The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

I would like to preface this review with simply: I love Dan Brown. I know there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding his The DaVinci Code, but all religious unrest put aside, I find his novels to be a bit like the National Treasure movies: puzzling and thrilling. If you are not a fan of Dan Brown, I suggest you skip this review because nothing I can say will make you like him.

I made the mistake of starting this novel with Husband on our way to California for a business trip. We always read on road trips. Not only does it pass the time, it gives us a chance to discuss the book(s) and learn more about each other (awe! We’re so cute!) Well, and it saves the arguments over my iPod, Octavian, versus his iPod, Vincent, and which of the two hold the better music (Octavian does, of course) and it keeps my eyes down on the page instead of on the billboards. Husband likes this because when I see a billboard for, oh, let’s say the world’s largest vacuum museum, I want to stop and we argue about the importance of roadside Americana for an hour before I turn on Octavian and fall asleep. Reading is much better for our relationship, I’d say. Anyway, I say it was a mistake to read on our road trip to California because we were unable to finish the book on that trip, which meant I had to wait until we took another road trip (Indiana, two weeks ago) to finish the novel. It was agony.

The Lost Symbol is a continuation of Robert Langdon’s story. He still swims daily, still wears his Mickey Mouse watch, and, as terribly highlighted in Angels and Demons, he is still very claustrophobic. In this event (which takes place in one night, as do Langdon’s other mishaps) Langdon is called to Washington, D.C. to give an impromptu lecture by a very dear friend of his, Peter Solomon. It is not until Langdon arrives that he discovers there is no lecture and his friend is in grave danger. Compelled to begin a journey to uncover what has become of Peter, Langdon finds he is in possession of one of the Freemason’s greatest secrets, a secret that must be kept, regardless of the dark people pursuing the historian. Not knowing who to trust or where to turn, Langdon teams up with Solomon’s sister, Katherine to try to discover the terrible fate that has befallen Peter all while running from the man who orchestrated the entire evening, including the arrival of Robert Langdon. In a story that solidifies “things are not always as they seem”, Brown has again made a nerdy symbologist into a national hero. Thank you Indiana Jones, I mean, Robert Langdon.

This book was completely worth the wait, although, ideally, I would recommend that you read the book all at once and not with a month long gap between chapters. I hate that it has been out for so long and I have just read it. I was early in line to pick it up the DAY it came out, but then I lent it out to one person, then another, and so on and so forth. This is a good, superficial beach/cabin read.

Note to Dan Brown: Please, I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks, and I appreciated another chance to ogle Ewan McGregor, but do not ruin this story with another movie. Thanks.

-Harper

The Rossetti Letter – Christi Phillips

I came across this book while trying to find something similar to Dan Brown’s writings (I know… Robert Langdon’s a chump with next to no character flaws, but I still can’t get enough of Brown’s books. They’re page turners.) I was torn between which book to purchase, but this was the first by Phillips and I am usually a sucker for reading an author’s first work. I paid my $15 (plus my B&N discount, of course) and rushed it home to sit on a dusty, overcrowded bookshelf for a month.

I have a silly little confession. Although I have a wide vocabulary, somewhere between junior high and now, I missed some vitally important vocabulary words. Please, PLEASE stress to your students/children/friends how beneficial paying attention in English class can be. That being said, I had no idea what a courtesan was while reading the back of this novel. Honestly, I thought, “Well, ‘courtesan’ kind of looks like ‘courtier’ and ‘courtiers’ were nobility in Ever After featuring Drew Barrymore, so this book must be about royalty in Renaissance Europe.” Boy, was I wrong. A “courtesan”, for those of you who are as clueless as I was, is a fancy prostitute. Think Julia Roberts AFTER Richard Gere bought her lots of nice things. As aforementioned, sexy romance pages are not my cup of tea. I read the entire novel and I must say it was not nearly as terrible as it could have been.

Alessandra is a young woman living in Italy of the early 1600s. A COURTESAN, she lives in luxury, enjoying the gifts of her many suitors. With her status comes fame, so much fame, in fact, she catches the eye of a few politicians. Adding them to her repertoire, she becomes privy to intelligence that could lead to the destruction of her entire city, Venice. Given her high moral code (tee hee) she feels the obligation of informing authorities weigh down on her shoulders. Ultimately, she does the right thing and shares her knowledge with the authorities only to have her closest friends and true love murdered as punishment for her betrayal.

