A Little Change.

I'm going to change up how I do this blog. Recently, I bought a drawing tablet.

As shown above by my adorable kitty, Rory. 

So far, I'm not very good with it.

But I am working on it!

Yes, I still read books. Often. right now I am reading We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It's creepy, and good. 

However, it's been so long since I even touched this thing that I think it's time for something new. 

Also, if anyone is interested, you can get We Need To Talk About Kevin by clicking the image below. 

Hope you are all having a marvelous day!

Neil Gaiman's Sandman

Well, there has been a VERY long hiatus, but I find myself with some time, so I will re-establish this book blog that I started awhile back. It's more for me than for any one else. :)


 I recently finished reading, for the first time, Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Amazon has recently released both some absolute collections, and also a slip cover set that includes all 10 of the volumes. The later I purchased for myself (Merry early Christmas to me), and devoured in a matter of days.
As any one who has met me knows, I am very positive about Neil Gaiman. His stories remind me of my childhood in a sweet, nostalgic way. I have never read these before but I purchased this set knowing that I would like it. I couldn't know, however, just how much I would like it.
I have never really ventured into the graphic novel area. I worried that I was paying more money for less book. I was delighted to find out that this was not the case with Neil Gaiman's Sandman. By the time I was halfway finished with the first Sandman (Preludes and Nocturnes) I was in love. How could I kid myself? This always happens to me with his books. I start one, intending only to read for a short while, and instead I find myself, in a somewhat desperate manner, stuck in my chair until the book is finished.

I identify at once with the series. We have all had dreams that we wish we didn't have to leave, or nightmares that destroy out entire nights worth of sleep. There are so many themes at work, and we see so many characters from literature that helped shape the world. Of course the King of Dreams has had a hand in helping each of them. Every great idea comes from dreams.

I don't want to summarize the plot for these. There is too much, and it would spoil the surprise. Listen, everyone, I know that they are expensive, but believe me when I tell you that  they are worth every penny.
Most local libraries will have copies of these. Some colleges are even teaching them as part of the curriculum. My advice to you is to find some way to read these books. They are fantastic. The characters are rich and well written, the plot is twisty, and surprising, and the ending will echo in you for long after the book is finished.

Happy Holidays everyone. 

The Help

I know that it has been quite a long time since my last post, but I have been very busy! I finally finished a book I have been working on but it was a spur of the moment purchase from a grocery store. I was buying contact solution in the pharmacy isle and while I was walking to the checkout counter I passed by a copy of a book I have heard lots of great things about. The Help is a book about racial tensions in the south. Set in the 60’s detailing the relationships between the southern house wives and the black help that raise their children. It is touching, beautiful, and sad.




Here is a plot summary:

The book is written in first person narrative from three different perspectives. The first is a black woman in her late 50’s named Aibileen, who is a maid in a middle class house in Jackson, Mississippi. The second is Minny, also a maid, who has a large family and is in her mid-30s. Last is Eugenia (Skeeter) who is the daughter of a wealthy plantation farmer, and has been to college and received her bachelor’s degree.
The book starts with Aibileen telling about her life and her job. She works for the Leefolt’s who neglect their daughter. They treat her with disrespect, but that isn’t anything new, and they are not cruel to her like some families are with their maids. However, when Mrs. Leefolt’s friend Hilly suggests that they build a separate bathroom so they don’t have to use the same one as Aibileen, he employer jumps on the idea. Aibileen has had too many jobs to fight back, but you feel her anger and disappointment at the stupidity of people. Aibileen is the quiet wise presence in the book. She tells how her only son Treelore dies and how it has eaten at her, and of her love for the Leefolt’s little girl, Mae Mobley.
The next perspective comes from Minny, who is Aibileen’s sassy, irreverent friend. She starts her story right after she has been let go from her previous position as a maid to Hilly’s mother Miss Walters. It tells of how she goes everywhere and cannot find anyone who is interested in hiring her. She soon finds out that Hilly has been spreading lies about her being a thief so no one else will hire her. On the day that her position is ending Hilly tells Minny that she will hire her as her maid, but Minny states that she would never take away the job of Hilly’s current maid who is her friend. She tells Hilly to “Eat her shit.” She then goes home and bakes a very special pie for Hilly. The next day she comes back to the house and says she is there to apologize. That she baked a chocolate custard pie especially for Hilly. The horrible woman eats two whole pieces before Minny tells her that she has baked her own excrement into it. Minny finds a job in a kind newcomer to the town, Celia Foote. No one in town will associate with her because she is “tacky”, and “white trash”. Minny goes to work for her but Celia makes Minny promise not to tell her husband Johnny that she is working there. Minny talks about her abusive husband and her children. She is feisty and full of life, the way she describes her life is the same.
Skeeter talks about her love for her previous maid Constantine, the woman who raised her. When Skeeter get home from college Constantine has mysteriously disappeared, and her mother will not tell her anything about why she left or where she has gone. Skeeter tells us about how her mother is always telling her she is too tall and how her hair is too frizzy. Through the whole thing it states that the love she feels for Constantine is very similar if not the same kind of love she feels for her mother. She talks of how she feels she will never be married or have the kind of life her mother wants for her. She longs for a writing career. In a hopeful but futile attempt at securing a job, she contacts Harper and Row publishing and the senior editor writes her to let her know that she admires her spunk and gives her career advice. Skeeter gets an idea to write a book detailing what it is like to work as a black maid for white families. Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny all get together to write the book. It is anonymous, and the names are have been changed. Aibileen and Minny recruit several of their other maid friends and the book comes together and is published. They don’t cover their tracks quite well enough and people find out who wrote the book, but because of the anonymous nature of the book, no one wants to fire their maids from fear of other people knowing they are chapter 8. The book ends on a hopeful note and leaves the reader feeling like things are on their way to getting better.


I must say that I am very surprised by how much I liked this book. It is heartfelt and sweet. You grow to love the characters, and feel for all of them. The villain is well thought out and multi faceted and the heroines are brave and wise. It is a feel good hit, and there is no question in my mind about why it was number one on the bestseller’s list for so long. I’m aware that this book has been around for a quite awhile but I am so glad that I finally decided to read it. It was touching and uplifting. I can’t wait to see other things from this author. Her understanding of how women speak to each other and interact is spot on and her writing style is touching and believable. I give this book 5 out of 5. I enjoyed it immensely.

A book list for you!

I’m sure that at some point someone will ask me for a list of recommendations or a reading list. I recently made one for my friend Lexi at work, and feel like all of the books listed are fantastic. I would recommend these to any of my friends. So, here we go!


1. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

This is the story of a woman who is very unhappy with her life, and loses herself in her art career. There is a surprise twist at the end! It’s very good.

2. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Ok, ok, I say that I don’t like teen fiction, but this one is actually beautifully written. I started out skeptical and ended up reading the whole series.

3. WWZ: The Oral History of the Zombie Wars by Max Brooks

Who doesn’t love a good zombie book? This is one of the best ones I’ve come across. Affecting to say the very least.

4. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Ok, I admit it. I have an addiction, but seriously, this book is phenomenal.

5. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Neffinger

This book may not be the most wonderfully written piece of literature you’ll ever read, but it is a good story. Great for a quick summer read.

6. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This book, like all Ms. Jones’ books, is interesting, and involved. It’s mildly confusing until everything is explained, but a wonderful adventure.

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is such a fantastic book! Set during WW2 and narrated by Death himself, it is a story of a young girl who is trying to understand life, and literature.

8. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

This is for all the fans of The Hunger Games. This book was published years and years ago, is written better, and has a better ending. You’re welcome!

9. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

This book is an undertaking, but it is SO cool. I’m putting it on this list because it’s an amazing book, but it may take a while to get through. Don’t worry. This one took me almost 3 months to finish.

10. Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis

This book is a gritty and intense look at L.A. in the 80’s. This book is extreme and affecting. It made me sad, angry, happy, validated, and inadequate.

11. Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block

This is such a rad book! Well, it’s actually five books in one volume. It is also set in L.A. in the 80’s but unlike Less Than Zero it is told like a fairy tale. Time is not mentioned, nor is aging. It’s a really light fun read.

12. The Prestige by Christopher Priest

I recently reviewed this book, and would recommend it to anyone.

13. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This book is a thrilling romp through London Underground, a mystical hidden world just below the modern streets of London.

14. Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantinio

I loved every story in this book, and immediately loaned it to one of my friends. I haven’t seen it since. Let that be a testament for how amazing this book is.

15. Abarat by Clive Barker

Barker is usually a horror author, but this book is his foray into children’s stories. He doesn’t quite succeed, it’s still very scary. I loved it though! Definitely worthy of this list.

16. The Road by Cormac Mcarthy

If you haven’t read this by now, read it. You’re slacking. It’s amazingly written and sad, but wonderful.

17. Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams

This is an anthology of short stories from all different authors about the end of the world. It is interesting, and compelling.

18. Perfume by Patrick Suskind

This one is about a unique serial killer who is trying to preserve the scent of a human being. He probably wouldn’t kill his victims if one could survive being dipped in animal fat for a night.

19. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

I’m sure you have heard of these, but they are really amazing books. They are worth your time, I swear.

20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

There is a movie coming out of this soon that I am convinced will be awful. Hopefully, I’m wrong, because the book is amazing.


That’s it my dears! All of these books are at least 4 out of 5 button eyes. Choose any one of them and you should be happy with your choice.


P.S.

I’ve bought a new copy of Battle Royale, and I have started reading it again. A review will soon follow. Also, I bought The End of Mr. Y, which I am very excited to start. Does anyone have a favorite book you’d like to see reviewed? Let me know! :)

On the awesomeness of Neil Gaiman

I would just like to take a time out for a moment and focus on one of my most favorite authors. I know I usually only post when I’ve finished reading a book, but if any of you were wondering about what my favorite books are this is for you.


A couple of summers ago I was working in a professional theater called Tuacahn Amphitheatre as a spot light operator. We had to be there two hours before the show every day to make sure everything was working properly. If there were problems then we would need the whole time to fix them, but if nothing was wrong we were left with two hours of down time. It was in this summer that I discovered the wonderful writing of Neil Gaiman. My roommate at the time had a copy of “Neverwhere” just chilling in her room and I was lacking new reading material. I wandered her way and asked if she had anything good to read, and (it was destiny, I swear) she handed me her copy of my first Gaiman book. From the very first chapter I was completely hooked. I finished the book in two days and instantly started wanting more.

Over the rest of the summer I worked my way through his novels, and in so doing, found everything I had ever wanted in a book. The stories were deep and exciting. They were both dark and light hearted. At the time, they were exactly what I needed. My summer felt magical, and while I tribute that partially to my wonderful theater job, I feel like the majority of that feeling I owe to Gaiman. Who doesn’t need more magic in their lives? I couldn’t get enough. I tore through his books one by one. It was during this time that I realized how much I enjoy short stories. After reading “American Gods” I thought for sure I had found my favorite book in the whole world. However, every book by this man I read after that gave me the same feeling. It wasn’t until I had finally read every single one of Gaiman’s novels for adults that I settled on a favorite, and even now it changes with every book I reread that has his name attached.

The first time I read “Fragile Things” was in Oct. of 2007. It has been at the top of my favorites list ever since. Maybe it was just the fact that the stories in “Fragile Things” seem Halloween themed, and I was reading it at the exactly right time, but I really don’t think so. It is a superb collection of short stories and after finishing it I literally sat for five minutes wish there was more to read.

