.

Of course, with The Gentlemen Bastards running the election there is no end to intrigues, plays, farces, betrayals, and schemes of all sorts. It's fun to watch the rat race, and also fun to see Locke vulnerable to Sabetha, but fighting nonetheless. I enjoyed the relationship development there, though Sabetha herself wasn't quite as magical as one might have imagined her to be after all the hints dropped in previous books. Yet she makes sense as a character -- though she did create more drama than what was strictly necessary.

In the parallel story, Sabetha, Locke, Jean, and the Sanza twins travel together and join a theater troupe. Of course they find themselves in the middle of all sorts of trouble and have to extricate themselves and the troupe. Lynch did a great job portraying the inexperienced teens running the show and it's a really nice touch to see them mess up and be generally teen-ish.

One thing that didn't work particularly well were the transitions from one story to the other. I could imagine them working a bit better together, revealing just the right information for the current story using the story of the past. And I do think that may have been the author's intention, but I didn't feel that it was particularly effective. I liked both stories by themselves, but I didn't think they tied together well.

Overall, I think The Republic of Thieves was well done. It was fun, it moved quickly, there were some very good relationship development moments and some great trickery. I will be looking forward to the next book in the series.

The Last of the Wine

Title: The Last of the Wine
Author: Mary Renault
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 1956
Rating: 8/10

Review: Chad suggested that we read The Last of the Wine as a group read. He learned of the book from Jo Walton's Among Others. After I finished reading the novel, I went back and took a look at what the protagonist in Among Others says about the book and honestly there's very little beyond the mentioning of Plato. So while I am completely mystified as to why this book stood out next to the million books mentioned in Among Others, I am really glad it did since I definitely enjoyed it.

There's a huge contrast to The Game of Kings, which I just finished reading. On one hand, the author manages to convey the feel of Ancient Greece perfectly well without using any sort of convoluted language and gets deep into the psyche of her characters who are the focus of the story. On the other hand, the contents of the plot are extremely linear and simple compared to The Game of Kings. It's funny how these two books are so similar at a glance -- they both have a fictional protagonist surrounded by historical figures, war, relationships, intrigue -- and yet, the two books couldn't be any more different in writing style, plotting, and the message they convey.

The Last of the Wine is written in the form of a memoir by a well-born Athenian named Alexias. He tells of his birth and boyhood, his friendship with Socrates, Plato, and Xenophon, his relationships familial and sexual, and finally his fight against the oligarchs, Spartans, and others. The outcomes of many such stories could be easily predicted by someone who has studied the Peloponnesian War, but I am not one of these folks, so there was a sense of suspense for what will happen.

One difference from The Game of Kings is the way the history was presented; I didn't feel overwhelmed by facts and figures and factions. I have actually managed to get a feel for what happened in the conflict between Athens and Sparta and a general feel for the politics of the time. I still had to flip back sometimes to remember who was who at times, but it was definitely much more manageable a book.

I was really interested in the portrayal of the famous Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato and I liked the way Renault imbued them with a sense of humanity despite the fact that Socrates seemed to be impossibly insightful all the time. It kindled my interest enough to spend a few hours on the Wikipedia today reading about the facts of these historical figures and it was surprising how much of this knowledge I already got from the novel.

Another unusual detail in The Last of the Wine is the focus on homosexual relationships between men. The book postulates that relationships between men were commonplace and encouraged and even codified by the Greek society. I don't know how historically accurate this portrayal is, but the relationship between Alexias and Lysis feels natural and genuine. This doesn't prevent them from having sex with women and marrying and the way the two are combined is internally consistent. Women get treated pretty much like property, rather than partners in the book, and the men lovers are the actual confidants.

All in all, I enjoyed The Last of the Wine despite the fact that the story didn't have a strong plot. The characters and the surroundings more than made up for it and I even checked whether there was a sequel to the story, but alas.

How the Light Gets In

Title: How the Light Gets In
Author: Louise Penny
Series: Inspector Gamache, book 9
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2013
Rating: 8/10

Review: I bought the hardcover copy of this book at Louise Penny's recent library visit to my neighborhood. My copy says, "To Maria, Welcome back to Three Pines". I may have criticized the ending of the previous book while she was signing my book, but I was still certainly looking forward to finding out what was going to happen to Gamache and Beauvoir.

The story is set back in Three Pines once more. In fact, during her talk, the author mentioned that she's planning to continue staging her series in Three Pines every other book in order to make sure that Three Pines doesn't turn into Cabot Cove. In this book, Gamache investigates a murder of a woman who was famous for being born a quint -- one sister out of five sharing a birthday -- born naturally before IVF was invented.

However, the murder of a quint is probably the least significant part of the novel because the story arch of conspiracies and treacheries started in the previous books finally comes to a resolution. We get to find out who leaked the warehouse attack video and more about Francoeur's political dealings as well as his latest plot.

It's a comparatively action-packed book and one I enjoyed more than several preceding offerings. It's a very satisfying ending and one I really enjoyed. There were a few things that bothered me in the book -- some of the events came together a little too smoothly, but overall it was a pretty gripping plot. I am still not convinced about the Beauvoir's relationship to Gamache in this series, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief at the premise and enjoy the rest all the same. Especially with all the favorite folks from Three Pines back in the game.

I also really liked Louise Penny's explanation for the title of this book. Apparently it comes from a verse of Leonard Cohen's lyrics:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

The imagery fits really well with the contents of the book and I am totally looking forward to the next book in the series.

P.S. On a completely unrelated note I saw How the Light Gets In on NPR's hardcover fiction list with a completely incorrect plot summary. How do these people manage that? Ruth does not disappear in this book... sigh. 

Graceling

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristin Cashore
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2008
Rating: 8/10

Review: I haven't been reading much fantasy lately, especially not the traditional sword and sorcery kind since its appeal faded for me a few years back. Instead, I've been branching out to other genres -- this year in particular has been full of mystery novels.

So at first when I received Graceling for my birthday, I put it aside for the lack of a suitable mood. After all, it does sound like a traditional fantasy novel. The heroine is an orphaned young woman who lives and works at a court of one of the seven kingdoms. How much more cliche can you get?

Despite my reservations, when I sat down to read Graceling, I found a curious thing; I just couldn't stop reading. Turned out, I couldn't resist Katsa's story. She is the young woman born with a grace. A grace is a special talent and can be anything, a great ability to swim, bake, or hold breath for a really long time. Katsa's ability is to fight and kill and she is used by her uncle, the king, to do his dirty work pressuring men to stay in line.

Katsa's heart is in the right place, but at the start of the novel she comes off as surly, sullen, and dense like a kitchen cutting block. She misses completely obvious to everyone social signals and had me rolling my eyes quite a bit. It's really hard to believe that she leads a secret society of so many members since she is mostly lacking any sort of people skills.

Then our hero enters the stage and he's everything Katsa is not. He is amicable, friendly, talkative, and clearly a born leader. And he's also one fighter that can give Katsa a somewhat fair match on the training grounds. Their relationship grows in obvious ways, though of course there are challenges along the way.

The reason I ended up really enjoying this novel is somewhat elusive. Objectively speaking there isn't much to the book's plot. It's much more straightforward than I expected and also has a lot less angst for the characters than I imagined it would. In a way it was a pleasant surprise the author didn't capture and torture the characters in a way I suspected she might.

The writing flows smoothly and it's pleasant to read. I don't think the prose is amazing, but it's definitely on the better end of the spectrum for YA writing. There's just something about the narrative that captured me and kept me reading and thinking about the book. This elusive quality made the book more enjoyable than the sum of its parts and is making me consider picking up other books by Kristin Cashore.