The Selection

The Selection (The Selection #1) by Kiera Cass (2012), narrated by Amy Rubinate

When America receives a letter inviting her to take part in the Selection, her family is overjoyed. This chance to possibly marry a prince means that her family will no longer be scraping by on their meager incomes. But America doesn't care about being raised to a higher caste, marrying a prince, or becoming a princess. She cares about her one true love, Aspen. She's a Five and he's a Six so their love is forbidden, but she's sure they will find a way to make it. So she is extremely surprised when even Aspen encourages her to enter the Selection. And just like that, her life changes.

The Selection is like a kindler, gentler Hunger Games. A Hunger Games meets The Bachelor, if you will. Thirty-five young women were chosen to come to the palace and meet Prince Maxon, who is seeking a wife. As he gets to know the girls, their pool will slowly be whittled down until he chooses the lucky woman who will marry him. The stakes aren't as high as in the Hunger Games - nobody has to die - but winning does mean a great improvement in the life circumstances, especially those girls from the lower castes.

America goes into this thinking she's only there for the food, and the checks her family will receive while she's away, but it turns out there are more compelling reasons to stay after all. Prince Maxon, who she assumed was shallow for holding such a contest in the first place, actually turns out to be a pretty good guy and America finds herself striking up a friendship with him, despite her devotion to Aspen. Of course there is also a horrible girl who wants to sabotage everyone else's chances. Isn't there always? This one is named Celeste and I really wanted her to get what she deserved and be eliminated early on, but that's not how these things work. I'm sure she'll remain until the bitter end. Someone has to be the jerk, right?

The romance is full of swoon. America is torn between two potential love interests and I really do feel unsure of where this will go. Will something happen to Aspen to take him out of the picture? Will the whole system break down so America can be free to marry a Six? I just don't know. I do know, however, that as of now I'm rooting for her to be with Maxon. I kind of agree with the character (I can't remember who) who said that poverty is a huge strain on a relationship and that love fades, and over time she may not feel like a poor man is worth the sacrifice. Also, I think Aspen is kind of a jerk. He waffles, and I do not like a man who waffles. He goes between saying they can't be together to saying he wants them to be together forever. He also gets upset at the thought that he can't be a good provider and totally takes this out on America, and I have no patience for that kind of macho bullshit.

I found the world of Illea fascinating. From what I gather, the US, Canada, and Mexico became one huge kingdom ruled over by a monarchy. It was after the Fourth World War and China took over the US, but then Russia started being threatening and all the North American countries banded together and formed this new kingdom. Throughout the book are references to the war in New Asia, as well as rebel attacks upon the palace. These attacks added a great bit of excitement to America's time there, but I also think the political situation might become more prominent as the series goes on. There's a bit of mystery about what the rebels want, and I am extremely intrigued by this! I'm also curious about how little the girls know of the country's history. It sounds like the knowledge isn't forbidden exactly, but just that nobody bothers to teach it. It was kind of strange and I'm hoping we'll find out more about this as the series progresses.

The audio narration was not outstanding, but still good. Rubinate did an especially good job with the male voices, particularly Maxon's. There were some spots where the gears seemed to shift too quickly. I suspect there was a break in the text, but the narration just went from one sentence to another, confusing me a for a few seconds until I realized the story had shifted scenes.

It is entirely possible that a couple months from now I won't remember what was so great about this book, and that it won't have stuck with me. It isn't especially original or unpredictable so far, but it's incredibly satisfying and I had such fun listening to it! I actually listened for an hour or two at my desk at work, that was how desperate I was to keep going. (And I was doing work at the same time, for any of my coworkers who might be reading this.) Immediately upon finishing I downloaded the second book and have already begun listening. Stay tuned for my post about The Elite - I'm sure you won't have long to wait!

Gunpowder Alchemy

Gunpowder Alchemy (The Gunpowder Chronicles #1) by Jeannie Lin (2014)

When Jin Soling was just a child, her father was executed for admitting that the British steam engines were superior to Chinese gunpowder engines. Years later, Soling and her family are selling off valuables just to feed themselves. On a trip to a nearby market where Soling hopes to sell a Japanese puzzle box left by her father, she is turned down over and over and finally arrested by the authorities. She is then sent on a mission that turns into a pretty big adventure involving kidnapping, pirates, and the opium trade. Along the way she also meets a man who was very significant in her past.

