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White Cat by Holly Black

Cassel Sharpe is the only member of his family that isn’t a curse worker. And he’s trying his hardest to be normal when he finds himself sleepwalking, trying to catch a white cat. After he’s kicked out of his boarding school for nearly falling off the roof of his dorm in his sleep he begins to realize that things with his family and his history aren’t actually what he thought they were. I can’t tell more than that without giving away major plot points.

I really enjoyed this book. It was something completely new in the whole supernatural powers genre. The story was well written and captivating. I recently read Tithe by the same author (her first novel, I believe) and while I really enjoyed the story, the plot was really jumpy but she seems to have improved – a lot!

If you are at all interested in this genre, this series is a must read.

Red Glove by Holly Black

*This may contain spoilers if you haven’t read White Cat.*

Cassel is just beginning the year at school when he is taken in by the FBI, informed that his brother has been killed and they suspect the murderer has also killed at least another five people. They blackmail Cassel into helping them find the killer. The only problem? Cassel soon suspects that he actually killed most of those people, but he knows he didn’t kill his brother. He also knows that if he cooperates with the FBI he could have bigger problems than being a murder suspect. He also has to deal with the fact that Lila has been worked to love him and the curse doesn’t seem to be wearing off.

I liked this book even better than the first one. Cassel has this way of working a con and getting himself out of the most difficult situations that makes for very entertaining reading. And although the books aren’t meant to be comedic, some of the characters are pretty witty and I laughed out loud several times. I also really liked the characters, Cassel especially. He has a lot of depth. Sometimes you read a book and the hero is just so good and perfect it’s kind of annoying but Cassel is real. He’s been raised in the world of the con and the mob so you’d expect that he’d be comfortable with a little bit of lying and deceiving and he is. But he’s not evil either. He’s uncomfortable with the fact that he’s killed people and even tries to reverse it. The other characters are real and believable too. Some are likeable and some aren’t, but I think that’s the point.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy these two books as much as I did and I can’t wait for whatever happens next in this series!

Firewing by Kenneth Oppel

Griffin Silverwing has heard all the stories about his famous father’s adventures and feels he will never match up to him. So when his friends dare him to steal fire he does it. Unfortunately, it results in one of his friends dying and Griffin being sucked into the underworld during an earthquake. When his father, Shade, finds out what has happened he follows Griffin into the underworld where they must make a pilgrimage in order to return home. And of course, Goth is back causing all kinds of mischief.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first two, if not more. This one was definitely darker and was written with older audiences in mind. I don’t know if this was intentional but there seemed to be a lot of religious symbolism which added some depth to the novel.

As with the previous two stories, the novel was full of adventure and although it followed a well established pattern for adventure stories, it was completely unique because of the nature of the adventures. I don’t want to say too much more because to do so would give away the story but trust me when I say that the adventure never stops and it’s really quite a captivating novel.

Once again, I can’t find enough good to say about Oppel as an author.  Not only does he tell a fascinating story but he writes it beautifully as well. I’ve found that reading books aloud to my son (as I did this one) has given me a greater appreciation for they way a novel is written. Some books are much harder to read aloud than others but never Oppel’s. His words just flow off the page and are a great pleasure to read out loud.

My son and I both enjoyed this book. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“I liked that the book was about bats. I liked everything about the book. Griffin was my favourite character because he was brave and he saved his friends. I would give this book a 10/10.”

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

It’s some time in the future and every continent besides North America has been obliterated. Because of a virus brought on by genetic engineering, females only live to be twenty, males twenty-five. This has led people to kidnap young girls and force them into polygamous marriages so they will breed while they can. Sixteen-year old Rhine is one of these young wives, who along with her two sister wives, is married to a very rich young man with a very evil father (who had avoided the virus because he is of the first generation who are all extremely healthy and live to be very old). Rhine’s only desire is to escape and return to her home and her twin brother who she knows will be looking for her.

I really liked this book, it was well written and the story was well plotted and entertaining. The book is the first in a trilogy and I got the sense that a lot of what happened in the book was just setting up for the rest of the series. There seemed to be a lot of foreshadowing and character development going on. But not at the expense of the story though. I read this book in two days because it was a nice easy read but also because it was so interesting I couldn’t put it down.

