The Devil Keeps Showing Up in All These Books I Like..?

I like to think that I'm a reader with a wide variety of tastes. Sometimes I don't think that thats true. I finished a book recently ("The Devil and Miss Prym", more below on that) and got to thinking. For being a religious person, and for not being able to watch scary movies because I will be scared for months if not YEARS; the devil shows up in some books I've really enjoyed. Hmm. Let's examine my psyche further shall we?

Just kidding, we're going to talk about books.

Our story takes place in Castle Rock, Maine (because, it's King). A stranger comes to this small town and opens a store called Needful Things. His name is Leland Gaunt, and he's not just any stranger, as the people of this small town will find out. In his store he holds the thing you want the most (like a Sandy Koufax baseball card) and at first he asks you only for a small, seemingly harmless action in return. And you do it because, you know, you must have this thing! But things get out of control (quickly!) and the town descends into violence and madness and all horrible things. Leland never forces anyone to do anything. There's always a choice.

This was one of my first Stephen King books, and I love it. It showed me that Stephen King doesn't need things like a rabid family pet or a horrifying mist to be monsters. Sometimes the monster is already in us and just needs an excuse to get out. Like I said, Leland never forces anyone to do anything. All the chaos that ensues could have been prevented. 

I love the winding intricate nature of this book, and also the fact that everything is basically batsh*t crazy at the end. It's probably in my Top Ten of All Time! (A hallowed list that changes constantly, haha)

There is a village called Viscos. (In my head it's in Spain, that might not be true). It's far up in the mountains, removed from the world. The villagers know that the village is dying, and they might be the last generation on the mountain. Then a stranger comes to town. He focuses his attention on Chantal Prym, the last young person in the town. Only Berta, an old woman in the village, can see that the Devil walks with the stranger and that the fate of the village could be completely changed in a week, but at what cost?

This book talks about the big topics: Good and Evil. Can we do something terrible if we can justify that it's for the good of many people? Is the murder of an innocent person ever justified? Do guardian angels make mistakes? What I thought that was interesting about this book is that even though it talks about the Devil and angels it's not particularly religious. Like, no one is like well we shouldn't kill this person because that would be a sin. Everyone is like "is this a moral choice?" That probably doesn't make any sense, I'm sorry. Sometimes I'm not a good explainer. Anyway I thought this book was really interesting, tightly written and tense. And short! I think one of the most interesting things in the books was "Ahab's Day of Atonement".

(I've talked about this book before, if it sounds vaguely familiar to you!)

This book takes place in a backwoods Canadian town. Poverty, addiction and violence are pretty common place. The main group of characters is a small group of teenage friends; most of whom are good, and are trying to stay out of trouble. Then the Devil comes to town. (Of course he does). He appears to everyone differently, an in no instance is the pitchfork and tail version. This appearance slowly upends each of the teenagers lives and the people around them due to quite the ripple effect. There is also the matter of the native girls who keep getting kidnapped on the highway....

One of the things that I remember most about reading this book was my reaction to it. I generally don't physically react to books I read but not in this case. There was a lot of horrified gasps, and "eek!" and other noises that I'm sure alarmed my husband. It's not boogeyman/thrasher scary but it is scary. (Also would be a good choice if someone needed something for a diversity read!)

Addendum - I can't believe I forgot to include another favorite: "Your House is on Fire, All Your Children are Gone". The Devil only makes a brief appearance, but it's a dozy, He gets a curious boy to capture and trade the soul of his sister so he can have a peek into actual Hell. That book is ridiculous but I think I talk about it on the blog more than any other book. Sorry Ray Bradbury :( 

Honestly, I think that I just like books that talk about the internal struggle between Good and Evil. It's something that everyone struggles with on a different level. I believe that everyone holds inside of them the capacity to do both wonderful and terrible things.

Book Review: "The Girls at the Kingfisher Club" by Genevieve Valentine and Readathon Wrap up!

Remember how I was kind of on a fairytale retelling kick? I might still be on that. And, just to be a total weirdo about it this book is based on the fairytale of the 12 Dancing Princesses. If that sounds vaguely familiar it's because I read and reviewed ANOTHER retelling of that story called "Entwined". Happily enough, they are very different books.

