Once Upon a Bookshelf

In the second book in the Darkglass Mountain series, Sara Douglass does not disappoint. It was as exciting and as consuming as all of her other books. It was as I had expected, though - I have had this book sitting on my bookshelf for months, and had purposely left off reading it until I had a whole weekend free where I knew I wouldn’t be interrupted. The Twisted Citadel takes up right after where The Serpent Bride finishes. I don’t even know where to begin to start talking about this book - it’s like a soap opera and there is just so much going on that it’s hard to talk about the plot while trying to keep this post making sense. So, I think I will avoid the plot. Needless to say, you need to read The Serpent Bride before this (and it would probably help to read The Axis Trilogy, The Wayfarer Redemption, Threshold and Beyond the Hanging Wall as well).

So, I shall talk about those parts which won’t be as confusing or spoilerific - mainly relating to characters and a rant that I have. Which I realize probably won’t be interesting to anyone who hasn’t read these book yet.

Let us start with villains. So many bad guys, and not always real bad guys, but guys that you know are working for the big bad guy… The main villain in the previous book (Kanubai) should’ve realized that Darkglass Mountain would turn on him as it did on the Magi who first constructed that glass pyramid (in Threshold). The pyramid consumes Kanubai at the beginning of this book and from his death comes the One - infinite, perfection incarnate. The One is definitely a much more exciting villain than Kanubai, and I am looking forward to seeing what he’ll do in the next book. (I can’t help feeling that there will be something in the next book about his teeth, seeing as Douglass mentioned them so many times.) The smaller villains weren’t nearly as exciting - the most notable being Ravenna, the marsh witch who Maxel had originally turned Ishbel away for. Then there are those who I do not know where they will stand at the end - there is every reason to believe they will betray Maxel, but I’m not entirely convinced. Douglass has a formula, after all, that she follows through most of her books, and there is usually help from unexpected quarters when help is needed most.

Ishbel was awesome in this book. She has grown so much as a character since the beginning of the previous book, and she has become someone very powerful who has already aided Maxel’s cause greatly, even though for a while he completely alienated her from him. Maxel and Ishbel’s relationship continues to grow very strong, though, and they will certainly be a pair that I would not want to go up against, if I were the One. Maxel himself is in the process of the typical heroes quest, complete with descent into the underworld (or in this case, the Twisted Tower), and rebirth. Somewhat predictable, but necessary to make him the hero that will defeat the One and save the world from devastation.

And then there’s Axis. I don’t like Axis. I said I liked him when I read The Serpent Bride, but I’ve definitely reverted to my previous animosity towards him. For a good half of the time I was reading about him, I was livid. I still resent him for his faithlessness to Faraday, and that was how many books ago? And I mean, yes, she was so much better with DragonStar, but it’s the principle of the matter! And yes, I realize that they’re all fictional but gosh darn it, he makes me so angry. And this anger is brought to the surface whenever he is mooning over a woman - in fact, I think I would like him quite a bit if he wasn’t always falling in love with women. When he is distracted by a woman, there are pages and pages and pages of how he agonizes over them and how he’s betraying whatever lover he had right before this new one and blah blah blah. And then he has the gall to question Maxel’s feelings for Ishbel! It makes me annoyed. And brings back to mind what he did with Faraday. And grr! Angry! (And Douglass does not do this with all her characters, just mainly Axis.) Okay, rant done.

I’m glad I gave myself one whole weekend to read this book - had I started it mid-week or on a weekend where I didn’t have so much free time, I would’ve lost many-an-hour of sleep due to it. Douglass’ writing style drew me in right from the beginning, again, and kept me wanting to see what would happen next. Am really wanting to go back and reread some of her other books now, but there are just so many unread books that are calling to me next. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the next book in the series, but maybe I’ll have to make my way through The Wayfarer Redemption again within the next year.

So, when I first watched the video where John Green read the first chapter of Paper Towns, I was intrigued. I may have even been hooked already. How many books do you come across where the story starts off with the main characters, who are kids at this point in time, stumbling across the body of a suicide victim?

Margo and Quentin have lived next door to each other almost their whole lives, and while they were played together a lot as kids, as they grew up they grew apart. Then, one night in their senior year of high school, Margo knocks on Quentin’s window, and the two of them go on an all-night adventure. While Quentin is sure this will change his and Margo’s relationship, he really isn’t expecting that she will disappear the next day, and that he will be the one that she leaves a series of clues for that will show him how to track her down.

While this wasn’t my favourite YA book that I’ve read this year, it was still thoroughly enjoyable. The plot felt new to me, and I had no idea how things were going to work out in the end. In fact, the conclusion surprised me quite a bit. I don’t think it could have possibly ended any other way, without coming across as untrue to the characters, but I hadn’t realized that until I had finished the book.

The book is split up into three parts - the first being Margo and Quentin’s night of adventure, breaking, and entering (though not breaking and entering at the same time). Quentin and his friends attempting to unravel Margo’s clues takes place during the whole second part, and the third (and my favourite) part was their road trip to actually find Margo. The middle part was a little tired at times - Quentin’s obsession with Margo got to be a little annoying, but you can see how Quentin’s perception of Margo goes from idolizing her as a perfect person to realizing that she is a real person with all kinds of flaws.

