Chronicles of a Book Evangelist

Review: Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Original Title: Rubinrot. Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten

Translator: Anthea Bell  

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. 

Publication Date: May 10th 2011

Goodreads Description:

Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

Review:

First some thoughts on the translation, then the rest of the review and rating will focus exclusively on my opinion of the English version. German was one of my majors, and I do enjoy reading books in German and listening to German music.  I don't, however, really consider myself to be truly proficient -- I'm willing to muddle through the hard parts with only partial understanding.  Therefore, I am completely willing to assume many of the differences between the English and German editions are entirely due to my faulty comprehension of the original German and not a testament to Anthea Bell's translating abilities. Bell did an excellent job of maintaining the overall feeling of the book(s).  It is still light, fun, and fast-paced.  However, I felt like Gwen read a little younger in the English version than the German, making the English version appeal to a slightly younger audience.  Additionally, the chauvinism (which was an important though unappealing aspect to many of the male characters' personalities) felt like it was somehow both more pervasive and considered more acceptable in the English version than the original.  It made Gideon, especially, a less interesting character to me.  I also felt the foreshadowing was slightly more heavy handed, making some of the mysterious aspects a bit more predictable. (Of course, that could also be a result of already knowing what was coming as a reader.)  Finally, what, precisely, is so wholly German about the name Gwendolyn that requires it be changed to Gwyneth for English readers to understand? (Oh, yeah, and the German covers are MUCH better!)

Differences in translation aside, I think much of what made Gier's story so successful still shine through in the English version.  It has action, adventure, romance, and mystery.  The plot moves quickly along, and even if the destination is occasionally predictable, the journey is enjoyable.  I like Gwen for many of the same reasons I like Percy Jackson -- Gwen is an average girl.  She is smart without being exceptional.  She is attractive without causing every male in the vicinity to fall madly in love with her.  She has a healthy self image, has friends, and knows how to have fun.  She has a loving, supportive and present family.  She is wonderfully normal and, therefore, infinitely more relatable to the average reader than many paranormal leads.  Gwen has her moments of failing to see things right in front of her (they all do, really), and she makes a few really stupid choices.  However, she never crosses the line into the too-stupid-to-live category. (And there is always another character there to call her on it.)

I don't think that Ruby Red is an exceptional or revolutionary book, but I do think it is one of a type of book that is essential.  It is accessible, relatable, fun, quick and interesting.  It is just the book to bring in reluctant readers, and a fast bit of fluff for heavy readers.  It doesn't ask anything of you, but leaves you entertained.  My one major complaint is that this is not a trilogy where each part has a nicely tied-up story arc.  Each book leaves you dangling from a great precipice, waiting for the next!

Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Other Opinions:

Emma gave it 5 stars

The Smugglers give it 6 out of 10

Review also appears on Goodreads; I purchased my copy for Nook from Barnes and Noble.

Link Trove #13

Listomania:

• This list of Top 10 Most Misunderstood Lines in Literary History is very William Shakespeare and Robert Frost heavy.  

• In light of all the talk about EL James and the 50 Shades of Twilight Fan-Fiction, I found this list of what famous authors think of fanfiction to be really funny.  From Stephenie Meyer:

"I hear so many people arguing about fan-fiction. This one and that one. It seems like they are not as much fun anymore. I don’t know…. People pour out so much energy and talent into them… It makes me frustrated. I’m like, go write your own story. Put them out there and get them published. That’s what you should be doing. You should be working on your own book right now."

Reading in the News:

• This article by Nathan Bransford on cnet has some pretty compelling arguments for Why e-books cost so much.

• Daniel Abraham methodically evicerates the myth that "the Middle Ages really were sexist/racist/filled with sexual violence" in this blog post entitled Concerning Historical Authenticity in Fantasy, or Truth Forgives You Nothing.  Daniel Abraham, I THANK YOU!

• Microsoft and Barnes & Noble are teaming up to take on Amazon and Apple in the fight for dominance of the e-book market.  

Literacy Promotion:

• Okay, so technically a list, this collection of Incredibly Unique Bookmobiles around the World has some seriously unique methods of promoting literacy!  The Project Mobilivre is one of the most aesthetically pleasing mobile libraries I have ever seen!

Armed with approximately 300 books that include everything from small press publications to bigger name titles, the sleek Mobilivre Bookmobile travels across America and Canada annually. The vintage airstream trailer is supported through the help of volunteers — many based in Philadelphia and Montreal, QC — happily and stylishly distributing the written word.

