Well, we tried! Books it is! And a mug that reminds you of your mortality every time you use it!

There was less work for me to do over the break, so after several days of walking the neighborhood and reading and watching stuff and reading and exercising (too much because I got distracted by reading), I decided to plan ahead. From this (fictionalized) discussion: 

ME: So! We have done a LOT of reading! We have more days off during the week. We could go do something different! We could . . . watch a movie! 

ALSO ME: Book?  (Translation: There are several more books that we would like to read before the end of year for no really good reason.)

ME: There are some movies that would be great to watch in theaters! Let's look up the times and right them down. (Researches and records.) See?

AM: Book.  (Translation: Already saw the one we really didn't want to miss *The Boy and the Heron*.)

ME: Yes, books are great! We are sure reading some fun books! But we could also do something that we can't do when we're working on weekdays. It would be a good variety! 

AM: Book.  (Translation: There are people out there.  And weather.  And our rediscovered green coat has a vendetta with Midori our green knee brace.)

ME: Sigh. I know you don't feel like doing it now, but won't you regret it if you miss the chance to see these in theaters for lower cost and less people present than weekends? 

AM: Book.  (Translation: You have a good point there, but I'm pretty sure I will really be glad to finish this series before I have to go back to work and be productive and NOT read books all the time.)

ME: Books will still be there after break! Movies won't! Be reasonable! We don't want to read all the books now, or we'll run out of the books we're looking forward to and then be sad. 

AM: Book.  (Translation: I am pretty sure there are more books out there.  We could read them then.)

ME: Fine. It's not like there's a bad choice here. (Settles in to read books.)

AM: I regret nothing. 

I did also go get a haircut and schedule a dentist appointment and wander around downtown. Bought some berries and samosa and hot chocolate and tea at the tea shop 3 blocks away.  (I have enjoyed this warm winter weather for outdoor walks without worry about slipping and hurting myself again.) 

And at the tea shop, I was able to rectify my lack of a good warm beverage mug. (None of them made the triage cut to fit in the suitcases, and the ones provided in the unit are all incredibly subpar and small.)

You will be unsurprised to know that I did not purchase a mug with pastel flowers and grasses or bold art prints or fancy patterns. Or any of the mugs that might be considered normal. How could I when this was on the shelf calling to me, microwave and dishwasher safe, and with an instruction video? 

I regret nothing. About the tea cup or the berries. But I did walk too much, so extra ice for me while I read more books!

If you had vacation days / off, what did you do? 

Too much fantasy in my Fantasy makes me fractious

I was reading this fantasy book series recommended by lots of people on Amazon.  It was billed as a Romance, which I normally don’t read, but it was also billed as an Epic Political Fantasy a la Game of Thrones.  (It totally, totally wasn’t anything even vaguely like GoT, and I say that as an observation, not a judgment.) It was actually an impossible women’s empowerment fantasy romance, and I think maybe I am too cranky right now to enjoy this kind of book.

It’s not that I despise a good Romance, either.  I recently read some fantastic ones by Georgette Heyer that were delightful and witty and left me feeling buoyant and giddy, and I can point you to some fine Fantasy/Romances, so it’s not Romance, per se, that makes me crotchety.

Exploring my testiness about the Romance/Fantasy I just read, first of all, there was a lot of “Gratuitous Plot Advancement” that set a completely unrealistic bar for sexual relationships.  I mean, frankly, if people read these and set their expectations according to them, there is NO WAY they could ever have a relationship in reality live up to this standard. Ridiculous, ludicrous, and eye-rollingly impossible outside of a fantasy world, the frequency, consistency, and physical improbability of their sex life is at best silly and at worst harmful for people who compare their real-world relationships to these fantasy ones.  

On an emotional level, the relationship seems like the sort of thing that comes from a textbook about how healthy, perfect relationships should go.  About how to have total equality in the relationship (as a woman, it definitely helps to have supernatural, god-gifted powers that allow for this), about how consent should look like (pretty sure no one is that perfect, also god-gifted dude), about as far from how things work in reality as possible.  Even the oh-so-scripted, perfectly verbalized/realized lessons they learn from their mistakes seem taken out of a cringe-y relationship advice book about how people should deal with past imperfections and poor decisions.

