A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - Review

As usual, when I got home from work and saw a package with my name on it, I was very excited.  "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing" had arrived.  Anyone who loves books knows that thrill of knowing you have something new to read.

I chose to read "A Girl is a Half Formed Thing" is the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother.  Their relationship starts even before the girl is born, and is shaped largely around her brothers childhood brain tumor.

Amazon describes it as a book that: "...tells the story of a young girl’s devastating adolescence as she and her brother, who suffers from a brain tumor, struggle for a semblance of normalcy in the shadow of sexual abuse, denial, and chaos at home. Plunging readers inside the psyche of a girl isolated by her own dangerously confusing sexuality, pervading guilt, and unrelenting trauma...."

I thought I could get into the story so I opened the book and started reading.

"For you.  You'll soon.  You'll give her name.  in the stitches of her skin she'll wear you say."

My brow crinkled up.  I skimed the page to see more of the same.  And the next page.  And the next.

Surely the whole book can't be written like this I thought.  I opened to a random page towards the middle.

"Sister be a brother sister fixer of her woes.  Am I like that?  Am I that thing it seems yes.  So ho ho on the phone."

And another random page,

"Hands are.  Greasy with old or.  They come.  Here are two.  Two with them with cans or them six-pack."

So, okay, the whole book is written like that.

I have to say I TRIED to read the book.  I really tried.  I put HOURS into reading the first 42 pages of this 229 page book.  I had to re-read and re-read and re-read parts to even begin to understand what was happening.  I'm still not sure if I was understanding some of the scenes properly.

I very rarely dislike a book so much that I don't finish reading it.  I have forced myself to the ends of some horrible things, but 42 pages was all of this I could take.  I simply could not keep going.

That's not to say that this is a BAD book.  It has won multiple awards, so it must be a good book in literary terms. But as a casual reader of fiction just for the joy of reading and I see why it took Eimear McBride almost a decade to get it published (as the back cover of the novel says)

I have to give "A girl is a half formed thing." Just one star.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

The Book of Strange New Things - a Review

"Harrowing, wrenching...
bold and unexpected work of beauty."
--The New Republic

I read all kinds of books.  Of course I like some genre's more than others.  And when I read a genre I expect a certain kind of writing.  When I read a Science Fiction novel, I don't want a lot of techno-babble.  Whether it is in the future, in outer space, in another dimension, I don't care.  I don't want the story to be overshadowed by talk of flux capacitors or the physics of warp drives.

Similarly when I read a Christian themed novel I don't want God shoved down my throat every other sentence.  I know plenty of faith filled people in the world, and most of them do decided whether to go to the bathroom or not without asking God if its okay first.

When I picked The Book of Strange New Things off of Blogging For Books I realized it was a twofer.  It was a Christian Science Fiction Novel, and realized that chances were good that it would not meet both of my criteria.

The Book of Strange New Things follows a pastor named Peter, who decides to leave behind his wife, Bea, and his cat Joshua to work as a missionary.

Instead of traveling to a different country or Continent, Peter is traveling to another PLANET.

A mega-corporation known as  USIC  (if its known at all) found him perfect for the mission.  They needed a preacher because the native population of the planet demanded one.

Once he is on the planet, farther away from home than he ever thought possible he finds out he has the most easy missionary job ever.  The population is STARVING for the Word of God.  They call the Bible their "Book of Strange New Things."  Even the ones who are not converted don't give him a hard time.

Then he begins to get news from Bea about a world which is becoming more and more devastated.  He feels apart and disconnected from the tragedies of Earth, and eventually finds a gulf of more than dimensional space growing between him and his beloved Bea.

It was a good novel.  Emotional in parts, but not very thrilling.  The more I read the more I kept expecting the natives to be different than they seemed to be.

The back of the novel cover talks about a "population struggling with a dangerous illness" and I kept waiting for that to show up too.

As far as meeting my criteria...Peter is a layperson not a scientist.  That makes him different than the rest of the population on the planet.  While the characters in the background sometimes talk of techinical things its only mentioned in the passing through Peters POV.

Then there was the Christian part.  Of course, when the bulk of the book is about a Christian Missionary bringing the Gospel to aliens on another planet, you expect there will be more God-talk than in a novel about (for example) a religious private detective.  I appreciate that the preaching was left mostly to the scenes with the natives and not so much Peter trying to convert the other humans in the settlement.

