Too Close to the Falls

Lately I have been really into reading memoirs. I am so used to reading fiction that I always seem to figure out what is going to happen in the plot, before it actually happens. The lack of imagination that some writers have blows my mind at times. Yet the great thing about memoirs are that they are totally unpredictable. The stories told do not follow the usual plot themes of the average novel, making each memoir unique and memorable. At the same time it can be difficult reading because you want so badly for something to turn out OK or for the story to come full circle, and often times they do not.

Too Close to the Falls follows the life of Cathy McClure while growing up in Lewiston, New York, in the 1950's. In the beginning Cathy is 4-years-old and the book ends with her as 11-years-old. Cathy is the only child of her strange and lovable middle aged parents. Her mother is nothing like the quintessential 50's housewife, she doesn't clean or cook, and the family eats out for every meal. "Mother was convinced that it was important never to learn to cook or type or you'd be requested to do both against your will forever." Cathy's father is a pharmacist who owns the town drug store. Cathy, unlike other children her age, starts working at her fathers pharmacy, full time, at the age of 4. Today Cathy would have been diagnosed with ADHD, but in the 50's it was believed that she had too much excess energy. The doctor thought it would be in Cathy's best interest if she started working so as to expend that energy. Cathy helps deliver medications with the pharmacists delivery man Roy. Roy cannot read so Cathy is in charge of reading the map and the list of medications, while Roy drives the van.

A majority of the book depicts the experiences Cathy had driving around Lewiston and the neighboring towns delivering drugs with Roy. The encounters that Cathy and Roy have while delivering medications are all at once incredible, funny and sometimes deeply saddening. Because of her exposure to the world, Cathy understands human nature better than people triple her age. Although some of the situations she finds herself in, she does not fully understand the full meaning of what is happening to her.

The last portion of the book transitions into her teenage years. It is at this point in her life that Cathy quickly learns that the world is not completely black and white in regards to religion, 'morals' and what is right and wrong. Unfortunately, the loss of her innocence comes at a high price.

At times I found some of Cathy's stories to be hard to believe. Many of the memories from her childhood are extremely detailed, leading me to think that maybe she embellished a few. Yet regardless as to how valid or accurate her stories are, I still enjoyed them immensely. Cathy's life is definitely one in a million, and it's not everyday that you stumble upon a book like this.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

A Red Herring Without Mustard is the third book in the Flavia de Leuce mystery series. Normally, I don't read mystery novels, but my mom highly recommended this series to me. I gave it a try and I'm in literature love.

The plot takes place in 1950's era England, in the small town of Bishop Lacey. Flavia is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her emotionally distant, stamp enthusiast father, Colonel de Leuc , two cruel older sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy) and her loyal, yet sometimes 'foggy' grounds keeper, Dogger. Flavia's mother, Harriet,died when Flavia was just a baby in a tragic mountain climbing accident. Unlike other girls her age, Flavia loves chemistry and spends a majority of her time in a lab built by one of her ancestors in the family mansion, Buckshaw. Flavia's favorite pastime is recreating poisons used by histories most infamous poisoners.

Flavia's macabre and dry sense of humor makes for an extremely entertaining read. She has the ability to make any seemingly disturbing situation into something that is quite humorous, if not a bit disconserting. Although Flavia is a child, the plot of the book is definitely not for children. In fact, Flavia's narrative makes her sound more of an adult than a majority of the adult characters.

The Red Herring concerns a series of gruesome murders occuring throughout the town. The murders appear be related, but you can never be sure because the plot takes many twists that are intended to be misleading (get it...'red herring'...duh). Flavia becomes intimately involved with each of the murders in town, leaving her with the more knowledge of the deaths than anyone else has. Her ability to outsmart and out think the bumbling adults that surround her, allows me to forget that she is in fact only 11-years-old. We are only reminded of her actual age when she comes face to face with death, and only then are we shown the little girl that she truly is. The plot itself is complicated in nature and I don't want to give anything away, so it's up to you to find out.

My one complaint about this book is that I read it as soon as it was published, so now I have to wait  forever for the next installment! Also, on a side note I am all about crazy internet fads, so I started a Tumblr blog (sorry for cheating on you blogger). My Tumblr blog is pretty simple, it's just some of my favorite quotes from the books I've been reading recently. There are some really good ones from The Red Herring Without Mustard, so check it out! thebananalise.tumblr.com

More bookshelf fun!

