[TSS] Musings: The True Deceiver

Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver is one of those deceptive books.  It's written in very straightforward, plain language over the course of only 180 pages, but within those short sentences and each short chapter, we delve into issues such as reality vs. perception, trust vs. distrust, isolation vs. population, winter vs. spring and, a major theme, wolf vs. rabbit.

I must admit that I enjoyed this book but didn't understand all its subtleties and symbols until after I read the introduction by Ali Smith.  At that point, I had many "A-ha!" moments, and so in this case I can say that for me, at least, the introduction was a great help in comprehending the many levels of this novel.

Katri Kling and her brother, Mats, live in a very isolated town in northern Sweden.  They don't have many friends.  Katri isn't very friendly or polite, but she is honest and has a very good sense for numbers, so while people do not like her, they respect her.  The villagers think there is something wrong with Mats' mind, so they give him odd jobs to do around the village.  The two are close, but don't talk much.  They also have a large, silent dog without a name.

Anna Aemelin lives farther removed from the village, in a large house she inherited from her parents.  She is a well-known illustrator of children's books, in which she renders the details of the forest ground at spring in minute detail.  She also populates these pictures with rabbits that have flowery fur, which have made her very popular, but which she doesn't like very much herself. Katri has a plan to become necessary to Anna, insinuating herself and her brother into Anna's life until they no longer have to worry about money or other people.  But at what cost will this more comfortable life come?

Musings: Venetia

Venetia, by Georgette Heyer, is one of her most romantic books (in my opinion).  It's about beautiful, fun and kind Venetia Lanyon, a 25-year-old woman who has never been far from her beloved Yorkshire home and has led a very sheltered existence.  One day, she meets her new neighbor, Lord Dameral, whose life has been as scandalous and talked-about as Venetia's has been virtuous and sheltered.  The two have an instant attraction to each other, and before long, become the very best of friends.  This blossoms into more than friendship, but there is such a gulf between their life experiences and and so much trouble with Venetia's two brothers and their lives, that Dameral feels certain they'd never be happy together, and that Venetia should be with someone else.  Venetia, though, is quite certain of herself, and sets upon a path to ensure that her happiness is secured.

[TSS]: Home at last! Kind of

Hello all!  I am back in Chicago (briefly), having finished up my summer internship in New York City and taken a short jaunt to Quebec City and Montreal.  It was a fun and memorable summer, in which of course I didn't accomplish half the things I set out to do at the beginning.  But I did get to spend multiple glorious hours with Jenny, which was a delight.  So now when I read her posts, I can read them in her voice, which is just as cheerful and fun and witty as her posts are, I assure you.

But I didn't get as much time to read this summer as I wished to, and much of the reading I did do this summer was taken up by the GARGANTUAM A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin, which I don't think I'll be reviewing here because, well, I don't know how to and in my opinion, nothing particularly inspiring happened in the book so my review would basically consist of something along the lines of, "Anticipation beats reality every time" or something cliche along those lines.  I will continue with the series, but I don't really see the story being neatly wrapped up in two more books, and I am disturbed by some of the characters' propensity for sexual violence.

Well, I guess that was a review of sorts for the book, but I don't have very many more up my sleeve for you guys!  And what with the new school year just around the (river)bend, it may once more become slow in these parts.  But I'll still be around, I promise!  And hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I can get back on YOUR blogs and start commenting and adding to my TBR list once more :-)

Musings: Anya's Ghost

Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgal, is a graphic novel about a teenaged Russian immigrant to the US who falls into a well, finds a ghost, and makes a friend.  Anya moved to the US with her mother and younger brother when she was five years old and has expended a lot of energy changing her accent, updating her wardrobe and losing weight so that she can fit in with her classmates.  But she doesn’t feel like she fits in at all- she only has one friend, Siobhan, and she can be pretty mean.  She struggles in class and feels like a complete outsider.  One day, going through a park, she falls into a well and meets Emily, the ghost of a girl who died about ninety years before.  Emily comes out of the well with Anya and helps her gain confidence in dealing with the difficulties of high school.  But soon, Emily is insisting a bit too much on the way Anya’s life should be led, and Anya must decide whether she wants to keep Emily as one of her few friends or let her go.

