Good Omens by Gaimen and Pratchett

The first 90 pages I was confused. In many parts after I was confused. Perhaps it is because I am an American. Perhaps it is because it didn't make any sense. I don't know. The funny parts were funny and the story overall was interesting to read. I wouldn't take back the fact that I've read the book but I probably wouldn't read it again. Maybe I've just come to expect too much from Neil.
3/5

Grendel by John Gardner

December, approaching the year's darkest night, and the only way of the dream is down and through it.
The trees are dead.
The days are an arrow in a dead man's chest. Snowlight blinds me, heartless fire; pale apocalyptic. The creeks are frozen; the deer show their ribs.
I find dead wolves- a paw, a scraggly tail sticking up through snow.
The trees are dead, and only the deepest religion can break through time and believe they'll revive.

And so it goes, on and on poetically heartbreaking, gut wrenching, philosophy questioning prose. John Gardener's Grendel is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. He takes the oldest, most monsterous monster of history (Beowulf's Grendel) and narrates his psychological transfiguration through time, his observances of man's futility, and contemplations of his own strange existence. He never apologizes for what he is though he is tormented by his separation from the on-goings in the meadhalls. It becomes easy to despise the efforts of mankind, especially through the dragons viewpoint.

The dragon has a Tralfamadorian sense of time and knows all that is to come as well as all that has happened. The dragon knows of his own death and tells Grendel of the men he scares, "You improve them! You stimulate them! You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last.... you are mankind, or man's condition." It goes without saying that I freaking love the dragon. I cannot wait to read more of Gardner's work.

6/5

Beowulf

Inspired by John Gardener's Grendel (which I will finish soon) I picked up this graphic novel version of Beowulf. Since I, pathetically, have never read the original story, I figured any adaptations will suffice for now. I was wrong. Not only is the "Based on the Screenplay" graphic novel so far from the original story that I assume it would be unrecognizable to the trained eye, but the art, the dialogue, and the originality all suffer greatly. Does that sentence make sense? It sucked.
.5/5

Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne

I was so excited by this book that I almost started writing the review for it half way through. It's a good thing I didn't because the second half paled in comparison to the first. The beginning of the book was believable enough, cracking me up every couple of pages. I have only laughed so much when reading Tucker Max. But then the book takes a strange turn, as if Payne got Nick into so much shit that he simply couldn't dig him out again. So instead of be turned in and face the consequences and give the story some solidarity or grounding, Payne pushes it even farther, turning Nick into a cross-dressing convict in hiding. This Mrs. Doubtfire twist goes on entirely too long, hundreds of pages in fact. Then, in the end, Nick is still wanted by the FBI and has resolved to pretend to be a woman for the rest of his life even though he doesn't have transcripts or anything for school. But don't worry, because he's got the girl. My other complaint, or at least concern is the unrealistic nature of his love for Sheeni. He chases this girl for almost a year and puts his reputation, his future, and his life on the line for her when she gives him little hope of them ever actually being together. Well, that's my rant about it. The character Nick Twisp is incredibly self-sufficient, unworried about consequences and exactly how you wish you were as a teen. He is intelligent, self taught, witty, and hilarious. If only it didn't turn into such a circus in the end, I'd have to say this book was perfect.

4/5

The Squirrel Machine

The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit is eerie, beautiful, and concerning. Two fictional brothers grow up comfortably on their dead father's inheretance. They become inventors and dreamers, creating controversial musical machines out of animals. Among dream sequences and strange meetings with other characters, The Squirrel Machine is weird, weirder, and weirdest. I reccomend this book to the curious, eccentric, and queer readers among us. The art is detailed and moving. While the characters and plot remain less developed than I'd like, Rickheit makes up for it with the boys' found and made attempts at art.

5/5

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Violent, crude, and full of men, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is 700 pages of interesting plot developments and situational twists. The world is strange, full of eternal structures built by the species before man existed. The men are simply homosapien, I think. The only discrepancy I found was in the description of their facial hair as "beards." The book was almost too... shall I say "boyish" for me. Locke's girlfriend was away across seas. The only other girls were vicious twins and brutal whores. While I wouldn't have stuck through this book on my own, I'm glad I read it for the book club, which is tonight. I will update this if I find any other striking ideas.

3.23/5

The Lightening Thief

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan is a classic hero's journey style kids book. It stands apart because it incorporates mythological history and makes the Olympian pantheon easy and fun to understand. At times extraordinarily humorous and fast-enough moving, the book is really a success. I look forward to reading the other books in the series.

3.5/ 5

The Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson has proven to me that yet again I do not need dragons to love a fantasy world. (Though they are preferred) The trilogy follows a young girl named Vin through her heroic adventures to overthrow the final empire and become the wife of the new emperor. Vin is a "special young lady" with mistborn powers. Mistborns, in case you're not aware, have the power to burn all 16(?) alchemical metals in their stomachs. By swallowing different alloys or pure metals, mistborns can gain all kinds of things like strength, perception, and the ability to push or pull their bodies against other metals in their surroundings. The characterization is successful, as is the world-building. There was a bit too much fighting for my tastes but I read it all without any boredom. I didn't even have to skip sections. I can proudly say I read all +2200 pages. Also, the ending was a beautiful perfect bow.
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well Of Ascension
The Hero of Ages

I give this series a 4/5- low if only for personal taste.

Poetry

Here are a few of the books I have read for Dan Beachy-Quick's Recent Poetry of the United States class.
Forest Gander Eye Against Eye 4/5
H. L. Hix Legible Heavens 3/5
Lyn Hejinian Saga/ Circus 5/5
Peter Gizzi The Outernationale 5/5
Claudia Rankine Don't Let me be Lonely 4.75/5