This Chinese steampunk meets historical romance is very intriguing. I very much enjoyed the world-building and all the historical elements. Opium was a huge theme in the novel because of what was happening with the trade, but also because Soling's mother was an addict. I think all of the characters were affected in some way by opium. One character had bound feet and Soling was helping design special mechanical shoes so she could walk, which was a very unusual element that I really enjoyed. The steampunk bits were also very cool - all the mechanical limbs and automatic sedan chairs that you can program with an abacus-like contraption, airships, not to mention the whole steam power vs. gunpowder power aspect. I really found that all very fun to read, and it added a lot to what was a pretty enjoyable adventure novel. This is also the second book in a row I've read that takes place (at least partially) on a boat that gets attacked by pirates.

However, it's not billed as adventure, but romance, and looking at it that way, it lacks a lot. For one thing, there was very little romance in the book at all. Also, Soling had that stupid neurosis that so often appears in romance to create a block between the characters, but which is obviously totally fabricated. There were times that she was all "Woe is me, we cannot be together" and I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and say "Did you not hear what he said? He explained that already. That is no longer an obstacle to your love." She remained convinced that she still suffered from her family's disgrace after her father's execution, even after that disgrace became irrelevant because of changes in how people viewed him.

This is sort of a mild spoiler, but I felt really weird about the ending. At the conclusion the romance was almost resolved. Like, not quite resolved but extremely close to it. I expected it to end with the characters totally together and happy ever after, etc, because that's how romance novels work. Even in a series, each book is a romance between a different set of characters. If this relationship is going to be drawn out for the whole series, I don't understand why it would be so close to wrapped up at the end. Maybe something happens in the next book that draws the characters back away from each other, but if that's the case this romance is a very slow burn and I'm not sure I have that kind of patience.

Ultimately, I feel very conflicted about this novel. Soling's character could use a little more development and I'm not very drawn in by the romance aspects. On the other hand, I liked the adventure and really did enjoy the time I spent reading it. It's really a great premise for a series. I'm kind of curious about where it will go, but it remains to be seen if my interest holds long enough for the next book in the series.

Hostage Three

Hostage Three by Nick Lake (2013)

Amy wasn't especially excited about spending the better part of a year on a yacht with her father and stepmother. Her father was so wrapped up in his work all the time he had never really been there for her, and Amy still resented how quickly he remarried after her mother's death. But on the boat she just keeps her distance as much as possible, putting on her headphones to tune everyone out. Things turn considerably worse, however, when the yacht is boarded by Somalian pirates and Amy's family and the crew are taken hostage. Weirdly though, as they're all killing time waiting for the ransom to come through, Amy gets to know one of the pirates and begins to have very conflicting feelings about these dangerous strangers.

I just need to get this out of the way - that cover is weird. On my copy the face is barely visible; in fact, I didn't actually realize it was there until I saw this version. So, don't be put off by the big ghosty face on the cover, which I assume is supposed to be Amy (who doesn't look like that in my head.) This is the only negative thing I have to say about this book. Let's move on.

You may remember that Nick Lake also wrote In Darkness, which was one of my top picks for 2014. Hostage Three is SO different, but also really good, and unusual but in a totally different way. I became engrossed in this past-faced story quite early and found it to be a page-turner all the way through.

I think what stands out the most is this meeting of the incredibly rich and the incredibly poor. That is kind of a ridiculous observation since that's obviously what happens when Somalian pirates attack a yacht. But I like how that was such a focus, how Amy got to know her captors enough to understand why they would go to such desperate measures. The Somalian pirates in this story aren't just troublemakers and criminals; they are complicated people who are poor and desperate and have had many options taken from them by people not unlike Amy's family. They are doing what they have to do to survive.

Amy's privilege isn't lost on her either. She mentions that she got a diving license at her school, emphasizing "I went to that kind of school" to assure us that she knows there are other kinds. Her family weren't snobs though, which was nice. As she got to know one of her captors, Farouz, she realizes that despite their very different life situations, they have some things in common. For instance, music. Amy plays the violin (though she hasn't touched it since her mother died) and Farouz plays the oud, which is also a stringed instrument, one he is so fond of that it's the first thing he bought with his earnings as a pirate. They talk a lot about their lives, and the stories Farouz tells about his life in Somalia are some of my favorite parts of the story.

