Trees: In Shadow

Trees: In Shadow was a really weird read. These alien tree things have descended on the Earth and have just sat, doing their thing for a decade. They don’t recognize humans as being intelligent forms of life. The graphic novel focuses on about four groups of humans, showing their lives and how they are affected by the trees. There’s a group of researchers who are trying to learn about the trees. There’s the Somalian president who wants to use the nearby tree as a staging ground to take over the neighbouring Puntland. There’s a special cultural zone in China, where people go to discover who they are (particularly their sexuality). And then there’s Cefalu, where a woman decides to take over her boyfriend’s militia with the help of an old special forces man she sees who disappears; she manages to track him down and convince him to help her learn to disappear.

I honestly didn’t care about most of the characters in Trees: In Shadow. I think the story skips around to too many places and doesn’t give enough time to develop them. But the story itself is oddly intriguing and kept me reading to the end.

Groot

I saw Groot at work the other day and thought it looked fun.  I read a page or so, but wasn't able to take it out at the time because someone else had it on hold.  I put my name on the list and got it today. 

Groot is a mostly solo adventure for everyone's favourite tree.  Groot talks rocket Raccoon into going to visit the Earth.  They take the slow way, starting out with hitchhiking.  They meet a multitude of interesting strangers on their way to Earth, which is largely fine until they meet a bounty hunter who wants the enormous bounty on Groot.  She captures Rocket Raccoon accidentally then decides to use him as bait to capture Groot, who she knows will come to save his friend (eventually!  He takes a rather long time to get there because Groot does things slowly). 

Groot encounters the Silver Surfer and goes with him and his friend, Dawn, to save a planet.  After parting ways with the Surfer, he encounters and befriends other people, who agree to come with him to save his friend.  This ends up a big misadventure where everyone almost dies, but he saves them all (and one of their new robot friends saves everyone in turn).

At this point, Rocket and Groot finally make it to Earth where they do all the things on their list (their friends told them things they should do, like listen to Starlord's favourite bands live, eat pizza and watch the best movie ever, and fight the strong super villains found there).  But really, Groot didn't come for these things, although he enjoys them.  With the help of the X-Men they party with, he manages to track down the girl who set him on his path years ago.  She's now an old woman, but she hasn't forgotten him.

Groot was a touching story about friendship.  It made me love that big-hearted tree so much.  Of course, it's also a fun adventure story too.  I loved every minute of this book!

The Sisters Brothers

I borrowed Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers from my brother a few months ago. My entire immediate family had read it, loved it, and kept wanting to talk about it so I knew I had to read it, too (at the very least to be in on the conversation). I started reading it last week, when I was specifically looking for an easy to read book (which The Sisters Brothers definitely is - most of the chapters are super short, making it easy to pick up and put down). I didn't get very far with it last week, but ended up reading about half of it last night when my internet wasn't working. So rather than do the stuff I was originally going to do tonight, I decided to finish The Sisters Brothers instead.

The Sisters Brothers is about Charlie and Eli Sisters, a notorious killing duo of the old west. They're hired by the Commodore to kill a man who purportedly stole something from him. The brothers have to track the culprit down in gold-rush San Francisco. But of course things aren't what they seem.

The brothers are an interesting pair. The book is narrated from Eli's perspective. Eli is a good-natured and rather sweet husky man who has a bit of a temper. He loves his brother dearly and will do anything to protect him. Charlie is a drunkard who likes killing and violence; it's his fault the two are notorious gunmen working for the Commodore. They use their last name sparingly through the book, but when they do it commands immediate respect; everyone knows who they are.

The Sisters Brothers is a fun romp through the American frontier. But it's also an interesting look at making the life you want for yourself, dealing with unfavourable life circumstances, and of course the powerful bond between siblings. As I already mentioned, it's a fast and easy read. But it's also full of beautiful and vivid descriptions. I really liked DeWitt's writing style; it's no wonder The Sisters Brothers won the Governor General's Literary Award (as well as other prizes and awards).

Taras Bulba

My brother lent me Nikolai Gogol's Taras Bulba some time ago.  When we were younger we saw the movie, but I honestly don't remember much from it (beyond Taras Bulba removing his scalp lock in anger at one point).  My dad decided he wanted to watch the movie again, so I decided to hurry and read the book before he gets the movie.  I started it this afternoon and finished it this evening (it's only about 140 pages, so totally doable in a day).

