Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Non-Book Blogs/Sites I Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic and encourage fellow bloggers to list their own top ten answers. This week’s prompt was to list the Top Ten Blogs/Sites You Read That AREN’T about Books. It will be so interesting to see how differently (or similarly) everyone’s tastes run! My list is below.

1. The Hairpin & The Awl
These sister sites are incredibly intelligent, whimsical, and poignant, by turns. I check them both every day and highly, highly recommend them.

2. 2 Birds, 1 Blog
Updates are sporadic, but when these two blogging friends are on, they are ON, sharing bizarre stories of public transportation hijinks, “weekend hair,” and what MD 20-20 tastes like. I’m jealous of people who are unfamiliar with them and can go through their archives, reading their posts for the first time.

3. Tumblr
Probably the biggest time-suck on this list. (Feel free to follow me on Tumblr–my username is tarynwanderer.)

4. Slate
This is mostly for the “Dear Prudence” column, but I will click around when something catches my eye…even if it’s just comment-baiting.

5. Videogum
I only recently discovered this site, but it routinely makes me laugh out loud. Just last week the comments on this post had me crying, I was laughing so hard. The best and funniest commenters on the web, bar none.

6. io9
While  I don’t really read Gawker or its properties anymore, I have stayed very loyal to io9. They do great reviews and round-ups of science fiction and fantasy books, in addition to funny lists and science news.

7. Topless Robot
For a similar audience as io9, TR covers nerdy comic books, movies, television, and everything in between with tongue firmly in-cheek. (For those of you with strong constitutions–and I mean it, these are incredibly NSFW–check out their skewering of terrible smutty fanfic on Fanfiction Fridays.)

8. Hark, a Vagrant!
For a while there, Kate Beaton was the internet’s best-kept secret. It’s really nice to see her (and her hilarious, history- and literature-themed webcomics) get the attention they deserve!

9. A  Bad Case of the Dates
I have to admit, this one is purely for the LOLZ.

10. Get Off My Internets (GOMI)
A very guilty pleasure, where twee mommybloggers, inept fashion bloggers, and holier-than-thou lifestyle bloggers are taken to task for their offenses.

Review: The Watchers, by Jon Steele

These are the hardest reviews for me to write (other than the reviews where I absolutely loved a book and just want to gush about it without any critical thoughts): when a book’s ideas were interesting, but the execution left something to be desired. This is the situation I find myself in with The Watchers, by Jon Steele. The idea of fallen angels roaming the Earth (who were the watchers the title alludes to) is a cool one, and a lot could have been done with the biblical Nephilim. However, The Watchers fell flat for me for several big reasons: the pacing, the characters, and the story-telling.

I’ll start with the good. Many of the twists were unexpected, and there were several mysteries whose resolutions I wasn’t able to guess. Once the plot kicks in, you will probably want to finish the story, even if just to figure out who Harper is, who the “bad shadows” are and what they’re after, etc. Also, the scenes with Katherine after she is kidnapped are genuinely scary. The novel was unafraid of getting dark, that’s for sure, which I appreciated. And like I said, the biblical lore is interesting enough to stand on its own.

“The angel has come to Lausanne Cathedreal, Rochat, just like Maman said.”

Now for the bad and the ugly:

The first 200 to 300 pages are excruciatingly slow, as we are introduced to our main characters of Harper, Katherine, and Marc through largely-unconnected vignettes. As the plot finally begins to unfold, the pace then switches back and forth between “frenetic” and “glacial.” It was…disconcerting. Each time I began a new chapter, I would wonder if I could skim it or if this would suddenly be the paragraph where a twist or plot point was unveiled. I think if those first few hundred pages had been pared down, the actual plot would have been given some more urgency, as well as space to expand. As it stands, the pacing is just too disjointed to allow the thriller this book wants to be take hold.

As for the characters: Katherine was completely useless, there to be a pawn/damsel-in-distress/excuse to write in sex scenes/allegory for Mary Magdelene. She is meant to undergo a sort of transformation as the book proceeds, from a selfish, silly young woman to someone more thoughtful and mature. The problem was, I didn’t really believe it, or her as a character. Whatever characterization she is given is about as deep as a puddle. Harper was…eh. Technically our hero, but surprisingly low on the heroics and instead more consistent on a) getting beaten within an inch of his life, b) lagging a step behind the major good/evil forces, and c) cursing at people who can help him/have more knowledge than he does. Amnesiac detectives can be written well, but I felt as little connection with him as I did with Katherine.

