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Dec. 19th, 2007
I ran across this book in Concord Bookshop (which I think has the best displays of any bookstore I've ever been in, since they made me want to buy ALL the displayed books) and was compelled to buy it. Three Cups of Tea describes the saga of an American, Greg Mortenson, who gets lost and injured while climbing K2 and wanders into a remote village in Baltistan. The villagers take care of him, and before he leaves, he promises to come back and build them a school. Over the next ten years, he encounters many obstacles, including lack of funding, corrupt officials, condemnatory fatwas, and war. In the end, though, he fulfills his vision and builds not just one, but more than fifty schools throughout Pakistan.
This book has been publicly acclaimed. It was easy to read and I was eager to see how things would turn out. However, I didn't find it compelling page by page. I stopped midway through the book for about a month, and didn't really think about it or miss it during that time. I decided to finish it just to be done. The story is heartwarming, yes, but it could have been riveting. I feel the book also gets a bit sidetracked when it discusses 9/11 and the events that precede and follow it. Three stars out of five - I liked it, but I won't read it again. Especially if accompanied by a donation to the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson's foundation, this could make a good holiday gift.
This book has been publicly acclaimed. It was easy to read and I was eager to see how things would turn out. However, I didn't find it compelling page by page. I stopped midway through the book for about a month, and didn't really think about it or miss it during that time. I decided to finish it just to be done. The story is heartwarming, yes, but it could have been riveting. I feel the book also gets a bit sidetracked when it discusses 9/11 and the events that precede and follow it. Three stars out of five - I liked it, but I won't read it again. Especially if accompanied by a donation to the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson's foundation, this could make a good holiday gift.
An Earthly Knight and Wicked Lovely
Dec. 19th, 2007 01:10 pmThis week I finished two books featuring teenage girls encountering the realms of faerie. One was set in Scotland in the 12th century, one was set in a modern American city.
An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton. I'm not an enormous fan of the twelfth century. It's kind of... well... run by the church in most places. An example of that from the book is that one of the characters is being held back from moving on with her life because she refuses to confess to something others have decided she is guilty of. Sigh. To me, that seems like such a corruption of the whole concept of confession. The main character also has a tendency to be mean to people when she's feeling uncertain, which is frustrating. The fantasy element of the book was pretty limited. Three stars. I won't read it again, and probably won't seek out other works by McNaughton.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. If I'm not an enormous fan of medieval fantasy, I AM an enormous fan of urban fantasy, and this was that. I thought it was very original. The characters were quite believable, and the ending was startling in a great way, and the view of faery was unique. Not everything was explained at the end, and I don't know if I liked that or not. Usually I do, but not everything made sense to me at the end about the stuff that had happened before the book started to set things in motion. But that's my only beef. I loved the way the main character stood up for herself and the life she wanted even when at great disadvantage. Four stars. I hope we'll see more from Ms. Marr.
The two books actually made pretty good companion pieces. The main characters, settings, and plots were different enough that I didn't feel like I was reading the same book twice at once.
An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton. I'm not an enormous fan of the twelfth century. It's kind of... well... run by the church in most places. An example of that from the book is that one of the characters is being held back from moving on with her life because she refuses to confess to something others have decided she is guilty of. Sigh. To me, that seems like such a corruption of the whole concept of confession. The main character also has a tendency to be mean to people when she's feeling uncertain, which is frustrating. The fantasy element of the book was pretty limited. Three stars. I won't read it again, and probably won't seek out other works by McNaughton.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. If I'm not an enormous fan of medieval fantasy, I AM an enormous fan of urban fantasy, and this was that. I thought it was very original. The characters were quite believable, and the ending was startling in a great way, and the view of faery was unique. Not everything was explained at the end, and I don't know if I liked that or not. Usually I do, but not everything made sense to me at the end about the stuff that had happened before the book started to set things in motion. But that's my only beef. I loved the way the main character stood up for herself and the life she wanted even when at great disadvantage. Four stars. I hope we'll see more from Ms. Marr.
The two books actually made pretty good companion pieces. The main characters, settings, and plots were different enough that I didn't feel like I was reading the same book twice at once.