My Thoughts: Silk, Baricco

I first read about this book earlier this year when Eva reviewed it, gorgeously as usual - it is certainly well worth going and checking out her post.
I sat down to read it this afternoon and wasn't expecting to be blown away by it quite as much as I was.
The novella is only 104 pages in length, with 65 chapters many of which barely fill a page this can be read in about an hour. Despite its shortness every page holds tons of tiny images, the sparse language is almost poetic in its ability to create a picture in the reader's mind.
The book tells of a French silkworm trader. In the 1880s the silkworms across Europe have developed a bug and keep dying. Herve Joncour is sent to Japan, a country, at the time, which was kept unopened to foreigners and reportedly killed any man trying to export products from its shores. While there Herve meets a young women, of unknown origin. They never speak and barely touch, yet she transforms his life.
This was one of those books I wish I had studied at university, I have a ton of questions about individuals interpretations of the events that happened swarming my head and the langauge would be beautiful to look at in close detail.
I will have to check out his other work soon.
Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
Lost in Translation
The Decades Challenge (1990s)
999 (1001)

My Thoughts: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I've been meaning and meaning to read this book for ages, I love retellings and interpretations of stories whether it is through novels, films or poetry. For the few people who don't know this book tell the life of the Wicked Witch of the West. Now before we go any further I will say I have never seen The Wizard of Oz, so I went into this with just the basic information about the background story.
Elphaba is born green all over, with an aversion to water, religion and compassion for other people. The novel covers her birth till her death and all the intervening event in between.
I have a really mixed view of this book, I loved sections of it and happily curled up on the sofa to read about her childhood, college days and days in love. When she moved to free herself of her guilt, and her son into Sarima's house I found myself wondering how much more of the book I had to read, I kept checking the page numbers and felt like I was pulling myself through. The final section was too wordy and by the end I had lost my desire to know what happened to Elphaba or to care for her fate. In my opinion it needed a good edit, and some pace at the end.
Challenges:
999 (Fantasy/fairytale)
A-Z (Title)
Themed Read (Move 'em along)
Chunkster Challenge (496 pgs)

My Thoughts: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman writes another corker. The Graveyard Book manages to draw you back to the childhood sensation of discovering a new world hidden in the depths of a few hundred pages.
The book is about Nobody Owens (Bod), escaping from murder at the age of one, Bod fines sanctuary in a Graveyard. The Ghosts and The Honour guard provide him with a family and a safe place to grow up, away from those who need to come to finish him off. As Bod grows older his obedience frays and he begins to explore the town around his graveyard placing himself in danger. The danger follows his scent, leading to a climactic ending.

Neil Gaiman managed to create a wonderful sense of place in this novel, the creepy graveyard transforming to become a place of warmth, love and security. The book is classified in our library as Young Adult, but this is a book which deserves to faind many many readers.

Challenges:
The Dream King 2/6
A-Z (Title)
The YA book Challenge 2/12
999 (New Fiction) 5/81
NaJuReMoNoMo 5/5

Reviews:
Bart
Stuff Dreams are Made On
Things Mean A Lot

My Thoughts: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

"Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough, and looked don't fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, nd thought a lot about how much he loved his wife."


The moment Shadow is released from prison his life changes, his wife is dead having been killed in a car crash is a compromising position with his best friend, and on the way to her funeral he meets a man who will change his world.


Shadow suddenly becomes the employee of Wednesday half god/half con man. He runs every time this man calls taking him on various jobs across the States, and meeting a number of random gods. In every place he travels he meets gods from each of the countries that Americans originated from, all brought over by the beliefs of migrants and many forgotten by the current breed of Americans.


And that's not all he has to deal with: His undead wife keeps returning asking to be brought to life. Oh, yeah and...


"...all the gods that people have ever imagined are still with us... And that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn't room for them both in the world. And that some kind of war is kins of likely."


The story of Shadow and of the war of the gods is interspersed with my favorite chapters, those from the past which show the arrival of migrants and gods arriving to the shores of America, my most favorite being the chapter entitled 'Coming to America' about twin African children sold to slave traders and shipped to America, that language just pulls you right in, and you feel like you have stepped into another novel.
Challenges:
999 (Fantasy)
A-Z: Author
The Dream King 1/12
The Genre Challenge 4/10
Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo 3/5
The Chunkster Challege (640 pages) 1/6
Other Reviews worth checking out:
A Striped Armchair
Rhinoa's Ramblings

My Thoughts: The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard.