So this setting is 1920s New York City. In an old townhouse there lives a jerk. He's married to a woman (that we know almost nothing about) that has given him 12 children. But all of them are girls, not the boy that he wants and that he thinks would help him climb the New York City social ladder. So what does this jerk do? He keeps them basically prisoner on the top few floors of the townhouse and has extremely minimal contact. And when I say minimal I mean, he hasn't seen a lot of them since the day they were born. When their mother dies one of the girls finds out by accident and has to tell the others, their dad doesn't even tell them. So when I call him a jerk what I really mean that he is an abusive psycho.

Jo is the oldest of the 12. With the utter lack of any parental support she quickly becomes the sister in charge. Her sisters think she's bossy and a little cold and so they call her the General. She is usually the one who has to brave talking to their father when the time calls for it. (Like when he finally agreed to give them a $4 a month allowance. $4. For 12 girls. Even with "back then" prices that can't have been much).

Jo and 2nd oldest Lou, had had a few tastes of freedom because they were the oldest. They had gotten outside, and even had occasionally snuck out for movies. They would come home and teach the other girls dances that they had seen. Finally, a few years in Lou reaches a breaking point and is about to run away. Jo makes an executive decision. They need a break, they need to get out of that house. The four oldest, sneak out at midnight, find a speakeasy and go dancing. It's basically the best night of their lives. They end up doing this for years. As the younger ones get older, they join in. And towards the middle/end of the book the 12 dancing princesses (no one knows their identities, or even that they are sisters. Except the two sets of twins, kinda obvious). This actually goes off without incident for several years. But theeeeen, not so much.

Also, a few touches of romance along the way!

The book wasn't bad, but it never really hooked me. I'm not sure why. There were a couple of things that kind of irritated me about this book. First, is the sense of time. The girls obviously really range in age and a lot of time passes in the book. At any given point I couldn't tell you how old any of them were. There's talk about Jo having grey hair, but considering the strain she was under in their given situation she could have had greys by 20!  This made it hard to picture in my head and I need to be able to kind of picture things in my head for things to go well.

The second problem is more practical. The girls have no formal education. They occasionally had governesses but when the last of the girls was born Daddy Dearest no longer saw the need. They did have access to the home's library. When freedom comes, none of them have any marketable skills (2 are good seamstresses) or education. That's what makes Jo worried. It's like "uh, I know you needed to get out of that house. But maybe when you weren't dancing you should have maybe really tried to hammer home some book learning because you're going to need an education if you don't want to be a factory girl for the rest of your life". It's not like they didn't have time.

Overall I give it a low 3 out of 5 stars. It was fine, it was kind of interesting, but it couldn't really seal the deal for me.

Did anyone else take part in the Dewey's Readathon; a straight 24 hours of reading and book camaraderie from all around the world? Ironically I did very little reading! I spent most of my time with my co-cheerleaders from Team Jane Eyre, spreading encouragement and emoticons to our readers. It was really fun, even though it was a little bit daunting because there was just so many people to cheer for! We all had a super late night which made for a pretty drowsy Sunday but it was worth it! The next one is in October, which might just give Andi and Heather long enough to recover to plan the next one!

"A Reunion of Ghosts" by Judith Claire Mitchell; a Book I Really Enjoyed but Having Trouble Putting into Words That Make Sense and Dewey's 24 Readathon Preview!

I thought this was such a great book, but I don't really know how to describe it. If you haven't heard of it, here's the description from goodreads:

How do three sisters write a single suicide note? 

In the waning days of 1999, the Alter sisters—Lady, Vee, and Delph—finalize their plans to end their lives. Their reasons are not theirs alone; they are the last in a long line of Alters who have killed themselves, beginning with their great-grandmother, the wife of a Jewish Nobel Prize-winning chemist who developed the first poison gas used in World War I and the lethal agent used in Third Reich gas chambers. The chemist himself, their son Richard, and Richard’s children all followed suit.

The childless sisters also define themselves by their own bad luck. Lady, the oldest, never really resumed living after her divorce. Vee is facing cancer’s return. And Delph, the youngest, is resigned to a spinster’s life of stifled dreams. But despite their pain they love each other fiercely, and share a darkly brilliant sense of humor.

As they gather in the ancestral Upper West Side apartment to close the circle of the Alter curse, an epic story about four generations of one family—inspired in part by the troubled life of German-Jewish Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of chlorine gas—unfolds. A Reunion of Ghosts is a magnificent tale of fate and blood, sin and absolution; partly a memoir of sisters unified by a singular burden, partly an unflinching eulogy of those who have gone before, and above all a profound commentary on the events of the 20th century

I know how depressing this sounds. There are certainly some sad parts, and some very sad parts. They each have this kind of terrible legacy that hangs over them, at it kind of dictates their lives. We find out so much about these sisters and then farther and farther back in their family which is full of extraordinary characters.