This book has been reviewed on many blogs that I’ve read over the past several months, and so when I had some time to spare at a bookstore recently, I picked it right up.  It helped that on the cover, there’s an endorsement by Neil Gaiman calling the book “A masterpiece!”  (Though in my opinion, it seems like Neil Gaiman endorses a lot of books.)  In this case, I would agree with him.  While I don’t think Anya’s Ghost was a masterpiece, it was a really great story about a girl coming into her own and realizing she’s worth more than she thinks.

Musings: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

N.K. Jemison's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first book in her Inheritance Trilogy.  It revolves around Yeine, a young woman from the remote region of Darre who is summoned to court by her grandfather, the reigning ruler.  Yeine's mother had been an Arameri before she left the castle to marry Yeine's father, one of a very select group of people with the power to unleash the gods, and now Yeine must learn navigate the very complicated (and often sadistic) politics of the Arameri court, a task made more difficult by the fact that she has agreed to help the Enefadeh, the gods currently under Arameri control.  But who can trust a god, especially a group of them who hold onto thousands of years of resentment and anger?  Yeine must juggle these difficulties and more, hoping to save her own life.

This book was released to much fanfare, not least because it's an epic fantasy novel written by an African-American woman.  If you read epic fantasy at all, you know how very rarely that happens.  The book isn't written in some sort of revisionist structure, which seems to be the fear that many fans of epic fantasy have when the discussion around diversity in the genre arises.  "But the genre is based in Medieval Europe," they say.  "Having people of other races in that setting would just be jolting."  Or my personal favorite, 'If you want a fantasy book about X region/ethnicity/history written, then you should write it yourself."  Fascinating how people don't realize just how bigoted statements like that are, but I realize that on this page, I am probably preaching to the choir.

So, to my point- Jemison didn't base this epic fantasy on Medieval Europe exactly, but she also didn't make it so overtly "African-American" in scope that epic fans wouldn't recognize their beloved genre in the book.  She just made the characters more diverse.  And for that, I thank her.  She did it and got nominated for a Nebula award.  So there.

[TSS] Musings: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Ohmigoodness, why have I missed out on this book for so long?  I started the year completely mesmerized by another modern classic, Cry, the Beloved Country, and now I am once again in awe.  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is definitely one of my top reads this year.  I highly recommend it to anyone who likes reading.  Specifically?  To anyone who enjoys reading good books.  (With beautiful covers, such as the one pictured to the left here, the cover of the first edition)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is mostly the story of Francie Nolan, but also the story of anyone growing up poor in early 20th century Brooklyn.  Francie's parents married young and had children before they were ready, driving her father to alcoholism due to the pressure of family life and her mother to take up the reins of being the head of household.  Her mother (Katie) works very, very hard so that Francie and her brother Neely can attend school for as long as possible and hopefully never be forced to leave school and work instead.  Francie loves school and in the seventeen years we spend with her, she holds fast to her dream of becoming a writer- a writer who speaks the truth and shows that poverty is not ugly, and that life is more like ocean waves, ebbing and flowing, than a straight line set out for you right at the start.

Musings: The Penderwicks

Even if the infallible Jenny had not piqued my interest in this series, I would have snatched this book up based on the cover (love the stencil-like artwork!) and the title (love overly descriptive titles!).  The Penderwicks:  A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is just a really sweet book to read.  I finished it in less than a day and am now chomping at the bit to read the second and third books in the series. 

This light read won the hefty National Book Award and while I admit I enjoyed the book thoroughly, I can imagine other authors that year being somewhat chagrined by this book winning. The Great American Novel, this is not.  There isn't great symbolism.  There isn't an epic class struggle.  No one encounters racism (or, it appears, other races).  It's just a simple story, really- or just a series of vignettes about four sisters and their summer vacation.  It's set in contemporary Massachusetts, but takes place in a very isolated setting so feels like it's set much earlier.