Reading Cause I'm Addicted

Saturday, August 7, 2010

In My Mailbox 33

Bought:

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

The English Patient Michael Ondaatje

My Life in France by Julia Child

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Received:

Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.
Half-human and half-faery, Ani is driven by her hungers.
Those same appetites also attract powerful enemies and uncertain allies, including Devlin. He was created as an assassin and is brother to the faeries' coolly logical High Queen and to her chaotic twin, the embodiment of War. Devlin wants to keep Ani safe from his sisters, knowing that if he fails, he will be the instrument of Ani's death.
Ani isn't one to be guarded while others fight battles for her, though. She has the courage to protect herself and the ability to alter Devlin's plans—and his life. The two are drawn together, each with reason to fear the other and to fear for one another. But as they grow closer, a larger threat imperils the whole of Faerie. Will saving the faery realm mean losing each other?
Alluring romance, heart-stopping danger, and sinister intrigue combine in the penultimate volume of Melissa Marr's New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series.

My Thoughts: First off, I figured I’d love this book because the Wicked Lovely series is one of my favorites. I can now say that besides the 1st book, Radiant Shadows is my favorite. I slipped back into Marr’s written world as soon as I started the first chapter. Despite me initially thinking that this was another side story, I became invested in Ani and Devlin’s story almost as much as Ash and Seth (not quite but almost). It also helped that the book was packed with multiple characters from the dark court like Niall (yum), Irial, and Gabriel. Out of all the courts, the Dark court is my favorite. Plus, Melissa Marr seems to flourish when writing about this court because, well, her writing seems most addictive when she’s dark.

I always love the full spectrum of emotions she writes about in every novel, but I especially like her description of balance and equality, or shadow and light (or radiance), and order and disorder. Thanks to the examples of balance, I have stopped calling this book and book 2 “side” stories. Each book has had its side and angle of one huge story.

This world was so fascinating; it drew my imagination in and left me with Radiant Shadows redraw. With no new book out for a while, I’m stuck wishing I had a steed and was a part of Niall’s hounds, riding across the earth like shadows. No wonder Wicked Lovely’s shadows shine so radiantly.

Why are bad boys so appealing?

I’ve pondered this question several times throughout the years, but it wasn’t until I read part of the Demon’s Lexicon that I started to become concerned about what I’m attracted to in books.
Let me start from the beginning. A couple of months ago (some time during the school year) I participated in a chat on twitter with a whole bunch of YA authors. This was the first time I was able to ask people like Cassandra Clare and Holly Black questions. It was great! It was so fun that I decided to be a part of the after party chat held at the Mundie moms website. This after-party chat was more for authors to talk to each other. Non authors would also make comments, but unless it was something really significant or someone was saying goodbye, we were more like the audience.

Among the many (funny and interesting) things that were discussed, one thing that all the authors would talk about were their favorite guy characters from different books, like Jace from TMI, or Po from Graceling. One character that was discussed over and over again was Nick from The Demon’s Lexicon. When fighting over fictional hunks, many people, author and non-authors alike would choose Nick. At that time I had only read the first chapter of The Demon’s Lexicon online and didn’t know much about him.

Once I did get the book, I was immediately ready to see what people were talking about. I don’t want to give any spoilers but until the last part of the book, I couldn’t understand why he was so positively appealing. In most cases, since the book was told from his point of view I was able to quickly determine that I didn’t like his attitude. It seemed like he didn’t like anything or anybody. Now I admit that once a secret was revealed near the end of the book, everything made sense and I ended up liking Nick, but before that point I became concerned about the kind of male characters I or other readers are attracted to. The truth is if the author had taken away a couple of pages that revealed his nature, I would have liked Nick from the beginning. That’s when I wondered, why do I, and other readers like the fictional characters that we do?

Why are bad guys appealing, especially over the “good guy”? I’ve found that in many books with love triangles, a girl finds the bad boy more appealing and unique, (even if he treats her like dirt at first) but sees the good guy (who is normally an old or best friend) as a representation of security and dependability. (even if it’s just his nature to be dependable).

But how much of this attraction to character is based on what they represent instead of who they really are? Do girls like bad boys or do they like adventure. Are we attracted by the chip on a character’s shoulder or are new and strange behaviors appealing? I personally love dark characters (not like suicidal or anything…just..dark) but rarely do I find myself having a literary crush on a guy who hasn’t realized yet that life isn’t fair and that not everyone is going to bow down to them because their gorgeous or deadly. And if I do like those kind of guys, I’m hoping that I’ll be more careful with how I assess a character. I can’t fathom how many more YA books I’ll read in the future, but I know I’ll fall for multiple good and bad guys as time goes on. I’ll just have to make sure my intrigue isn’t unhealthy. I wouldn’t want my attraction to literary bad boys to switch over to real life, because real life is full of more than just happy endings and people that will change their ways because they’re in love with me.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Looking Foward to...

Description: When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers--monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell--she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between Seraphim and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of fighting the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her--an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting extracurriculars, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to destroy Ellie's soul forever, ending her rebirth cycle. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives--including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

My Thoughts: I love warriors, (luv!) fierce assassins, and immortals name Will. Not to mention that the drawing of Ellie and Will on author Courtney Allison Moulton's blog is crazy cool.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Book Teaser

Ani wasn't sure if his words were truth. Faeries couldn't lie, but belief was a tricky thing. If Irial believed the words, they were utterable , and he did believe that her blood was the solution they needed to save the Dark Court.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Heart of a Samurai Review

Author: Margi Preus

Release date: August 1, 2010

Hardback: 320 Pages

Description: In 1841, a Japanese fishing vessel sinks. Its crew is forced to swim to a small, unknown island, where they are rescued by a passing American ship. Japan’s borders remain closed to all Western nations, so the crew sets off to America, learning English on the way.

Manjiro, a fourteen-year-old boy, is curious and eager to learn everything he can about this new culture. Eventually the captain adopts Manjiro and takes him to his home in New England. The boy lives for some time in New England, and then heads to San Francisco to pan for gold. After many years, he makes it back to Japan, only to be imprisoned as an outsider. With his hard-won knowledge of the West, Manjiro is in a unique position to persuade the shogun to ease open the boundaries around Japan; he may even achieve his unlikely dream of becoming a samurai.

My Thoughts: When I first saw the cover of this book I was extremely excited. I was thinking, a book about a Samurai!! I’ve always been intrigued by stories that deal with warriors.

Although Heart of a Samurai didn’t deal with the Samurai aspect as much as I’d hope for, it concentrated on something better. Going after what you want and believing in yourself even when no one else does. Seeing the main character struggle for so long to go after a goal, as well as see the results (whether good or bad) was a huge encouragement to me. There’s always something happening in people’s lives where a person may believe in something that nobody else supports. But sometimes we have to support ourselves.

Heart of a Samurai included a lot of things that actually happened to the real life Manjiro. Because it included so much of his real life while still being a fictional book, it was easier to learn more about him than if I’d read his biography (without reading this book).

Since it was a quick read, none of the educational parts seemed overbearing. By the time I got to the end where there was a glossary of Japanese words as well a short explanation of what really happened to Manjiro, I was anxious to learn more. This was a very quick and educational read. Anyone can read this but I hope that a lot of middle schoolers read this. It could possibly give them an example of how a book can teach you something important while not having to hammer points over and over.