Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Wordless Wednesday- Victorians in Cape May
click on the photo for a bigger view
...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.
just to let ya know..
it seems blogger is having an issue since last night with comments not showing up. lots of hysterical people on the blogger help site, so I assume someone at blogger will notice and work on it soon. so if you comment and it does not show up yet, you are not going crazy.
well, you might be, but not about this.
p.s. decided might be a good time to try IntenseDebate comment widgit and reposted some comments. so we will see it that works.
well, you might be, but not about this.
p.s. decided might be a good time to try IntenseDebate comment widgit and reposted some comments. so we will see it that works.
a review of "Still Missing" [50]
by Chevy Stevens(St. Martins Press, ISBN 978-0312595678)
As the book opens, we find out that Annie O'Sullivan is a survivor of a truly horrible, terrifying experience. A year ago, the 32 years old Realtor, living on Vancouver Island, was just closing up an open house, getting ready to meet her boyfriend for dinner. She was successful, owned the house of her dream and had a satisfying personal life. Then, in a moment, she is abducted by a madman, the Freak, as she comes to call him, who takes her to a cabin he has prepared in the remote woods. He rapes her, controls her every action, every minute of her day, all part of his plan to create some bizarre perfect "family" in the wilderness.
Now, we know that Annie has survived, at least physically, because in the opening pages she is at her first therapy appointment, the first of the 26 that form the outline of this book. Gradually, session by session, we learn what happen to her, how she stayed alive, the terror, the fear, the grief, the guilt that she lived through..and that still haunt her. She survived physically, but whether she survived psychologically is another matter. She can barely leave her house and sleeps in the closet, and the idea that she will ever get her life back seems like a distant dream. The difference of who she is today as compared to the person, so independent, so confident, that she was is so believably told, that story alone would be fascinating. But that is only part of it. As police, in the person of Staff Sergeant Gary Kincade, begins to investigate the abduction, it soon apparent that the danger to Annie may not be over, and the story races on to an utterly surprising conclusion. I never saw that one coming!
As hard as it is to believe, this is Ms. Stevens first book and what a winner it is! This is a really good book..scary, moving, a psychological thriller, a mystery..all told through the eyes of Annie, who is a wonderful character. She is resourceful, she is incapacitated by fear, she is real, and flawed and sometimes funny, and very angry and bitter and always someone we are pulling for 100%. And she is not the only character that the author paints so well. The Freak..well, the Freak is one twisted, scary and yet somehow mundane man, if a psychopath can be mundane. One scary freak indeed.
And did I mention the ending? I read a lot of mysteries, a lot of thrillers and, quite honestly, I often have an idea where they are going. This one took a turn that I never saw coming and was a great ending to a great book.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to the folks at St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Readers' Edition of this book.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Musing Monday...What Are You Reading?
What are you currently reading? Would you recommend it to others? Is it part of a series (if so, which one)? What are you thinking about it? What book(s) would you compare it to, if any?Well, I am in the middle of Lumby on the Air by Gail Fraser. Would I recommend it? Well, I am not totally sure yet. It is pleasant enough...but I can't say I am thrilled with it as of this point. It is light and not too serious, which makes a nice break from some of the stuff I have read recently and it might make a perfect beach read...but hey, maybe I should be saving these idea for the review!
Yes, it is part of a series and I think that may have a lot to do with being in the fence about this one. It is the fifth in this series, all about the going ons and folks of this town of Lumby and not having read any of the others, I am coming in not knowing these people. I think if I had read the previous books where the characters are first introduced and their stories explained before, I would be a little more committed to what was going on. Not that it is totally necessary if you are reading this book, but I think it would have been a plus.
But I am only half way through, so I will leave my judgement there for the moment.
Have any of you read any of the Lumby series and if so, what did you think of it. I seem to remember some positive reviews of pervious one. Do you think these need to be read in order?
You reading anything that you are totally loving?
Musing Monday is hosted, as always, by MizB at Should Be Reading. Drop by and check out some other answers.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Think of This When You Post Your Next Review...
You read a book and sadly, you hate it. You must tell the truth, warn fellow potential buyers out there, right? So you go to Amazon, and post that 1 star review. But what happens next....
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Weekend Cooking...A Nice [Not Too] Cold Beer
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article related to a subject near and dear to my heart...beer. Specifically, the article explores the idea that women, while not the largest consumers of beer, may have a distinct advantage as beer testers.
