Quick! Three more Canadian Books!

The Canadian Book Challenge, hosted over at The Book Mine Set, is coming to a close tomorrow, and I'm supposed to have read and reviewed 13 Canadian books over the past year. As of yesterday I've only done 10!

I decided at the beginning of the challenge that I would only count books I reviewed on my blog—books I chose and decided to recommend. If I counted books I reviewed for CM Magazine I would be way over my quota—but I'm not changing the rules on myself just because I'm down to the wire. What I can do is add a few more books to my blog that I reviewed for CM over the past year and liked. These are books I can heartily recommend as excellent reads, even if they're not books I would otherwise have chosen for myself.

Old Man, by David A. Poulsen, is  the story of a father-son trip to Vietnam. An estranged father tries to come to terms with what he did during the Vietnam war, and share with his son the experiences that, for good or bad, have made him what he is. Sounds heavy and dramatic and potentially didactic, not my kind of thing at all. But Poulsen narrates it from the point of view of sixteen-year-old Nick, and he is likeable, flippant, self-depreciating. The plot is fast-paced and tense, and the difficulties of two non-communicative guys trying to get to know each other are heartbreaking and hilarious. Poulsen conveys the complexities of a terrible war by describing one man's experiences and how they haunt him, all told from the point of view of the son who is trying to understand him. Quite masterfully done. Definitely a book for guys, but also for anyone interested in war stories and history, and anyone who just likes good writing.

Objects in Mirror, by Tudor Robins, is a horse book. I went through my phase as a teenager, devouring every book about horses I could get my hands on. Objects in Mirror is also about a girl with anorexia, and when I discovered this in chapter two I thought to myself, "oh, no, a horse book that's also an issue book." But then I stayed up until past midnight reading it because it's so good!

Main character and narrator Grace's voice is completely authentic. Her compulsion to lose weight is compellingly believable, and it conflicts heartbreakingly with her love and concern for the horses. According the the author interview at the back of the book, Robins is an avid horsewoman, and she has suffered from eating disorders herself. Her understanding and love of horses shines through in her writing: the horses are all individual characters, and she really makes us care about them. Robins also does a great job with the romance in the story: I swooned a bit over "Matt the horse god," who proves to be so understanding about Grace's disease. (And Robins writes one of the better kissing scenes I've ever read!)(I kind of harp on that in all the reviews I wrote of this book, but really, a good kissing scene is a rare thing to find and should be appreciated.) So don't pass this one by because it has a picture of a horse on the cover. It's worth a read whether you're horse mad or not.

Submarine Outlaw, by Philip Roy, is the first book of a series. I reviewed books 3, 4 and 5 for CM Magazine last year, (here are books 3 and 4 on my blog) and then I went on my own to find the first two, because I enjoyed the others so much. I just can't get over how clever Roy's concept is: a teenager builds his own submarine and then travels around the world having adventures. Who wouldn't want to read about that?

This first book describes how Alfred comes to build the submarine in the first place. Alfred lives in Newfoundland with his grandparents, but doesn't want to be a fisherman. He comes across an old oil tank in the local junk yard and dreams of turning it into a one-man submarine. Turns out the crusty owner of the junk yard knows everything about submarines, and the two of them spend the first part of the book building a sea-worthy vessel. The description is detailed enough to make you believe this is actually possible without being boring. Then off Alfred goes. He rescues a dog and adopts a seagull, he has to avoid getting caught because he has no license, but when people need help he doesn't hesitate. In each story in the series, Alfred learns about a different part of the world and learns a little more about himself and responsibility. A coming of age story set in a submarine. Too awesome. Good for boys, good for middle-grade and above, good for everyone who likes adventures.

There! 13 Canadian books read and reviewed between July 1 2012 and June 30 2013! Maybe a bit rushed here at the end, but I squeaked by. Next year I won't leave so many to the last minute. I promise. Really.

Strands of Bronze and Gold, by Jane Nickerson

Holy flying time, Batman! What happened to May and June??

