Mystery Truffles

Even though I feel I was quite lazy this summer, I did manage to accomplish something. About three years ago I started reading the Savannah Reid Mysteries by G.A. McKevett, and on Saturday I finished the last book she has written so far in her 15-book series. I should probably explain that I rarely read series, and even less rarely do I have the time/inkling to finish them. I think one of the reasons I was able to this time was that each book is self-contained. McKevett re-introduces the characters and their basic attitudes toward each other in every volume. I ended up reading the books out of order, but I don't think I would have gained or lost anything by reading them in any particular order.

I came across the Savannah Reid Mysteries when I randomly picked up the book Murder a la Mode at my local library a few years ago. I read and enjoyed the book but never bothered to read any more of the series until I was laid up with a knee injury last summer. I read a few more books, and by the time I reached this past summer I was completely hooked.

G.A. McKevett's mystery series is about a forty-ish self proclaimed "volumptuous" private detective named Savannah Reid. A former California police detective, she founds the "Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency" after she is fired from the police force for uncovering a bit too much information on one of her cases. Her agency consists of Dirk Coulter, her former partner from her policing days, Tammy Hart, a tiny health-conscious blonde who is a whiz with computers, Ryan Stone, a sexy yet unavailable former FBI agent, and John Gibson, another former FBI agent and Ryan's life partner. Savannah's Granny Reid occasionally makes an appearance when she can find the time to visit.

G.A. McKevett's murder mysteries range from typical to slightly bizarre, but the "ick" factor is never very high. Savannah is quick-witted and always solves her cases even with the myriad of plot twists in each book. Each of these books is like a chocolate truffle--it is a quick, delectable read, and you always find yourself wanting one more. Just be sure to share them with your friends.

Chick Lit and the Zombie Apocalypse

As the end of summer approaches, I realize it's been awhile since I reviewed a book on here. I've been doing a little thinking (imagine that) about this blog and have decided that I'm taking an entirely too formal approach. I still want to ramble about the books I've read, but I realize this blog could, and should, be more than that. I believe I will continue on in a way that makes me more comfortable, i.e, not writing what is really just a grade school book report every so often.

Now that that's out of the way, I do want to mention a book I read recently. I finished Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner (2008) at about 1 AM on some odd weekday last month. Certain Girls is the sequel to Weiner's book Good in Bed (2002). It's hard to describe the plot of Certain Girls without giving away a lot of the twists and turns of the book's predecessor. Certain Girls follows Cannie Shapiro, who is living a quiet life with her family and dealing with the challenges such a life provides. Sounds pretty normal, right? It seems a typical enough book with a few "coming of age" elements thrown in--everyone is a little better off and has learned something, etc.etc.etc. However a twist at the end, which comes out of nowhere by the way, had me sobbing on my couch for a good fifteen minutes. I've read some criticisms of the book's ending. Basically critics think that the twist was too abrupt and the author attempted to add some "deeper" elements to her story. I guess looking back I am inclined to agree, but its' been a very long time since I have cried that much over a book.

After I got over the Jennifer Weiner book, I decided to go in a completely different direction by reading a book by a *gasp* male author. The male in question is none other than Stephen King, and the book is simply called Cell. Published in 2006, Cell describes the fate of artist and author Clay Riddell after a cell phone signal,which he dubs the "pulse," sends Boston into a state of chaos. People become crazy, murderous zombies, lose control of their cars, and cause general mayhem. Clay and some of the other survivors of the pulse set out on a quest to survive and find the truth behind these creatures. I enjoyed this book, as will anyone who is fascinated by this sort of thing. The characters are quirky and likable, and the story clips along. King even makes an attempt to add some science fiction elements with various degrees of success.

I have been fascinated with zombie apocalypse-type stories for quite some time now, partly thanks to a film class I took last summer at UWM. To me there's really nothing scarier than the idea of losing control and becoming some sort of hideous walking-corpse creature bent on destroying everything in its path. Well, maybe actually trying to prevent oneself from becoming such a creature would be scarier. I think these stories are so interesting because they seem so fantastical until you think about them. Could some major event, or several very small ones, plunge the world into a dark age of chaos caused by crazy killer-creatures? Would humanity survive such an event? I will leave you to ponder these questions.

Persuasion

Jane Austen is perhaps one of the best-known female authors of the last two hundred years. She proved that 19th century women have thoughts, just like their male counterparts. Her heroines are often proper ladies, but there is always an undercurrent of their true feelings on every subject matter. Persuasion contains all of these elements.

Austen wrote Persuasion late in her life, but it still conforms to the typical story line of many of her other novels. A rich family is losing money and is forced to rent out their residence. The family consists of Sir Walter Elliot and his daughters Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne. Elizabeth is the lady of the house as a result of her mother's death but is unmarried and past her prime. As a result, she is very bitter. Mary, the middle child, is married to Charles Musgrove, an unemployed gentleman, and resides in a cottage near Charles's parents' house. Mary is very much the comic relief of the story, but more on that later. The youngest oft-ignored sister is Anne. Anne is easily the most interesting character because she goes through a more significant change than any of the other characters in the book.