One point that I did notice in this article is that it appears many of these companies employing women tasters are brewing what I might call American style beers..and I afraid I do not mean that as a compliment. Of course, most of the major sellers in the US market of these sort of beers and you usually have to go the micro-brewery route to find something more interesting. Miller, Coors, Bud are light lagers, to my taste, rather watery and flavorless. I totally refuse to even taste Budweiser after I toured one of their breweries and found out, as they proudly tell you, that they use rice in making their beer. Don't get me wrong. I love rice, but not in my beer! A sin...These sorts of beer tend to be light on the hops, which if you watch the video, the one woman claims is the flavor women typically dislike in beer.
Well, speak for yourself dear.
While I actually do not drink much beer {or anything for that matter} when I do, I want a good beer. My history with beer goes way back, or so I was told. When I was just a wee Caite, maybe 3 or 4, my father came home from work on day, poured himself a beer and sat down to read the newspaper. He reached for his full glass, only to find it almost empty. And wee Caite sitting on the floor, next to the empty glass. What can I say. Some kids like peanut butter, some kids like beer.
I like my beer dark and hoppy and full flavored. Maybe a fuller bodied ale, or even a stout or porter, made with roasted malt or barley. Tap or draft beer is almost always to be preferred over bottle or {{shutter}} cans, the exception being a place that just does not sell enough for the beer to be fresh. Beer is alive and it doesn't live forever once tapped.
And then there is the whole issue of temperature. In the US, it is usually the colder the better for most beer drinkers. Might I suggest that the typical, best selling beers in the US are made for people that do not really like the taste of beer. They want something that they can drink very cold..which kills any remaining flavor..and which is 'lite' enough that they can drink a great deal of it. Beer become, as I read somewhere, simply an alcohol delivery system. Quantity over quality. The fast food of beer.
For a more full flavored, aroma filled beer, you really want to go a bit warmer to really appreciate it. That would be above 50 degrees, all the way up to 60 for really dark, strong beers. No storing on ice, no chilled, icy glasses. You want icy cold, may I suggest a nice glass of water. Very refreshing. :-)
I am rather curious exactly where one goes to apply for these beer tasting jobs. Maybe I need a career change!
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
"...the British company SABMiller PLC decided several years ago to reach deeper into its employee pool to find adept tasters, inviting marketers, secretaries and others to try their hand. The company concluded that women were drinking men under the table.
"We have found that females often are more sensitive about the levels of flavor in beer," says Barry Axcell, SABMiller's chief brewer. Women trained as tasters outshine their male counterparts, he says...
Today, 30% of SABMiller's 1,000 advanced-level tasters are female, Mr. Axcell says. The number of women tasters has roughly quadrupled in 10 years."
Well, speak for yourself dear.
While I actually do not drink much beer {or anything for that matter} when I do, I want a good beer. My history with beer goes way back, or so I was told. When I was just a wee Caite, maybe 3 or 4, my father came home from work on day, poured himself a beer and sat down to read the newspaper. He reached for his full glass, only to find it almost empty. And wee Caite sitting on the floor, next to the empty glass. What can I say. Some kids like peanut butter, some kids like beer.
I like my beer dark and hoppy and full flavored. Maybe a fuller bodied ale, or even a stout or porter, made with roasted malt or barley. Tap or draft beer is almost always to be preferred over bottle or {{shutter}} cans, the exception being a place that just does not sell enough for the beer to be fresh. Beer is alive and it doesn't live forever once tapped.
And then there is the whole issue of temperature. In the US, it is usually the colder the better for most beer drinkers. Might I suggest that the typical, best selling beers in the US are made for people that do not really like the taste of beer. They want something that they can drink very cold..which kills any remaining flavor..and which is 'lite' enough that they can drink a great deal of it. Beer become, as I read somewhere, simply an alcohol delivery system. Quantity over quality. The fast food of beer.
For a more full flavored, aroma filled beer, you really want to go a bit warmer to really appreciate it. That would be above 50 degrees, all the way up to 60 for really dark, strong beers. No storing on ice, no chilled, icy glasses. You want icy cold, may I suggest a nice glass of water. Very refreshing. :-)
I am rather curious exactly where one goes to apply for these beer tasting jobs. Maybe I need a career change!
