Well, I didn’t have the most productive month in terms of reading or anything else that wasn’t intimately related to ASHES. My head was buried first in the sequel and then in the ASHES galley edits themselves. Not that I didn’t try to read a fair amount, but I lost patience pretty quickly with just about everything. Part of that was justified–some of the books (including a bestseller from an author I normally like) and listens were downright bad–but I figure that, for some others, I was just too tired to relax and be fair. So some of those books I’ll try again this month and see what happens. Worst case scenario: I was right the first time around.
READS
Bray, Libba; Beauty Queens (Scholastic; 2011). Yes; I got my hands on an ARC, so lucky me! Cross Survivor with Lost and substitute beauty pageant contestants for Kate, Jack and Sawyer, and you’ve got the premise for this at-times laugh-out-loud book. Bray’s irreverence and wickedly sharp (tongued) sense of humor sparkle throughout this novel, which she’s also spiced up with over-the-top diversions (strategically-placed commercial spots, contestant interviews and applications, to name just a few). All these devices do get a little wearing after awhile and some of the humor feels forced (like, enough already), but this is still a fun read. And not all is sweetness and light; Bray also manages to tackle lesbian and transgender issues. Oh, and there’s a body count. A fast and entertaining read.
Egan, Timothy; The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2009). I knew a little about Roosevelt’s passion for conservation but absolutely nothing about the Forest Service when I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend. I also knew nothing about the spectacular 1910 fire that raged through much of Montana, Idaho and Washington: a watershed moment for the fledgling Forest Service which was despised by capitalists (and the Taft administration) bent on taking back public lands for private gain. This story follows the heroic efforts, in the face of nearly impossible odds, of an undermanned and underfunded Forest Service and the men and women who fought a blaze that eventually consumed three million acres (an area the size of Connecticut). The spring and summer of 1910 had all the makings for the perfect storm of a fire–and in the end, it was the coming of winter and snow that put an end to this horror. Having just gone to Yellowstone this past fall and seen a fire in progress, I can only imagine how bad this was–and the Big Burn wasn’t even the worst forest fire in U.S. history. This haunting image of elk seeking refuge in a river from a firestorm in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains was captured by John MacColgan, a fire behavior analyst, in 2004.
Oliver, Lauren; Before I Fall (HarperCollins; 2010). Okay, I’ll say right off the bat that I expected to hate this. I’m not even sure why I picked it up in the first place. I have very little patience for snarky high school girl books. But the premise–the kind of narrative you’d expect if Groundhog Day had been made for teens and without the happy ending–was intriguing. So I gave it a whirl. I still didn’t care for the heroine so much, even at the end, or her friends. The book went on a bit too long; the episode with the little sister and mother felt tacked on, especially since everything else revolved around school and the heroine’s friends. But the writing is very solid; the romance elements superbly done; and the redemptive end worth the price of admission. And did I tear up? Oh, yeah, you bet I did. That part of the book really felt true.
Sedgwick, Marcus; Revolver (Roaring Brook Press; 2009). Don’t ask me why I picked this up; I couldn’t tell you, especially since this historical mystery, set beyond the Arctic Circle at the height of the Alaskan Gold Rush, is geared toward younger readers. After discovering his father’s frozen body on the ice not a mile from their cabin, 14-year-old Sig Andersson waits alone while his sister and stepmother go for help. Someone arrives, but Sig will find no comfort or help coming from Gunter Wolff, who claims that Sig’s dead father has cheated him out his share of stolen gold. And just what exactly killed Sig’s mother almost a decade ago? If Jack London springs to mind, the comparison’s apt. Sedgwick has crafted a very fine, zippy, completely atmospheric, rigorously plotted mystery. This is a short book whose pages just fly.
LISTENS
Ward, Rachel; Numbers (narrated by Sarah Coomes; Brilliance Audio, 2010). 15-year-old Jem has an unusual and terrible gift: the ability to look into someone’s eyes and see the date of their death. Having isolated herself following the death of her drug-addict mother, she forms an unlikely friendship with Spider, another freakish misfit, even though she knows that he only has a few months to live. One afternoon as the pair visit the London Eye, Jem realizes that many there will die that very day. In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the Eye, Jem and Spider go on the run–and then the narrative starts to lose a bit of its coherence (at least, for me). This is ultimately a story about fate and free will, with fate holding all the cards. As such, this isn’t the most satisfying listen/read and the end is fairly predictable. Still, once you get used to the accent, the narrator makes an already brisk tale breathless.
LOOKS
Can you believe that I didn’t see a single first-run movie this past month that I can recommend? Not a one. But all was not lost. I did discover a show that, paradoxically, ended: Big Love (HBO). I’d heard about this show off and on for the last five years, and while I do like Bill Paxton, the subject–a Mormon polygamist’s tussles with his three wives–just didn’t interest me.
But, for whatever reason, I happened to flip past the next-to-last episode of the series–and I was really intrigued. I saw the series finale and thought: What an idiot I’ve been.
Thank heavens for DVDs. This is a very fine series that examines some pretty serious issues, of which polygamy is–in the end–a bit of a red herring; it’s integral to the plot but not the only elephant in the room. Gender inequality, children’s duty toward parents (and vice versa), and when traditions deserve to die are only some of the issues this series tackles. I’m only through Season One but looking forward to more.
Stargate Universe (SyFy). I’m going to say it straight out: this show just keeps getting better and does not deserve to die. I have to admit that I had my doubts, but almost every show takes time to find itself and gain its footing. This iteration in the SG franchise–which follows a group of scientists, civilians and soldiers stranded on the Destiny, an intergalactic vessel on a seemingly endless mission as prescribed by the Ancients millenia ago–was/is far bleaker and grittier than its predecessors and clearly influenced by the success of Battlestar Galactica. That is both good and bad; when BSG was good, it was fabulous, but it, too, lost its way somewhere around the beginning of Season 3 and simply got tedious. What BSG proved, though, was that there are grown-ups in the room. SGU tried to follow suit, but I think it’s tough to expect an audience which loved shows like SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to shift gears so drastically. A pity. (Although, yeah, the shows has problems when I still can’t remember the names of a bunch of the characters–and don’t care either.) There are, what, six episodes left? So, forty in all. When this ends in May (and I hear that it’s a doozy of a cliffhanger, which will just drive me insane forever . . . kind of how I felt when NBC cancelled My Own Worst Enemy, which was a FABULOUS Christian Slater show), do yourself a favor and see it on DVD. I’ll tell you right now: Season 2 is better than 1, but you won’t “get it” if you don’t watch from the beginning.
And just for fun, do see the original movie with James Spader and Kurt Russell (and Jay Davidson, post-1992’s The Crying Game). I still love it.
Come to think of it, The Crying Game deserves a look-see, too. This stylish thriller examines gender and sexuality against the backdrop of the Irish Troubles and also stars Forrest Whitaker and Stephen Rea. A superb film.