The highlighted plot line of this book is the failed relationship between Anne and Captain Wentworth. She and Wentworth were engaged when Anne was 19, but Lady Russel, a family friend, persuaded Anne to break off the engagement. Wentworth, being a sailor, was not seen as someone good enough to belong to the family. When Anne meets him after several years, he has been very successful but still has not forgiven her for rejecting him. She frets about him for a long time, and I will leave it up to you to figure out Anne's decision about this problem.

Mary is by far my favorite character in Austen's book. She is extremely funny in her attempts to be the center of attention. In the first part of the book she insists that Ann come to her cottage because she is very ill and of course must be dying. She acts sick until Anne comes to the home. Once Anne is there, she becomes lively enough to insist that they take a walk together. Throughout the story Mary feels it is her prime responsibility to know what is going on at all times and to contribute to conversation in every possible way. She reminds me of a spoiled child who always insists on his or her parent's attention by saying things like "look at me! look at me!"

Part of Austen's charm is the wit that comes out in very subtle ways. Even though everyone is very prim and proper, some of the characters very eloquently make jabs at other characters. Austen herself pokes fun at her own characters in her descriptions of them. In fact, Persuasion really is all about the characters. Austen almost never takes the time to describe places in detail and usually leaves event descriptions up to the characters. This really allows the reader to get into the characters', and subsequently the author's, heads.

I have to admit that I had a difficult time reading this novel, mostly due to the writing style that was common in Austen's time. The story is slow-moving, especially in the middle. However, I would recommend this book. As I have already said, Austen is very witty and really takes care in developing her characters. Like many of her other books,Persuasion is a fascinating look into the 19th century upper class.

Next time I will go in a completely different direction by reviewing Four Ways to Forgivenes, a collection of novellas by Ursula K. LeGuin. I also want to remind you that if you are in fact reading this I would really appreciate feedback. Are there any books I should check out? I would love to take requests.

Breaking Dawn

Before I delve into Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, the fourth book in the Twilight series (like you've never heard of it) I thought I would get you up to speed on the basic plot if the series. It's basically this: Bella meets Edward, Edward is a vampire, Bella falls "irrevocably in love with him" and eventually decides she would rather become a vampire and spend the rest of eternity with him than live out her dull human life in Forks, Washington. There is also a werewolf who falls in love with Bella in the second book but eventually settles on being her friend. There are some conflicts and complications, but the story really centers on Bella's desire to be with Edward and Jacob's desire to be with Bella until a sort of deus ex machina fixes the situation entirely.

Breaking Dawn begins with Edward and Bella's wedding. Bella is still human because of an agreement she and Edward had, but there is another side to this bargain. Bella wants to have a certain last"human experience" before she is changed permanently into a vampire. The first few chapters center on their (ugh) marital relations over their honeymoon. Apparently it's fine to describe sex in a novel meant for middle school students if the characters are already married. Anyway, Bella, having made love to Edward while still human as per their agreement, discovers she is pregnant with a half-vampire half-human child. Unfortunately, Bella's human body cannot handle the child and she becomes weak.

Meyer tells the second part of her book from Jacob's point of view. This device was used at the end of the third book as well, but I never really grasped why it was important in that part of the story. This time it actually makes sense because at this point Bella has become incapacitated by her baby. Jacob is probably the most likable character in the series, and I appreciated Meyer's attempt to see the world she created from the view of an adolescent male. Jacob describes Bella and the unborn's descent into ill health. He eventually becomes the one to bring her out of it by inadvertently suggesting the baby may need blood to live. Bella starts drinking blood, and the baby grows. However, Bella's human form is entirely too weak to bear the child, and Edward eventually turns her into a vampire to spare both their lives.

The final part of the novel focuses on Bella's experiences as a newborn vampire as well as the final threat to her, her child, and her family. I don't feel like going into the details, but suffice to say there was a huge buildup that didn't really seem to lead anywhere. This seems to happen throughout the series.

I mentioned "Meyer's unfortunate writing style" in my first post. Maybe I am being too harsh, but I would like to explain myself. My main problem with the way these books are written is that Meyer seems to feel the need to describe her characters the exact same way almost every time they are mentioned. I am constantly reminded that Edward is "angelic" with "granite skin," while Jacob has "russet skin." Meyer also seems to have favorite words and phrases which she repeats throughout this book series. Examples include "incredulously," "ghosting," and "his/her eyes tightened." If you're bored sometime go through the series and count how many times these words and phrases appear in their various forms.

I seem to complain a lot about these books, but I did in fact read them all. I really did want to know how the story ended, and even though I was slightly disappointed it's still good to have read it. This series, and this book in particular, has the same draw as a soap opera or certain anime series. The story sucks the reader/watcher in, and in the end the only way to get out is to finish. Meyer's ideas are quite original, which is also a plus. I just wish the execution had been a little better.