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking."Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
Friday, July 2, 2010
a review of "No Mercy" [49]
by Lori Armstrong(Touchstone, ISBN 978-1416590958)
The book may be titled No Mercy, but there is certainly a Mercy in this book and it is our heroine Mercy Gunderson. Mercy is on medical leave form the Army, home at the family ranch in South Dakota to attend the funeral of her father. She is a woman with some secrets, among them that she is on a medical leave and what her injuries are and how she acquired those injuries. Because Mercy is in a job in the Army that does not officially exist. She is one of a small group of female snipers, trained to be able to infiltrate places, disguised as an Iraqi or Afghan woman, that a man could not easily get into.
She is returning home from a very dangerous place, where her nightmares of death are all too real. But things are not all that peaceful at the ranch and neighboring Lakota reservation. The body of one young Indian boy has been found on the Gunderson land and when a second person turns up dead and it seems Mercy herself may be a target, it is time for her to use some of those skills the Army has taught her over the last 20 years to save the very way of life of those around her.
This is the first in a new series staring Mercy Gunderson by author Lori Armstrong, who is also the author of the four books in the Julie Collins series. According to a brief bio of Ms. Armstrong on her website, she is a fourth generation South Dakotan and also was formally employed in the firearm industry, two facts which may help to explain why so much of this book rings so true. In her acknowledgments, Armstrong also thanks "the soldier/sharpshooter who gave me the lowdown on army life in wartime." and that too felt very real and was quite affecting. Her descriptions of the ranch, the surrounding landscape and the reservation are hard and real and dusty, not some pretty fantasy of life out west. And some of the people, including Mercy herself are pretty hard too, and far from perfect.
""So, you never used to be like this."No, there are flaws aplenty, people dealing with some heavy troubles and an appealing streak of vulnerability which all makes for some very good characters. There is also a romance...sort of...but even that is pretty hard and dusty too and did not ring my 'sappy' bell.
"Like what?"
"Cold. Hard. Mean. Unforgiving."
Sophie and Hope knew how to push my buttons. Rather than take the high ground, I loomed over her. "I'm exactly who I always was, so don't go coloring the past rosy and painting ma as some Pollyanna who turned evil when I left the stabilizing influences of home and hearth. I've had darkness and secrets inside me since the day my mother died. The only difference is now I don't try to hide them.""
Now...the book is not perfect. The solution to the mystery was not a great shock and Mercy lost some point for breaking my "I Hate Characters That Do Dumb Stuff" guidelines. A suggestion...if people seem to be out to do you harm, it might be wise to stay sober. And carry a gun. Sober and armed. Really.
But I will forgive her for this breach of my guidelines because overall she, and several of the supporting characters, are interesting and real and ones I will be happy to meet again in future books in the series. A great setting, some good characters and a fairly good mystery make this a book I would recommend.
My thanks to my local library for this one. My tax dollars at work!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
a review of "The Center of The Universe" [48]
by Nancy Bachrach(Vintage Books, ISBN 978-0-307-45541-3)
Have I mentioned that I have sworn off memoirs?
I know many people love them but I tend to find them depressing and whiny and self indulgent. Did I mention depressing?
But then, something comes along that makes me admit I can sometimes be wrong. This is the book that puts the "not always" in Not Always.Why, if I have sworn off memoirs did I even pick this up to read? Well, one of the descriptions called it "darkly humorous" and the only thing better in my book than funny is dark and funny. That description hits this book on the head. Yes, there is death and drugs and sexual abuse and mental illness in this book. Lots of mental illness.
And it is laugh-out loud funny!
As the story begins and Nancy starts her recount of the story of her family, especially her mother, it is the 80's and Nancy is in France, heading an ad campaign to get the French to buy deodorant. She feels it is a hopeless job.
"...someone very high up at bar soap headquarters, someone with a good nose but a rarely used passport, smells an untapped market for deodorants over here, and although I can imagine the logic that led to this conclusion (and my relocation), the person who reached it hadn't had to sit through forty focus groups in unventilated conference rooms in the provinces."...it is, what she calls, the "Stink-o conundrum".
Then she gets the call that her father Mort is dead, her mother in a coma and expected to die, apparently of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning on their boat. See, her father, did all his own maintenance on the broken down vessel. He considered himself a great handyman, a self proclaimed Mr. Fix-It, but was one with no real ability t fix things, try as he might. Her mother? Well, her mother was crazy.
