All Consuming : Calissa

Consuming "A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:02:45 GMT

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

by George R.R. Martin

Consuming "Theogeny & Works and Days"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:00:09 GMT

Theogeny & Works and Days

by Hesiod

Consumed "The Astrology File"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:56:02 GMT

The Astrology File

by Gunther Sachs

NOT WORTH IT!

Consumed "Eight Cousins"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:23:42 GMT

Eight Cousins

by Louisa May Alcott

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Curious Pursuits"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:04:53 GMT

Curious Pursuits

by Margaret Atwood

A review of "Curious Pursuits"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:00:21 GMT

Curious Pursuits

by Margaret Atwood

Curious Pursuits is a collection of reviews, forewords and essays by Margaret Atwood. The pieces, written between 1970 and 2005, have been collected into a single volume and seem to have no connecting link between them other than their author. There are definitely reoccuring themes – such as the state of Canadian literature/culture, feminism and, more towards the end, environmentalism – but overall, it doesn’t seem strong enough to hang together.

In the acknowledgements section, Atwood describes overhearing four Irish women discussing her books and complaining that they were becoming too long. She points to the short length of some of the pieces in the book as a peace offering. The book itself, however, is rather chunky. This left it in a weird space for me. It was too big to take travelling with me, but the stories were too short to engage me for an extended reading session at home. I found myself putting this book down a lot and wandering off to do other things.

And yet I read the book all the way through. Part of this is probably due to my own stubborness – I’m always very reluctant to put a book down once I’ve started. But the book held interest for me as a writer. A writer, it seems, will write and write a profusion of different things. It was interesting to me to see all the different forms Atwood’s writing has taken apart from her novels (and made me feel better that I am not the only one with diverse writing interests). Her comments about writing had potential for further rumination on my part. I found her book reviews interesting on a couple of levels – discovering both what she had been reading, what her thoughts on it were and the improvement over the years in how she wrote the reviews. I found her essay on The Island of Doctor Moreau particularly interesting and a stronger note to finish the book on.

However, I don’t think it revealed all that much about Atwood as a person, though there was some personal detail, and overall I was left wondering what the point of the book was.

Consumed "Life Through Cellophane"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:16:35 GMT

Life Through Cellophane

by Gillian Polack

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Worldshaker"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:53:17 GMT

Worldshaker

by Richard Harland

Consumed "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:08:53 GMT

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned

by Anne Rice

A review of "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:08:53 GMT

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned

by Anne Rice

I picked up this book because I’d read Interview With A Vampire and wasn’t that fussed. I thought I’d give Anne Rice a second chance by picking something completely unrelated.

Julie Stratford’s archaeologist father uncovers the tomb of Ramses the Great, a pharaoh said to be immortal. The archaeologist is promptly murdered and the mummy shipped to Julie in early 20th Century England. Ramses revives in time to save Julie from being similarly murdered and the pair fall in love. The remainder of the book is spent introducing Ramses to modern times and keeping the elixir that rendered him immortal from falling into the wrong hands.

I can’t say that I was all that fussed on this book either. It started out well, but there seemed to be no real depth to the characters. They appeared to be more driven by the story rather than the other way around. Nor did they seem to grow at all, unless you count Alex becoming more cynical or Julie becoming more and more the helpless female. Ramses obsession with Cleopatra seemed forced, considering he was supposed to be in love with Julie.

The ending was disappointing, with no real resolution at all. It actually left me wondering whether there was supposed to be a sequel, there were so many loose ends.

All in all, not my cup of tea. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if it went through a bit of a revival with Twilight being such a big hit and the current surge in popularity that paranormal romance is undergoing.

Consumed "Wrong About Japan"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:25:02 GMT

Wrong About Japan

by Peter Carey

A review of "Wrong About Japan" (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:25:02 GMT

Wrong About Japan

by Peter Carey

This book arrived safe and sound in my letterbox this morning. It is only a slight book, so I managed to finish it off pretty quickly.

I have to say that the more I read, the less I liked Peter Carey. He is clearly not much of a people person—his interactions with others are uniformly awkward and I was rather appalled by the way he treated his son’s friend, Takashi. He seemed more intent on rushing around, trying to achieve some purpose that wasn’t even clear to himself. He came across as being distinctly snobbish.

The book reminded me a bit of Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. That too is about a foreigner in Japan struggling to come to terms with the culture through some particular aspect. I felt that Herrigel did it with far more grace, though to be fair Herrigel was actually living in Japan at the time rather than just there for a quick visit. Herrigal didn’t demand answers in the way that Carey did or seek to extract the essence of a culture by interrogating its forms.

The non-answer to Carey’s interview questions by those in the anime and manga industry reminded me a lot of Zen and Buddhism—the teacher isn’t there to give you the answers, you must arrive at your own.

Despite my dislike of Carey, it was quite a fascinating book. I loved that he highlighted the generational gap in Japan as well as between himself and his son. That in turn resonated with the culture gap.

Hearing about the bombing of Japan was quite eye-opening and made me realise that there is indeed a focus on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, when the devestation was really more widespread. There were other facts scattered throughout that made me stop and think as well (13 year-old samurai being one). Miyazaki came across to me as being as much a breath of fresh air as I’m sure he did to Carey. And being quite an anime fan, I appreciated the references.

