Book 24: The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

I've heard about this novel a few times now through Cannonball Read, though most people were reading the latest sequel. I took it with me when I visited some family friends for Christmas, and it turned out that their son's girlfriend had read it (they are a German family but their son is basically a genius and has been studying in London for a while now and the same applies to his girlfriend - I definitely enjoyed the fact that I could switch back and forth between German and English during conversations because some things are much easier for me to articulate in English). She didn't remember all the details but she definitely remembered enjoying the novel, and we also discussed a few other books. Basically, it was nice, relaxing Christmas with good food - lamb and knoedel.

The Eyre Affair is set in 1985 England in an alternate reality. The Crimean War is still ongoing, planes have not been invented, people like to clone extinct animals as pets such as dodos (the flightless bird), there are several more types of special operations in the British police forces, including Chronoguards who are supposed to fix temporal issues and travel through time. Wales is its own country, and literature is very important - four thousand people go by the name John Milton because he's their favorite poet, forgery of manuscripts is such a booming business that it is its own section of law enforcement.

The main character and narrator is Thursday Next, a member of the LiteraTec, or the office in charge of literary related crimes and misdemeanours. Her father who makes several appearances throughout the novel is a former member of the Chronoguard gone rogue, who spends much of his time trying to fix history, saying that time is out of balance. After all, it seems suspicious to him that the Duke of Wellington was assassinated before the Battle of Waterloo, his most important battle. However, while her father's visits are entertaining, and I wouldn't mind hearing more about a plot to change history, the story is Thursday's and deals with one of her cases as a LiteraTec.

Thursday is called on the case after the original manuscript of a Charles Dickens novel is stolen (it's Martin Chuzzlewit, a novel I had never heard of before and I briefly even wondered if it was one of the alternate things about this alternate world - turns out, it's not). There is no one on the video cameras, and the display case also seems untampered with except for a smudge or something on one of the sides. However, one of the very secret departments above Thursday's level quickly involves her in their case because they think a man named Acheron Hades is behind it, and she is the only one known to have refused him and know what he looks like, being a former student of his. They manage to track him down but the bust goes bad, leaving Thursday as the lone survivor. The manuscript is still missing, assumed destroyed and Hades is assumed dead.

After receiving a visit from her future self on the hospital bed, Thursday decides to go back home to Swindon to pursue the case further where the reader meets her uncle Mycroft, a incredibly intelligent, creative and somewhat flight inventor. His latest creation are bookworms and a machine that allows people to enter a novel/poem/written text (however, there have been occasions where a machine is not needed for this; Thursday once did it accidentally as a child, even slightly changing the narrative of Jane Eyre, and there have been other suspected cases in history based on character listings of novels at the time of release vs. a later time). While it sounds like something that could be rather fun, it turns out if used on the original manuscript, the machine alters all versions of the piece in question not just that one copy - wait, what was that about a missing manuscript in the hands of a presumed dead supervillain?

Hades uses Mycroft and the invention to kidnap a minor character of Chuzzlewit and kill him, threatening to kill the main character if his demands for ransom are not met. After that novel, his next target becomes Jane Eyre (hence the title), a loved and revered classic novel with one flaw that all agree on: the ending - no one is happy that Jane went to India to help her cousin rather than marry Rochester.

In addition to needing to save Jane Eyre, Thursday Next also has to contend with the corporate giant Goliath represented by Jack Schitt (gee, I wonder who's the bad guy? The other bad guy that is) that have a bit too much power and say in Britain, and are very interested in Mycroft's invention. She also has to confront her past by coming to Swindon, including her former boyfriend whom she hasn't quite moved past in the last ten years, and his statements about her dead brother's actions in the war.