Instead of writing my next book review like I should be, I am posting this awesome video. I think that this video goes hand-in-hand with my previous bookshelf porn post. Watch and enjoy! Hopefully I can get my next post out soon...

Eldest

I'm the kind of person who tries to avoid literature fads for as long as possible. I always pass by the displays in the bookstore that hold all of the 'it books' and turn up my nose. I scoff at the fans who devote themselves entirely to the series and usually make fun of the plot (vampires and werewolves? wtf?). Then a few years later once the hype has died down, I crack. I try to resist, I really do, but my own personal taboo against reading these books over takes my pride and I give in to the guilty pleasure. Usually, I secretly buy and read the books, whilst trying to avoid public places so people don't judge me. I tend to mutilate the book, in a feeble attempt to hide the cover from other people.

 The Inheritance Cycle is one of these situations. About a year ago I read the first book in the series, Eragon, and was mildly impressed. I think what initially drew me in was the fact that the author was only 16 when he wrote the first book. Once I have read the first book in the series I feel like I have to read the other books, it's some weird obssessive-compulsive thing. I was hesitant to read the second book, Eldest. I try not to read reviews beforehand because I find that they instill a bias in my own reading, but for Eldest I decided to read them anyways. A lot of people really liked it (mostly 14-year-old boys) and a lot of people weren't impressed (everyone else above the age of 14). Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much.

I wouldn't say that Eldest is a great work of literature. It is a YA fantasy novel that is better than most. Definitely a purely entertaining read, not much symbolism or depth. Although, half the time I felt like I was studying for the verbal part of the SAT. Paolini loves obscure adjectives. I have never seen the word 'cacophonous' used so many times in one book before. He also promotes the pursuit of scholarly endeavors within the plot, which seems really out of place and condescending. 

If you have read Eragon, you know that Paolini's writing style isn't the most complex or mature, but with Eldest he has definitely evolved as a writer. In Eldest, there are multiple perspectives which gives the story much more complexity and allows you to get more involved in the story.  I am not a huge fan of the main character (Eragon), so I was happy that we get to see the story unfold from other perspectives, such as his cousin, Roran. If you aren't familiar with the series, the story takes place in the country of Alagaësia where a evil omnipotent king named Galbatorix rules over the people whom he repeatedly enslaves and abuses. Galbatorix is a semi-immortal being who was previously a Dragon Rider but murdered his fellow riders so as to rule Alagaësia himself. Since Galbatorix murdered all of the other riders and almost all of the dragons, no one can stand against him. As a safety Galbatorix has kept three dragon eggs for himself so that he can maintain control over the dragon race. Fortunately for our protagonist, one of the eggs is stolen by a rebel group (the Varden) and, through a series of events, comes into Eragon's possession. As I am sure you can figure out, the egg hatches for him and he becomes the only other dragon rider in the empire. From there on the story becomes very predictable in nature, so I wont bore you with any more details. Basically, if you know anything about Campbell's monomyth (hero cycle) theory, you can figure out the entire plot. Eldest follows Eragon further on his journey to become the dragon rider to defeat Galbatorix. In retrospect the most memorable narratives of the book were the chapters from Roran's point of view. Unlike most of the characters, Roran is not definitively good or bad. Instead, he struggles with the consequences of the murders he must commit in order to rescue his fiance and keep an entire village alive in the face of great odds.

OK, time to wrap up this obnoxiously long post. Overall this book is exactly what you would think any YA fantasy novel would be. The only difference between this book and all of the other books in this genre is the writing. Although Paolini's writing isn't very well developed, he shows promise for improvement and maybe some really impressive work in the future. This is a good book to read if you are looking for a simple guilty pleasure that doesn't involve vampire, werewolf and dumb-girl love triangles. Also, you may learn some new fancy words you can impress your friends with. If you don't know what cacophonous means, look it up and try using it more than once in your entire life. Easier said than done.

Bookshelf Obsession

Well, I am still chugging along through a very thick book. Although it is not a very difficult read, the shear length is the challenge (approx 900 pages). I've been told by some friends and family members that if I picked shorter books I would complete the challenge faster. I don't know why but that just seems like cheating to me. If I am going to read I am going to READ. Hopefully I can crank it out in a week or two, but until then here's a random post to keep you entertained.

