OS Book Club Pt II

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This is technically a re-read for me having read this when I took English CP way back in 10th grade, but apart from one scene (and even then I didn't accurately remember it) I had largely forgotten the structure and contents of the book. I was surprised to find how much of the book is centered on mental health (similarly to The Haunting of Hill House) and how appalling the behavior of the monster truly is. Honestly, I'm surprised this book didn't stick to my mind more than what I could recollect.

The book is book ended by a series of letters from a captain aboard a ship attempting to sail to the icy regions of the North Atlantic where they pick up a near-dead Victor Frankenstein. What follows is a memoir of sorts of Victor's life with an internal memoir told by the monster himself to his creator. The pacing of the book is somewhat uneven throughout beginning with a short telling of Victor's youth as a scholar and his pursuits in science. The crux of the story doesn't really begin until Victor creates the monster and the book picks up pace from then on.

From our discussions in class I remember them centering more on the relationship between Creator and Monster/Man so it was surprising to me to see the Monster essentially be a stand-in for mental anguish and depression throughout. There are many similarities among characters concerning depression, anxiety, and processing grief. Victor trying to escape his own (and the monster) by traveling away only to have it follow closely behind him.

Of course, the Monster is legitimately real as he inflicts real horror on those connected to Victor in appalling ways. It's made clear he knows the evilness and deceitfulness of his actions. Obviously this is to render him as more human I suppose, but I found it hard to reconcile with any positive feelings towards the character. He's clearly a representation of our most base actions and behaviors despite his intellect and knowledge.

Another theme running throughout the book is the thought that if ignorance is bliss then intellect is disparaging. The monster learns and absorbs knowledge by observations and eventually reading himself. As the monster gains more knowledge he becomes more aware of his own feelings, emotions, and most notably his station among humans. His utter loneliness and resulting despair drives his behavior and actions chilling whatever warmth he had initially.

A classic book and fairly interesting with many avenues for discussion and analysis.

Spoiler

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.

I was their plaything and their idol, and something better - their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me.

Learn form me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.

What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.

Increase in knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was.

All joy was but a mockery, which insulted my desolate state, and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure.

And yet a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances, which all forth a woman's sedulous attention.

I'll be finishing up Serafina and the Black Cloak tonight. Hopefully I have time to start Skyward tonight as well. If not, tomorrow and Friday should give me plenty of time.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty.

This was an insanely easy read even for a children's book. Featuring much hand holding through themes and raising questions that readers themselves would have been asking anyway. In some ways it broke the immersion and pacing, but still the ride through Beatty's re-imagined Biltmore Estate was fun and entertaining.

The book follows the daughter of the machine repairman of Biltmore Estate during the late 1890s. Serafina is a special girl - nimble and agile, quietly moving through the shadows at night as the estate's Chief Rat Catcher (CRC). During one of her prowls she encounters a terrifying sight - a young girl being chased by a phantom-like entity in a cloak. Serafina watches in horror as the girl is embraced, swallowed up, and disappears in the folds of the cloak.

It's a supernatural mystery thriller in the vain of Nancy Drew set on the Biltmore property and surrounding woods in Asheville, NC. Having visited the property several times this was the primary reason for my interest and it provided a wonderful backdrop. Beatty is reverent and precise with his details and expositions for the property and various rooms and amenities. I found myself vividly picturing each room. Beatty helps enliven the property in ways that simply visiting the estate cannot do.

Apart from that this is a children's book through and through. The writing is simplistic and the crux of the metaphors hit you over the head so much so that the reveal at the end is somewhat obvious, but still charming and personable. Despite it's flaws its a good book to read in a day and I can imagine it'd be even more enjoyable for children - especially those wanting some meatier chapter books before jumping into Harry Potter.

Spoiler

For all the spiny talk and all the sneak-about, sometimes you just stayed quiet and did what you were told because you sensed it was a good way to keep breathing.

You can't just wish things aren't true when they are true!

How do you tell a friend from an enemy just by looking at him?

Every person was a hero in his own mind, fighting for what he thought was right, or just fighting to survive another day, but no one thought they were evil.

I finished up Brandon Sanderson's Skyward last night and was completely enthralled from beginning to end. What an awesome book it was - I can't wait to post my impressions.

I grabbed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory off the shelf because for some reason I consider Willy Wonka a Christmas time movie. Plus, I know it'll be a quick read and I'm still on pace to make my goal for the year. I am unashamed!

