Laurell K. Hamilton: Divine Misdemeanors

• ISBN-13: 9780345495976
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 7/27/2010
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 384

 You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I'd left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever - even if they're magical.

 Merry has given up her throne in faerie, rightfully given to her by Goddess herself, in order to live with her many men and raise her babies in peace. But that's not really going to happen because this is Laurell K. Hamilton, first of all, and second, Merry is the only other available ruler for the Unseelie court and Andais has gone off her rocker, officially. So there are factions galore and everyone wants to kill Merry, maybe. Which we pretty much only get because Doyle still has spies at court.
 Now on to the actual "mystery" portion of the novel. We are, for the first time since like the third book,  back in the real world and working for the detective agency again. It's kind of nice to have an actual problem to solve instead of power politics. Namely, someone has been killing the supposedly immortal demi-fey/lesser fey and Merry is called in to give her expert opinion. Of course, she's followed by her massive entourage because she's pregnant and royal and famous and screw the paparazzi. Basically.
 Now we encounter my first complaint, that actually isn't a huge complaint, but enough to get mentioned - there are way too many characters floating around. Several times I found myself wondering if I'd seen that character before and in what context. She talked about them like we already knew them, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why. Also, since there are so many, it's hard to get any good characterization in. I especially miss Doyle and Frost having the foreground after book 4, I think it was. That, for me, was the best of these novels. We had that emotional breakdown from Doyle when he thought Mistral had been chosen as king to Merry's queen - and it was beautiful. There's not a lot of that going on anymore. There is a lot of emotional/sexual healing going on, though, since all of Merry's guards, which now include Cel's female ex-guards, have some serious mental scars from their abuse at court.
 Which brings me to point number 2: for whatever reason, Hamilton has become incredibly heavy-handed i with her development strategies. We'll be rolling merrily along, detecting, advising, etc. when HALT FOR MERRY'S REVELATION ABOUT A GUARD. We have these strange breaks to have a breakdown, or have some crazy powerful sex, or just to have one of the guards reveal a little more of their life story. There was one particular passage that screamed complete lack of fluidity, being that it jumped between the present investigation, to Merry's thoughts on something else, back to the investigation, and back to Merry's thoughts. Usually Hamilton's much more focused. I think it's a symptom of way too many characters to deal with.
 Other than these complaints (and the shockingly short appearance of Mistral) it was an interesting mystery, and sufficiently squick-y at the end. Although I do think Merry was a tad dense on this one - the clues added up a little faster than she realized.
 Overall: B
 The saving factor for this grade was the murder mystery. Otherwise, I felt like the developments in Merry's world were not coherent, connected, or especially well handled. And I miss the fathers of the babies being around more (yes, I said fathers - Doyle, Frost, Mistral, Sholto, Rhys, and Galen, I believe. Which handily solved the problem of me having too many favorites, and Hamilton as well, is my guess).

Philippa Gregory: The Other Queen

• ISBN-13: 9781416549147
• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 7/14/2009
• Pages: 464

This dazzling novel from bestselling author Philippa Gregory presents a new and unique view of one of history's most intriguing, romantic, and maddening heroines. Mary, Queen of Scots, trusts Queen Elizabeth's promise of sanctuary when she flees from rebels in Scotland and then finds herself imprisoned as the "guest" of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his indomitable wife, Bess of Hardwick. The newly married couple welcomes the doomed queen into their home, certain that serving as her hosts and jailers will bring them an advantage in the cutthroat world of the Elizabethan court. To their horror, they find that the task will bankrupt them, and as their home becomes the epicenter of intrigue and rebellion against Elizabeth, their loyalty to each other and to their sovereign comes into question. If Mary succeeds in seducing the earl into her own web of treachery and treason, or if the great spymaster William Cecil links them to the growing conspiracy to free Mary from her illegal imprisonment, they will all face the headsman.

