Library YA Book Review: The Leviathan Trilogy

"Leviathan"
"Behemoth"
"Goliath"

                   by Scott Westerfeld

                   illustrated by Keith Thompson

These books are the reason I type here before you suffering from tired eyes and sleep deprivation, and really it was so worth it!

Goodness me, I love Scott Westerfeld! I discovered the Uglies Series in the Crowe High School Library and then moved on to read most of his well known books: the Midnighters Series, the Uglies Series, the subsequent add ons to the Uglies Series, like the manga for Shay's Story! (I bought it at Crockett's in the Mall back when I thought they were closing and everything was on sale! Perhaps I'll review that in the near future!), and So Yesterday. (FANTASTIC BOOK!)

I also discovered that Scott Westerfeld is a writer friend of my favourite writer, John Green! MAKES ME LOVE HIM EVEN MORE! :) Seriously, so cool.

So I read "Leviathan" the first of the series, a couple of years ago, but I hadn't keep up with the series as the books came out! And I love it when you get the chance to read a series and all the books are already out! No need to wait in anticipation like the pain of waiting for the new Harry Potter, when I was younger! (although sometimes the wait is fun!)

Now first off all these books are gorgeous, they were published on super thick, lovely paper and are adorned with awesome illustrations from Keith Thompson! And plus it reminds me of a steampunk version of Airborn by Kenneth Oppel!! Love Kenneth Oppel! See my review of his newest book, "This Dark Endeavour" here: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/library-book-review-this-dark-endeavour.html

So I may not be the biggest fan of studying history and stuff like that, but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate it! And I love the premise of this series, it totally reminds me of my favourite videogame "Bioshock" (which you young kids should stay clear of, lest you wish to be sleep deprived and haunted by scary scary zombie-like monsters!! Oh! and its rated M, so definitely stay away!)

Seriously, how beautiful are the inside pages??!?! Look at this map!

But "Bioshock" is set in the past and creates an alternate reality on past events, which I loved, everything looked snazzy and 50's/60's glam.

And with the Leviathan series, the same sort of alternative reality is made where in the past during and before the WWI, the main super powers of the war are divided by two different sciences. For instance, the Central Powers of the German Empire, Autro-Hungarian Empire are referred to as "Clankers", since here in this rewritten version of history, the Clankers are advanced in mechaniks and robotic-like war machines (very steam punk and AWESOME! ... but wait it gets even better!). And the Entente Powers, of the UK, France and Russia, are called Darwinists, and are super advanced in genetically engineering war monsters, that are seriously the coolest of the cool!

So anyways, the two powers don't get along, obviously, and in this story the Archduke Franz Ferdinand has a son named Aleksandar, and following the events of his father's assassination he and his trusty liege make for an escape to Switzerland.

The other half of our story follows a young and daring Scottish girl named Deryn who wishes to join the Air Force of England, however this is during a time were women don't even have the right to vote, much less join the Air Force! She disguises herself as a girl and soon ends up on board the great airship, the Leviathan!

I mean, this series is epic! I read through Behemoth and Goliath in a week and these are action packed books, that are just so fantastical! Plus, Scott Westerfeld is a genius at dialogue and really creating a world that is truly imaginative and amazing (along with the help of the illustrations, which are very beautiful!). I love the way the characters are developed and how each one has a specific way of talking and thinking, for instance the slang of the English Darwinists ("bumrag!") and the German Clankers ("Dummkopf!").

I don't want to spoil too much of the story for you, but if you like epic adventures, READ THESE BOOKS! :) please!

I mean seriously, read it. now. :D

All these books get a legit 5/5 from me! Let me know what you thought of 'em!

Library Children's Book Review: "Sophie and the Sea Monster"

by Don Gillmor
illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Now in one of my previous posts I mentioned this book, "Sophie and the Sea Monster", Rhonda read it to the Little Einsteins this Tuesday and I loved it so I read it twice this week with the Young Professors and the Mad Scientists - who shared and agreed that this was a good book! You can see the post about the Little Einsteins reading this during their Dragon Week here (but I warn you, like all Little Einstein posts, this post is incredibly and astoundingly adorable!): http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/08/week-6-dragons-with-little-einsteins.html

So this story, written by Don Gillmor, follows a young girl named Sophie who is pestered by her brother about a sea monster under her bed! From the first page we learn about Sophie's many fears and thoughts. She's afraid of anteaters, pythons, bats! She's afraid of losing her homework! And she's also curious as to what holds the moon in the sky and fears that one day the moon will fall from the sky and land on her house!!

The illustrations, it's worth noting, is outstandingly done by the great Michael Markchenko, you may recognize the style from many Robert Munsch books, of which Markchenko illustrated! And I love his illustrations!  

So, to continue the story, Sophie must get up the courage and strength to look under her bed and discover whether or not their is a monster under her bed!