Fast forward to current day Italy and find Claire, a green historian desperately trying to gather details of Alessandra’s life for her dissertation, and Gwen, Claire’s boss’ slightly promiscuous 15 year old daughter, as they encounter the streets of Venice together. My favorite portion of the story, the current segment, chronicles Claire’s furious competition to write the first (and best) story of what happened to Alessandra against Andrew, a seasoned historian and Cambridge prig who serves mostly to irritate Claire. After a few adventures and romances of their own, Gwen and Claire come to respect each other, something entirely lacking at the start of their Venice trip.

This book was just okay. I did not love it nor did I absolutely despise it. I feel the novel just was not a great fit for what I look for in a story. I would not recommend this title for young readers… or adolescent readers… or anyone offended by prostitutes, because there is a level of detail in two specific portions of the novel that I would not deem appropriate for my children to read, if I had children. Phillips’ second book looked interesting, but if the first book is any indication of what’s to come (which it usually is) I think I will skip it.

-Harper

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Hate. Death. Fire.

I cannot even fathom the words needed to describe the detestation I felt for this book. And, to be completely fair and honest, I must admit, I did not finish the novel. I did, however, come very close; close enough for me to feel comfortable sharing my opinion of the book. I had high hopes for this novel as it was recommended to me by the same person who encouraged me to read I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President. I thought I could trust him, but he has betrayed me. Now, any time he recommends a band, a television program, a breath mint… I am forever going to be plagued with the memory of A Confederacy of Dunces and I will be forced into smiling politely while I shift my feet, hoping he doesn’t realize that I will not be taking his advice.

Ignatius J. Reilly is the “hero” of this story, if he can really be lumped in with Atticus or a Greek god. He is lazy, deceitful, disgusting, abhorrent, and any other repugnant adjective in the English language. Much of the book consists of his inability to relate to society and his refusal to comply with authority, topped with some absolutely unnecessary scenes such as a particularly descriptive masturbation scene in the first 50 pages of the book. (Caveat: While I am not a fan of scenes relating to sex, I understand the literary importance of them and will not judge a book unfairly by their appearance. The Ice Storm, for example, would not be as striking and representative of the 1970s if the sexual encounters were removed. The Lovely Bones, on the other hand, would have flourished without the protagonists’ reincarnated, underage romp. I must stress the total and complete lack of necessity this scene and others played in this novel.)

How The Confederacy of Dunces won a Pulitzer Prize is beyond my ability to comprehend. Don’t read this book. And if you had a different experience with this novel, please comment.

-Harper

Unnecessary update on Harper and Anne

Life has been increasingly busy so my reviews are late (and what I really mean to say is, I've been on vacation and Husband bought some awesome new video games we've been playing). I had to chuckle at my last post seeing that even in August I was behind. I have four reviews waiting for you today and my intention is to get through them all, however, I may get hungry or tired or just really get an itch to play Rock Band, and desert you. If that should happen, please accept this apology in advance: sorry.

As for Anne, I think she died or fell off the Earth or had a kid or something so she is not going to be posting anytime soon either, so you are all stuck with me. Although, the site may need to be revamped considering the flowers and all around “girly-ness” is token Anne, not Harper.

This morning, after demolishing a bowl of Frosted Flakes in front of the computer as I attempt to do every Monday, I walked into my bathroom and placed the bowl in the tiny sink. I immediately caught myself and stared at the bowl for a moment as the cogs turned in my mind. “This isn’t right.” After a brief moment that really felt more like a lifetime, I realized my blunder and placed the bowl in the kitchen sink amidst the other dishes I have neglected in hopes Husband will cave and clean. I chose today specifically to take on this task as I usually write my best work when I am not sound of mind.

-Harper

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer

I’m a little behind on getting my reviews out to the website. I apologize for the delay.

