Slaughter-House-Five: Kurt Vonnegut

Ahaha! All you other staff members who don't have school and think you're up to your ears in things like grocery lists and laundry must now face the revenge of the high school graduate. That's right. I've been graduated for three days, and I'm already on my second book (hmmph!).

As for the one I just finished. Apparently Slaughter-House-Five is some typical high school novel. I did not know this. Of course, one of my high school friends told me to read it, saying that it would "really make you think."

And so--it did make me think. But not that hard. In the book, Billy Pilgrim flip flops back and forth through time, kind of like the Time Traveler's Wife except Pilgrim gets kidnapped by aliens and taken to a planet where he lives in a zoo with Montana Wildhack under the observation of the Tralfamadorians. So he flip flops between planets too.

The Tralfamadorians see time as a panorama with past, present, and future omnipresent. They don't believe in free will. And apparently pre-birth is infra-red and post-death is ultraviolet. It makes sense in the book.

Fun read. No tear-jerker, and certainly no replacement say for the Dali Lama or Deepak Chopra. But that's nice. It gives a message without religion.

So thumbs up. Read it.

P.S. I ALSO AM NO LONGER ALLOWED TO REPORT IN THE SUMMER READING PROGRAM SO YOU SHOULD REALLY WATCH OUT BECAUSE I HAVE ALL THESE PENT UP BOOK REPORTS JUST WAITING TO BE BLOGGED :O

Hello Kitty Must Die

Hello Kitty Must Die/Angela S. Choi 250 pg.

Sometimes people are not what they seem. Fiona is a young Chinese American woman who still lives with her parents and can't seem to explain to them that she doesn't want to date the guys they pick. Or worse, marry Don the flabby, lazy but alas, Chinese man with whom they start planning a wedding after 2 dates. Lucky for Fiona, she reconnects with her best friend from high school. Turns out he has a lot of ideas for coping with people who anger you, mostly by killing them. Sean believes that everyone is going to die anyway, some just need a little help. He likes when Fiona helps him choose his victims many of whom seem to meet their maker in a "natural" way.

This book was not what I was expecting but it was pretty fun. Yes, I laughed at the serial killer and all the stuff he taught Fiona. - Christa

The God of the Hive / Laurie R. King

The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King (A Mary Russell novel #10). 356 p.

When someone first tried to tell me that these books featured Sherlock Holmes' wife but "they're really good," I scoffed. But, as it turns out, they are really good. This won't be one of my favorites, because Russell and Holmes are separated for much of it, but it was still quite enjoyable. It's a direct sequel to last year's The Language of Bees, which ended on rather a cliffhanger; this volume ties things up nicely. I think part of the reason I enjoy these books is that King manages to produce the slightly more formal diction (and Britishness) of classic mysteries without being annoying about it.

Burning Lamp / Amanda Quick

Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick (Dreamlight trilogy book 2). 328 p.

Amanda Quick is Jayne Ann Krentz's pen name when she writes fiction in historical rather than modern-day settings. This is a sequel to Fired Up, which I read in January. This one is a bit better that the first, because she doesn't have to spend so much of her page count setting up plots. Still, I prefer her older historicals, before she dragged in paranormal powers and had to spend so much time talking about them and how they work; she's much better at entertaining characters, rather than plot. Also, the male lead in this one is a "crime lord," which could have been interesting had she spent any time making him seem scary rather than just mildly eccentric, but she didn't.

The Witch's Boy/Michael Gruber

The Witch's Boy, by Michael Gruber; young adult, fantasy; 400 pages (about 7 hours, listening)

Horrible people doing horrible things to other horrible people: that's pretty much the content of this book. The main character is cruel and terrible, and manages to harm anyone who has ever cared about him. There's some attempt at redemption at the end, but it's too little too late. If I had to pick I high point of this book, it would be the retellings of classic fairy tales, often with the witch or wolf as the hero instead of the villain. Still, even that wasn't enough to make this book bearable. Not something I'm going to be revisiting. Also, avoid the audiobook: the narration is good, but somehow, having someone read the terrible things aloud just makes them worse.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Graphic Novel/Seth Grahame-Smith, et al

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Graphic Novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, adapted by Tony Lee, art by Cliff Richards; graphic novel, horror; 176 pages

I really wanted to like this as much as I liked the original, it just wasn't happening for me. Part of it was the art, which just seemed rushed (and probably was--as of a few months ago, there was still no artist attached to the project). Also, I had a lot of trouble telling characters apart, though that improved later in the story. The adaptation itself was also mediocre: part of the charm of both the original P&P and PPZ is the narrator's crisp-yet-snarky lines, combined with Lizzie's dialogue. Here, much of that is pared away (we lose the narrator entirely), and the scene shifts are so sudden that it gives the book a very choppy feel. To be fair, I wasn't feeling well when I read this, so I may have let that color my view of the book. Still, I think I was hoping for a lot more.

Trickster's Queen/Tamora Pierce

Trickster's Queen (Daughter of the Lioness, book 2), by Tamora Pierce; young adult, fantasy; 496 pages

I actually read this, instead of listening (the audio was checked out), so it went a little faster. Of course, I'm having lots of fun this this series, so it was already going pretty fast. This is the conclusion of the series, and it's juggling a much more complex plot, as the conspiracy to overthrow the current rules comes to a head. There were times where I got a little lost in all the unfamiliar names and huge numbers of minor characters, but fortunately there's a glossary in the back of the book, and I made heavy use of it. This brings me up to date on Tamora Pierce's Torall books (I won't read her current series until the final book comes out next year), but I've enjoyed them so much I think I may have to read her other series as well.

Tinkers, by Paul Harding

Winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize, this slim literary work (192 pp.) takes place in a clock-filled room, the clocks chimes silenced, and in an old dying man’s head during his last days. Although it is beautifully written, I expected to be swept away by it but was not. Perhaps having had real deathbed experience recently wasn’t the best preparation for reading it.

Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-eyed Stranger: New and selected stories, by Lee Smith

I happened to have this book with me on a recent visit to North Carolina, where a number of these Southern-themed stories are set. Lee Smith can set a scene and give you an immediate insight into a character’s life in just a sentence or two. It’s what is implied, not stated: “Have a happy holiday! The pretty girl in the wine shop is dressed in a red velvet elf suit, with green tights and high black boots. She carries the carton of wine to put it in the trunk, her tiny skirt hikes up to show her red panties. This is the kind of outfit Lawrence would love, damn his soul.” And we suspect that Lawrence is history, and probably a cad; the holiday is unlikely to be happy; and the abandoned wife is probably drinking too much as well. Wonderfully done. 352 pp.

This Body of Death, by Elizabeth George

The latest installment of this addictive on-going series finds Thomas Lynley called back to Scotland Yard, after walking the cliffs of Cornwall for several months after his wife’s murder, to help investigate the murder of a young woman in a secluded cemetery. Old companions Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata also are involved in the case, which takes them to the New Forest, where ponies run free, the ancient art of thatching roofs is still very much alive, and things are not always what they seem to be. Added to the mix is the new acting supervisor, a woman with as many problems in her personal life as she has relating to her new staff. Elizabeth George, an American who writes as if she had spent her whole life in London, is the master of multi-layered psychological mysteries with memorable characters. I can hardly wait for the next one. 692 pp.