Wither reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, maybe because it was a dystopian novel with a female narrator, maybe because of the roles children (and teenagers) were forced to play in this new world but I kept finding myself thinking of Katniss and her struggles. I would think that a person who enjoyed The Hunger Games would probably like Wither as well.

I just have one tiny little complaint. The flow of the story, at times, just didn’t feel perfectly polished somehow. I know this is DeStefano’s first novel and it feels like a first novel. But a first novel of a talented author with many satisfying novels to come. I can’t wait to read the remainder of this trilogy and whatever else DeStefano may write.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Ok, I’ll warn you up front, I don’t usually review books I don’t like unless they were provided by the publisher for review. This book was not provided by the publisher, I bought it, but my feelings about it are so strong, I can’t avoid reviewing it.

First of all, here’s what it says on the back cover:

“We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:

This is the story of two women, Their lives collide on fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again-the story starts there…

Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.”

If I hadn’t read tons of book reviews recommending this book, after reading that summary, I would never have bought it. It makes me feel like the publisher is telling me that I’m not capable of knowing what the books about and deciding for myself if I want to read it. It kind of feels like they are saying, “Just shut up and read it, it’s good for you.” It also sets the reader up for great disappointment. Reading a summary like that makes me think that this book is going to change me life, which it most decidedly didn’t. That summary set me on edge right off the bat.

So for those of you that are capable of making your own decisions about what you will read, here’s my summary:

The book begins when Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, who has been held in an immigration detention centre for two years, is released. She has a driver’s licence with her that she obtained two years ago on a beach in Nigeria. She makes her way to the address on the licence and knocks on the door. The woman who answers the door is Sarah O’Rourke, the second narrator of the novel. It is the morning of her husband’s funeral, who had hung himself only a few days previous after receiving a call from Little Bee. Little Bee, Sarah, and her husband, met on a beach in Nigeria in an encounter with some local terrorists. The story is just about Little Bee and Sarah helping each other heal from the terrible things that have happened to them.

I really felt like the book had potential but I had a hard time identifying with any of the characters. None of them were likable or really all that believable. It could be that the author was a man and both of his narrators were female. (I never understand why authors do that, although sometimes it works.) The story didn’t flow well either. And it just felt so contrived.

But I could have gotten past all of that if not for the ending. (WARNING: There are going to be spoilers here. I can’t explain what made me hate the book without talking about what happens in the end. It’s not really all that surprising though.) At the end of the novel, Little Bee gets deported. She had been living in England illegally and the authorities discover her. Sarah decides to follow her back to try and help her. Little Bee knows that the minute she gets off that plane she will be killed but with Sarah with her she is safe. (I don’t really understand why this is true but whatever.) The thing that bothered me is that Sarah brings her 4-year-old son with her to Nigeria, to this country where the terrible thing happened to her. The terrible thing that caused her husband to take his own life. She takes her 4-year-old child back to the country that she and her husband had agreed it was a mistake to visit the first time. At first, she stays in a safer part of the country in a hotel, but then she does the ultimate in stupidity and takes her son and Little Bee back to the beach where the terrible thing happened. And guess what? Her 4-year-old son gets shot at on that same beach and it is 100% because his mother was so selfish and stupid that she put him in a such a dangerous situation. I know these kind of things happen all the time to children but no mother I know would purposely put their child in danger like that, for any reason. I was so disgusted and enraged by that particular plot twist. I’m not sure where the author was trying to go with that but it was awful. And that is what I hate this book and will probably not recommend it to anyone.

So, apparently at some point in my life I knew that there was going to be another book in the Mortal Instruments series but I must have forgotten because when I found out today that the fourth book comes out in just over a month (April 5 to be exact) I was pretty surprised and excited!

I really have no idea where the next book, City of Fallen Angels, will go and I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

I really enjoyed the first three books in the series and you can read my reviews here: City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this series you can find out more here.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room is the story of Jack, five, and his mother who have been living in a single room for as long as Jack can remember (and in fact he was born in Room, and his mother has been imprisoned there for seven years.) Although Jack and his mother are confined in an 11×11 room, Jack is actually pretty happy. He knows nothing else and his mother has gone to a lot of trouble to make his life as fulfilling as possible under the circumstances.