Review: Talulla Rising, by Glen Duncan

Talulla Rising, Glen Duncan’s sequel to 2011′s The Last Werewolf, is a great example of a slow-burning novel. It starts quietly, in an isolated cabin in Alaska, and quickly becomes a mysterious chase spanning the globe as our heroine attempts to avert the murder of her child in a cult ceremony.

Oh yeah, and our heroine is a werewolf who eviscerates and devours at least one human being each month.

First things first: I suggest playing this video as you read my review. (And yes, it’s taken from the werewolf playlist I’ve mentioned previously.)

I won’t keep you in suspense; I really, really enjoyed this book. It had much of the same black humor as the first book, and the same frenetic energy. Instead of following Jake, we follow Talulla–the new last werewolf–as she waits to give birth to her dead partner’s child/pup. Everything quickly goes to hell. In the interests of avoiding spoilers, I won’t detail exactly how or why.

I was wary of Talulla at first. She introduces herself as a bad girl, a nasty girl, a girl who has always done what she wanted, even before she became a monster every full moon. Not…the most endearing qualities, but I don’t need to actively like every character I read about, even if it’s the main character. Honestly, I think I just felt somewhat more detached from Talulla than I did from Jake. Duncan is a masterful writer, but it took me a while to really believe in Talulla and her voice; for stories written in a first-person narrative, a reader not believing in your POV character can be the kiss of death. I had the thought, more often than once, that Duncan was perhaps not as comfortable–or at least, as believable–writing from a woman’s perspective. I do, however, applaud his effort, and once the pace picked up, I found myself understanding Talulla a bit better, and even admiring her particular thoughts and skills as distinct from Marlowe’s.

She discovered that not only could she kill and eat people once a month, but she could kill and eat people once a month and love it.

There are many familiar faces, including Cloquet (love him!), Madeleine, and Mia. Their inclusion and contributions to the plot were frequently wonderful and unexpected. The evolution of Cloquet from a drug-addicted, foolish, love-struck man into Talulla’s companion was perhaps, to me, one of the most unambiguously positive outcomes of the last book. And though the specter of Jake hangs over Talulla (and Madeleine), having him there was nice for the reader–both for continuity and for the sheer enjoyment of his familiar voice.

The first third of the book does drag somewhat, as the action is sporadic, and bookended by long periods of waiting. It is also a bit more introspective, as Talulla contemplates her troubling reaction (or rather, non-reaction) to going through birth. Intellectually, I can appreciate Duncan’s choice to delve into postpartum bonding issues, but my Id was all, “I want bloody werewolf violence! And I want it NOW!”. Luckily, the action does pick up after Talulla and her companions find the scent of the ones who stole her baby/pup. (You may or may not be surprised at who is doing the kidnapping.)

While a few of the twists fell flat, in my opinion, (such as the built-up reveal of Delilah Snow), the majority were genuinely surprising and completely intriguing. Even having Talulla experience postpartum bonding issues was a surprising choice–you’d imagine a werewolf mother to be immediately protective of her pups, and yet Duncan chose to have her struggle with feelings of numbness, confusion, and guilt instead. I really appreciated the forethought and subtlety of many of these twists, some of which had their groundwork first laid out in The Last Werewolf. I mean, I’m a graduate student who a) has little free time and b) basically has to read academic texts and journals for a living, and I read this book in four days. That’s often the highest praise I can give!

By the novel’s end, Talulla had proven herself to be a worthy successor to Marlow. And while some of the book’s mysteries have been solved, Duncan has thrown even more questions into the mix. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens next.

Talulla Rising comes out in June 2012. I received this book free for review through NetGalley.

Bookwanderer Rating: Four out of five stars
Bookwanderer Tagline: “Expect the absurd, Jake had warned me. Expect the risible twist, the ludicrous denouement. Expect the perverse. It’s the werewolf’s lot.”

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors on Television/Freebie Week

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic and encourage fellow bloggers to list their own top ten answers. This week’s prompt was to either

a) name the authors that should be on reality shows/have their own television shows

or b) write about whatever you want!