I would recommend Gaiman’s books to anyone, because I can’t imagine anyone who couldn’t relate, or wouldn’t enjoy the story. He writes fantasy stories for beginner, intermediate, and expert readers. The stories are not “teen fiction”, they are intellectual and stimulating. Some are frightening, and some are wondrous.

I regret to say that I haven’t read any of Gaiman’s graphic novels. These are the things he is most famous for, and so I feel that I am seriously slacking. That being said, graphic novels are not really my thing. There is not enough book and too many pictures. I would rather read actual novels and get my money’s worth in story content.

If you are curious about Neil Gaiman at all, he posts regularly on his blog! He recently married Amanda Palmer and lives most of the time in the UK. He posts about his dogs, cats, children, friends, and all of the things he is working on. I wish I could be friends with this man. He is insightful, and a phenomenal writer even in his blog posts. You can find all that and more goodies here on his website! Here -----> journal.neilgaiman.com

I have known for awhile that my next tattoo will be some quote of his, which one I haven’t decided yet. I am moderately obsessed. Here are some quotes that I love from Neil:

"People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes."


“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”


"In a perfect world, you could fuck people without giving them a piece of your heart. And every glittering kiss and every touch of flesh is another shard of heart you’ll never see again."

Everyone should run out and get copies of “Fragile Things”, “Coraline”, “American Gods”, “The Graveyard Book”, “Neverwhere”, “Anansi Boys”, and “Smoke and Mirrors”. All of them are wonderful, and will not disappoint. Also, if you like short stories pick up “Stories” edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. It is an excellent anthology filled with fantastic stories by very talented authors.


Hey Neil! Write more novels! Please?

Love, Haelee

P.S.

Someone suggested 5 out of 5 quills to me for a scoring system the other day and I quite like that. Also, my lovely roommate suggested 5 out of 5 R2 Units, but I may go with something Gaiman themed. As I compare all books I read to his stuff anyway, I feel that would be appropriate. Maybe 5 out of 5 button eyes? I kinda like that. Hum, I’ll continue working on it.

The Hangman's Daughter

Today, I finally finished reading “The Hangman’s Daughter” by Oliver Potzsch. I have been trying to finish this book for quite awhile now. It’s quite good, and the fact that it’s a translated book doesn’t show at all. The genre of this book is not immediately noticeable. It’s a murder mystery novel, with a romantic side story. I must admit, I was not at all impressed by the ending. It seemed rushed, and didn’t wrap up the side story in the least. The mystery is thoroughly explained but I had some serious problems with the story line.

