19. Horizons (324 pp.) by Mary Rosenblum (Apr 25). Mary Rosenblum is another one of my CW2008 instructors. I actually chose this book because I thought the cover was cool which I'm sure the publisher would be thrilled to hear. Something about a big cylindrical city floating over earth - I wanted to read that story. The story is about how people born in this environment evolve into something that doesn't seem human but is and how everyone else reacts. That's a pretty simplistic summary. There are lot of politics in here that are good food for thought. Fun book.

18. A Princess of Roumania (460 pp.) by Paul Park (Apr 18) I picked this book up because Paul Park is one of my instructors at Clarion West this summer. I liked it as soon as I started it but it grew on me the more I got into it. The protagonist is a girl in our world who ends up really being from another world that's like Europe only different. Our world is a fake. Her transition between the two worlds causes her a lot of problems, meanwhile there's this evil Baroness who gets a lot of pages in this book and at times became more interesting than the protagonist. Good book. I'm going to continue with the series eventually.

17. Born Standing Up (207 pp.) by Steve Martin (Apr 11). One of my friends at work told me he had just read this book and really enjoyed it and then I went home that night and found, by coincidence, my husband was reading it. Steve Martin writes about how he became a stand-up comedian starting as a kid doing magic tricks and then through the huge success of his comedy tours until he gave it up and focused on movies. There's something very sweet about the way he tells his story and he should be the poster child for all things related to perseverance because when you read about the early days, it's hard to imagine how he stuck with it and how he ended up so successful. Recommended.

16. Red Thunder (411 pp.) by John Varley (Apr. 4). I know I got this book for Xmas because I asked for it but I'm not sure where I heard about it first. I ended up liking it way more than I thought when I started it. For the first 30 pages I was thinking: okay, kids want to go into space. This is nice. But as you get into it, there are these incredible characters and a family forms from people on the fringe who are attempting this crazy adventure. Jubal was a fabulous character who steals every scene he's in. My only complaint is that it was a tad long and repetitive in spots. They didn't get to the adventure until page 300 and once that got going, Jubal all but disappeared (for reasons related to the story, but still.) Recommended esp. for people who love space travel stories.

15. The Courts of Chaos (142 pp.) by Roger Zelazny (Mar. 28).

Overall I loved this series and I highly recommend it. But I was a tad let down by this finale. I'm not sure I can articlulate it. It seemed like a lot of the action was glossed over while the narrator's personal experience and thoughts were front and center. I thought some of the action bits could have been ... more.

14. The Hand of Oberon

by Roger Zelazny. (188 pp.)

If these books were being written right now, the publishing company would insist that he make these about 10 trillion pages longer. Most fantasy books are way too long. These are way too short. At the current page count, the first 5 books could be one giant tome.

This is book four in a series I started last year (book #32) and continued this year (books #4 and #6). If I understand the series correctly, there are 10 books in two groups of 5 so hopefully after I read #5 I won't have to drop everything to get my hands on the next 5.

The story is way too much to condense into a short review. See comment above about 10 trillion pages. Our hero Corwin continues to navigate his complicated family and nobody is exactly who he/she seems. Excellent series.

I started book 5 the minute I finished this one.

13. The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic. (298 pp.) by Melanie McGrath. I had to force myself to keep reading this because it is probably one of the most heart-wrenching and depressing books I've ever held in my hands. In the 50's the Canadian government decided it was important to settle the High Arctic. God forbid Greenland or Norway might claim a windswept ice cube with few resources for its own use. The government told incredible lies to Inuit people happily settled elsewhere and put them in a situation where they couldn't really say, 'No' and then relocated them to the ice cube where they lived in complete misery if they didn't die first. There is a tiny bit of justice in 1994 when the Canadian government admitted that maybe it wasn't the most well thought-out plan they could have come up with.

It's well written and worth reading. It starts with Robert Flaherty who made Nanook of the North. Remember Nanook? Did you know the actor who played Nanook starved to death? I know, there isn't a lot of good news in this book. Flaherty jumped under the caribou robes with a local and fathered a child that he never saw or had contact with. That child was one of the poor bastards relocated to the ice cube.

His daughter (filmmaker's Granddaughter), my new personal hero, Martha Flaherty has made it her life's work finding some justice for the Inuit.