Maybe it’s that this book series makes it seem like relationships only work if you have main characters (especially females) gifted with god-like strength, magical abilities, power, and wisdom far beyond their years.  It’s not like female empowerment can’t be done well in fantasy; I’ve enjoyed examples (Scott Lynch) of fantasy worlds where the male:female power balance is a little more equitable than it ever has been in the real history of mankind.  The Fantasy worlds that I like better are the ones that have a bit more reality in them: real stakes, people who do wrong thing (a lot), consequences, people who won’t do the right thing, sometimes not even knowing what the right thing to do is, doing the right thing and still not getting the result you hoped for because: people.  

Maybe all that reality is incompatible with the basic premise of a Romance (as we currently define the term) being the meeting and falling in lust/love resulting in a happy ending and hinting at a happily ever after.

Maybe it’s also the length.  If you have a trilogy and everything is neatly tied up in the end and everyone lives more or less happily ever after, I get crabby.  (Maybe I’m just crabby if they have sex in the first book and then a lot after that, in minute and, frankly, repetitive detail, wasting my time while not actually doing anything to really advance the plot or the relationship.)  I’ve read without surliness some longer fantasy series that are pretty far over on the romance continuum, and lots of people are really miserable for significant amounts of time and some don’t get a happy ending (romantic or otherwise) and there’s a decent amount of real conflict and the kind of slow, staggering growth that feels genuine and possible.  I know some people don’t like slow-moving stuff in their Fantasy books, but I certainly feel I have more direct experience with messiness and time healing wounds and changing us.

I think maybe my ultimate problem with these books is that I like Fantasy that asks questions better than I like Fantasy that gives answers.  One of the things that I find compelling about Fantasy is that it can ask sideways questions that are relevant to me here and now while being set in a world that is not the one I live in.  I can think about issues in a Fantasy context that help me get to the heart of what I really think about my real world. I bristle at teachy, preachy heavy-handed moral lessons wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow maybe because I don’t work that way and neither does the world I live in.

I don’t think I have a problem with flat-out escapist Fantasy, either.  I guess maybe I figure if your Fantasy is going to have relationships, I’d rather see something that resembles a real relationship.  I’m not usually enjoying reading Fantasy for the kind of detached-from-reality Romantic fantasy present in this trilogy. I’d rather read something more complicated that gives me hope that change in my world full of real people is possible.

Then again, maybe it’s good for there to be Fantasy stories out there that don’t have questionable consent, rape, and sexual power (im)balances that (negatively) resemble real life.  Maybe it’s worth missing out on some of the other stuff that makes Fantasy enjoyable to me for the sake of having ideal examples and positive representation out there for people to imagine and immerse themselves in.  It’s fine for there to be stories out there that don’t resonate with me; maybe they bring hope to other people in a way that the darker, grittier stuff doesn’t.

To everyone their own.  Enjoy what you enjoy. Just don’t compare something that isn’t at all like Game of Thrones to GoT just to market your book.  It makes some of us pretty darn peevish. But thanks for giving my eyeballs a workout from all that rolling and my abs a workout from the laughing.  Take joy where you find it; there’s nothing wrong with that. : )

Miles wins

I've been in a bad mood for a while now. I'm crabby enough from pain-related clumsiness, sleeplessness, and frustration that I can't even like books I don't want to read because they are by authors I like but not in the series I want a new book in. (I promise that totally makes sense.) I was afraid my discontent would stretch even to books I love, but I am happy to say Miles is still Miles. 

My genuine enjoyment of Vor Game actually puzzles me because, when I'm like this, I hate reading nonfiction books about people who have it worse than me and succeed and are truly inspiring because they make me feel like an even bigger failure. But Miles? Crippled worse than me and a huge success? Love it.

Science Fiction is transformative in a less threatening way? Sure. Anyway, I'm glad. Now I'm going back to Kyril Island while I exercise. Forensic plumming. Snort.

