Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde

Spoiler alert;
This sequel to The Eyre Affair picks up with Thursday and her incredibly easy transition into marriage and her ridiculous life. There is more craziness and then the book falls into what many sequels fall into, which is the hideous plot where everything rains shit (to take a Wayne's World phrase) on the main character. She loses her husband, she loses everything and the world is going to end. Literally. Most of the book is spent in agony where everything just sucks. Despite this, the book is really quite fun and imaginative as it delves into book traveling and lots of adventures.
Total fluff and frustrating, but like Harry Potter, there is always more to come after the ugly petty juvenile stuff, that is tons of fun.

Three mastodons out of 7

Andrew

Flight - Ed. Kazu Kibushi

The Flight series is a compilation of little known authors and artists who write these very short stories that can be delightful or sometimes annoying. They are said to be loosely based on the theme of flight, but I would argue that it is instead simply about things that are wished for and seemingly unattainable. The idea that someone would say that they wished they could fly, that's whats captured in these books. All those childhood visions of alternate realities and super powers and strange delightful creatures... all of those are caught up in these books. I agree some of these stories can miss the point entirely and be quite trite and immature, but others can have you lost in distant imaginary lands for hours galavanting and enjoying. This isn't really escapism either, but really just an acknowledgment that these sought after dreams are able to be enjoyed even if the laws of physics say they aren't.
A great read for anyone who wanted to leap over tall buildings or meet a polar bear or just play a lot.
five 1960's futuristic steampunk cities out of five.

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair is one of those silly little airy adventure books that are so hard to put down. After finishing it, I'm now reading another mystery type novel and having a hard time with it because it takes itself so seriously. The Eyre Affair has some problems with it, for instance characters are awkwardly added or moved around without explanation for the furthering of the novel. Not that characters can't be added, but in one scene, a character comes up to the protagonist, says hello and then walks away, then the protagonist has to walk over to him and then start talking to him. There are awkward instances like this throughout the book and I give a little cringe every time it happens but then I move on and enjoy the book. The book also succumbs to the time old problem of fantasy novels in that it has the protagonist do bad ass things just because its not like back here in boring old reality. The protagonist in this case, saves the world from a time rift just so that the author can put a cliff hanger at the end of the chapter.
Anyway, the book is a great beach read and is perfect if you've been having a hard time finishing a novel lately. Plus its a series of three or four so I've got lots more reading to do once I can actually find the other books.

4 Dodo's out of 5

Andrew

Transmission - Hari Kunzru

This is a story by a British man from India and I highlight that because I haven't liked a book from India in a while after reading A Fine Balance and loving it so much. Everything seemed to just follow in its footsteps or be too close to impressing Oprah. Anyway, this isn't written by an Indian, but by a Brit with Indian background.
There were in fact many nice moments throughout the book where I thought that the character development was alright and you really got into it, but the main drawback I found was something I've encountered before when author's use the literary device of writing in flashback. This book spent so much time talking about current events as if they were past tense that it made it seem like it was leading up to something and when that lead up finished, it was ultimately quite disappointing. Disappointing like Oldboy disappointing. Anyway some of the computer stuff was kind of fun and bewitchingly simply and sexy but overall the characters were unbelievable and the "romance" of the story was only apparent by the fact that it says that its supposed to be a romance.
The writing style manages to make it at least readable but honestly, I'd just skip it.
Four trojans out of 10

-Andrew

Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

I'm so glad I didn't read this in high school. I got very little from any of the books that I was forced to read and this would have been a horrible one to miss. It is quite similar in many ways to Mordecai Richler's Appreticeship of Duddy Kravitz but differs in a number of ways. The foremost similarity is that both have a very low estimation of human life and a somewhat pessimistic tone while trying to show that while everyone feels their life is hard, if you look at it from the outside, its really not that bad. The difference I would say is the Duddy is an ass and I didn't like him and am not surprised in the slightest that he has a hard time with life, whereas with Holden, the protagonist of Catcher, is a smart and thoroughly good character who is simply caught in the cycle of teen depression and angst. Not that that makes it any less valid, in fact as a stereotype, it gains power in that everyone goes through it. Of course everyone goes through teen aged years differently but they all have a hard time, even the popular kids have their own problems.
Read it and be a better person because of it.
6 fields out of 7

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

I haven't encountered a book this moving in quite a while. The reason being, of course, that it's true. The characters in this book are so rich and real and powerful and sad but most of all they actually existed. This is the story of a young girl growing up with parents who don't like to live the way everyone else does. The sheer ingenuity and inventiveness that is displayed by the parents is only matched by their absolute lack of responsibility and connection to the world. I've met people like this and I actually want to meet more because as hard as they are to be around, they are just ridiculously inventive and creative. These are the crazy artists who berate everyone and yet make the world a better place some how. I was just blown away that the entire novel, I spent my time wanting to meet these people just because I think I could tap into their inventiveness without being taken down by their negativity. I think the only solution is to be more creative myself.
The book shows the narrators family as tenacious, durable, and self sufficient while allowing them their faults and showing their regression down into wasted time and alternate lifestyles that are painful to read sometimes but so worthwhile.
Just check it out because its amazing.

10 out of 10 desert travels.
andrew

Death Before Dishonor, 50 Cent & Nicky Turner

This is pulp fiction at its worst.

I had to read it. Toronto's lit geek community is all over the series as surprisingly funny beach reading, and I'd have to agree with them. It reads like a bad book geared toward grade 6 kids. Some of the writing literally makes you cringe.

The storyline is pretty basic: gantsta finally finds a bitch who gives him a run for his money, they fall in love, mess with a local drug lord and have to pay the price. Throw in some pimped out rides and a helluva lot of bling and there's the book.

It is also filled with life lessons. For example, when dressing to impress, choose chinchilla and mink furs. Accessorize. If your car is blue, buy a suit, cane, and hot twins wearing blue contacts to match. If you see a new Hummer, chances are it'll have a secret compartment for drugs and/or guns. Don't date gold diggers; they'll sell you out for a little cash.

To get all the entertainment value out of this baby, you have to embrace how terrible the writing is. It's well worth the effort.

3 gangstas out of 10

Steph

The Queen's Fool, Philippa Gregory

Set in the mid-1500s, The Queen’s Fool follows a young girl, Hannah though her service in Queen Mary’s court. Hannah and her father have fled to England from the Spanish Inquisition, guilty of their Jewish ancestry. Shortly after they arrive, masking as reformed Christians, Hannah is discovered by a Lord and his tutor as a holy Seer, and they see her hired as the royal fool. Her job is to say what she thinks, tell of her visions, to inspire and amuse the Queen. In court, Hannah finds herself drawn into the confidence of the lord who discovered her, the queen, and her step-sister, all of whom have conflicting interests. Meanwhile, her father and husband-to-be have their own opinions of how she should be employed and to whom she should be faithful. She is forced to balance her obligations to each, while ensuring that her past is not discovered.

I’m going to employ the sandwich technique of praise, criticism, praise:

I really enjoyed the fact that Gregory didn’t allow Hannah to always follow what the reader wanted her to do. It would have been easier to tie it up halfway through with a bow, but taking the harder route made for a much more gratifying read.

About 2/5 of the time I was reading it I remained mildly frustrated with how slow the story moved, how repetitive the wording was and how certain thoughts or words were not in keeping with the time period of the novel. The trouble is that this was written in bite-sized pieces, structured like a Hardy Boys novel, where details are repeated for the sake of those readers whose attention has drifted or who haven’t picked up the book in days. For a historical novel, it could have gone into more detail about the history.

That said, the romances were highly entertaining.

5 of 10 white horses