Making Your Mind Up

Surprisingly, given the stoic and genre-ambiguous cover art, this book is another Chick-lit read. For full review, see the Meg Cabot I read last month.

By the cover though, you would guess there was lots of gardening, fornicating forest life and kissing that makes your leg pop up. You would be wrong. it is about people dying of cancer, parenting and coke heads. Weird, huh? They must just have a stock of book covers they buy off Fotolia or something, just slap a title on it and off it goes to the printer.

Mediocre at best - not even any good sex scenes. 2 spunky, sexy heroines whom men just don't understand out of 5.

When Men Become Gods

This was actually one of the better non-fiction accounts of the FLDS cult and the events that have surrounded it in the last ten years or so.

Anyone who knows me knows how I love reading my books about these nutters, so when I saw this title I had to get it. It has been on my holds list at the library for at least 6 months, but finally fate (or the Angel Moroni) smiled down on me and granted my wish of wishes, and my hold became available.

Stephen Singular does a great job of avoiding the bogging down that this material can easily cause. Jon Krakauer's book, Under the Banner of Heaven, went deeply into the history of the Mormon Church, but suffered because of it in that it ended up with too light of a focus on the modern events. Singular avoids this by only giving a light overview of the general history, and quickly zooms into what has been happening recently, specifically within the FLDS and not Mormon polygamy in general. He gives an accurate account of the legal hoops that various law enforcement groups have had to jump through to effect change, and how they eventually saw a cultural shift within this closed and abusive society.

Polygamy is a complicated issue that can probably be debated endlessly. Singular did the smart thing and instead focused on the actual crimes that have taken place - child abuse, rape, brainwashing of both genders and the subjugation of women. Published just before the raid on the YFZ ranch in April 2008, it is the most up to date of the books out there. I look forward to reading an account of the events of the last year, but until then When Men Become Gods provided new information in a well researched and approachable manner. I give it 4 sister-wives out of 5.

Sabriel

Had a rough night a few nights ago, so in between bouts of yarging I re-read this book for the 2,000th time. Brought me right back to being 13 again, and it's still a great story. I might have to find my other two in the series and read the rest.

Looking back on my last few selections, I realize that the dork factor is a little high lately. I am going to have to pull out something worthwhile soon...

Sabriel gets 5 white kitties out of 5, just for the hours of entertainment it has given me over the years.

I Will Plant you a Lilac Tree

As a holocaust memoir, this book was pretty decent. Stories from this period in history are always a bit unbelievable as it is hard to imagine people living through such a terrible situation. I think that you automatically have to respect Holocaust survivors, just based upon what they have endured. They could publish a book of crayon scribblings and you should be tipping your hat to them.

That said, for a book about a person who was on Schindler's List, it had a distinct lack of emphasis on said list. It was a pretty good book, just falsely advertised with the subtitle. Wow, I sound like the jerks who nitpick on the comments section of the Globe and Mail website.

Anyway, a worthwhile quick read, 3.5 Oskars out of 5.

Jellicoe Road

I have no clue as to how this book landed in my holds pile at the library.  I just showed up one day and there it was.  I'm sure at some point I had a reason to want to read it, but that totally is lost somewhere out there in the ether.

Regardless, I did pick it up and read it.  In the end it was a really good YA coming-of-age story that lacked the usual trite crap that the majority of the genre has.  I did almost put it down in the first third though, abandoned forever.  The book has very little exposition at the beginning, so I was truly confused for most of the first bit.  By the middle of the book it all started to make sense, and by the end the lack of a strong beginning even makes sense as a literary choice.  I can see that it might lose some readers by the confusion alone, especially if, like me, they lack any sort of patience.  

Again, this book features the "story within a story" device, which I am not a fan of.  Not going to lie, I totally glazed over as soon as the text turned italic, which, looking back, may account partially for my confusion.  

The strength in this book comes from the unravelling of the history, and the well-drawn characters.  While the end wasn't exactly a huge surprise, it was well done and without smarm.  Is Smarm even a word?  Can it be a noun, or is it only used to describe something?  If I am smarmy, do I contain a certain degree of smarm?

Regardless, good book.  I might be tempted to pick up another book by this author next time I get a YA hankering.  I give it 3.5 suicidal hermits out of 5.

The Well of Lost Plots

Re-read "The Well of Lost Plots". What can be said about Jasper Fforde books? I won't even try to explain the plot line, or describe the story in any way. It just can't be done without sounding like a loser. Jasper Fforde is always worthwhile, and even in re-read I find myself giggling. I've taken to putting his books on my ipod and then listening while I run, and then I REALLY look crazy, giggling to myself as I run around the river.

The Well of Lost Plots, like most Fforde books, gets a solid 5 re-imagined classics out of 5 from me - any flaws can be overlooked just based upon pure creativity. The world needs more authors like this guy.

Also, remember that a unicorn isn't just for page 231, it's forever.