Once Upon a Bookshelf

[Disclaimer: Have been all kinds of crazy-sick the past few days so haven't had a chance to write this up until now. Had the flu, turned into the worst sinus-cold-potentially-sinus-infection ever and yes. Not fun. Still doped up on cold medication to help relieve the pain in my head and am hoping to not have to go to walk-in clinic over the weekend if it turns out that I really do have a sinus infection. So forgive me if this does not make as much sense as I hope it will.]

My parents are currently working on de-junking their house at the moment, and in the process asked me to look through numerous boxes of books to see if there was anything I thought we should get rid of or anything I wanted to read. Most of their books I had read through high school (Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter, etc.; no wonder I ended up thinking I didn’t like classics) but as I had no interest in books with sailors on the front covers back in my high school days, Billy Budd escaped my notice.

Billy Budd was left unfinished in 1891 due to Melville’s death and published in numerous different variations since his death, starting in 1924. According to Wikipedia, I read the wrong copy of this book. The version I read is an earlier version of text considered to be more along the lines of what Melville wanted - the title is aparantely supposed to be Billy Budd, Sailor: (An Inside Narrative), the ship they sail on is supposed to be a different name, there isn’t supposed to be a preface, etc. etc. etc. That said, this is the version I read, thus this is the version I am going to talk about.

Billy Budd, formerly of a merchant ship, is recruited to sail on a British warship during the Napoleonic wars. Other than a speech impediment that only appeared when excited or under duress, Budd is practically the perfect person - he’s good looking, amiable, and everyone loves him from the moment they meet him. Everyone, aside from Claggart, the Master-at-Arms. While the completely innocent and naive Budd does not realize this, Claggart soon seems to have quite the grudge growing against Budd until it gets to the point where Claggart falsely accuses Budd of mutiny.

The book was a little bit difficult to get into at first. I didn’t particularly care for the way the book was narrated, and it’s really hard to like a character that is practically perfect. Of course, the speech impediment ended up being his Achilles’ heel, which made him a bit more relatable - I don’t communicate well verbally with other people, so I can understand his desire to physically act out due to frustration - not that his acting out was forgivable by any means, but it makes it more understandable.

This book really made me ponder things. It wasn’t an easy read, but it was thought-provoking, and deals a lot with the issue of good-vs-evil, and goes into how someone should be punished if what they did was not what they meant to do. Doing the best thing for the fleet, versus doing the best thing for one man; doing your duty to prevent future trouble versus doing what is right. I don’t know what I would have chosen to do in the situation that Budd’s captain was put in.

This was my second book for the What’s in a Name challenge, and is my selection for the “book with a first name in its title” category.

Ah yes, this is indeed another astounding adventure of the wonderful and magnificent Horatio Lyle.

There are so many things about Horatio, as a character, that I love. He writes notes of apology to those he renders unconscious. He carries things that explode in all the pockets of his reversible coat. He fanboys when he meets Michael Faraday. If anyone even thinks about harming the children, he will find a way for all that persons plans to go horribly wrong. And he has such a pervading sense of right and wrong, which comes into play a whole heck of a lot in this installment.

In The Doomsday Machine, Horatio is found, surprisingly, fighting for the Tseiqin, those creatures he’s been fighting against in the past two books. It’s one thing to foil their plans to kill all the human race, but it’s a completely different thing for a select group of humans to want to kill each and every one of the Tseiqin off. Where is the justice in killing them all when you don’t know that every single one is as evil as all of the ones you had previously had brushes of near-death from?

So, Horatio is encouraged to set off on another adventure with his faithful companions (lock-pick extraordinaire Tess, bigwig Thomas, and Tate - the dog), in which he discovers The Machine, the purpose of The Machine, how to finish The Machine, and how to prevent The Machine from completing the purpose it was created for - namely creating a magnetic wave that is so strong that it kills every single Tseiqin instantaneously.

This was, as expected, another brilliant installment from Catherine Webb. Have I ever mentioned how brilliant I think Webb is? Okay, I know I have numerous times, but it deserves to be repeated again. This girl is brilliant. And the Horatio Lyle books… oh, they are fabulous; they are complete page turners, and get you so involved in the stories and in the lives of the characters. Plus they contain such subtle humour that you have to reread certain passages a few times in order to thoroughly appreciate it and start giggling about it.

Horatio Lyle liked back doors. They encouraged the secret part of him that wanted to be a rebel; they made him feel reckless and dangerous. He also liked people who answered back doors more than those who answered the front, since they usually had other things on their mind and couldn’t be bothered to ask him relevant and embarrassing questions such as, ‘Who are you, what is that child doing, is that your dog, are you carrying any explosive substances, do you have any identification, is there any danger associated with talking to you?’ and so on.

Ever since Rachel and I have had numerous conversations about how Horatio Lyle is pretty much Doctor Who, I can’t picture anyone but the wonderfully talented and charming and dashing David Tennant every time I think of Horatio. And for that reason solely, I think every fan of Doctor Who ought to read these books. Well, that fact and the fact that these books are brilliant anyway. And since they are still not available in the USA, you can order them online from numerous Canadian or British websites. And you should. Now.

