I realize that I've gotten lazy about recording the books I've been reading lately, which may not be all together a bad thing, because now they aren't so fresh in my memory and hopefully I won't ramble too long about each of them. *Sweatdrop* If you think these posts are boring, then by all means leave quietly and go make yourself a sandwich or something.

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  
  I just finished this one the other day and it was really good, in that way where stories are really good in a horrible, terrible way. It's a slightly futuristic, dystopian (I never knew there was a term for the opposite of utopian -- look, I learned a new word!) take on a political and cultural revolution of the United States -- now called the Republic of Gilead -- after the reproduction rates of the American people takes a dangerous downward spiral. Told from the point of view of a woman named Offred, she describes her life as a Handmaiden -- one of remaining women still with viable ovaries that the oppressive and violent Gilead government now farms out to high society families with the specific purpose only to breed. They're allowed out once a day to the market, are not allowed to read, and have no purpose in live other than the hope of becoming pregnant by their Commanders in order to secure their worth.
  
  It goes without saying that this book is highly unsettling and disturbing at times, but again, in a fascinating way where you can't stop reading. You don't have to be a feminist to appreciate this story. Highly recommended to anyone.


• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  
  Oh man, I haven't read this book in such a long time! I don't really think I need to recap this one since everyone and their dog is probably familiar with the story (and if you aren't, then you should feel shame. SHAAAAAAAME.) I remember sitting in my sister's room when I was little while she read The Hobbit out loud to me for the first time and being riveted in my seat, and ever since the Gollum/Bilbo riddle chapter has always remained one of those vivid, iconic scenes in literature for me. The last time I read this book was probably when I was in junior high, so it's lost most of the high and thrilling entertainment value I remember it having as a kid (I think mostly due to Tolkien's writing style which I don't enjoy much), but even now as an adult it's still a staple for every bookworm's bookshelf.


• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
  
  The first novel in the Uglies, Pretties, Specials trilogy, I heard a lot of rave reviews for this series. Hundreds of years after an apocalyptic world event occurred, the remains of society across the globe now live in controlled, self-contained cities; and the most anticipated moment in everyone's life is when they turn sixteen -- and undergo an operation to turn them pretty. Sixteen-year-old Tally wants nothing more, until she's forced to betray a friend and in turn learns the horrible truth behind becoming pretty.
  
  Nothing amazing, the whole pretty operation "twist" was predictable fairly early on, and none of the characters were particularly note-worthy; but the story concept and new world and technology that the author created were all interesting enough to keep me reading. It ended in a way that I can't help but want to read the second book too. (Curse you, cliffhangers!)


• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
  
  This book is set during the 1960s Cultural Revolution, following Chen Zhen, a student from Beijing who goes to live as shepherd on the Mongolian grassland. It showcases the culture of the herdsmen and the way they live with and respect the grassland and the entire ecosystem it supports, with particular detail paid to the Mongolian wolves that are both sacred to the herdsmen as well as the enemy. In order to learn more about the wolves, Chen steals a wild wolf cub from its den to raise himself.
  
  This novel took me a long time to finish because my interest in it flip flopped from chapter to chapter -- it was either super dry and read like a history text book, or was really interesting when it came to more of the spiritual aspects, especially the Mongols views on wolves and how they are both a struggle and blessing to the herders. Even during the fascinating parts though, half the time I wanted to kick Chen's character in the head for certain selfish decisions he makes at the expense of his adopted wolf cub. *Brenna's hackles raise*


• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  
  Great, emotion-packed story following a man and his young son as they try to survive on their own in a post-apocalyptic world, where every day is a life and death struggle against starvation, the elements, and any other individual they cross paths with. (The movie stars Viggo Mortensen, which is all sorts of awesome, even if he is all scruffy and hobo-looking in it.)
  
  I'd been meaning to read this book for quite a while, and while it was very different than what I'd imagined, it still didn't disappoint. There's some really heart-wrenching bits in this one. There's a particular scene where the father and son have been starving for days and all of a sudden they hear a dog bark. The boy immediately turns to his father and pleads to him not to hurt the dog, and the father promises he won't. I mean, these people haven't eaten in so long they're probably going to keel over and die any day, and still this father stands there and without hesitation promises his little boy that they won't kill this dog. Just... wow, you know? Best scene in the whole thing, in my opinion. This was an enjoyable (if not very sad) read.


• Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume by Jeff Smith
  
  What can I say about Bone? It's an American graphic novel series published over the course of thirteen years, or something crazy like that, collected together into one whopping 1,300+ page volume of adventure epicness, full of monsters, princesses, kingdoms, prophecies, love, betrayal, dragons, and three very funny looking characters called Bones. Did I mention that it also includes two half-hearted, dim-witted rat creatures who are occasionally hilarious and have a particular fondness for quiche? It served as a delightful (if not extremely lengthy) bathroom reader in our house for the past twelve months.

Whew. Onwards and forwards, or whatever the saying is. I'm about halfway done a new one right now, another Oprah's Club pick. (Say what you like about Oprah, but her recommended book list is usually pretty good.) With all of the free and cheap books I've been picking up lately, I may eventually have to invest in another book shelf.

I've been lazy with blogging over the last week or two, so I'll try to keep these all short and sweet!

• Edmonton Pride Parade
  
  Awesome! Went with Sister and friend and walked in the parade along with the Grant MacEwan GLBT group. I was originally assigned the task of enthusiastically giving out temporary tattoos to the crowd, but I'm too shy and am not a huge people person so that fell flat pretty quick; so instead I got to blow bubbles~ X3 Much more fun. By the end of that parade I had some proper bubble blowing technique down, I tell you. *Smug*
  
  It was a great turn out for both the parade parties and the crowds watching. This was the first time I've ever actually walked in the parade, and only the second time I'd ever been to it at all. Every year I mean to go, and then something always comes up and it's always the same old "okay, well maybe next year." I enjoy going out and showing my support, and I really love the atmosphere and watching all of the different people laughing and smiling and just being with each other -- some unfortunately whom I'm sure don't usually feel the same easy comfort in walking hand-in-hand down the street any other day as they probably do during pride day. I wish everyone could feel as confident, open, and happy all the time as some of the people I saw today. What a thought.


• Homeland by R. A. Salvatore
  
  A race of dark elves called the Drow live underground and are feared by all for their vicousness and single-minded drive for power no matter the cost, least of all when it comes to killing their own, which is practically encouraged. The newborn Drizzt is born and grows up to be not quite as malicious as his family and culture would prefer him to be...
  
  I don't know what to think about this book. I guess it was okay, I made it through to the end fast enough, but it was just too... evil? As in a complete over-abundance of. Usually I'm a sucker for the villain. I have a long, sordid history of always rooting for the bad guy, and almost every one of my favorite characters from any fandom has been the the villain; but my biff is that evil is not interesting unless it's dished out with some good alongside for the ride. All this story had was Evil Smiles and Evil Plotting and Evil Ambitions, where mothers kill sons and sisters kill mothers and brothers want to kill sisters and all it is is a giant clusterfuck of hate and assassination and EVIL. It made the villainous aspect of any potentially interesting character really boring and redundant. I think Homeland had potential, but fell flat.


• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
  
  A boy with Asperger's finds his neighbor's dog dead, impaled with a garden fork in the yard; despite his father's demands otherwise, brilliant young Christopher begins his own super-sleuth story to discover who killed the dog and ends up finding out more than he bargained for.
  
  This one's been on my to-read list for a while, and I was more eager to read it after finishing off House Rules recently by Jodi Picoult. The Curious Incident (etc) itself was good and an interesting read. The thing that struck me the most between this book and Picoult's was how very different the first-person PoV narrative was. Picoult's character is very aware of his Asperger's and why and how it affects aspects of his life and those around him the way it does; yet his inner dialogue was for the most part precise, articulate, thought out and -- for lack of a better word -- "normal." Haddon's character, on the other hand, is a whirlwind of thoughts and stories and descriptions and feelings, served up by the way of simplified language, many run-on sentences and topic derailments. It made it a bit exhausting to follow what the character was thinking some times, but in a way I think that's the point. Different books with different takes, though both very interesting in separate ways.


• Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
  
  This one was a light read with lots of laughs. Think Bridget Jones but for teens. Basically it chronicles diary-style a school year in the life of fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson, and predictably all manner of teenage girl drama and hyjinks ensue. There were some pretty funny bits, mostly because I remembered thinking some of the same things and using the same ridiculously silly logic at points back in my teenage days; and also because the narrator is British and uses lots of fabulously amusing English slang, terms like "nuddy-pants" and "jimjams" which are automatically hilarious to anyone who is not British.


• Sex and the City 2
  
  Awful. :c It started off well enough for the first half hour or so and geared up by introducing the new life hurdles that were going to be addressed for each character -- and then they all promptly jumped on a plane to Abu Dhabi and the remaining hour and half of the whole movie was a giant boring vacation slide show. Look, here we are on a camel! Look, here we are sipping cocktails by the pool! Look, here we are singing karaoke! What? Plot, where did you go? Did you accidentally miss the plane to the Middle East that your leading ladies were on? *Story plot sits sadly alone, abandoned completely in airport waiting lounge* So very very disappointing. My sad face was very sad indeed.