Taras Bulba opens with Taras Bulba's sons returning home from school.  Old Bulba (as the book often calls him) decides that they should immediately set out for Zaporozhe Sech, the training camp and base of the Cossacks.  After arriving there, his sons prove themselves to be adept warriors.  But the only way to truly have them reach manhood is to test their mettle on the battlefield.  Unfortunately, their current Ataman (leader) has made peace with their normal enemies.  So Taras sets about getting a new Ataman elected, one who will lead the Cossacks into glorious battle.  They decide on a course of action, but just before their army is about to leave, they get word that Jews and the Poles are ravaging the Ukraine (I think it was that the Jews were holding the churches in pledge, Jewish women were making skirts out of Orthodox priests' cassocks, and that the Polish priests were travelling around in carts which were pulled by Orthodox Christian men instead of horses).  So they decide to attack the Poles instead.

Their attacks go well until they arrive at the town of Dubno.  The Cossacks will not fare well against the fortified town, so they decide to wait until the townspeople starve.  It is there that Andri, Taras Bulba's younger son, discovers that the woman he is in love with is there.  He decides to turn his back on his people, his faith, and his homeland to be with her. 

Taras Bulba doesn't believe this can be so (especially since some of their numbers were attacked and enslaved during the night), but when he discovers it to be true, he is enraged.  He disowns the boy and vows to destroy the girl who would so tempt him.  But then the Cossacks get word of another tragedy: the Tatars have attacked the Sech and enslaved or killed all the Cossacks who remained (and stolen all their treasures).  So the Cossacks decide to split their army in half.  The Ataman will lead one half to save their comrades, while the second half, led by Taras Bulba, will remain to free their comrades at Dubno.  Taras Bulba manages to kill Andri just before he and his other son, Ostap, get surrounded.  Ostap is captured, but one of the other Cossacks manages to get Taras Bulba out of the battlefield.  Old Bulba was wounded in the battle, but after recovering from his wounds he decides to sneak into Poland to find his son.  This is much harder to do now that the Poles have put a huge price on his head.  He manages to do it though with the help of a Jew.  He is unable to speak with his son, but is in the crowd when Ostap is executed.  He later returns to Poland with a large force of Cossacks.  The other leaders agree to a peace, but Old Bulba refuses.  He takes whatever people want to go with him and pillages Poland in the name of his son until he is captured and killed.

So that was Taras Bulba.  A bit of crazy carousing and a whole lot of battle.  Gogol's prose is beautiful, particularly when he is describing things.  I was struck a number of times by his beautiful imagery, particularly when he was talking about the Ukrainian steppes. 

My one issue with the book was that I had a really hard time keeping most of the characters straight.  I had no problem with Taras Bulba and his sons, or the Ataman (because the book just referred to him as the Ataman once he was elected) and one or two other characters, but everyone else seemed to blend together in my head (rather like the dwarves from The Hobbit).  So when Gogol started detailing how people were dying in battle, at best I would have a vague sense of someone being a Captain or something, but that was it. 

Other than that, Taras Bulba was a very interesting read.  Most of the books I've read are by North American or Western European (ie English) authors, so it was fun to read something from Russia.  My brother lent me a book of Gogol's short stories, so that'll be a lot of fun to read in the future (I'm not going to read it yet though.  I'm going to read some other stuff first before coming back to Gogol).

Oh, I should also mention the introduction by Robert D. Kaplan, who likened a lot of what happened in the book to crowd mentality.  The Cossacks came together as a crowd and made decisions as a crowd.  It took only a strong personality to point them in a direction and set them loose.  I thought it was interesting that Taras Bulba often would point his brother Cossacks in a direction that suited him then join in on the action (almost surrendering himself to the crowd mentality after he was certain they were doing what he wanted).  Kaplan's introduction was rather thought provoking (and made me want to go read The Iliad or The Odyssey (which my brother and I are going to do soon!))

The Joys of Much Too Much

I've had this book for years, but I don't think it ever made it onto the List because it's nonfiction. I don't specifically remember when I bought it, but I remember hearing about it and really wanting to read it. Bonnie Fuller was a high profile magazine editor with a family of four kids - I definitely wanted to know how she managed such a life (and how I could, too). But apparently not enough to read it for a super long time. But I've been feeling overwhelmed by life for the last few days and spied The Joys of Much Too Much on my shelf. Now seemed as good a time as any to finally give the book a read. So I shoved all the things I needed to do aside last night and started reading.