Do you ever build books up too much before you get around to reading them and then feel let down?

Now I know that had this book been by a different author, hadn't had a slight link to a series I loved I would have regarded it much more highly.
As with the Harry Potter books I expected to start this and not put it down until the very last word. I expected to feel like a little kid again lost in another world. I expected that this book would remain a favorite.
It was ok.
That's probably unfair. I did enjoy some of the little stories, and they are good little alternative fairy tales and I will keep the book so when I have kids I have some slightly sinister fairy tales for them to read, but this only gets 3 stars out of 5 for me.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Challenges:

A-Z (AUTHOR) (1/26)

999 (Fairy tales) (2/81)

Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo (book 2)

My Thoughts: Beauty by Robin McKinley

McKinley has taken the classic fairytale Beauty and the Beast and reworked it into her own tale, presenting it to a new audience. I was really worried that this would be a modern take on the fairy tale, in a modern world, but I had nothing to worry about this book is set far enough back in history to contain the magic of a fairytale.
Beauty (an ungainly teenager) is removed from a life of poverty and a loving family when her father one day picks her a rose from the Beasts castle. She has to choose to live with the beast or give her father's life. Like any dutiful daughter it is her freedom which she chooses to forsake.
McKinley's depiction of the Beast's castle is mesmerising, I felt like I was back as a kid again, marvelling at Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Cinderella (can't ever recall having seen Beauty and the Beast - think Disney rereleased it when I was a teen and to cool to be watching stuff like that :rolleyes: The dishes fill themselves, she is dressed and pampered by invisible servants, and the ground of the castle change daily so she is never bored. She also has our fantasy library, more books than you could ever read, and it contains books not yet published, a view of the future she will not live to see.
Yes we all know how this story has to end, and McKinley sticks very close to the story, yet I was still wishing she would go back to him quickly before he faded away.
This may be kids fiction but definately is a must for anyone who loved/loves a happy ending and a fantasy world. Great for 9 year olds but also those of us who wish to escape to a magical world for a few hours. I'll definately be checking out her other books.

Challenges:

Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo 1/5

999 Challenge 2/81

YA fiction 1/12

A-Z Challenge: Title 1/26

Other Reviews worth checking out:

Things Mean a Lot

Raidergirl 3

Rhiona's Ramblings

Have you reviewed this? If so pop a link to your review in the comments section

This is a challenge that I'm joining over at LibraryThing. The challenge is to create 9 categories of your own choice and read 9 books from each of those challenges. You may overlap 9 of the books.
For an extra challenge try and finish your list by 09.09.09
The Library group is here and they have their own blog for reviews here

My List:
1. Award Winners
- Wild Swans, Chang
- A Suitable Boy, Seth
- Cold Mountain, Frazier
- Small Island, Levy
-Fugitive Pieces, Micheals*
- Tamar, Peet
- The White Tiger,
- Sunshine, McKinley
- The Sea, Banville

2. 1001
- Family Matters, Mistry
- Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, Kadare
- Blonde, Oates
- Jack Maggs, Carey
- Fugitive Pieces, Micheals*
- Alias Grace, Atwood *
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3. TBR pile
- A Suitable Boy, Seth *
- Big Sur, Kerouac
- The Peacock Throne
- Sophie's World
- Bel Canto, Patchett
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4. Fantasy/Fairy/Folk tales (originals or rewrites)
- Beauty, McKinley
- The Ladies of Grace Adieu
- The Princess Bride, Goldman
- The Complete Chronicles of Narnia
- American Gods, Gaiman
- Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland
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5. Non-fiction
- Blood River, Butcher
- Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia, Chris Stewart
- My Booky Wooky, Brand
- History of Modern Britain, Marr
- Himilayas, Palin
- New Europe, Palin
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6. African reads
- Blood River, Butcher*
- Caliban Shore, Taylor
- Bitter Fruit, Dangor
- Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton
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7. Margaret Atwood
- Alias Grace, Atwood

8. I've always been meaning to read
- The House of Spirits, Allende
- Canary Road, Steinbeck
- Love in a Time of Cholera, Marquez
- Nights at the Circus, Carter
- The Brothers Karamazov (LT group read)
- War and Peace
- Fellowship of the Ring
- The Two Towers
- The Return of the King

9. New Fiction
- The White Tiger
- The Northern Clemency, Heshner
- A Fraction of a Whole, Toltz
- The Clothes on Their Back
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