Amy's narrative voice moves smoothly between her backstory and the current story. She has a lot of family tension surrounding her mother's suicide, her own abandonment of her education, her stepmother (who she refers to as "the stepmother"), and her absentee father. It's a well-crafted backdrop for the crazy hostage situation and informs many of the choices they make during it.

When I realized Amy was going to have an attraction to one of the captors, I just didn't know how this would be pulled off convincingly, but these characters were all so well-formed and genuine that it worked, and very well. The six hostages and three primary pirates were all distinct with different personalities, even the secondary characters like Felipe the cook. It wasn't like a bunch of characters on a boat, it was a bunch of people on a boat. Their interactions all seemed to happen very naturally.

I was drawn in by the premise of the book, and the fact that I had read this author before actually made me wary, because how could it possibly live up to In Darkness? It's a very different book, to be sure, but maybe just as good. Now that I've read it I'm very surprised I haven't heard anything about it. I literally stumbled across it one day at the library while looking for In Darkness to put on my Staff Picks shelf. I'm so glad I did - tell everyone you know who likes YA books that they should read this! It merits way more attention than it seems to have gotten.

TBR Pile Challenge 2015

It's that time of year again: the TBR Pile Challenge! Last year was a great success. You can see my official list here. I read 11 of the 12 books I picked and one alternate. This is a great challenge because it motivates me to read books I've been wanting to read for far too long (more than a year, per the challenge instructions.) I'm disheartened that I still have plenty of books on my to read list that have been there for that long - I was hoping that wouldn't be the case after last year's challenge - but I'm really looking forward to doing it again.

Here's my list for this year:

1. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (finished January 27)
2. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (failed! admitted defeat on March 16)
3. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (finished February 20)
4. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (finished May 25)
5. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (finished August 10)
6. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
7. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
8. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (finished November 15)
9. Between Man and Beast by Monte Reel
10. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (finished April 12)
11. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens (finished April 27)
12. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Alternates:
All Fall Down by Sally Nichols
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (finished April 1)

I think this is a good mix of long and short books, classics and contemporary, and I even have a couple of nonfiction books on there.

The Woman in White is on my list for the second year in a row, unfortunately. I was actually really looking forward to it in 2014, but it's a fairly long classic and as you may remember I read both David Copperfield and War and Peace in the past year. (Have I mentioned War and Peace? Only about a dozen times? Oh, ok.)

The Gone-Away World has technically only been on my Goodreads lists for a few months, but its presence on my "To Read" list actually pre-dates my Goodreads account.  It was on my old Word document To Read list and never got transferred over when I set up my Goodreads account. But I've still thought of it many times over the years until a recent recommendation at a library conference spurred me to add it to my Goodreads shelf. I will read it this time, dammit.

I'll be updating this post as I go with completion dates for each book and links to reviews. Wish me luck!

A Year of Reading: 2014

1. The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
2. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
3. Home is a Roof Over a Pig by Aminta Arrington
4. Affinity by Sarah Waters
5. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
6. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
7. The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
8. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
9. Persuasion by Jane Austen
10. The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman
11. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
12. Pearl by Tabitha King
13. Reality Boy by A.S. King
14. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
15. Tampa by Alissa Nutting
16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
17. The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
18. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
19. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
20. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
21. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kristin Cronn-Mills
22. Pain, Parties, Work by Elizabeth Winder
23. Nine Inches by Tom Perrotta
24. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
25. Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
26. A Night Like This by Julia Quinn
27. City of Thieves by David Benioff
28. The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein
29. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
30. My Notorious Life by Kate Manning
31. Perv by Jesse Bering
32. Keeping the Castle by Patricia Kindl
33. Go by Chip Kidd
34. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
35. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen
36. Thunderstruck and Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken
37. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
38. Winger by Andrew Smith
39. When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
40. Panic by Lauren Oliver
41. Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen
42. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
43. The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
44. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
45. The Perils of Pleasure by Julie Ann Long
46. The Panopticon by Jenny Fagan
47. Wool by Hugh Howey
48. Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin
49. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
50. Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
51. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
52. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
53. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
54. Girls Standing on Lawns by Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler
55. Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
56. Ten Thousand Joys and Ten Thousand Sorrows by Olivia Hoblitzelle
57. The List by Siobhan Vivian
58. The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan
59. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
60. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
61. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
62. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
63. The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
64. No Choirboy by Susan Kuklin
65. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
66. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian
67. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
68. The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
69. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
70. How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
71. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
72. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
73. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
74. The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason
75. Sister's Fate by Jessica Spotswood
76. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
77. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
78. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
79. Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
80. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
81. Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
82. Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
83. Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot
84. In Darkness by Nick Lake
85. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
86. Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey
87. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
88. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
89. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
90. Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit
91. Revival by Stephen King
92. Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King
93. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
94. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
95. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
96. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
97. The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield
98. Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
99. Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover by Sarah MacLean
100. The Storied Life by A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
101. The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming
102. The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

