TSS: Challenges...

During 2012 I joined my first reading challenge ever, the R.I.P event. Thanks to this "push" I read a bunch of books I was considering but never got to them. Around the same time, I round up the courage and did the 24 hour Read-a-Thon, and that gave me the opportunity to do nothing else than read, something I rarely do. And finally, I joined my first book club ever, the Sword and Laser book club and this opened my horizons to books that I didn't know about (like the Dirty Streets of Heaven) or books I was thinking about reading, but what if I don't like it (like Cloud Atlas).

Bottom line, this year I joined reading groups of different sorts. It was the encouragement of my boyfriend and the other people in those groups that motivated me to tackle certain books and certain subjects. So I was thinking that during 2013 I should not only remain in my book club, and re do the challenges (the read-a-thon will have to be on the fall session since I have a Pre-Doctorate exam coming Yikes!) but maybe join another challenge...this time a yearlong challenge. 

So I went to A Novel Challenge (great website BTW) and decided on my 2 new challenges of 2013, you can also find some information in the brand new tabs up here.

2013 WHERE Are You Reading Challenge 

This is a very pretty challenge, in my opinion. We travel with our books, so why not add a map showing our trip, right?

2013 Sequel Reading Challenge 

 

I was already planning to read some sequels next year (fingers crossed most of them will be available in my library), so here is the perfect way to help me to make it happen.
 

What about you? Are you joining any new challenge this year? Any recommendations? I think I will stick to 2 new challenges, with school and all, but maybe you have THE perfect challenge for a girl like me :) 

Other than that I finally finished The Fat Years. Also my brother is spending the holidays with me (Insert Happy Dance Here); I will try to continue with regular posts, but I can't promise anything ;)

Have a great week everybody

 

 

The Fat Years (a.k.a: Les années fastes) by Chan Koonchung

Book Summary (From Goodreads)

TRUTH IS NOT AN OPTION.... Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it, and no one can care less. Except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that has possessed the Chinese nation.

When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn - not only about their leaders, but also about their own people - stuns them to the core. It is a message that will rock the world.... Terrifying methods of cunning, deception, and terror are unveiled by the truth-seekers in this thriller-expose of the Communist Party's stranglehold on China today.

My review

First of all, let me tell you, this is probably one of the hardest books I've read in a while. Not because it was in French, but the subject was so dense! A friend of mine recommended this book and when he described it to me it seemed very interesting, so I borrowed it. Well, it was interesting, but oh my was it a hard read.

Just as what happened to me while reading The Colonel there were a lot of cultural references that I missed, even thought the book has glossary at the end and a lot of foot notes. I do watch the news, and try to follow current events as much as I can, but I'm not very strong in foreign politics, and this books confirmed that to me. 

Either way, it was a very interesting book; while not completely fiction since it takes a lot of events that actually happened in China's past the future that Koonchung portrays is not necessarily a premonition of the path that the world economy will take. 

The  main characters were very complex, not only with their past but the way they see the world, and I liked the way in which their paths end up being intertwined. 

A word of advice, be very patient with the book; although there are things happening, the biggest questions I had all during the book are not answered until the VERY end, the thir part of the book, and even then I had the feeling that the questions where not completely answered which disappointed me a little. I have the feeling that the story was left unfinished and I don't like this feeling.

There is a lot of political criticism  in the books as you can imagine, but there is also a nice humanity in the way the characters confront what happens to them.  Something that I liked a lot was that this criticism was not only applicable to one country:

         If the officers of the government have the will to work hard for the things they are doing, then ordinary people are capable of pushing the rural economy.

Is a very simple sentence when you read it, but I feel is something that applies to any economy, specially now a days. 

There was also some critic to reading...well, to reading in a bubble I guess, and this par hit me particularly, because it is true that I tend to rest amongst genres that make me feel comfortable and by staying within them, and mostly by remaining so attached to fiction I might be missing a lot of changes happening around me in "the real world". Is not that the author discourages reading fiction by no means, I think his intention is not to discourage fiction at all, but maybe to not forget what happens beyond fiction in all of its forms, before turning into a society that no longer sees its reality.

 

My favorite sentence of the book was this:

         We are a society that has in it the perfume of books.

This perfume is a great one..as long as it doesn't cause an obtund view of our reality. 

TSS: 2012 favorites

It seems like everybody is doing the round-up of their 2012 favorite books already. Goodreads did it Bookriot did it...so I thought, why not do it, right?

Well, first of all I think I should clarify that over the year 2012 I've read so far 45 books...but only 10 of them where published on the year 2012. I will give you my top 5 books that I read during 2012, independently of its publication date:

1. The Night Circus: Interestingly, this is one of the first books I read this year. and I think it has been my favorite of all year. It had a beautiful universe construction and I liked the fact that no character was completely black or white, in contrast with the circus decoration itself. I loved how the stories evolved separately and then join each other swiftly. The conclusion of the book was in my opinion, well constructed, and I can't wait for the movie adaptation.

2. 1Q84: I actually gave 4 mushrooms to the first 2 parts of this book, but it was the last part that pushed this book to the top 5. Yes it was a long book; yes there were some parts that were a little bit too graphic and could've been read at something a little bit more disturbing. But once again I think that the double moon universe created by Murakami was just precious. And I loved Aomame as a character.

3. The Know-it-All: Out of the 3 books I read this year from A.J. Jacobs, I think the first one of the saga was my favorite basically because of how we meet the family, and the struggles around and in general, is the beginning of this serial questing. I loved all of the books, but this one is the first door in a very amusing fun house.