Home 18: Library (last but certainly not least)

At least I don't have to sleep in the closet to have room for the library.  (I actually wouldn't have minded doing that, and it could still be a possibility if I try to adopt and end up with siblings.)  Anyway, the library has a terrible fake-wood floors that have seen many, many better days, walls of a bold (ugly) shade of yellow, and random kanji characters stenciled about in red and black.  The curtains are brown, and I moved a set of shades in to cut out light.  Speaking of light, there is some haphazard track lighting on one side of the room, so one blank wall is hazily illuminated. Since I had no money left over for paint, I'm glad that the general  hideousity of the room is mostly hidden because the library has, unsurprisingly, an embarrassing  number of bookshelves packed nearly to the ceiling with books and some DVDs.  The maximum number of containers is already here, so this is the size my library cannot outgrow from this time forth.  Seriously.  Really, really.

This is where the anime and manga live, along with a few American comics.  There is a file cabinet and a glider rocking chair I bought from a man at a retirement home after his wife died and he couldn't bear to see it anymore.  (Don't ask me to tell my stupid story about washing the cushions when I got it.  I have learned and moved on.)  I've covered the rocking chair in a pretty sheet with pointless but pretty scrolling embroidery.  (It came that way; I didn't put it there.)

There is also a small closet.  I call it my Poetry Closet.  It is where my writing from my undergraduate and MFA program lives (including the two massive binders of my finished thesis, annotated with all the grammar and spelling corrections I've found throughout the years since I turned it in and my committee complimented me for it being 450 pages and still being so carefully proofread as to contain no errors, hahahahaha), along with most of my reference and class books from that time period.  It's also where the CDs live right now until they get a shelf of their own that is glassed in, so I can put it in the allergy-free zone of my bedroom.  The closet door is currently prevented from closing by all my journals from the time I started classes in 2003.  (I am currently on approximately #53.)

Once I finish with all the other unpacking and sorting and get things moved around (and find a cheap glider ottoman), this will be a favorite room, especially in the winter when the window seat will not be fit for occupation.  Until then, I'm so glad it's finally here!!!!

Home 17: The Study

It's taking shape slowly.  It's a dining room by design with an obnoxious  and somewhat ugly chandelier that a kind friend clamped out of the way so that nobody had to lose an eye.  This is where the oversized fiction (alpha by author) and much of the remaining nonfiction (sorted by topic / subject matter) live.  It's where my functional, cobbled-together standing desk is.  It is the future home of a window seat, if I can make that happen.  (Step 1: get gutter put on above window to prevent more window frame leprosy; Step 2: get leprous window and frame replaced; Step 3: figure out how to cobble together the perfect window seat on the cheap.)

There are some files in cabinets and boxes, which I shall eventually neatly conceal under the desk.   The window is covered with a large, double-folded sheet of white, tulle-like polyester (abandoned to me by a former roommate) that lets in a lovely diffuse light while giving privacy at night with no need to open or close anything, including the window, which is missing the screen due to the window leprosy mentioned above.

I am trying to make it its own separate and calm-feeling space (for me and to make friends who don't feel comfortable with clutter more comfortable).  There is a shoji screen blocking the backside of my MacGyver desk from the larger space and some little cubbies with doors hiding their contents.  There will be more screens that I will prop in front of the bookshelves to hide them from view when not needed.  The remaining floor space is big enough for an air mattress (or a pullout cough component to my magical imaginary window seat).  When it's done, it will be black and white and full of diffuse light supplemented by the high-chandelier light.

There is a cutout from the kitchen.  I'm not sure if I will set up some see-through curtains or a half-height shoji screen in front of the kitchen opening to block out the pink and preserve the simple effect I'm going for.