Here is a plot summary: We open the story with our hangman, Jakob Kusil, apprenticing his first beheading with his father. The story is set in Bavaria in the 1600s. It gives us inside look at the kind of man Jakob will be. His father has been drunk for several days in a row in anticipation of the beheading. Everything goes wrong because Jakob cannot steady the woman who is about to die, and it is messy and painful for everyone involved. From that moment on Kusil swears that he will not be a hangman.
The next scene opens 35 years later, and Jakob has become the hangman for the town of Schongau. He has a beautiful family, and he loves his with. He has very clever children; the oldest and cleverest is Magdalena. In these old times, the people of town would shun the hangman because of his ominous job. However, the catch 22 of the story is that the duty of hangman is passed down from father to son. So, as we saw in chapter one, Jakob had no choice about his line of work. That being said he is a good hangman. He knows herbal compounds to ease or intensify the pain of his victim, and he is a better physician then the town doctor. This was often the case in executioners, and if people could not afford a doctor they would go to the hangman for their ailments.
The son of the town doctor is Simon Fronwieser, and he is Kusil’s unlikely sidekick. He is in love with Kusil’s daughter Magdalena, but due to tradition the hangman’s daughters always marry other hangmen, because no respectable family will take them. At the beginning of the story neither character knows the other is in love. Simon’s father is furious about his feelings for the hangman’s daughter, while Kusil finds it merely amusing.
Simon is there to witness when they pull the body of the first murdered child out of the river. The little boy is bloodied and dying, but still alive. His injuries are too severe and he dies just before his father gets there. They find a strange symbol on his shoulder and the town cries witchcraft.
They immediately arrest the town midwife and throw her in prison. She has regularly entertained the small boy and several other children. All of the children are orphans except for the first, who is an only son who’s mother died in childbirth.
It is Kusil’s duty to torture as well as execute people, but he knows that the midwife is not a witch and owes her a debt for the safe delivery of his children. He sets about finding who actually murdered the young boy.
Two more young boys die and we find that our culprits are four hired soldiers. The main villain is a man that the author mysteriously calls “The Devil”. The inhabitants of the town get more and more anxious to have the midwife disposed of as two more bodies are added to the list. Kusil finds that he is forced to torture the poor woman, but before he does he gives her an herbal concoction that puts her out of her mind so she won’t feel the pain. There are two more instances where he is forced to hurt the midwife until he decides to make a potion that will make her sleep for 3 days.
They find that the killer is just a mad dog, and has been paid for the murders from one of the rich merchants of the town. The last two little girls go into hiding in an underground well that the main characters spend the whole time looking for, and in the end finally find. The soldiers kidnap Magdalena, and the Devil makes a deal with Kusil. If he can lead the Devil to the children, the Devil will release his daughter, untouched. Kusil, with help from Simon, find the well and the children. The Devil follows them down and he and Kusil fight in the tunnels. Everything is wrapped up and the midwife is sent home.


Ok, so here are the main problems I had with this book. The author has no reason to keep us in the dark about who the Devil really is, because he is not a known character. The first boy to die is not an orphan, and that was what the author was using to link all the children together. The ending was rushed and not wrapped up completely. There is no reason for this book to be called “The Hangman’s Daughter”, she is a major character, but she isn’t the main character, her father is.
All in all, I rather liked this book. The storyline was interesting, and it at least kept me reading. Sure, the plot was convoluted but it was a fun read anyway. However, there are some serious issues in the story and that makes me feel like authors are getting lazy. Maybe I should chalk it up to the book being a translation, but SERIOUSLY?
In the post script the author states that the Kusils are real people that he is directly descended from and the main characters in the book are not fictional, but actual people from his family tree. The fact that he has taken his direct genealogy and turned it into a story is great. I really love books that have a sense of ethos, but that should make the story better right? In conclusion, I was greatly disappointed by the ending of this book. It is worth the read, but I highly doubt anyone will remember it in 50 years.


P.S.
I get paid on Wednesday next week. I think it’s time for some NEW BOOOOOKS!!! YAAAAAAAYYYY!! Yes, I’m a huge book nerd. I’m thinking about creating a scoring system for these books that I review. I know that I’ll be giving them up to 5, but I want something bookish like…..5 out of 5 bookworms? I dunno. I’ll work on it. :) ‘Til next time!

Hexwood

Yesterday, I finished reading “Hexwood” by Diana Wynne Jones 16 (August 1934-26 March 2011 (aged 76)). I have owned this book for awhile, but due to the confusing nature of the story, I had only started it and not finished it. When the author passed away of lung cancer in March, I decided that I would finish this book. It may seem to you a small tribute, and it is, but it was all I could think to do. That being said, once I got into this book it was really really good! The plot was twisty and there was romance, but nothing graphic. It was a little violent, but not in a gruesome way.

