Review: Beatrice and Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book moves between the story of Henry, a writer much like Martel, who wants to tell a story about the Holocaust, but in a different and unexpected way. Along the way Henry meets a taxidermist. This taxidermist has a story to tell as well: this one in the form of a play with two main characters, a howler monkey (Virgil) and a donkey (Beatrice). Beatrice and Virgil give us many insights into human behavior as well. I’m not sure how much else I can say without giving things away, but this is a powerful novel that resonated with me for days after finishing it.

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Review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book intrigued me because it sounded like one of the futuristic dystopian novels that I love so much. It really was pretty good. Kathy is a student at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school where she has lived as long as she can remember. She juggles relationships with her friends Ruth and Tommy and has teenage troubles like anyone else–except the students at Hailsham are different. As the trio learns more about what sets them apart from everyone else, it rattles their world and leads to a search for answers.

This was very similar, I thought, to The Unit, which I read in the past couple of years. I prefer The Unit, but that could be just because I read that one first. Never Let Me Go is sci fi without hitting you over the head with it, and it is quite mysterious as well. Don’t let the sci fi label scare you away. Also, it is soon to be a movie – not sure when the release date is.

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Review: The Prestige

The Prestige by Christopher Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I watched this movie a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Both the book and the movie focus on two turn-of-the-century magicians, Alfred Borden and Robbie Angier, who compete with each other to have the best act and have a personal vendetta against each other. The book is fairly close to the movie (the reasons for their plotting against each other are a bit different), but it adds a present day storyline involving two descendants of the magicians. Much of the story is told through Borden’s diaries, and we find out that both magicians used somewhat unconventional methods to create their best and most mysterious tricks. Nikola Tesla even comes into play as the inventor who gives Angier the means for one of his tricks.

The book drags in a few places, but the excitement of the world of magicians kept me interested, and even though I knew the twist from the movie, the reveal (or “the prestige”) was still entertaining.

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Review: The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook

The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook by Randolph Hock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is not bad for those new to searching the Internet and who aren’t sure where to begin. The book gives a nice outline of the different tools and resources one can use for searching, such as search engines, discussion boards, and directories, as well as sources for specific types of media (news, video, etc.). If you are pretty comfortable with using the Internet and searching, you might pick up a few tips from this book, but that’s about it. It’s also much more useful as a text that you refer to periodically rather than one to be read straight through. From a librarianship perspective, since it was required for one of my MLIS classes, this one would be a good one to point patrons to when they need help finding information online: clearly written and, while basic, thorough enough to get them started.

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Review: Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book had a bit of everything: steampunk, alternate history, and zombies! During the Gold Rush to the Yukon, the Russians held a contest – building a machine to drill through the ice. Leviticus Blue built such a machine – The Bone-Shaking Drill Engine – which turned 1860s Seattle into a wasteland. A gas (the Blight) was released that would turn anyone who breathed too much of it into a “rotter.” Years later, Zeke (Blue’s son) wants to learn more about his father and finds a way into the walled off portion of the city. Briar Wilkes, his mother, has no choice but to follow him – and meet lots of great characters along the way.

This book had a lot of mystery, not a lot of which was solved – but then, this is supposed to be the beginning of a trilogy, so perhaps answers will come. I did really enjoy this book: it was fun, and consistent without taking itself too seriously.

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Review: Snow Falling on Cedars

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this one for our book club, and I was not a fan at all. Actually, no one in the book club really liked it, which is kind of odd – usually at least one person will like a book. There were lots of pretty words and lush text, but I found the story itself and the content lacking. The plot centers around a murder trial on an island near Washington state in the 1950s. A Japanese American man is accused of killing a white fisherman, and the reporter in love with the accused’s wife tells the story of the trial and of the island’s past. World War II and internment camps have changed all of the men (and women) of the island. I did get into the trial aspect of it, but I kept waiting for some grand twist that would justify everything but it never really came. I really wanted Ishmael, the reporter, to move on with his life already!

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Review: Adverbs

Adverbs by Daniel Handler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was quite a quirky book. Each “chapter” is almost more like a story, although some of the same characters show up in the different ones. Each chapter is centered around an adverb, because as Handler says, “[love] is not the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done.” Essentially each one focuses on a certain way to love. The writing style is fun, and there are all kinds of witticisms and cleverness, but I didn’t really get it completely. But then, I suppose that’s how love is – it happens, in certain ways, and you can never quite explain it.

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Review: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a super quick read, as it is pretty short and the writing flows. It’s a memoir of sorts that focuses on Murakami’s running: why he does it, what he gets out of it, how he prepares. However, he keeps it from getting too technical and includes a healthy dose of the mentality behind running, including dedication, motivation, focus, and recovery. A lot of this philosophy could apply to any athletic activity, and probably a lot of non-athletic activities as well.

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Review: Saturday

Saturday by Ian McEwan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoy books by this author – he seems to be able to take the mundane and make it interesting, or take someone’s everyday thought process and make it intriguing. This book was all set to go the same direction. It had a good concept – things that happened over the course of one day, the difference one day can make in someone’s life. It centers on Henry Perowne, things he sees and experiences on that Saturday, his thoughts about being married, having children, being almost 50, taking care of his mother, who has Alzheimer’s. Besides all of these fairly routine thoughts, there is also a confrontation and the resolution of that confrontation, something that can be life-changing for everyone involved.

I did enjoy how basically that one day paralleled life: it starts out with a promise of something, or some sort of expectation, but it can go an infinite number of different ways. I did lose interest in parts, and I wonder if I read this book when I am older and am dealing with similar things to what Henry is dealing with, if I would get more out of it. It was good, but not one I would read again (unless, like I said, it’s at a much later point in my life) and not one of my favorites by him.

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Review: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember reading this book with my class in fourth grade. I re-read it, and it was still quite a fun read. I even felt like I got more out of it in some parts because I could relate more to Mrs. Frankweiler, the narrator, and see the children how she saw them, rather than as a child myself.

Claudia Kincaid, age 11, decides that she is going to run away because her parents don’t appreciate her. She is practical and rational, which is why she chooses her younger brother Jamie – he would fund the operation. They decide to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As time passes, they sleep in the beds that are on display, bathe in the fountain, attend field trips with other classes – and uncover a mystery about whether or not an angel statue is the creation of Michelangelo. This statue, in fact, is what leads them to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and to a great lesson.

I really liked the idea that the kids presented, that some people are so busy taking pictures to show others while on vacation, “they don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

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