- A Taste of Magic by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe. Finished 4/7. I picked this up at the library as a quick, no think book after doing some heavy/detailed reading for school. Pretty much was a no think book, not all that great, but something to set in the bathroom for quick snatches of reading.
- Talyn by Holly Lisle. Finished 4/9. I picked this up and started it awhile ago, then forgot about it until I found it under my bed. This is a fantasy book, but Robin Hobb writes on the back: “An unflinching examination of relationships amidst a cash of societies. This is not your average fat fantasy book.” Indeed it is not, this is a very well written book about what it means to be human, what it means to be ethnocentric, what it means to try and find common ground with people who are different than ourselves rather than simply decide they are less than we are. While it is a book on a grand scale about societies, it is also a book on a personal level about responsibility: “All men had such tasks, Gair realized–to each human born, the gods gave a destiny, and free will either to fulfill it or turn away. No man could live another man’s life–or at least, could not live it as it was meant to be lived. No man could embrace another man’s destiny. Each man could only take up the burden of his own, and seek it with all his courage and hope” (544). I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy at its best–with one warning, its graphic in a couple of different ways (trying to avoid being spammed so avoiding specific words).
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Finished 4/26. “Remember, he tells her, the padlock wants to pen. All you have to do is let it do what it wants. It sits there in her hand, cold and inert and heavy. And then, suddenly, she understands, and, somewhere in her heart, she lets it be what it wants to be. There is a loud click, and the padlock opens” (216). I read this book a few years ago and this was a quick re-read to see if it fits into where I want my independent study to go in the fall–I didn’t take any notes or anything other than my typical bending the bottom page corner. I think Gaiman is brilliant at what he does, although one of my favorite things he does is the comic book Marvel 1602 where he writes the X-man as if they were born in the 16th Century–fantastic!
- a long way gone: Memoires of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah. Finished 4/29. We are going to be reading this in a book club I’m hosting over the summer, but I wanted to pre-read it as I like to read a book through first before reading it deeper for themes and connections. This is a powerful and disturbing book that I think everyone should read to remind ourselves of the depths and heights that humanity can sink to and also attain. Longer review here.
~ by Kelly on Monday, 9 April 2007.
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