Book Club

We also have our Book Club on Thursday in the Evening!

 

Zentangle Class Tomorrow AFTERNOON!

Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising is a book that people seem to really love or really hate, according to the star ratings on bookseller websites. The plot deals with a 16 year old Darrow living as a miner on a terraformed Mars who is chosen to infiltrate a school of other elite teens. They will have to show their aptitude for leadership in a huge Hunger Games-like test. His goal is to bring down the corrupt government which took everything he once loved.

Does that sound like every other dystopian teen novel? Because it was.

The main character was a sort of Gary Stu – he was somehow good at everything, always had good luck (especially after really bad things happened), and had a heart of gold. He was in danger throughout the book, but I never really felt like he wasn’t going to make it out alive.

Red Rising was an easy read, and I did want to finish it and see how things resolved. I never felt like I really knew what was coming, though it still felt a little too much like Hunger Games. I guess the main difference was that in this approximately year-long game, the point is not to kill one another, but to take the opposing teams’ lands and resources. Killing was not supposed to be the method, but it happened frequently enough that it was a big concern for most of the students.

There’s a fair bit of Roman mythology weaved in, which was fun to try to see if there were comparisons to figure out. The Roman elements didn’t seem to have much bearing on the plot, but it may become so in future books.

The content in the book was a bit more mature than in Hunger Games, but not really too adult either. There were some sexual references, including name-calling and insults, and there were several mentions of rape. This book may be in YA sections in some libraries and Adult fiction in others, however, the characters are all teens, and the writing itself feels like other YA fiction. It’s likely that older teens would find this book interesting, a little edgy, but probably not be embarrassed telling their parents about it.

This is the first book in a trilogy, and this one ends with a huge set-up for whatever comes next. So, even though the plot felt a little too unoriginal, it was still a decent read. I would hesitate recommending it to younger teens or anyone who wants a squeaky-clean book – the characters are vengeful, sometimes murderous, manipulative, etc. Darrow is all of these things, but he is conflicted about it and thinks about it often – he has to infiltrate the government to bring it down, and he has to be the things he hates to do it.

There is a movie in the works, so you can be sure this book will only grow in popularity. You’ll probably see more and more of it in the coming months.

Overall, if you like books with sci-fi elements that don’t deal too deeply with complex technology or space travel, and if you like huge casts of characters with interweaving plots, this book will likely entertain and leave you wanting to find out what happens next. I’d give it 3 out of 5 Mars, er, stars…

Secrets of a Charmed LIfe

Kendra Van Zant is an American student just finishing up four months of studying in England, it's the end of the term and she is interviewing a survivor of the Blitz during WWII, for her final writing project. Everyone was surprised when Isabel agreed to be interviewed by Kendra, but no one was more intrigued than Kendra when Isabel begins her story that reveals decades of secrets.

Isabel's story begins with two sisters who live with their single mother at a time when single mothers were not really accepted in society.  It was also at the beginning of England's involvement in WWII and many had not yet felt the affects of war, until children were shipped off to the country where they would be safe from Germany's bombs.

This was a touching story of two sisters who were tragically separated during the blitz and their story of trying to find each other and how their loss haunted them even into their adult years. I did enjoy reading this book. Towards the end, there is a section made up of letters and I found myself skipping through them just to get to the end, otherwise a very good book.

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

Summer Puppet Shows This Week!

Here's a small peak of our Summer Puppet Show

Wednesday and Thursday @ 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30

Stealing the Countess

Stealing the Countess by David Housewright

Paul Duclos is a famous violin maestro who had gone back to his hometown of Bayfield, Wisconsin to play in a small outdoor summer concert. Once the concert is over, his Stradivarius, the Countess Borromeo is stolen. When his insurance company refuses to offer a reward for the Stradivarius, Duclos becomes so desperate he rounds up $250,000 in reward money and hires Mckenzie to find the violin.

Mckenzie, a former police officer, reluctantly agrees to search for the violin. Once he gets to Bayfield, he soon discovers there is more to the story than he has been told and there are many different people who might be behind the theft. Things get even more interesting when his long time rival, Heavnly Petryk appears on the scene looking for the same violin.

This is actually one book in a series with the main character of Mckenzie. Although I had not read any of the other books in this series, I was able to read it and not feel lost. I would give this book approximately a 4 out 5 rating. It was a little slow throughout the book, but still a good read.

Les Miserables

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Who doesn’t know the story of Jean Valjean? Movies, plays, musicals, and countless abridgments have been made, and each usually covers the basic plot.

The unabridged book is one of the longest novels ever penned, and I’m probably not the only one who took a really long time to get through it. There is SO much going on. The meat of the story is of Jean Valjean’s life as a parole-breaker on the run and his own redemtion, and every version of the story gets that part right. It’s all the other stuff going on that makes the story so affecting—the tragedy of Fantine, the sly and terrible Mr. and Mrs. Thernandier, the hopeful and loving Marius, the inspiring Bishop who give Valjean’s life meaning—all  these characters and more give a richness to the story that feels larger than life.

As rich and thought-provoking as many elements of the story are, there are several very long tangents that Hugo takes. There is a lengthy section on the battle of Waterloo that is strictly for background. There is a section on the construction and maintenance of the Parisian sewer system. There’s another long section on the history of some street slang used by two characters so minor that by the time it gets back to the story, the reader may have forgotten what they were reading about.

That said, the abridged version has a grandeur that other versions simply do not have. The first 70 pages of the novel are about the life of a bishop in a small town. The bishop is a good man, and kind and thoughtful and an inspiring character. Jean Valjean is taken in by him after those 70 pages, and it is at that point where most abridgments begin.

Overall, Les Miserables was an inspiring story about redemption and kindness. Bad things happen to good people, and sometimes bad people get just what they wanted. The author paints a vivid picture of each character and the reader can learn a great deal about humanity through Hugo’s work.

If I were to read this again, I admit that I’d probably go with an abridged version. I’d also recommend an abridged version to someone who is more interested in the story than the history of Paris and France (and its sewers).

The audiobook version is around 60 hours, but it is great to hear the French pronunciations of the character names. I also found that it was easier to get through some of the “tangent parts” via audiobook than by reading it.

There’s good reason Les Miserables has been famous for so long—it’s a great story that anyone can learn from. Give it a try, there are muggets of wisdom on every page!

Les Miserables can be found in the adult fiction section and in the audiobooks.