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Exodus

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Book: Exodus by Julie Bertagna

Book Info: Published by Walker and Company; 352 pages; hardcover; checked out from library

Goodreads Summary: Less than a hundred years from now, the world as we know it no longer exists.  Cities have disappeared beneath the sea, technology no longer functions, and human civilization has reverted to a much more primitive state
 
On an isolated northern island, the people of Wing are trying to hold onto their way of life—even as the sea continues to claim precious acres and threatens to claim their very lives
 
Only fifteen-year-old Mara has the vision and the will to lead her people in search of a new beginning in this harsh, unfamiliar world.
 
This compelling and powerful story set in the near future will hit home with teens, especially those who are ever more aware of the increasingly controversial climate crisis we face in our world today.

I liked the premise of the novel.  But I was bored reading it, and I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.

I couldn’t connect to any of the characters, and I felt like a lot of them were just there.  Not only that, but we didn’t get much info about the world that Mara lived in.  I thought that was a little weird because Mara leaves her island, goes elsewhere, and doesn’t really know anything about what’s going on.

And considering she goes on a journey to a completely different place, you’d think it would be a little more adventurous than reading that there were a lot of people on a boat and there wasn’t enough food or water for everyone.  Seriously, that’s all you have to say about that?  Nothing about what the boat looks like or how many people are on the boat?

I just felt a little confused about what was going on.  Mara didn’t know anything, and so we didn’t know anything.  It just got very irritating.  And it didn’t feel very coherent.  I don’t mind a novel being divided into sections, but the 3 sections in the book felt very random.

I have to give it a 1 out of 5.  I was bored, and I couldn’t connect with anything in the book.

Song Of The Sparrow

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Book: Song Of The Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

Book Info: Published by Scholastic Inc.; 394 pages; hardcover; checked out from the library

Goodreads Summary: The year is 490 AD. Fiery 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat, the daughter of one of King Arthur’s supporters, lives with her father on Arthur’s base camp, the sole girl in a militaristic world of men. Elaine’s only girl companion is the mysterious Morgan, Arthur’s older sister, but Elaine cannot tell Morgan her deepest secret: She is in love with Lancelot, Arthur’s second-in-command. However, when yet another girl — the lovely Gwynivere– joins their world, Elaine is confronted with startling emotions of jealousy and rivalry. But can her love for Lancelot survive the birth of an empire?

I thought Song Of The Sparrow was just okay.  I got really bored halfway through, but I wanted to keep reading.

I’m not sure about the fact that it was told in verse.  It was nice to see things through Elaine’s perspective, but there was just something off about it.  Interestingly enough, though, it was well-written.

I liked that it was narrated by Elaine.  It seems like a lot of books based off of Arthurian legend are narrated by Morgan or Guinevere, so it was refreshing to see something narrated by someone else.

As for the characters, I couldn’t really care about any of them.  Guinevere was annoying, all of the men were just there, and I didn’t care about Elaine.  I feel like we were supposed to like her and sympathize with her, but I just couldn’t.  She whined too much- I get she’s the only female in a sea of men, but her thinking about it a lot it got very tiring.

Another thing I didn’t like was the fact that it didn’t feel historical enough.  It felt too modern, and for me, Sandell only included the historical backdrop when it was convenient.

Overall, it gets a 2 out of 5.  I kind of get why people like it, but I was bored.

Santana

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I like Santana, and since it’s been a while since I’ve listened to him, I thought it be a good time to give him a listen.  There’s such a good balance between instrumental songs and song with lyrics.  And the album art is always so interesting!

Santana, his first album, is one of my favorites.  Evil Ways and Soul Sacrifice are two of my favorite songs.  It’s rare that I like every single song, but I think this is one of the very few things I can listen to all the way through.  The entire album is worth a listen.  The album art on this one is probably my least favorite.

From Abraxas, I like Singing Winds, Crying Beasts and Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen for my favorite songs.  But I like pretty much every song…again, a rarity for me.  The album art is really cool too.

Santana III: No One To Depend On is one of my favorite songs, as is Everybody’s Everything.  Oh, and Everything’s Coming Our Way is also pretty good!  While I don’t like it as much as Santana or Abbraxas, overall, it’s pretty good.  The album art is really interesting.

Caravanserai is my least favorite.  Nothing really stands out, and it sounds very different than the first three.  The best way to describe it is abstract.  But at least the album art is cool!

Borboletta: I think it might tie with Caravanserai as my least favorite album pf his that I have.  Borboletta is really similar to Caravanersai, which might be why I don’t really care for it.  It’s interesting, but there’s something very abstract about it.  And like pretty much every other album, it has really cool album art.

That’s it for today, so have a great Monday!

A Good American

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Book: A Good American by Alex George

Book Info: Published by Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam; 400 pages; hardcover

Goodreads Summary: It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead (“What’s the difference? They’re both new”), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.

Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.

A Good American is narrated by Frederick and Jette’s grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors’ story, comes to realize he doesn’t know his own story at all. From bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies, the Kennedy assassination, and beyond, James’s family is caught up in the sweep of history. Each new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an American. And, in the process, Frederick and Jette’s progeny sometimes discover more about themselves than they had bargained for.

Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, A Good American is a novel about being an outsider-in your country, in your hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. It is a universal story about our search for home.

I loved this book!  It was really good, and it was well-written.  I loved the story, and George- who is an immigrant himself- does a great job of showing what it was like for Frederick and Jette as they moved to the U.S. from Germany.

I loved that you see several generations over the course of the novel, and how much things change over several generations.  But as much as things changed, they also don’t change very much.