Distant cousin Rudi is my favorite. I'd love a whole spin off book about him.

But these women have this wonderful dry humor, and sometimes a gallows humor. One of them even works at a bookstore!

There's also at least one graphic account of what poisoned gas did too the unsuspecting soldiers that it was unleashed upon. It's horrible.

What makes these people come to life is the really lovely writing and the great sentences that the author crafts.

Like when two people are talking about tragedies in their lives and one is thinking: "I'll see your butchery and raise you my carnage".

Or when they talk about making brightly colored cocktails: "We are,after all, the descendants not only of a mass murderer, but also a dye maker. We, too, like batches of liquid color".

I'm totally rambling, but I'll try to wrap it up with some coherency. This book is love and loss and full of interesting back stories and great writing. If any of that sounds appealing, pick it up. Or at least find a review from someone who can verbalize what makes it so good better than I can. 4 stars out of 5!


The wonderful Katie over at Doing Dewey had a much more put together review than I did. She said that she found the plot a little lacking, and I do agree with her on that. I think the great writing and interesting people make up for it!

Also, this cover! Love!

If you're a book blogger you've probably heard that the 24 hour Readathon is on Saturday! I'm cheer captain for Team Jane Eyre, so I hope that I'm a help and not make things more complicated for anyone! I have books to read, but last year I just cheered the whole time and I think that might be the case again. I don't know if any of it will show up here but I will be super active on the twitter. 

Books I want to read that the library doesn't have, the struggle is real.

I'm sure you've all caught on by now that I don't buy many books (the last one I bought was at Ben Winter's book signing!) because I have a great library system in my community that keeps me in the books I need. Mostly. Occasionally there will be a book that I'm really pumped about and it's not in the library, or in one case, it was lost and not replaced.  I know that I can request that they purchase these books, but I feel kind of bad about doing it for some reason. Library budgets are not unlimited after all. Maybe I'll do one every couple months and hope that my list doesn't get longer.

Have you read any of these? Any recommendations on what to request first?

Book Review: "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett

Mr Hosokawa was having a weird birthday. The head of an important company in Japan, he was invited to a (basically) state dinner thrown in honor of his birthday in a South American country that was struggling to lose its "Wild West/drug running" image and reinvent itself. They invited him hoping that he would become enchanted with their country and decide to build a factory there. (PS In my head this country is Columbia). He declines this invitation several times. But then they sweeten the party pot with an offer he can't refuse, Roxanne Cross will be brought in to sing just for him...

The government officials did their homework, because Hosokawa's great love is opera, and Roxanne, a talented soprano, is one of his most favorites. Suddenly this birthday party got MUCH more tempting...So Mr Hosokawa and his faithful translator Gen find themselves in (fictional) Columbia at the house of the Vice-President.  Hosokawa knows no one at this party except for Gen. The other guests are other foreign businessmen (Russian, French, etc,), their wives, Roxanne and her accompanist, and a priest who loved opera (who was listening from the kitchen, not as an invited guest to the dinner), among others.

All is going pretty well, if not a little bit awkward occasionally, when the lights go out at the end of Roxanne's performance. Suddenly the room is filled with guerilla soldiers and everyone is made to lay down on the floor. A birthday party that was supposed to create opportunities for a struggling country just turned into a hostage situation.

You know what bonds a bunch of former strangers together pretty fast? Teenage guerrillas with twitchy fingers. Throughout the whole hostage situation we learn about the guests, the guerillas (and who they were actually looking for when they stormed the party), courage, faith, love and the unifying language that is music!

The thing that surprised me most about this book was that I wasn't stressed out reading about it. Like sometimes when you're reading a book and scary things are happening and you're all tense? This wasn't like that. It's not to say that there aren't tense parts, or scary parts (or guns) but it wasn't a stressful read. My coworker who read the book said she thought it was kind of elegant for a hostage situation, and it really is! I didn't really have any preconceived notions about how this book would go and it turned out that I thought it was swell. 4 out of 5 stars!

Also, another simple cover I just love!