I've been busy, and I haven't had much time to read in the last two months. But the truth is I haven't been inspired to blog because nothing I've read lately has really grabbed me and made me want to force you all to read it too because it's so amazing. Sad to say, I've taken a great number of books back to the library unfinished. I just don't have the time or the attention span to put up with contrived plots, boring characters and laboured writing.

I read this book several months ago, and reviewed it for CM Magazine (note that my CM review contains spoilers) and Goodreads, but I never got around to blogging about it. I'm going to blog about it now because it's a Canadian book, and I've only got three more days to make my Canadian Book Challenge quota (and I think I still need at least three books, yikes!). And because it was neither contrived, boring nor laboured!

Strands of Bronze and Gold is a retelling of the Bluebeard story, one of the more disturbing fairy tales out there. Set in the American South before the Civil War, Nickerson's version revisits Bluebeard as M. Bernard de Cressac, a wealthy Frenchman who transported an ancient abbey stone-by-stone from Europe to Mississippi. The story takes place in his huge castle-like house with rambling rooms and mysterious ruins in the garden; the setting is vivid enough to be a character itself.

The main character is de Cressac's goddaughter, Sophie. He invites her to live with him as his ward after her parents die and her family becomes destitute. At first it's a dream come true of luxury and beauty, but Sophie gradually realizes that the house is haunted by the ghosts of de Cressac's former wives. What exactly happened to them? Then de Cressac asks Sophie to marry him.

Creepy, lush, gothic, suspenseful and atmospheric, Strands of Bronze and Gold plays with the original fairy tale, making it possibly even more disturbing. Not action-packed: it's about the slow dawning of horror as Sophia realizes what her godfather really wants from her, and discovers what he has done.

Grilled peaches with bacon and maple syrup on cornbread.

I wouldn't recommend it for younger readers; nothing explicit, but mature themes.

 

This is my 9th Canadian book reviewed this year. Check out The Book Mine Set for lots of great Canadian books to read.

Half World and Darkest Light, by Hiromi Goto

This is the other book & sequel that I read on my Spring Break holiday, and Hiromi is Canadian, so they count as two more toward my Canadian Book Challenge! (I think I'm up to 10 now.)

Do you remember Monty Python's famous quotation, "And now for something completely different . . ."?

That's how I feel about Hiromi Goto's two YA fantasies: completely different from anything else out there.

Have you ever seen Hieronymus Bosch's famous painting The Garden of Earthly Delights? I'm fairly certain that some of the inspiration for Half World comes from this bizarre painting (these are just two small sections of the whole thing):

If all that gorgeous and weird art hasn't piqued your interest enough, Goto has created a fantasy world built on Eastern philosophy, not Judeo-Christian Good vs Evil. It has a very different feel. Disconcerting, sometimes, if you're not used to it, but interesting.

Of the two books, Half World has the more conventional plot: Melanie's mother goes missing and Melanie has to travel to the alternate realm of Half World in order to get her back. There is the creepiest villain you've ever met and Melanie has to defeat him. Or does she? The ending is quite unexpected and makes you rethink all the other stories you've read that had typical Good Guy Wins endings. (Don't worry, I'm not spoiling it for you. You still have no idea what happens!)

Darkest Light was harder for me to read. Gee is the most fascinating protagonist I've ever encountered, and his development was compelling to follow. (Anything I tell you about him would be spoilery, so I shall say no more!)(Don't read any Goodread reviews either, at least not until you've read Half World!) His story delves more deeply into Half World, which is an uncomfortable place for a Judeo-Christian reader to be: this is not an after life in which the good are rewarded and the wicked punished. Innocent people have to suffer in Half World until the trauma of their life is worked through. As much as I enjoyed the creepy, imaginative ways Goto represents suffering souls, I did not want them to have to suffer! So I had a hard time wrapping my head around some of the things that happened. But it was thought-provoking and very cool.

Maybe the most unusual thing about these two books is that there are only two of them: they aren't the first two books of a trilogy. How original!

The best comparison for the Half World books is the mango roll at our local sushi place: raw pacific salmon and albacore tuna wrapped up with mango. Raw fish takes some getting used to if you've never had it before. But it's so delicious!