I just got so invested in the characters, and I couldn’t wait to see what happened to them.  And there’s a plot twist that came out of nowhere!  Well, not really out of nowhere, because looking back, there were clues…I just didn’t think anything of them.

I am so glad I read this book- I laughed, I almost cried, and my heart was broken.  It gets a 5 out of 5.

Fairies

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Book: Fairies by Brian Froud and Alan Lee

Book Info: Published by Harry N Abrams; 200 pages; Hardcover; checked out from library

Summary (from Goodreads): Edited by David Larkin. Two talented artists explore the world of faeries in myths, legends, and folklore.

I am a huge fan of fairies, and I’ve seen Froud’s work before, so I thought I’d check this book out from the library.

I I loved the artwork, but I thought it would be mostly drawings with a little text.  There was a lot more text than I was expecting.  It is pretty interesting, to see all the different kinds of fairies and some of the stories about them.  There were some I had never heard of before, so at least I learned something new!

I thought it needed to be better organized- there was no table of contents, and it seemed to be a little random.  There were sections, but there didn’t seem to be much thought put into it.  Then again, this is one of those books that benefits slightly from minimal organization.

Overall, it gets a 3 out of 5.  I liked it, and the art was really pretty, but I wish the book focused more on the art, and less on the text.

You Won’t Believe This!

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So…I did something last week that I haven’t done in months.

I wrote something other than a blog post!  That’s right, I actually worked on one of my old novels.  I didn’t write much- around 300 words, before I decided I need to re-read it, on account of me not remembering what happened.  This is what happens when you stop working on stuff over the summer.

I will need to re-read it, and all of the other stuff I was working on, because I don’t remember what on earth I was working on or what I wrote.  Making it up as I go along isn’t anything unusual, but a refresher never hurts.

It was very exciting, though, and it was nice to get back to novel writing.  I think I’m going to work on things in very small chunks- only 200 to 300 at any time, because I want to ease my way into it.  I haven’t done any other work on the novel-writing front, but hopefully I’ll get back into it over the next few days.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

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Book: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Publishing Info: Published by Scholastic, Inc.; 435 pages; Paperback

Goodreads Summary: For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who’s forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard “accidentally” causes the Dursleys’ dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.

As it turns out, Harry isn’t punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black–an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban–is on the loose. Not only that, but he’s after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry’s very heart when others are unaffected? 

I know a lot of people have said this, but Prisoner Of Azkaban is my favorite Harry Potter book.  I just love the storyline, and so many things that happen in the rest of the series are set in motion in this book.

We get to meet Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew in this book, and they are a connection to Harry’s parents because they were all best friends.  Until Pettigrew turned traitor and gave up James and Lily to Voldemort.

There are so many things I love about Prisoner Of Azkaban- the Marauder’s Map (and learning who the Marauders are!), the time turners, Hagrid teaching Care Of Magical Creatures, and the introduction of Trelawney.

Random Movie Sidenote: I loved Emma Thompson as Trelawney.

Back to the book, though.  You really start to see a lot of the characters start to grow up- or even see them in a different way.  It’s no wonder Snape didn’t trust Lupin, because of the prank that Sirius did.

Overall, it gets a 5 out of 5.  It’s my favorite, and one of the strongest books in the series.

Fruits Basket, Volume 15

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Book: Fruits Basket, Volume 15 by Natsuki Takaya

Publishing: Published by TokyoPop; 194 Pages; Paperback

Goodreads Summary: Yuki’s past finally is revealed! But is it all too much to bear? His sickness takes a turn for the worse, and after Akito reminds Yuki how loathed he is, his will to live might finally be drained… Meanwhile, as Tohru is getting ready to perform in Cinderella, the class decides that they have to rewrite the play. But no amount of revision will prevent Tohru from improvising her loving feelings for a certain someone. Just who is the mystery man?

I think this may be one of my favorite volumes of Fruits Basket.  We learn more about Yuki’s childhood and his connection to Tohru.  You really do understand why Yuki acts the way he does.  I really liked seeing the class play they put on, and some of the trouble they had with it.  Tohru’s really changing: she’s still herself, and in a lot of ways, she’s still the same Tohru we met at the beginning of the series.  But she’s also speaking up for herself a little more, which is great to see.

I, of course, loved the artwork.  And the fan art is amazing too.  I really do like seeing what the fans come up with.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

U2

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I can’t believe that I haven’t talked about U2 yet!  I seriously love them…but for some reason, I only have a couple of their earlier albums, their 2 most recent ones, and a couple other songs.

No Line On The Horizon: I’m going to be honest, and say that this is my least favorite.  Only Put On Your Boots, Stand Up Comedy, and Fez- Being Born stand out.  The rest just kinda blends together.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is pretty good, and I really like Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.  It’s not only one of my favorite song by U2, but it’s one of my favorites off of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.  Vertigo?  Love it!  All Because of You and City Of Blinding Lights are also some of my favorites.

All That You Can’t Leave Behind: I don’t have the complete album.  Instead, I just have a couple songs.  Beautiful Day is one of my favorite songs of all-time, and if you haven’t heard it, you should listen to it.  Elevation is a pretty good song too.

The Joshua Tree is one of my favorites.  Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and With Or Without You are my favorites.  I also like One Tree Hill and Red Hill Mining Town.  Overall, it’s a pretty good album, and worth a listen.

War is probably my favorite of the four.  Overall, it’s just amazing.  Sunday Bloody Sunday?  I find myself singing along.  Same thing with Seconds, New Year’s Day, and Red Light.  It’s so hard to pick a favorite, because all of them are so good, but I think the 4 I mentioned are the ones I listen to the most.

They’re definitely one of my favorites, and I don’t listen to them enough.  I think I need to listen to them more!