First Post of 2017: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

I first heard about The Red Tent a few years ago on Facebook. I did not know much about it, only that it had to do with womanhood. I later found out it was a sort of retelling about the biblical story of Jacob. Only the focus was on his daughter, Dinah. It is a book I have had in the back of my mind for a while but not one I have ever bought or picked up to read. Then a few weeks ago I saw it on the bookshelf of a friend and claimed it as my own for some time so that I could finally read it.

I devoured this book. The simple telling was poetic and intuitive. The narration was beautiful and to the point. I love the voice of Dinah and the telling of her story. I love that she claims her story and wants to share it with the world. This is a rich novel filled with history and ritual and wonder. I found myself not only drawn to Dinah as a person and character, but also to the culture of womanhood that she was surrounded by. The stories of her mothers and the red tent and all that comes with being a woman were captivating. I found myself wanting to be in better touch with those parts of myself and to honor the fact that I am female. I appreciated as well that the stories did not always focus on menstruation and birth, but also on miscarriage and stillbirth, as those are parts of the female narrative that are often overlooked.

The Red Tent is split into three sections and I definitely enjoyed the first two more than the third. However, I did still want to know what happened to Dinah and the third part had some beautiful moments in it as well. I just felt that the book went from being this large scale narrative about the women in her family to being just about Dinah and that took me some time to get used to. In the end I loved the novel as a whole. It is a very complete story and one that resonates on many levels.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Even though its focus is on the rituals of being a woman, Dinah's narrative focuses so much on the importance of one's own story. The book is full of small lessons and reminders. It is full of beauty and appreciation. Although it is based on a biblical story it is not overly biblical in any way, thus people from all walks of life and beliefs can enjoy and appreciate it. This book felt very personal and I am glad it was the first book I read this year. It came to me at the perfect time as well, as books often do, and has left me with much to think about but also with a profound peace. I think the best books do this. They are rare, but The Red Tent is one of them.

End of Year Review

Hello! Happy almost 2017!

I am sorry that I've neglected this blog for the past two months. It has been hectic with the holidays and my new job, but things are winding down now. I only finished one other book this year since my last review and that was The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I was not a fan but did not have the heart or energy to write about why. I am currently reading Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice, but like all Anne Rice books I am taking my time and savoring slowly. That will probably be my first review of 2017.

I thought it would be fun to do a Top 10 list to end the year. I did not start this blog until March so some books on the list did not get a review, but I will link to the reviews for the books that got one! These are in no particular order, but here goes.

Heidi in Bookland's Top 10 of 2016
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (Also Redemption Ark from the same series)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (There are reviews for books 3-7, just search the Harry Potter tag!)
The Dharma of Star Wars by Matthew Bortolin
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Honorable Mention: I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young

A few of the books on my list were books that I reread this year. I debated on whether or not to include them and decided that because they were so enjoyable it was alright to include them here. Harry Potter was by far the most fun I had reading this year. If you followed my journey you know that this was the first time I read the entire series from beginning to end and I loved it. I will remember these books most when I reflect on my reading life this year.

My Goodreads goal was to read 52 books. According to the site I read 45, but according to my own list where I write a book once I have finished it, I read 48. Either way I did not reach my goal but I did come close! I am lowering my goal for 2017 to 48 books in the hopes to at least maintain that level of reading or maybe even surpass it.

I did not finish the Reading Challenge that my husband and I were doing. I believe it contained 40 categories and I did not fulfill 11 of them. Close again, but not close enough. (Although I do believe I beat my husband in the challenge!) We have decided not to do the challenge next year, fun as it is. There are a lot of books we end up setting aside that we want to read so that we can read books for the challenge and neither of us was happy about that this year. So next year will just be a "follow your heart" kind of reading year and I am so much looking forward to that.

I wish you all a wonderful new year and I hope 2017 is filled with many wonderful books!


"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

 

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

 

- Neil Gaiman

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by JK Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne *contains spoilers*

This review will be a little bit different due to the fact that Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is a script and not a novel. Thus, it will be difficult to critique it in the same way since it is mostly dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I love Shakespeare and a good play will garner a shining review from me any day, but this was not Shakespeare. I should have heeded my husband's warning and stayed far away.