I also picked up Color of Law this morning again and plan to read a chapter a day to finish it by next week. It is so damn aggravating to read, though, but interesting as well to read about the development of white suburbs and how blacks were forced into subpar urban areas where generations became (and remain) trapped.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Oh. My. Goodness. What an absolute joy ride this was to read. I was glued to this book and completely enthralled from cover to cover.

Here's the overview I posted earlier:

Spensa's world has been under attack for decades. Now pilots are the heroes of what's left of the human race, and becoming one has always been Spensa's dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father's--a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa's chances of attending flight school at slim to none.

No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, yet fate works in mysterious ways. Flight school might be a long shot, but she is determined to fly. And an accidental discovery in a long-forgotten cavern might just provide her with a way to claim the stars.

Earlier this year I read through the Mistborn trilogy and loved it. The universe in Skyward isn't nearly as dense - there's no magic system to setup and explain and the world itself is fairly simplistically developed in comparison. Still, similarly to Mistborn, the characters are fantastic. Spensa's arc is wonderful to journey along with her on as she battles to overcome shadows of her father's past actions (a central theme of the book is the looming shadow of the past) that not only affect her opportunities, but her emotions, motivations, and confidence as well. Plus, there's a talking ship and it is absolutely hilarious. It provides some good moments of levity, but also packs some wallops towards the end with some truly emotional exchanges. I never expected to be moved by the words of an aircraft, but here we are.

The pacing of this book is quick and maintains a steady pace throughout. Even the moments of introspection and interpersonal dynamics are fascinating and provoking. The moments of actions are thrilling and vivid with ships maneuvering through clouds of enemies. They reminded me of the thrilling action passages from Mistborn, but with space dog-fighting. Sanderson has a knack for describing air-born motion and action that is clear and engaging. I could picture each dogfight clearly in my head. It was all fascinating and mesmerizing.

I read this basically in the span of four days reading over 100 pages a day in the process. I was luke-warm on my reading, but this has propelled me back and brought back the vigor of diving into a world that is breathing between the pages. The power of a good book is abundant in this and I cannot wait for the sequel.

Spoiler

The kids who make fun of you, they're trapped on this rock. Their heads are heads of rock, their hearts set upon rocks. Set your sights on something higher. Something more grand.

Claim the stars.

"Is anything fair?"
He smiled. "Death is. He treats us all the same."

The most wonderful sound ever is the lamentations of my enemies, screaming my name toward the heavens with ragged, dying voices.

I wasn't sure what Sun Tzu or Beowulf would say about flirting with cute guys. Maybe share the skulls of your enemies with them, as a gesture of affection?

"Why would I make fun of her?" M-Bot said. "The frailties of human existence - and stenches caused by their inefficient generation of biological energy - are no laughing matter."

"Yes, but you can't help being a product of your environment," FM said. "It's not your fault that you're a bloodthirsty ball of aggression and destruction."

I consider it a mark of true intelligence to realize when someone else has already done your work for you.

When heritage becomes a box instead of an inspiration, it has gone too far.

"Humans don't have programming."
"Yes you do. You have too much of it. Conflicting programs, none of it interfacing properly, all calling different functions at the same time - or the same function for contradictory reasons. Yet you ignore it sometimes. That is not a flaw. It is what makes you you."

Sometimes, the answers we need don't match the questions we're asking. And sometimes, the coward makes fools of wiser men.

It has always seemed to me that that a coward is a person who cares more about what people say than about what is right. Bravery isn't about what people call you, Spensa. It's about who you know yourself to be.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

The sequel to a book I really loved when I read in September, I was very excited to get to this one. It did not disappoint. What does disappoint is the realization that the first in the series came out in 2013 and this one just came out so there's no telling when the third will be out. Anyway, picks up from where Vicious left off, many of the same characters returning. There are three new EO's this time around: Marcella, who can rot things by touching them, June who can shape shift, and Jonathan who has a force field protecting his body and can project the field on anyone in his direct line of vision. Again, I think the way she explains the powers each character has and how it relates to their trauma is great, immediately sets the tone. The writing is every bit as compelling as in the first, going back and forth in time and through different character perspectives so as to constantly feel fresh. Really can't say much bad about it, can't wait for the third, hope the wait is only a couple years.

Spoiler

"It was a bloody work of art, that shift, and the bouncer blinked, confused, but June knew from experience—when people saw something they didn’t understand, they couldn’t hold on. I saw became I think I saw became I couldn’t have seen became I didn’t see. Eyes were fickle. Minds were weak."