I have to say, Fuller immediately made me feel better about my life. I breezed through over half the book last night, feeling a whole lot better about everything.

Fuller talks about how she got to where she's at and shares all of her tips for anyone else interested in living life like she does (in semi-organized chaos). Sure, she'll never have a Martha Stewart-perfect house. But who cares? If that's the price she has to pay for being the primary breadwinner of her family while still finding time to spend with her husband and kids, she gladly pays it!  Oh, and did I mention she passionately loves her job, too? That's totally the type of life I want to have, too; one where I'm happy and actively doing the things I love with my friends and family!

While I breezed through the book, I have to say that the latter half felt a bit more like a slog. Hence my three star rating on Goodreads (wheras last night I was definitely thinking along the lines of a four). The Joys of Much Too Much was a good read, but it got a bit too repetitive near the end. I think it would have made a better nonfiction novella (if such a thing exists?) rather than full book.

Atlantia

A friend at work was taking Ally Condie's Atlantia out and I happened to read the back.  It sounded so interesting that I had to take it out, too.  Here's the synopsis:

Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

Doesn't that sound awesome???

I ended up taking the book out from the library before Christmas, but just got to reading it a few days ago (I actually finished it last night).  And I have to say...I was actually tempted not to finish it.  The first chapter really caught my attention, but then the book got rather boring for quite awhile.  Rio's sister goes Above with no explanation.  Then multiple people offer Rio help and she turns everyone down attempting to do her thing on her own.  Or using them to get her information but keeping things from them because of reasons.  (Some of that was the secret that she was a siren, some of it was literally *reasons*).

Somewhere in the middle, I did manage to get interested *enough* in the plot to keep going.  But that had nothing to do with Rio.  Mostly it had to do with her aunt (who was this super powerful siren with extra special magic powers) because I was intrigued trying to figure out her relationship with her sister (Rio's mother).  It also had to do with the fact that the city was falling apart and I wanted to know who had caused the damage/what everyone was going to do about it.  Unfortunately the pay off for everything wasn't great, which made me sad.  I don't think I'll be running out to get any more of her books anytime soon.

Tarzan of the Apes

Well, I did it.  I read Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, which is the first adventure of Tarzan.  I actually finished it last night, but didn't have a chance to write anything about it until now.

Tarzan of the Apes is all about how Tarzan became Tarzan.  He's the son of an English nobleman (this is a key point).  His father, Lord John Clayton Greystoke, and his mother, Lady Alice, are marooned in the wilds of Africa, where Tarzan (their son, John) is born.  When they pass away around when he is one year old, Tarzan is raised by Kala, a she-ape.  Although smaller and slower-developing than the other apes, Tarzan comes into his own, using his cunning to eventually become King of the Apes. 

But he is also intrigued by the remains of his parents' cottage, where he discovers books.  He manages to teach himself how to read, which is how he learns of the world outside of his jungle.  And then one day he finds other humans.  First a displaced tribe of African cannibals enter his jungle, which he messes with (he kills them and steals from them, making them believe he is some sort of angry jungle spirit).  Later a small group of white people (including the first white woman he has ever seen, Jane Porter) are marooned exactly where his parents were years before.  Tarzan finds himself drawn to these people because they are the first beings he has ever seen that look like him.  He ends up saving and protecting them.  He also finds himself falling in love with the lovely Jane Porter.  But when Jane and the others leave him, Tarzan must choose between his world and following her into her world.

Tarzan of the Apes is very, very dated in its writing.  Like I said, the fact that Tarzan is the son of an English nobleman means, according to the book, that he is descended from the most advanced species of man in existence.  He is physically beautiful (being compared numerous times to gods) and so innately intelligent that he can teach himself to read at the age of 10 from just looking at books.  It really reminded me of Aphra Behn's Oronoko (which is about a black prince who is tricked into slavery; he is repeatedly compared to white people, apparently looking like a white person except for the colour of his skin.  Again, very dated!)

But at the same time, no matter how ridiculous it was, Tarzan of the Apes is a lot of fun, particularly in the latter half of the book (from when people show up in his life).  I have no desire to read any further in the series at the moment though, which is honestly a good thing; now I can choose another (hopefully List) book, rather than running out to find book 2.