When Harry Potter and The Cursed Child was announced my husband swore he would never read nor see the play because it was only based on Rowling's idea and not written by her. I defended the play saying that she would not have put her name to something she did not stand behind or believe in. Plus, if the ideas were hers and just written by someone else, what could be wrong? (I now remind myself that this is exactly what fan fiction is and that does not always turn out well.) After finishing the Harry Potter series I was dying for more and so I went out to purchase the play. I read it within two days. During that time I went from enjoying the play, to loving it, to absolutely hating it.

My biggest issue with the script was that it did not really answer as many questions as it presented. There was a lot of lacking description and, while I initially thought this was okay and chalked it up to the medium in which is was presented, in the end there was too much that I did not understand. One of the things I, and so many others, love about the Harry Potter series is that the world has logic. Everything in it makes a certain kind of sense and is explained fairly well. So to have various questions about the logic of the play come up and then never be explained, was very frustrating.

Some of these questions had to do with the massive amount of time jumping. There were inconsistencies with the time as well as how it all worked. I was wondering how all of this time jumping wasn't screwing up the minds of the people doing it. I was also frustrated by the portrayal of the old characters. Ron was made out to be some complete buffoon who only showed up for comic relief and had no real substance, which made his relationship with Hermione seem even weirder than it already was. Malfoy was believable and so was Hermione. Harry seemed overly whiny and heroic, more so than normal. There were odd moments where it felt like a Harry Potter novel and then even more odd and bigger moments where it felt like weird fan fiction. The sad thing is that I loved the two main characters of Albus and Scorpius. If Rowling herself wrote something about them I would definitely be up to read it.

Another disappointment was that the whole play focused on Cedric Diggory's death, which seemed like a weird focus. This was coupled with a strained father/son relationship between Harry and Albus which did not seem like a genuine problem and more a plot device. Not to mention the fact that Albus and Scorpius should have ended the play as boyfriends and then didn't, for reasons unbeknownst to me. And then there was the whole Voldemort having a daughter thing that was hardly explained at all and thus made no sense. Overall, it was a disappointing read.

If the play makes its way to America and I have a chance to see it, I will more than likely go. But do I see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child as true Harry Potter canon? No. If anything, it is a decent attempt at believable fan fiction that completely failed. Not only am I disappointed with the script overall, I am disappointed Rowling put her name to it. While her ideas may be fine, the interpretation of them did not do her world justice. I'd say skip this script and stick to the old Harry Potter books, that is where Rowling and her ideas shine brightest.

The Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My husband and I recently started a small book club with some friends focusing on sci-fi and fantasy. We decided a great beginning book would be one of the classics, The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. We were wrong. This was a book that dragged on and on, seemingly without a point, and then just ended.

This book was set in space but so little of it actually focused on that aspect. It was just a bunch of politics with cheesy lines like "Oh great galaxies!" thrown in every now and then. None of the science fiction was explained. The planets that were traveled to were not described. The book is split up into five parts but each part jumps into the future with a new character and does not explain what happened in the time between. Thus there is no character development whatsoever and no point in getting attached to any characters because they are cardboard pieces thrown away as soon as their respective part has ended.

I know all of this seems harsh, but I am someone who has always tried to read classic literature. Even if I do not enjoy a novel I can usually discern what it is about the book that made it classic (with the exception of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but that is another story). So I did try to look at The Foundation from all angles to see what it was that made this a cornerstone of modern science fiction, and I just could not find anything. There was no real plot, no rising action or climax or resolution, no character development, and not very much science fiction at all.

The comment was made that perhaps this book is so important because of the series it is a part of, or at least the original trilogy. This may be true, but I think that books need to be able to stand on their own to be considered "good" or "classic". So maybe Asimov's Foundation series is what most look at as a "foundation" for science fiction, but I do not intend to continue reading to find out.

In conclusion, there are much better science fiction books out there. If you are looking for a classic I hear that Dune is really good. I always love Alastair Reynolds. Even the Star Wars books I have read are better than The Foundation. Does this mean I will never read a book by Asimov again? Not necessarily. I have heard great things about I, Robot. I also know that Asimov began this series when he was twenty-one, so perhaps this book is just an example of immature writing and Asimov gets better. For now, I will be exploring other books, but maybe one day I will return to Asimov's world.  