I've kept the long diagonal lines of sight through the dining / living room open, so it makes the while place feel a bit bigger than it is.  It's functional but cluttered at the moment.  We'll call it good.

he was kind of terrible

that she could make me weep
at his death -still- despite all
he did is perhaps a sign of her
great storytelling ability or
maybe just my total exhaustion

Blame the book

I have not been sleeping very well lately.  (It comes and goes with and without the pain.)  I'm not sure if that's why all I've felt like doing lately is lying down somewhere with my legs propped up and reading a book.  It might also be good books making me feel that way.  And summer.  Book book book.  I'll blame the book.  This kind of book is definitely part of why I am not an author.  I would much rather read books like this than even write, and I always have.  Mostly unrepentantly.

2014 book party: ending the year on a more organized note

I am finally organizing my nonfiction.  This is much more intense than organizing fiction because I can't just put it all in alphabetical order by author.  I have to group things and then try to guess how my future self will search for them.  Where should the research books on pain go?  Next to the comedy books, of course.   

Philosophy - science - history - literature - aesthetics OR aesthetics-philosophy - science - history - literature?  (Actually aesthetics - philosophy - literature - history - science, in case you're curious.)   

Unread theology/philosophy next to general unread nonfiction?  Or should the read theology / philosophy go next to that?  Organized by last name?  Can't remember author names of some books.  Do those by title and mix in with authors I know.   

Separate narrative from essays / general nonfiction?   

All the poetry and books on writing go to the closet bookshelf in the library; they're hanging out with all the graphic novels and anime, so they're obviously having a good time.   

Why do I have two copies of Basic Theology?  

 Why on earth do I still have two racquetball books, and should they be moved to be with the comedy books at this point?   

And there is only one row tall enough for the big art books, so that throws everything off unless I remember what SIZE the book is.   

It's a really fun way to end a year, for sure: rediscovering the books I have yet to read and the ones I read and liked enough to keep.  And trying desperately to exert enough self control to finish organizing before settling down to drool over the Pre-Raphaelite art book or a beloved new Christmas book that is whispering my name . . .

Happy New Year a bit early.  I'll likely be asleep when the main event happens. : )

Packing and Unpacking for the Win?

Packing may be like saying prayers with a rosary, but it is not anything like efficient when the items in question are books.  I don't really let that inefficiency stress me out, though, because spending time with books and savoring my memories of them and finding quotes and notes and bookmarks and remembering is not an unworthy use of time.  It can also double as a test of willpower: can I resist the temptation to stop, drop, and read?  And as long as I start packing soon enough, does it matter? 

I do hate closing a box and stacking a new box on top, though, because it is a farewell, and even if I have not looked at these books in months or years, there is a sadness that comes from knowing it will be over a month before I see some of these old friends again, and if I suddenly feel the urge to read them, I won't be able to.  There is also a happy anticipation, too, though, because I know I will be seeing them again soon.  I look forward to the unpacking, not just because it always goes way faster, but also because it is like a reunion with friends.  Also, I get to alphabetize lots!  WIN!

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

It took a long time from first day of reading to last day of reading, but I recently finished Guy Gavriel Kay's history-based fantasy The Lion's of Al-Rassan.  It took me a long time because everything these days takes a longer time, what with all the moving planning stuff that has to get done and the pain and such, but the real reason it took a long time is because I was dragging my feet because I knew this book would end in tears.  And holy cow, did it ever.  I've read four of this author's books now, and there are SO MANY TEARS IN EVERY ONE that I think I will need a Terry Pratchett chaser.  (Sorry, new Dresden Files book.  I will continue to exercise extreme self-control and put you off until I really need a pick-me-up and have a whole day to give you.)

I see why writers like Kay.  He is a master of technique.  He does things I would not let many other authors get away with doing, but he does them so well I just have to smile crookedly and bow to his mastery.  For instance, I should really be irked with Kay for this dragging out of cliffhangers he sometimes does.  Other authors have the decency to open the next section far away with another set of characters to distract us or just start out the next section by handing us the information in the first sentence.  Kay sometimes drags it out for PAGES.  And he does it brilliantly.  It just grinds the tragedy with the uncertainty for that much longer, and I should resent him for this obvious artifice.  Instead, I suppose I appreciate his acknowledgement that patient readers can sometimes savor the not-knowing for a while, that good readers can trust good authors to only use this device when it intensifies something important.  He uses these techniques with restraint, so they don't get tedious.