I chose option b. Therefore, I decided to make my Top Ten Tuesday list my top ten Likable Books, Unlikable Characters. I defined this as when I found overall books to be enjoyable, despite of (or in some cases, because of!) mean, evil, or generally unpleasant characters.

1. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
I just finished this tale of murder and betrayal on a quiet Vermont college campus. Pretty much every character in it is awful in their own special way. There’s not one but two murders, abuse, incest, drug abuse, lying, backstabbing…really, anything you can think of.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
It’s cheating a little bit to list all five of these books under one heading, but morality is such a central part of the entire’s series theme that I felt justified in lumping them all together. There are only a few unambiguously evil characters in Martin’s books (Gregor Clegane and Ramsay Bolton immediately jump to mind) but the characters with shifting moralities tend to the most interesting. Watching Jaime Lannister evolve from the selfish, misguided Kingslayer into a much more humble man, for example, is highly engaging.

3 & 4. The Last Werewolf and Talulla Rising, by Glen Duncan
Our heroes are werewolves who kill and eat people. And enjoy it. Enough said?

5. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Cathy, Cathy, Cathy.  It’s rare to find a true female sociopath represented well, even in fiction, but Steinbeck’s prostitute/murderer/child abandoner is the pinnacle of the form.

6. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
No TTT of mine would be complete without a McCarthy novel. I chose NCfOM because Anton Chigurh is one of the most terrifying antagonists I’ve ever met: pitiless, emotionless, and completely incomprehensible, more like a natural disaster than an actual human being. His bizarre brand of morality served, to me, to heighten the book’s premise that life is random and often cruel.

7. Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Much like Duncan’s books above, we are asked to sympathize with a creature that is no longer human, and depends on killing humans to survive. The creepy thing is, we do.

8 & 9. The Magicians and The Magician King, by Lev Grossman
The Beast is terrifying. Reading about it swallowing a girl whole and biting off Penny’s hands sent pure, primordial fear through me, in a way that really doesn’t happen very often. Though Reynard is in the sequel far less than the Beast is in the first book, he is still a complete nightmare.

10. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Based on a chilling true story, In Cold Blood is a fascinating character study of two murderers.

For all of the Steven King fans out there

Pop-culture site Vulture has posted great ranking of all of Steven King’s works.

I haven’t read very much of King’s oeuvre so far–just Carrie and On Writing. (I enjoyed the latter especially, and am thankful to my undergrad creative nonfiction professor for assigning it, so long ago!)

After reading their list, I think I’d like to check out Needful Things, The Long Walk, The Dead Zone, Misery and Full Dark, No Stars. I go through phases were all I want to read are psychological horror, and one may be coming up soon!

What are your favorite books by King?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Quotes From Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic and encourage fellow bloggers to list their own top ten answers. This week’s prompt was our Top Ten Favorite Quotes From Books! Now, these are going to be depressing. I tend to gravitate toward serious pronouncements about death and love. I also cheated slightly–9 and 10 on this list are two poems that I absolutely love and have memorized (and if you know me, you know that’s a big deal; my memory retention is horrible). Enjoy!

1. The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing

People are just cannibals unless they leave each other alone.

2. Goodbye Tsugumi, by Banana Yoshimoto

Each one of us continues to carry the heart of each self we’ve ever been, at every stage along the way, and a chaos of everything good and rotten. And we have to carry this weight all alone, through each day that we live. We try to be as nice as we can to the people we love, but we alone support the weight of ourselves.

3. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well as men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.

4. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel

‘Those who are made can be unmade.’

5. Black Water, by Joyce Carol Oates

You’re an American girl, you love your life….you believe you have chosen it.

6. The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

7. The Prophet again, by Kahlil Gibran

For what is it to die, But to stand in the sun and melt into the wind? And when the Earth has claimed our limbs, Then we shall truly dance.

8. A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin

“Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”

9. Collected Works, by Lorine Niedecker

Wherever you are, you are in danger

Well

To hell

With it.

10. “The Uses of Sorrow,” from Thirst, by Mary Oliver

(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

Review: When She Woke, by Hillary Jordan

Imagine bearing clearly-visible evidence of a crime you had committed. Imagine never being able to take off the sigil that branded you as a criminal. Imagine the eyes burning the back of your head, the taunts, the parents protectively grabbing their children when you walked by.

