Artemis Fowl, The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
Category: Kid-lit Grade: A
So, what makes kid-lit kid-lit? When I was growing up, we boys read the Hardy Boys and girls read Nancy Drew and everybody read the Bobsey Twins. The books were short. They had big print. They had simple plots with "smack-you-between-the-eyes" morals. Everybody assumed that, to keep teens interested, these were the rules you had to follow. This situation was slowly changing over the couple of decades. Authors like C.S. Lewis (Narnia), Phillip Pullman (Golden Compass) and even, to some extent, Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) were writing stories that were intelligent, well written with complex plots. They were about the same length as adult novels. Then in the 90s, Harry Potter changed all the rules for popular teen (even pre-teen) and young adult books. All of a sudden, it was OK if a big was long, complicated with fully fleshed out characters - kids, and many adults, would stand in line to buy a good book. About the only thing that all of the so-called kid-lit books have in common is that the primary characters were kids - i.e. somebody kids could relate to. But these were such interesting kids that the books appealed to a wide audience.
The Artemis Fowl series took advantage of this new world with a series about a teenage (actually younger in the first book) genius who starts out as one of the world 11 year old master criminals. In the middle of one of his capers, he discovers the long hidden underground world the fairies -- gnomes, pixies, demons, imps - a great big cast of characters. Through the books, we watch Artemis get a little older and develop an interesting moral sense.
The Lost Colony is the fifth book in the series. Artemis is 14 and - surprise, surprise - has hit puberty and discovered girls. The girl another child genius is about where Artemis was 4 books ago -- 11 and brilliant, manipulating all the adults around her. When they both end up working on the same fairy-world issue, for opposite reasons, they make a connection that jumps all over the map.
This is not serious fiction like Tolkien or, to be honest, not even like Rowlins. Its light, funny, well-written and full of action. Its just a plain entertaining read. I highly recommend it to any of you who have any tolerance for fantasy and, of course, to any of you who have any control over the reading lists of a kid-lit target. If you seriously want to give this series a try, I'd suggest you pick up the first book. A lot of the in jokes won't make sense if you don't read the books in order.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Reading Like a Writer
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Category: Literary Criticism Grade: A-
Prose is a prolific writer, having written a couple of dozen books - fiction, non-fiction and children's books. I have to be honest and say that I'd never really heard of her or read any of work. That'll probably change. I saw of review of this one and decided to give it a try. What I found is well-written and very interesting description of how books are put together. The book is dead-on with its sub-title -- "A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them".
In addition to her writing, the author has spent a lot of time in the classroom teaching literature and conducting writing workshops. She's a proponent of "close reading" - basically a belief that you should pay attention to what you're reading in deep details - e.g. that the words are as important as the concept. Normally, I'm put of by this style of reading. If you've followed this blog, you know that I love to read. To me, books are entertaining, informative, distracting, immersive and so on. A good book should make you feel like you're reading a good book - that simple. Too often, especially in school, we're taught that its important to understand a book than to enjoy it. This tends to lead to children, and eventually adults, who never pick up a book for pleasure.
Well, Prose manages to turn that belief on its ear a little bit. The chapter headings give you an idea of what you're in for -- Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Narration, Character, Dialogue, Gesture and wrapping up with Learning from Chekhov. What should really be pretty dull, turns out to grab you almost from the beginning and, just as she predicted, turns you in to a better reader. While you don't lose the ability to feel the power or beauty of a book, Prose gives you the tools to understand why. It doesn't hurt that her own writing style is excellent - I'll be looking for some of her fiction next time I'm in a book store.
Prose provides lots of examples from all kinds of sources that illustrate her points. She ranges all over the map from Chekhov and Tolstoy to Raymond Chandler. At the end of the book, she has a list of "Books to Be Read Immediately". To be honest, its not likely that I'll start working my way through her list. Its also not likely that I'll give up reading entertaining hacks like Dean Koontz. Thanks to Prose, however, I'll least be able to tell the difference between hacks and authors.
Category: Literary Criticism Grade: A-
Prose is a prolific writer, having written a couple of dozen books - fiction, non-fiction and children's books. I have to be honest and say that I'd never really heard of her or read any of work. That'll probably change. I saw of review of this one and decided to give it a try. What I found is well-written and very interesting description of how books are put together. The book is dead-on with its sub-title -- "A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them".
In addition to her writing, the author has spent a lot of time in the classroom teaching literature and conducting writing workshops. She's a proponent of "close reading" - basically a belief that you should pay attention to what you're reading in deep details - e.g. that the words are as important as the concept. Normally, I'm put of by this style of reading. If you've followed this blog, you know that I love to read. To me, books are entertaining, informative, distracting, immersive and so on. A good book should make you feel like you're reading a good book - that simple. Too often, especially in school, we're taught that its important to understand a book than to enjoy it. This tends to lead to children, and eventually adults, who never pick up a book for pleasure.
Well, Prose manages to turn that belief on its ear a little bit. The chapter headings give you an idea of what you're in for -- Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Narration, Character, Dialogue, Gesture and wrapping up with Learning from Chekhov. What should really be pretty dull, turns out to grab you almost from the beginning and, just as she predicted, turns you in to a better reader. While you don't lose the ability to feel the power or beauty of a book, Prose gives you the tools to understand why. It doesn't hurt that her own writing style is excellent - I'll be looking for some of her fiction next time I'm in a book store.