I knew that one of the characters was based on El-Cid, but I purposely didn't go and look to see how that story ended.  I didn't need to.  The fun thing about making fantasy out of history is that you don't have to be a slave to it.  Also, I was sure it was going to end in tragedy.  I don't know a lot about that period in history, but I did know that it was around the time when Spain went from being a society where Jews, Christians, and Muslims could mostly co-exist rationally to a place where that really wasn't the case anymore.  Lots of war and religious extremism and violence and religion used to disguise a desire for power and domination and the destruction of an era of peace that allowed some things to flourish that never had before.

Kay's omniscient point of view is excellent.  He effortlessly switches between characters, always moving to just the right character to keep the plot going, and he is deadly with his foreshadowing.  (It's kind of like a bludgeon, but he adds this foreshadowing sentence at the end of an otherwise seemingly slow-moving section, and it's like a punch in the gut.  You don't go on to the next section wondering what will happen.  Instead, you keep reading and wondering exactly how it will all go wrong.)  It's not that all of the POV characters are likeable; it's that they are all expertly drawn.  You understand something important even about the ones you dislike (and Kay knows how to limit your time in their heads to just the parts of the story that need to be told from that point of view to best move the plot along).

The story is so very timely for me right now, too.  The radio has recently been reminding me that this kind of "ideological" clashing didn't stop in the 11th century.  It's happening in the Middle East and in Southern Asia right now.  It is scary and it is ugly and it is messy.  It always has been.  It always will be.  It destroys things and people.  It breaks my heart, it probably breaks God's heart, and it breaks the world.  Reading the kind of mindset that causes it is important but difficult and a little terrifying.  

I love Kay's books.  His grasp of story is very strong, and his voices are compelling.  I'm off to read some Pratchett, though, because I need some more gentle humanism right now.  I'm a couple Pratchett books behind, so I can probably read a few powerful and slightly soul-bruising Kay books followed by some Pratchett.  Not a bad plan in a stressful time.


NOTE: For those of you who like to see book covers, check them out here.  My favorite is the top left (Canadian Hardcover).  No confusion about who the fourth person is; though I understand the desire for architectural symmetry.

The Shining Court - shiny, creepy, epic

The Shining Court by Michelle West (The Sun Sword Book 3 of 6): Back to the South we go!  But first a sliiiight detour into seriously weird territory.  If you wanted to know more about Avandar, Jewel's unconventional domicis, this book will, well, it will make you want to know more and less at the same time.  This person is one seriously scary individual, and his motivations are remarkably unclear. 

Again, one of this author's strengths is her ability to create compelling characters with obviously full histories behind them.  Avandar is someone who just screamed "I am ridiculously powerful and have been alive for a very long time, and my actions now seem unfathomable to normal mortals."  Holy cow. 

In general, I feel I should also mention that this author has a special gift for the inhuman and super-human characters.  Anya A'Cooper is completely insane.  And you KNOW it from every interaction with her.  Avandar, the Winter Queen, newcomer Celleriant, Firstborn (offspring of two gods), and the ever superb Isladar are each unique and perfectly not at all human in different ways.  Good stuff!

The Voyani are back with a vengeance, as are all the fraught shenanigans in the southern court, and more insights into the Shining Court of the demons.  More threads are starting to wind together halfway through the series, but I still have NO IDEA where things are going, where they will end up, and who will survive.  But, it must be said, I completely trust this author to bring it all together.  Eventually.  If I can steal enough time to read faster than I forget people's names . . .

Are You My Mother? by the creator of the Bechdel test

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel:  I was curious about this one because I'd read Fun Home and wanted to know what an analysis between the author and her living mother would be like.  I have to admit that there wasn't much for me to identify with in this mother-daughter relationship.  I found myself engrossed because a friend of mine has a particularly fraught relationship with her mother, and I kept sensing echoes in this book.  I also like memoirs that stretch over a longer time period when history is an important element.  Seeing history through the lens of a person's life can be rewarding, especially when the memoir is a graphic novel because you really can see it. 

