ARCs That I Want Really Badly

The title is kind of self-explanatory.

This is the sequel to Throne of Glass, and hopefully (maybe) I'll be able to get an ARC. Sadly, the cover does not match that of the first book.


No ARCs of Allegiant, unfortunately. But I'm very excited.

Based upon The Scarlet Pimpernel, this one is coming out in October, I believe.


Neil Gaiman's latest looks very good. Coming out in June.


I loved Let the Great World Spin, so I'm also looking forward to this.


Hopefully I'll be able to get ARCs of some of these great books.

A Room With a View, E.M. Forster

'The Signora had no business to do it,' said Miss Bartlett, 'no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view, close together, instead of which here are north rooms, here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart. Oh, Lucy!'

"First published in 1908, A Room with a View portrays the love of a British woman for an expatriate living in Italy. Caught up in a world of social snobbery, Forster's heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, finds herself constrained by the claustrophobic influence of her British guardians, who encourage her to take up with a well-connected boor. In the end, however, Lucy takes control of her own fate and finds love with a man whose free spirit reminds her of 'a room with a view.'" It's also described as the most optimistic and romantic of Forster's novels. 

I enjoyed A Room With a View, and although it's not as good as most Austen, it was an excellent novel. It was very chatty; there was lots and lots of dialogue in the book. The characters talk and talk about everything that happens. It was a bit off-putting, but I enjoyed the writing and the story. The characters didn't exactly come to life for me, but they certainly were interesting. I enjoyed the character of old Mr. Emerson, especially when he berates some of the other people on the carriage ride. I'm not exactly sure when A Room With a View is set, but suffice to say, the two Mr. Emerson's are both very progressive for their time.

Unlike in Northanger Abbey, the difference between Mr. Emerson and the "well-connected boor" is not so obvious at first. When the reader first meets Cecil, the boor, he doesn't seem that bad, though not quite right for Lucy either. This makes the book and the romance much more subtle. Cecil is certainly a very interesting character, not bad exactly, but inclined to loath everyone. Emerson describes him very well on pages 190-191. Some of the middle sections dragged a bit and were a little confusing, but I ended up really loving A Room With a View. It's a very subtle but brilliant book.

Overall, the writing in A Room With a View was very compelling; I look forward to reading Howard's End too. There's a great list here of what to read when you've finished Jane Austen, and A Room With a View is most justly on it. It's an excellent and thought-provoking book, one that I would highly recommend. There are lots of interesting character sketches, and the plot is quite good, though E.M. Forster is a bit sexist.

Read A Room With a View:

• if you like E.M. Forster
• if you like Jane Austen
• if you like British literature

242 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

Does anyone know when A Room With a View is supposed to be set? 

Unnatural Creatures: Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman

The first time Reginald Archer saw the thing, it was, in its simplicity, absolute. It owned not the slightest complication or involvement. It lacked the tiniest, the remotest, the most insignificant trace of embellishment.

"A griffin, a werewolf, a sunbird . . .These are just some of the fantastical creatures you'll encounter within these pages. From the cockatoucan, whose laugh rearranges an entire kingdom, to the roving shapeless Beast that lurks in a forest, herein is a collection of rare and magnificent species. Each one will thrill, delight, and quite possibly unnerve you. Selected by master storyteller Neil Gaiman, the sixteen stories in this menagerie will introduce you to a host of strange, wondrous beings that have never existed anyplace but in the richness of the imagination.With stories from Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, E. Nesbit, and many more." I do think the way the book is described is a bit misleading. I was under the impression that the stories would be all new ones written for this collection. But the majority of them have been published before. One, "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", I'd even read before! But the stories are still really good. I was pleasantly surprised to find a paperback edition even though the book had just come out. I think the hardcover and the paperback were released simultaneously, which is unusual. 