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This was the fifth or sixth time I have read The Time Traveler's Wife. When I first read the book it was right after I saw the film and then I read it every year at least once. But it has now been about four or five years since I picked it up and a lot of life has happened to me. I always love rereading books but especially books that I consider a favorite because I like to see how my perception of the book changes as I have changed. In the case of The Time Traveler's Wife, I have not read the book since I got married and lost my baby. I will not use this post as a personal reflection about those experiences and this book, but I will say that after rereading it this time I felt that I understood the characters on a deeper level and parts of me felt more healed. I also made the exciting discovery that my husband and I share the same wedding anniversary as Henry and Clare, and some deep nerdy, bookwormy part of me was really happy about that. All in all I finished the novel loving it more than I have ever loved it in my past read throughs. This is a beautiful piece of literature, let me tell you why.

Audrey Niffenegger does a fantastic job of explaining time travel. It is not something that Henry understands so of course the reader cannot fully understand either, but I feel like she does a good job at not losing the reader when jumping through time. It helps that each section begins with the complete date as well as the ages of Henry and Clare at that time. This time I felt that I understood the time traveling in a better way and perhaps she meant for it to be that way. I love that Niffenegger also writes the novel from both Henry and Clare's perspectives. It adds so much to the depth of the story and their romance.

I have long considered this novel to be one that every couple should read. The characters are so real and even though their problem is extraordinary, unless we all time travel and I just did not know, they still handle the issues that come with it in a very human way. There are sensual moments and funny moments and heartbreaking moments. Every page of this book is filled with wonder and life. Many questions and themes are talked about and in some ways this book is more philosophy than romance. Questions about time and how it works or what it is, questions about fate and cause and effect, questions about meaning; these are all elements of The Time Traveler's Wife. Books that are beautiful are one thing, but books that are beautiful while also making you think are quite another thing. A rare thing.

This novel spans so much time that it would make or a lengthy post if I picked it apart thoroughly. So I am not going to do that. I also think that it is a novel everyone should experience for themselves, (I know I have said this about other novels but this is a big one), thus I do not want to spoil parts of the story. I will just say that my favorite parts are some of the more ordinary moments between Henry and Clare, which I feel is what Niffenegger wanted for the reader because these are the moments Henry and Clare love as well. I love that this book has so many cultural references and is full of so much poetry. This was the first book I ever dog-eared and it has more pages eared than not. I love that this book is not a romance novel entirely and not a science ficton novel entirely. It is hard to categorize in fact. It simply is, which is maybe another purposeful point made by the author.

Read this book. Read it because when you finish it you won't be dreaming of a better partner, you will want to love your partner more. Read it because it will break your heart but in the best way. Read it because you will love it. My reading of it this time left me feeling full and it was the first time that I finished this book and immediately wanted to dive back into its pages. This is not a book I would recommend to everyone though, it is a special book. One I would only give to a select few people in my life, which is a bit like love in a way I suppose and this book is full of love. See the film but not until after you have read the book. Know that this book will captivate you and so you must have a good chunk of time set out to read it. And most of all know that The Time Traveler's Wife will change you in some way but that, for me anyway, that is the best part of it all.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I have finished! This was my first full read through of the Harry Potter series and I could not have loved it more. I had read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before, but reading it along with the other books gave me a new perspective.

As always, J.K. Rowling created a beautiful novel, as well as a perfect end for her beloved series.While I am not a fan of the epilogue and overly exaggerated happily ever after, I do think it is nice that she tried to leave her readers with some, but not all, of the ideas for how Harry, Ron, and Hermione went on to live their lives. I also appreciated that J.K. Rowling was not afraid to kill her characters. It often irritates me when authors don't have the guts to kill their creations, because obviously that is not how real life works. So even though it is painful every time I read this book to re-live the deaths of so many beloved characters, I cannot be upset. Dobby has the saddest death next to Snape, but I also mourn the loss of Hedwig, Lupin and Tonks, and Fred.