 So here's a fun story for you - apparently my family is related to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Yeah. I have a personal connection to this story.
 Gregory here tales the tale of one Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and France, and perhaps rightful heir to the throne of England. But that's kind of up in the air, considering the fact that Elizabeth Tudor sits on the throne, the Protestant Queen. I believe that Gregory portrays both queens in lights uncommon to the usual history writings about them. Elizabeth is paranoid, easily led by her advisor William Cecil, a character who you would have met before had you read another of her works, The Virgin's Lover. He was quite a fixture at that time, and you can either consider him to have been a wise advisor or a grasping plotter, take your pick. This book chooses the latter view in contrast to her earlier version of him. Much more is made of Elizabeth's reliance on him and fear of rebellion. Mary is portrayed as a cunning, conniving woman, who was not only not silly or easily led by her emotions, but was rather more unfortunate in her allies and her lack of luck. That doesn't make her continued plotting in the face of consistent failure and her unfailing insistence on the divinity of her person any less annoying.
 We also have some side characters in the Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, Bess, one of the few successful female businesswomen of  the time. While he is played for a fool, she is as grasping as the rest of the Protestant upstarts that have snatched wealth from the churches they have thrown down, and just as reluctant to let their stolen wealth go. The more amusing parts of the novel involve her musings on how God obviously favors the Protestants since they have so much wealth, and how she knows that the Protestants are just gold-mongers at heart that really wanted the Church's wealth more than divine approbation, but she doesn't seem to care much.
 The entire story consists of plot after plot after plot to free Mary and send her to Scotland, and all the political maneuverings that abounded in Tudor England. She managed to keep it from getting too tedious, though. The only other critique I really have is the writing style. For some reason, the first person writing seemed really stilted and too self-aware. Most of the time, Gregory doesn't make it feel like the character is aware of creating a story, but this one seemed like each character was writing a journal entry for posterity. At first it was sort of uncomfortable, but you got used to it after a bit.
 Overall: B
 This wasn't among Gregory's best. The writing was a little off in comparison to her previous works, and it was just more of the same going on, although, like I said, it didn't ever stray into boring territory.

Karen Chance: Curse the Dawn

• ISBN-13: 9780451412706
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Publication date: 4/7/2009
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 400

 Cassandra Palmer may be the all-powerful Pythia now, but that doesn't mean people have stopped trying to kill her. Most of the supernatural power players don't want independent-minded Cassie as chief clairvoyant - and they'll stop at nothing to see her six feet under. 
 The Vampire Senate does support Cassie in her position, but their protection comes with a price: an alliance with the sexy master vampire Mircea, who has claimed Cassie as his own.
 But even the vampires will have trouble keeping Cassie alive now that the self-styled god Apollo, the source of the Pythia's power, has it in for her in a big way. To save her life - and the world - Cassie's going to have to face down her creator once and for all...  

 This is going to sound absolutely horrible, but it took me to the end of the second chapter to be 100% certain that I hadn't read that book before. I'm going to attribute that to having flipped through at another point in time to find certain plot points so my mind could be at peace. Yes, I do that. I frequently read the end of novels just to make sure that I'm not going to be throwing it at a wall later.
 Cassie's in a pickle. Isn't she always? She really doesn't want to kill anyone from the Silver Circle, since those lives are the ones preventing Apollo from entering this world. On the other hand, those crazy bastards are out to get her, and 90% of them don't care if she's dead or alive, and would, in fact, prefer her dead. So there's a paradox for you. Also, Mircea is being hyper-protective, as usual, and that is growing increasingly frustrating for the new Pythia. To top off all of her other problems, she accidentally manages to swap bodies with her erstwhile companion Pritkin, causing strife and confusion for all.
 All's well that ends well, however, and I'm terribly interested to see where Chance will take Cassie in the next book. I won't tell you why, because that would spoil everything, but I'm pumped.
 I felt that, once again, Chance managed to jam pack her novel full of action. She's really not a fan of letting her heroines rest, but that's more of a symptom of the genre, I think. It certainly makes the novel fly by faster when you don't have time to get bored. I'm also on tenterhooks to see how she's going to deal with the tension between Mircea, Cassie, and Pritkin. I'm Team Mircea all the way, and I can't say I'll be terribly pleased if that relationship goes sour, but I'm willing to ride wherever Chance takes me. Especially with all of the juicy Mircea-Cassie emotional goodness going on. Mm, mm, good.
 The other downside to her fast paced plot is the whiplash-inducing wrap-up. Within two chapters we fight the big bad, solve the world's problems (for the time being), and return life to fairly-normal with some improvements. Because there's so much going on, when we finally confront the major problem, you kind of get a "oh, we're doing this now?" feeling. It's a little disorienting.
 Overall: A-
 I enjoyed it, as I always do, although the ending was a little too speedy for my taste.