As with any short story collection, there are some great stories, some good ones, and some that just didn't work for me. The first one was very fun. Its title is very difficult to say (you'll see why if you read the book). There's a story about bees rebelling against wasps, a girl in an African village who can talk to snakes, an epicurean society looking for new subjects and more. The one about the epicurean society, "Sunbird", is written by Neil Gaiman. The other authors in the collection are Peter S. Beagle, Anthony Boucher, Avram Davidson, Samuel R. Delaney, Maria Headley, Nalo Hopkinson, Diana Wynne Jones, Megan Kurashige, E. Nesbit, Larry Niven, Nnedi Okorafor, Saki, Frank R. Stockton, and E. Lily Yu. Diana Wynne Jones's story has Chrestomanci in it. He appears in many of her books. 

None of the beginning stories thrilled me, but I did really enjoy "Gabriel-Ernest" by Saki. It was an excellently chilling story.  "The Cockatoucan" was also excellent, very British and very entertaining. In the later sections of the book there were a lot of other good stories, making Unnatural Creatures very enjoyable and definitely worth reading. Other ones that I liked were "Prismata" and "Come Lady Death".

Read Unnatural Creatures:

• if you like Neil Gaiman or any of the other authors
• if you like short stories
• if you like fantasy
• if you like stories of strange creatures 

455 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

The Eternal Ones, Kirsten Miller

Haven was back. She glanced across the familiar little room. Silver clouds hovered over the skylight high above a rumpled bed. A candle sat on the edge of the vanity, waiting for the sun's weak rays to finally fade.

"Haven Moore has always lived in the town of Snope City, Tennessee. But for as long as she can remember, Haven has experienced visions of a past life as a girl named Constance, whose love for a boy called Ethan ended in fiery tragedy. One day, the sight of notorious playboy Iain Morrow on television brings Haven to her knees. Haven flees to New York City to find Iain and there, she is swept up in an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Is Iain her beloved Ethan? Or is he her murderer from a past life? Haven asks the members of the powerful and mysterious Ouroboros Society to help her unlock the mysteries of reincarnation and discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves, before all is lost and the cycle begins again. But what is the Ouroboros Society? And how can Haven know whom to trust?" 

The plot of this one sounds annoyingly YA-romancy, and the cover is hideous, but Kirsten Miller is the author of the Kiki Strike series, which I love, so I gave this one a try. And I wasn't disappointed.The Eternal Ones wasn't quite as good as the first two books in the Kiki Strike series, but it was better than The Darkness Dwellers, and was really suspenseful. Although it's different, once I started, I couldn't put it down. 

The characters are all interestingly portrayed. The cruelty of Haven's grandmother is shown so well, and I was really furious at the way she was treated in Snope City. Haven's mother loves her, but she's never been quite the same after Haven's dad died, and she can't stand up for Haven. It's a really bad situation. I also wanted to learn more about the enigmatic Ethan/Iain and what had really happened. It did take a while for Haven to actually get to New York, and I think the beginning sections could have been tighter, but the book was still good. All of Part 1 is set in Tennessee, 147 pages or so.
 
I loved Part 1, but Part 2 kind of annoyed me. Haven started acting really stupidly, just blindly trusting Iain, which was really not a good idea, considering the fact that he was a notorious playboy and she had been warned by someone to avoid people who seem to know too much about her. I realize that they were in love in a past life, but I feel like Haven still should have proceeded with more caution. And plus, Iain bosses her around too much, and she just takes it. She really did a lot of stupid things in New York, and she kept going back and forth about whether she was in love with Iain or whether he was a psycho. It seemed obvious to me that he was a real jerk, even if he was just trying to protect Haven. 

What I did like about The Eternal Ones is that certain elements of it are based upon the author's own life. She lived in a small North Carolinian town, and when she was seventeen, she went to New York City and lives there still. I have no idea what her parents were like, but the dedication to The Eternal Ones reads thus: "FOR MY PARENTS- if not my first, then certainly the best." It's very enigmatic. 

I didn't love the two main characters, but I did love the writing and the plot, which made up for Haven being somewhat annoying. This is certainly a fascinating novel, and well worth a try, although it's not as good as Kiki Strike or How to Lead a Life of Crime. I did like the subject matter. 