"Although I think it all the time, crazy is not a word my family says out loud, not even to one another. "Crazy" is our secret."Nancy's life, that of her father and her two siblings all revolved around her mother Lola, her spells, her attacks, her bizarre behavior, her periodic commitments to mental institutions and electric shock treatments. She is very smart, very glamorous, very theatrical and not very in touch with reality.
"I was dreaming,” the story begins.As Nancy flies home, their father is dead, their mother barely clinging to life, and the three siblings, a psychologist, an emergency-room doctor and the third, Nancy, an advertising copywriter, gather for what everyone assumes will be a double funeral. No one survives that much exposure to CO2 all the doctors say..and if she could possibly live, all the doctors are totally sure say she will be severely brain damaged. Its seems once again inthe life of this family, the doctor is not always right. The totally unexpected happens. Lola wakes up and while she will face a number of severe issues in her recovery, she is 'cured' of her mental illness. It is a recovery the doctors say "defies medical explanation." Granted, it is a different Lola that come backs to them.
She waits until everyone is paying attention. Mort turns off the radio.
“I am the center of the universe,” she says, looking at each of us in turn, making sure we appreciate the significance. “And everyone else is a star revolving around me.”
This is a confession. A revelation. A pronouncement. This is the way of the world.
She is Norma Desmond, descending the staircase in Sunset Boulevard, eyes wide and frozen, getting ready for her close-up. She is Salome, stripping the veil off the face of the cosmos. She is my mother, Lola Hornstein.
And she is crazy."
"She won't be herself, Dr. Greely warns me over the phone. Maybe that's good news, I can't help thinking, torn between my blind love for the unknown, new Lola and my practical fear of the old one."This story is full of serious stuff, which in lesser hands could have been the material for one more depressing memoir. There is a history of mental illness in her mother's family, seemingly her mother was the victim of sexual abuse as a child and the recipient of years of medical treatment that offered little help. But in the very skillful hands of Nancy Bachrach, it is anything but. Rather it is funny, very funny and poignant and sweet and a delight to read.
To those who enjoy memoirs, I think you will love this one...and to those of you who do not, I would still offer a strong recommendation.
I will leave you with the author own description of herself...
"Nancy Bachrach worked in advertising in New York and Paris, spinning hot air like cotton candy. Before that, she was a teaching assistant in the philosophy department at Brandeis University, where she was one chapter ahead of her class. She lives in New York City. This is her first book."I certainly hope that it will not be her last.
My thanks to Kelley and Hall for a review copy of this book.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wordless Wednesday- My New Jersey
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| Jarvis Sound |
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| Diamond Beach |
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| A Different View of Atlantic City |
...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Musing Monday...If Your Friends All Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You?
What do you think of books that receive a lot of hype? (think of the “Twilight” saga, or “Harry Potter”, or “The Da Vinci Code”).
Do you read them? Why, or why not?
Do you read them? Why, or why not?
Interesting question. Let's see...
Twilight books...didn't read them.
Harry Potter books...didn't read them.
Da Vinci Code...didn't read it.
So, what do I think of books that get a lot of hype, the huge book everyone, and by everyone I mean not just people that usually read a lot of books but even non-readers, is reading.
It would seem not much.
No, in fact those sort of extremely popular books, for some reason, just turn me off. I am not sure why. Maybe I am just contrary. Maybe I don't really want to be part of the crowd. Or maybe I think these books are sometimes more about the hype, the publicity, than quality.
Now, if you take those examples, I think I can make the case that the first two have a different target audience in mind than me. Twilight..well, I saw all those screaming teenage girls and decided maybe I would just skip those. I am happy they like them, but I didn't have that much in common with teenage girls when I was a teenage girl. Mr. Potter and his friends are a slightly different case. I actually read the first book in the series and for whatever reason, it just did not click for me. It was not bad but I had no desire to read the second book. I know many of you out there in BlogLand love the series but it just did not appeal to me. Again, I am thrilled the books did so well, especially with young people. Any book that might turn people, especially kids, on to the magic of reading, is a great thing. But maybe not my taste.
Now Da Vinci is a different matter. For the life of me, I can not understand the popularity of that book. I did not read the whole book, but I did read as much of the book as one can hanging around in a Border's bookstore for an hour or two. An hour or two that I will never get back, thank you very much Mr. Brown. I thought it was awful. It was, IMHO, poorly written, full of drivel and in terms of things like facts and history, a mess. I think it is possible that it is drivel and invented history that for their own reasons actually appeal to some people, but I hate stupid books. Even more, I hate poorly written, stupid books.