Disclaimer: I didn't know Hiromi Goto when I first read Half World, but I have since met her and worked with her, and she's a very nice, funny, intelligent, thoughtful person. So I'm not likely to say anything negative about her books! But if I didn't like them I wouldn't mention them here at all, so you can be reassured that this isn't false praise.

For more great Canadian reads, check out John Mutford's The Book Mine Set, with a monthly round-up of reviews of Canadian books. Also go here to vote on John's weekly book question:  What has been the best small or big screen adaptation of a Canadian book?

(My vote is for Anne of Green Gables) :)

I promised you sequels: Cinder and Scarlet

What on earth happened to April? Yikes! Almost an entire month ago I said I'd get to the sequels I read over Spring Break soon. I guess three weeks counts as soon in Dead Houseplant Land. I'd better quickly get caught up!

I didn't read everything I said I was going to, and I read some things I wasn't planning to, but I did re-read Cinder and then read Scarlet, by Marissa Meyer.

Here's my Goodread's review of Cinder, just to bring you up to speed if you haven't read it yet:

A steampunk Cinderella? With a believably-realized world of human cyborgs and plagues and moon people? Too fun! I was willing to buy the book for the joke of Cinderella losing her foot rather than her shoe, but I was completely won over by the characters, the romance, the suspense, the fascinating world. Eagerly awaiting the second book.

I enjoyed Cinder just as much on rereading. It's not one of the books I'll go back to again and again, but it's certainly entertaining. And I found Scarlet a very satisfying second book. We still get to see quite a bit of Cinder (not too much of Prince Kai, unfortunately), and I loved the new characters: feisty Scarlet, mysterious Wolf, and disreputable Thorne. There's plenty of action, and we learn a bit more about those strange Lunar people and their scary queen. Apparently the next book will have Rapunzel in it. Light, fun, intriguing--and with awesome covers: I'll probably buy Cress in hardcover too.

Milk chocolate-covered nuts, or pretzels, or little fruit nuggets, whatever you like covered in chocolate: tasty and a little bit addictive.

Keeping it short: I'll save my Canadian sequel for the next post (which won't take me another month, I promise!)

Beholder's Eye, by Julie Czerneda

I didn't get all the vacation reading done that I said I would. I did get to a few of those sequels, and I'll do a post about them shortly. I also discovered a couple of new authors I want to read more of. Since one of them is Canadian, and I'm sorely behind on my Canadian Book Challenge (I need 12 by July and I've got 7 so far), today's post is about sci fi writer Julie Czerneda.

I bought Beholder's Eye right before I left, because it was a paperback, my friend said it was good, and Czerneda is Canadian. (Always like to support fellow countrymen.) It turned out to be a perfect beach read: fun, interesting with cool ideas but not mind-bendingly challenging, fair bit of action but not too intense.

Beholder's Eye felt more fantasy-like to me than science fiction. (Just to be clear, this isn't a bad thing in my view.) Yes, there are space ships and space ports, but the story didn't depend on technology in any way. Esen-Alit-Quar is a being who can shift shapes into any species she has "acquired." Faced with a threat to her own existence and to all the life she has encountered, Esen has to decide whether to keep the rules about not exposing her identity, or to risk her own species in helping the others. It's really a coming-of-age story set in a number of fun alien worlds, and a story of friendship and loyalty, using two species as metaphors for the things that keep us from trusting one another. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to YA readers, and to fantasy readers who want to try out science fiction.

This book is a stand-alone, but there are two more books about Esen-Alit-Quar. I'm curious to see how her relationship with the human Ragem develops in the next two books. But my library has the three books in her Stratification cycle, which looks promising, and her latest, which is fantasy and also looks very good (there are giant toads: I think it's a must-read!). So I'm not sure which one I'll try next.

Beholder's Eye is like the tostadas we had in Mexico: lots of different flavours layered on top of crunchy goodness.

For more Canadian books to try, in all genres, check out John Mutford's blog, The Book Mine Set.

How to write description

Sometimes before I go to sleep I pick a book from the piles of read books by my bed, open it to a random page and start reading. When I'm not caught up in the plot, it's easier to pay attention to the writing.