I think one of the things I liked most about this book was that all of the characters had perceptible flaws. And not just the main characters, but all of them including the really minor characters - you got to see both the good and the bad from each person. It came across as quite realistic, and made it that much more enjoyable.

This book will be released mid-October.

Two weeks after Hannah commits suicide, Clay receives a box without a return address and only containing 7 cassette tapes in the mail. What Clay soon discovers is that these tapes were made by Hannah right before she killed herself in order to tell the thirteen reasons why she did it. The tapes have been making their way around to the people who have had some impact on Hannah’s life - and mostly not in a good way. The ones who started her in the direction that she’s going in, the ones who compounded what she was doing, the ones who did nothing to help.

Started this book the other evening, and stayed up way too late in order to finish it. I don’t normally read a whole book in one evening, but in this case I just couldn’t put it down. Drew me in right from the beginning. It was a positively heart-wrenching book; brilliant; so sad and yet somehow so filled with hope. The way that I could feel both Hannah’s and Clay’s pain, and see the way their characters changed throughout the book (even though Clay listening to the tapes took place over just one night) was fabulous. Seeing Hannah through Clay’s eyes, yet hearing her story through the tapes that Clay is listening to, created so much depth to Hannah - you saw how she saw herself, and how others saw her and these were both so different that it was at times hard to relate one person to the other. It definitely showed how one persons perception can be so different than another persons. It showed how one person’s life can get out of control so quickly, can change so quickly, and can snowball to the point where that person no longer has control over his/her own life.

This book also has a great message to not be afraid to act if you think something is wrong with a friend, and to look at what the consequences of your actions might be. So many things in this book could have been prevented so easily, but because no one acted and just let things snowball, well…

Fabulous book. I highly recommend it, and while it’s a YA book, I think that everyone could get something out of it. The story itself is going to be sticking with me for a very long time.

Murdoch is my newest fictional crush. I blame the television adaptation solely for that, because it really is one of the greatest TV shows that I’ve been watching lately. (It’s so nice to have good Canadian television that doesn’t make me want to cringe.) I also blame the TV adaptation for giving me yet another book series to become immersed into.

Except the Dying is the first of the Detective Murdoch mysteries by Maureen Jennings. Taking place in the late 1800’s in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Murdoch is an acting detective for the Toronto police force. This case starts off with the murder of a pregnant maid from a wealthy family. Murdoch has run-ins with all types of people in this story, ranging from the pair of prostitutes who stole the girl’s clothes when she was lying dead on the snow-covered street, to the wealthy household the girl worked for. Soon more people are getting murdered - what seems to be those who know something about the first girl.

I can say upfront that I am certainly going to be making my way through the rest of the series. This book had so many great things going for it. First, it takes place in Toronto in the late 1800’s. How fun is that?! Second, Murdoch is positively wonderful! I may love Murdoch in the same sense and way that I love Horatio Hornblower, and that’s saying quite a bit. Thirdly, the rest of the characters are so real and wonderful - especially Crabtree, who is one of my favourites on the show.

Then there is Jennings’ style of writing, which sucked me in right from the beginning. I loved that she started with giving us a bit of the victim’s last night from the victim’s point of view, to actually make use care about the girl and the story. She was also able to surprise me with the ending of the book. Certainly not who I had expected to be the killer!

While there are some differences between the show and the book, I found the show keeps itself fairly true to the book. There were some differences (always are), but it had the same atmosphere, and the characters that I really care about were (for the most part) the same. And Murdoch was just as wonderful in the book as I had expected him to be!

Saturday my mother and I went to the Stratford Festival again, this time to see The Taming of the Shrew. While I have 10 Things I Hate About You on video (yes, video) and have watched it so much that I can quote every single line from it, I’ve never read or seen the actual play. Very happy that has been remedied now, though.

I loved this production of the play. The costumes were GORGEOUS. The cast was (for the most part, but will get to that in a moment) brilliant. Even though our seats were not the best, we could hear and see everything perfectly. When the teens by us weren’t talking through the play, or the women behind us weren’t crinkling candy wrappers, that is. (Seriously, some people!)

The actors playing Katherina and Petruchio were fabulous. They were so funny, and had great chemistry. It was so much fun watching the two of them bantering between each other. The whole dialogue of the play was fabulous, and reminded me of why I love Shakespeare so much. It’s a great story, but you definitely have to keep in mind that things were very much different at that time period - especially when it comes to Katherina’s monologue at the end, about how a woman’s place is serving her husband… well, you get the picture.

There were two cast members that really bothered me. And surprise, surprise! They were also in Hamlet - in fact they were Hamlet and Ophelia themselves. I’m not sure if it was that reason, and I was completely prejudiced, but … they both quite got on my nerves. Their voices … grated. Urgh.

I have to say that I’m really surprised that I haven’t heard much about this production of the play. Heard lots about Hamlet, some about Caesar and Cleopatra, and a few of the others, but nothing about this one. Surprising considering how well done I thought it was. Highly enjoyable, and one of the best (in my opinion) productions I’ve ever seen at the Festival.