Book 22: Fire

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Book Summary:
Fire, the last remaining human monster with an irresistible appearance and hair the color of a flame, is both hated and adored. She has a unique ability to control the minds of others, those that haven't learned to guard their minds against her. When Prince Brigan brings her to King City to help the royal family uncover a plot against the king, she finds that her power could help save the kingdom. In a time of war, she must learn that she is not the monster her father was.

Book Review:
This book is a companion novel to Graceling (whose review can be found here), and takes place approximately thirty years before that timeline in a land called the Dells. There isn't a lot that connects this book to Graceling, except that it introduces how Leck came to be, so you can definitely read it without having read Graceling. Honestly, I liked this story more than Cashore's debut novel. I felt that not only was the story more put together but that the characters were better rounded as well. I was a little put off initially because, like Katsa in Graceling, Fire is against getting married, and I kept thinking that Kristin Cashore must be completely opposed to the idea of marriage. Then the author explains Fire's thinking, which isn't that she doesn't want to get married, it's that she doesn't want to have children because she believes that she should be the last of her kind. She can't subject the humans to another monster that could potentially end up being cruel like her father was. In the end, she ends up falling in love and getting married.

I loved the characters in this novel. Fire was very well written, and I really felt like I knew her. Not only does Cashore describe Fire's looks and personality beautifully, she also makes the reader understand how Fire thinks and feels. Although, she did have a very Katsa-like feel, she was different enough that it didn't bother me when similarities between the two popped up. The one thing I didn't really like is that although Fire is only like sixteen years old, she is written in a way that makes her seem much older. The character of Leck both intrigued and bothered me. On the one hand, I liked getting to read his background, as that was a complaint of mine from Graceling, but on the other hand, I felt that his storyline was out of place and didn't mesh well with everything else that was happening. It seemed like Cashore put him in the story for the mere point of connecting this book to Graceling, and I felt that this was completely unnecessary as it could have stood just fine on its own without that connection.

I thought the storyline in this novel was much better than that of Graceling. Cashore apparently learned from the first novel, and decided to make the romance actually secondary to the main story. My biggest issue with the plot goes back to the character of Leck. Because the author felt the need to bring him into this story, there were almost two distinct plot lines occurring that really had nothing to do with the other, even though throughout most of the novel Cashore tries to write as if they do deal with each other. It doesn't help that the story kind of jumps back and forth between these two plots at random, and it wasn't until close to the end that I understood that Leck had absolutely nothing to do with the story of the war that was happening. It was a little confusing until that point.

I have to say that my biggest issue with the story, and honestly with Graceling as well though I didn't really realize it until after reading Fire, is that Cashore obviously has a view on casual sex that she tries to impress upon her readers. This wouldn't be a huge deal to me except that her target audience is teenagers. On top of this the women in her novels are not ideal role models for young girls as they lie, cheat, and sleep around to get what they want, and they are very irresponsible to boot, getting pregnant because they are either too lazy or just don't care enough to take the medicine that will stop this from happening. I realize that to an extent this is true to life, but it bothers me nonetheless.

So overall, I did enjoy this book. It was a quick read with a decent storyline and good character development. As far as family friendliness goes, there is little, if any, cursing, but there are definitely multiple sexual references (this book talks about periods and pregnancies as well). I originally said in my review of Graceling that I would let my younger teens read it if I had kids; however I would like to update that by saying that although I would let them read it, I would definitely talk to them about all of the things that both these novels bring up.

My Rating: 8/10

Book 12: The End of Your Life Book Club

I am seriously addicted to Goodreads. Since utilizing it a couple months ago, I've read quite a few books that I wouldn't have normally picked up. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is one such book, and I am so glad I got my hands on it.

Author Links: Website / Twitter / Goodreads

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Book Summary:
The End of Your Life Book Club is a memoir written by a son about the last years of his mom's life. When Mary Anne was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her life became filled with visits to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Deciding to use this time at the center as a way to connect with family and friends, she and her son start a not-so traditional book club. They are the only members, and they rarely read the same books at the same time. In this book, Schwalbe chronicles the remaining two years of his mother's life by the books they read and the discussions they had. Along the way he discovers not only new authors and books, but also things he didn't know about his mother.

My Review:
I'm pretty sure that this was the first memoir I've ever read. And if all memoirs are written like this one, I'm sure it will not be the last. It took me a lot longer to read this than I initially thought it would, but it wasn't because I didn't enjoy it. It was actually because I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to soak up every word instead of speed reading my way through it as I do with most books.

The first thing that I loved about this book is that on top of being a beautifully written chronicle of mother and son connecting through an unfortunate circumstance, it's a book about books. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love books, and as Mary Anne says at one point in the story (not a direct quote here because I now can't find the page), how can someone who loves books not like a story about loving books and the importance of the written word. I think the thing that struck me the most about this book, though, is Mary Anne as a person. She is fully devoted to her family while still being fully devoted to all her causes. As she is a huge supporter and volunteer of numerous organizations, she spends much of her life helping raise money and awareness along with flying around the world to volunteer. Mary Anne seriously inspired me while I was reading this. There is one point after she and Will have read the book Suite Française, that Will basically says he feels guilty for not doing more in the world to help others and this is his mother's reply:

"I loved the people I met on all my trips, Will. I loved hearing their stories and getting to know them and finding out what if anything we could all do to help. That's enriched my life more than I can say. Of course you could do more - you can always do more, and you should do more - but still, the important thing is to do what you can, whenever you can. You just do your best, and that's all you can do. Too many people use the excuse that they don't think they can do enough, so they decide they don't have to do anything. There's never a good excuse for not doing anything - even if it's just to sign something, or send a small contribution, or invite a newly settled refugee family over for Thanksgiving."