Many people have been surprised to learn that I am a fan of the Twilight series and, even though I have read many books and given countless reviews, it seems my credibility is always tarnished when I reveal this little tidbit about myself. The truth is, Meyer may not be the most eloquent of writers nor write with deep, philosophical meaning, but she gets people to read, and well, that’s the point, isn’t it? I can’t even begin to tell of the students of mine who are self-proclaimed “Book Haters” who have taken the time to read this series. She has single-handedly started a craze among people of all ages because of her excellent character portrayals and storyline. While I am in no way a “Twi-hard” and not remotely interested in the commercial phenomenon her books and movies have created, I have to commend her for writing books children and teens want to read. As a teacher, one of the hardest tasks is convincing a young person that reading is fun (and helpful). She has cleared the eyes of young people everywhere, introducing them to a realm in which reading can be (gasp!) enjoyable. Now that I have defended my point in reading Stephenie Meyer’s books, I can proceed with my review of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

I was so pleased when I heard Meyer had written a novella to accompany Eclipse. New Moon was depressing, but I have always felt that the most heartbreaking scene of the book series was the murder of Bree, a newborn vampire created to join an army and fight the Cullens. Having already read Eclipse, I knew just how short Bree Tanner’s life would be and, just as I expected, Meyer wasted no time creating a story that made me love Bree. She was young and just learning how to be a vampire; more concerned with keeping alive than pushing her master’s limits. She strikes up a small romance (or crush, really) with another of the vampires, Diego, a close friend of their creator Riley. Bree and Diego share each other’s stories and discover new attributes of their newly created selves, quickly falling into a loving relationship. When the duo sees something they were not meant to see, Diego is killed and Bree is forced on to battle the Cullens. It is there that she is taken in by Carlisle, only to be removed from his care by the Volturi when they finally find time to end the unprovoked attack. Bree is burned to death for a second time.

I was particularly happy to learn more about the Volturi from this novella. The series had proven them to be sneaky and coarse and this story helped cement my opinions of them.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner was a small book and quick read. I recommend that people who have read the Twilight series pickup this book as well, although, for those who have not read the series, this novella may not make sense. I have already passed the book on to my grandpa.

-Harper

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

It was hard for me to set this book down on my nightstand each night, and if I’m being completely honest, I was up until midnight last night finishing it because I lacked the will-power to leave the story for the next day. Less than 12 hours since I finished the novel, I have already passed it along to someone else.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a novel of stories written from three different points-of-view. Although this is her first book (it seems I’ve been picking up a lot of first-time authors lately…) I can already tell she is a character writer. There is something magical about a character writer; the way they can bring a character to life and give them voice is just so amazing to me. They lure me, hook, line and sinker, every time.

She writes from the perspective of two black maids waiting on white families in Mississippi in the early 1960s. A historical-fiction piece, Stockett weaves the beginnings of the Vietnam War, Kennedy’s assassination and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech in the plot of her stories giving reference for readers and a sense of reality to her fiction.

She also writes from the perspective of a young white woman rebelling against the societal norms she has grown up around. Skeeter, a nickname given to her as a child, longs to become a writer, but when she is told that she must come up with a controversial topic to write about, she decides to team-up with Aibileen and Minny, the two black maids, to create a collection of anecdotes describing what it is like to work for white women in the South. Though it took tragedy to convince them, other maids step forward to share their stories with Skeeter, as well, increasing the chances for the book’s success. Some of the testimonies are depressing, brutal, while others are fun and show a true bond between the maids and their white women. The plot continues in a predictable fashion, but I think the true beauty of this novel is that all three women come to the realization of who they are, not who they have been told they should be. They embrace freedom, realizing that all along they had been living in self-bondage. They are strong.

This book is being used as an ancillary to To Kill a Mockingbird for Honors Sophomore English at the high school I used to work for. Given the topic, mature themes are inevitable, but I don’t see how an Honors English Sophomore student could be derailed by the content. The novel is fabulous and, I think, perfectly complements To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel is honest, heart-felt and just a great read. I would, and have, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing summer read.

-Harper

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President - Josh Lieb

Another recommendation, this one from a co-worker with great comedic taste. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President is written by Josh Lieb, one of the writers for The Daily Show featuring Jon Stewart. I was immediately enticed to purchase the novel based on that fact alone, but when I visited my favorite little bookstore (Barnes and Noble… who are we kidding?! Small book stores just don’t exist anymore. See You’ve Got Mail), I was perplexed by finding the novel hidden in the secluded children’s alcove of the store. Maybe it was presumptuous of me, but I was pretty sure anything written by someone who also writes for The Daily Show would portray a similar writing style and content as Jon Stewart, and honestly, naked Supreme Court Justices don’t belong in the children’s section of any store. Forgiving Barnes and Noble for their loss of sanity in placing this book in their partitioned, hazy yellow section, I purchased the book and toted it home.

We read the book on a road trip (we being me and the other three family members riding in the car). I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud so much from a book. I was relieved to be confined to a vehicle of people who HAVE to love me regardless of how ridiculous I looked, and not sitting on a patio outside some coffee/donut/burrito hut where people on the streets could assume I was a few crayons short of a crayon box.

