Random bookish thoughts

How can you not love this book?!

Last month I finished a book that I was quite taken with, World of Ink and Shadows by Lena Coakley. In short the book follows the four Bronte siblings and describes their interactions with the fictional worlds (primarily Verdopolis) they had built as juveniles. The book is fantasy and Coakley posits that The Brontes were actually able to visit their fantastical worlds and by doing so their actual works were inspired by characters found in Verdopolis. Coakley also uses the story to explain why all the Brontes died so young and, for me anyway, it really worked.

This book had so much that was catnip for me. I don’t actually know much about the Brontes and I love books that then make me want to go out and do research to find out more about the real person/subject. I also love the concept that fictional characters can take over from their author for example. How many times have you gone to an author reader to hear them say “well I intended to do this but my character wanted to do this….”? I also loved the fact that, initially, their imagined world was perfect, but then things began to go wrong, especially after the characters that the Brontes wrote began to become more aware of themselves and their place in the story.

Since I loved the book so much I then went unto Goodreads to see how much everyone else liked the books only to find that other readers weren’t as enthused and I was shocked but then I began to think about it and I remembered that everybody else and their brother loved Feed by Mira Grant and I’ve yet to finish it. If I were to tell one of the fans of this book that it did nothing for me I’m sure they would look at me in horror.

So this then brings up the question, do you try and make someone love a book you love, or do you just acknowledge that there are different books for different folks? If someone has already read it I’d argue that you shouldn’t waste the effort. Instead try and reach other readers who have not yet had the pleasure of reading the work you love. Bookriot had a great article 99 ways to spread the word about a book you love on this very topic. While I find most of their suggestions a little exhausting I have, in the past, donated a copy to my library as well as making my book club read a book I loved. My favorite instance of getting others to love a book was when my book club read The book Thief by Marcus Zusak and ended up really liking it. I also may seriously consider joining Instagram for book promotion and my first book is going to be World of Ink and Shadows. Seriously guys try this book and in the meanwhile tell me about a book you loved that was met with coolness

My relationship to fantasy

I always loved fantasy but over the years starting with all those talking animal books and graduating to books such as Lord of the Rings but I’ve begun to read less and less of it discounting urban fantasy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I started picking up some books touted as having unusual settings for fantasy such as Deborah Coate’s book set in the Dakotas, Elizabeth Bear’s book Karen Memory or Laura Anne Gilman’s book Silver on the Road.

Sure I used to read epic fantasy Stephen R. Donaldson or David Drake’s Lord of the Isles series and even, up to a point, Robert Jordan. I loved the world building and the magic and all sort so different creatures but then I stopped pursuing these types of books. As I started to think about why I read fewer fantasy novels and felt so uninterested in Games of Thrones (gasp, sacrilege I know) I realized that I’m not so excited about the epic part of fantasy anymore as I am about the relationships of characters within the fantasy.

The books mentioned above all have in common the theme of the west as place which is certainly catnip to me having been raised in the west and it doesn’t hurt that each one of these authors brings their version of the west to vivid life. More importantly for me though the books listed above all have strong characters relating to one another. These are all people I felt like I might know or could have a conversation with if I met them. Their problems are so much more “real world” than attempting to find a specific object or going on an epic quest. Magic certainly runs through some of these books and Isobel in Silver on the Road does go on a journey but it was never meant to be an epic one but rather a sort of training mission. The magic in the books isn’t what drives the story but rather her relationship to the Boss and her realizations about her life and her role in the world. It doesn’t hurt either that all of these books have intriguing female characters as the lead, sure there may be cool women in epic fantasy but they tend to be more supportive. Lest you think that I’m only interested in female leads another excellent fantasy that I read this past year was the Ocean at the End of the Lane. Once again a fantasy set in the “real” world with a strong character relationship.

I’m thrilled that these types of fantasies are cropping up and thriving. I don’t think there is any real concern that they will displace epic fantasy and for those of us who want something a little different than elves; trolls and dragons we now have ever greater choice and variety in fantasy. In addition to the books above you might want to check out Mary Robinette Kowal’s series beginning with Shades of Milk and Honey or Jo Walton’s Among Others, both these authors write stories with strong characters and intricate relationships. What is your favorite non epic fantasy?

My Year in Reading

As always I’m late to the party but I’ve been reading everyone else’s best of…books and it got me to thinking about my reading habits this past year. Overall I was happy with myself. I read 104 books which is fairly good these days, though admittedly I’m using the term read loosely as some of these were audiobooks. I also read a wider variety of books than usual. Generally I tend to read genre and even then it’s either the year of speculative fiction or the year of mysteries. I don’t even mix it up with a mystery then a fantasy and then horror, nope it’s all of something or nothing. This year though I read more nonfiction and literary fiction

1. Best book I read in 2015 was probably East of Eden which is a bit of a cheat is it was also the last one I read but the story was such a masterpiece I really had to list it. I’d also put Fires in the Dark, Curse of the Wendigo and The Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry; The Ocean at the End of the Lane or Nightbird in very close competition.

2. The most memorable book I read was Night Film and this is also the book I’d most likely re read

3. The book I was most excited about but was a little disappointed in would be Winter. Don’t get me wrong I still loved it but I think the buildup and waiting was just too much so I built up expectations higher than any story could ever achieve and, in addition, trying to tie up all the characters stories made it a little harder for me to spread my devotion to each character.

4. The best series I started in 2015 Was the Six of Crows and now I have to wait quite a while for the second in the series. It’s all good though as now I’m going back to the first trilogy she wrote and catching up

5. Favourite new author you discovered in 2015? Leigh Bardugo.

6. Book I was dying to read but took forever to come out and then I still didn’t read it? The Promise by Robert Crais. Both my father and I waited and waited and waited… He read ti but it is still on my TBR stack and I’m not sure why I still haven’t gotten around to it.

7. Most memorable character? This would have to be a tie between Cal in East of Eden and Pellinore Warthrop in Curse of the Wendigo.

8. The book which I wish I could get people to read but they won’t The Curse of the Wendigo or any of the books in this series for that matter

9. The character in a series which annoyed me the most but despite this I’ll read the next one anyway Evie Greene from Poison Princess

10. The book that made me the angriest Hands down Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

11. Best nonfiction book Lunch in Paris: a love story

12. Best middle school book I don’t read a lot of these so when I find one I really enjoyed I like to remember and recommend it would be The Thing about Jellyfish

13. The most haunting book I read See How Small. I read that at the beginning of the year and I still remember snippets of this book vividly.

14. Book I started reading in 2015 but got sidetracked and never finished? I am Pilgrim. What I have read of it I really like but it is so long and library books keep coming due so it gets shunted off to the side. Here’s hoping to finish it in 2016.

15. My 2016 Challenges. A friend and I always create our own challenge and we will continue doing that this year as it breaks both out of our reading ruts but I thought I’d also like to do Book Riots Read Harder challenge this year as well. I’d also like to get one book read off my shelves instead of the public library shelve this year. I no longer have TBR stacks but rather TBR bookcases, sigh.