This is a lovely and heart-warming story that I think a lot of the kids could relate to from the pestering sibling, the elaborate and many fears Sophie has, and the sense of courage and curiosity that she has to grow and discover!

As I said, I read this book with the 6-9 and 10-12 year olds and Rhonda also read it to the 3-5 year olds, we all loved it! So it just goes to show how well this book can transition for all kids! The Young Professors laughed non-stop and the Mad Scientists totally related to losing their homework!

So thank-you Mr. Gillmor for a great, short and cute book about being curious and about finding your courage and not letting your fears stop you from having a good time! I give "Sophie and the Sea Monster" a happy 5/5!

Happy Reading!

Library Book Review: YA Fiction "My Favorite Band Does Not Exist"

by Robert T. Jeschonek

(American published I'm assuming so "Favorite" rather than "Favourite")

So I'm in Metrotown Chapters, waiting for my sister's plane to land ... and I thought, let's do a book review! Hurray!

So I finished off this book a couple of weeks ago ... and let me first say that I am a big fan of Young Adult Fiction, how else does one survive high school!? So now, working at the Beaver Valley Public Library, of course my eye is continually wandering back to the Young Adult Fiction area with longing!  And if you haven't checked it out already here's a post where I talk about the YA/Fiction books for YA that I recommend: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/young-adult-novels-book-list.html

Anyways, this book caught my eye among the shelves and I was impelled by the summary on the inside flap! This book sounded different and interesting. It had this sort of meta-esque quality in how one of the main characters has an anxiety issue in thinking he's stuck in a book and that some ominous "author"/"fate" is in control of his life.



From that summary, I basically thought, ok this is going to be like "Going Bovine" by Libba Bray, which I really didn't enjoy, but I thought maybe this would be more pleasing to me. I was wrong.

This is the story about two boys, who sort of live in parallel worlds: one is Deity, paranoid boy who lives in the shadow of his parent's huge expectations and a fear of living in a book - oh dang, irony! - he finds peace in running a website about a fake band of his own imagining; the other boy, Reacher, a rockstar singer/frontman of a super-secret/super-weird band, with a paralyzing case of stage fright.

So the story goes on to reveal how the two characters are essentially linked and as the story develops also incorporates a book within the book, of which the characters pick up in the story and read.

Now first off, this book is abstract and weird. It's interesting, but for me a little too disjointed. The pace of the story is odd due to the tiny, short chapters where its hard to develop any thing other than snapshots, yet I felt the book to be a bit too repetitive and while odd and strange, easy to predict.

One thing I did enjoy immensely though was the whole theme of fate and control that ran through the story, particularly in Deity's Deity Syndrome (the fear of being a character in a book) and in the song writing of Reacher. One thing the book addressed was the companionship of books and the loyalty of characters. And it did this is a creative way!

Seriously if you try to read this book and give up on it at least do yourself a favour and read the last chapter or so where some of the song lyrics are shared!

I'd say I give this book a 2.5-3/5, not quite my cup of tea, but there were moments that I felt were quite shiny and spectacular!

Want to see for yourself if this book is any good? Check it out at the Beaver Valley Public Library in our Young Adult/Teen Section and let me know your thoughts!

Happy Reading!

Review: Townie, by Andre Dubus III

I started TOWNIE by Andre Dubus III with lots of high hopes; while I wasn’t really a fan of his fiction, I like memoirs and I’ve been especially drawn to stories about rough-and-tumble Massachusetts (The Town and The Fighter, anyone?).  Also, I think his father is a short story-writing genius and was interested to read more about their relationship and learn some background on the family that would give his short stories more context.

Dubus spends most of the memoir focused on his childhood; specifically from when he was around 12 to when he was 22 (the author is now 52).  After a poor but idyllic childhood, Dubus’s father leaves his young mother and three other children for another woman, marking the beginning of his strained relationship with Andre Sr. and the end of his sheltered life.  As his mother moves the family from apartment to apartment around poor mill towns in Massachusetts, Dubus and his brother and sisters are forced to fend for themselves, often being left at home late into the night. During his preteen years, Dubus dabbles in drinking and drugs and describes evenings spent breaking into lumber yards and becoming a petty theif. After witnessing and sometimes being the target of violence administered by stronger and tougher neighborhood boys, Dubus decides to never be one of the weak ones again.

He then spends the next 200 pages or so describing his efforts to become a serious body builder and all of the minor, petty fistfights he gets into, sometimes described in such magnified detail that you wonder if he ran home afterwards and recorded them in a notebook.  Because the book is so heavily focused on this span of these 10 years, many of the stories become very repetitive and I kept wondering how many more fights he could possibly get into.  This part of the book, while the most violent, was the least interesting to me.  Many of the fights started to blur together, not adding much to his narrative except perhaps trying to prove to his readers how tough he was or to emphasize his fatal flaw of violence. Though most of the fights sounded minor, it was obvious that Dubus was proud of every one.  Later in the book Dubus seems to have moments of self-reflection, realizing that many of the fights were self-serving rather than righteous, and that instead of being a hero who protected the weak, he often sought out fights for pure blood lust.