• Splice
  
  I have no words for this movie. We all left the theatre exchanging equal WTF expressions of "Ngggwha...?" Seriously. Here's the movie: Scientist couple create crazy human/mult-animal hybrid creature. Man wants to kill it, woman wants to raise it like a adorable monster-like puppy. Man is weary, woman loves it as a daughter. Man loves it like a daughter, woman preforms crazy mutilating experiments on it in the name of science. Man mates with it, woman is horrified and hates man. Man confronts woman. Woman loves creature! Woman hates creature! Man hates creature! Man loves creature! Man and woman go to kill creature! Creature dies, man and woman love creature, cry over loss of creature! Creature rises from the dead and swaps gender, so now she's a he who kills everything! Man and woman hate creature! Creature rapes woman and kills man! Creature is killed and woman is left impregnated with creature's own incesty, double-hybrid spawn.
  
  Potential sequel...? I hope not. o_O

In other news, I'm a horrible kitty mother and I forgot that everything including pet stores close freakishly early on Saturdays and now I have no breakfast for Iroh tomorrow morning. Bugger. I fear much drama and kitty woe (of the loud, especially obnoxious variety) shall occur when he notices the complete lack of tasty kibble in his bowl. :x

Two more books down, 130 more to go (though that number is constantly growing the more time I spend on Goodreads.)


His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Dragons! War! Oceanic battles! Dragons! Napoleon! Did I mention, dragons? It is exactly as it sounds, and if by that you think awesome then you, sir, are correct.

Sleek and proper English navy captain, William Laurence, finds himself wrenched away from the life and career and everything he adores when his crew captures a French ship carrying a rare dragon egg. Sure enough, poor ol' Will inevitably winds up with the obligation and responsibility of said dragon (named Temeraire) and is thrust into Britain's Aerial Corps to meet the fight against Bonaparte's advancing forces in the sky.

The book wastes no time with preambles of any sort. I have to admit that I had my doubts leaping right into the plot in the first chapter, much less the first six pages, and it all felt a little rushed before we had even left the starting line, what with trying to digest the whole alternate reality dragon quirk that doesn't get explained at all before you're thrust into it head first. That aside, it's an interesting concept of taking real historic events and putting a fantasy swing on it, and you get the feel for it pretty quick. I really loved Temeraire himself and the sort of naive but insightful view he has towards everyone and everything. I also really enjoyed the relationship Novik created between the dragons and their handlers; it's very obvious that Will and Temeraire's closeness is built on mutual respect and genuine affection on the half of both parties (which is something I felt lacking from other similar series' like Eragon.) By comparison, the neglect of one of the other dragon characters, Levitas, was heart wrenching. I don't ever cry reading books, but I came fairly close in the case of his small side story. ;_;

Since His Majesty's Dragon is based in a time of soldiers and war, there are a fair amount of battle scenes. I am not an action buff and I'm not particularly interested in the details or dynamics of warfare, so the parts where the story fell short for me were some of the especially longer battle or strategy scenes. I think it's especially difficult to read action sequences since they don't come across on the page as they do watching them on a screen, but fortunately the aerial battles were easier to follow here than a lot of other novel fight scenes I could mention. What I did find pretty nifty, however, were the creative crew systems and gear setups Novik dreamt up for the dragons -- it wasn't as simple as the hero just jumping on the back of his valiant draconian steed and shouting CHARGE! It added a sense of realism -- or at least as much realism as you can create when you're talking about more or less replacing fighter planes with mythical flying beasts.

I'll most likely dip back into the series for more in the future, if anything just for the possible chance for a scene with Napoleon Bonaparte whooping around in the sky ecstatically on the bag a giant flying lizard. :D As a footnote, the author of this series was apparently a fanfiction writer/LiveJournaler who lived in Edmonton for a winter (her biography remarks upon a "truly alarming coat" she now owns from her stint here, LOL.) I'd be interested to learn which fandom(s) she wrote for.


House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Picoult's newest book is about an eighteen-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome ( which is a high-functioning type of autism for those who are not familiar) and an obsession for forensic analysis, who is arrested for the murder of his social skills tutor.