The force of this public shaming is a large part of what makes Hillary Jordan’s  When She Woke such an interesting novel. Anyone convicted of a serious crime–such as murder–is melachromed: their skin is dyed red, or yellow, or blue (depending on the crime), instantly outing them…and cutting down their chances of survival once they’re reintroduced to public life.

The underlying premise of When She Woke is thoughtful and well-crafted: After a sexually-transmitted “Plague” hits the United States, in addition to other unspecified disasters including overcrowded prisons, a large swath of the country becomes extremely (and I mean EXTREMELY) religiously-conservative, outlawing abortion and establishing a Secretary of Faith position in the presidential cabinet. LGBTQ individuals are seen as pitable freaks at best and agents of Satan at worst. Much like Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, women are valued only for their ability to procreate, and are expected to be subservient to their husbands’ will. (The truly scary thing is that there are people who really think like this, in 2012, and some of them are even in charge of legislating. Shudder.) Into this frightful (and frighteningly-believable) world, we follow Hannah, a rule-abiding young woman…who has just had an abortion and been melachromed red for the crime of murder.

The few glimpses we get of the world outside Texas and Hannah’s small circle are tantalizing. Her friend Kayla, for example, is not nearly as sheltered as Hannah and has been able to date, attend college, and formulate her own views on religion. We hear that abortion is still legal in California and New York, and that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Canada have been served. I would love to see Jordan explore this world again, in more detail (sequel alert?). The ramifications of this hyper-religious U.S. would be so interesting to see, especially on a global scale. Have we been denounced by the U.N. as a human-rights violator? Have other countries filled the void we left as a superpower?

Overall, I very much liked being brought along on Hannah’s journey from shame and guilt to strength and empowerment. Many of the changes she experienced felt very natural, as her horizons broadened through the necessity of survival. Her musings about free will versus predestination were especially interesting, and I would have liked to hear more; her struggles to reconcile her religious beliefs with her new experiences was, I think, very true to what many sheltered individuals go through the first time they are confronted with proof that the world is not as straightforward as they were taught. While some reviewers did not like Jordan’s attempt to counterbalance the negatives of blind religious faith with the benefits of religion, I thought it was a nice touch. Hannah has been steeped in this type of thinking her entire life; even after all she’s been though, it’s much more realistic for her to try to find a way to adapt her religious views than abandon them altogether, at least right away.

A few things kept this from being a full four or five star book for me, however.

 

Review: Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel

It’s so, so deliciously fun to read about characters who are unrepentantly good at what they do–even (or especially) if what they do isn’t very nice. Competent, confident characters are just cool. Think about it: Wolverine. Michonne. Han Solo. Samuel L. Jackson. Dean Winchester. Thomas Cromwell.

The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.

Yes, Thomas Cromwell, friend and minister to King Henry the VIII of England. Cromwell is a magnificent bastard, and I mean that in the best way possible. Even as he helps to engineer the downfall of Anne Boleyn, I couldn’t help but root for him; he does what he needs to do to ensure Henry’s happiness and his own house’s security, and does it with ruthless competence.

In Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel’s sequel to her Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall, she follows Cromwell in the weeks immediately preceding the fall of Anne Boleyn. Whereas Wolf Hall took place over the course of a few years, the action in Bring Up the Bodies is compressed, to great effect: we jump right into the action and the pace doesn’t let up until the final pages. I found it just as un-put-down-able as Wolf Hall, which was one of my favorite reads of 2010.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books You’d Like to See Made Into Movies

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic and encourage fellow bloggers to list their own top ten answers. For today, we were asked to list the top ten books  we  would like to see made into movies. I prefer watching action and adventure movies, so my list will reflect that!

1. The Zona, by Nathan Yocum
In my review of this action-adventure novel, I actually wrote that I could see this making an amazing movie! Think about it: a post-apocalyptic United States, where a brutal theocracy rules the West, and Preachers are sanctioned assassins. Not only would I see this movie, I’d be there in the front row on opening night.

2. The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan
I recently watched An American Werewolf in London and really enjoyed it (surprisingly, since I am a scaredy-cat and can’t watch most horror movies). I would love to see Duncan’s The Last Werewolf adapted for the screen with that same level of horror and black humor! This is the kind of supernatural thriller that would actually provide thrills.

3. Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
There is a glut of television shows/books/media in general about the Tudors, but I’ve never experienced such a thoughtful and moving portrait as I found in Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Keeping the focus on Cromwell would be  a welcome change from all the Henry/Anne Boleyn stuff out there. (And hey, looks like I’m in luck! BBC and HBO are making a Wold Hall miniseries! Woohoo!)

4. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
Okay, this would be tough, due to the unrelenting violence and general bleakness of the text. No Country for Old Men did a great job of representing McCarthy, though, and I think it can be done, if the novel’s themes are made clear. The struggle between the Kid and the Judge is so powerful and thought-provoking! (A film was planned, actually, but seems to have stalled.)

5. His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman
I know there were plans to film this entire series, which were scrapped due to the poor box office performance of The Golden Compass movie. However, I think The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglasswould be wonderful to see on screen, if the filmmakers truly committed to the transgressive and mature themes of the books.

6. Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey
You’d probably have to tone down some of the sex, but it would still be an incredibly charged movie! The world-building is so strong in the book, and it would be so cool to see Terre d’Ange on screen. Now, who should play Phaedre?

7. Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
It’s such a snarky, funny book; filmed with that tongue-in-cheek manner in mind, it could be really hilarious! I’d like to see Crowley and Aziraphale’s friendship visually. I kind of imagine this movie looking like a mash-up of the television show Supernatural (which I am currently totally obsessed with) and Dogma.

8. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien Soon, this will be a reality!

9.  Passage, by Connie Willis I know I mention this book on nearly every TTT, but it’s just because I love it so gosh-darn much! It could be tricky to film, but the “death experience” scenes would be gorgeous. I picture them having this surreal, floating quality, in contrast to the highly-focused, everyday business of the hospital. Oh man. Now I really want this to be a movie!

10. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
I actually didn’t enjoy reading Middlesex. However, I could see it being a fantastic movie, if its quirkiness was truly embraced. Like a Forrest Gump coming of age movie for the millennial set. I’m imagining Wes Anderson directing…

Review: The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan

I straight-up LOVE werewolves. This isn’t the result of any “Team Jacob” leanings; I’ve always held werewolves up as my favorite of the mythical creatures. I’ve even got a Spotify playlist solely devoted to werewolf songs! Something about the idea of our savage, inner selves bursting uncontrollably to the fore, obliterating–even just for one night–all of the social niceties and societal mores that simultaneously constrain us and make us human, is incredibly interesting. When written well–and I mean in their slavering, bestial glory–werewolf stories serve as a dark mirror reflecting our baser natures. (That’s part and parcel of what bothers me about some current werewolf stories: too much focus on romance, not enough on tearing prey apart, angsting about becoming a murderous animal, and generally being awesome.)

Bearing that in mind, it was with glee that I devoured Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf. THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT. This was one of the last books I read in 2011, and it is definitely on my list of faves from that year. Our narrator, Marlowe, is a centuries-old werewolf who also happens to be the last of his kind. Lonely, weary, and bored, Jake is contemplating ending his life–and thus the legend of the werewolf–when he’s suddenly thrust into the plottings and conspiracies of not only the supernatural hunters, but other supernatural entities themselves. Along the way, he discovers a reason to keep on living. (I’m trying my best to avoid spoilers here!)

I very much enjoyed The Last Werewolf. I would almost call it a supernatural thriller; it’s fast-paced and exciting, once the plot picks up and we start following Marlow’s adventures. It’s dark. It’s challenging (since you are sort of rooting for a serial killer). And best of all, Marlowe is a smart, philosophical guy, and so we get his meditations on life and death alongside all of the carnage. For a book about werewolves, parts were awfully realistic. His debauchery actually struck me as quite realistic for someone who has lived for 200 years; I imagine you get bored after seeing history repeat itself one too many times. While some of the twists and turns may have strayed into unbelievable territory, I was happy to be along on the ride.

The Last Werewolf is certainly not for the faint of heart; there’s swearing, gore, and sex, in addition to the general dark tones and themes. But hey, it’s a book about werewolves–I would have been disappointed with anything else.

Bookwanderer Rating: Four stars