It was a very fun read, and I quite enjoyed Rochester's appearance in this novel, more so in fact than I did in Jane Eyre. I of course also loved how important literature was in this alternate world, and look forward to reading about more random characters come to life in the series. There are also see a few different things briefly mentioned in this novel that could be interesting if expanded upon, such as her father's role in fixing history, and those that disagree with him. The only thing I was waiting for in the novel that didn't happen wasn't a big deal - I thought there might be a bit more of an explanation of Acheron Hades's powers (honestly, I thought maybe he was a character that had escaped from another novel, hence his imperviousness to bullets) but it didn't really affect the novel. Besides with some evil characters, it's better to just know they are evil, inexplicably so, without getting a background story (though in my defense, I didn't care why he was evil, just slightly curious as to why he was so powerful). I could definitely relate when he went on a rant about Martin Chuzzlewit, because I have felt something similar about characters in a few 19th century novels:

I was made to study the book at O-level and really got to hate the smug little shit. All that moralizing and endless harking on about theme of selfishness. I find Chuzzlewit only marginally less tedious than Our Mutual Friend. Even if they had paid the ransom, I would have killed him anyway and enjoyed the experience tremendously. (234)

I can't think of anyone in particular I'd pick of the top of my head but Pamela in Pamela annoyed me a lot as did Robinson Crusoe. Not sure if it was enough to make me feel homicidal, though.

Book 23: Stiff

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

I've been meaning to read something by Mary Roach for ages now - in fact, I ordered Bonk a while back but when it arrived, realized I'd accidentally clicked on the audiobook. I tried to listen to it but every time I was in the car, I wanted to listen to music, so I never got past the introduction. Since I didn't want two copies of Bonk floating around my apartment, I decided to try again by ordering Stiff. Also, it's been a year or two since I watched it, but isn't this the book that Nate's niece gives David in Six Feet Under?

In the book, Roach explores the different things that have been done or might be done after to someone's cadaver once they have died. Not only does she discuss different science experiments and other projects that might occur to a body donated to science, but she also explores what exactly happens to people that decide to go the "natural" route of regular burial or cremation. Either way, it can get kind of gross. She uses historical examples as well and talks about some of the different views people have had towards bodies, dissection and mortality in the past. One big issue for medicine long ago was that dissection was outlawed in many places (people thought they would need a body to return to for Judgement Day) or that available bodies were just very difficult to find.

However, in addition to adding a lot of details and knowledge on a subject that people tend not to think about much beyond donating to science, cremation or burial, Roach also entertains. She has a very dry and sarcastic approach and while she is not disrespectful of the dead, some of her comments in the novel are hilarious. For example, in one chapter she talks about the soul and historically, there was a question as to whether the soul is located in the heart or the liver (this then became a question of the brain or the heart). This is her footnote about that philosophical question (after saying that the heart won over the liver):

We are fortunate that this is so, for we would otherwise have been faced with Celine Dion singing "My Liver Belongs to You" and movie houses playing The Liver Is a Lonely Hunter. Every Spanish love song that contains the word corazon, which is all of them, would contain the somewhat less lilting higado, and bumper stickers would proclaim, "I [liver symbol] my Pekingese." (176)

She also describes an experiment the military conducted at the end of the 19th century to determine the stopping power of certain rifles. At first they used cadavers, but then the person conducting the experiment decided to use livestock, causing Roach to comment: "And ever since, the U.S. Army has gone confidently into battle, knowing that when cows attack, their men will be ready (134)."

Basically, I'm really glad I finally read something by Mary Roach, and I was already telling people about it the day I finished reading it (I may also have called a friend of mine while reading it to read a passage or two to him that really amused me). I definitely recommend this (another thing that was kind of neat is that Roach talks about a lab that is of use to forensic science and criminal investigators - they experiment with how bodies disintegrate naturally and in different environments so they will be able to pinpoint time of death - a friend of mine had an internship one summer at a farm/lab that did something similar though in that case they used pig carcasses).

Book 22: Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

During one of the comment diversions at Pajiba (I'm starting to think I mention that site quite a lot on here . . .), several people mentioned Heart-Shaped Box as an incredibly good and terrifying novel. Since I do anything Pajiba tells me to, I went and bought a copy.