Henry Fielding: Tom Jones

• ISBN-13: 9781593080709
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 5/1/2004
• Pages: 848

Reacting against the sentimentality and moralism of the earliest English novels, Henry Fielding chose to create a work whose main character contains all the complexities of a real human being: the foundling Tom Jones. Tom has been raised by the Squire Allworthy to love virtue, and he truly wants to do good. But Tom's inability to control his temper and his hearty appetite for food, drink, and the opposite sex get him kicked out of Allworthy's estate - and separated from his one real love, Sophia Western. So begins Tom's journey from the English countryside to the teeming city of London. Along the way he meets a parade of colorful characters, enjoys a series of bawdy , comic adventures, eventually discovers his true parentage, triumphs over the villainous Blifil, and rejoins the beautiful Sophia.
 Soon after its 1749 publication, Tom Jones was condemned for being "lewd," and even blamed for several earthquakes. But what really riled critics was its supremely funny satirical attack on eighteenth-century British society and its follies and hypocrisies - which, of course, are very much like our own. 

 Good lord, what a long novel. Split into eighteen books, each with numerous chapters, the first of which is a prologue to the chapter that frequently has nothing to do with the goings on of the novel itself. I don't know why, that was just kind of the style.
 Fielding was a master satirist, and took great pleasure in taking pot shots at his contemporaries. Luckily, the Barnes and Noble Classics edition is kind enough to provide footnotes explaining obscure references and personal grudges.
 Tom Jones is a foundling, i.e. a bastard child. In English society, this is not to be borne (hehe, get it?) If you're a bastard, even though that has nothing to do with your own personal character, polite society still attributes the same characteristics to you: profligacy and general vice. So, our dear Tom, despite being the most kind-hearted fellow, albeit with a naturally active sex-drive, is looked down upon and denigrated by pretty much everyone. Except for his neighbor's daughter, the angel-upon-earth, Sophia Western. She is above his station, however, and many misunderstandings and character libel ensue. Although Tom himself does nothing to purposely subvert himself, there are a slew of characters out to get him, for no other reason than that he is a bastard and is his own person, not subservient to their desires. Most of Jones' problems derive from the plots, or, in the case of some, looseness of tongue, of others.
 Unfortunately, it takes eighteen books for  everything to be set straight and for everyone to get their just desserts. Well, not everyone. Western never seems to learn his lesson and is much an ass as always by the end. For some reason, everyone forgives him, despite his frequent bi-polarity. Ridiculous. The weakness of human nature was often irritating as well. Not because Fielding was being unnecessarily dark or unrealistic, but because it was so true. People do base their views of others on appearance and hearsay, and people are easily changeable and self-serving. And while it's disgusting, you can't really complain. Because humanity sucks. And while it's annoying, it's also humorous at times, because Fielding does occasionally create completely over-blown characters for the sake of comedy.
 Overall: B+
 Fielding was frequently long-winded and pedantic, but he did it with such good humor, it didn't bother me as much as it normally would. And, aside from the frequent head-desking at the extremely circuitous route we used to arrive at our happy ending, and the repeated mistakes made by every character, the novel was quite entertaining and at least always had something going on. Except for the prologues.

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

• ISBN-13: 9781593080334
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 4/1/2004
• Pages: 304

Generations of readers have been enchanted by Dickens's A Christmas Carol - perhaps the most cheerful ghost story ever. Written in just a few weeks, A Christmas Carol famously recounts the plight of Bob Cratchit, whose family finds joy even in poverty, and the moral regeneration of his miserly boss Ebenezer Scrooge as he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. 
 From Scrooge's "Bah!" and "Humbug!" to Tiny Tim's "God bless us every one!" A Christmas Carol shines with warmth, decency, kindness, humility, and the values of the holidays. But beneath its sentimental surface, A Christmas Carol offers another of Dickens's sharply critical portraits of a brutal society, and an inspiring celebration of the possibility of spiritual, psychological, and social change. 
 This new volume collects Dickens's three most renowned "Christmas Books," including The Chimes, a New Year's tale and The Cricket on the Hearth, whose eponymous insect chirps amid happiness. 
 
