CBR IV # 18 - The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken

I didn't like this book. Mostly because the main character is so bloody unappealing.  I don't care if the boy is tall or wise beyond his years, he's still a fuckin boy.  And she is so amazingly emotionally stunted it's not even funny.

So there's this librarian in a small town who's only claim to fame is a boy who wouldn't stop growing up.  Librarian is a typical old maid.  Chilly and unable to form close relationships.  She is fascinated by a boy who is afflicted with gigantism and soon becomes close to him and his family.  The book tells the story of their sort of courtship and the short life of a very tall boy.

Now why did I not like this book?  As I said, it was mostly because of my distaste for the main character, the librarian.  It's actually not so much that she first met the boy when he was just a child, I mean the age disparity is really not that big.  It's more that she does not really have any reasons for her melancholy.  I think this is my failing, but I get very irritated by characters that can have, or do have, everything but is still so... sad. 

I wanted to know more about the boy, but he was never really fleshed out but was more the librarian's ideal of him.  So, no I didn't like it very much.

CBR IV # 21 - The Magicians by Lev Grossman

It is true, The Magicians is sort of like Harry Potter for grown ups.  And a little bit if Narnia in the mix.  It's cynical and grown up and I guess with more realistic elements if you can call it that.

Quentin Coldwater was a  gifted student living in Brooklyn, applying for colleges with his two bestfriends when he suddenly finds himself in a magical school in England.  He takes a rigorous exam and is accepted at Brakebills, the aforementioned school of magic.

The story takes us from his days in the school where he makes some friends, to his graduation and re-entry into the real world, to their entry into the even more magical world of Filory.

Unlike in Harry Potter where there is a truly separate world of magicians with real magician jobs and magician government, the graduates of Braksebill reenter the real world.  They have a trust fund provided by the school, so they don't really work.  They are rudderless and just floating around with so much power and nothing to use it on.

That is until Penny, a weirdo (even for magic school standards) former classmates shows up and says he's found a way to enter a sort of alternate universe, Filory.  Filory was actually a universe written about in a series of books wherein a group of siblings find their way in there.  Like Narnia.  There are magical beings and evil creatures.  So the group starts an adventure in that wonderful, weird land.

Although nothing really happened, I liked the first part, the Harry Potter part better than the Narnia part.    Maybe I was expecting too much.  I mean, I liked it, it was unusual, but I wasn't super wowed by it.  I mean, I haven't even read the second book yet.

CBR IV # 26 - With Your Crooked Heart by Helen Dunmore

This is one of those extremely poetic books where I feel like I'm dreaming when I'm reading.  What I mean is, there's a dreamlike quality to the writing and every little incident is huge and magnified.  Every emotion is felt (or not) and mundane actions become beautiful or grotesque.

Louise is married to Paul, a successful and well to do man.  He didn't start out rich though.  He was a young man who clawed himself from poverty.  He has a much younger brother Johnny who he protects and takes care of.

The story starts off with Louise, feeling beautifully pregnant and naked, living a dream life in a garden paradise in the middle of London.  It would seem like she has everything, rich husband, beautiful flat, and smoldering brother in law (ok maybe not that part).  Well, a few years after that and Louise is a fucked up alcoholic mess.  She's fat, her kid is under the custody of her husband, who has remarried and moved to the country. She is left with nothing really, except drink and the sometime company of Johnny.  She is an absolute mess.

The story moves from Louise to her little girl in the country.  Stuff happens.  Changes are made in their lives and the ending left me feeling a bit confused (like I was dreaming) and inexplicable affected and touched.  I'm not entirely sure what the meaning of the book is, I'm not even sure I like it, but it made me feel weird and sort of sad.

CBR IV # 25 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

The book opens with Joan Foster settling in a villa in a small Italian town.  She had just faked her own death, and was nervous and jumpy, wondering whether he has been successful or not.  From this present day, the book takes us back to Joan's childhood.  Her fatness, he overbearing Mother and distant father.  Her only friend was an eccentric aunt who loved her unconditionally.  We then follow her to her teenage years, running away from home, her love affairs, and finally to her life just prior to her fake death.

