My Week in Books: February 6-12

My Week in Books

Welcome to my weekly Saturday feature here at Erin Reads, where I highlight new books that have entered my life, what I’ve been reading, and what’s happened on Erin Reads over the past week.

New Acquisitions

The vlog is back! This week I have books from several different sources to share.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hniCoJsg0qw

TBR Additions

Some personal things came up this week, and my blog reading suffered. As a result, I added nothing new to my TBR list this week. I’m not worried…I’ll be back to adding things soon!

Read This Week

This week I continued my stroll through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I have about 100 pages left and am deliberately reading slowly to make it last! I also started The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for this month’s Reading Buddies as well as Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain.

On audio, I wrapped up A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson for Reading Buddies as well as The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. I’m currently listening to The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, which is fascinating so far!

Erin Reads Recap

Your Turn!

How was your reading week? Do tell!

Reading Buddies Discussion: “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver

Reading Buddies Button

Hello Reading Buddies! How is The Poisonwood Bible going for you? I only got around to starting it earlier this week and am about 200 pages in (the start of the Judges section). It’s not my first Kingsolver, but it is my first of her novels. A few years back I read and loved Animal Vegetable Miracle about Kingsolver’s year living locally.

The things I knew about The Poisonwood Bible going in were (a) that it was about missionaries in Africa, and (b) that it is one of Kingsolver’s better known books. I like not knowing much about a book when I start it, and this one is no exception. I like not having many preconceptions about a book before I read it.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (cover)What struck me most as I began reading The Poisonwood Bible was its narrative structure. It seems pretty complicated, really: sections, each (so far, at least) begun by the mother, Orleanna, looking back on her family’s time in the Congo, the day-to-day of which is then filled in by alternating accounts from her four daughters. All the perspectives are female, and I’ve yet to meet a male character who’s painted in a positive light. At the same time, there don’t seem to be any strong females, none that stand up and take the reigns of their lives away from the men.

I’m impressed by how well Kingsolver distinguishes the voices of the five women. That’s quite a feat, I think, to write five distinct female voices, especially when three of them are so close in age. I rarely have to look at the name on each chapter; I can tell by the vocabulary, the language, and the type of observations being made which girl is narrating. The constant switching between perspectives means Kingsolver can give us a fairly complete, if biased, picture of the Price family’s life: Rachel on the missing comforts, Leah on relationships (and especially her father) and facts, Adah on everything the rest of her family misses, and Ruth May on…well…all the miscellany that appeals to a young child. I find that Kingsolver’s youngest character often makes the sharpest observations, even if she herself may not yet understand the deeper meaning of what she’s observing.

One paragraph on page 62 (of my hardcover edition) in particular gave me the mental image of the Price girls that’s stuck with me. As described by Adah:

“What a landing party we were as we staled about, identically dressed in saddle oxfords, long-tailed shirts, and pastel cotton pants, but all so different. Leah went first as always, Goddess of the Hunt, her weasel-colored pixie haircut springing with energy, her muscles working together like parts of a clock. Then came the rest of us: Ruth May with pigtails flying behind her, hurrying mightily because she is youngest and believes the last shall be first. And then Rachel, our family’s own Queen of Sheba, blinking her white eyelashes, flicking her long whitish hair as if she were the palomino horse she once craved to own. Queen Rachel drifted along several paces behind, looking elsewhere. She was almost sixteen and above it all, yet still unwilling for us to find something good without her. Last of all came Adah the monster, Quasimodo, dragging her right side behind her left in her body’s permanent stepsong sing: left…behind, left…behind.”

I’m also interested by the slice of life in the Congo the Price family provides. It’s an area of the world I know little about, and though I know the Price children aren’t at all objective, still their observations are interesting to me.

I’m waiting for something to go horribly awry. The air of foreboding pervading the novel is heavy. I still have plenty of pages left in which things may come to a head, but I’ve no doubt they will!

If you’re reading or have read The Poisonwood Bible, feel free to share your thoughts and/or pose questions for other participants here. Please be careful to warn of spoilers in your comments or let people know where in the book you are. I’d also love to know if you’ve discussed the book on your blog so that I can link to your post in the wrap-up post, two weeks down the line.

Over to you!

Thoughts on “Leviathan” by Scott Westerfeld (Audiobook)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld is one of those books I picked up due to the sheer number of ecstatic reviews I’d read. I chose the audiobook in particular because of how highly it was recommended. I love it when I listen to popular opinion and end up agreeing!

About the Book:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (audiobook cover)Leviathan is the first in a trilogy of alternate history. Set against the backdrop of World War I, these novels incorporate historic events into a different sort of world, embellishing and changing as needed.

The story revolves around two main characters. First there is Alek, prince of Austro-Hungary, hiding out from the same enemies that assassinated his parents and aided by a few of his father’s loyal men. Then there is Deryn, whose dream of serving in the British Air Service drives her to disguise herself as a boy in order to join up.

Alek’s people are Clankers, building sophisticated machines for war purposes and relying on all things mechanical. Deryn’s are Darwinists, utilizing living beasts specifically woven from the threads of life to suit society’s needs. The two powers have embraced separate paths and have always been skeptical of the way chosen by the other.

But Alek’s and Deryn’s paths are slowly converging. How they do so and where they go from there, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

My Thoughts:

Leviathan is a book that hooked me immediately. I will admit that this first installment moved the tiniest bit slower than I might have liked at times, but I hardly noticed. I was far too wrapped up in the world created by Westerfeld.