As I really only have The Muppets Christmas Carol as a reference, I have to say - they did a pretty good job of keeping everything accurate. There was never a moment when I said to myself, "Well, that wasn't in the movie."
 But since this is not a movie review, that's all I'll say as far as that goes. I really just wanted to point out that I already knew Scrooge's story fairly well. And it's still one of my favorite Christmas stories. I love the spirit of Christmas present, and I kind of wish he would show up to me some Christmas Eve and take me around and generally have a rockin' good time. Although I would be terribly sad when he eventually grew old as dawn approached. Since everyone pretty much knows A Christmas Carol, I'm pretty much going to leave that one alone. Go read it!
 The second short story in this collection was entitled, "The Chimes." I'm not going to lie to you - I'm not 100% certain what this story was about, for one simple reason - it was a little confusing and also I was extremely tired when I was reading part of it, and was probably fading in and out of consciousness a bit, I blush to say. Essentially, there's a little package-carrier named Trotty that meets the spirits of some bells and they teach him a lesson. That's the major theme in all these stories - spirits teaching lessons. He spends a lot of time thinking about how people are generally bad and especially other poor people, for some reason. The spirits show him that sometimes circumstances lead otherwise good people into desperate situations, and show him a horrible future, pretty just because he was thinking negative thoughts. Of course, he returns home and is grateful for his meager life for the rest of his days.
 Parte trois de this collection is "The Cricket on the Hearth," which is an absolutely lovely story of pure love between two good people and the extent to which love can carry one. That's a lot of love, guys. There's a bitter old man who changes his ways, a sweet little blind girl whose father hides the reality of their bleak life from her unseeing eyes, and a former lover of a young girl who almost destroys a marriage (unintentionally). Sound confusing and like they might not all belong in the same story? I promise it makes total sense and it's a beautiful story. Kind of made me want to have a cricket in my fire place, although I absolutely loathe bugs.
 Overall: A
 Charles Dickens is always a pleasure, but I was particularly pleased with these short stories. They all involved families gathered around a certain communal living space learning to appreciate what they had. And for Christmas, what other lesson is there, really?

Henry James: The Turn of the Screw, The Aspern Papers, and Two Stories

• ISBN-13: 9781593080433
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 8/1/2003
• Pages: 336

  Rich in his storytelling techniques and psychological insight, Henry James explores human character with an elegant realism. This collection offers four of his most popular shorter works: The Aspern Papers, The Turn of the Screw, "The Jolly Corner," and "The Beast in the Jungle." 
 In The Aspern Papers cultures, generations, and genders clash as a literary historian tries to pry a packet of letters, written by an important American poet, from the woman to whom they were sent many years earlier. The teasingly ambiguous The Turn of the Screw, perhaps the most sophisticated "ghost story" ever written, finds a governess haunted by spirits that seem connected to the children in her care. Are they truly supernatural beings, or projections of her own repressed feelings? As a critique of the popular spiritualism of the 1890's and an exploration of the subjective point of view in narrative, the story remains a fascinating classic of suspense. "The Jolly Corner" and "The Beast in the Jungle" also feature characters who encounter apparitions that may express aspects of their hidden selves. These four texts, published in James's middle and final periods, brilliantly illustrate his thematic concerns and stylistic range.

Whew, what a mouth-full for a title. Well, multiple titles really. This is not the first time I've read James's work, but these short stories are significantly different from The Bostonians, which I read before I went to Korea. (PS - total side note, I just bought my ticket for Japan - egads.) To me, The Bostonians was much less wordy and much more plot driven, but I suppose that makes sense, considering the fact that that was a novel and these are not.
 The first thing I noticed was that James seemed to be saying a whole lot without saying much. Much of the prose was extremely cerebral and rather danced around subjects without explicitly saying what he was talking about. That got a little annoying, and I found myself spacing out a couple of times, and not really missing much. I don't recommend doing that, though, because you might miss something important in the endless prose that might be the key to unlocking the mystery of the plot. What? Yes.
 The first story involved a rather selfish fellow that missed his opportunity at potential happiness. And we see that theme run through all the stories, although the characters manage to save themselves at times and to different degrees. These are The Aspern Papers, Jeffrey Aspern being a fictional poet of little to no importance that has caught the fascination of our protagonist and one of his friends. He goes to Italy to find Aspern's former lover on the assumption that she has papers from Aspern, and he rents out one of her rooms to get closer to her. The adventures ensue from there.
 Following this is The Turn of the Screw, a fairly unusual ghost story. Everything is vague, of course, being James. There is something going on between the children and some ghosts, but who knows what? I certainly don't, even by the end of the story. You have an idea, but I'm not going to tell you so you can revel in the speculation. And there's a lot of speculation.
 The final two stories echo the first two, although to a lesser extent as they are shorter. We have the man facing his own inner demons (i.e. himself) in the form of a ghostly haunting, and a man that is constantly waiting for some big event in his life, to the point where he misses said event. Rather depressing, that.
 James clearly was concerned with a few overriding themes, and I hope for hi sakes he got those issues hashed out.
 Overall: B
 The stories were interesting and had definite ideas to be absorbed, if one is willing to put in the work. If you aren't, though, be advised - this is not super light reading, despite being a collection of short stories.