Prose provides lots of examples from all kinds of sources that illustrate her points. She ranges all over the map from Chekhov and Tolstoy to Raymond Chandler. At the end of the book, she has a list of "Books to Be Read Immediately". To be honest, its not likely that I'll start working my way through her list. Its also not likely that I'll give up reading entertaining hacks like Dean Koontz. Thanks to Prose, however, I'll least be able to tell the difference between hacks and authors.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Catching up
Since we've gotten back to Texas, as you might guess, its been really, really hectic. I haven't stopped reading, but I'm getting farther and farther behind on posted reviews. If there had been a really killer book, I'd have found the time, but the last three were decent, but not great. Here's an update:
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
Category: Fiction Grade: B+
A fairly short novel by the Newsweek columnist, Anna Quindlen. I always read her books because she's definitely got a way with putting things together. This is necessary because most of her books are borderline "chick-lit". This one is no exception. Its the story of the Fitzmaurice sisters -- Meghan is the glamour sister pretty much patterned after Katie Couric, while Bridget is the kind of frumpy social worker sister. The stories follows the complete dissolution of Meghan's life after a particularly bad on air faux-pas. The story is engaging, but not too taxing -- great for a beach or vacation read. Quindlen has a very spare writing style - she never takes a paragraph to say what a few words will say perfectly well. You just feel comfortable reading her work.
The Devil's Doctor by Philip Ball
Category: Science history Grade: B
This was actually pretty good I've got no clue who to recommend it to. Its a historical biography of a guy named Paracelsus - somebody I'd never heard of before. He was a 15th century "doctor". What makes the book interesting is that this was era when it was hard to spot the borderlines between doctors, scientists, alchemists and magicians. Ball's premise is essentially that Paracelsus was one of the transition folks who deeply believed in alchemy but also saw the body as a "small world" where chemical alchemy could be used to treat all kinds of diseases. He was really one of the inventors of modern medicine although he never quite separated his work from his religious beliefs. The upheaval of the times was not only scientific -- with Paracelsus, Newton, Galileo, etc. It was also the days of Martin Luther and the Reformation. The Devil's Doctor is a fairly long book that follows the subject's travels all over Europe as he's kicked out of city after city for his beliefs and practices. Almost nobody is going to like this book - Dan, Steve, Ted - not sure who else, so unless you're really in to history, science or medicine (preferably, all three), skip this one.
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Category: Fiction Grade: C+
It's really a shame about this one. Haddon's first novel was the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, a strange name for a novel told from the perspective of an autistic child. That one was terrific and showed a lot of promise. When I heard that he had a new one, I headed straight out to get it and moved it to the top of the pile. It wasn't completely awful but it was a major disappointment. His writing skills are still there but, this time, he takes on the story of an English family. I know its chauvinistic but with all the British phrasing and slang that I don't know about, everything felt just a little off the whole way.
The story is about a family that is in the process of falling apart -- husband losing his mind, wife having an affair, daughter getting married to someone the family doesn't approve of and son who can't decide whether to make a commitment to his gay lover. While things happen in the book, it never really feels like anything is happening. If it hadn't been for Haddon's first book, I'd have probably laid this one down. I still highly recommend that one, but this one you can skip.
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
Category: Fiction Grade: B+
A fairly short novel by the Newsweek columnist, Anna Quindlen. I always read her books because she's definitely got a way with putting things together. This is necessary because most of her books are borderline "chick-lit". This one is no exception. Its the story of the Fitzmaurice sisters -- Meghan is the glamour sister pretty much patterned after Katie Couric, while Bridget is the kind of frumpy social worker sister. The stories follows the complete dissolution of Meghan's life after a particularly bad on air faux-pas. The story is engaging, but not too taxing -- great for a beach or vacation read. Quindlen has a very spare writing style - she never takes a paragraph to say what a few words will say perfectly well. You just feel comfortable reading her work.
The Devil's Doctor by Philip Ball
Category: Science history Grade: B
This was actually pretty good I've got no clue who to recommend it to. Its a historical biography of a guy named Paracelsus - somebody I'd never heard of before. He was a 15th century "doctor". What makes the book interesting is that this was era when it was hard to spot the borderlines between doctors, scientists, alchemists and magicians. Ball's premise is essentially that Paracelsus was one of the transition folks who deeply believed in alchemy but also saw the body as a "small world" where chemical alchemy could be used to treat all kinds of diseases. He was really one of the inventors of modern medicine although he never quite separated his work from his religious beliefs. The upheaval of the times was not only scientific -- with Paracelsus, Newton, Galileo, etc. It was also the days of Martin Luther and the Reformation. The Devil's Doctor is a fairly long book that follows the subject's travels all over Europe as he's kicked out of city after city for his beliefs and practices. Almost nobody is going to like this book - Dan, Steve, Ted - not sure who else, so unless you're really in to history, science or medicine (preferably, all three), skip this one.
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Category: Fiction Grade: C+
It's really a shame about this one. Haddon's first novel was the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, a strange name for a novel told from the perspective of an autistic child. That one was terrific and showed a lot of promise. When I heard that he had a new one, I headed straight out to get it and moved it to the top of the pile. It wasn't completely awful but it was a major disappointment. His writing skills are still there but, this time, he takes on the story of an English family. I know its chauvinistic but with all the British phrasing and slang that I don't know about, everything felt just a little off the whole way.
The story is about a family that is in the process of falling apart -- husband losing his mind, wife having an affair, daughter getting married to someone the family doesn't approve of and son who can't decide whether to make a commitment to his gay lover. While things happen in the book, it never really feels like anything is happening. If it hadn't been for Haddon's first book, I'd have probably laid this one down. I still highly recommend that one, but this one you can skip.
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