"Whenever she’d resurrected an animal, or a person, she’d done it by visualizing a thread, something floating in the darkness. She pictured grabbing that thread and pulling it toward her, drawing them back into the light. But when it was done, she never really let go of the thread. Didn’t know how, really. So she could feel it now when Victor was home, and when he was out pacing the city, could feel it still, no matter how far he went, as if his energy, his stress, vibrated up the invisible rope until the tremor reached her."

"Those who don’t believe in the soul have never seen one leave."

"Was it madness, to believe? Or arrogance, to not?"

"EOs were broken by definition, made reckless by the absence, the emptiness, the knowledge that their lives were over. It drove them to steal, to ruin, to self-destruct. Marcella wasn’t self-destructing."

"Eli was—forever. An immortal ghost, a monster who would follow Sydney through every nightmare, every year, plaguing her until there was no one left to hide behind, nowhere left to run. Eli Ever wouldn’t die. Couldn’t die."

Becoming by Michelle Obama

One random thing about this one to begin with is I feel a lot of the time like memoirs are too short or too long, glossing over too much or too self indulgent in tiny details, this one was a very nice length. Her childhood was pretty run of the mill, much less tragedy and agony than I'm used to in memoirs, was a nice change of pace. She explains well how difficult it was for her to push forward in a career that needed all of her effort but was just not her passion in the end. Then goes into the difficult of managing her own ambition with a husband who's ambition was taking him places that their family could not go, and her added responsibility because of it. She comes off as super genuine and human, which goes a long way in her describing the wonder that comes with being the First Lady and having that place in the world and living in the White House. Funny to hear about how she never enjoyed politics and then boom. I appreciate her attitude, she just seems very grounded through everything.

Spoiler

"Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end."

"I understand now that even a happy marriage can be a vexation, that it’s a contract best renewed and renewed again, even quietly and privately—even alone."

"One day in San Antonio, Texas, I noticed a minor commotion in the hallway of the military hospital I was visiting. Nurses shuffled urgently in and out of the room I was about to enter. “He won’t stay in bed,” I heard someone whisper. Inside, I found a broad-shouldered young man from rural Texas who had multiple injuries and whose body had been severely burned. He was in clear agony, tearing off the bedsheets and trying to slide his feet to the floor. It took us all a minute to understand what he was doing. Despite his pain, he was trying to stand up and salute the wife of his commander in chief."

"Life was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient."

"Women endure entire lifetimes of these indignities—in the form of catcalls, groping, assault, oppression. These things injure us. They sap our strength. Some of the cuts are so small they’re barely visible. Others are huge and gaping, leaving scars that never heal. Either way, they accumulate. We carry them everywhere, to and from school and work, at home while raising our children, at our places of worship, anytime we try to advance."

"What I won’t allow myself to do, though, is to become cynical. In my most worried moments, I take a breath and remind myself of the dignity and decency I’ve seen in people throughout my life, the many obstacles that have already been overcome. I hope others will do the same. We all play a role in this democracy. We need to remember the power of every vote. I continue, too, to keep myself connected to a force that’s larger and more potent than any one election, or leader, or news story—and that’s optimism. For me, this is a form of faith, an antidote to fear."

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Native Americans are on land...they're told to move...they're told to move....finally they're put on land in Osage County, Oklahoma that no one cares about. Boom, there's tons of oil there and all the Native Americans are rich for owning the land. One of the Osage Indians marries a white guy, who's uncle decides it'd be a good idea if they could kill off all of the living members of her family so that she would inherit all of the rights to their land and then kill her so that they could have it. So they end up killing pretty much her whole family, and a bunch of other Osage Indians for various reasons through poisoned alcohol or execution style shootings, to collect on faulty insurance claims, to claim debts to take over the rights to their land, etc. It would've been a really good long form article that lasts like 30 pages, but this book is 350+ pages. It just kept going on and on, there's excruciating detail. The plot is wild and deserves it, it just wasn't all that for me. Has many of the things you'd expect, Indians deemed incompetent so they had "guardians" put over their finances, who would limit their spending and rob them blind, companies charging them crazy prices just because they could. The subplot is that there was little law enforcement until shortly before, so private detectives were often hired to investigate things and local police would just be bought off or discriminate anyway. So up pops this new federal security force, the Bureau of Investigation and how that would become the FBI with this being one of the first major cases Hoover cracked. Interesting there is this was a huge case at the time but like so many nuggets of history, is just one of a million insane stories. Leo and Scorcese bought the film rights so it has a lot of potential for a movie.