Oliver Watson is a completely useless seventh grade boy who is stupid, lazy, and… a genius. While those in his family and at his school see him as a pathetic worm, he has secretly created a multitude of lucrative empires using a recovering alcoholic as his image. Oliver is the third richest person in the world but, regardless of his millions of dollars and faithful servants, he wants to be class president of his Omaha middle school. Stemming primarily from his desire to gain his father’s approval, Oliver will do anything to win the class presidency, even going so far as to start a war in Africa over a Star Wars action figure.

This novel was a light read. It was funny, entertaining, and made me want to read more after each pit stop. I find this book perfectly acceptable for young kids, although I would say junior high and up would benefit most from the humor. I loved it and I can’t wait to see what else Josh Lieb has in store for us in the future.

-Harper

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

I’ve never really taken the time to read books by Stephen King. I think it stems from the time my mom freaked out when my reading teacher wanted me to read The Firm in 7^th grade because it was the only thing she could find in my reading level. The ferocity of my hatred for the Accelerated Reader Program is another post all in itself. Regardless, I had only read a short article by him regarding violence on TV and film before picking up On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

This book was recommended to me by a few of the teachers at the school where I was student teaching. I was placed in an English classroom with a History degree, so, needless to say, no matter how much time I spent editing in the writing center at my college, I needed some help when it came to putting terms to the writing rules I follow naturally. This book surprised me. It offers anecdotes from King’s life, instances that shaped him into the writer he has become. Although the brief biographical section was not the focus of the book, reading it has cemented my decision to pick up the autobiography of Stephen King, if he ever writes one (I hope he does)!

The meat of the book is, as suggested by the title, on writing. He describes common faux pas in the literary world and reveals his bitter distaste for adverbs. Essentially, this volume is a pseudo-writing guide that is both short and to the point. He covers active vs. passive tense verbs, plot, theme, how to begin writing, and how to be proud of your written work. All interspersed with King’s wit, the book was a quick read and quite informative.

As I have mentioned in my “About Me” section of the page, I love reading non-fiction. I think part of the draw of this book was its similarities to The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past by John Lewis Gaddis. Gaddis is one of my favorite historical authors for a couple reasons:

1. His work is thorough and written in a way meant to illicit reader comprehension, unlike Peter Novick who personally made my junior year of college a miserable endeavor. I love books and would never dream of harming them in any way, but his books… I think I burned them. We had ourselves a regular little Fahrenheit 451 party.
2. He alludes to The Simpsons and Star Wars. You can’t get much better than that.

The Landscape of History was written to explain how history should be written by historians, what we call historiography. Likewise, King’s book On Writing, was written to explain how writers should write.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, although, I do pose one warning: he uses plenty of foul language. At the high school I worked at, it has been decided that this book will be the summer reading for sophomore Honors English. While the language is an issue to some parents, I am not a fan of censoring books or music. Instead, I think they should have ratings. Content-wise, I would give this a PG-13, though the “F-word” is used semi-frequently. I think the benefits of reading the book far outshines the fact that it contains foul language and I don’t think it would be as believable if King were required to censor himself. This is his experience with writing and should be told from his character.

Another Chance to Dream- Lynn Kurland

This was not my first introduction to Lynn Kurland’s writing and the love stories of the de Piaget family, but this was my first time reading the first novel of the series. Kurland typically writes in the vein of historical romance with a twist of fantasy thrown into the later books of the series. Having read one of the son’s stories first, I was expecting a little more romance and courtship of the two characters in the book. Although there was romance between the two main characters, Rhys de Piaget and Gwennelyn of Segrave, starting at an early age for them both, the realization of that romance took almost the entire book to come about. The novel was more of a journey and the obstacles that kept Rhys and Gwen from being together. I was rather impressed by the surprise twists that I was not expecting. Usually, romance novels are easy to predict but I must admit, Kurland kept me on my toes; every time I thought I had a character and his or her back-story figured out, she would surprise me.

