1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The Cover
It is beautiful. It says five things.
1. 1Q84
2. Haruki Murakami
3. A Novel
4. International Best Seller
5. "Murakami is a genius." Chicago Tribune

The Pages
Heavy press cream colored paper. Beautiful inside cover of two moons, one glowing white, the other clouded and dark against a black sky. Really the design of this book is superb. The page numbers are normal on the left and backwards on the right. 1Q84 is inscribed on the side of each page near the page number, also backwards on the right side.

By page 40
We have met two characters. One has traveled down the "rabbit hole," in this case, an expressway stairwell. So far it is expertly written- each scene a performance piece, set to silent music, with invisible cues. It's his best work yet, I'm already convinced.

The Entire Book
Haruki Murakami is a master. He kept the tension equal the whole time. The final outcome didn't hit until the last ten pages. And the whole time I was biting my nails, thinking, will he end it happily? I didn't know. I am immesely pleased with this book. I will carry it in my heart always. Also, I'm going to get a new tattoo on Friday. It's going to be from Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World.

This book gets 6/5

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

I didn't finish either of these books. They were both very intriguing. Fiction For Lyfe!

Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse by Max Brallier

An adult Choose Your Own Adventure, Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse by Max Brallier is everything you could hope for. "You" are a couple-years-out-of-college office worker in Manhattan and you're in a morning meeting when the outbreak happens. Do you take a taxi? Run for the subway? or head home to your apartment?
And thus your story begins. Reading this reminded me of all the times I read Choose Your Own Adventures stories before, as a kid. You've got your entire hand marking all the spots where you could backtrack if it was a bad decision, then you read the bad decision first, just to make sure it was a bad decision, then back track and read the right decision. That was what I would have done anyways you think.
The funny thing about Brallier's book is that the bad decisions are actually the best decisions. When I decided to start pounding beers and take a bunch of xanax, I eventually get rescued but, it seems, every time I try to intelligently avoid the zombies, I just end up getting killed. It makes me wonder what kind of decision making and morals Choose Your Own Adventure stories instilled in me as a kid.

4.75/5

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

OH MY GOD.
THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK.




I rolled around like a madwoman when it ended. No, I cried, No I don't want it to be over.

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi is an experiment in imagination. It follows the famous author, Mr. Fox, through his fairy-tale love affair with his own imaginary Mary Foxe. There is no line between reality and fiction, and the disjointed stories don't often add to the understanding of the whole but they are written with such keen observance and clarity of heart that you clutch at them, and live inside them for the few pages that they exist. Oyeyemi's writing is powerful, intoxicating, and clear. It's very rare that I read a book twice- I'm always on to the next thing, but I want to read this book over and over and over again. I want to see what I missed and I want to learn it by heart. I could talk about this book all day and it still wouldn't make much sense to someone who hasn't read it. It's not exactly confusing, just a bit disjointed, but in a lovely and desired way.
This is a great book.

6/5

The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Ereaders

Working for the local Library has it's perks. First of all, I can call in sick if I'm sick. I haven't actually done this yet, but it's really, really nice to know the option is there. Also, they just bought 12 e-readers - for the employees - to make us better employees. Now, isn't that awesome. And so, I checked out the oldest of the e-readers we have- the Sony E-Reader and I read The Help on it.


















Nicole's Opionion of E-Readers

E-Readers are about the stupidest thing ever invented. First of all, the technology is already outdated. The reason I say this is that there is absolutely no reason to be carrying around a phone, an e-reader, an mp3 player, and a laptop. This means, according to me, that all modern mobile device technology is outdated, as no device conglomerates all of these things into one - yet. And when that thing does, after it evolves for a couple gens, maybe then, maaaaybe then, will I say, okay, this technology is relevant and then buy one. You know that shit's only two or three years out. So why would I spend near $200 on something which, by the way I hate, to read books on when I'll be able to read books, listen to my music, surf the web, and carry it around in one hand in a couple of years for the same price. It's just stupidity.

Now, I said I hate e-readers. This is true. The second reason they are the stupidest thing ever invented is that they're fucking stupid. They take up all this waste, metal, batteries, plastic, energy, and then they give you... guess what, a book. But not a book that you can carry around and look cool. Not a book that you can smell. Not a book that you can look at the picture of the author. Not a book that you can see the color of the cover. Not a book that you can weigh in your hands. Not a book that you can physically experience as you plow through it. No. They give you a book that is actually just a bunch of words and nothing else. And they charge you the same price for it.

Third reason: I'm a hell of a fast reader. Like fastest in the West fast. I cannot read as fast on an e-reader as I can in a book and here is why.
1. The pages, even when the print is the smallest possible, are smaller than a regular page. This means I cannot read as many words at once. It also means the lag time between pages is increased greatly.
2. There is always some lag time between pages in ANY book, as you have to turn them. BUT I believe the lag time, at least for the Sony E-Reader is significantly more than simply turning a page.
I hate reading slow. And I hate waiting for a screen to load.


Now for the book:

The Help by Katheryn Stockett has been really popular. Like 100 holds at the library popular. It finally slowed down a big but then they released the movie. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is yes, it's a pretty good book and I'm glad it was so popular. It's theme is: "White people suck" and I'm pretty tired of reading about it after Indian Killer and now The Help. It was written pretty well and the historical background was pretty good. The characters were interesting. I'm not crazy about historical fiction if it doesn't have magic in it. So I'll give it a 4.