Read The Eternal Ones:

• if you like Kirsten Miller
• if you like books about reincarnation
• if you like books set in Tennessee or New York

411 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I was born in the city of Bombay...once upon a time. No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar's Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it's important to be more...On the stroke of midnight as a matter of fact. Clock-Hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world. 

"Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts. This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy."

Midnight's Children was Salman Rushdie's first novel, which I somehow haven't read yet. I really enjoyed it. Like many of Rushdie's novels, it was a bit hard to get into, but I loved the writing and the plot. The book is woven so skillfully. Salman Rushdie does like to beat around the bush and never get to the point, which is infuriating but effective. Saleem talks to the reader directly, breaking off and having emotional crises. He's also constantly interrupted by his wife, and he stops and starts. In short, the reader is annoyed but also absorbed. 

The story itself is amazing, describing India so well. At least, I think it does, and it's certainly an excellent novel. There are tragedies and comedies that unfold, funerals and weddings, all in a mix between fantasy and reality. It's hard to define Midnight's Children in a specific genre; it could be called magic realism, I suppose, but it could also be called historical fiction. It's kind of a mix of the two. 

Midnight's Children is a long but brilliant novel, definitely one of my favorites of the Rushdie novels I've read (although admittedly I haven't read that many). The descriptions of the magic powers endowed to the children of midnight were amazing, once the narrator finally got around to them after over 200 pages. In that respect Midnight's Children kind of reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude; it is many, many pages before Saleem finally gets to his birth, just as it is many many pages before Marquez tells of the ice. So infuriating! 

One of the really infuriating things about Midnight's Children was all the foreshadowing. Saleem drops hints about these huge events that are going to happen, leaving the reader exasperated, guessing and waiting. And by important events, I mean events that will change the characters' lives and the whole country. There are also a lot of great metaphors that Salman Rushdie uses; for example that of snakes and ladders. For every ladder, there will always be a snake around the corner, and vice versa, but as Saleem observes, "The game lacked one crucial dimension, that of ambiguity - because, as events are about to show, it is possible to slither down a ladder and climb to triumph on the venom of a snake..." (pg. 161). Speaking of snakes, it always annoys me how people demonize snakes. There are many, many snakes which aren't poisonous at all, and if they do bite people, it's just because they're looking out for their own interests, just like everyone else. But that has nothing to do with Midnight's Children (at least, I don't think it does).

There were parts of Midnight's Children that I didn't love, but there were also parts that were really slyly funny, and a joy to read. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
Read Midnight's Children:

• if you like Salman Rushdie
• if you like magic realism
• if you like historical fiction
• if you like books set in India

533 pages, 4 stars. 

Rereading Paper Towns by John Green

The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. 

Here is what I said in my original review of Paper Towns in April: "Because I enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, I was really looking forward to this book, also by John Green. It was just as good, if not a little better, than The Fault in Our Stars. Quentin Jacobson has spent his middle and high school years loving the adventurous, magnificent, Margo Roth Spiegelman from a distance. But then one night she climbs into his room and summons him to help her conduct a campaign of revenge, which takes the whole night. The next day, Q arrives at school and discovers that Margo has disappeared. But he discovers special clues-for him. They lead him to Margo, but he discovers that he hardly knows who she really is. 

'What can I say? This book had a great plot, quite interesting. Also, Q's narration was very funny at times; he definitely sounded like a teenager. And of course, Margo, a very appealing character: spunky, clever, funny, and adventurous. And the book had a nice feel in hand. Some of the ideas expressed in the book were very intriguing, too, and now I think I might tackle Leaves of Grass, which played an important part in Q's finding Margo. Paper Towns has some really hilarious moments, and the concept of the paper town was new to me. I won't give it away, but it was very cool."