The novel is told from Jack’s point of view and that took some getting used to. However, that was one of the best parts of the book, for me. Once I got used to the five-year old narrator, I thought the book had great potential. I was was really enjoying it. But at some point it just came unglued. I was expecting a lot from this book because of it’s being included on the short list for the Man Booker prize, and I just didn’t feel like it delivered.

But first, let me say what I did like about the book. I thought it was well written and the story was engaging, the characters were likable and realistic. The story had the potential to be depressing but it wasn’t. It was really quite amazing to read about how hard Jack’s mother had worked to make his life as normal as she possibly could.

What I didn’t like about the book was the second half. It ruined the whole book for me. I can’t really say why without spoilers so I’ll just say that the tone of the book changed. Instead of being a literary piece is became more main stream. It became just another “issue” book, just another book written about the bad things that happen to people without really saying anything worthwhile. It was just really disappointing.

I know lots of people have enjoyed this book and didn’t find anything lacking in the second half so I’m probably just being picky. And, that being said, I did still enjoy the book – I’m just not sure it deserved that Booker nomination.

Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller

I just happened to see this book sitting on the new arrivals cart at the library and since I’ve really enjoyed Rand’s book I decided to pick it up. I wasn’t even sure I would read the whole thing but once I started reading I was hooked.

I’ve read three of Rand’s novels and enjoyed them but I really didn’t know anything about her personally. When I read her books I was young and idealistic and I thought her ideas were great. (To be honest, I’m not sure I completely understood them then or even now!) Now that I’m older and hopefully wiser, I’m not in 100% agreement with her anymore. I do think she had some important ideas and I think they were especially important at the time that she wrote her novels. I’m just not 100% on board now that I’ve lived a little bit of life.

Reading this biography opened my eyes to the kind of person she was too. She was extremely intelligent and she lived through some hardship but she was also a hypocrite and a narcissist. As her novels gained popularity she acquired a group of followers that behaved almost like a cult. A lot of the things that went on in her later life really turned me off of her. I still really appreciate what she did in writing The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  Both of these books are extremely well written and for containing so much philosophy they are incredibly entertaining and well paced.

But, this review is not of Ayn Rand or her novels! I really enjoyed this biography. It was well written and it was entertaining. It was also incredibly detailed and well researched. I’m not sure how much else I can say about a biography though. If you like reading biographies or you are interested in Ayn Rand you would enjoy this book.

The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

I’m not really sure how to summarize this book as it’s a memoir of Bartok’s life with her mother Norma, a paranoid schizophrenic. As she begins the book she’s been out of contact with her mother for seventeen years when she gets a phone call letting her know that her mother is dying. She and her sister both rush to be by her side despite everything they’ve been through. They discover their mother’s storage unit and begin the long task of sorting through it. As they do so, Mira begins to remember bits and pieces of her past and puts it down on paper. She has an interesting way of remembering things which is where the title of the book comes from. In her mind, she imagines a memory palace. In each room are specific objects that help connect her to incidents or times in her life. Throughout the book she travels through her memory palace remembering her life with and without her mother.

It took me a bit to get into the book but once I did I really liked it. The writing is beautiful and the stories are haunting. Mira and her sister have quite a childhood but still manage to get away from their mother as soon as they are old enough. Unfortunately, she continues to cause problems by calling multiple times a day at all hours, and even goes so far as to show up on their doorsteps demanding to know if their wombs were stolen and warning them of imagined dangers. At this point the sisters change their names, addresses, and numbers so that their mother cannot find them and harass them anymore. Mira has a hard time with this decision feeling that she should try and do more for her mother, knowing that she is probably living on the streets. I was amazed at her ability to feel this way after the way she was treated by her mother. (One of the memories that haunts Mira is of her mother holding a broken bottle to her neck.)

As their mother is dying, the sisters are able to come to some closure as they spend many days at her bedside. They get her placed in nice nursing home and gather her friends around. Reading of those last few days were very touching. Once again, the writing really helped to convey the emotions of the sisters. In some sense there is some relief that their mother is dying (she is over 80) but there is also some guilt, wondering if they should have done more for her. And of course there is a huge feeling of sadness and love. She is, after all their mother.