Spoiler

"“The ‘Black Curse’ of the Osages,” the Literary Digest, a national publication, reported that members of the tribe had been “shot in lonely pastures, bored by steel as they sat in their automobiles, poisoned to die slowly, and dynamited as they slept in their homes.” The article went on, “In the meantime the curse goes on. Where it will end, no one knows.” The world’s richest people per capita were becoming the world’s most murdered."

"Despite the brutality of the crimes, many whites did not mask their enthusiasm for the lurid story. OSAGE INDIAN KILLING CONSPIRACY THRILLS, declared the Reno Evening Gazette. Under the headline OLD WILD WEST STILL LIVES IN LAND OF OSAGE MURDERS, a wire service sent out a nationwide bulletin that the story, “however depressing, is nevertheless blown through with a breath of the romantic, devil-may-care frontier west that we thought was gone. And it is an amazing story, too. So amazing that at first you wonder if it can possibly have happened in modern, twentieth-century America.” A newsreel about the murders, titled “The Tragedy of the Osage Hills,” was shown at cinemas."

"The historian Burns once wrote, “To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage has been saved and is dearer to our hearts because it survived. What is gone is treasured because it was what we once were. We gather our past and present into the depths of our being and face tomorrow. We are still Osage. We live and we reach old age for our forefathers.”"

"History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the power of hindsight like an arrogant detective who seems to know the end of the mystery from the outset."

"And at least one bureau agent who had left the case prior to White’s arrival had realized that there was a culture of killing. According to a transcript of an interview with an informant, the agent said, “There are so many of these murder cases. There are hundreds and hundreds.”"

Now reading The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, next probably Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz, the flight director for Apollos 11 and 13...should be a fun read. After that I might get back into Harry Potter with OotP, but could also get sidetracked.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Is there a prequel of sorts to Viscous? Or is that her other series?

Killers of the Flower Moon sounds ****ing insane. Your synopsis alone is enraging and depressing.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

There is a prequel but it's like a short story, I never read it.

There really was a lot going on with the Osage. The main woman the plan revolved around had diabetes and the doctors who were supposed to be treating her with insulin were giving her things to make her worse. Couldn't trust her husband, her doctors, her government, anybody smh.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

It's been awhile since I read this so I had forgotten how whimsical Willy Wonka truly is. I had also forgotten how downright depressing Charlie and his family's state of affairs were. Charlie is literally starving to death as Dahl has him showing bones through his skin roughly one third into the book. If Charlie doesn't get that golden ticket he would be dead before the end of Winter no question.

But of course he did and thankfully Dahl doesn't put in that stupid, bitch-move twist that the movie did by having Wonka pull the rug out from underneath a boy that is already beaten down enough. The oompa-loompas situation is still very grey to me, but they do provide some great levity and crass moral lessons throughout so their inclusion is still welcome to me.

While I give the slight edge to Matilda Dahl's chocolate factory inheritance fairy-tale maintains his classic whimsy and wide-eyed awe. As an adult this is even more impressive as I'm able to pick up on the absolute despair of his characters' situations as he uses that as a reflection for the generosity and magical nature of strangers to lift them up. It's a moving tale that buries its emotions deep beneath the surface of fanciful adventure and wonder.

Spoiler

The only meals they could afford were bread and margarine for breakfast, boiled potatoes and cabbage for lunch, and cabbage soup for supper. Sundays were a bit better. They all looked forward to Sundays because then, although they had exactly the same, everyone was allowed a second helping.

He was the only bright thing in their lives, and his evening visits were something that they looked forward to all day long. Often, Charlie's mother and father would come in as well, and stand by the door, listening to the stories that the old people told; and thus, for perhaps half an hour every night, this room would become a happy place, and then whole family would forget that it was hungry and poor.

But I don't want a blueberry for a daughter!

"Of course he should have burped," said Mr. Wonka. "I stood there shouting, 'Burp, you silly ***, burp, or you'll never come down again!' But he didn't or couldn't or wouldn't, I don't know which. Maybe he was too polite. He must be on the moon by now."

"My dear old fish," said Mr. Wonka, "go and boil your head!"