As I mentioned in my review of The Fault in Our Stars, I've recently begun watching the Vlogbrothers (I'm up to late 2010 now!). At any rate, I remember really enjoying Paper Towns, and I thought that I would enjoy it even more having heard what John has to say about the book and its hidden meanings. The hardcover edition (on left) has two different covers, two different wrong perceptions of Margo that people have. Because when they look at Margo, instead of seeing her, they see themselves embodied in her. They're both wrong. Also, the black Santa collection in Paper Towns is very symbolic. Anyway, you should go check out the Vlogbrothers, and the many videos about Paper Towns. DFTBA. 

My favorite John Green book is at this point certainly The Fault in Our Stars, followed by Paper Towns. Then Will Grayson, Will Grayson, then Looking For Alaska, then An Abundance of Katherines. I haven't read Let it Snow, though I kind of want to. 

Paper Towns has is its hilarious moments and also its deeply thoughtful moments. There are many great quotes, and it really is an amazing book. The first 20 pages or so are a bit slow, but it quickly picks up. The road trip towards the end of the book is one of the most hilarious things ever. I loved this one, more than the first time I read it. The premise may be a tad bit unrealistic, but it's still an excellent book. 

Read Paper Towns:

• if you like John Green
• if you like books set in Florida
• if you like books with road trips

305 pages. 

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, Kristopher Jansma

I've lost every book I've ever written. I lost the first one here in Terminal B, where I became a writer, twenty-eight years ago, in the after-school hours and on vacations while I waited for my mother to return from doling out honey -roasted peanuts at eighteen thousand feet. 

"From as early as he can remember, the hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—narrator of this ambitious debut novel has wanted to become a writer. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s irresistible narrator will be inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian’s enchanting friend, Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. After the trio has a disastrous falling out, desperate to tell the truth in his writing and to figure out who he really is, Jansma’s narrator finds himself caught in a never-ending web of lies."

I was really, really, really looking forward to reading this book, and I was not disappointed. The writing immediately grabbed me, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I won't say that I read it in one sitting because I got distracted by the Vlogbrothers, but it was still a really fascinating novel, the kind of novel that doesn't really have a specific "genre". The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards discusses different types of truths and lies and fictions, as well as being really entertaining. I notice that I'm using a lot of "really's" in this review. 

The three main characters in The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards were also really fascinating to me. Evelyn is fascinating not only to our unnamed narrator, but also to me, and I'm sure other readers. She was such an interesting mix of different parts. Both Julian and the narrator were really interesting too. More really's. 

There are also brilliant stories within stories, and more stories within those stories. This was a bit confusing, but also a great technique. It creates more layers, and characters that are based off of characters who are based off of characters who are based off of real people (presumably). And that's where the truth and lies and fiction come in. 

I also loved that the reader gets to travel with the narrator all over the globe: New York, Sri Lanka, Dubai, India, and more. There are so many locations that keep the book varied. You never know where the narrator is going to be next; he only stays in many of the locations for one chapter, and then he moves again. He encounters multiple reincarnations of Julian and Evelyn along the way before he finally meets up with them again. He also encounters someone who seems to be a doppelganger in Ghana. 

As I've said many times before, I love books that have multiple narratives woven throughout them, and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards definitely had that, not in the sense that the reader follows multiple characters at once, but in the sense that there are multiple versions of each story, stories within stories, and more.  

Sometimes it seemed a bit unrealistic to me that the narrator could conceal his name so well. There were so many moments when someone would be about to say his name, and then the author would distract us, or something else would happen, and you wouldn't get to find out. But then he gets involved with this girl, Julia, and he doesn't even tell her his name. What I did like was that throughout the book, he goes through different aliases; his first at a debutante ball under the name of a Wilkie Collins character.

I think that image: someone not of that circle, at a debutante ball, using the name of a Wilkie Collins character, kind of shows what the whole novel is like. It's humorous, mysterious, evocative, powerful, and interesting, literary fiction at its best. I'm so, so glad that I wasn't disappointed about this one, as I sometimes am when I get irrationally excited about a book. This is definitely a novel that I would whole-heartedly recommend. It's well worth reading. Thanks to Viking for sending me a review copy. 

251 pages. 

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!