There were a lot of threads running through this book: literature, lesbian history, psychology, romantic relationships, memory,  family history, gender, the writing life, etc.  I loved how frequently her mother, literary analyst that she is, brought up the problems of focusing a piece of literature when there are too many pieces to it.  Overall, I feel the author did a decent job of tying the threads together.  I read it in one day, so my still mostly scattered mental state wouldn't make the story feel artificially fragmented, and I think that was beneficial.  Nothing blindsided me or tossed me out of the narrative, although at times the fragmented chronology (anchored to names, which are one of my weaknesses) did get the best of me.

It's a very different book from Fun Home, a very different relationship with a very different person.  (And I think that someone I once studied with made a brief appearance in it, which was really wild, to say the least.)  I do wonder if the order of reading would affect someone's opinion on which of the two books they think is "better."  Both of them were interesting, educational, and touching, so I consider reading them both to be a win for me.  (I would suggest that you at least take a look at the physical hardcover because I loved the symbolism on that one more than the paperback.)

The Uncrowned King - thickening plots, new characters, lots of awesome

The Uncrowned King by Michelle West (The Sun Sword Book 2 of 6): And now for something completely different.  We move back to the north where the sole surviving member of the Leonne clan has gone from the least to the greatest rather suddenly.  His first act as uncrowned king is to try to save the other Southern hostages from retaliatory execution.  Then he just has to win the biggest tournament on the continent all while avoiding assassination at the hands of demons and humans.  There is absolutely no way to summarize much of anything in this sprawling book without spoilers.  However, Kallandras, Mirialyn, Devon, Sigurne, Merallone, and other characters are present and awesome.  Some new folks are introduced  (mostly awesome), politics are suffered, intrigue is enacted, people die horribly, surprisingly, and suddenly, and the author proves, once again, that she knows how to make a novel a satisfying story arc while still advancing the larger, seriously epic plot she has going.

Valedan is a really intriguing character, as is his advisor, the only bright Southern woman who did her best to educate him even in the North.  They have really tough choices to make.  Valedan is one of those good people who is thrown into a position where, suddenly, all his choices seem like bad ones, and he has to make them to prove that he is an adult capable of ruling an entire kingdom, but he has no real power.  I like it when an author tackles this kind of character and makes the difficulties real and believable and also finds ways to let the goodness of the character manifest even in the midst of all the choices. 

Having spent a book in the South, I find myself also respecting the author's world-building abilities.  She is good at depicting the different cultures and the ways they clash.  The way she shows you the limitations on characters like Mirialyn in the north contrasted against the limitations for the southern women is really heartbreaking in both similarities and differences.  This author also has that ability to surprise with the turnings of the plot.  You think you see where something is going, and then it suddenly twists and turns and shifts, and it's going in a completely different direction that is completely in fitting with the plot. 

The Broken Crown: bringing the epic beginning after 5 prequels

The Broken Crown by Michelle West (The Sun Sword Book 1 of 6): Yeah, it's much more like the Hunter duology than The House War.  I lent these books to a friend of mine, and, though she said they were really hard to get into, she read them all and liked them in the end.  My respect for her has grown because I have no idea how she did that.  I mean, seriously.  If I didn't know from 5 other books what I do, I don't think I could follow the stories at all (or trusted the author to pull everything together in the end, for that matter).  The brief interactions and relationships between these people wouldn't have been as rich and poignant, and I would have been left with dry pieces wanting to know more. 

Maybe I sell myself short and my natural curiosity (and slowly increasing mental abilities) would have compelled me to read on to see if they author followed through, the same way I pushed through the Hunter books.  I'm glad I didn't have to find out, glad I waited and stumbled serendipitously into things in chronological order just as she is finishing up with these characters for now.  There are so many new characters and plot threads here, which is expected, and the appearances of cross-over characters make such sad and rich sense.  This early in, I've no real idea of where things are ultimately going, but I really trust this author to give me a great story and multi-dimensional characters I will crave to know more about.  I'll probably look around for short story scraps after I finish the books because I will snap up any additional information about these characters. 