I'm down a bit from last year, but that's not surprising. I actually didn't expect to hit 100. As you may remember, I spent two months reading War and Peace. I also read the lengthy David Copperfield early in the year. And this one wasn't especially long, but it took me two weeks to read The Boys in the Boat. All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised with how many books I managed to read. I also completed the 2014 TBR Pile Challenge, which means that I finally read a bunch of books that had been languishing on my To Read list for quite a while. I'm so pleased about that, I'll be doing the challenge again in 2015. I'll be posting my list soon!

As for favorites, it's such a funny thing. Here are the books I gave 5 stars on Goodreads:
Reality Boy
The Handmaid's Tale
Thunderstruck and Other Stories
Wool
Sister's Fate
In Darkness
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
War and Peace
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
I'll Give You the Sun
The Family Romanov

I stand by my 5-star ratings, but when I look at what I read this year, there are many other books that really jump out at me, that when I see them on the list I think "That one was really good."

For instance:
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Grasshopper Jungle
The Panopticon
My Notorious Life
The Woman Upstairs
We Were Liars
The Tragedy Paper
The Burn Journals
The Miniaturist
Sharp Objects

I think it was just an especially good year for books, maybe.

Here's hoping that 2015 is a great reading year too!

The Walled City

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin (2014)

There used to be a huge walled city in Hong Kong - an enormous mass of interconnected high rises where drugs and crime were rampant. (A photographer named Greg Girard has some great photos of it here if you want to see what it looked like.) Ryan Graudin used the real city as inspiration for the setting in her young adult novel, The Walled City.

The city of Hak Nam is rough and gritty and dangerous. The only rule of law is maintained by an organization called the Brotherhood of the Dragon, which is presided over by a man called Longwai. Longwai is also a drug trafficker and runs a brothel and it is through these avenues that he is connected to the main characters of the novel.

The story centers on three desperate teenagers who have all been trapped in the city for a couple of years. Jin Ling lives on the streets disguised as a boy so she won't be sold into prostitution like the sister she came to the city to search for. Mei Yee is confined to a brothel with seemingly no escape. She is well fed and cared for, but at a very high price. Finally, Dai is haunted by a mysterious past and has an opportunity to get out of the city, but time is running short and he needs help. All three have become streetwise and untrusting and have taught themselves how to survive in this unfriendly place.

This book just came out in November and I heard very little about it, but ever since my vacation to Hong Kong it's hard to resist any book set there. I found the story and characters compelling from the very beginning, the story fast-paced and exciting. Also it made me want to go to Chinatown and eat all the things. Even though the characters were often starving, when they had food I could almost smell it and it made me very hungry! The food was just part of the local atmosphere, which I thought was very well evoked, and the setting was definitely a huge part of the story. I kept rooting for Jin, Mei Yee, and Dai from the time I met them until the final, satisfying conclusion. If you're looking for a change from YA books featuring white kids in boarding school (as much as I love those stories!) I highly recommend this unusual, refreshing novel.

Crochet Tuesday

No, this isn't going to be another regular feature, it's just a Sunday Knitting post that's neither on Sunday nor about knitting.

I mentioned last time that I was going to crochet some more dishcloths, and now I have. (Please, try to contain your excitement.)

They are imperfect, to be sure, but I think they'll work. I used a free pattern called Nubbie Scrubbies, which is a very easy pattern of alternated triple and single crochet that makes cute little bobbles. I did manage to accidentally make one of them a little smaller by not chaining enough stitches to begin with. Again, I'm pretty sure it will still work.

Working on these hurt my hands, especially my thumb. I don't know if that's because I'm new to crochet and using different muscles, or if it's because of the kitchen cotton. I know that sometimes knitting with this yarn also makes my hands hurt.

This was a fun project to take on the bus to give me something to do with my hands while listening to podcasts. These dishcloths and Serial will probably be forever intertwined in my head.