All in all, an interesting book, but not one I particularly enjoyed.

Consumed "The Book of Babel: Words and the Way We See Things"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:17:10 GMT

The Book of Babel: Words and the Way We See Things

by Nigel Lewis

A review of "The Book of Babel: Words and the Way We See Things"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:16:04 GMT

The Book of Babel: Words and the Way We See Things

by Nigel Lewis

This is essentially a book on etymology. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author talks about the origin and relationship of particular words by grouping them into different metaphorical categories. For example, he touches on a number of different words that are related to pigs. The conceits he uses are a bit laboured and the writing a bit dry. This is balanced out somewhat by the short sections which make it much easier to read in small bites, provided you can remember what the conceit of the chapter was supposed to be.

The second section is a lexicon, something that approaches a dictionary. However, instead of giving the meaning of the word the reader is provided with some interesting examples of how this word is translated into other languages. This probably should have been explained in an introduction to the lexicon. When I first started reading it, I thought that the author was going to give the etymological history of the word in English—how we arrived at the word we use. It took me a couple of entries before I understood what he was doing.

Overall, the structure could have been improved and it wasn’t as personable to read as other books on language I’ve encountered, such as David Crystal’s By Hook or By Crook. You need to have an interest in the subject matter.

Consumed "Naamah's Kiss"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:03:05 GMT

Naamah's Kiss

by Jacqueline Carey

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Lavinia"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:04:41 GMT

Lavinia

by Ursula K. Le Guin

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Kushiel's Mercy"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:26:05 GMT

Kushiel's Mercy

by Jacqueline Carey

WORTH IT!

A review of "Love in the Time of Cholera" (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:42:12 GMT

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Set in the late 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, Love in the Time of Cholera traces the lives of three peopleâ€”Dr Juvenal Urbino, his wife Fermina Daza, and her ardent admirer Florentino Ariza.

In some senses the novel had a lot of hurdles to overcome in order to reach me. The setting was old even when it was written in 1985 and the telephone is invented in the course of the novel. It is set in another culture, in an unidentified country in South America that the author assumes the reader knows. The text itself has been translated from Spanish. By and large, the novel manages to transcend these things and touch on issues that remain eternal. Still, there were times when I was left feeling like I wasnâ€™t quite getting the joke or grasping all the nuances.

I found it was a novel I had to be patient with for a number of reasons. It is a meandering sort of tale, weaving in and out of the lives of the three main characters and more than a few minor characters. Nor does it tell things in a linear fashion, but doubles back on time and itself to relate all manner of extraordinary and mundane happenings. Yet despite all this, I didnâ€™t find it confusing or hard to follow. There were a few occasional exceptions, due solely to the overuse of third person pronoun and the structure of the sentence, rather than the structure of the novel.

However, the structure of the book was also another thing that required my patience. The chapters and paragraphs are long and there is little in the way of dialogue. Nor is it a suspenseful sort of tale, but filled with the tedium of the every day.

The book certainly rewards the patient, however. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a wonderful knack for presenting the juxtaposition of romance and high ideals of all sorts with the mud and dirt of reality. In this sense, the title really is apt. As may be assumed, it subtly asks many questions about the nature of love through its portrayals. I found its examination of the squeamishness that younger generations have about love amongst their grey-haired elders to be particularly thought-provoking. There is also a keen sense of the ridiculousâ€”such as the widow who canâ€™t stop talking about her dead husband whenever she is sleeping with a loverâ€”and touches of whimsy that I enjoyed.

There was one death late in the novel that I found entirely too convenient. But all in all, the book is certainly worth the read.

Consumed "Love in the Time of Cholera"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:42:12 GMT

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A review of "The High Lord" (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:51:23 GMT

The High Lord

by Trudi Canavan

The last of the trilogy, The High Lord revolves around the title character. Sonea must discover whether he is as ruthless and unprincipled as she has been led to believe or whether he has enough reason to justify it.

The book felt a little more untidy than the last. Rothen seemed to flap about at a loose end for much of the time. Savara seemed more of a plot device than a proper character. The change in the relationship between Sonea and Akkarin was unconvincing, at least on Akkarin’s part. The epilogue weakened the ending and seemed unnecessary.

However the pace was good, as were the settings. Not a bad read and definitely better than the first book.

A review of "The Novice" (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Calissa) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:33:50 GMT

The Novice

by Trudi Canavan

The second book in the trilogy, The Novice, as the title suggests, follows Sonea’s training as a magician. Her background as a slum dweller makes it difficult for her to fit in with the other novices, who take to picking on her. In the meantime, one of her allies, Lord Dannyl, is promoted to Guild Ambassador and sent on a secret mission to trace a journey the High Lord made years ago. It is hoped Lord Dannyl might uncover the origins of some of the High Lord’s dubious activities.

Thankfully, this was a much better book than the last one. The characters are much stronger and actually grow a little, particularly Dannyl. The plot is still a bit predictable in places and parts of it reminded me a bit of Harry Potter. In fact Regin reminded me strongly of Draco Malfoy from time to time. Nevertheless, the depiction of Sonea’s victimisation was well done and quite strong. The universtiy also came across very vividly.

All in all, a much more polished effort than the last book.