What a gift this author has with characters, with making even the ones who appear briefly come alive as real people with pasts and (sometimes) futures, not just characters who interact with each other to push the story forward.  Too bad they take so much mental effort and time to get through. 

My main complaint at this point is that the cast of characters is not helpful.  People you need to look up later aren't on it, and people you don't know/care about/haven't met are in the most awkward and poorly organized way.  If the character is important, he or she should be listed in alphabetical order, with only the information you've learned in the book.  If the character is not important, the character should probably not even be named in the narrative and definitely shouldn't take up space in the cast list.

However, the cover art is a triumph.  I adore cover art that actually reflects the books content, especially when it shows events that happen late in the book, because then I can keep looking at the cover and wondering what it's depicting, and then, when the event happens, I can know it's the exact one on the cover.  Lovely and significant: excellent combination.

The House Name: the joy of secondary characters

The House Name by Michelle West (The House War Book 3 of 5?): We're in the thick of the events of Hunter's Death now, and this book leaves off right around where the events of that book do, but now we're in possession of a lot of information and characters we didn't have/need for the story of the Hunter duology.  16 years pass between this and the beginning of the Sun Sword series.  The entire Sun Sword series takes place before the 4th book of The House War series.

I find myself hoping that The Sun Sword is written in a narrative style much more like The House War, but the timing makes me think it will be more like the complicated, multi-POV sprawl that was the Hunter books.

At this point, I'm so invested, I don't care.  I just want to know more about these characters and what could cause there to be an epic 6-book series after the new facts this book revealed about what seemed to be the victory at the end of Hunter's Death . . .

City of Night: How long can you make me cry over the upcoming death of a character?

City of Night by Michelle West (The House War Book 2 of 5?): He's not dead yet, so you know that each page you read brings you closer to the monster at the end of this book, er, the death of an increasingly complex and beloved character or two, but you can't stop reading because you have to know what happened, to honor their deaths, rendered more full and significant and important here in this series.  Oh, the agony. 

I think one of my favorite things here is the way the events in Hunter's Death are expanded on so beautifully.  Not only are events from that book seen from other points of view, but the spaces between them are filled in by new characters and detailed scenes that you only realize were missing when you read them.  This kind of technique takes some serious skill. 

When I was reading Hunter's Death, there were no missing pieces; everything was crafted and fit together to advance the narrative.  Sure, I wanted more details about all the awesome characters, but that was because they were awesome and multi-dimensional, not because there were holes in the plot or the story.  When I read this book, the addition of characters who never made an appearance in Hunter's Death didn't feel tacked on (and doesn't make Hunter's Death seem cagey and manipulatively selective); they just felt whole for the current story being told, which, while it does have some parallel time covered with Hunter's Death, is not the same story.  I hope I am conveying just how difficult this sort of seamless interweaving is.  If not, sorry.  Because it's incredibly tricky and managed here seemingly effortlessly.

Oh, Rath.  You are one of my favorite kinds of protagonists: the ones who think they are scummier than they really are, the kind so damaged they can't really allow themselves to acknowledge that they might be doing great things for good reasons, the sort who don't share these deeds with the people they care for because they would hate for those people to think well of them.  It hurt so bad to get to know you, and it was a privilege.

The Hidden City: Oh, Rath, you are awesome

The Hidden City by Michelle West (The House War Book 1 of 5?): So I turned to the internet to find out if I could read more about the Hunter series characters, and the Internet did not disappoint.  It told me that I should read the first three books in the author's newest series (The House War), then the entire Sun Sword series, then the next books in The House War series.  And so, I steeled myself to read more complicated, interwoven narratives with multiple points of view and narrators.

Apparently, the author got over that as she aged and gained experience as a writer because the 3 points of view are clear, distinct, smooth, and never needlessly mysterious.  (The key seems to be staying out of Evayne's head, which--to be fair--might only be possible because the author established Evayne in other books.)  I read with an air of sad anticipation because several characters in this book had died or were not around later (in the Hunter books), so you knew they were doomed.  You knew they died; you just weren't sure how or when, so it was kind of like Hunter's Oath all over again (waiting for the guy to die while trying not to like him).

