Some more books... not all because I'm lazy

It's been waaaaay too long, once more. I re-read books, and that gets in the way of reading new books and that gets in the way of blogging about new books. Also, I'm lazy about blogging.

The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker

This book is a lesson in why you shouldn't take thirty years to finish your nonfiction works. A fascinating concept about the basic building blocks of story, unfortunately based heavily in the discredited psychological theories of Carl Jung. The first... third? Maybe? of the book is good and interesting, and so is the history of the breakdown of the archetypical plots over human history... including the last chapter called 'The Age of Loki' (I think... it's on my kindle and my kindle is broken :( ). So, if you can somehow manage to skip all the stuff about the 'light/dark feminine/masculine' and the 'anima/animus', it's worth flicking through, particularly if you're interested in the mechanics of stories.

Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
Speaking of the feminine and masculine, this (nonfiction) work about the nature vs nuture gender neurology. I wanted to read this after reading 'The Female Brain' and 'The Male Brain' because I like having both sides of a story, and I must say, I'm glad that I have read all three. It would have been less enlightening if I weren't familiar with Louise Brizendine's work, because the book is essentially a detailed criticism of said work. Pretty much that's it. Fine breaks down the flaws in Brizendine's research and statistics and pretty much points out that Brizendine's conclusions about neurological gender difference are fallacious. And that's it. Fine doesn't really provide any new research or hypotheses of her own, except to discredit Brizendine, and that's OK, I mean it needed to be done, but she didn't really seem to have a point of her own to make. OK, if you're interested in how we aren't genetically programmed to think certain ways according to our gender, but otherwise, meh?

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

I... can't. It's amazing. Go read it.

I Been A-readin' once more

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
I borrowed this (and several other tomes) on my most recent library binge and finished it first out of the batch.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have enjoyed this book half so much had I not entered into reading it with barrel-bottom expectations. The blurb on the back cover hinted at marital infidelity and selfishness, and if there's anything I hate, it's literary indulgence of character flaws. I hate it so much when an author creates a flawed character... and proceeds to excuse and justify all the character's wrongdoings. It drives me up the wall. But this isn't what Dawn French does in A Tiny Bit Marvellous. All of the characters are flawed and broken - and that is sort of the point of the story, which is about how self-centred human beings manage to misread and misunderstand one another - particularly in context of mother-daughter relationships. Of course, with a story like this, the danger is to have the characters get on the readers' nerves - but Dawn French manages to create characters worth caring about, even if they do deserve a regular old slap in the chops most of the time. An easy read - a bit sweary for those who are bothered by vulgarity - but a decent book all in all.

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
The third book to feature Howl and Sophie of Howl's Moving Castle, I would describe House of Many Ways as an Enid Blyton book for tweens - the domestic magic and quieter personal struggles of the characters don't put one in mind of a sweeping fantasy saga, but more a light coming-of-age interlude of a book. A few plot elements felt forced and shoe-horned in, but I found the book to be quite a pleasant experience all in all, though not as good as its predecessors... I will mention that the mental image of the lubbocks kept me awake a little at night, though, so if giant insect like creatures freak you out then better not try this one.

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
Oh. My. Goodness. This is one of those classic novels that I have always put off reading - along with Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies: I don't even know why I expected to dislike it, but I never really planned to read it until I discovered it listed in my uni book readings. I'm glad I never read it before, because it was horrible. I have a list somewhere of female protagonists I would most love to shake and Sybylla now ungraces the top of it. Ugh. My Brilliant Career has been described as an Australian Jane Eyre and I can see the similarities between the two... up to a point. You see, Jane Eyre actually endures quite a lot of hardship in her early life - abusive relatives, hideous schooling system and lost love. I don't particularly like Jane, but after reading My Brilliant Career I shall henceforth hesitate to call her a whinge.

Sybylla, unlike Jane, suffers only mildy - her family's fortunes decline and she suffers Disney-princess-who-just-wants-more syndrome to a staggeringly annoying degree. She decides that she has been cursed with an unnaturally sensitive soul, and, even though the rest of her family is surely enduring the same circumstances as she, none of them suffer as acutely from the lack of fame, wealth and resources as she does. Complaining bitterly of her lack of faith for the entire book, she abuses her mother as a nag, her father as a drunk and her sister as a pretty but shallow pet. She has six or so other siblings, but, owing to her previously described self-centredness, never bothers to think of or mention them until near the end of the book. She then is invited to go and live with her much wealthier grandmother and aunt, who are genteel and refined and concerned for her welfare... and once settled in their comfortable lifestyle, proceeds to bury herself in self pity because she thinks she's ugly. Well, whatever.
Everyone is charming to her, she resents their good humouredness and thinks they must be laughing at her, generally behaves with the worst of motives and somehow ends up with a fiancee whom she does not believe has feelings for her until she angers him to a point where HE LEAVES BRUISES ALL OVER HER ARMS AND SHOULDER. NOT COOL. But, for her, this proves that he must be really in love.
Sadly for the gentleman, he really is in love, but Sybylla believes that all people are as self-centred as she and refuses to admit that any person might have genuine affection for another person. I shan't spoil the ending for you (in any case, describing any further would bore both of us to death, dear reader) but rest assured, Sybylla finds a way to scorn all friendship from all quarters and end up moaning to herself in a hole.
What a horrible book this was.

Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard by Eleanor Farjeon
This is a book that I enjoyed immensely, but do not feel safe recommending to any of my readers. It was heavily romantic, in a Grimms' fairy tales kind of way, but without the urgency of your ordinary fairy tale. It was more of a pastoral idyll. The story is that of Martin Pippin, who must free the farmer's daughter from her dairymaid gaolers by singing songs and telling stories to the dairy maids and softening their hearts to romance and love. It is as nonsensical and frivolous as it sounds, and strangely poetic and philosophical at the same time. But I loved it. I'm having difficulty describing this book, so here, have some quotes from it:

"Why, the world's as full of edges as the dealings of men and women, in which you can scarcely go a day's march without reaching the end of all things and tumbling into heaven. I tell you I have traveled the world more than any man living, and it takes me all my time to keep from falling off the brink. Round? The world is one great precipice!"