• This New York Times essay from a teacher in a public school in Manhattan was so very sad but also important.  She talks about her struggle to teach great books to her student in amongst all the test preperation required by law:

"I MAY not be able to prove that my literature class makes a difference in my students’ test results, but there is a positive correlation between how much time students spend reading and higher scores." (via bookshelves of doom on twitter)

• With all the whitewashed covers we've been getting in YA, it is nice to see someone taking on the issue of The Ongoing Problem of Race in Y.A.

Books in Movie Land:

• I might have screamed WHAT?!?! (in a happy sort of way) when I read this tweet:

Yes, it's true, I can confirm it! Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) is writing the script for The Knife Of Never Letting Go! I KNOW!!

— Patrick Ness (@Patrick_Ness) April 24, 2012

• In case you haven't picked up on my fangirl devotion to all things Neil Gaiman, I am here to tell you I Adore Him.  So I was also rather happy (read stupid excited) to find out that his The Graveyard Book will be adapted by Henry Selick -- he of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline fame.  The Graveyard Book is absolutely perfect for that sort of film!  (via tor) 

• I also have a thing for John Cusack and Edgar Allan Poe, so I was a bit disapointed to read this movie review by Danny Bowes saying:

So, The Raven isn’t very good. It takes a randomly selective reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and a few bits of triviata from his life and grafts those onto a by-the-numbers serial killer narrative in which the Poe character, the ostensible lead, is completely superfluous.

• The screen rights to Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules was aquired by Palomar Pictures the same week it was released!  Crazyness, I tell you!

That's it for this week!

Link Trove #11

(I currently only have a pinterest source for this image.  If you know more about it, please let me know.)

First off, if you haven't checked out the Kickstarter page for Kate Milford's new novella, The Kairos Mechanism, you really, really should!  You can also read more about it here or on Kate's website, The Clockwork Foundry.

Listomania:

• This article exploring What If Famous Writers Had Written Twilight… had me laughing out loud. A couple of my favorites:

Herman Melville

"Call me Bella." A tome about the length of the original series investigates Bella's monomanical search for the vampire who stole her virginity. There's an entire chapter devoted to describing the devastating whiteness of Edward's skin, and several on the physiognomy of vampires, starting with their skeletal structure outward.

Ernest Hemingway

Edward and Bella exchange terse dialogue alluding to Edward's anatomical problem. Eventually, Bella leaves him for Jacob, a local bullfighter with a giant…sense of entitlement.

• This tumblr is trying to list the final sentence of every literary work they can find.  I wasted a LOT of time looking through these!

• There are some really great ideas in this list of 10 Books That Would Make Great Theme Parties

Interesting Miscellanea:

• From Flavorwire: Listen to Jack Kerouac talk about what a "Beat" is in this 1958 recording:

Reading and Writing in the News:

• This New York Times essay discussing the way books written by and for women are classified and considered was well worth the read.

• Gender and reading have been really hot topics this last week.  This article suggests that boys read more, and consider reading more worthwhile, when they can do it on an e-reader.  The School Library Journal also created quite a stir with their article about a library creating a "boy cave" for their male students.  Here are a few responses.  

• A new study says that people with e-readers read more books.

• There is also an interesting discussion going on over at New York Times about the value of the book blurb.

Literacy Promotion and Censorship:

• The ALA released their list of the Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011. Big surprise, both The Hunger Games and Part-Time Indian made the list.

• I absolutely LOVE guerrilla libraries.  Here is a new one that I find fascinating:

Built from a welded frame atop a 1979 Ford Falcon, Raul Lemesoff drives around the streets of Buenos Aires distributing free books to anybody who wants to be assaulted with some serious learnin’. (via Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!)

Weekly Forecast and In My Mailbox #9

Very exciting things ahead:  This week will be middle grade heavy with TWO reviews of middle grade novels, some steampunk, and and a little Jack the Ripper...

I will start the week with Philip Pullman and his Two Crafty Criminals.  I attempted this one as a read aloud with my son, but he was just a bit too young as yet.  He enjoyed it a lot, but we were constantly stopping to define words or explain things, which really messed with the flow of the story.

 

Tuesday will bring the humorous and witty Maureen Johnson with the first book in her Shades of London series, The Name of the Star.  It was everything I expected it to be: funny, quick, quirky, and intriguing.  Not to mention: ghosts, Jack the Ripper, boarding school, and LONDON.  There was really no way I could not like this book.

 

Wednesday will usher in more middle grade goodness with Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's Ordinary Magic.  I love that Rubino-Bradway subverts the trope of the "ordinary" character magically becoming the heroine; in this novel a girl who is labeled an "ordinary" for her lack of magic in a magical world then goes on to show how very extraordinary one can be without magic.