Here's a passage that jumped out at me from Lois McMaster Bujold's Captain Vorpatril's Alliance:

And then they were crossing out of the tube into another foyer, and escorted by Christos through a pair of sleek doors clad in fine wood marquetry to a hushed hallway graced with mirrors and fresh flowers. And then into a broad living room backed by wide glass walls taking in a sweeping panorama of the capital, with the sun going down and the dusk rising to turn the city lights to jewels on velvet for as far as the eye could see, under a cloud-banded sky.

It's the kind of paragraph that whizzes past while you're reading, depositing setting information almost subliminally. How does she do this?

The first thing I noticed: there isn't a single instance of the verb "to be."For a passage of description, there is a remarkable amount of action here. The characters are moving through the setting: "crossing into" and "escorted through" "and then into," so the reader is carried with them. But even the inanimate objects don't just sit there. They are "clad," "graced," "backed." The sun goes down, the dusk rises and turns, the eye sees.

The next thing I noticed is how much Bujold doesn't tell us. Do we know whether the room is carpeted? Do we know what color the furniture is? Is there a couch in the living room? Does it matter? She gives us only the most telling details, enough to convey luxury, taste, beauty. The rest we can fill in for ourselves.

It's not so obvious in this particular passage, but the details Bujold chooses are the ones that the POV character would notice. This is Tej seeing the setting, a woman trained in aesthetics who has never been to this residence before but is familiar with luxurious settings. Tej notices that the mirrors and flowers "grace" the hallway; Tej appreciates the beauty of the sunset. If Ivan were narrating, Ivan who is escorting Tej to meet his mother, he would not have seen any of the things Tej did. He might have noticed anything that was different from the last time he was there, but his eyes would have gone first to his mother, not to the view. Description reveals character, can even reveal emotion, by showing what the character sees.

So there you have it: Three Rules for Writing Description:

1.    Use strong verbs that contribute to the atmosphere you want to create.

2.    Only describe the telling details.

3.     Be aware of who is narrating the scene, and describe it through their eyes.

Another thing I noticed about this passage that might not have universal application: if you're writing an action novel, or a novel for young people, you don't want readers to get hung up on description and get bored. This passage is only two sentences long (and the second one isn't even a real sentence). The description all takes place in prepositional phrases. We read prepositional phrases more quickly than main clauses because we know they're less important grammatically. Our eye seeks out subject and predicate and takes in modifying phrases along the way. The structure of Bujold's sentences speeds our absorption of the description. Brilliant.

I suppose this is more a question of pacing than description per se. So how about A Rule About Pacing:

1.    Use grammar to control how your readers make their way through a page.

Easy, right?

Diana Wynne Jones guest blog and other random stuff

Check out my guest blog on We Be Reading, in which I talk about The Dark Lord of Derkholm and how funny Diana Wynne Jones is. And if you're not already following We Be Reading, Kirsten is filling March with musings and reviews of Diana Wynne Jones, so if you're a fan it's worth joining the conversation, and if you've never read DWJ, you need to check out all the reasons why you should!

If you're looking to while away more time on the internet, I had great fun on this random crime-fighting-buddies generator: They Fight Crime!

There's also a random sentence generator, and Chuck Wendig has a flash fiction challenge using it. You still have time: his deadline is Friday March 15 at noon. Quick, go get a random sentence and write a story using it!

If you've done that and you still have time to kill, Chuck Wendig's latest is a great post about tantric sex--No! It's actually about writing, and how good writing is like tantric sex, not that he would know (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). He makes a great point, and it's something I've noticed about Diana Wynne Jones and Megan Whalen Turner in particular, which is why I so obsessively reread them: writing is all about withholding. Not telling everything.

DWJ and MWT use the fewest words possible to tell their story, so you know that every word is absolutely crucial. There is no skimming through description when reading their books, never any "yada, yada, get to the good part" feelings. Every scene is dramatic and full of conflict; if it doesn't seem like anything important is happening, you reread the scene to see what you missed, because you definitely missed something. And so you read the books in a constant state of frustrated tension: "must find out what's going on." Half the time when I get to the end of one of their books, I have to go back and reread most of it just to figure out what just happened. And I love it.

Sigh. Must go cut out half the words in my WIP.