I went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles last night after a long day of shopping with a friend. I read a couple of reviews on various blogs where the blogger did not like the movie at all, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I really wanted to see this movie, I normally do not enjoy book adaptations very much. I was pleasantly surprised.

I read the books about four years ago, and while I loved the illustrations in the books and the general idea of the story, the books themselves did nothing for me. The narration wasn’t enjoyable and there was no real character development. If I had been in the age group these books were aimed at, I would’ve loved them, but as an older reader reading them, they just didn’t do anything for me. Since then, I’ve gone back and looked at the illustrations (because they are beautiful) but haven’t reread them.

The first time I saw the trailer, I got so excited to see this movie. As I said, I loved the general idea of the story, so this seemed like it would work for me better as a movie than the books did. And in the end, I was right - I loved the movie. This is one of the very few times you’re ever going to read me saying this - I did enjoy the movie so much more than the books.

It did have its flaws, the main one being that Freddie Highmore did not have a great American accent. But then again, he’s still young, still learning, so he did well considering all that. It also took liberties with the book. What book adaptation doesn’t? And considering the fact that they had to put five (albeit short) books into an hour and a half movie, it’s not surprising.

But it had a lot of good points too. It was very funny. It could have been the fact that we were surrounded by a bunch of kids and their amusement was infectious, but there were other times when my friend and I were the only two in the theatre laughing. Mary-Louise Parker was wonderful as always, and Sarah Bolger was adorable. The fairies in the movie - well, they ran anywhere from being cute and lovely and gorgeous to slightly frightening. They looked so real most of the time that it was, at times, hard to remember that they weren’t real.

This was definitely one of the most enjoyable movies that I’ve seen in theatres in a while, and I will definitely be buying it as soon as it comes out on DVD.

Life changes drastically for fifteen year old twins Rich and Jade on the day their mother dies. Their father, John Chance, didn’t know he even had children until the day before the funeral. Now, thrown together, all three desperately need to adjust. Unfortunately, when you or your newly discovered father works as a spy, you don’t get much of a chance to do that. A couple of days after meeting their dad, Chance is kidnapped. After discovering that their father is a spy, Rich and Jade decide to rescue him - but they don’t know exactly what they are up against.

I don’t read many thriller or adventure books, so I don’t really have anything I can compare this book to. It was fun; fast paced. Because I don’t have much to compare it to, I found that it wasn’t predictable, which is what always annoys me about action movies. It was a nice change from what I’ve read recently; it had more action and wasn’t a book I had to sit there and think about while I was reading it.

While the two main characters (Rich and Jade) annoyed me a bit at first, they acted like real teenagers would have in their situation. They did end up growing on me by midway through the book, though, which definitely made the book more enjoyable. The secondary characters, however, I loved. The twins’ father, Chance, was fabulous. So was his boss, Ardman. I would have loved to read more about both Chance and Ardman.

Definitely a good book, and it makes me wonder whether or not I would enjoy Higgins’ adult books as well.

The authors I love fall into two categories. The first consists of those I love but whose books always have me feeling a little bit worried that they won’t live up to my expectations. Most authors fall into that category. The second category (with only a few people in it) consists of those authors whose books I know I will love before I even know what the book is about. Will Ferguson is one of those authors. If you’ve never heard me rave about him before, let me just say this: the man is brilliant. No word of a lie. So when I say that I can’t say enough good stuff about this book, oh boy do I mean it.

Set in the 1930’s, Spanish Fly is the story of Jack, a young man who has grown up in Paradise Flats (a small town in the USA). His mother has passed away, his father is out of work and has lost all of their money on a con (though Jack’s father doesn’t realize that is what it is). When Virgil and Rose blow into Paradise Flats, conning a number of businesses in Jack’s town, Jack falls in with them naturally, and his education as a con man really begins.

Jack is such a likable character. Yes, he’s a con man, but he struggles with doing what is right and what is wrong. He’s smart and puzzles over things until he can figure out a way to find a solution to any problem. Plus, he makes references to both Dracula and Flash Gordon - and good job to Will Ferguson for writing in those references and making them seem natural. (Did not expect Dracula OR Flash Gordon references in this book, but it worked. It worked well.) And within a short span of time, Jack goes from being the student to surpassing both Virgil and Rose in their ability to work a con.

I knew the real reason that Virgil and Rose weren’t going to leave: they needed me. They needed me more than I needed them. From the false arrest to the Spanish Fly to the bank manager’s signature, I was the one who’d taken the game to its proper heights. They knew it, and so did I. It was a sad and liberating thought, the realization that they had no more lessons left to teach. It was me who had brought in the big money.

The whole story was so believable - I felt as if I was transported back to the 1930’s, watching news reels of Germany’s army advancing, going to Jazz clubs, and eating more pie than I ever thought possible. I’ve never been interested in con men before, but it was interesting to read the sort of things they did and got away with.

I seriously loved this book, it was fabulous, and I highly recommend it to anyone who . . . well, to everyone really. As I said before, I cannot say too many good things about this book. Will Ferguson is positively brilliant, and Spanish Fly is no exception whatsoever.

This is my sixth book for the Canadian book challenge.