I don't like television myself. I suppose it's all right in small doses, but children never seem to be able to take it in small doses. They want to sit there all day long staring and starting at the screen.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I need Hermione's take on oompa loompas ASAP.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

This was a truly interesting read - an interest that found roots in me when we bought our house almost four years ago. During the closing the title agent gave us an "interesting fact" about our deed that the neighborhood we were moving into had an old covenant restriction pertaining to blacks. At the time I found it odd to bring it up and still do quite frankly, because after reading this book it's quite clear that the majority of America had the same type of restrictions in their suburban developments.

Rothstein does a great job of drilling down from the top level of government to the local level - including police, judges, and realtors - who were implicit in the segregation of residential areas. Restrictions ranged from restricting FHA financing to whites only, to stonewalling integrated developments until they either ran out of money or reverted to whites only areas. Meanwhile, blacks were pushed into less desirable areas. Even then these areas were sometimes demolished later in order to provide highways for the suburbanites to travel to and from work. Of course, once displaced, these renters and homeowners were given no aid to find replacement housing.

This is simultaneously a fascinating and harrowing read. A lot of these policies were still being enforced into the 70s and some as recently as several years ago are still affecting people in certain metropolitan areas. It does a wonderful job of providing context for the problems that arise in poor, urban areas as overpopulation and lack of jobs pushed many families beneath the poverty line. There was rarely any way to accumulate wealth much less anything to transfer to their children as many generations continued to start from scratch.

This book doesn't specifically mention the word reparations instead proposing various policy changes and incentives to affect reversing changes, but it is without a doubt a great case for those that would support the idea of reparations.

To those that doubt that racism is systematic you need to open your eyes and read this book.

[Beantown]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Anyone ever read The Maze Runner trilogy?

Finally watched the final movie and remembered how much I enjoyed 1 and 2, wondering if the books are worth it even knowing the story?

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Never read or seen them.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

My first Vonnegut, I was going to go straight into Slaughterhouse but figured I should start closer to the beginning of his writing. The plot follows Malachi Constant, the richest man on Earth basically known for representing debauchery in human form, meets a man who in the process of traveling the universe fell into essentially a wormhole that makes him aware of the past and the future. He's trying to judge the universe into the future he sees, so he creates a Mars colony and stages a war where the Martians (who are just people with their minds erased) get slaughtered. Malachi, who's mind has been erased and is now Unk, then goes to Mercury where he meets another Martian war vet. He goes to Earth... Then to Titan, Saturn's moon where he meets a creature from a machine race with suction cup feet whose size can be changed at will. Here it is found out that everything Rumfoord, the guy who fell into the wormhole, was trying to setup was actually just him being controlled by the race of machines. Theyve been leaving messages on Earth for centuries, and controlling the history of human events. It's a weird book, the plot is absurd, but in a way that mirrors the absurdity of life. Rumfoord has spent this entire time trying to set up a sequence of events that it turns out he's been setup to start. Who's in control? Is it Rumfoord, is it the Tralfamadorians (the machine race)? Does it even matter? Things are happening at a scale so far above what we can understand that it's not even worth contemplating, and that we should instead focus on being good and appreciating the people add things around us. That's what I got out of it at least. I loved the writing style, concise but loaded with sarcasm, almost sardonic. The humor and intergalactic setting felt kinda Futurama-ish, and just like the show Vonnegut can go from funny and light to deep and thoughtful Ina sentence and a half, just drops you off a cliff. Definitely have another writer's catalog to look into.

Spoiler

"It was the skeleton of a very large dog - a mastiff. It's long teeth meshed. It's skull and jawas formed a cunningly articulated, harmless working model of a flesh-ripping machine."

"The crowd, having been promised nothing, felt cheated, having received nothing."

"The only thing I ever learned was that some oriole are lucky and other people aren't and not even a graduate of the Harvard Business School can say why."

"If the questions don't make sense, neither will the answers."

"Every man's an island as in lifeless space we roam. Yes, every man's an island: island fortress, island home."

"I don't know what's going on, and I'm probably not smart enough to understand if somebody was to explain it to me. All I know is we're being tested somehow, by somebody or something a whole lot smarter than us, and all I can do is be friendly and keep calm and try and have a nice time till it's over."

"All living things were brothers, and all dead things were even more so."

"The worst thing that could happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody... Thanks for using me even though I didn't want to be used by anybody."