The love story of Rhys de Piaget and Gwennelyn of Segrave is somewhat frustrating. Although it is obvious from the omniscient perspective, Rhys and Gwennelyn can’t seem to find the right moment to be together. Rhys is five years Gwennelyn’s senior and knighted at the tender age of fourteen is overcome by her beauty but because of his stoic nature could never presume to tell her how he feels, he being only a knight and she the daughter of a lord with two keeps to her name. When Gwennelyn is married to Alain of Ayre, it seems that Rhys and Gwennelyn will never be together, but when the scheming of Alain’s brother Rollan goes awry, Rhys is able to secure his dream of having Gwennelyn. The tender moments shared between Gwennelyn and Rhys, although too few and far between for my taste, were worth all of the frustrating obstacles that they had to overcome during the course of the novel.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and the surprises that Kurland threw at me. If you are going to read about the love stories of the de Piaget family, read the parent’s story first.

-Anne

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson

I hate that my first post is covering a book I didn’t particularly like, but I would be negating the purpose of the blog if I didn’t comment on everything I read. This book was recommended to me by a Barnes and Noble team member one day as I was perusing the new fiction section of the store. She was adamant about how fantastic the story was and how real the situations were (that should have tipped me off immediately considering this book totters on the brink of science fiction). But, the back cover was amusing, the plot seemed interesting and, to be quite honest, the cover reminded me of something that would conceal some great indie tale in the vein of Juno. I am ashamed to say I judged this book by its cover.

Narrated by Darren, a sophomore at a Valley high school, the story begins with the internal monologue of a deeply cynical and seemingly apathetic teenage boy who likes to draw. He is befriended by Eric, a boy who does not have to sleep and couldn’t if he wanted to. Together, they begin to create TimeBlaze, a mystical mash up of epic movies, comic book series and an RPG to fill in any missing segments of the story. Through a twist of fate, Darren begins dating Christine, who later cheats on him with Eric, who dumps Christine in order to salvage the only friendship he has ever known. During his “I hate Eric” period, Darren shares Eric’s secret about not being able to sleep (dubbed “Eric’s thing” in the novel) leading to Eric being hunted by the police and some otherworldly source, which turns out is a figment of Eric’s imagination from TimeBlaze come to life. Sound like a telenovela? Yeah. That’s what I thought too.

The action doesn’t really kick in until the last four chapters, which feel rushed and underdeveloped. As I was reading, I continually told myself that the next page would be better, which ended up not being the case. I wanted the chase scenes, the action, but all I was given was a 20 page resolution that brought the main character back to the exact place he started ala Napoleon Dynamite. Darren’s final thought left to the reader is his remorse for tattling on Eric, who is captured and never heard from again.

Regardless of how I personally felt about the novel, I found the point-of-view interesting and maybe a little informative, if nothing else. I have spent the past few years working at a local high school. As I was reading, I could pinpoint certain characters as students and other people I attended high school with. The perspective was one that I could have never experienced, being female. This book provided insight to the teenage boy’s mind, and while I know not all teenage boys think or act in the way the two main characters do, it would be remiss of me to imagine that NONE do.

Overall, the book has a few sex scenes that don’t seem to have any purpose, multiple instances of drug use and justification for drug use, underage drinking, and it seems the author was trying to find a way to fit in as many F-words as possible. Maybe this was intentional to enhance the tone, but I think it just reflects a total lack of proper word choice. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

-Harper

Thank You Mr. Gutenberg

How should we start? Were it not for the brilliant invention of the printing press of Mr. Gutenberg, we would not have the hundreds of celebrated (and by that we mean, used and well-worn) novels that line our shelves and really any horizontal surface in our homes. We have set out to share our joy of reading with the masses through our blog that perhaps is a tiny blip in the universe known as the World Wide Web. No matter how miniscule, we know that our thoughts and opinions are important and we feel that it is our duty to those authors both living and deceased to shed a light on their lives' works.

We all have come in contact with books that have changed our perspectives-perspectives about life and how we live it, or books that simply inspired us to accomplish a goal that had been sitting, gathering dust. The inspirational novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, became the basis for creating this blog. A post-WWII novel written in letter format, this captivating story is about an author who becomes pen pals with a man from Guernsey, and through their corespondence, begins to write to other members of the Guernsey Literary Society. The piece was SO riveting, we both struggled with the thought of putting the book down. The characters were extremely life-like, personified in a way that made us want to visit them ourselves! Overall, the book was a pleasant, light read that just left us feeling good in the end.

We were inspired by the honesty and commraderie of the group, and although our little literary society (or blog, in this case) is just an outlet for a couple of friends who both love to read, we hope that what you find here is honesty about the books we have read that will cause you to pick up a book and start reading!

Mr. Gutenberg thanks you,

~Anne & Harper