Books

Hello everyone! This is my first blog posting and I thought I’d start out with a review of a book I just finished for the third time and still enjoyed.

The book is called “A Northern Light”
I happened to find it in the adult section of the bookstore so it does contain some content that isn’t exactly PG but yet it is still an amazing read that I couldn’t put down.

A Northern Light is about a young sixteen-year-old girl named Mathilda Gokey, or, Mattie. She lives in the North Woods (around the Adirondack Mountains) in the year of 1906. Her family includes her father and three sisters, her mother recently dying of breast cancer and her brother Lawton running away. She works in the summer at a resort on Big Moose Lake. Most of her money goes towards her family and their small farm but Mattie keeps back a bit, in hope of someday going to college in New York City. Then one day, the body of Grace Brown is found in the nearby lake, her partner disapearing. It is seen as an accident but Mattie knows the truth, for before Grace went boating, she gave a bundle of letters for Mattie to burn which shows the truth that it was no accident. In this book, you see the daily struggle of life and the secrets in the little town. In the end, Mattie must decide whether to settle down with a handsome farmer or to follow her dreams and take the train to New York City and beyond.

I’d definately rate this book with 5-star quality. The characters are wonderful and make you want to know every detail about everyone. Mattie’s personality gives her a touch of heroism, making you love her even more. I couldn’t put this book down, I’ve read it three times in the last two years, cherishing it, as well as biting my lip at every intense moment even though I knew exactly what was to happen. Mattie also loved to write which really put the cherry on top because I do too which gives Mattie and I more to relate. I’m sure, author or not, you’ll deeply enjoy this read.

If you do infact read the book, I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts. I want to know how other people view the book appart from my own interpretations.
Thanks!

For the more fantasy-inclined but less Lord of the Rings inclined, I have a series that is both engaging and complicated.  Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series consists of five books: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree. 

While the books deal with the rather trite metaphysical battle between Light and Dark, Cooper’s look at it varies somewhat from the likes of Harry Potter vs Voldemort, Good vs Evil.  For Cooper, the Light is as hard a master as the Dark, and there is no imminent reward for joining the Light.  The two sides can never ultimately triumph over each other, and the war between them costs lives, property, and time.

Cooper’s novels focus on four characters: three siblings, Barney, Jane, and Simon, and Will Stanton, the last of the Old Ones, an ageless branch of people destined to battle the dark.  Barney, Jane, and Simon are mortals drawn into the battle by their own curiosity and a family friend, Merriman Lyon, who is of the same kind as Will.  (They call him “Merry” for short, so say “Merry Lyon” five times fast and see what you come up with.)

The Dark has…well…dark characters on its side, from the sinister Rider to the ancient power of the Brenin Llywd.  However, these characters never inspire the utter hatred of their readers, for their humanness reacts with their agelessness to inspire a confusing sort of feeling, both of disgust and pity.  Doomed to be creatures of the Dark, yet full of a passion for their destiny, both the enemy and the protagonists are caught in the swirling winds of fate.

Cooper’s writing style can drag on a bit.  The books are older, written in the 1970’s, and take place in England.  Cooper enjoys description, especially of battles and such, which can be tiresome when all the reader wants is a swift battle, not a three page description of the lightning and the flood.  She does tend to drag some points across the page, but the real beauty of her words comes in the fleeting expressions of her characters: a look of longing on Merriman’s face, the confusion between being a normal boy and an Old One for Will, the innocence of the children.  Through this, Cooper makes her characters alive and living, even those who have no age.

If you couldn’t guess the wordplay behind Merriman’s name, “Merry Lyon” sounds like “Merlin” if you say it right.

Elsewhere is an amazing book about self-redemption. The book starts with Elizabeth - Lizzie’s- death, but that is not the end of her. She finds herself in a mismatched idea of Heaven in which she will age backwards. At first she dreads living here, for only 15 years before she becomes a baby, but soon will change her mind in this novel by Gabriellle Zevin. Worth reading

So, as summer draws to a close (I go back to school in less than a week) I have decided to critique my mandatory summer reading: The Hobbit.  Considering my previous list of assigned reading (Dracula, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) I was rather surprised and not altogether delighted to hear of this turn of events.

To my shock, I enjoyed it.  The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings books, and focuses on Bilbo Baggins, who turns out to be Frodo’s uncle, I think.  I’ve never read any other books by Tolkien, so I was able to enjoy The Hobbit without any taints from the other books or movies.  Frankly, I was always a bit disdainful of The Lord of the Rings, but now I am considering reading them.

Tolkien’s writing style is droll and rather stuffy, like an English professor who thinks himself quite funny, and who sometimes is.  The descriptions of Bilbo are charming; for example, the constant reminder that all Bilbo wants to do is sit by his fire in his cozy armchair and have a glass of tea.

The adventure in the book is not especially exciting, nor are the action sequences breathtaking and exhilarating.  Bilbo prefers to sit out the adventures, so the reader is compelled to sit them out with him.  I really didn’t mind this.  Many of my classmates complain to me about how boring this book is, and one of my friends has remarked that it has a sonorous effect on her.  While it is true that The Hobbit is not an action-packed novel like, for instance, Jurassic Park is, the real compelling part of the book, for me, is in the character descriptions.

Tolkien paints each character with such vivid colors that I could easily imagine any of the characters, from Fili and Kili to Beorn and Gandalf.  The characters easily propel the story along (though propel is not quite the word I want to use…I am imagining a book propped along a zipline that moves rather slowly through thick branches but is still enjoyable because of the funny monkeys that keep throwing mangoes at the zipline rider) through the many adventures of Bilbo and Company.

Of course, all Bilbo really wants is a cup of tea.

Ever since I saw the movie “Juno,” TV dramas, books, and movies have popped up everywhere about teen pregnancy.  Most of them are poignant and decently entertaining, such as Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen.

I’ve never read a Dessen book before, but I plan to now, after reading this book.  It is sufficiently inspiring, sweet, and engulfing enough to make it a perfect summer read.  Halley, the heroine, is relatable and sometimes annoying, but I recently realized that authors make their heroines frustrating on purpose, to keep us reading.  Dessen does this very well.  Throughout the book, I would figuratively hold my breath and hope that Halley would get a grip and wake up from her ideal-boy dream.  Scarlett, Halley’s best friend, is a wonderful character.  She is strong, brave, and completely down-to-earth, and I only wish she made more appearances in the book than she does.

The back cover claims that the story is about Scarlett, but really, it is about Halley, and her journey to find herself in the midst of her friend’s struggles.  Scarlett’s drama is a catalyst for Halley’s self-doubts and self-exploration.  Scarlett is the plot, but Halley is the story.

The story is not complicated, and the characters are simple but still complex.  Their feelings aren’t measured in drawn-out melodramatics, but in quiet statements and actions. 

If I had to give Someone Like You a personality, it would be this: quiet, complicated, and true.  All in all, it makes for an enjoyable read.