Thrown glass good

Throne of Glass
by Sarah J. Maas

I can't explain why I liked this book so much that I had to make a Half Price Books run on Saturday to look for the sequel. I was unsuccessful, but it's at the library.  All I had to do was wait one day.  Book #3 is also there, but I might have to put it on hold.  There are at least prequels, novellas, but I can't imagine what's in them.  This one was clearly the start of the series.

There are plenty of angles and foreshadows for future development, but not so many that it overwhelms the reader.  Plenty of questions unanswered, but you don't feel unsatisfied--it's NOT a cliffhanger.  It's just not the end of the story.

My only dislike is the lack of detail in just a very few areas.  What do the Wyrdmarks look like?  She describes them, but it wouldn't have hurt to put a couple of pictures on the page.  What was her training really like?  She mentions it--"We spent the day climbing", or "They'd done some archery practice".  But why no gory details?  Didn't the author do her research?  When Celaena "held back" at practice, to cover up her proficiency with the hunting knives, what did that really mean?

I will note that the author's description of Celaena's fine dresses left nothing to the imagination.  I liked that part.

Next book, please.

Fun listening, I recommend

Carter Finally Gets It
by Brent Crawford

Gets what?

Well...what's on the uppermost mind of all fourteen-year-old boys at all times? I don't know if Carter gets it, but the author certainly got it. I loved getting a glimpse into the (teenage) male mind. I loved Mr. Crawford's honesty, too. He could have made the character a little more sympathetic, more honorable, if you please--but he didn't. Carter is no more or less admirable than any one of us.

Which is to say, a lot. And not at all.

If I hadn't been stuck on an airplane, might have given up

The Ten-Cent Plague:
The Great Comic-Book Scare
and How it Changed America
by David Hajdu

Darn.  What a fascinating story!  And what a dry book.  Sorry to say it, but that was my reaction and I can't deny it.

Lots of mind-bending images--kids lining up with armloads of comics for burning.  Newspaper headlines about juvenile delinquents raised on a gruesome diet of true crime. Did you know that the comic book industry was almost wiped out during the fifties, and only revived through the invention of wholesome, admirable, super heroes?  But that came outside the scope of this book.
The best part was the hearing of the US subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.  After many other defendants were questioned and outwitted, Bill Gaines insisted on taking the stand.  He was in no shape for it--physically or mentally. After describing his line of comics that were designed to teach kids moral values such as racial tolerance, he was cornered into making the statement that "kids can't be hurt by anything they see or read" and that comics were a nothing more or less than entertainment, enjoyment and harmless thrills.  I'm sure the eyes did roll.

Later, worn out by clever questioning, he got boxed into admitting that he would never publish anything that was outside of the "bounds of good taste". Right--enter Exhibit A--an edition of Crime SupensStories and its cover shot of a severed head dripping blood.  Too tasteful for words.

I'd love to get my hands on some of those 1940's comic books.  Library, here I come.

Ahh-choo!

The Great Influenza:
The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by John M. Barry


How many kids learned in school that the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the first World War?  Or that our government censored the news about the disease's spread because it might hurt the war effort?  Do they know that it became common to wear masks in public?  That the new strain of flu probably originated in Kansas and spread around the world because of our government's failure to recognize it and prevent it, in a nation whipped to frenzy to fight the good fight?

This book tells the whole story and not just the dry facts I recited.  It's a human story and a war story, human against microbe, told the way it went down.  By the way, mankind didn't win this war. He simply developed resistance--after about 3 to 6% of the world population died.  The virus's odd tendency to rearrange its genes, constantly morphing its appearance, worked like a charm--at first. The human immune system can deal with most intruders quite effectively--once it recognizes them. Influenza has a way of rearranging its appearance and sneaking past the immune system--once the system "catches on", it may be too late.  Interesting still, modern research on bodies preserved at the time of the epidemic, shows that the virus killed primarily due to an overreaction of the body's immune system.  It killed young, healthy people with strong immune systems.

Great book.  I won't recommend that all schoolkids read it, but the chapters about the flu virus itself would be a good introduction for kids interested in medicine. For all people I would recommend the section about the end of the war--to remind us of how the poor leadership of Wilson and the petty greed of other countries led directly to the rise of Nazi Germany.  I think we've learned a few lessons since then.  Some of us.

Sorcery and pea shoots

Sorcery and Cecilia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevemer

My anticipations for this book was unfortunately high and--unfortunately--it didn't live up to them.  It was so very sparse on details!  By golly, when a person makes a witch bag I want to know HOW she makes a witch bag!  What went into it?  What made it special?  What gave it power?  As far as I could tell, she could have taken an old handkerchief, piled on a handful of sage leaves from the garden, and tied it up with a ribbon!  Sewing appeared to be involved, but danged if I know how or where.

And I don't think I ever understood the bad guys' motives.  Were they simply power hungry or were they trying to live forever?