4/5

We the Animals by Justin Torres

So, yeah, the Iowa Writer's Workshop is the place to go.

Though it is marketed and sold as "fiction" Torres' story feels more like truth than the world outside the pages. In an observant and poetic voice, it is a telling of the classic story of three sons, narrated by the youngest. It's a book about brotherhood, coming of age, and the inevitable realization that our parents are people too. Lit by love and shadowed by pain, it is the true story of the human condition.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a strange story about a young boy dealing with his grandfather's death. His grandfather, while he was alive, was an extreme embellisher of stories, touting claims of monsters and magical children. Jacob, our hero, stopped believing his stories at a young age, that is, until his grandfather appeared to be killed by those very same monsters. Convinced he is crazy, Jacob travels into his grandfather's past and discovers that the world is not as stable as it appears to be.
My very favorite part in the book is this:
"Only birds can manipulate time, Therefore, all time manipulators must be able to take the form of a bird...Most, however, slip back and forth only occasionally, by accident. We who can manipulate time fields consciously- and not only for ourselves, but for others- are known as ymbrynes. We create temporal loops in which peculiar folk can live indefinitely."
Also, it stayed in the "real world" for a little over 100 boring pages, which made the fantasy exciting and fresh-feeling.

4.5/5

The Gunslinger by Steven King

Kelsey, my only, lonely reader will be happy to know that I am NOW READING THIS BOOK.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Well I'll be darned at the number of books I read and don't review. I read this, oh, two months ago, at the end of summer, perhaps in late August? Revati down at Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins handed me the book and said I would like it. I read the first few pages, wasn't ready for a teen book, then picked it up a couple of weeks later. Anyway, it follows a talented teenage art student who has a chimera (mixture of beasts/human) for a dad. It starts in the present, travels back to an almost entirely new (yet very connected) story, and then ends in the now-enlightened present. After meeting Laini Taylor at the Boulder Bookstore last night, I am more enthused about her work. She has written other things, like a book about a weaver of magic carpets, and uh, yeah I'm gonna read it. It's a great teen book, good characters, good plot though a little disorganized (I couldn't offer a better way to present the story) and finishing up with a horrible ending that could only be solved by, you guessed it, sequels.

4/5

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the third and final (and best) of the Hunger Games Trilogy. In it, Katniss assists in the revolution that she accidentally sparked and successfully achieves the desires of the rebel group. Always acting as a pawn takes it's toll though, and Katniss is left mostly empty, a shell of a person. Somehow, though, Collins makes a stab at a semi-happy epiloge. Many readers (aka amazon reviews) felt "betrayed" by Collins' ending but I thought she wrapped it up nicely and at least gave us something to hold on to. Great trilogy.


5/5

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

It's only a trilogy. I'm going to read it in 4 days and it's only a trilogy. What will I do afterwards? Probably what Stephanie Meyer did:
"I was so obsessed with this book I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table so I wouldn't have to stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it."
Yes, I've lost sleep over these books. Not just from incessant reading, but in nightmares and nagging thoughts. And there are only three of them. And now I'm on the third one. Not fair, not fair at all.

Let me get to my review, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, like it's predecessor The Hunger Games, reads like a movie. It's an action-packed page-turner. You read until your thoughts are Katniss Everdeen's thoughts, until you're thinking right along with her. She's very smart and Collins does a great job to keep the reader just as informed as she keeps Katniss- so the reader makes the same decisions and feels comfortable inside Katniss's head because she's reliable. She'll carry you through. She may not know everything but she does wonders with the knowledge she does have.
My complaint:
The Hunger Games should have been the last of The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a to-the-death contest and I was hoping Catching Fire would be all about Panem, the world, but of course it returned to the arena. Now, there's no POSSIBLE way that Mocking Jay (the third in the now-trilogy) can take place in the arena. Now we will get to the heart of the story, the distopian world, and the girl who will save her people from The Capitol.

4.75/5

Indian Killer by Sherman Badass Alexie

Sherman Alexie rules.
Indian Killer is not just a cool story. It's not even a cool story about Indians. It's a complete analysis and critique about the historical and current tension between white Americans and the Native Americans that they stole everything from WHILE telling a great story. The plot takes place in Seattle, not on a reservation. It deals with the Indians that have tried to assimilate into the white culture but of course, they carry their dark skin, their Indian blood, and for that, they're spurned, falsely adored, unjustly hated, and ignored. My favorite part is when Marie Poltkin says something along the lines that maybe the ghost dance, the dance to kill all the white people, maybe it works, and maybe a couple of Indians are ghost dancing, making the Indian Killer - who is an Indian who kills, not someone who kills Indians. Anyway, it was a great length. The only thing I wished would have happened, and it would have been so apparent and crafted if it had, would be that the two most violent characters, Aaron (white) and Reggie (indian) have met. Of course, they would have killed each other and maybe we wouldn't have learned anything but it felt like the tension should have led to their meeting. It didn't and that's okay.
I think it's his best because he blended an extreme sociological/cultural situation and made a hell of a book about it.

5/5