Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale

I am happy that someone has returned to this tale so Disney doesn’t have the last word.  I remember attending the movie as a child fully expecting Ariel to die in the end (I did not yet understand that Disney has their own agenda when storytelling) so the "happily-ever-after" came as a shock.  (though "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was probably a worse perversion!).  This story takes licenses of its own but with a sexy, foreboding, "life-isn't-fair" feel that remains truer to the original... and a fairly faithful plot as well. 
Told through two female characters: the mermaid who longs for a human soul (and human man) and the human princess who values the magic revealed by the mermaid even more than love, family or her own life, the book rings with remnants of a storyteller's voice around a fire or over coffee in a bazaar or by candlelight in Shahrazad's chamber.  I thought it lovely and recommend it for any fairy tale lover!

The Man from Beijing and I Capture the Castle

This month my lady's bookclub chose two excellent books to read - The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  Vastly different, they both satisfied.

The Man from Beijing is my second Mankell read so far, the first being Faceless Killers (the first book of the Kurt Wallander mysteries).  Beijing is a stand-alone story with characters unfamiliar from Mankell's other books with the exception of the cold weather and countryside.  I appreciated the Kurt Wallander book as a true depiction of mystery solving via methodical (and often slow) police procedure.  This book contains minimal procedure and requires suspension of disbelief to follow the tale.  It is widesweeping (in geography and motivations) as the reader is taken from Denmark to London, Beijing and 1800's United States.  It is a far-fetched story of revenge, clashes of culture and tough decisions regarding whom to trust.  I appreciated the central character's authenticity but was disappointed by the number of coincidences that led to solving the case.  Ultimately, I found this a better story for learning something about early America and modern-day China than a mystery.  Mankell has his own impressive style and research behind the book again which is why I plan to return to his tales and I would still recommend the story for fiction readers, but I think die-hard mystery fans would find it troublesome. 

I Capture the Castle has gained many fans as a result of its recent re-printing.  The book was out-of-print for decades after its introduction to the world after WWII.  Thank goodness - It is a delight! 

I've read numerous books in the past year taking place in England so the eccentricities of the characters are nothing new.   Aside from the characteristic scenery, mouldering architecture and quirky characters though, this book could be a wonderful coming-of-age story for any land.  The narrator Cassandra voices the tale through her diary which is a difficult task for an author to pull off effectively.  She succeeds in injecting the exuberance, ecstasy and agony of teenagedom throughout Cassandra's tale and the ending was satisfyingly real (which means unsatisfying unlike most rom-coms today).  I highly recommend reading this book - especially for the literature lovers out there as she loves alluding to Jane Austen, quoting poetry (did everyone memorize poetry in the first half of the century!?) or starting interesting debates such as "Would you rather have a little Jane in your Catherine or a little Catherine in your Jane?" - now really, don't we all want to have that discussion?!

September Reads Borrows and Bought

September Reads
Blade Runner or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick
Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon
Sifting Through the Madness for the word, the line, the way by Charles Bukowski
The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Male Brain by Louanne Brizendine
Y: The Last Man (Book 3) by Brian Vaughan and others (Graphic Novel)
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (Graphic Novel)

September Borrowed & Bought
(Borrowed from Library)
Blade Runner by Philip K Dick
Sifting Through the Madness for the word, the line, the way by Charles Bukowski
The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Male Brain by Louanne Brizendine
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
How to Discipline Kids without Losing Their Love and Respect by Jim Fay
Graphic Design for Non-Designers by Tony Seddon
(Purchased from Amazon & the death of Borders)
Y: The Last Man Vol 3 by Brian Vaughan
Blackout by Connie Willis
The Wolverton Bible by Basil Wolverton
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
American Dream by Norman Mailer

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Ok, I seem to be too verbose on my summaries monthly so I'm going to break up the books from now on as (or as close to as my schedule allows) they are finished.  Today starts the back-log of Sept reads... one of which was Blade Runner formerly known as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but redubbed due to the amazing Ridley Scott movie of the same name.  I read this as a part of Portland's FIRST RULE OF BOOKCLUB group which reads a book, discusses and then watches the movie in one of our lovely local (and locally-owned) theatres!  I'm SO glad this was a pick because I might not have read the book otherwise (I rarely read sci-fi as I prefer it in the movie medium!)

I'd seen the movie already so I had a visual feel in my head that starts and ends with the eerie lighting & shadows, cool filters and a futuristic cityscape that Scott does so well.  But the book was so much more of a philosophical experience than a visual one really... which I loved.  The opening scene between husband and wife (Harrison Ford's character is married here and not remotely an android as the movie hints he might be)was as much humorous and familiar as it was frightening and reminded me of Farenheit 451.   Our hero doesn't wonder if he's actually human but he DOES wonder who holds humanity between humans and androids in this tale... and he increasingly questions his loyalty through the story despite moving forward with his profession of "retiring" rogue androids on earth. 

The moral decisions and issues of faith that are faced were so compelling and thought-provoking.  The book & the movie are so unique in theme and voice that Ridley Scott has really created something completely new which I have to admire for its own sake.  However one is missing something if one doesn't also experience the book.   I found the shared experiences that are part of the global religion both creepy and profound and sharing the journey of our hero/anti-hero matched that experience.

I highly recommend this story for all readers - not just genre lovers.  It is a stimulating and complex read.

August Reads Borrows & Bought

August's runaway winner (although it was an all-over interesting and enriching month of reading) is The Forgotten Garden, a book our bookclub chose to read and that was a delight to dive into.  It is compared to The Secret Garden in reviews and with some reason... they both have gardens.  Forgotten starts a little slow like Francis Hodges Burnett's novel does and Burnett makes a brief appearance in the tale.  Otherwise though the main similarities are the great female characters (in this case several generations of women across continents) and the feeling of wonder as you fall into the magic of the tale.  It's not perfect, especially in laying out the foundations of the personalities of the characters, but its memorable and satisfying and I'll return to it for a second (or more) reading in the future!