 "Women are so strangely constructed that they have in them darkness as well as light, though it be but a little curtain hung across the sun. And love is the hand that takes the curtain down, a stronger hand than fear, which hung it up. For all the ill that is in us comes from fear, and all the good from love."

“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. And when I say 'just' I mean a little while ago in the small hours of the morning. I kinda wish I hadn't. Though it is cool to have read the last two books of the trilogy in forty-eight hours, I wish I hadn't stayed up so late reading a book, particularly that book. But I'll get to that later. Let's start at the beginning.

The Hunger Games
It might interest you to know that this is the first popular (and when I say popular, I mean with a cult following) young adult novel I have ever read. I didn't touch Twilight, I've never immersed myself in Harry Potter and I only really wanted to read this one because the movie looked cool... so... yeah. I wasn't expecting great things from The Hunger Games and instead got to be pleasantly surprised by how... non-terrible it was. I liked it. I mean, it probably won't make my favourite books list ever, but I got a kick out of it and it made me think. I appreciate that in a book.
  One reason it won't ever make favourite book status: THE FIRST PERSON PRESENT TENSE. NOOO. I severely dislike present tense in a story; I always find myself thinking, Why? Why would you do that? What does it add? It's so silly and distracting! I deal better with first person, but definitely prefer third person, all the way. I never really got used to the present tense thing, it distracted and annoyed me for the whole trilogy.
I passionately hate love triangles and this one was no exception - every time a story gives me a 'girl torn between two men, unsure of which she loves' line I gag and presently hate the girl. Katniss is interesting and has so much going on besides the 'pick a boy' thing that she manages to still remain relatable and likeable, but I still think that every love triangle should be cut before publishing, if only because it's a kind of drama that weakens the central character rather than giving her strength. (I've obviously never read a love triangle story with a dude in the middle. I don't think it would be any better though.) In Katniss's case, the weakening was actually needed, but still. Silly love triangles.
I also found myself wishing for more stuff to happen, particularly during the Games itself - there was a lot of missed opportunity for conflict and story. Although, after reading the third book I can no longer accuse Suzanne Collins of pulling punches or letting characters get off easy. *Shudder* But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Catching Fire

I enjoyed this one a lot, though I spent a great deal of time mentally spluttering I hate love triangles. I hate them. Hate. Hate. Hate! Catching Fire is a typical 'second book of a trilogy' in some ways, particularly the first half - my liking of Katniss's character was certainly dented by her inability to decipher whether she loved Peeta or Gale, though, because the 'desperately resourceful survivor' element was somewhat missing. I don't like prolonged character angst and I did like how the Katniss of the first book was tough with herself and didn't linger in negative thinking. The Katniss of Catching Fire I admired less, chiefly because of my own desire for something to happen. And it does, of course, and the story and new characters are fairly interesting - not quite as gripping as the first book, but still scary and suspenseful and what not.
I hate to return to it, but HOW DOES KATNISS HAVE TROUBLE DECIDING? HOW? THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE WITH PEETA. HE IS LOVELY. This point of view has a lot to do with how badly Mockingjay hit me...

SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPIOLERSSPOILERSSPOILERS (Probably)

 

Mockingjay

Well... I really do have to say that this is my least favourite book in the series. Did I complain before that Collins missed opportunities for conflict? I'm sorry, I have to interrupt this review for a brief keyboard smash.

ASDLFKJASDL;FKJASDKL;GHAKLSJFGHASKFJSDLKASDL;FJASKL;DFJAKSDLJHFI

There, I'm done now.

This. Book. Was. Brutal.

Gosh. I'm still recovering from the emotional trauma of it all. I must repeat: DON'T STAY UP TIL THREE IN THE MORNING READING THIS STUFF. So many bad things happen. I mean, this series is all about a dystopian future in which bad stuff happens, right? The first book is all about children having to kill each other, which is heavy; the second is all about um, well, I don't actually know how to sum it up neatly like that... but, well, people kill each other, bad stuff happens, etc. Mockingjay is about how war turns people into monsters (even literally sometimes, though I still think the 'muttation' thing is silly). Everything a reader might cling to is stripped away - beginning with the cliffhanger from the previous book. There is nothing to like, almost nothing to root for: all the characters do things and have things done to them that push every boundary I know of as regards character development. Some that you thought were surely immune to being killed off... aren't. Nobody can be trusted. Nothing is safe.

 The third book in a series is a really strange place to start reminding readers that your protagonist is a clueless, overwrought seventeen-year-old girl, I think, and the sudden visibilty of Katniss's fallibility is a bit shocking for a faithful reader. You forget about likeability and just have to grit your teeth and sit through all the nasty... and Peeta! Peeta! I just don't have words.

When reading a book, some people enjoy most the plotting, some the message, some the atmosphere or the style or the world building. I'm a character person. I love characters, good, well written characters. I like to see them suffer and win, I like to watch them make hard choices and do the right thing and be happy.

Suzanne Collins, do you hear that slow, heavy clap ringing from the back of the room? That's me, expressing my simultaneous awe, disbelief, confusion and disapproval. How can you do that? How can you push your characters like that? I'm struggling with it and I'm only the reader! Collins doesn't just take risks, she snatches them up and hits you in the face with them. I don't know how I feel about it, but I do know I'll never be able to do that myself.

Before checking out, why not treat yourself to the awesome art of this lady? Genius.