But I ought to apologize to the author and other potential readers--when it failed to "grab" me early on, I found myself rushing through to get to the end.  (And on to better things)  My mistake--some of the missing detail may have been overlooked in my hurry.  I should have simply stopped reading and let other people review it.  Also if I'd know how it was written, I might have liked it better.  Read the afterword first.

So I'll make it two stars for me, but it could very well be four stars for someone else.  Not five, though.


PEA SHOOTS:  

If you can't read the print, let me explain--the little climbing tendrils and the thin stems are INEDIBLE.
The leaves and the large, fat stems are YUMMY.   Just don't use too much butter--it hides the pea taste.

Planted

But the tomato in the back left corner is not happy about it.

Gotta read a GN from time to time

A Flight of Angels
by Rebecca Guay and many others


What was that all about?  Cool artwork and far out concept.  I didn't understand a single thing--I needed a teenager to explain it to me.  Since I don't have that, I can only say,
Interesting.   Verrry interesting.

Flower or foe?

Shall I assume the large ones are weeds and the tiny little fragments are flowers?

I know these are flowers because I planted them in rows.  But they look a lot like spinach.

Regression in reading material

Popular Clone
by M. E. Castle

Phineas and Ferb in book form. Kid fare at its best and funny for adults, too.  Just the sort of thing a librarian needs to coax a reluctant reader onto the printed page...and so much better than Captain Underpants. I probably acquired it from the librarian's blog I used to read--her specialty was Junior and YA.  A book like this would have been right on her list.

As for me, it was a nice change from influenza, pneumonia and World War I, but I probably won't bother with a sequel.

Or maybe I will--I sure liked FP (Flying Pig.)  Best pet ever!

Life changing? Not now.

Stumbling On Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert

Surprising expose of how our brain deceives, our memory misweaves, and our predictions for the future are so very, very dependent on what's happening right now.  They call it "presenting"--the bias introduced in predictions of future enjoyment, caused by current feelings. Ever had the experience of stuffing down a huge Thanksgiving dinner and declaring, "I'll never eat again."?  I have, and even if I didn't believe myself "for real", that doesn't mean it didn't affect my prediction of how much I'd enjoy a turkey sandwich tomorrow. (Little or not at all, I'd say.  And I'd be wrong.)

I started off the book with an enormous amount of disbelief and never really overcame it it.  Studies based on human answers to questions are inherently flawed, and if you "want" to see something happen, you can usually vary the questions to make it happen.  But when he'd start off with a theory of how we expected ourselves to feel and then predicted a theory that sounded plausible, and then proceed to flatly contradict the theory, my reaction was, wow! Really?  And I'd lean a little farther in the direction that he was pulling me.

It's a good book and it made me think. Is his every theory or conclusion proven beyond a reasonable doubt?  No, but as long as you recognize that, it's worth a (thoughtful) look.

Sage Honey...yum

Food and good reading too

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
by Jacques Pepin


Not much of a plot (*biography*) but a really good air travel companion.  Not so good the next day when I'd eaten too much dinner and was feeling vaguely nauseous--that made it hard to enjoy the luscious food he was preparing.  I found it hard to imagine the food throughout, and maybe that's a good reason for his including the recipes in the book. Reading and possibly cooking his recipes would have made a real foodie squeal with delight. Or maybe the recipes were included simply because recipes sell books.


Not being a foodie, I admit the only one I really wanted to try was his mother's apple tart.  Maybe I'll do that to get rid of all the leftover apples in the fridge. I'm sure they're not the "right" apples for the recipe, but it would be in keeping with a food culture where nothing is thrown away.

So, despite my longing for culinary details--what did the foods really taste like?  What did the dishes look like?  Did they squish or ooze or pop! when you bit into them?  Other than that, the book was very entertaining and never, never fell into the trap of idle name dropping like so many other celebrity bios do. He'd drop plenty of names, sure, but every one had a succinct description, a funny story, or a cooking disaster to put them in place in his life.

Tangled and conflicted

Tangled (not the movie)
 by Carolyn Mackler

I vacillated back and forth about reading this but finally decided to, because (a) it's Carolyn Mackler, and I love Carolyn Mackler, and (b) the reviews on GoodReads  were so conflicting that I wanted to see for myself.  Even from teens they were conflicting, from "blah, don't bother" or "OMG best book I ever read!"


Per me, somewhere in between.  Four stories, four lives that intertwined briefly and significantly, then what happened after. A reminder that what you do--or don't do--can change other people for good.

Back from Boston and time to catch up

Jersey Tomatoes are the Best
 by Maria Padian

Good title for one of the better teen books I've read in a while.  A lot of unresolved emotions and conflicts that never came to a confrontation--like real life.  Some of them did.  Sort of.  Can't be more specific without giving it away.
Remarkably sane depiction of teens on the verge of sex.  But again, can't be more specific.

So what can I say about it, other than to recommended it?  Great story of a girl who lives and breathes competitive tennis and has a father who lives and breathes her competitive tennis.  Good story of a girl who lives and breathes ballet and has a mother who, likewise.  The two are the best of friends--and maybe that will pull them through the hard times. Keep your fingers crossed.