The author made this endeavor easier by making some of the minor doomed characters less distinctive and endearing.  (She has learned focus, oh yes, she has.)  Rath, however, came alive breathtakingly, as did a major doomed character who was both harder and easier to love the more you got to know her. If you can handle the impending, nasty doom of characters you grow interested in, you will probably love this book for the new light it sheds on some of the characters mentioned in Hunter's Death.

Hunter's Death (Revenge of the Shiny Cover)

Hunter's Death (Hunter Book 2 of 2) by Michelle West:  When last we left this author, I was irritated that the book I thought was going to be a standalone--one I could use to test the waters for this author beloved of a beloved former co-worker before I committed to the massive 6-volume epic saga my co-worker friend adored so much--was, in fact, not a standalone.  Despite my irritation with this deception, I knew I was going to read the sequel, not just because it had a shiny cover but also because, knowing this main character was going to buy it in a horrific way and still getting to like him anyway, I felt (book nerds out there probably understand this) like I owed it to . . . someone . . . to see him through to the bitter, tragic end. 

Which did not come at the end of the book, like I sort of expected, but somewhere closer to the middle, causing some nice folks at the gym to be a bit concerned even though I kept my reaction to just copious tears and not actual sobbing or anything.  Maybe I should get some shirts that aren't threadbare and 15 years old if I am going to keep reading sad books at the gym because it's hard to blot the tears and snot with something that isn't actually absorbent . . .

Anyway, the plot threads all came together, as a new protagonist was added to the mix in the second book (probably to make up for the impending loss of the nice guy protagonist).  Things between all the plot lines began to tighten their weave as the book progressed, and the ending was horrific, sad, and complete for the story being told.  What made it even better was finding out that characters from this story are woven into two other series, one that is currently in progress (maybe just ended). 

One thing the author really does well is creating living, breathing characters that you are desperate to know more about.  And then she writes more about them in other series.  Sure, the chronology is snarly and complicated and woven through all the series, but I don't really care because I get more time with the characters who are still alive (and even some who died).  More about that in reviews to follow.

Blood Hollow

b Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger: What a heart breaker.  Seriously.  Like, really seriously.  Reservation heartthrob and troublemaker is accused of the murder of his former rich, white girlfriend who left a party drunk and disappeared right before a blizzard.  Before turning himself in to face trial, he goes on a vision quest and meets Jesus.  Rumors that he's a miracle worker after his Jesus vision start circulating, and things become a circus.  No one is really willing to believe he's turned his life around except Cork.  Things hidden are revealed, and they are so sad and dark.  The denouement was relentlessly heart-breaking, especially with the final epilogue.  Man, I wish things could have shaken out better. 

The funniest (unintentionally) review I read of this book complained of relentless product placement.  I realized later that she thought that what we writers call telling details were product placement somehow.  Oh, lady, product placement is when they pay you to do it.  A telling detail, as I understand it, is when you choose something that locals recognize because that choice says something that deepens the character and brings him more to life.  I am nearly certain that Minnetonka Moccasins did not pay Krueger to make it the butt of an amusing, recurring joke made by the natives, and he probably doesn’t have corporate sponsorship from Leinenkugels. 

Purgatory Ridge

b Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger: Man, it sucks to be the family of the main character.  Bad things are just guaranteed to happen to you.  In this case, Cork's wife and son are sort of accidentally kidnapped, and Cork finds himself in the unlucky position of sheriff investigating kidnapping of rich lady and son (and his family members) while also being the husband and father of some of the victims.  The main antagonist (the one who gets the most page time) is a dark, sad, and beautifully drawn character who makes bad choices with good-ish intentions due to bad company, and I was really on the edge of my seat right up the unexpected ending.  This one was remarkably tense.  Also, it's tough to be the main character, 'cause Cork really ends up in the hospital after this one.