 

Finally, Thursday I'll look at the first book in Kady Cross's Steampunk Chronicles series, The Girl in the Steel Corset.  There are a lot of interesting things going on in this book!

 

 

 

 

 

On the new book front, I downloaded Stray (Touchstone #1) by Andrea K. Höst for FREE this week!  (Find it on Barnes & Noble or Amazon.)  I was also approved by Harlequin Teen for and ARC of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa.  VERY exciting!

Check out what other bloggers are reading at The Story Siren's In My Mailbox page.  What are you reading this week?

Link Trove #10

 

New Books and Movies:

• 
  Kate Milford, she who wrote The Boneshaker  (one of my favorite books of all time), revealed the cover for her newest book, The Broken Lands, in February and I somehow missed it!!  It is once again designed by the very talented Andrea Offerman, and it couldn't be more beautiful!  The Broken Lands is set to be released in September of 2012. 

• Speaking of new titles, we finally know the title for JK Rowling's new adult project: Lairs of Lady Po. Click here for a peak at the cover. (via MuggleNet)

Edited to add: MuggleNet must have jumped the gun, the official news now is that her new book will be titled The Casual Vacancy and will be published worldwide on 27th September.  She has a new website here. (via The Bookseller)

• Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall is set to be produced by John Shestack (Dan in Real Life) and directed by Ginna Prince-Bythewood (Secret Life of Bees).  This could be good. (via Holywood Reporter)

Reading in the News:

• Lifehacker's article describing the differences in how we remember things we have read digitally differs from what we read in physical form makes complete sense!  I have to make way more notes for my reviews while reading on my nook than when I have a book in front of me.  The short of it: Read a Physical Book When You Really Need to Remember Something.

• 
  Eleanor Barkhorn of The Atlantic wrote a great article on Why the Kindle Won't Kill Romance.  I can see where this fear comes in: the very first conversations and gifts exchanged between my husband and I were all about books and music.  Anne McCaffery, Jack London, James Taylor and The Doors all played a part in the early part of our romance.  I see Barkhorn's point, but I think it ignores the randomness of seeing a stranger reading your favorite book or listening to your favorite band which then prompts you to speak.  To see someone's digital preferences, usually you must already know them.

• Yet again, someone is telling people why books in a genre that they have not read are universally unworthy of being read by mature adults.  Joel Stein, pretentious and self aggrandizing columnist for Time magazine wrote this article for The New York Times in which he equates reading young adult literature to publicly watching pornography.  Excellent responses to this tripe abound, but I particularly liked this response from Erin Bow.

• The New York Times  also had this feel-good piece about children who are 'published authors' that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.  I particularly liked Maureen Johnson's response.  My favorite part?

Likewise, if you pay to publish a book, you have paid to publish a book. Yes, it exists and is published … by you. Which is fine. It’s not a crime or anything. It might even be a good thing in some cases! But in the case of kids, I think it gives the message that they are now published authors, when in fact what they are are kids with generous parents who paid to have their work printed. Many of the kids in this piece are saying, “You can do anything if you put your mind to it!” When in fact, the lesson is, “You can do anything if your parents pay for it!” Which isn’t much of a helpful lesson.

Changing the World Through Reading:

•  YA Highway did an interview with Brad Wirz of GoneReading.  GoneReading is an online store whose profits are donated to libraries and reading programs around the world (and that's 100% of the profits).  Check them out at www.gonereading.com.

• From Shelf Awareness: Worldreader, an American nonprofit literacy agency, has beta-launched an app for non-smartphones with the goal of distributing free e-books into sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world.

• On the other side of the spectrum, it seems, is Amazon.  This article from The Seattle Times describes how Amazon is a virtual no-show in hometown philanthropy.  It is very disheartening to see such a large company with such wide reach do so little.

Listomania:

• 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10.  I can  get behind almost all of these recommendations (though I would have added more that aren't included.)

• 10 Harry Potter Characters Scarier Than Voldemort.  OH MY GOODNESS, YES! to Dolores Umbridge.  I think she may be the scariest fictional character I have ever encountered, not just from the Harry Potter books!

• This list of What Google Image Search Thinks About Famous Authors from Flavorwire was occasionally funny and also wtf?!

• 6 Popular Children's Books That Teach Kids Horrible Lessons.  Some of these books are truly appalling, but Marc Brown's Arthur's Nose takes the cake. In light of Marc Brown's original book, Arthur's changes over time are truly ironic.

Until next week, Happy Reading!

