American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

I have to say I was kind of disappointed in this book. I'm not even entirely sure why. I think because it felt like it was a lot longer than it should have been. We follow Shadow for awhile and then Shadow follows Wednesday and gets wrapped up in all this weird stuff and I wasn't entirely sure why he just went along with it. The story didn't begin any earlier than it really needed to, which is good. Even though it felt like it started kind of slow, everything that we learn at the beginning came into play in an important way later on. There was really nothing unnecessary there.

I did like Shadow (I think. I'm not sure you could come up with a more ambivalent character if you tried) and characters like Wednesday were certainly fun to read about, but there were large portions of the book that didn't feel like they were going anywhere.

I can understand feeling numb after your wife and friend die, but I still had a hard time figuring out why Shadow followed Wednesday so faithfully. Not that he necessarily trusted Wednesday, per se, but that all these weird things kept happening around them and Shadow was completely unfazed by it. I probably would have drawn the line after I had been kidnapped and beaten, but no, Shadow just goes right back to work. Huh?

Then he spent some time at a funeral home before getting moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin. It wasn't until after that that the plot finally started to really get moving, but I spent all of that time thinking, "OK, but why am I reading this? Where is this going?" It did become relevant later, but I spent all that time wondering why Shadow was being sent hither and thither, never to stay in one place for long. At some point, it seemed like Gaiman was just trying to cover as many gods from as many different cultures as he could into one book and some of the mini-adventures felt like little more than excuses to do that.

The book made it pretty clear from early on that there was going to be a big battle. So I got all psyched for the big battle and then it never happened. Don't get me wrong, the reveal of the con was pretty cool, and I'm glad that Shadow stopped the bad guys, but it still felt kind of anti-climactic when all the gods just gave up and went home instead of tearing each other to shreds.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

by Robin Sloan

Now, who could resist a title like that? Not I.

I found this little treasure on display on one of the front tables at the Book Table and just couldn't resist (which is why I shouldn't be allowed in bookstores: I have a bad habit of spending all my money there). It was totally worth every penny I spent on it.

It's not a long book (under 300 pages) and it goes quickly so I was done in a few days and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It's about books and people who love the hardcopies vs. the new generation of technology. It features extremes on both ends and it's immensely entertaining to watch them bash their heads against each other. I think the book tries to find a middle ground but it leans more toward the emerging technologies. The old fogies who refuse to use anything but solid books are overthrown and the Internet and computers have their way.

!!!SPOILERS!!!
The idea is that there's a secret society of people who are trying to crack this code left by one of the first printers back in the 16th century. It turned out to be hidden in the font that the guy created and the message was simply a thank you to his friend who worked with him at the printing press. It was the idea that the press/books/words/idea are the most important aspects of life.

That's great and all, but honestly, I was hoping that there wouldn't be any big message. I was kind of hoping that the secret society would win out against the techies. When the main character (Clay) told one of the customers that they were going to solve the puzzle in a few days using computers, she seemed less than enthusiastic than he had expected. Other customers were every bit as thrilled as Clay expected them to be, but I thought I knew why that little old lady was so disappointed. I thought the hidden message wasn't really the point. I thought that all of the joy was in the puzzle itself, in immersing yourself in books and study and debate just for the hell of it, and by using a computer to get to the bottom of it, Clay was spoiling all of their fun. That turned out not to be the case, but personally, I think that would have made a pretty great ending, don't you?

Sloan tries to run the middle ground between the two opposing sides by pointing out the similarities between books and computers. When the printing press was invented, it was much like the invention of the internet. Information and ideas were suddenly much more widely available and accessible than they had been previously. At the end of the book, Penumbra says that they are living in the Venice of their day (San Francisco), because that's where all of the big tech companies are. I don't know if I would go that far, but he makes an interesting point.

Dragonworld

Dragonworld

by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves

This book was sadly lacking in dragons. I didn't get to see any until the book was more than half over. The book was mostly about a misunderstanding between two countries which resulted in war, intrigue, petty politics, etc. While that was actually pretty interesting, it wasn't what I signed up for. I wanted dragons. Admittedly, the one dragon I did get to see was pretty cool, and I was willing to settle for the coldrakes (cousins of dragons that look similar but are smaller, dumber, and can't breathe fire), but even those got much less page time than the stupid humans and their squabbling.

So, ultimately the book is saying that war is bad and we should all try to talk out our differences and get to the bottom of things before we start killing each other. It's really not a bad premise, and it is actually told pretty well, but if you're going to write a story about humans, don't call it "Dragonworld".

Although the premise was good (if slightly misleading) this book is not very well written. The narrator is overly explanatory and the dialogue feels stiff. I don't think I really cared about any of the characters. They felt too much like caricatures for me to be concerned with any of them, even when the authors were obviously trying to create some depth. That was the problem. It was too obvious. Speaking of which, if they had used the word "obvious" one more time, I was going to throw that book out the window.