So no, for me, a book being 'huge' and all the rage, does not mean a lot.
I would much more quickly pick up a book that someone whose opinion I respect, be it a fellow blogger or a RL person, recommends. Take a book like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Yes, it has had a good bit of success but I read it because so many of you all recommended it...and of course I loved it. Or take a book like I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This. I read that book not because it is hugely popular but rather because several of you all recommended it...and I think it is a wonderful book. Now that is a book people should be reading instead of The Da Vinci Code. If several of my A-List, must-read-every-day book bloggers all agree about a book, yes, I will most likely get my hands on a copy, even add it to the towering TBR pile.
Watch Out Kitty!!
Musing Monday is hosted, as always, by MizB at Should Be Reading. Drop by and check out some other answers.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Weekend Cooking...Sandwich Saturday
When the weather turns hot, my mind does not turn to cooking. Turning on the oven for a tasty casserole, spending hours simmering a big pot of soup, standing over a saute pan, stirring and stirring...no thanks.
No, when the weather turns hot, sometimes my mind turns to sandwiches!
But not just any old cold, dull sandwiches. So lets explore a few of my favorites.
Now, I admit, the first may have a few purist shaking their fists, running for the pitchforks. An authentic, slow smoked pull pork sandwich is a wonderful thing, but I don't have 8 hours to hover over a smoker. Ok, I don't actually have a smoker, so I offer a fast, easy, tasty alternative.
The "Pulled" Chicken Sandwich.
Go to the store and buy a rotisserie chicken.
My favorite are the ones from Sam's Club.
Theirs are cheaper than buying the chicken
and cooking it myself, and so juicy.
Take it home, pull all the meat off,
chopping some very fine, some less so.
Freeze the bones for stock we will make
when it get cold.
Add a bit of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
Pile the warn, saucy meat on a nice soft potato roll.
Top with additional sauce and cole slaw.
We will pause while I eat that. Yum.
Next we will move on to a Philly favorite. Now, Philadelphia is known for the cheesesteak, which is a fine sandwich, but I think even better is the lesser known Roast Pork sandwich. Perhaps the best is served at DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market but you can made a pretty good one at home. A good roll is imperative and we in the Atlantic City area are lucky enough to have the best bakers of Italian bread in the world. Yes, the world. They say the secret is the water. Today, we will use a lovely Formica roll, chewy and substantial enough to hold up to a juicy sandwich because the proper roast pork is a juicy sandwich. Just a few ingredients...the lovely roll, a few slices of sharp provolone cheese, some warm, juicy, thinly sliced roast pork (a seasoned, cooked pork tenderloin I had in the frig, nuked 20-30 seconds to warm) with any juice the pork gave up and a nice topping of baby spinach sauteed in lots of garlic. Lots. Serve with a bib and a pile of napkins.
And finally, we will have my take on a Cuban sandwich, a wonderful excuse to use my beloved Cuisinart Griddler, which as well as a grill is a great sandwich press. In this case, we will start with a Portuguese roll. On one side we put some mayo, on the other, some mustard. Now, add some sliced pickles, some Swiss cheese, some ham, some roast pork, a bit more Swiss, and for good measure, a bit of diced piquant peppers. Now, into the Griddler it goes, the idea being to melt the cheese, form a crisp crust and press the sandwich down. If you don't have a Griller...and you should...you can do it is a pan, weighting the sandwich down with a heavy pan or a brick wrapped in foil.
The Griddler is easier. And shiny. Crunch!
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
No, when the weather turns hot, sometimes my mind turns to sandwiches!
But not just any old cold, dull sandwiches. So lets explore a few of my favorites.
Now, I admit, the first may have a few purist shaking their fists, running for the pitchforks. An authentic, slow smoked pull pork sandwich is a wonderful thing, but I don't have 8 hours to hover over a smoker. Ok, I don't actually have a smoker, so I offer a fast, easy, tasty alternative.
The "Pulled" Chicken Sandwich.Go to the store and buy a rotisserie chicken.
My favorite are the ones from Sam's Club.
Theirs are cheaper than buying the chicken
and cooking it myself, and so juicy.
Take it home, pull all the meat off,
chopping some very fine, some less so.
Freeze the bones for stock we will make
when it get cold.