I was vaguely aware before this that Stephen King's son had entered the family business of writing, and had also heard that his first novel was actually pretty good. I think it is impressive that he was brave enough to follow in his father's foot steps and become not only a writer, but a writer in the same genre since comparsions would of course be inevitable.

Based on this novel, the guy seems genuinely talented, and is not simply casshing in on his father's fame. The basic story is rather simple: Jude, an aging rock star, orders a ghost online to add to his collection of macabre and bizarre items (most of these were gifts from fans). He hasn't had a new record out in a while, but is still incredibly famous, and is living with a young twenty-something year old woman out on his farm in the country. Jude isn't too invested in the relationship, and expects it to end soon, waiting for Georgia (he has a tendency to call women by the State they're from rather than their name) to go the way of all the other groupies.

Soon after the ghost's suit arrives, Jude starts noticing odd things and seeing a man in his house - it turns out the suit and the ghost were the real deal. However, the ghost isn't some benevolent spirit that can't find its way to the light - it, or he, has a vendetta against Jude specifically. Jude's last live-in girlfriend went home to Florida and killed herself, and this ghost is her stepfather. He's a bit angry with Jude.

For the rest of the novel, Jude tries to figure out how to get rid of the ghost. As I said the basic plot is rather simple, but there is more to the ghost and his motivations as the novel progresses, and characters take on greater dimensions. While Georgia starts out as a skinny, young goth woman that's sleeping with a rock star, as the novel progresses, her character is fleshed out - since the novel is written from Jude's perspective, he finally sees beyond his view of Georgia as another disposable girlfriend during the haunting. I think I may have heard this novel was misogynist, but I think it's more that the main character at first is sexist and dismissive in his treatment of women, and this experience helps him see the ways in which he has wronged his past lovers. And honestly, while women may have received the brunt of his inconsiderateness and carelessness, it seems like he treated anyone that attempted to get close to him in the same manner, including his assistant Danny.

While I wouldn't say I was incredibly scared by the novel, it was well-written, and the pacing kept the novel tense. Plus, he didn't run out of steam at the end which is always a plus with scary novels.

Obligatory Christmas Post

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I'm not really feeling the Christmas thing this year (although I treated myself to a massage at the spa which was nice; and I had a doener for dinner). I'm going to an old family friend's house for the day (she was kind enough to invite me) but part of me just wants to stay home and read - I'm not religious so other than a few days off, this holiday doesn't mean much to me at the moment.

However, for those of you that are in the spirit of things, Merry Christmas and enjoy your time with your families/friends. I'll be seeing mine in around 20 days, give or take.

My Name is Jennifer and I'm Addicted to Books

I'm starting to think I might have a little bit of a problem . . .

Right before the movers came, I went through my stack of unread books (which is rather large but there are always books that sound really good but then I'm never in the right mood to read them) and picked out enough to last me until January when I would fly back to the States. I didn't need any to last me longer than that because after I check into my hotel, Barnes and Noble will probably be the first stop I make in the States (or I might wait till the next day, after I sign for my apartment). The only problem is I can't seem to go more than a few weeks without going to Amazon and ordering more books.

I completely intended to just wait around, and simply add books that sounded interesting to my wishlist or add a star on Google Reader but then I found some books that I needed to have right then and there (I actually even tried ordering a few books for other people as gifts to see if that would help - I'm more concerned with the space issue in my suitcase than money or anything - but ended up ordering some I wanted as well). Basically, it seems that unless I have a stack of twenty books to choose from, I'm not happy. Oops. It's a good thing United allows military passengers with orders three checked bags.

And let's not even talk about how often I let myself get distracted by books. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out a week before I deployed. I picked my copy up maybe two or three days before we left, after I'd already put my car into storage and was relying on my boyfriend at the time to get me around. I was going to finally pack up my duffel bags and get ready for the flight but instead spent the entire afternoon reading and had accomplished absolutely nothing by the time he got back from taking care of some of his predeployment stuff(well, I had read half the novel which to me was a rather nice achievement). I didn't want to carry that huge book on the plane with me so I was more concerned with finishing it than packing everything else. Of course, in the end, my stuff and I made it to Iraq (didn't have much choice there) and I didn't have to bring Harry Potter.