I found the story upsetting at times because of how little help they were able to find for their mother. I haven’t had much experience with mental illness but I found it disheartening that while it was obvious that Norma needed help, the sister were unable to obtain it despite all the avenues they pursued. Many times after major psychotic breaks that required hospitalization, Norma was sent home the very next day alone. Also, the sisters tried numerous times to get her declared incompetent, which they were unable to do, due to Norma’s ability to buy cigarettes and balance her chequebook. Even after stabbing her own mother multiple times in the back, the girls were unable to her any extra help.

I just had one teeny little complaint about the book…there were a few spots that just didn’t make sense. I believe this was an editing issue and there were just some missing words but something about the writing, made me wonder if this was perhaps a literary device? If so, it didn’t work for me. (There are portion of the book that were taken directly from Norma’s journals and a lot of these sections didn’t make a lot of sense either but I understand that there were included to show a small part of Norma’s thinking. These are not the parts I’m referring to.)

In the end, I did enjoy the book and found that although it was sad, it wasn’t depressing. There was a sense of peace and hope throughout the book that kept it from getting too dark.

The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am 100% pro vaccine. So a few weeks ago my sister let me know that I had to listen to this interview on CBC’s radio program The Current. After listening to the interview with author Seth Mnookin where he spoke about his new book, The Panic Virus, I immediately put this book on hold at the library. I’ve just finished reading it and it exceeded my expectations in every way.

After attending a dinner party where several parents began discussing vaccines, Mnookin decided to write this book. What prompted him to do so was a statement made by a another one of the diners. He had decided to delay some of his children’s vaccinations because it felt right. This attitude bothered Mnookin and prompted him to being researching vaccines for himself. After coming to “the conclusion that there was no evidence supporting a link between childhood inoculations and developmental disorders, [he] had to confront a set of issues that get to the heart of social dynamics and human cognition: Why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, do so many people remain adamant in their belief that vaccines are responsible for harming hundreds of thousands of otherwise healthy children? Why is the media so inclined to air their views? Why are so many others so readily convinced? Why, in other words, are we willing to believe things that are, according to all available evidence, false?”  The result is The Panic Virus, an extremely well-researched and fascinating book that covers every angle of the vaccine debate.

What I particularly liked about this book was that Mnookin came to a conclusion about vaccines and then never looked back. He’s fully on the side of vaccinations and he’s not afraid to say so. He’s also not afraid to use strong language when it comes to condemning the media and celebrities who have been so outspoken on the issue of immunization. He’s especially hard on the “feelings” movement espoused by Oprah and others of her ilk, people who make decisions based on their feelings rather than rational thought, people who believe that they can think their cancerous tumours away. (Not that there is anything wrong with having feelings or even using them to help you make decisions, it’s just when they get in the way of rational thought that you have a problem, at least in my opinion.)

I also felt that Mnookin handled the subject with sensitivity. There are many parents out there raising children with autism just looking for answers and he told many of their stories with empathy. He made it clear, in the telling that these people are just concerned parents trying to make sense out of a disease for which the causes are poorly understood. (Unfortunately, the anti-vaccine movement has directed much needed resources away from research that might actually bring some hope and relief to these very parents.) These people are victims, victims of the media’s relentless search for the next big headline, victims of people like Andrew Wakefield who are either incompetent or intent on exploitation.

The Panic Virus was also very well researched. I’m impressed by the dedication it must have taken to carry out this project to the depth that Mnookin did. But at the same time, the book is not a dense tome full of incomprehensible facts about the science behind vaccines. Mnookin isn’t a scientist and he doesn’t pretend to be. Mnookin isn’t trying to convince the reader that vaccines are safe, he’s trying to convince us that the experts, the people who really know what they’re talking about in regards to this issue, actually do have the public’s best interests at heart and we would do well to listen to them. Because the experts and numerous studies say that vaccination is safe, we should believe them. He’s trying to show us that by not listening to experts and instead listening to whomever has the most compelling story or the loudest voice or the most controversial study, that we are doing ourselves and the general public a huge disservice. And I happen to agree. Since when does Jenny McCarthy have a degree in Immunology? Why are people so willing to listen to her and base decisions about their children’s health and safety on her feelings?

One last thing I loved about the book was it’s readability. As I mentioned previously, it’s not about the science of vaccines. Not only was the book accessible to people of all levels of scientific understanding, it was interesting too. He never allowed the reader to be overcome by the immense amount of information contained within because he brought it all together in a way that was meaningful and captivating.

Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, and I plan on doing just that.