Add a bit of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
Pile the warn, saucy meat on a nice soft potato roll.
Top with additional sauce and cole slaw.
We will pause while I eat that. Yum.
And finally, we will have my take on a Cuban sandwich, a wonderful excuse to use my beloved Cuisinart Griddler, which as well as a grill is a great sandwich press. In this case, we will start with a Portuguese roll. On one side we put some mayo, on the other, some mustard. Now, add some sliced pickles, some Swiss cheese, some ham, some roast pork, a bit more Swiss, and for good measure, a bit of diced piquant peppers. Now, into the Griddler it goes, the idea being to melt the cheese, form a crisp crust and press the sandwich down. If you don't have a Griller...and you should...you can do it is a pan, weighting the sandwich down with a heavy pan or a brick wrapped in foil.
The Griddler is easier. And shiny. Crunch!
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking."Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
Friday, June 25, 2010
a review of "Flight of Shadows" [47]
by Sigmund Brouwer(WaterBrook Press, ISBN 978-1-4000-7033-6)
Again, we are sometimes in the not so distant future, and the America presented is very different from the world we live in today. As the result of the terrible Water Wars, the country is now divided into three areas. In the far west, supposedly there are still free, unregulated areas of land but in the east, things are quite different. In the Appalachian Mountains, there is a theocracy society, run by a group called Bar Elohim, where every aspect of life is regulated and few freedoms exist. Then, in what is called the Outside, there exists a series of city-states, walled communities where a very different, if no less restrictive society exists. In this world, there are four distinst groups..first there are the Influentials, with the power and money, enjoying in the safety of their walled, heavily guarded and monitored communities. Then there are the Industrials, marked with the face tattoos that allow them entry into the cities during the day to provide a workforce to the privileged. Those that refuse the tattoos and lack the paperwork to find legal employment, fall into the group called the Illegals, who live outside the walls, eking out a very poor living in all sort of terrible, illegal ways. Finally, there are the Invisibles, those that live under the radar for a variety of reasons..and it is into that last group that our heroine Caitlyn falls.
Caitlyn was raised in Appalachia by her father, a father who helped to keep her secret from being known. Because Caitlyn is different...
"Caitlyn should have felt fear. Instead, she was defiant and cold inside. She was a freak. Alone against the world. No choice in how she existed the way she did. No choice even in the fact of her existence. Aloneness was all she knew and understood now."To give her the only chance of being 'normal', of getting the surgery that will help keep hidden what she really is, her father helped her and two friends, Billy and Theo, escape to the Outside, hopefully the first step to some sort of real freedom further west.But her escape has not gone unnoticed. On the one hand, she is being persuaded by the government, in the person of Carson Pierce and the quite scary NI security force, on the other by the sadistic bounty hunter Mason Lee. These two men are very different in their ways and motives but both represent groups that realize the incredible value of Caitlyn's unique DNA and will go to great lengths to 'acquire' her.
This is a sequel to Brouwer's 2008 novel Broken Angel and while it is not necessary to have read the first, it does raise a few issues with how this book is written. No doubt, in the first book there was a fair bit of explanation of how this society was set up and we learned a lot about the history of virtually all the characters that again appear in this book. Now, the author is careful to explain to us what we need to know if we have not read the first, but this leads to some rather stilted, lecture like conversations to catch us up. I appreciate what he was trying to do, but I thing the reader would have been better served if we could have been led to discover that information in a more natural way throughout the story.
Secondly, I personally found it difficult to really connect with several of the characters, especially Billy and Theo, but even Caitlyn herself, who should be the center of the book. On the plus side, that leave even more room for the newly introduced character of Razor, who correctly describes himself as "fast, sharp and dangerous". He is a interesting and rather mysterious young man, with his own secrets, secrets that might make him Caitlyn's best ally...or her most dangerous enemy.He is by far the most interesting aspect of this book which is good for the reader but might not be what the author intended.
A rather interesting book, that creates a society that, sadly, does not seem that unbelievable and explores a number of subjects, like the danger of DNA experimentation, the cost of unregulated immigration and a resulting caste-like system and the cost in freedom people will pay for security, in an intriguing way. There are a number of good plot twists, some exciting and unusual chase scenes, a lot of fast paced action and while the book explores some interesting ideas, I do suggest if this one piques your interest, you may be better served starting with the first book in the series.