Speaking of death, I have been waiting for six posts now to talk about Severus Snape!! I always loved him because I felt like he was the only teacher who saw Harry for the whining and entitled kid he was. Even though his loyalty was questioned multiple times, I felt like after awhile it became obvious that this was due to the fact that he was not a bad guy but made to look like one. Thus when I read the seventh book six years ago I was elated and had an "I told you so" attitude about the fact that Snape is the best character in the entire series. Rereading that chapter was painful but also fulfilling because this time I knew it was coming and was upset I could not stop his death but also excited to relive the moments when Snape reveals his true self.

In the past I counted the seventh book as one of my favorites, and I still do, but I think the official order of favorites goes: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The reason that this book is the last of my favorites is just because I felt it was a bit slow going in the middle. The scenes where Harry and Hermione (and sometimes Ron) are moving from place to place trying to figure out where Horcruxes might be is boring. There is a lot of drama between all of them and it demonstrates what the world has come to now that Voldemort is in charge, but it does not feel like it moves the story along. I don't feel like things truly get started until the visit to the Lovegood's house.

The scene breaking out of Gringotts is amazing as well as the scene where Mrs. Weasley kills Bellatrix Lestrange. Finding out about Dumbledore's past is also a favorite of mine because it proves he was not always a great person and not as well liked as many believe. Since I am one of the very few who did not like Dumbledore, then I appreciate these themes throughout the book. I also enjoyed that overall we learn about magic and its limits, or previously supposed limits. The small examples are too many to list but of course the biggest are the Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows. It is fitting that in her final book Rowling would go beyond the limits of magic and explain and create elements that many in the wizarding world have not heard of or don't believe in.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful book. And the series of Harry Potter is a fantastic series. Although it took me a long time to read the entire series in order, I am glad that I did. I wish it had been earlier in my life. This is a series I now love. A series I plan to read to my children at an early age so they can grow up with the magic of it. If you somehow have not read this series, I encourage you to do so. I read them along with my fairy godmother who knows nothing of this series at all. It was so much fun to see a grown woman delight in the surprises and wonder of these books and it showed me that age is not a factor when it comes to feeling magic. I now understand why so many enjoy and praise these books, they are the Narnia of our generation.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I first read Stardust three years ago when I discovered Neil Gaiman. It was not my favorite of his novels, and even though I read through it quickly, I was left uninspired. I later found out the inspiration for the book had come from a night in Arizona, where I live, and was sad that I did not enjoy the book more. Then earlier this year I read his collection of nonfiction The View From the Cheap Seats. In this collection he has several pieces on fairy tales, including a few about the fairy tale he created, Stardust. I now have more appreciation for fairy tales and what they represent, so I decided to go back and reread the book. This time I listened to it via audio book which I think really helped since Neil Gaiman reads all of his novels. So I was able to hear the story told in the way that the author had intended.

I was still not "starstruck" by anything in this novel. Overall it lacked the Gaiman-esque feel that I have become addicted to. But I was able to enjoy the simple telling of a tale entirely his own and meant to be told in such a way. Maybe I just did not appreciate the simplicity enough the first time around, but this time I was in awe of it. I could just imagine Neil writing this book and sitting down carefully choosing which words were or were not necessary. In fact I would imagine that Stardust took just as much precision to write, if not more, than many of his other novels because of the type of book it is. Neil Gaiman wanted it to sound like a fairy tale of old, one that had been passed down for centuries and would continue to be passed down, and I feel that he succeeded.

None of the characters particularly stood out, and perhaps that is part of why I don't love this novel. But I do enjoy the changes in the star, Yvaine, and Tristran's feelings towards not only one another but also their original wishes. I love the land of Faerie as well and the ways that Neil Gaiman describes it.

So, do I recommend this book? Yes, just not as an introduction to Neil Gaiman. After you have read something else of his, then pick up Stardust.

Overall, the story is charming but not memorable, and yet I can feel that I will one day read it again. Not just because it is a fairy tale written in modern times that feels timeless, but also because it is a fairy tale told by Neil Gaiman. I will read it again because simple stories like these, full of magic and life, are important. They remind us where stories began. They remind us that fairy tales are not just for children. And these reminders need repeating, whether we know it or not.