Ender's Game--Fiction

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a bit disturbing.  It's set in the future, and all the characters are so manipulated by each other the plot can be a bit hard to keep track of.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a third child in a world where having more than two children is discouraged for reasons that are never explained.  He was born for a reason:  his siblings, Peter and Valentine, did not fit the destiny they were planned to have.  Peter is too violent; Valentine too gentle.  Ender is six at the beginning of the book.  This is an important note to make.  Because he is taken away to learn to be a solider, off the planet Earth to a small colony where boys are trained to fight in situations with no gravity, and assume command positions, all to fight an alien enemy known as the "buggers" by most people.  Ender is brilliant.  He thinks in ways no one else does, and begins to win.  Along the way, he deals with bullies, most of whom bigger than he is.  Meanwhile, his siblings take assumed names and proceed to conquer the internet; Peter wants to become a world dominator, and it seems likely that he will succeed.  Ender is graduated early, and begins to assume what he thinks is a practice command position in simulators....

What struck me about this book was the children.  There are several scenes where Ender is in charge, and he is thinking like a grown man, indeed, a grown man who is world-weary.  But he is twelve.  His siblings are more normal, but the artificial adulthood thrust on Ender was disturbing to me.  That said, he's a character that one can emphasise with easily.  He doesn't want to hurt anyone.  But he needs to win.  I liked the ending, though.

The only problem with this book is perhaps its strength, as well.  Because you experience it with Ender, you are as bewildered as to the end as he is.  It's impossible to see where it's all leading.  And then at the end, you realise that it was there all along, right in front of you.
The status of this book is Recommended/Highly recommended for older readers who know enough psychology to "get" it.

Trickster's Choice -Fiction

Trickster's Choice follows Alanna and George Cooper's daughter, Ally, on a highly interesting adventure in the Copper Isles.

Aly is sixteen, bores easily, and seems to have no direction to her life.  She wants to be a spy in her father's command, but both he and her mother refuse to allow her. When Alanna comes home from fighting a war, Aly, in a fit of temper, sets sail around the cove with the intention of staying for a few weeks with some people she knows.  Captured by pirates, Aly is made a slave of the Balitang family.  All is not so simple as it seems, however.  The Trickster God has plans for Aly...plans that are dangerous, and deadly...

Tamora Pierce has done it again.  All of her girl-characters are drastically different, but inherently likeable.  The status of this book is Highly Recommended.

The Tea Companion: A Conniseur's Guide by Jane Pettigrew--Nonfiction

The Tea Companion by Jane Pettigrew is an incredible book.  Definitive, well-written, and interesting, it captured my attention and held it.

Beginning with the history of tea in all countries, it goes on to discuss the different types; the sorting process; blending process; dishes, pots, and other accessories historically used (with pictures!); and even the lingo used by various types workers.  That's just the first half.  The second half is a guide to every kind of tea from every region: truly, a mini-encyclopedia.

What I most liked about this book was that it was truly unbiased.  It approached tea with a large appreciation for it, but it was about the drink itself, rather than the health benefits.  It didn't feel like an advertisement at all.  The information was satisfying, but also explained in a way a beginner could understand it.  The status of this book is Highly Recommended.

Pride and Prejudice--Fiction, Classic

Pride and Prejudice....it is a novel of frivolity, misinformation, and finally, true understanding and love.  Jane Austin's classic was hard to read at first, and then grew on me as I pressed on.

Elizabeth Bennet is the second oldest daughter of five: Jane, Elizabeth ("Lizzy"), Mary, Cathrine ("Kitty"), and Lydia.  Her mother and two youngest sisters are impossibly shallow people, who think of little else but marriage.  Mrs Bennet's dreams seem to be coming true when the rich, eligible Mr Bingley moves into an estate nearby.  She fancies that Jane will marry their new neighbour, and indeed, this cherished hope seems well on its way.  Mr Darcy, Bingley's friend, is cold, haughty, and distant.  But to Elizabeth's surprise, he sees something in her that he likes....

If one manages to ignore Mrs Bennet, the story is rather enjoyable.  This book is written in three volumes, and the latter half of the second, and the third one are the parts I truly enjoyed without reservation.  One caution, though: many of the words have changed meanings in the last two hundred years; the most obvious being "condescension," which is perceived as a virtue, rather than a vice.  The status of this book is Recommended for older readers who are willing to brush away the grit to find this diamond of a story.