4. The Bluest Eye: This books was so hard to read and yet do beautiful! It was hard, not because of the difficulty of the text, but because of the crudeness that Morrison has. Seeing the world though the eyes of this little girl, seeing everything that happens around her, and all she wanted was to be considered beautiful. 

5. The Hobbit: Last but not least. I read it in order to be "prepared" for the movie (only later did I learned it was going to be in more than one movie, so I will have to skim it again soon!) but once again I was amazed by the whole universe painted by Tolkien. The innocence of Bilbo and how his sense of adventure and camaraderie crows through the books makes of this book a certain read before going to bed when/if I have kids;) 

What about you? which are your favorite reads this year?

Other than that, this week I (finally) finished reading The Fat Years, the review should be up next Wednesday. I did published my review for The Dirty Streets of Heaven and I'm starting Tailchaser's song.  Also I joined a new meme or event, called Read and Review Hop, hosted by Anya, may I suggest you check it out?

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

Book Summary (From the book)

Bobby Dollar is an angel -a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby's wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own -pride, anger, even lust.

But his problems aren't all his fault. Bobby can't entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he's not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn't trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth.

When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby's going to need all the friends he can get -in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else can find them.

You've never met an angel like Bobby Dollar. And you've never read anything like The Dirty Streets of Heaven.

Brace yourself -the afterlife is weirder than you ever believed.

My review

This is the second book I've read from The Sword and Laser book club. And this time, I finished on time!

I really liked this book, at first I thought it was a YA, which I have nothing against, but I wasn't planning on reading one any time soon. However, I think is safe to say that this book is more to the adult type, not only for the content but the way things develop. 

Bobby Dollar, also known as Angel Doloriel is an earthbound angel, and he is an advocate for souls...simply put, he is a lawyer, and he is here to defend your soul from going to hell. 

I loved this part, the way is not just being good or bad, but all you did during your life, how this can be interpreted and argued against. At the end you can't even say anything to defend yourself, you will be dependent on your actions alone.

As most of earthbound angels, Bobby has developed a good taste for Earthly  escapes, such as liquor and women, and he has gotten some insight about the later:

         Women, even female angels, can be colder than men in some really scary ways. 

Anyway, things are shaken up when someone dies, but his soul is nowhere to be found. Off course the first thought is that Hell is doing something to keep the souls for themselves, but later we realize that actually they are as surprised by this turn of events than we as readers. Bobby puts on his detective cap (not really, he doesn't really wear caps, just in case you were wondering) and tries to find anything suspicious about the recently departed, searching for this taste in literature, music, etc, looking for a clue somewhere:

        

        For instance, a bunch of Nickelback albums would have indicated he never had a soul in the first place.

You will find a couple of sentences like this that will make you at least smile if not chuckle. At the same time Bobby starts being followed and almost killed by this nasty creature, the ghallu, and I will agree with some of the comments in the Sword and Laser forum that it did remind me of the Balrog from LOTR, although in my head it was more like a smaller version of it.  However, when Bobby turns to heaven for help he barely gets any advice and finds himself being sort of investigated, no matter what he says or argues.

         [...] sometimes when things very wrong and even the highest are frightened, innocence is not enough for salvation.

Was it a great book? I don't know, it was certainly entertaining. It wasn't a book I knew was out there. To be honest with you, this is the first Tad Williams book that I've ever read. I think this is the first "real" urban fantasy book I've read (I read The House of Night  that according to Wikipedia falls into the category, but I'm not sure how "urban" that is) and I did not dislike the genre, but I'm not smitten by it. I guess I can give Williams another go.

The romance that sparkles in the book was interesting, but no surprising if I'm honest. You kind off see it coming. However I liked the perspective that we get for Casimira. I think a little bit more of development for her character would've made me "fall" for her. 

As for the twist...I like the premise (no giving anything away I promise). Is a really nice idea, and I wish this would've been further developed. Maybe in the rest of the series, since this is book 1.

I will leave you with a very nice quote: 

         Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. 

This review makes part of the weekly event Read and Review Hop

TSS: Comfort in the books

This week, after a long time, the Bookrageous Podcast came back. As usual, it made my wishlist longer! But also, it got me thinking. This week's subject was comfort books. Do you have comfort books? I understand the term off course, but it made me realize that I do not have a book that keep coming back, not even an author. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of books in my shelves that I really liked, also, I have some authors that I know do not disappoint me, depending on what I am looking for. 

 

But the way the guy in the podcast put it I believe I do not have such book. A book to take to bed with you when you are sick? That would be the one I am currently reading...and that is in the unlikely situation that I can read while being sick (trust me I'm not exaggerating, when I'm sick, I'm dead sick, I might work in immunology, but my immune system sucks).

A book to take with you if, say, there is a hurricane, or in my case a snowstorm, coming and you can't go out at all? Same problem, I would probably take a couple more that I haven't read, but that I'm looking forward to, maybe take small ones to have some variety.

An author that you always "relapse"? nope. The only books I've ever re-read are Momo by Michael Ende, The little Prince by St-Exupéry and LOTR...and in all cases was because I read them in Spanish first and for the later 2 I got the original language versions. For Momo, my German is not good enough for me to read it in original language, but is a book that moved me a lot being a kid and I was wondering if it would touch me the same way as an adult (it did, BTW).

So tell me about your comfort book! And as always, have a great week!