Link Trove #9

This cartoon from foxboros cracked me up.  In her own words, "me earlier as i sobbed to my friend shelby about the hunger games."  (I love that she is wearing a Black Keys t-shirt, even if it does put "Howlin' for You" in my head all day.)  I think I may be the only reader I know who will not be watching Hunger Games this weekend - not for a lack of desire, but rather a lack of babysitter...

Now, for linky things:

•  I thought the question of whether or not John Green, author of Looking for Alaska, is a pornographer had been answered four years ago.  Apparently, though, the good folks of Knox County want to revisit the issue.  When are people going to get it that just because you don't want to read something, and do not want your kids to read it, does not mean that you can tell other people's children that they cannot read it either!

• Speaking of books being accused of pornographic, why don't we include Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game...what, huh?  I mean, you can accuse Mr. Card himself of saying some fairly hateful things, but writing porn isn't something I think he's ever be accused of before!  Yet, it is true: a Schofield Middle School teacher has been placed on administrative leave for reading from Ender's Game.  

• Let's move to something less depressing, shall we?  According to the Guardian, Phillip Pullman (an auto-buy in this household!) will be revisiting 50 0f his favorite Grimm Fairytales and "telling the best of the tales in [his] own voice!"  I really cannot describe the sheer amount of awesome that sentence contains!  

• Algonquin Books has seven e-books that will be on sale for only $1.99 until March 28th.  A good deal if you are interested in the titles.  

• The following Pie Chart displaying the division of YA Deals by Genre for the past year actually surprised me!  I thought that the Paranormal category would be larger and the Contemporary much smaller.  Kate Hart put this graph, and many others, together in this enlightening series of posts about YA Deals.  (I was also shocked by the portion of single book deals vs. multi book deals - I thought the trilogies would outweigh everything else! (found via YA Highway)

That's it for this week!  

Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Publisher: Feral Dream

Publication Date:  May 21, 2011

Goodreads Description:

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. 

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel. 

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl. 

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review:

 I purchased Angelfall in one of my mass 99-cents-or-less purchases I occasionally do, then promptly forgot about it amongst all the books that had to be reviewed now.  After the 5-star-review deluge of biblical proportions swept across Goodreads, I looked it up only to find that - oh - I already owned it!  Score!  Now, though, I am finding myself at a loss for words when trying to write the review.  

I will start with the fact that Angelfall kicks the snot out of nearly every other self-published novel I have ever read.  It was so well done, in fact, that I am inclined to judge Susan Ee as I would a traditionally published author - not particularly fair, but there you have it.  Angelfall is also the best angel book I have read in a really, really long time.  She not only holds her own in the genre, she kicks the snot out of that competition as well.  However, after finishing it I was left with the feeling: "yeah, it was good, but..."  I couldn't help but feel that a bit of the 5 star fervor came from the author's self-pub status and not the book itself.  Don't get me wrong, it is a good book; just not, perhaps, an unanimously 5-star book.

Penryn was wonderful.  She was smart, strong, and just as apt to save others as to save herself.  She had her priorities, and they were good priorities, and she did what was needed to stay true to those priorities.  Penryn's mother scared the crap out of me - and I loved it.  I will read the next books if only to find out what happens with her and the...little surprise...we get at the end.  

I like that Ee's angels don't completely fly in the face of religious convention (intentional pun), but (agreeing with Sean here) they felt a bit out of context within Ee's world; there was a dearth of any religious reference or framework.

I like that there isn't any InstaLove.  I also like that Penryn doesn't loose sight of her goals after she starts being attracted to Raffe.  

Basically, I find that it was a pretty good book - I just don't really have a lot to say about it.  I will probably read the next one and would recommend it if asked.

Jillian Really Loved It

So Did Wendy

Karen Liked it a Little Less (And Has Great Pictures!)

Sean Wasn't That Impressed

Purchased my copy for Nook from Barnes and Noble

Review also on Goodreads

Link Trove #7

I have been zipping through the TBR list, and am finally feeling like I may have achieved a sort of balance.  So, on to the links...so many interesting things this week!

• Five Hundred New Fairytales, which were gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, were discovered locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany, after over 150 years.  This is SO COOL! (via bookshelvesofdoom)

• This article from Tor on Mark Twain's unfinished novel, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among The Indians, was a lot fun (Twain was parodying James Fenimore Cooper, which I can completely get behind) as well as informative.

• Markus Zusak's The Book Thief will be made into a movie...I just, I...okay.  I have reservations here.  On the one hand, Downton Abbey's Brian Percival will be involved.  On the other?  So will Twilight's Karen Rosenfelt.  And really?  I just don't know that The Book Thief  will be as powerful on film as it is in print.  Serious Reservations!!!!