"The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Hidden China" by Huan Hsu

Huan Hsu is an ABC (an American born Chinese) in Salt Lake City. He implies that being an ABC, not Mormon in "lily white" SLC made him feel like quite the outsider.  He had (and still has) family in China but never felt the need to go and get in touch with his roots or anything like that. He knew some Chinese from  his parents when he was a child but it fell almost completely from his mind as he aged.

Then he hears a story, about his great-great grandfather that changes that. His ancestor lived in Xingang, a town on the Yangtze river that was invaded by the Japanese in 1938. When he knew the Japanese were coming, this man buried the collection of porcelain and money under their house. There was never the opportunity to come back to retrieve it. Huan begins to wonder what happened to the valuables, and being a journalist, decides that this is something he needs to investigate. Luckily, his uncle owns an incredibly successful business and gets him a job at his company, which is how he gets the visa to stay in country. Huan doesn't actually spend much time working, because he doesn't really know what is job is...which is a problem. He spends his time trying to improve his Chinese and figure out how he will execute his plan of finding this porcelain, and contacting distant relatives who might be able to help him find the land that he needs to dig on.

What I like about this book is that Huan doesn't romanticize his time in China.(Which is not to say that he doesn't really like parts of his experience, because I think he does). He gets pissed about things. Like kids popping in the street, or the little girl peeing in his apartment hallway right by his door. Or the pollution. Or the fact that it seems like all traffic laws are optional. Or the bureaucracy. Or the cultural peculiarities: like if you give a man a green hat it means he's a cuckold.You don't ever gift anyone a pair of shoes.Or you don't wear white or black to a wedding.

Also, the Chinese language is a beast to learn, and Huan even had some background.He talks about homonyms a lot (which I had to look up because I couldn't remember what a homonym was. Wikipedia says its  one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings). Like, the Chinese word for cockroach is a homonym for "filth wolf". Eek.

One of my favorite parts of the book was hearing the English names that the Chinese workers had picked for themselves. A man in the legal department is named "Superiority" (as someone who works in the legal field I'm just going to let that joke make itself.) There's also people named: Hebrew, Leafy, Vanilla, Quake, Cream, Bison, Ares, Feeling , Bear, Ivy, Kobe, Charming and Hyper. There's so many more. All of them equally great.

You also learn a lot about porcelain. I thought the porcelain hunting part was one of the less interesting parts of the book, even though it was the impetus for the whole thing.

This book also made me realize that I should read a couple books about the Cultural Revolution, Mao, and the Red Guard. I seem to be pretty deficient in knowledge in that area. And what's a couple more books on an endless "to-be-read" list? (Shrugs shoulders.)

I liked this book. I thought that the parts on general Chinese history, and the day to day living in modern China were the most interesting. I give it a high 3 out of 5 stars.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review

Graphic Novel review: "French Milk" by Lucy Knisley

You may have noticed that this is Lucy's second showing on the blog, specifically in my efforts to read more graphic novels. The first one, Relish, can be found here.If you want to find out more about Lucy Knisley and how much Andi From Estella's Revenge loves her, go here.

So Lucy, who is about to graduate college, and her mom, who is about to turn 50, head to Paris for a month. Lucy is having some massive anxiety about her upcoming life milestones: becoming an adult, finding a job and really having to make her own way in the world. Sometimes that gets the better of her in Paris, and she gets really down and emotional (which who can blame her? That jump from college student to adult is a panicky not nice feeling for anyone...unless you have a trust fund or something). The only silver lining about her feeling upset was that sometimes she would draw manatees to feel better, and I do love my manatees.

Lucy and her mom spend their days in Paris dodging rain drops (super rainy in Paris in winter) and exploring. They find several art museums, galleries, churches, comic books stores, cemeteries and restaurants to explore. There's much talk about delicious sounding breads products that made me really hungry as I was reading! Then there was talk about foie gras and veal which made me less hungry. She even had a foie gras flavored cookie which she admitted didn't taste so good. (That got me thinking, like would I ever try a cheeseburger flavored cookie? No. So good for Lucy for being an adventurous eater!)

It's a graphic novel, so obviously all the stories are accompanied by these nice, uncomplicated drawings. Her work is just really approachable and open and I love that. It also has photographs from their time there too. So a universal theme about anxiety at life changes, a beautiful French setting, good drawings. An all around good read for me! 3.5 out of 5 stars! It also reminded me that I need to make good journal entries on my next travels, maybe I can get Lucy to draw them for me!