I also managed to piss off the same boyfriend when I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which by the way was picked as best novel of the decade by Pajiba readers). I started reading it the same weekend he decided he wanted to clean his apartment. So I sat on the couch and read while he cleaned. Apparently he thought I should help or something - whatever (I don't even clean my own place - I pay someone to do that). Although I can see where one thing in particular could be frustrating - he started cleaning up the DVDs as well, and got one of them out of the DVD player and handed it to me to put in the case - I stayed on the couch, reading, holding the DVD on one finger until he came back half an hour later and just did it himself - it was a really good part.

I also used to get in trouble with my parents on occasion. I remember when I was reading It, my mom wanted me to set the table, so I put the book down, and put the plates on the table, and went back to the book. Then she told me I'd forgotten napkins so I had to come back, and same thing. I think I had to go back like three times because I was in such a hurry to get back to my book. This happened another time as well and my dad was so irritated he took a novel from me and wouldn't give it back until I finished whatever I was supposed to do.

And it really gets in the way when it comes to gym, too. I like the act of reading so audiobooks just don't really work for me, and besides when I'm working out, I need loud, fast music, not talking. I have no problem going to the gym, sometimes I like it, but I will always choose a book over basically anything else. And you just can't run and read at the same time.

Is there a version of AA for people that are addicted to books?

Book 21: The Fabulous Riverboat

The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip Jose Farmer

While the first novel in this series had some flaws, it was still well enough done to leave me wanting to know what would happen next. The premise of these novels is very intriguing, so I could forgive the fact that Farmer's characters weren't always that likable and somewhat one-dimensional. This novel unfortunately spends too much time on the characters and doesn't spend nearly any time on the overall concept of the series and as a result bored and irritated me.

It is established in the first novel that all humans that have ever lived have been reincarnated or resurrected along the banks of a huge river at the same time - they are all in their mid-twenties and in prime shape when they are resurrected and their grails provide for all their basic needs. Naturally, the question arises of why this has happened, and the main focus of the first novel was Sir Richard Burton. I didn't like Burton for the first half of the novel, especially since Farmer can't write romance and he was trying to romantically link Burton with the Alice that inspired Alice in Wonderland. Once Burton, however, started focusing on his quest for answers, the novel became much better.

Unfortunately, this novel does not continue to follow Burton. Instead, it is the story of Samuel Clemens (also known as Mark Twain) and his desire to build a riverboat. One of the powers that be (okay, that's not what they are called, they are the ethicals) doesn't agree with what has been done to humans, and he wants Clemens to build the boat in order to find the other ethicals responsible for what has been done. Overall, there are twelve that have been chosen for this, Burton being one of them. Since the planet possesses no natural resources, he maneuvers a comet or meteorite to crash on the planet to provide the iron necessary for the boat. The rest of the novel then focuses on Sam's need for certain raw materials and his uneasy political partnership with King John (honestly, I'm not sure how large a meteorite they found but some of the stuff they decided to build seemed positively wasteful for a planet with basically no resources - the damn boat ended up having a television - seriously, why - what are they going to watch).

This might even have been done in an interesting manner if it weren't for the fact that Samuel Clemens was an annoying character. He was whiny. I don't know what the real man was like but seriously, why did he even need to be in the novel? Couldn't Farmer have come up with a fictional engineer that liked riverboats instead of using someone famous and then portraying them like this? By the end of the novel, seven of the chosen twelve have been revealed - guess what - they're all men (most of them appear to be famous though there's a few where I kind of barely recognize the name but have no clue what they have done - I'm not sure if they used to teach this stuff in history class or if Farmer just assumed his audience would be smarter). In fact, women really only play a role in these novels as romantic partners/ sex objects.

