Tag Archives: book reviews
Bedtime Stories: The Magician King
Post by Mark T. Locker.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman.
A few weeks ago I shared with you a magical novel called The Magicians, a Harry Potter-meets-Narnia-meets-something wayyy more grown-up. So intrigued was I by the ending, I had to run out and pick up the sequel, The Magician King. As far as middle books in a trilogy go, this one is pretty good. It is a fair bit darker in some ways and a bit more playful in others. SPOILER ALERT: The story picks up with Quentin and his friends Julia, Janet, and Eliot assuming the four thrones of the land of Fillory. But on an adventure to discover a magical golden key, Quentin and Julia find themselves suddenly back on Earth with no way of returning. The novel goes between the main narrative and the backstory of Julia who, unlike Quentin and his friends, was not accepted into magic school and had to find other means of developing her magical education. That is where most of the darkness of this story comes from.
I enjoyed this follow-up. Quentin has, thankfully, grown up and doesn’t make these stupid childish decisions like he did in the last book. He’s more of a protagonist I can get behind. If you read the first novel and enjoy it, I definitely recommend you pick up this one as well.
Bedtime Stories: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane.
I’ve been reading a disproportionate number of grown-up books these day. That’s not a bad thing; I’m just so accustomed to picture books and young adult literature! I’d been told of this book a couple years ago, but I’m pretty slow on the draw. I’d say this book is worth a read. Clay Jannon was a silicon valley graphic designer who was among the many victims of the Great Recession. After a lengthy unemployment, he happens across a San Francisco bookstore that is hiring for the night shift. It is immediately apparent that Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is not your typical bookstore. For one thing, most of the selection is a series of mysterious books which Jannon is forbidden to even look at. They take up a huge, 3-story shelf. The customers who request these books are eccentric, often disheveled, and frantic for the next edition. Jannon is required to record every detail of his encounters in the old leather-bound log books. When coaxed by a friend, he takes a look at one of the books and discovers it’s an entire volume written in code. As his curiosity deepens, he begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding this strange bookstore and its mysterious owner.
It’s a very interesting read, though the dialogues about technology versus old knowledge are a little overdone; one would almost think that Google paid a sum to have their products featured so prominently. Also, despite being somewhat ordinary in his skill set, the narrator has only incredible people in his life: the Google programmer; the skilled sculptor who works at ILM; the millionaire digital rendering master. It’s all just a little too convenient. The other half of the story, however, addresses the life of Aldus Manutius, an influential 16th-century printer and publisher, whose legacy surrounds the mysteries of the bookstore. That bit was a lot of fun. Overall it’s an intriguing story about old and new and an inquiry into if and how modern technology and the much-loved print medium might coexist.
Also: the cover glows in the dark! You can’t discover THAT in a digital format!
Bedtime Stories: The Magicians
Post by Mark T. Locker.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
I came across this novel when I read a Buzzfeed list a friend had posted which recommended adult novels based on which young adult novels you liked. If you liked Harry Potter, then you might like The Magicians. One might also say that if you liked the Chronicles of Narnia then you might like this. Mind you, this is NOT a book for children. This story is about magic college, not middle school. It’s full of all the drinking, drama, and poor choices that twenty-something-year-olds, magically gifted or otherwise, would make.
The story begins with a seventeen-year-old named Quentin who is bright and studious and who has never quite fit in. Secretly he still dreams of the magical world of Fillory, a series of children’s fantasy novels very much like Narnia. One day, after receiving a mysterious package, he finds himself transported to the campus of Brakebills, which is a school for magicians. He passes the entry exams and becomes a full-fledged student at a school of magic, draped in glamours that keep it hidden in the middle of upstate New York. Although there are little bits reminiscent of Harry Potter, this is not Harry Potter. Lev Grossman creates a unique magical world all its own. And although Fillory is like Narnia, you never see Edmund and Lucy behaving the way these magicians do. It’s a very intriguing and absorbing book even if, like me, you read so slowly it takes forever to get through. Well worth it in the end.
Bedtime Stories: Eleanor & Park
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Happy Monday! Some people are all a-twitter about the upcoming Superbowl game; others are talking about the Grammys. And then there are those who have been awaiting the REAL big news. I’m talking (as if you don’t know) about the ALA Midwinter Conference, at which all the literary awards are announced: Newbery, Printz, Coretta Scott King, Caldecott, and many others. Nothing quite as vindicating as having read a book just before it is awarded a medal. That proves real youth librarian stuff. Well, I’m not really a youth librarian and the book I just read didn’t win, HOWEVER I have just learned that Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell just won a Printz Honor! Yayyyy!
The place: Omaha, Nebraska. The time: 1986. Eleanor is the new kids. She’s fat, poor, has vibrant red hair and pale skin. She would love to be invisible but instead she is highly visible. Park is the only Asian kid in school, half Korean. He’s just cool enough to be left alone. And despite whatever damage may be done to his standing, he is the only one who makes space for Eleanor to sit down on the bus. So it begins.
Told in alternating voices of the two main characters, we watch the awkward, emotional and painful blossoming of a relationship. Built initially on interest in comics and all the alt bands of the 80s, Joy Division, The Smiths, U2, it’s a sweet and upsetting and funny novel for teens. The audio version is fun as it has two narrators, one for each point of view. Definitely worth a read/listen.
Bedtime Stories: Big Appetites
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Big Appetites: tiny people in a world of big food by Christopher Boffoli.
My favorite, and also the most challenging part of the whole Christmas shopping thing is taking my 5.5-year-old out to pick out presents for his mom. It’s funny: he never wanted to go to the perfume counter or look at jewelry; I guess he knows his mother too well. He felt most inspired at the book store. Although I put the kibosh on the book of poetry supposedly written by a cat (it was even worse than you might imagine; this cat is not only not real, but a terrible poet to boot. Think of someone who is not a poet trying to sound poetic. And then filter that through the lens of a cat. You get the idea) his next selection was definitely worth a look.
Perhaps you have the the art of Christopher Boffoli. Microsculptures of all kinds of people doing all kinds of everyday activities placed in an environment of food. The cover depicts a tiny person “mowing” an enormous orange. Suddenly, such a pedestrian task as cutting a green bean becomes as big a job as cutting a fallen tree. Two lumberjacks toil over the bean. A little crawdad become a beast on the loose.Someone must have told the artist to add captions to the pictures, maybe to beef up the size of the book. Personally, I think these take away any open-ended interpretations of the images. I prefer to ignore them and let the pictures speak for themselves. Big Appetites is a funny and easy coffee table book.