Joan is a girls of multiple personalities.  She was a fat girl, a secret writer of Gothic romances, a kinda dumb housewife, a kept woman, and adulterer, and authoress of an intriguing feminist book.  She switches easily from personality to personality, creating personas both innocently and calculatingly at the same time.

The book is not really a thriller about a woman faking her death.  It may seem high concept at first, but really, it is just a story about a woman.

The first book I read of Atwood was the Handmaiden's Tale.  I've noticed that the books by her which I enjoy the most are those with a sci-fi premise.  This book is more along the lines of Cat's Eye and the Robber Bride.  It's good, but i prefer her other works.

CBR IV # 24 - Double Fudge by Judy Blume

No, this is not a kiddie Cannonball.   I'm not sure if this is eligible, but either way, I'm reviewing it.  The Fudge series by Judy Blume holds a special place in me and my 9 year old kid's heart.  Almost four years ago, elder son got a brand new baby brother.  By the time the baby was  a toddler, it was clear that he was going to be a handful.  He constantly tested his big brother's patience.  I decided to read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing with my elder son.  He loved it so much.  Peter was so him in that he is mostly well behaved and logical, while Fudge is so much like the younger brother in being adorably mischievous.  After that, I bought him all the Fudge books but he's been reading them by himself. I decided to read this last book (so far) in the series in order to catch up with the Hatcher kids.

CBR IV # 23 The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg

This story seemed a bit familiar and upon further research, I figured out that I have actually read the short story/novella this book was based on.  I love my sci-fi with a vengeance and Asimov has been the one to really turn me on to the genre.  I love Asimov, I do.

This book, as I've mentioned is based on the short story, The Bi-Centennial Man by the same author (and then it was made into the movie of the same name starring Robin Williams.  huh.).  This book I guess expands and gives more detail to the journey of Andrew Smith, the robot who wanted to be a real boy. 

Andrew was conceived to be an ordinary household robot given to a prominent family on Earth. However, he was made in the early years of robot manufacturing and so his positronic brain allowed for some surprises.  It started with an unusual ability for woodcarving, which almost seemed to be art, a very human endeavor.  Over the years and with the support of his human masters, Andrew freed himself and slowly transformed himself, or maybe developed himself more and more towards humanity. But will he become truly human?  And who shall decide who is truly human?

As is normal in Asimov books, there is no shooting of space lasers flying ships or scary aliens.  There is very little action, just a narration of Andrew's long life.  Aside from being good story, it, as is usual delves into some philosophical matters like as is obvious, what makes us truly human?  Can one transcend what one is originally created for (and is) and still be authentic to what he strives to be or now is?  

I also found it fun to read a robot book that still takes place on earth and very soon after it became mainstream.  It's like reading a little bit of history. Of course, even the earliest robots were subject to the three laws.  It was fun to see how robotics developed and how humanity spread first to the moon and to the other planets.

CBR IV # 22 - The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Kids with cancer always bring out the tears. But far from being a Lifetime movie, this book doesn't feel like it's actively trying to hurt your heart, it just does.

16 year old Hazel is a career cancer patient. The question is not if she'll die but when. This has turned her into a bit of a recluse, spending her time reading and watching shitty reality shows. She doesn't want to inflict herself on other people, knowing she'll soon be leaving. But the cancer support group brings an unexpected hottie, Augustus Waters, who is a survivor. They form an instant connection and soon form a strong bond. Oh, they are in love.

John Green's teenagers always seem impossibly smart. Their conversations deeply philosophical and their words infinitely quotable. Nevertheless, they still theseem like real teenagers somehow. Feeling the stuff that that we felt, just more eloquent, I guess. Hazel, I like her. She's not a manic pixie dream girl like Alaska. She's steady and smart and sarcastic. Augustus seems to good to be true at first but as you get to know him, his cracks show and he turns out to just be this kid. A really good one, but a kid nevertheless. And their love, how can a book with kids with cancer turn out to be anything but a tragedy?

But like I said, the book isn't just a cancer book. It's realistic and thought provoking. Yes, one should prepare their tissues when reading this, but one should also prepare their brain.