The other thing that bothered me was the authors' total lack of understanding physics. Several times, they mention that a boat or raft was not overturned in rough water because of how light it was. Anyone who has ever been on a boat can tell you that the heavier the boat, the less likely it is to capsize.

While all of the conflict was brought to a satisfactory conclusion, it was too satisfactory. The bad guy (girl, in this case) didn't even end up in jail. She got to go back home to her mansion and her husband after her treason was proven. Why wasn't she thrown in jail? They were ready to throw the Monarch in jail on for treason on little more than the princess' word. So why does she get to go free?

The ending was also a little too sappy. They all become friends and learn to talk to each other rather than invading each other's lands. It really made me want to gag. Then a character gets to go with the dragon to explore other lands, which is cool and all, but why? Why does a dragon need some puny little human following it around? At times, I thought the authors were trying to hard to wrap everything up and beat their readers over the head with the moral of their story. I get it. Talk before you fight. Now where are the dragons?

Hemingway's Girl

by Erika Robuck

This book was not worth the money I paid for it. This is the other book that I bought at the Hemingway House in Key West because it was a book and it grabbed my interest and I was on vacation so budget be damned! If I had only bothered to look at the price and realized that I was paying more than $15 for a paperback I might have put it back on the shelf.

The book is very amateurishly written. The narrator feels the need to tell us about every single thought that the characters are having (OK, not really every single thought, but it felt that way at times). While, as a writer, I can understand the temptation to do that, as a reader, it was extremely irritating, especially when the characters' inner thoughts just repeated what the dialogue or action had just told me. I find it ironic that Robuck is such a Hemingway fan because he was a minimalist writer. He never did any of that, usually not even bothering to show his characters' facial expressions. He just lets the dialogue and the action speak for itself. While Hemingway's writing style is a bit extreme for my taste, I'll take that over Robuck's rambling any day.

The setting also needed work. This wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't just been to the Keys. Robuck lost me at the very beginning when she described her character on Whitehead Street and hearing Duval street from "a couple blocks away". Whitehead is one block away from Duval street. She also mentions Hemingway and some other characters discussing the Spanish Civil War. The book takes place in 1935. The Spanish Civil War didn't start until July of 1936. Way to go. Then there was the scene where Hemingway tells Mariella that smoking will kill her. No one knew that smoking would kill anyone in 1935. Heck, as late as the 50s and 60s doctors were recommending it.

OK, now it's time to talk about the parts of the book that I did like. First of all, it was short. No, I'm kidding. That's not the first thing I liked about it. My favorite part was the characters. The main character, Mariella, is tough and smart and strong and she has guts. I love her. I also loved the portrayal of Hemingway. It struck me as very true to life, from what I know of him. Robuck did an excellent job of displaying his charisma but also showing that he was kind of a dick. It left the main character feeling torn and I found all of that entirely believable. My favorite part was a scene where Mariella calls Hemingway out for writing weak female characters. It was perfect because it is so true. That was my biggest complaint about "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and Mariella was a perfect example of a real woman: strong, smart, capable, and flawed.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

I know. I know. I'm so behind the times in reading this book. I meant to read it before the movie came out, but I must have been feeling particularly overwhelmed by my reading list at that point because I just never got around to it. I don't know what finally made me get it together but I ordered this from the library a couple weeks ago and read it right away.

After all that waiting, I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with it. Maybe it just couldn't live up to all of the hype. When you wait X number of years to read something that is supposed to be the best, most life-changing book ever, it's pretty hard to stay on that pedestal as it keeps getting taller.

I might actually go back and reread the book later because I think that might help me to understand it better. I spent the whole book wondering what was wrong with the narrator. He wasn't exactly naive, but the way in which he wrote seemed below his actual age. I had to keep reminding myself that he was actually 15/16. Then I hated myself a little for thinking that there must be something wrong with him just because he's different. And THEN I got to the end. Oh man.

But before that, it was really hard for me to place Charlie. You know how when you read a book you compare all of the characters to people you know or have known. Doubly so when you read YA, because it reminds of you all the different kinds of people that you went to high school with and the different cliques and all that. I placed Sam and Patrick easily, but I couldn't place, Charlie, and that kind of bothered me.

Although I could (obviously) relate to his desire to read and his tendency to stand apart and just observe everyone. I kind of hated the teacher a little bit when he told Charlie that thinking was an excuse to not "participate", but then the teacher turned out to be pretty cool in the end. I'm just really sick of society telling me that being introspective is somehow wrong, and when the teacher basically told Charlie this, I was all ready to get in there and defend Charlie's young, naive, fictional butt.

That being said, Charlie really is an amazing character and I wish that I could be more like him. The most striking part of the book, for me, was the end when he said he loved his Aunt Helen. Forgiving her I can understand. Loving her? After all that? I don't understand. But that's what makes Charlie special. He truly loves every one he comes into contact with and he expects absolutely nothing in return. In that sense, he is the person I am trying to be.