The Green Tea Book: The Science-Backed "Miracle Cure" --Nonfiction

The Green Tea Book by Lester A. Mitscher, Ph.D and Victoria Dolby Towes, MPH, has a title that promises much.  A true "miracle cure" that can "fight cancer, promote healing and slow the aging process"?

It starts out well enough, too.  First a look at the different kinds of teas, including herbal "teas", which are not the tea plant, and so cannot be called tea.  Then the history of green and black tea.  (for a green tea book, there is also a heavy focus on black tea)  However, after that, when the science and studies begin to come in, it is highly superficial.  Bouncing from study to study, some of which seem to have too few subjects to even be called as such, without end, it almost seems hyperactive; as though its authors could have done with a little tea-drinking themselves whilst writing. (Green tea promotes relaxation)

I suppose if one has no prior knowledge of tea and its benefits, this book would be an ideal place to start learning, but it is not in-depth enough to stand on its own. It seems more a glorified pamphlet than anything; a teaser designed to make someone curious enough to do further research.  The status of this book is Recommended for tea novices, and Not Recommended for those who are further down the delightful path of tea.

Little Women trio by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women

The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon

The Naming
The Riddle
The Crow
The Singing

Tamora Pierce's Tortall Books

Beka Cooper:
Terrier
Bloodhound

Daughter of the Lioness:
Trickster's Choice

Beka Cooper: Bloodhound -Fiction

The second book in the Beka Cooper triad, Bloodhound picks up slightly more than a year after the first book took place.

Beka is now truly "Guardswoman Cooper", having been made a full Dog some time ago.  No one will stick with her as a partner, though; she's gone through several.  Each time, she is sent back to work with her original Dogs from her Puppy days, Tunstall and Goodwin for a time.  It is during one of those times that a riot breaks out, and Tunstall is badly injured.  So when two trusted Dogs are needed for a Hunt for counterfeiters across the water in Port Caynn, it is Goodwin and Beka who go.  Port Caynn is filled with all sorts of dangers, not least of which could be from a cove with an eye for Beka...who perhaps is the very criminal she seeks.

Bloodhound is slow-moving compared to Terrier, the first book.  It is Highly Recommended only because it is worth a read after the first.  But aren't the middle books in the series always less interesting?

Beka Cooper: Terrier -Fiction

Terrier by Tamora Pierce is quite action-packed, and full of surprising twists and turns.  The author has built a city with its own dialects and words--complete with a glossary at the back.

Beka Cooper is in training to become a Dog--one of the city's law enforcers.  She's, in every meaning of the word, dogged.  She wants to be the Puppy (Dog in training) made into a Dog in "the shortest space of time".  Unfortunately, she's also shy to the point of speechlessness around strangers.  But she will have to do something about that soon, because there is wind of not one, but two mass murderers on the loose...and Beka's the only one who's noticed.

I like Beka, but it was her two Dogs and Pounce the cat who made the book for me.  Very real characters, and an interesting plot. Status:  Highly Recommended

Young Warriors: Stories of Strength -Fiction

15 stories.  15 authors.  15 characters taking what it means to be a warrior in as many different directions as can be imagined.  This collection of short stories was edited by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman, and it is quite a compilation.

None of the stories are the same.  Not all involve fighting.  From an Irish monastery to India to imaginary lands, there are more than enough different settings and characters to keep anyone interested.  Don't like one character?  Skip to the next story.

I admit that my favourites were Student of Ostriches by Tamora Pierce, An Axe for Men by Rosemary Edgehill, and Acts of Faith by Lesley McBain.  Several others I didn't care for.  But that's the beauty of a compilation: you don't have to like everything.

The status of this book is Highly Recommended.

Bunheads-Fiction

Bunheads is the first book written by a former ballet dancer, Sophie Flack.  It seemed intriguing when I first pulled it off the shelf--but then failed to be so.

Like so many other stories about ballet dancers in a company, this story follows a moderately good/great potential dancer called Hannah Ward, who is in the corps.  Of course, all the members of the corps are just strange: diets, dysfunctional families, ridiculous workout regimes, the whole kit and caboodle.  Then Hannah meets a non-dancer who goes to NYU, and begins to see the life she doesn't seem to have.  She begins dating him on and off, and finally makes a decision about whether to stay in the company or begin a normal life.

The characters were flat, and the fact that this story is told in the present tense didn't help much.  I quickly ceased to care for Hannah, and instead ended up liking one of the older corps dancers, who's actually normal, despite her yoga obsession, best instead.  The status of this book is not recommended.