The thing that is perhaps most irritating is that Farmer really does raise some interesting issues but his characters are so one-dimensional that they come off more as caricatures than real people, such as Hacking, the leader of a black community in Riverworld. Farmer tries to discuss race, and portrays Clemens as a liberal. At one point Clemens makes a comment along the lines of "I can't be racist, I wrote Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson." While I don't have a problem with the use of certain words in Huckleberry Finn due to when it was written, it still displays a certain type of racism - Jim, a grown man, basically comes off as a child. In Pudd'nhead Wilson, two boys are switched at birth and the white boy is raised as black and ends up ignorant. One could argue that Clemens was trying to make a statement of nature vs. nurture, showing that the blacks in America at the turn of the 19th century were not naturally ignorant as many may have claimed but that they lacked opportunities. The only problem with this interpretation is that the black man raised as white was somewhat evil and corrupt, hence making it more of a nature argument against blacks. Obviously, given the time Clemens lived in this wasn't the kind of obvious "let's lynch everyone" sort of racism, but he still obviously saw blacks as inferior, both intellectually and morally.

This book really has turned me off from the series because I don't think I can handle anymore of Clemens. I will still watch the miniseries though since it is obvious from the previews that they have changed some of the characters anyway (though I did see a damn riverboat). Maybe I'll give the series another shot eventually, but right now, I'm happy with what the Wikipedia summaries told me.

Book 20: Storm Front

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

I've heard about this series enough at Pajiba to be interested in it, so when I noticed that they had the novels at the PX I decided to give it a shot. However, I only picked up the first book in the series because I'm getting ready to move and wasn't sure if I should really commit to the three book box set (while they had every novel in the series it seemed, they didn't have any copies of the second novel outside of the box set). After reading it, I wished I'd just picked up the set since I want to read the second one.

I picked up Storm Front because I wanted something quick and fun after reading meaningful books these past few weeks. It definitely worked for that. In fact, while I enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse novels for what they are, this novel seems a little bit more intelligent and less trashy (not that trashy isn't fun on occasion). I guess it's just not quite as cutesy as Sookie sometimes gets, and none of the characters were constantly telling me how innocent they were.

The main character Harry Dresden is a practicing wizard and the only one in the phonebook. He occasionally works as a consultant for the Chicago PD whenever there are magic-related crimes such as the one in this novel which involves a couple's hearts being ripped out of their chests. One of the victims works for the local mob boss, so naturally that adds some complication to the case while the woman is a hired escort from a service run by a vampire. In addition to all that, Harry also has to contend with the White Council, the ruling court of the wizard world, who have an interest in who may have used magic for such dark purposes, and did I mention that Harry already has a record and is on their bad side? Basically, there are a lot of different things going on but Butcher handles all these characters in a way that works very well. As Dresden follows up on clues, the reader becomes introduced to Dresden's world in a way that doesn't seem too busy or crowded. I'm not sure if he keeps this up for the next few novels as well, but sometimes the Stackhouse novels seemed like there were too many supernatural creatures being dropped into the novels just for the fun of it.

The description of magic in this novel occasionally reminded me of Star Wars and the Force. Harry draws on his emotions for power and anger helps with this as well - he doesn't give a whole speech about how anger leads to the dark side and in fact his anger helps him (actually, I guess that sounds more like a conversation between Buffy and Kendra). However, the novel focuses more on motivations - using magic for power and greed is more likely to lead to dark magic than tapping into one's justified emotions.

Harry was far from perfect (another nice change from Sookie who likes to say she isn't but really is - maybe it would be more fair to compare these novels to Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro series) which also helped give the character some depth. He alludes to a backstory and gives a very bare skeleton of former occurrences, so I would be interested in finding out more in the novels to come. I guess the only thing that slightly annoyed me was when he talked about how he liked being old-fashioned and opening doors for women - feminism never said that there was anything wrong with being respectful to other humans or treating people to things as long as there is still the underlying idea and concept that the people see each other as equals. Anyway, I can occasionally be sensitive to comments about the evils of feminism even if it is only one sentence.