I received a copy of this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
a review of "The Passage" [46]
by Justin Cronin(Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0345504968)
No doubt, you may have already read a few reviews of this book, touted as a summer blockbuster. Bought for over 3 million dollars, two sequels in the works, movie rights already sold for $1.75 million, one of Oprah's "Must Reads" of the season...there is a fair amount of book buzz out there. And I would have weighted in a couple of weeks ago, when it was published, but I dropped the massive book on my toes and crushed them all. OK, that is not true. The part about my toes (they are just fine) is made up, but the massive part is true, with this book coming in at just a bit under 800 pages.
The question is, is it a really good, massive book, or a big ole' doorstop?
When the story begin, we are a couple of decades in the future, in an increasing hostile nation that has suffered large losses from terrorist attacks on civilian targets and a resulting increased military presence. In this environment, the government becomes aware of some research on a rare virus from the jungles of Bolivia that might have the ability to create a Super Soldier. This soldier would be aggressive, very hard to kill and would live for several 'normal' lifetimes..a great money saver on training. They bring the virus back, after most of the scientific and military expedition that went after it was very horribly killed, and decide to test it on a dozen death row inmates, with some quite dramatic results. The virus turns these men into something even more horrible than they already were and when, in a not terribly surprising move, the inmates, now "virals", escape, the future of the country will be forever, terribly changed in an instant.
"It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born."We also meet in this section, a young girl named Amy, who will be a constant throughout the story. Abandoned at a convent, into the care of an African sister with her own horrible past, Amy seems like any ordinary, sad, little girl. But when the people in charge of testing the virus choose her as a test subject, for reason we do not at first understand, we suspect there may be more more to Amy than meets the eye. Much drama ensues.
So ends the first part of the story. Next, we are transported a hundred years into the future and a very different future it is. As we find out, the "vampire" virus raced across the country, killing most of the human race, leaving behind these horrible virals that hunt anything alive to kill and eat, usually in the dark of night. No, the virals do not like bright light. And we meet the residents of the First Colony, a small group still living in a protected compound built a hundred years ago, in what was then California. For their protection, they are dependent on an array of huge lights, powered by a system of wind turbines and batteries, that light the night and help keep the virals at bay. But as some in the colony know, batteries do not last forever.
There have always been rumors that they might not be the only humans still alive. It is a rumor that proves true when one night, a teenage girl, a Walker, comes to their gate and sets into motions a set of events that will make up the third and final part of the book, racing to a cliffhanger conclusion.
Some reviewers, like Swampa at S.Krishna's Book Reviews and Marie at The Boston Bibliophile have loved this book. Some, like Rhapsody In Books' and Jen at Devourer of Books have not been quite as enthusiastic. So the questions is, where do I fall?
I am afraid I must go with the second group. I liked it..I did not love it. It is good, not great.
So, the bad news first. As I may have mentioned, this book is BIG, my ARC edition coming in at 766 pages. That does not have to be a bad thing, but it always give me pause. Did this book have to be this long, is the story just that big, that epic? For me, the answer is No. The first section, where we learn how this virus got loose and first meet Amy is very good. We are introduced to some great characters, the plot is tight and thrilling. And then, just as we are racing along in the story, we hit the brick wall of section two, 120 mph to 20 in an instant..bam. I think I got whiplash.
Yes, without question, there is important information we need to find out in this second part, people we need to meet, relationships to understand. But without question, hundreds, yes hundreds, of pages could have been cut from this part and, to a lesser degree, from the third, with no bad effects on the story. It is in need of The Big Red Pen of Editing. Yes, once The Girl arrives and we move into the final part of the story, things pick up, but the author almost left me behind, taking a nap, in The Colony.
Now the good. While it may not be the most original story...others have commented on many similarities to Stephen King The Stand and Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic The Road..it is a good story. Not an epic story, not a great story, but a solidly good story. Mr. Cronin is a very good writer, without question, and his ability to create characters is excellent. There are many, maybe even too many, great, memorable characters in this book. And that is not even including the ones that get eaten! I stuck with this book because I wanted to know what happen to these people that I came to care about.
A good book, an entertaining book, a book I would recommend with some reservations. It will most likely make a good movie. But what of the next two in the series? Will I be awaiting them with bated breath, as I have before with some books in a series? Hmmm...well, I may well read them, because I an interested in what happens to these people...but there is no big rush.
My thanks to Ballantine Books for an ARC of this book.
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