Parts of the book were written using the "letters" of the natives as Peter tries to learn the language.  Towards the very end of the book he gives them a speech using ONLY their own language.  That was a bit annoying to me.  I have no idea what he said to his flock in that scene, and it was never translated for the reader.

And Peter himself seemed a little more self-centered than I would imagine a Missionary to be.  He didn't try very hard to interact with the humans, even the ones who clearly needed him.  And in his letters to Bea he comes across as only wanting to talk about himself, but not even really wanted to do that. Her missives to him are long and full of info.  His letters to her are mostly just a few lines long and usually telling her to pray or turn to God (when she clearly wanted support from her husband no matter how far away he was.)

More interesting are the letters that Peter gets from Bea.  Normally I hate when a book switches POV from one character to another, but I wanted to see more of what was going on on Earth.  We got tidbits from Bea, but not enough.

I have a feeling that if I had seen more of the book from Bea's POV on earth I might have been more likely to give it a full 5 stars.

As it was I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.  It could have been more thrilling, but it never promised to be a Thriller.  And it made me read for 3 hours straight near the end because I HAD to know how it ended.

Shadow Creek - Joy Fielding

"Shadow Creek" by Joy Fielding was one of the books I checked out during my last library trip.  That was the trip where I ended up randomly grabbing things.

This one I picked because the title was creepy, and the red and black cover was ominous

"There's something deadly lurking the shadows at Shadow Creek"

Valerie thought she would be spending her birthday with her two best friends while her daughter spend the weekend in the Adirondacks.  However she finds herself instead visiting Shadow Creek in the company of her best friends Melissa and James, her angsty daughter Brianne, AND her son to be ex husband's new fiance Jennifer.

There also just happens to be a crazed killer loose in the Adirondacks, which James (who hates nature) points out every chance he gets.

Then Brianne goes missing.
Then Brianne goes missing.
Then Brianne goes missing.

Yes, I meant for that to be repeated.  Actually, it didn't take long for me to get really annoyed with Brianne.  I wanted to reach into the book and scream at the characters, "Somebody needs to put that girl on a leash!"

If I were her mom I would have stopped looking for her, crazed killer on the loose or not.

The author tried to make you like Jennifer, even though Valerie hates her.  It almost worked, except that Jennifer acts almost as brain dead as the teenaged daughter.

I think I would have liked to see more of the story from the killer's POV.

It was an interesting enough read.  I kept reading mostly to find out if the odd group of companions and the killer in the woods would ever actually cross paths.

I would give this one 3 out of 5 stars.  It didn't totally suck, but I'd not read it again and it didn't particularly make me want to grab another book by the same author.

The Fall of the Governor Part 2 - Review

"The Walking Dead The Fall of the Governor Part Two" is the fourth novel in the series by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.  These novels take place in the world they created for the comic book series of The Walking Dead.

There is also a television series on AMC based on the comics.

I have not read the comics, but I feel like these novels are probably closer to the comics than to the television series.   However, if you start with the first book The Rise of the Governor then you do not have to read the comics OR watch the series to enjoy the novels.  They really do stand on their own.

This series of novels do not take place following our band of heros.  Instead you get the see the rise of the zombies and face the aftermath in the company of the "bad guys."

This novel, as well as the previous 3 in the series,  follow a young woman named Lilly Caul.  Having been taken into the safety of Woodbury she has worked her way up in the city's shaky hierarchy to be semi-close to the man known as "The Governor" 

(WARNING: This review MAY contain spoilers.  Proceed with Caution!)

With the introduction of Rick, Glenn, and Michonne in the previous novel, you can only assume that this novel shows Woodburys version of the attack on the prison, and you would not be wrong.  

With The Governor not being in the best of health at the start of The Fall of the Governor Part 2, Lilly is doing everything she can to hold the town together before it comes apart at the seams.

When The Governor asks her to hunt down some of the towns deserters she takes the challenge, despire her own special medical issue.  

She feels like The Governor might not be entirely sane, but really feels that he has the best interest of the town at heart.  She is willing to do whatever he says must be done to protect Woodbury and all that it has come to represent to her.

Since a large part of this book centers around Woodbury's move against the prision you know it is full of action.