My only familiarity of Asperger's up to this point had been the character of Jerry Espenson from Boston Legal, which is one of the reasons why this book initially piqued my interest. It's one of those conditions that a lot of people rarely hear about and it's always a bit fascinating getting a bit of a deeper glimpse into the day-to-day rituals, complications, and struggles an individual and family touched by something like Asperger's lives with. According to various reviews I've read, Picoult's portrayal of AS here doesn't always necessarily ring true (though who am I to say); but despite that, I greatly enjoyed House Rules, with the exception of the ending which I thought was way too sudden and failed at really tying things up. I hate the ambiguity, it leaves me sitting there forever just craving for closure! D: That, and I and every other reader figured out the "twist" ending barely before the mystery of the crime had even been established. No surprises in this one.

Picoult's books are always a bit of a hit and miss, which is strange when you consider the plots are always the same: Family becomes entangled in a high stakes legal drama centered around a thought-provoking ethical or moral dilemma! Enlists the help of a charming lawyer who becomes emotionally entangled with his client and/or client's family! Cue some sort of angsty romance or affair thrown in for kicks that the parents use as an excuse for coping with the drama! OMG TWIST ENDING!

Despite the redundancy, I admire the way she's always almost able to make all of her characters endearing and relatable on some level, and I can't help but keep going back for more. There have been ones that I've loved such as Nineteen Minutes and My Sister's Keeper, and ones that fell flat with me like The Tenth Circle. Her upcoming 2011 novel reportedly centers around a lesbian couple and gay rights in regards to starting a family in America, which I hope will be another gooder~


Next up on my list is Homeland, the first book in the popular Dark Elf trilogy, but I got as far as the prologue and then somehow became distracted with reading my favorite General Grievous fanfic again for about the fourth or fifth time. (I keep a copy of the whole massive thing printed out that spans across two Duo-Tang because I enjoy it that much. And also, because I'm a giant nerd.) It's one of those stories that hasn't been updated in years and will probably never be completed, which makes me all sorts of sad because we all know about me and closure. :C <-- Epic sad face.

I finally finished watching the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series with Jennifer Ehle and the fabulous Colin Firth. It wasn't all the fireworks and earth shattering amazing that I've heard it praised as, but it was enjoyable. Definitely something I liked to sit down to with a plate of tasty chocolate cake while watching and grinning each time they showed a closeup of Mr. Darcy. What a scowly bear. X3 I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with the infamous wet shirt scene. From all of the hype it's garnered over the years, I wound up with this when I was really expecting more of something like this. On the note of wet shirts, I never realized how many wet, white shirts Mr. Firth has actually donned over the years. I think P&P unintentionally type cast him and wet shirts everywhere. There should really be some sort of Oscar award for it all it's own.

P.S. I was dismayed to witness Jane Austen's obviously discriminatory view on red-heads. On behalf of gingers everywhere, I am hurt, Ms. Austen. Hurt and dismayed! :C

Two books checked off my list for the month of April! Recaps and thoughts:


The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

A retelling of the famous King Author and days of Camelot tale, only Bradley delivers the whole lengthy 876-page package told entirely from the eyes of the lead female characters in the story. I've always really enjoyed the Authurian legend, and in a story usually dominated by male characters it's interesting to see a version of the the King Author story from the female perspective. With that said, I have to admit that I found myself very badly missing the predominance of characters like Merlin and Author at certain times. I was disappointed at the lack of iconic moments such as the pulling of the sword from the stone simply because a female lead wasn't conveniently present to witness it, or perhaps in Bradley's version of the story that event simply never existed at all. Most of the female characters themselves were enjoyable enough, with one particular exception -- I admit that often times I really hated Gwenhwyfar and her all-consuming piety; I physically cringed at parts when I could practically hear her high-pitched whine in my ear, and each time hated Author just a little more for buckling to her obsessive faith-based demands over and over again. Irksome.

Looking back, Mists of Avalon was a cross of being both a very entertaining read and at other times being incredibly slow and dry. I found the latter half of the novel became overly theological for my tastes. I understand that the main plot of the Authurian legend is based around the war between the old pagan and new Christian faiths, but it seemed redundant and at times I found myself even skimming the paragraphs of long-winded religious babble until I found a point where the dialogue and plot rebounded again. The depictions of the pagan faith and traditions were fascinating, I admit -- but then I suppose that's to be expected when you consider the pretty negative slant Christianity is given by comparison through out the novel.

Overall opinion? It was all right, not a book to completely dismiss but not anything to write home about either. It was interesting comparing characters and variations between Bradley's retelling and versions such as Mary Stewart's Merlin saga. There were a couple of times I got very confused because my brain was mixing up characters, scenes, and plot points from the two different versions, but for me in this case Stewart's Merlin series still beats out Bradley's Mists of Avalon.


Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

After a month of trudging through Mists of Avalon, this was a bit of fresh air in the form of a simple, straight-forward read about a lawyer who begins an affair with her best friend's fiance only months before the wedding. Oh noes! Now our female lead is torn between her new found chance for love with our hot, intelligent, and already involved stud; or her moral obligation to her best friend for whom she is supposed to be maid of honor for. Cue light humored drama!

I didn't really know how to feel about the two main characters, Rachel and Dex. It seemed like Giffin was trying to garner sympathy for these two tortured lovebirds and make you want to cheer them on to happily ever after, but I found them both to be very bland... and when you have nothing but bland it's hard to get invested at all in the relationship between two people and not focus solely on the whole "you're both giant cheating bastards" aspect of it. Not to say that I felt that much sympathy for the cheated party either -- Darcy's eventual plot twist aside, she behaved less like the snobbish, selfish adult she was intended to be and came off more like a petulant sixteen-year-old girl. (Actually, truth be told, I kept imagining that the 30-year-old protagonist and most of the other characters were ten years younger than they actually were, like some ensemble from a teen movie. Or maybe I'm just too old and crotchety for my own age?) The characters I actually enjoyed in fact ended up playing very minor supporting roles.

I don't really mean to bash this book as much as it sounds like I am, because for a light read it was actually okay. Something Borrowed kept me reading and was a continuously entertaining, if not cliche, piece of chick lit. (Though strangely cliche in the way where I thought it was leading up to one predictable outcome and ended up surprising me with a completely opposite yet still predictable outcome.) *Shrug*


Next up on the reading list: the Napoleonic Wars being fought out on the backs of flying dragons! :B I have spectacularly high, if not nerdtastic hopes for this one.

Such was the popular phrase around the office today. (Everything bad always happens on Tuesdays!)

As of today I officially no longer work for Nexopia. :c It didn't come as a huge surprise at all -- I've pretty much been in a constant state of anxious paranoia about being laid off for the last year, so I think a part of me was actually a little relieved I wouldn't have to go into the office again and just sit there fretting all day. The team at work has slowly been getting smaller and smaller so it was pretty obvious that there wasn't really going to much of a place for me soon -- a few other coworkers also received the same news; a couple of people who I wasn't surprised about, and a couple I was.

Overall, I'm in pretty positive spirits to tell the truth (though I'm not going to lie, between lunch and dinner I've had a couple of very tasty pornstar cocktails, so who's to say.) The timing sort of sucked considering starting today Mason is back in school for a couple months, but (currently) our money situation is not a huge issue. I'd already begun the search for a new job a while ago for a variety of reasons, so I've got the jump on that already as well. I haven't been happy working in the web development field for some time now. I realized that I had to get out of a career that was just making me unhappy (and I knew back in school would eventually make me unhappy), so I've been zeroing in on a career path I've long believed I'd be more suited to and in fact enjoy: library technologies~ :B

We don't have the money for me to go back to school right now, so I'm trying to at least get my foot in the door as a library page. Even getting a part time position at a library in some fashion would be great, and then I could just get another part time job to fill the rest of my 40 work hours (my backup job choices at this point include things like administrative work, data entry, or -- if I was lucky enough -- a position at the Humane Society or helping out at a vet clinic.) The deadline for one of the page positions I applied for and am really excited about is up tomorrow, so I'm crossing my fingers that I receive a phone call over the next week for an interview. Anyone who's not crossing their fingers for me, COMMENCE FINGER CROSSING NOW. Thx.

So for the mean time I'm a lazy, jobless bum. On my to-do list for tomorrow: a whole lot of nothing. Gonna mail in my ROE for some possible EI monies, do some laundry, the grocery shopping, read some of my overly giant copy of Mists of Avalon... and oh yeah, continue the scary job hunt.

At least I get to sleep in, eh?

I finally picked up my copy of Mists of Avalon from the library and was somewhat distraught when the book that awaited me was a 900-page hardcover tome. It's not that I've haven't voyaged into a lengthy novel before, but this damn thing is just too big to heft around in my purse. A week or so ago the same thing happened when I reserved Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy -- and when I went to check it out I experienced a moment of horrified OMG when I was confronted with all 1,488 pages of it, and ended up canceling my hold and leaving with a slimmer, more portable book.

As most of my reading these days takes place on my daily bus commute or during my lunch break at work, lugging back and forth a mini dictionary is not an appealing option for me. I'm excited to start Mists of Avalon but I'm going to have to find a second piece of smaller reading material to serve as my purse book. And in the future, remember to always check the page count beforehand. ^^;