Next week I will be taking the leap from "vampire fantasy" to "19th century love story" by reviewing Persuasion by Jane Austen.

The Year of the Flood

When I chose The Year of the Flood for my first review, I had no idea how difficult it would be to explain. While it is not a hard read, perse, it is difficult at first to get used to the flow of the narrative. I also wonder if I would understand things better if I had read Margaret Atwood's other post-apocalyptic book Oryx and Crake, which she wrote before this book. However, I have read that The Year of the Flood is really more of a "companion" to Oryx and Crake and less of a sequel. In any case, I am planning on reviewing Oryx and Crake on a later date.

The Year of the Flood begins in medias res with Toby, a former member of The Gardeners,who is standing atop the roof of a ruined spa in the wreckage of the "waterless flood." I hesitate to call The Gardeners a cult, although if they did exist they may be considered as such. In this not-so-distant future they are really more of a religious community that lives atop a roof and refuses to eat "anything with a face." The Gardener's religion is a pseudo-Christianity. The sermons of Adam One, their leader, appear in between chapters. His teachings attempt to reconcile modern Christianity with science.

Toby's story is told in third person through a series of flashbacks. It traces her life from her childhood several years before the "waterless flood" hit. Before the flood, the world was run by the CorpSeCorps corporation which seemed to control just about everything, from the malls to the pharmaceuticals and even to the sex industry. Atwood makes it perfectly clear that this corporation is evil, and you really can't blame her in this case. Toby's story explains how the Gardeners saved her from Blanco, her sex-crazed supervisor at SecretBurger ( called such because no one knows what meat has been used to make the patties) and how she left them to work at the Anyoo Spa, where she is stranded after the flood has hit. The "flood" is a plague that has wiped out most of the human race.

Ren is the other main character in Atwood's novel. Her story is told in first person, which gives it a more intimate feeling. At the beginning of the book Ren is a sex worker for Scales & Tales, a strip club/brothel run by CorpSeCorps. While locked in the "Sticky Zone," a place the girls go if their "biofilm body suits" have been damaged by a client, she tells the story of how she became a Gardener. Her mother ran off to join the group after she met Zeb, sort of the second-in-command of the Gardeners. Her mother eventually grows tired of Zeb and takes Ren back to the Compound, the apartments of the wealthy, to live with her father. Ren goes to college but her mother cuts her out of her life due to financial problems, which is how she ends up at Scales & Tales. I won't ruin the rest of the story for you, but suffice to say Ren and Tobi eventually meet again and begin a post-apocalyptic journey. Also, there are blue people.

The messages of this book are not original, but Atwood is such a good story teller that the book forces the reader to think more about them. Basically we are destroying our environment by polluting the air, pouring our garbage into the streets, and eating God's beloved animals. However, even the Gardeners seem to reconcile with the meat-eating idea when it is necessary for survival, of course. The other message seems to be that corporations = evil. No, perhaps that is too harsh. We just shouldn't let one corporation take over everything.

Overall, I found this book hard to put down. Even with its unusual narrative, the story has a nice flow to it. Atwood never lingers too long on a single idea or character, so the book never has time to get boring. However, this causes the reader to have to piece the character's personalities and motives together from the mere glimpses she gets. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I've never minded having to think while I read. I feel that by writing in this way Atwood treats her readers as intelligent people, which I always appreciate.

Another thing I like about this book (and which appears in some of Atwood's other books) is the dark humor that weaves itself into the characters and the story. It's almost as if we are to remember that this is a work of fiction, or perhaps that no matter how bad things get, we should never lose our sense of humor. Read this book if you like science fiction, or animals, or Margaret Atwood, or are simply looking for a slightly unusual plot that may even make you think

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Well, I hope you enjoyed my first review. Next week I will be reviewing Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, the final book in the famous (infamous?) Twilight series.

Summer Experiment

Hello, and welcome to the Den of the Dweekerd. Allow me to share a bit about myself: I am a musician, amateur writer, and lover of books, anime, and video games. Hence the name Dweekerd. Dork + Geek + Nerd = Dweekerd.
This summer along with continuing, and hopefully finishing, my Mario fanfiction story The Next Great Adventure (find my profile here http://www.fanfiction.net/~princessviolet), I have decided to become a reviewer of books. My theme for the summer is simply going to be "women of literature," and I have already decided to review books by Jane Austen, Stephenie Meyer, and Margaret Atwood. And yes, I know Stephenie Meyer may not be considered a "great woman of literature" but she is a woman, and she writes books, and despite its unfortunate writing style the Twilight series has fully captured my attention. Fortunately for some, and perhaps unfortunately for others, I have decided to simply review the last book in the Twilight series, but more on that at a later date. In actuality my first book review will be of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood (O.W. Toad, Ltd. 2009).
If anyone actually reads this and has any suggestions as far as books/authors I should review, please feel free to comment. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I hopefully will.