• Another article making me even more anti-Amazon.

• Word on the Water is a London bookbarge that "stops for two weeks at each mooring to sell books donated by the public and by charity bookshops."  

 

 

• It seems like everyone is talking about The Lorax and the marketing choices that the film makers have made.  (I am sure my previous posts make it pretty clear where I stand, but just in case there is any question: I'm not a fan of the The Lorax promoting consumerism in any way.)

• Since I've been a little down on books-turned-movie, here are some mostly positive comments authors have made about their novels being turned into books.

•  Twenty-year-old Alex Rawlings, fluent in 11 languages, completely blows me away with this video displaying his talent:

 

In My Mailbox #4

In My Mailbox is a weekly Meme sponsored by The Story Siren where you share all the new books you get each week to read or review.

We took a trip into Fayetteville this week to see Tao: The Art of the Drum at the Walton Arts Center, and took the time afterward to visit the wonderful independent bookstores nearby.

At Nightbird Books I purchased a copy of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern for myself, the boy got Lego Star Wars Character Encyclopedia by Hannah Dolan, and we were given an ARC of Moo Hoo by Candace Ryan (which will, of course, become the girl's as soon as it is reviewed.)

We also hit the jackpot at the Dickson Street Bookshop, our local used and out of print bookstore.  (They also sell on AbeBooks).  I cannot even begin to describe how much I love that store.

My son found a pristine copy of The American Boy's Handy Book (seriously, the spine still cracks when it opens), and my husband and I were excited to find really good copies of Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth and The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (we've been looking for a while).

There were also a few books in the Young Adult section that just insisted they come home with me.  Whispering To Witches by Anna Dale looks like it may be an interesting book that suffered from being released admidst the Harry Potter books.  I'm willing to give it a shot.  Little Fur: The Legend Begins by Isobelle Carmody just jumped out at me - the book is sueded.  And fuzzy.  And such a perfect little size.  And did I mention fuzzy?  Birdwing by Rafe Martin caught me with the beautiful cover illustration and kept me when I found out it is a retelling of “The Six Swans.”  Finally, how could I pass up a Phillip Pullman I did not already own?  Especially when confronted with the huge fold out map pasted halfway through?  I couldn't - Cartographic blackmail, I tell you!  Lyra's Oxford came home with us as well.

I also recieved a few galleys from Bloomsbury Children's Books and downloaded a new book onto my Nook prior to our mad Dickson Street shopping spree.

Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway looks like it will be a nice middle grade fantasy novel, and The Académie by Susanne Dunlap is a YA historical fiction novel set in a boarding school.  I downloaded Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane after reading this review of Sacrificial Magic - its looks like a series I might really enjoy.

Whew!  What are you reading this week?

Link Trove #6

 

Just wait until you see the In My Mailbox I have for Sunday -- this image is a little too accurate!  Today's links are a real mixed bag of things I've found interesting recently:

• E-books Can’t Burn, an article by Tim Parks in The New York Review, was an enlightening read in defense of the e-book that left me with many new things to ponder.  

"The e-book, by eliminating all variations in the appearance and weight of the material object we hold in our hand and by discouraging anything but our focus on where we are in the sequence of words (the page once read disappears, the page to come has yet to appear) would seem to bring us closer than the paper book to the essence of the literary experience. Certainly it offers a more austere, direct engagement with the words appearing before us and disappearing behind us than the traditional paper book offers, giving no fetishistic gratification as we cover our walls with famous names. It is as if one had been freed from everything extraneous and distracting surrounding the text to focus on the pleasure of the words themselves. In this sense the passage from paper to e-book is not unlike the moment when we passed from illustrated children’s books to the adult version of the page that is only text. This is a medium for grown-ups."

• There has been a kerfuffle online recently over the increasingly common occurrence of Self Published or Indie Published authors plagiarizing books that have been published in more standard ways.  Diana Peterfreund had an excellent blog post discussing the issue this week.  

• This Author Interview done by Stephine of Cuddlebuggery Book Blog with Kendare Blake has got to be one of the funniest and most creative author interviews I have ever read!  Plus, if you get there soon you can enter the giveaway for Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood.

• Also, though this blog post is about reader shaming in the romance genre, I think the same principles apply to nearly any area of genre fiction.  I can't even count the number of times a book I have recommended has been dismissed because it is "young adult" or "science fiction" or "fantasy" or, yes, "romance."  As if that makes it somehow less worthy.  

• Finally, check out these old phone booths converted to guerrilla libraries.  SO COOL. (Found via bookshelves of doom)