What fascinated me most were the Darwinist creations. The Leviathan, for instance, one of the British Air Service’s airships, is one huge living creature. Known as a “hydrogen breather,” it supports its own ecosystem that allows it to function like a blimp. Even its message relay systems and defense mechanisms are alive. And it’s not the only fabricated beast in the story; on the contrary, so used to fabricated creatures is she that Deryn is shocked when she meets a natural animal. As Leviathan progresses, Westerfeld explains how the entire system works with a degree of planning and detail that kept me enthralled.

Then there were the characters. I liked Deryn best of all, with her secrets and her bravery and her unique vocabulary. (An expression of alarm or disbelief, “Barking spiders!” was my particular favorite.) Good, honest Alek was a close second. And may I just say, if they make a movie of Leviathan, I’ve already cast Nicole Kidman as Dr. Barlow.

As I said, the plot dragged the tiniest bit here and there, but I believe that was only because Leviathan is the set-up novel. It familiarizes the reader with the characters, the vocabulary, the politics, and the world of the trilogy. Luckily, those elements are plenty interesting to make the book enjoyable.

As for the audio production, as read by Alan Cumming, it is nothing short of masterful. Cumming moves between accents deftly. On top of that, each character has not just a particular tone, but also a certain manner of speaking by which they come to be identified. Cumming’s pacing is as perfect as his character voices. He reads dramatically without going overboard. I don’t often fully enjoy listening to third person narrations, but I have not a single complaint about this one. I was thoroughly impressed.

I’ve heard Leviathan labeled “steampunk,” though, to be quite honest, I’m not entirely sure what that means. I didn’t think about the fact that it falls into the “alternate history” category until I heard Westerfeld’s afterword at the end of Leviathan explaining what in the story was real and what was imagined. Both of those are labels that might have made me think Leviathan might not be for me. If you’re in the same place, pretend you’d never heard such labels and just read (or listen to) the book! And if you’re already a fan of either genre (or both), I’d recommend Leviathan to you as well.

Those are my thoughts. Check out Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld on GoodReads or LibraryThing, read other bloggers’ reviews, or listen to an Audible sample!

Your Turn!

Have you read Leviathan? What about any of Westerfeld’s other books?

CRP: “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold” by John le Carré

The Classics Reclamation Project is my personal challenge to read and enjoy the classics. Each Wednesday, I post about the classic I’m reading at the moment.

The Classics Reclamation Project

When I began my Classics Reclamation Project, I decided that one in eight books I read could be from the 1960s, which is a little later than what some may consider “classic” but which allowed me to include some books I’ve wanted to read and that will certainly become classics, if they haven’t already. The first such book I read was The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré. Published in 1963, this Cold War era spy novel was written by le Carré over a period of about five weeks while he lived in Germany.

I first read about The Spy Who Came In from the Cold on The Literate Man last fall. The review there intrigued me, even though I’ve never read le Carré and tend to avoid spy novels because, generally, they are not my cup of tea. I ended up finding myself quite absorbed in the book and am glad I gave it a chance.

Alec Leamas is near the end of his career, living and working for British Intelligence in Berlin in the late ’50s or early ’60s, when we meet him. The British agent has long served in his chosen career and is ready to be done. But when Leamas’s spymaster approaches him with a final assignment, Leamas finds himself caught up in the world of international espionage one more time.

Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre (cover)When I think “spy novel,” I immediately think of heart-pounding action, thrilling chase scenes, and spectacular Hollywood-ready stunts. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold relies on none of those things. What it lacks in gunfights and car chases, however, le Carré’s third novel makes up for in tension and plot twists. Leamas’s is a mental and verbal game in which dropping his fine-tuned act, even for a moment, could cost our protagonist his life. As he moves, alone, deeper into his final mission, Leamas must constantly think on his feet while trying to keep one step ahead of the other guys. Le Carré doesn’t need action and spectacle to hold his reader rapt; his tense mind games and intricate puzzle of a plot are plenty enthralling and require the reader to pay attention. It was a treat to watch the story unfold.

Leamas is a more rounded character than my brief forays into spy novels have led me to expect. We only really know him in his assigned personality, as the persona he’s cultivated for his final mission. Yet glimpses of the real Leamas slip through, so that as the novel moves forward, we establish a feel for both versions of Leamas and how they might relate to one another. There are several other characters in the novel who come across as real people as well.

The supporting cast, to me, felt a little stereotyped: the agency big shots, the henchmen, the high profile bad guys. I wonder, though, if this difference was intentional. After all, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is about a few real human beings–Leamas included–who are caught up in the cruel machine of international espionage. How better to highlight these characters’ humanity than to place them amongst less sympathetic characters?

I think The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is the sort of spy novel that will appeal to readers who don’t tend to embrace the genre as well as ardent fans. I’m glad it found its way onto my classics project list.

It’s Book Apocalypse!

Book Apocalypse Banner
(awesome banner made by Cass!)

Many bloggers. Ten books. One bunker. It’s Book Apocalypse! Here’s the situation (from Bonjour, Cass!):

For mysterious reasons unknown to you, citizens of the world are suddenly panicking because the time of the Apocalypse has indeed come. You have been offered a place in the official Bonjour, Cass! bunker, sponsored by the Bonjour, Cass! Book Apocalypse Protection Agency (BCBAPA™). In order to secure your spot, you are required to submit a form listing the ten books from your to-be-read list to bring with you.

Today my application is up for consideration. Which books did I choose? Will I be approved? And what new word did I create to rhyme with orange? Find out over on Bonjour, Cass!

As for me, after a couple of “personal days” I’ll be back the rest of this week with a Classics Reclamation Project post, the Reading Buddies discussion post for The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and maybe even some thoughts on Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. But today…Book Apocalypse!