Honestly, I couldn’t make it through this, and I have a pretty high tolerance for bad movies and tv. I also have a little crush on Rufus Sewell, but even that couldn’t keep me awake. A complete and total snooze – literally.

I’m excited to be reading this. David Treuer is an amazing talent, a true storyteller, with wonderful language on every page.

Well, I’m glad I read this, not because I loved it, but I liked it, and it helped me understand the Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog much better. It is clear to me now that one of the major themes Lessing explores in these books is what it takes for human beings to survive under extremely dystopian conditions in the distant future. There is physical survival – food, water, shelter, etc. – but more interesting to Lessing is the knowledge necessary for survival. More important than the knowledge necessary for subsistence is the knowledge necessary for understanding and identity. She also explores the ties that bind us, even to people who hurt and betray us and how having such connections is essential to our survival as people.

I got this book from the library and just finished reading this today and was feeling quite unsatisfied with it. You know, I like a good futuristic, grim, dystopia as much as the next person, and I’ll read anything with a dog in it, but, somehow, this book just wasn’t doing it for me. The characters keep alluding to past events that sound much more interesting and compelling to me than anything is this novel, so all along I kept thinking “I’d much rather be reading about all the stuff in the past than this boring stuff about the characters’ reflecting on and angsting over the past.” So, after finishing the book, I looked it up on Amazon and found out that, low and behold, The Story of General Dann etc. is a SEQUEL to an earlier novel. Aha! An explanation for my frustration. I read the wrong book first. I’m going to read the 1st book now and then rethink my opinion regarding this one.

After watching several discs, it pains me to admit that this series really isn’t very good. The writing is terrible, the story lines predictable, the fights are boring – and then there’s the very unfortunate mullet and the soundtrack by Clannad which makes me want to beat my head on the wall. Too bad. I was looking for something to fill the place of Highlander in my life (which tells you something about the level of my expectations) and I really wanted to enjoy this series.

Just finished reading the Traveler today and I do recommend it. I don’t normally read thrillers, but my book club is reading this. It is less formulaic than many thrillers. Also, the author weaves together a complex set of ideas from history, science, religion, politics and current events. Throw in some Alias-like action scenes with gun fights, martial arts and sword fights and you’ve got an entertaining read.

We live in a society where we willingly give up our privacy in exchange for a sense of connectedness, where we voluntarily restrict our own actions in exchange for a sense of safety, where we trade convenience and lifestyle for the health of the planet and where we sacrifice the lives of millions of people to assuage our fears. We assume that some other people will pay the consequences, that we will be safe so long as we do nothing “wrong”. John Twelve Hawks reminds us that wrongness is a slippery, transitory concept defined by the people in power. They need us to feel afraid. They need us to consider ourselves better than and separate from those we perceive as different. What do I gain from this system? And what am I willing to lose?

Confession: I’ve been quietly avoiding reading Robin McKinley books for decades because I feared they would be lightweight, derivative fantasy for girls. After reading Deerskin and Hero and the Crown, I have learned that McKinley actually writes substantive, original fantasy with strong female protagonists who challenge the status quo. While Deerskin is the superior novel, I enjoyed Hero and the Crown very much. All of the standard elements of the hero quest are included: the hero must leave her home, face danger, go to the underworld to bring back treasure, return home a changed person, etc., but McKinley manages to make this fresh and compelling by exploring how this story is different with a female hero (not a heroine, mind you) and by creating a sympathetic, well-rounded character in Airen. McKinley also writes very well about the relationships between humans and animals, avoiding the anthromorphism trap. Hero and the Crown won a Newbery Award in 1985.

Just finished reading this last night and it far exceeded my expectations. I started reading it because I’ve been working on this bibliography of literary books about dogs. It turned out to be one of the best fantasy novels I have read in years. I am reminded of the first time I read the Forgotten Bests of Eld by Patricia McKillip, many, many years ago.

McKinley somehow takes a bunch of standard fairy tale tropes (beautiful kingdom with a beautiful king and queen who have a beautiful daughter who needs to marry, but who resists the arranged marriage, etc.) and makes it all new and original. This is a dark, psychological novel about a young woman who grows up neglected and alone, except for her dog Ash. After a brutal attack, she and Ash escape to heal their physical and psychic wounds in the wilderness. Eventually, they return to civilization and try to learn how to trust and interact with humans again.

While they are aided by magic, this by no means makes their recoveries any less difficult or harrowing. I think that must be one of the things I like so much about this book, is that McKinley doesn’t condescend to her characters. Also, McKinley honors the dog-human bond and without totally anthropomorphizing the dogs.

David Sedaris is pee-in-your-pants funny. Not to be read on an airplane, at work, or where anyone is trying to sleep.

What a great, doggy book! In this YA, fantasy novel, Sirius (the dog star) is punished by his fellow luminaries by being sent to Earth to live (or die) as a dog, unless he can accomplish a seemingly impossible mission. The author does a fabulous job of portraying a character who is simultaneously canine and celestial. A wonderful book for all of us who already know that our dogs are mysterious, luminous, powerful beings beneath their furry exteriors.