Since last week, I have done quite a bit of reading. Woo! I finished Child of the Prophecy, read Only Begotten Daughter and Yes Man in their entirety, and also started reading The Truth About Celia. Normally I don’t read quite this much, but Leslie has been out of town, so I’ve had a little more time to myself. I guess I’ll briefly summarize my feelings toward each of these books and then see whether or not I feel like writing about anything else.
Away we go!
Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier
This is the final instalment of a trilogy and takes place in Ireland during the 9th century, touching on the ongoing battle between the indigenous Celts and the invading Britons. However, this conflict is really just a backdrop for a mildly epic love story. There are sorcerers and bandits and war lords and all that fun stuff, but the main conflicts were internal as the story is told from the first person perspective of a young woman. The main story arc generally resembles the following: I LOVE HIM, I CAN’T BE NEAR HIM, HE’LL GET HURT, I LOVE HIM, NOW I’M NEAR HIM BUT I CAN’T STOP MYSELF!, HE GOT HURT, I’M GOING TO BERATE MYSELF FOR BEING WEAK. This may seem like I am being critical, but I did really enjoy the book. The story is definitely well written and doesn’t drag at all, but it does lack some of the more fantastic plot points that generally make fantasy so fun to read. If you’re the type of person that tends to shy away from the genre of fantasy, this trilogy would definitely be a good way to slowly immerse yourself into all of the excitement and whimsy that you’re missing out on. Rating: B+
Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow (this post’s title is taken from this book)
Satirical SciFi/Fantasy about a second virgin birth in contemporary New Jersey where Julie (Jesus’s younger half-sister) is fathered by an old Jewish hermit and mothered by God. Julie’s life turns out to be quite hard. Apparently being a deity while growing up in the Garden State ain’t no walk in the park. This story is far from cheery and has a tendency to dwell on the dangers inherent in religious fervor. Morrow is critical of organized religion and seems to favor the idea that uncertainty is good, even necessary, unless you want to turn into an absolute nutter. Personally, I agree with this philosophy and really enjoyed this novel. I hadn’t heard of Morrow ’til recently and was excited to find out that he’s written several novels in the same vein. I intend to read more by him. Rating: A-
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
A few months ago, an obnoxious looking film by the same name, that seemed to be little more than a Jim Carrey vehicle (despite this, I kind of wanted to go see it because Zooey Deschanel is in it, and she’s the cutest, most awesome actress and I love her), was released in theatres. Apparently, it was “based” (I read the summary of the film, it sounds awful and nothing like the book) on this book, except while the movie is doubtlessly stupid and ridiculous, the novel is super entertaining and chronicles what actually happens to Wallace when he vows to say only “Yes!” for a six month period of his life. The book is basically a really long anecdote and is filled with optimism and happy times. It makes you want to seize every opportunity and travel the globe and try new things and just have fun, fun, fun. Woo. Maybe I just have a deep-seated, heavily repressed wanderlust, but this book seemed surprisingly powerful. Either way, I’d recommend it; it really makes you think about what you’re up to. Rating: A-
The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
I just started this book, so I don’t want to pass judgement on it yet, but it’s about a family whose 7 year old daughter disappears and is never found, so I don’t expect it will be much of an “upper”. I purchased a different Brockmeier novel earlier this year (for $1) because it had an interesting title, and I really, really liked it. I’ve also read his two collections of short stories this year, and his style of writing is so simple and emotive and heartfelt and descriptive and it just seems like his words on the page kind of glow sometimes. He’s definitely become one of my favorite authors. For the longest time, I was not a fan of short stories, but I’ve been able to get pretty excited about them recently and I would say that Brockmeier is largely responsible. If I were asked to recommend a book to someone, it would probably be one written by him. Hopefully this book will be just as good as his others.
Blech. That took much longer than I thought it would. And I don’t even like this entry… In the future I’ll have to think of a different format to talk about books. Hmmmm. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks for readin’.
See y’all soon.
Follow my progress. I update whenever I start a new book.
Currently reading: The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
Books read in 2009: 49
2009 pace: 77 books
1 Comment
Well, I’m glad to see that you had _something_ good to say about Child of the Prophecy. But it would have been nice if you had told me more than just your complaints.