Dubus and his father. photo: The Boston Phoenix

The book becomes infinitely more interesting when he describes his relationship with his father.  As Dubus gets older, he begins to see his father more regularly; although their relationship is more like that of drinking buddies than father and son. Andre Sr. is still a womanizer, and on his second and third marriage.  They often hit the local bars together, his father drunkenly encouraging him to start fights. At some point, Dubus decides to finish college and heads out west to Texas for his last two years of school.  In Austin, he starts to feel guilty about fighting and tries to quell his violent urges. He eventually returns to the east coast where he does carpentry with his brother Jeb, continues to body build and go out to the local dive bars with his father and friends, becoming a townie all over again.  At this point Dubus discovers a need to write and spends mornings writing short stories and constructing novels. As the memoir speeds to its end, Dubus mentions many important life events (including one particularly disturbing tragedy) but for the most part they are glossed over, without much analysis. The end of the book is far more engaging than the beginning but the quick wrap-up leaves the reader rather stunned and wishing for more.

Overall I just couldn’t get into the book. I realize that Dubus probably intended to focus more on his punch-throwing youth, but those parts of the memoir could have benefitted from a little editing because I don’t think the reader wants or needs the intimate details of  every single scuffle.  The most enjoyable parts of the book are where he describes his complicated relationships with his family and step-family.  These sections are filled with honest, raw emotions and really give the book a more three-dimensional feel after the long, testosterone filled passages describing bloody fights.  Reading this book at least fulfilled one of my hopes: I learned a tremendous amount about who Andre Sr. was, at least through his son’s eyes. I can see lots of allusions to his personal life in Andre Sr.’s short stories now and it’s interesting to see how his interpretations of events differ from those of his abandoned son. I would recommend reading this book if you are a fan of either Andre Sr. or Andre Jr.’s fiction and want to read about events that inspired their writing. However, you can probably skim most of the middle 200 pages, as you won't learn much about Dubus from his fights.

What To Read Wednesday: Thursday Edition

 Yikes, I’ve been very MIA so far this year, but I swear I have a good excuse! Because the weather has been so ridiculously snowy, cold and icy, I’ve been hibernating in my room reading like crazy.  I made a goal this year to read 100 books and while that probably won’t happen (I plan on attacking some chunksters this year), I’ve been plugging away at my awesome pile of TBR books.  I also finished a few books that have been lingering on my half-read list, like ‘I, Robot’ and ‘The Instructions’.

I’m going to jump right into a book review

After all the hype that Hannah Pittard’s “The Fates Will Find Their Way” was getting from book bloggers, I pre-ordered my copy and dove in the day it was released. The book certainly lived up to my expectations and is now my go-to recommendation so far for the year.  The book is a very atmospheric, dream-like story that examines the impact a local tragedy has on a group of young boys.  Sixteen year old Nora Lindell vanishes from her upper middle class town on Halloween in the mid 1970s and is never seen again.   Stories surrounding her disappearance and fate multiply and grow into full fledged fantasies.  Was she kidnapped by a smooth talking stranger at the airport? Did she flee to Arizona to stay with relatives, marrying a hard working old Mexican? Or did she find her way to India and take up with a female companion?  The boys spend hours discussing and dissecting her life and family, not realizing the lifelong effect this will have on their lives.  The novel bounces back and forth between their teenage years and life as grown adults with children and families of their own and not only focuses on Nora Lindell, but also on their loss of innocence and fear of becoming an adult.  As you go deeper into the book, the secrets and private drama of the town residents are slowly revealed and you watch as lives are ruined and people die before their time. Adding to the group voice and tone of the story is Pittard’s choice to write in first person plural.  In the end, you realize that the boys don’t really want to discover what happened to Nora and her place in their hearts and minds is slowly drains away.

The novel reminds me very much of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides; in fact this may be its only fault.  However, while both books are written from the perspective of a group of boys obsessed with the tragedy of a girl(s) in the 1970s, Pittard’s novel also focused on the theme of growing up/becoming an adult and therefore does indeed stand on its own.  I was also reminded, strangely, of the movie “Brick”, though I can’t actually figure out why. The book is neither snappy nor noir like the movie, but occasionally I would be reminded of the movie when the boys would get together and discuss different rumors and gossip about Nora. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is craving a quick, intense read (and really, who isn’t?).  Follow this link for an audio interview with Hannah Pittard, as well as an excerpt from the book.