And since it takes place in the universe of The Walking Dead, you know it is also full of zombies.

My Thoughts

Lilly Caul is to this novel series what Andrea was to the telvision series.  That means I kind of hate her a little bit.  Okay, I kind of hate her A LOT.

Since I have watched all of the Walking Dead television series, I know the Governor's motives and I KNOW that he's more than a little off kilter in the novel.  I also know that the "indruders" are not the monsters that he is making them out to be.

All of Lilly's hatred of them, and the people at the prison, is so totally unfounded.  Even though she holds them responsible for something that happens to her in this novel I still want to reach through the pages and shake her and scream at her, "Can't you see how stupid you are being?  STOP IT, JUST STOP IT!"

The end of the book went in the only direction it could have gone in I suppose.  Now I just need to get my hands on Descent, which is the next book in the series.

Library Haul!

Today we went to the library. Like most book lovers I am quite fond of the library.  After all, it is a place just FULL of books.  And they are all free!  At least for 3 weeks at the time anyway.

Sadly, our library system covers somewhere around 19 or 20 branches.  So the books are hither and yon.  And the branch closest to our house, being the one we go to for that very reason, has not had anything new.

For me half the fun of going to the library is browsing.  Walking up and down the aisles, seeing titles, touching spines, judging books ENTIRELY by their covers.

I think I've been looking at the exact same books in this particular library for at least a year now.

Of course it didn't help much today that we had the boys with us.  Parker was running up and down the aisle, and Spencer was screaming, and the Librarian though Parker was running AND screaming and told him, "We don't run and scream in the library."

So I switched kids.  I took the baby, gave him a board book, and tried to entertain him while I browsed, and gave Parker to his Dad who was browsing in the children section anyway.

I hardly found anything at all this time.  The 4 I did end up getting I just kind of randomly grabbed so that I could say I have something.  I'm not even excited about reading them to be honest.  Maybe one of them will be a gem.

First, I did find a few art/craft related books that were not there last time.  I think the Big Ass Book of Bling was one I put on hold that I never had a chance to pick up.  The other two just showed up there and made me happy to see them on the shelves.  I hope they are fun to look at.

1.  "Ideas and Inspirations for Art Journals and Sketchbooks"

2.  "The Big Ass Book of Bling"

3.  "Carve Stamp Play"

And then there were the 4 that I kind of randomly grabbed.  I liked the titles, or the covers.  I skimmed the jacket cover blurb on each.  One of them is by Ray Bradbury.  Surely at least 1 of the 4 must be a good read.

1.  "From the Dust Returned" by Ray Bradbury

2.  "Don't Die Draygonfly" by Linda Joy Singleton

3.  "The Uninvited"  by Tim Wynne-Jones

4.  "Shadow Creek" by Joy Fielding

I didn't browse the children section, but Robert picked out a few books for us to read to Parker.  He likes Star Wars, and he likes UmiZoomi.  Who knows if he'll like the dog one or not.

1.  "Drop it, Rocket" by Tad Hills

2.  "Team Umizoomi Top Cops" illustrated by Jason Fruchter

3.  "Star Wars Rebels Ezra and the Pilot" Adapted by Jennifer Heddle

And we didn't forget the littlest guy.  Well, honestly we probably wouldn't have checked out a book for him, but I had to give him one to play with to keep him from screaming  because we wouldn't let him pull the books off of the shelves.

1.  "Alice in Wonderland A colors primer" by Jennifer Adams Illustrated by Alison Oliver

2.  "Mirabelle and the Bouncy Red Ball" by Michael Muller

Books I Got For Christmas

I can not beleive I have let so many days go between Christmas and me talking about the books I got for Christmas!

My whole family knows I like to read, so there is rarely a holiday or birthday that goes by in which I don't get a book, or two, or twelve.

For example, on my last birthday all I got was books!

Christmas was a little less full of books, but I did get two!

I am a walking dead fan, and have been reading the novel series based on the world in the comics of The Walking Dead.

I already had the first two, and wrote a review for the first one called The Rise of the Governor.  So for Christmas I got "The Fall of the Governor:  Part One" and "The Fall of the Governor: Part Two."

Meanwhile, I have already read both of the books.

That's right, by the first week of January I had finished both of my Christmas Gift Books.

Now, tell me:

What books did you get as gifts this year? 

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