Otherwise, I bopped all around genres - some due to recommendations or a 2nd book club (Fermata and Hollywood), and some due to their classical nature and a desire to keep spreading my tastes or due to it catching my eye at the local bookstore display  (The Great Impersonation and Angelology).

With Borders bookstores going out of business (for real this time) and a surprise Amazon giftcard, I've been hard-pressed to refrain from buying sprees so I'm sitting on my hands figuratively through September to balance out my banner month of new books in August!  Highlights from purchases are/were The Forgotten Garden which I first read from the library but loved enough to own and reread, and I, Claudius which is a bi-annual favorite read and which I lost by enthusiastically loaning it out in years past.  My used copy from Amazon.com looks almost exactly the same as my old copy!  I have a lot of reading and a lot less acquiring to do this next month!

Books I Read Again and Again

I'm about to start a book I read about every 2 years and it started me thinking about books that I read again and again.  I basically keep every book I think I might read again some day or that I want to recommend to someone but these are the ones I have read 3+ times and will keep coming back.  Some (Twilight anyone?) aren't exactly the height of literature but are addictive and some are true classics that are both well written and enlightening.  The primary list is as follows:

Classics

1) I, Claudius by Robert Graves

2) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott 

3) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5) Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling 

Modern Fiction

1) The Princess Bride by William Goldman
2) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenger
3) Twilight series (somebody stop me!) by Stephanie Meyer

Fantasy

1) Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
2) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Children's or YA Lit

1) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
2) Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
3) Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Graphic Novel Top 10 (ish) Part 2: Honorable Mentions

This is just a quick list + descriptions of graphic novels that were great but didn't make the Top 10 (they round out the top 20 instead).  They are in no particular order because they all hit a similar "great-but-not-the-best" rating.

Y: The Last Man - Imagine all the male creatures on earth were wiped out in an instant... what does that mean for the typical duality-based struggles we are used to on earth?  War, Labor, Creation and Protection of Offspring, Politics etc...   It's a finely drawn and well-thought out concept that follows the lines of post-apocolyptic writing with the exceptions that half of the world is still alive but with skewed experience (i.e. most as in >90% politicians, soldiers, pilots in the world are male).

Aya - Probably the first book I've seen showing a prosperous African nation.  The Ivory Coast is aptly portrayed here as the home of Aya, a typical (if more studious than her boy-crazy friends) young girl growing up in her homeland.  There are obvious cultural differences but most of the time her life and city are as familiar as the small town homes many Americans grew up in.

Stitches: A Memoir -  This is a pretty dark tale told from a young boy's perspective so it won't appeal to all readers, however I found it an amazing coming-of-age/overcoming your crazy-family story full of hope or maybe just sheer stubborness in not living out one's family destiny.  I recommend it for anyone who grew up feeling like the crazy one because of the people influencing their life.

The Color of Earth (also ...of Heaven & ...of Water) - This is a trilogy tale of a young girl/maiden/woman in Korea (each book covering one phase).  It is beautifully drawn and lovely in its content.  I loved especially the story of young love from the first book.

The Walking Dead - I'm going to have to join the chorus out there shouting that the graphic novel is far better than the television series.  And the television series was decent as far as the zombie plots out there go.  I'm not sure why the series made the changes it did but I think they lost some great character development and story-telling along the way.  The drawings are bold and sure-handed which I appreciated, especially if a great percentage of the pictures are going to be dedicated to the grotesque undead. 

Maus (Book1) - I haven't been able to locate the sequel through my library so I've only got half the story, however the tale that looks back through the author's father's eyes leading up to his entry into Auchwitz, is stunning.  We walk through the daily grind of life in Poland in the years leading up to his internment as slowly and inexorably the scenery changes from bad to worse.  Along the ride though we get insights into the family dynamics, personality tics and modern-day concerns that remind us of the very humanity (or in this case, rodentry) that was put on hold for years in the camps.  Strange to say, but it was a delight to read.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (or other Scott Pilgrim tales) - For those familiar with the movie (HIGHLY RECOMMEDED!), the film version is super-dedicated to near panel for panel faithfulness to the original.  I actually prefer the film because I liked the 'look' better than the cartoon-y characters from the graphic novel but the former wouldn't exist without the latter and the latter is pretty-darn good.

A representative of crime/noir - The Black Diamond Detective Agency by Eddie Campbell.  This one has a western bent to it as well but hits two goals for me: 1) it covers Eddie Campbell who is a great contributor to the genre but who's other pieces didn't hit the top o'the list for me & 2) it represents all the crime/noir pieces out there that the graphic novel is SUCH a perfect medium for.  I like classic film noir but usually in small increments (i.e. "Brick" is a fabulous out-of-the-ordinary noirish film with just enough of a light touch, whereas "The Maltese Falcon" is formulaic) and the same goes for novels (Mickey Spillane is a from-time-to-time escape but easy to overdose on).  In graphic novels you get the heights of the Look and Feel of classic noir along with the expected doses of the formula: femme fatales, red herrings, hard-boiled PI's and gritty dialogue.  And it doesn't bore you with its familiarity.  I've seen better as a representation but couldn't remember or uncover the title despite my huntings.  So this'll do and it has the added bonus of the shout-out to Mr. Campbell. :)

So that's it for graphic novel's folks... until Rabbi's Cat 3 is translated or Marjane Satrapi puts out something new!