Updates and speed reviews

Because of my hectic new schedule where I’m thinking about work and emailing about work as much from home as from work (I got my very own, not even open yet, branch and I just started on Monday), I am falling behind in my reviews but also reading.  Who has the energy?  Not me.

Wondrous Strange – Lesley Livingston

I liked this Shakespearean, urban fairy tale.  If there’s a sequel I don’t know if I’d care enough to bother, but I did really enjoy it.  A few weeks ago, and my memory is horrible.

Avalon High – Meg Cabot

How did I not know about this sooner?  Arthur and his court reincarnated as American teenagers is the exact high concept I’m looking for.  But it still had all the fun high school romance and angst stuff.  Also, I could really relate to Ellie because all she ever wanted to do was float in her pool.

The Wordy Shipmates – Sarah Vowell

This doesn’t really have much YA interest, but I did read it and feel accomplished.  Vowell can make nearly everything interesting just because of her infectious enthusiasm, and she almost succeedes here as well.  But it’s still the Puritans arguing over the finer points of a religion I am only slightly interested in.  I think I got as much from hearing her talk about this book in interviews as I did from reading it.

Violet in Private – Melissa Walker

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous two in the series, but it was still pretty fun.  I’m just sick of being teased with the resolution of the same “man vs. himself” plots that have been happening since the first one.

Evermore – Alyson Noel

I didn’t like this book.  People who think Edward Cullen is the dreamiest might like this book.  ‘Nuff said.

Review: Here Lies Arthur

Here Lies Arthur – Philip Reeve

This is a “realistic” retelling of how a savvy PR guy/traveling bard was able to turn a blood-thirsty, power-hungry, petty warlord into a legend, in the hopes of uniting Britain and driving out the Saxons. It’s told from the point of view of a young orphaned girl, Gwyna, pressed into service by Myrddin to play the Lady in the Lake, handing Arthur his magical sword. Myrddin keeps her on afterwards as a servant, but dresses her like a boy. All of the standard characters show up (Lancelot, Guinevere, Sir Kay, Mordred), but not always in the same way stories have portrayed them and often you don’t realize what part someone will play until they’re doing it. The characters have all been written to serve this immediate story and not some larger idea. It works. It really worked for me when Gwyna, in disguise, hears how the stories have her pegged.

For me this book succeeded at its attempt at simply and honestly telling a good story about how we came to think of Arthur the way we do and who he really might have been. People want to believe a good story and it’s not hard to give them one, I like the way this book knowingly implicates all of us in the propagation of the myth. And the end, the moment it all clicks into place, is very good.

I don’t think the book escapes completely unscathed from the impossible-to-reconcile modern conception of women vs. their actual place in history and how they would have acted dilemma. 95% of the time, Gwyna’s gender switching is interesting and adds complexity to the ideas in the book, but a few times her gendered behavior grates. And I don’t think Reeve ever met a metaphor he didn’t like, though eventually all the figurative language became less noticeable to me. He’s not bad at it (the third sentence of the book, “I can hear men’s voices baying like hounds on a scent, the hooves of horses on the winter earth like drums” has two!) but it’s not my preference.

I think boys will be willing to read this, and I think it will appeal to a wide age range, there is a lot of quick plotting, but also depth.

Also…I just reached 1000 views on this thing, after about 4.5 months writing here. No idea if that’s good, bad or indifferent, but it feels fun. Though it’s nowhere near my 80,000 flickr views. I guess I’m okay with a lot more strangers knowing what my wedding looked like than what I think about books for teenagers. Also, after I finish Graceling, which I just started, I think I’m going back to 2666. And since I’m just about to start the couple hundred pages where it just lists all those girls who were killed, it might take me awhile. I’m also reading some nonfiction that may or may not ever make its way here.

Review: Arthur of Albion

Arthur of Albion – John Matthews, illus by Pavel Tatarnikov

This is a big and beautiful book.  I can’t help but think it’s the kind of thing grandparents are going to be giving as a gift and kids are going to be hopelessly bored by.  Unless it finds the right kid to be completely enchanted by it. 

It’s almost an encyclopedia of Arthurian stories, with brief descriptions of people, places and objects and then a retelling of one of the related stories.  Those retellings are what might capture children.  And the illustrations really are gorgeous, especially Tatarnikov’s Klimtian women. 

I imagine this will be most interesting to kids who have already read something about King Arthur and want to know more, or that it would make for good bedtime reading.  It’s something to enjoy in bite-sized pieces.  There is a lot of fighting and beheading and dead knights, but nothing gory or gruesome.  I love Arthurian legend, and will definitely be trying to push it on my theoretical and unborn children.  I’ll be happy to have this age-appropriate book to add to that shelf.