Here is a plot summary: The Sector Controller, who is responsible for overseeing Earth, among other worlds, receives a message that tells him that a machine called the Bannus has been activated (against orders) at Hexwood Farm near London by the man who was responsible for maintaining the facility. Somehow, the Bannus has trapped both that man and an entire maintenance team inside the Estate. Following instructions in case of such an accident, the Sector Controller sends a message to the Reigners, the five people who rule the galaxy.
In a wood, an amnesiac boy meets a robot. This robot, who is called Yam, tells him that his name is Hume, because he is a human.
In a village near London, a teenage girl, Ann Stavely, recovers from a serious fever. While ill, she talks with the four voices in her head: The King, The Prisoner, The Boy, and The Slave. Through her window, she witnesses some mysterious comings and goings at nearby Hexwood Farm; a van, with a symbol like a pair of unbalanced scales on the side, pulls up and people go in, but they don't come out again. After many different people go in, but none come out, Ann becomes curious, and is determined to find out more.
The next day, greatly recovered, she explores the tiny woods beside Hexwood Farm. When she enters it, she finds that the woods have expanded, and she encounters a futuristic chamber with a famished, exceptionally tall and skeletal man - Mordion Agenos - inside. He claims he has been asleep for centuries, but Ann knows she saw him enter Hexwood Farm just a few days ago.
Mordion creates a boy from a pool of his and Ann's mingled blood, and sends him off on his own into the woods. The boy appears to be Hume, who we have already met in Chapter 1. Ann is horrified by Mordion's callous attitude and tells him that he must look after Hume - after all, he created him.
Ann visits Mordion and Hume several times in the woods over the next few days. While she is in her own town, she and her brother see more and more people appearing to enter Hexwood Farm Estate and still none ever emerge. During one of her visits to Mordion and Hume, she helps Hume recover Yam from what looks like a future, ruined Hexwood Farm, where they encounter and escape from armored men armed with crossbows. Yam then tells Mordion, Ann, and Hume that they are all in the field of the Bannus, which warps time and space in order to run scenarios for some mysterious purpose. This is why things seem to be happening out of order.
Later, we meet the five Reigners, tyrants who have ruled the galaxy for over a thousand years. They are very concerned about the Bannus, which, before they seized power, was used to pick new Reigners. Reigner Two and the Reigner's Servant (Mordion) have disappeared while trying to deactivate the Bannus. The remaining Reigners go to Earth (Reigners Four and Five alone, but then Three and One go together) to turn off the Bannus, but they too get caught in the Bannus' field of influence, forget who they are, and find themselves in the huge forest, which is somehow the little wood beside Hexwood Farm.
When Reigner One and Reigner Three come to Earth, they take a girl from one of the major guild houses (who works in their basement, managing costuming for when the Reigners or their servants need to travel to a distant world) as a luggage-carrying assistant. This assistant, Vierran of House Guaranty, is a young woman in her twenties who, after various encounters and costume choosing, has fallen in love with the Reigner's Servant, Mordion Agenos.
The Bannus, a cyborg designed to pick new Reigners, who the current Reigners cheated and locked away, is playing with the minds of all the characters and running scenarios in order to determine who the next five Reigners should be, while getting his revenge on the current Reigners. The Bannus has confused several of the characters so they no longer remember who they are, and many of the characters turn out to be different people. Many of them are big names, such as Merlin. However, the end of the story is very rushed and mildly confusing. That being said, everything is wrapped up neatly in the end, complete with happy ending.


I really liked this book. It was confusing at parts, but you grow to care about the characters, which is always the way with Jones’ books. I loved the exchanges between Mordion and Vierran. Hume is a sweet addition to the story and he ties everything together.
Part of the reason I wanted to read this story at all is because it is dedicated to my favorite author, Neil Gaiman. After reading his blog about his sad goodbye to Ms. Jones in her home just before she passed away, I was reminded of the friends and loved ones I’ve lost and felt that I needed to pay tribute to her. Even if all I can do is read one of her fantastic books, I am making sure that her story is preserved. That is (according to me) one of the greatest things you can do for someone who has passed. So, I hope that from this post, someone else will read a book by Ms. Jones, because memories are important, and so often important things are forgotten.