I loved this quote from the book because after reading this story I feel like I knew Mary Anne, and I feel like this quote is basically how she lived her entire life, doing what she could whenever she could. And that's really how I want to live my life.

There really wasn't much that I disliked about this book. In all honesty as it was a true story written about real people, the things I tended not to like were ultimately places where I just disagreed with the author or Mary Anne. For instance, while talking about feminism, she makes a point to say that although she doesn't disagree with women who decide to be house wives or stay-at-home mothers, she doesn't approve of people getting advanced degrees and then deciding to stay home. Her argument is basically that while you got your degree you took a spot from someone else and that you should do something with that education to help others. While I fully understand her point of view on this, I definitely do not agree with her, especially since in this day and age women tend to have children much later in life. They could have had a great career before they decided to settle down and have a family. Another thing I disliked about this book was that I felt like there was a lot of political stuff in it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and it wasn't like a blaring horn with the politics; I just sort of felt like the author was trying to push his political views onto me inception style. Lastly, I felt as though the author worshiped his mom a little too much while writing this. Although I think it's beautifully written, there were parts where I felt like he was looking through rose colored glasses. Although I'm sure his mother was wonderful, especially through his eyes, I felt like there wasn't anything bad written about her in this story. She never gets angry, and whenever something bad happens to her she first thinks about how it affected others. For example, when she falls in front of her grandkids, she's more concerned that she scared them than she is that she fell. She seemed very Mother Teresa-ish as I read this, and that makes me slightly skeptical.

Overall, I did love this book. It made me cry a couple times (which almost never happens when I'm reading). There are very few curse words and no sexual references (though since she works with refugees there are a couple times where rape comes up but nothing graphic is ever discussed).

My Rating: 8/10

Book 2: Paper Towns

For book two, I decided to finish out my John Green book set by reading  Paper Towns.

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Book Summary:
The book begins in Orlando, Florida when the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, and his neighbor and friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman, both nine-years-old at the time, find the body of one Robert Joyner, a divorced man who had committed suicide. Flash forward to high school. Q and Margo are no longer the close friends they used to be. Margo is popular and dating starting shortstop Jason Worthington while Q is a band geek, who isn't in the band but spends all his free time there with his best friends Marcus “Radar” Lincoln and Ben Starling.

Margo finds out that Jase has cheated on her with her friend Becca, so she enlists Q's help to get back at them in a night he will never forget. The next day, Q wonders if Margo will begin eating lunch and hanging out with him and his friends since she is upset with the popular kids, but she doesn't show up for school. After going missing for three days, Margo's parents file a report with the police, but decide that since this is the fifth time she's run away, they don't care if she comes back. After learning that Margo has run away, Q discovers a poster of Woody Guthrie taped to the back of her window shades. This leads him to a string a clues that he believes will ultimately lead him to where Margo has run, so he, Radar, Ben, and Margo's friend Lacey all team up to hunt her down.

My Review:
Paper Towns is my second favorite book by John Green. The story was really interesting, and I liked it a lot. About half way through the book I wasn't sure if they were going to find Margo at all, and if they did find her whether she was going to be dead or alive. Because of this, I did what I always do (and people think is crazy), I read the last chapter of the book. Most people think that ruins the book, but I like to know where a book is headed so I can prepare myself.

I enjoyed the character Q a lot. Although he doesn't have a strong voice, he was a great character that I found myself really routing for by the end as he comes to figure out not only who Margo really is but who he is as well. Along with him, I liked the secondary characters of Ben, Radar, and Lacey. In the beginning of the book, Green makes you want to dislike Lacey. He turns her character around quickly, and she adds the much needed female perspective to the group. Plus, being the only character other than Q who knows Margo at all, she is the only one who is truly worried about Margo which creates a nice bond between the two of them. Although Ben and Radar are great characters, I think that they are there more for comical relief than anything else, even though Radar definitely progresses the story at times with his knowledge of computers and the internet.

By the end, I found myself really bothered by Margo. I just didn't like her at all. I thought she was super selfish and needed to get over herself. Her character is probably my biggest issue with the book. She's just kind of a jerk, and I wanted Q to get over her and find someone better to be in love with. Other than that, there were parts of the story that were slightly confusing to follow, and I needed to reread a couple pages to understand what was going on. But, that could be more that I was reading quickly than an actual issue with Green's writing.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself through this book. I would recommend it to others, but be warned that there is some salty teen talk and sexual references, though nothing overly graphic and I don't believe any f bombs (I'm not totally positive about the f word, but I don't recall there being any).

My Rating: 8/10