I found tons of amazing photos of some of the places in the book on Flickr. The landscape is incredible:

High Arctic Set

Another High Arctic Set

Inuit

Inukjuak (the Inuit's home before relocation.)

Resolute Bay

12. Throne of Jade

Temeraire Book 2: Throne of Jade (398 pp.) by Naomi Novik. Wow, I've really slowed down on my reading. My eyes have been bothering me a little bit so I've been monitoring my reading time, plus I read a fictiony magazine and had some cookbooks home from the library.

About the same time I started this book, I noticed a guy on my bus was reading it, too. This is second in a series (see book #1) about the Napoleonic Wars only with dragons. Temeraire is a rare breed who came from China and in this book they go to back on a complicated mission of politics and diplomacy. I'm sure it sounds dopey but these are very fun to read, perfect for the bus and Temeraire and his human companion, Captain Will Laurence are some of my favorite characters in recent reading. I recommend these books and they are rated PG and perfect to share with your favorite young readers.

Perdido Street Station

11. Perdido Street Station (623 pp.) by China Miéville. (Feb. 16). This is an intense book set in a dark, squalid world with corrupt government officials, sketchy scientists, criminals ranging from the petty to the druglord type and strange creatures. A creature who has had his ability to fly taken from him approaches a scientist for help. This sets off a series of horrific events and bizarre revelations. I liked it a lot but wanted to love it. There were parts where I sat on the bus reading with my mouth open, but other parts felt like a slog. Definitely recommended for those who like dark inventive fiction.

but enough about me

10. but enough about me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet (279 p) (aside: apparently there's more than one subtitle) by Jancee Dunn. (Feb. 13). I can't remember where I first heard about this book but I sent the info to Hannah because she's a rock-n-roll girl. She gave me the book for my birthday probably because she knew I'd say, "Oh, it's on my list," for the next 10 years if someone didn't put it into my hands. There are worse crimes than not getting around to reading everything you intend to read.

This is a wonderful book purely on the charms of its writer/heroine. It's sort of like an episode of Behind the Music only in this case hitting rock bottom is barely skimming her butt on the floor. Small town girl has big dreams, gets unbelievable break and starts working for Rolling Stone magazine. Success follows success. She begins VJ-ing for MTV2 and profiling huge celebrities. After awhile friends settle down and she realizes her age. Unwisely picks up with crummy boyfriend and spends too much time drinking and carrying on and not enough time sleeping or hanging out with loved ones leading to hurt feelings and sort-of alienation. Bad drug experience leads to getting her act together. Friend introduces her to shy nerd who is not an artist or musician. Love. The End.

Fun book. Recommended.

Jumper

9. Jumper (344 pp.) by Steven Gould. (Feb. 10). This is the original Jumper book from 1992 and it was just re-released last week in a new mass market paperback with the movie on the cover. Normally I will go out of my way not to buy a movie cover but didn't have the same feeling about this one. I powered through it this weekend so I could read it before the movie. It's very good, but I think Griffin's Story is better. This one felt a tad long and I thought the protagonist was slightly less lovable. Also, if you did an exercise where you outlined some of the key moments in the book and did the same thing with Griffin's story, you'd find they were mighty similar.

It's about a kid, Davy, who can teleport and bad things happen to him and his family unrelated to this power but he uses the power for revenge and in the process government officials want to find him. Recommended.

Jumper: Griffin's Story

8. Jumper: Griffin's Story (286 pp.) by Steven Gould. (Jan?) There's a movie coming out called Jumper and the book has been on my list for awhile so I asked for it for Xmas. This is the book I got and I inhaled it — it's really good and if you had a 15 year old boy who you wanted to find a book for, I'd recommend this. However, this isn't the original Jumper that's the movie. This is a companion book published in 07. I never found a straight explanation but the original book was written in 1992 and when they adapted it into a movie (3 screenwriting credits, gulp) I guess they changed some stuff and this book would fill in some of the gaps and also be fresh material for readers. For some reason I forgot to add it to my finished list so I'm not sure when I read it. In fact, I've spent an unreasonable amount of time here trying to figure it out, as if the book reading officials are watching.

It's about a kid, Griffin, who can teleport and very bad people are trying to find him. He has to figure out all sorts of clever things to evade them. Highly recommended.