Book report
Dec. 17th, 2011 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisMy first review on here is way longer than I typically go on.
Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier – How is this possible? How can this be the 5th book in a series in which every single book is amazingly good, in which I give every book an A? I only wish I could describe what makes the Sevenwaters series so good, but I’m not sure that I can. I’m tempted to paste in reviews from Amazon to try to convey how incredible Marillier’s work is. But basically, the Sevenwaters series is about a family of chieftains of ancient Ireland who enjoy a special relationship with otherworldly beings. This is the fifth book in the series and we’re on the third generation of characters. Each book in the series has the combination of strong setting, plot, and characters that I love with plenty of plot twists and mysteries revealed (some mysteries having been easier to solve by the reader than others). Each one focuses on a different female member of the family.
Since I am so intrigued with this series, I went to Goodreads.com to see what others thought of Marillier’s works. I did see some complaints that the novels are formulaic, and in my opinion there is a little bit of some merit to that concern. Without giving too much away, her heroines tend to find true love at the end of each book; it’s true, Marillier basically writes historical fantasy with a dash of romance added in. So if that combination doesn’t work for you then her books might not be to your liking. But she also has plenty of fans, and I’m one of them. In fact, if you were to ask me who is my favorite novelist is, I’d definitely say it’s her. As one review said, there is magic, mystery, and romance on every page, and Marillier knows how to pen a tale that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I love her, and I love that she is so consistently good. Seriously.
This novel and the previous one in the series had a male-male couple who were supporting characters, and I loved the way they were written. I did a post on how frickin’ pissed I was (am) to see that on goodreads.com apparently several reviewers are stupid homophobes who think gay people either shouldn’t exist or just shouldn’t be written about.
But anyway, back to the book, all I can say is that I give it my highest praise and another grade of A. Not every reader agreed with the main character’s choice at the end of the book, but it worked for me and I found it believable. Marillier has a sixth book in this series coming out and somehow I will have to wait 11 more months for it. She does have a couple of other series, so I think I will have to check them out in the meantime! Grade: A+, to every book in the Sevenwaters trilogy.
Break Your Own Rules by Flynn, Heath, and Holt – This was a “career advice” book, a genre which I read occasionally. It’s focused on helping women break out of paradigms that keep us from advancing. I’m not looking to climb the corporate career ladder at this point, but there were some really good tips and advice in it. A few examples that spoke to me:
- The authors made the point that women are usually the ones who end up on teams to plan the holiday party or plan a department outing. Men, they say, rarely sign up for these types of teams because “they are busy doing the types of projects that will actually get them promoted.”
- The authors talk about having the appearance and demeanor of an executive. They mentioned how one woman was candidly told that after meetings, she needed to stay around and have in-depth discussions about business issues “instead of appearing rushed and as if she had to get back to her email right away.” That is totally me. I can’t wait for meetings to finish so I can get back to making a dent in my (work) emails. This is the way I am, but I guess it’s good for me to realize that others might not perceive this as a good thing.
Those tidbits made it worth a read. Grade: B
More behind the cut.
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner – Since this was a bestseller, I’m guessing most people reading this post know at least a little about this book. It’s basically a series of revelations and thought-provokers by a rogue economist. Yes, it’s fascinating and it makes you think about things in a different way. But as with some of Malcolm Gladwell’s work, I’m not sure what to take from this other than general sense of questioning everything and trying to tackle problems in different ways. I did get a reminder of why I prefer to read books by women and people of color though. The authors claim that the spike in the 1980’s of Black unemployment and infant mortality was due to crack. Just crack? What about the role of Reagan and Bush’s destructive economic policies, defunding of social services, the waning influence of unions, disappearance of manufacturing jobs, and so on? Also didn’t appreciate when the authors accuse women’s advocates of overstating the number of women who are sexually assaulted. (They said that women’s advocates say the rate is one in three, and the authors site a study saying it’s more like one in eight. I just saw a report from the CDC that says it’s one in five. Maybe it’s hard to pin down an exact figure but I suspect our authors are a little clueless and off-target here). I will say that I was fascinated by the chapter on parenting and their questioning of how much influence parents have over their children’s success (their answer – it’s more who you are than what you do, that impacts your kids’ lives). Grade: B-
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon – I listened to this book on audio. It tells of Lynnie, a mildly retarded white woman, and Homan, a deaf Black man, who meet and fall in love in an institution during the 1960’s. Conditions at the institution are brutal and the couple escapes, only to be caught right away. Homan escapes again but Lynnie doesn’t. The novel tells the story of the next 40 years for them as they try to find their way back to each other. (In addition to being deaf, Homan is illiterate. He and Lynnie don’t even know each other’s real names, so finding each other is extraordinarily hard). The setting was great and I expected to like it a lot, but the execution was just so-so. It wasn’t that long but it really sagged in the middle and dragged its way to the ending. Grade: C+
From Microsoft to Malawi by Michael L. Buckler – This is the author’s memoir. He was an attorney, but in his early thirties found himself divorced and directionless, so he decided to do what he had always wanted to before: join the Peace Corp. So Buckler tells us about his two years in Malawi. The book is filled with interesting stories. And by the way, I griped about the cluelessness of some white males in my review of “Freakonomics”, so Buckler was a refreshing change of pace. During his stint in Malawi, he is respectful of their culture and gently advocates for the girls who are suffering under the weight of discrimination in the forms of much higher workloads than their brothers and much less emphasis placed on their schooling. Grade: B
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time!
Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier – How is this possible? How can this be the 5th book in a series in which every single book is amazingly good, in which I give every book an A? I only wish I could describe what makes the Sevenwaters series so good, but I’m not sure that I can. I’m tempted to paste in reviews from Amazon to try to convey how incredible Marillier’s work is. But basically, the Sevenwaters series is about a family of chieftains of ancient Ireland who enjoy a special relationship with otherworldly beings. This is the fifth book in the series and we’re on the third generation of characters. Each book in the series has the combination of strong setting, plot, and characters that I love with plenty of plot twists and mysteries revealed (some mysteries having been easier to solve by the reader than others). Each one focuses on a different female member of the family.
Since I am so intrigued with this series, I went to Goodreads.com to see what others thought of Marillier’s works. I did see some complaints that the novels are formulaic, and in my opinion there is a little bit of some merit to that concern. Without giving too much away, her heroines tend to find true love at the end of each book; it’s true, Marillier basically writes historical fantasy with a dash of romance added in. So if that combination doesn’t work for you then her books might not be to your liking. But she also has plenty of fans, and I’m one of them. In fact, if you were to ask me who is my favorite novelist is, I’d definitely say it’s her. As one review said, there is magic, mystery, and romance on every page, and Marillier knows how to pen a tale that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I love her, and I love that she is so consistently good. Seriously.
This novel and the previous one in the series had a male-male couple who were supporting characters, and I loved the way they were written. I did a post on how frickin’ pissed I was (am) to see that on goodreads.com apparently several reviewers are stupid homophobes who think gay people either shouldn’t exist or just shouldn’t be written about.
But anyway, back to the book, all I can say is that I give it my highest praise and another grade of A. Not every reader agreed with the main character’s choice at the end of the book, but it worked for me and I found it believable. Marillier has a sixth book in this series coming out and somehow I will have to wait 11 more months for it. She does have a couple of other series, so I think I will have to check them out in the meantime! Grade: A+, to every book in the Sevenwaters trilogy.
Break Your Own Rules by Flynn, Heath, and Holt – This was a “career advice” book, a genre which I read occasionally. It’s focused on helping women break out of paradigms that keep us from advancing. I’m not looking to climb the corporate career ladder at this point, but there were some really good tips and advice in it. A few examples that spoke to me:
- The authors made the point that women are usually the ones who end up on teams to plan the holiday party or plan a department outing. Men, they say, rarely sign up for these types of teams because “they are busy doing the types of projects that will actually get them promoted.”
- The authors talk about having the appearance and demeanor of an executive. They mentioned how one woman was candidly told that after meetings, she needed to stay around and have in-depth discussions about business issues “instead of appearing rushed and as if she had to get back to her email right away.” That is totally me. I can’t wait for meetings to finish so I can get back to making a dent in my (work) emails. This is the way I am, but I guess it’s good for me to realize that others might not perceive this as a good thing.
Those tidbits made it worth a read. Grade: B
More behind the cut.
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner – Since this was a bestseller, I’m guessing most people reading this post know at least a little about this book. It’s basically a series of revelations and thought-provokers by a rogue economist. Yes, it’s fascinating and it makes you think about things in a different way. But as with some of Malcolm Gladwell’s work, I’m not sure what to take from this other than general sense of questioning everything and trying to tackle problems in different ways. I did get a reminder of why I prefer to read books by women and people of color though. The authors claim that the spike in the 1980’s of Black unemployment and infant mortality was due to crack. Just crack? What about the role of Reagan and Bush’s destructive economic policies, defunding of social services, the waning influence of unions, disappearance of manufacturing jobs, and so on? Also didn’t appreciate when the authors accuse women’s advocates of overstating the number of women who are sexually assaulted. (They said that women’s advocates say the rate is one in three, and the authors site a study saying it’s more like one in eight. I just saw a report from the CDC that says it’s one in five. Maybe it’s hard to pin down an exact figure but I suspect our authors are a little clueless and off-target here). I will say that I was fascinated by the chapter on parenting and their questioning of how much influence parents have over their children’s success (their answer – it’s more who you are than what you do, that impacts your kids’ lives). Grade: B-
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon – I listened to this book on audio. It tells of Lynnie, a mildly retarded white woman, and Homan, a deaf Black man, who meet and fall in love in an institution during the 1960’s. Conditions at the institution are brutal and the couple escapes, only to be caught right away. Homan escapes again but Lynnie doesn’t. The novel tells the story of the next 40 years for them as they try to find their way back to each other. (In addition to being deaf, Homan is illiterate. He and Lynnie don’t even know each other’s real names, so finding each other is extraordinarily hard). The setting was great and I expected to like it a lot, but the execution was just so-so. It wasn’t that long but it really sagged in the middle and dragged its way to the ending. Grade: C+
From Microsoft to Malawi by Michael L. Buckler – This is the author’s memoir. He was an attorney, but in his early thirties found himself divorced and directionless, so he decided to do what he had always wanted to before: join the Peace Corp. So Buckler tells us about his two years in Malawi. The book is filled with interesting stories. And by the way, I griped about the cluelessness of some white males in my review of “Freakonomics”, so Buckler was a refreshing change of pace. During his stint in Malawi, he is respectful of their culture and gently advocates for the girls who are suffering under the weight of discrimination in the forms of much higher workloads than their brothers and much less emphasis placed on their schooling. Grade: B
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time!