Rachel Vincent: My Soul to Keep

• ISBN-13: 9780373210053
• Publisher: Harlequin
• Publication date: 6/1/2010
• Pages: 304

 Kaylee has an addiction: her very hot, very popular boyfriend, Nash. A banshee like Kaylee, Nash understands her like no one else. Nothing can come between them.
 Until something does.
 Demon breath. No, not the toothpaste-challenged kind. The Netherworld kind. The kind that really can kill you. Somehow the super-addictive substance has made its way to the human world. But how? Kaylee and Nash have to cut off the source and protect their friends - one of whom is already hooked.
 And so is someone else...

 NAAAAAASH - she screamed in fury.
 Oh, Rachel, you crazy, sadistic wench. Why must you do this to my emotions on a fairly regular basis? My little fangirl heart can't handle the strain. Although the promise of things to come does somewhat alleviate the pain....
 As I'm sure you've already figured out, Nash and our heroine Kaylee are on the rocks, but why? That is the important question. And not even the most important question. Vincent does a wonderful job in this novel of effectively reproducing the virtually unbounded stupidity of teenagers. Especially rich bitch teenagers. So effective, in fact, that I spend the majority of the novel head-desking hard enough to knock books askew.
 Kaylee and her cousin Sophie are still at odds, mostly because Sophie's a raging bitch-head but also because she sort of blames Kaylee for her mother's death. Emma is dating some moronic jock (so is Sophie, but can we really expect any less? Or more?) who is hell bent on snuffing some new drug, street name "Frost." Real name, Demon's Breath, the highly addictive carbon dioxide exhalation of a hellion from the Netherworld. Sounds fun, right? Getting all jumped up on someone else's bad breath, yum.
 But actually, no, it's highly destructive to the human body and mind, and withdrawal is the mother of all psyche-breakers. Doug and his friends apparently didn't get the memo, and now Kaylee and Nash are out to save all their sorry, thrill-seeking butts. Kaylee, for once, is playing the safe card, wanting to take the whole situation to the adults to handle, but Nash is, for some reason, holding her back, supposedly to protect his dumbass friends. I smell something rotten in the state of Denmark, methinks.
 Also, for some strange reason, Kaylee is unable to sleep because she soul-screams herself right into the Netherworld. Yes, you heard that right. While having nightmares of a death, she screams herself straight out of the real world and into the next, a talent that only the female bean sidhe possesses. Which means she's also going to have to get herself out. After one experience of this, she needs constant watching while she sleeps, to have someone there are to wake her should she start screaming. Fascinating, awkward, and hard to deal with, while also reflecting my actual life at the time of reading. It's the perfect storm of awesomeness.
There isn't too much character development in this installment, unless you count that punch Tod threw at Nash's head, in which case I think we have a deep insight into his character. Save that for later. Ruminate on it, savor it. Think back on it later. Other than that...everyone is pretty static. Other than Nash, of course, and I'm not even going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole for fear of spoilers. Honestly, though, that's about as close as I can even get to the matter without giving the whole thing away, willy nilly.
 Overall: B+
 I was genuinely annoyed with the moronic actions of nearly everyone in the novel, but since they're teenagers, this is, then, a highly accurate depiction. Vincent catches some slack from that. Other than that, I feel like My Soul to Sleep only created more questions rather than solving any of them. We didn't get to see much bean sidhe action, and that was disappointing. Nonetheless, it was still a fun ride.