So in my constant pursuit of procrastination I stumbled upon this blog with these amazing photos of bookshelves. I know, what is so great about bookshelves? What could be so exciting about that? Well I love books so it just makes sense that I love the shelves they rest on. I say the bigger and more dramatic the better. Right now I have a $30 shelf that I purchased from Target this past summer. Now don't get me wrong, I like my bookshelf and it does the trick. Yet I still yearn for a shelf as dramatic as some of the images I found today. Until the day I can afford to hire an amazing carpenter to build my $20,000 bookshelf masterpiece I will just be content with drooling at pictures of said shelves. If anyone else shares my weird bookshelf fetish here is a link to the blog post I found the photos on:
Apartment Therapy -- Bookshelf Envy

Also, I just uncovered another tumblr photo blog called Bookshelf Porn. Yes, you heard me right, porn. I bet you never thought you'd ever see those two words in the same sentence. This site may be even better than the earlier Bookshelf Envy article. You have to see some of these amazing shelves, they are more like works of art than actual shelves.

Bookshelf Wall (Courtesy of bookshelfporn.com)

I want this shelf. Wait, no. I need this shelf! (Courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com)

Goodreads

I'm all about distracting myself from real work by surfing the web. Recently a fellow bibliophile friend of mine recommended this insanely addicting site called goodreads.com. Needless to say I have spent the last hour and a half adding books to my various goodreads lists and book shelves, when I should really be doing school work. So if you love reading as much as I do join the site! Trust me you won't be disappointed.

p.s.
friend me!  http://www.goodreads.com/bananalise

The Sandman

The Sandman Volume 1 Preludes and Nocturnes
Written by Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcom Jones III
Published by DC Comics (Compilation Copyright Year 1999)

I've always had an interest in graphic novels. In fact the comic book genre is what got me to start reading in the first place. As a little girl the only way my parents could get me to read was by giving me Betty and Veronica comic books. Every couple of weeks my Dad would bring home the latest issue and I would tear through it. I don't read comics or graphic novels too often anymore, but I had been meaning to read the Sandman series for some time. I figured it would be a good addition to my list because it is so different than all the other books I have read. Let me just say I was not prepared for what I encountered.

This particular volume is a compilation of about five different 'issues' that had originally been released monthly. The comic focuses on the protagonist Morpheus. Morpheus is the anthropomorphic personification of dreams. He is the lord of the "Dream Realm" and he can control what people dream, thus the name Sandman. Basically this particular volume documents the capture of Morpheus by magicians who hold him captive for over 60 years. They take from him 3 items which hold his power. He spends the rest of the book attempting to take those items back so that he can rule the dream realm once again. Throughout this process he encounters some really messed up stuff. His journey to retrieve his magical items takes him to hell, a really creepy mental asylum and a house of horrors.

Right around the second issue I figured out why the Sandman series is said to contain adult content and is also considered to be in the horror genre. There are disturbing images of decapitation, people literally exploding, lots and lots of blood and gore, and some other really nasty stuff that I don't even know how to describe. I felt that the excessive use of violent images kind of took away from the story line, which was actually quite good. I was really impressed by the compilation of the frames within each page. Most of them weren't laid out in a consecutive manner, instead they flowed with the tone of the story which really made it a much more intense reading experience. The disorganization of the pages puts the reader on edge, which I assume is the feeling the artist was going for.  I've read almost all of Neil Gaiman's other works and realized that they are just as dark and creepy, but somehow seeing it drawn out for you just makes it a little hard to stomach. The story is riddled with references to ancient mythology, which gives it good depth.

I don't know if I plan on reading the rest of the series. From what I've heard and read, the other 12 or so volumes are much better. Honestly though, I just don't think it's my kind of thing. The fan base for this series is huge, so maybe I should give it another chance. But for now I think I am going to steer clear from this series, until I feel like I am up for the challenge again.

Footnote: Sorry for all of the grammatical errors in the first publication of this post. I suppose being all strung out on caffeine and trying to write a post at 1 in the morning isn't the best thing for my grammar, which isn't really very good to being with. Special thanks to my favorite 'editor' Nathan Kaplan for finding the errors for me :)