OK so I've already gotten sidetracked. I was supposed to go into Failure is Not an Option but I was randomly looking over the list of books I wanted to read from 2016 and saw a Kareem book, remembered it wasn't the Kareem book I most wanted to read and that I couldn't read his autobiography because there was no ebook... Apparently the ebook was published last summer, so I'm getting into that now. After that, I have 2 fiction books from this year I want to read, There There and Washington Black. After that, I'll finally get into Failure is Not An Option and then probably get into this 900 page Frederick Douglass biography to start the year. Still need to read his last autobio but this is getting so much praise it seems definitive.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Vonnegut's Galapagos was the same way to me - very sarcastic, but concise and impressively deep. There's a layer on top that plays as humor, but it's typically masking some deep introspection.

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Just finished "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" by Bryn Greenwood.

At first, I didn't think I'd like the book and couldn't see myself reading it. But I'm glad I gave it a second chance; the chapters are relatively short and it's an easy read, but it's a good one.

If you do wind up reading it, be warned: there's some coarse language throughout (which I didn't have a problem) and the book revolves around a relationship between a biker and a minor (which did make me uncomfortable, but for the most part, it's not a creepy relationship), so there's that.

Pretty good YA book that I came around to enjoy.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher
Original Trilogy containing: Verily, A New Hope, The Empire Striketh Back, and The Jedi Doth Return

I had received this for Christmas a couple years ago and figured they would be some easy, entertaining reads to finish my goal of 36 books for 2018. I was right. Of course, reading Shakespeare takes handful of pages to get into the language, but Doescher does a fantastic job throughout of "translating" the epic space soap opera into the Bard's tongue.

Firstly, the books are very entertaining and I highly recommend them to all Star Wars fans. They are funny, witty, and surprisingly provide a lot of insight into various circumstances and characters. R2-D2, for instance, is given several asides where he monologues in English. It's quite comical. Then there are a couple scenes in each book featuring two or more Imperial troopers trying to breakdown the logic of certain actions and discussions. Such as why the Death Star would feature such carnivorous, life-threatening shafts that one can be thrown into. Or why a seemingly empty escape pod would not be fired upon.

I wasn't sure what to expect. If this was strictly a scene by scene retelling it would still be entertaining and it's structure very much follows that road-map. Still, it does provide additional insight in a fresh and clever way for a universe that has been analyzed to death many times over.

Overall, the quality of the books mirror the quality of the movies. The Empire Striketh Back is clearly the deeper of the three featuring internal struggles and monologues from several characters as it layers everything in degrees. Verily, A New Hope is more carefree and spirited with more action and world-building. Then we have The Jedi Doth Return which is more of a trod in direct comparison since much of the layer and deep introspection is removed in favor of more campiness and illogical action (the first third of the book is Han's rescue).

A fun, entertaining, quick and easy read that is a slam dunk for all Star Wars fans. Easy recommendation here.

Spoiler

Han: Aye, true, I'll warrant thou hast wish'd this day. [They shoot, Greedo dies.] [To the innkeeper]: Pray, goodly Sir, forgive me for the mess. [Aside]: And whether I shot first, I'll ne'er confess!

Trooper 5: This door is lock'd. And as my father oft Hath said, a locked door no mischief makes. So sure I am that, thus, behind this door Cannot be found the droids for which we search. And thus may we move on with conscience clear.

Luke: Alas, poor stormtrooper, I knew ye not, Yet have I ta'en both uniform and life From thee. What manner of a man wert thou? A man of inf'nite jest or cruelty? A man with helpmate and with children too? A man who hath his Emperor serv'd with pride? A man, perhaps, who wish'd for perfect peace? Whate'er thou wert, good man, thy pardon grant Unto the one who took thy place: e'en me.

Han: The odds of rescuing a princess: low. The odds of smuggler turning rebel: lower. The odds of ending th'Death Star: lowest yet! I tell thee, droid: assail me not with odds!

Leia: O, I do love thee wholly Han.
Han: ---I know.

My wife got me Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher so I've been reading that some over the Christmas break. It is relatively short and a breeze to read as I can just imagine Fisher reciting every word in my head. I might finish that up tonight or tomorrow.

I want to get into the "extended universe" of Star Wars - canon be damned. Any good places to start?

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Legends: Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

New EU: There's not that many books, probably start at the beginning.

I need to do my Giant Steps write-up (great) and figure out my top 10 of the year. Randomly decided the other day, after this round I've already picked (There There, Washington Black, Freddie Douglass auto) and a couple of series I want to get into (finish HP, do LOTR), I might only read new books this year.