Historical Fiction: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Publisher: Riverhead
Date: August 20, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 420
Reading time: about a week

From GoodReads: Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town—with Brown, who believes he’s a girl. Over the ensuing months, Henry—whom Brown nicknames Little Onion—conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859—one of the great catalysts for the Civil War.

My review: To begin with, The Good Lord Bird has an interesting and (mostly - it does, after all, include the violence that follows John Brown) enjoyable story. You have a young slave kidnapped by an incredibly insane Brown and forced to pretend he's female because Brown fails to realize the kid is male. Re-christened Onion, he accompanies Brown and his men for several years until the whole thing at Harper's Ferry, so readers get a great overview of the events that led up to the raid as well as the raid itself. There's also some name-dropping interactions with such figures as Frederick Douglass (you will never again think of him in the same way) and Harriet Tubman. Add in some occasional humor, and you have a pretty good novel.

But it's not really that simple. McBride has several messages running underneath the plot that make the book so much more awesome. Identity is one, especially given how Onion is viewed by almost everyone as a girl for years. But mostly, there's the idea of how abolitionists such as Brown didn't, perhaps couldn't, really understand those they were trying to help. Brown consistently believes that both enslaved and free blacks will just run over to help him end slavery, little realizing the social and psychological complexities that influence their actions and decisions. With this novel, McBride provides a much different view on anti-slavery efforts than the one we're usually taught that focuses on white abolitionists and a few famous black figures. It turns a pretty good historical novel into an utterly fantastic one.

Issues: At least in my ARC copy, there seemed to be a lot of inconsistencies between ages/year ranges and, especially, how/when people died during the raid and its aftermath. I'm not sure if these were intentional or just typos.

Recent Acquisitions XI

I feel like such a book glutton. But this post covers the past couple of weeks, not just one. Not everything is pictured; some went straight to my house rather than to the dorm.

For review:
Big Egos by S.G. Browne (publisher's blog tour)
See my review here.

Won:
The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison (thanks, Confessions of a Book Addict!)

From Honors College reading groups:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

From World Literature Today Book Club:
I came for Lam's book and left with 9 more.
Birds of Paradise Lost by Andrew Lam
Limit by Frank Schatzing
Translated sci-fi!
The Last Man Standing by Davide Longo
Translated sci-fi!
Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero
Translated sci-fi!
Without a Net by Ana Maria Shua
Translated...I'm not exactly sure what genre!, but Shua's been on my wishlist for a connection with spec fiction.
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
Another one that's long been on the wishlist.
Falling to Earth by Kate Southwood
Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio
Record of Miraculous Events in Japan: The Nihon ryoiki
Sensibility: An Introduction by Janet Todd

Purchased for class:
Memory in Culture by Astrid Erll
The Ghosts of Berlin by Brian Ladd
Tourists of History by Marita Sturken

Purchased used:
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Children of the Abbey by Regina Maria Roche
18th century gothic!!! And I don't believe there's even a modern edition, so I thought this was quite a steal, despite its condition, for $1.
Wylder's Hand by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Memories and Visions of Paradise: Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age by Robert Heinberg

Nonfiction: Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel K. Richter

Publisher: Harvard Univ. Press
Date: 2001
Format: paperback
Source: purchased
Read: in connection with a Native American Ethnohistory class
Pages: 253
Reading time: one week

From the back of the book: In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers. Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus's arrival, Native people controlled most of eastern North American and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center stage throughout the story of the origins of the United States.

My review: Facing East from Indian Country is probably one the best history books I've read in terms of its accessibility combined with the quality of information it contains. I was impressed with what Richter set out to do with the book and how he accomplished it. As someone who already has an interest in early/colonial America, this was a fantastic introduction to the Native American ethnohistory of the period. While Richter discusses specific examples rather than write a complete survey of eastern Native history from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the examples allow him to draw generalized conclusions that connect together to provide a broader picture.

And that broader picture is...just wow. The major points seem to be that Natives originally welcomed Europeans into their world, willingly integrating them into their diplomatic and economic systems. Problem was, Europeans wanted to do things their own way, and despite Natives' attempts to come to terms with European ways, Europeans increasingly wanted to distance the societies. Another point is the role of the French and Indian, or Seven Years', War in defining the attitudes and policies that formed the events of the late eighteenth century and later as the colonies became their own country. It's amazing - and awful - how everything, both smaller details and global movements, combined together to eventually lead to bloody conflicts and the removal of Native Americans from the eastern U.S.

Is this book perfect? No. It's only one author's interpretation of history, for one thing, and I'm sure parts of his thesis are arguable depending on how one looks at historical sources (or which ones are studied). Occasionally, the examples Richter used seemed long and drawn-out, especially with how complex political and military situations could be. As usual, the examples are also heavy on English interactions in the Northeast, though I was happy that there was some discussion about Spanish exploration as well as much more about the Cherokee, Creek, and other major Southeastern tribes. Overall, I found the book easy to read and highly informative, a fantastic introduction to the relationships between eastern Native Americans and European settlers in colonial America.

Sci-Fi: Wool by Hugh Howey

Series: Wool #1-5; Silo #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: January 2012
Format: paperback
Source: GoodReads First Look
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 509
Reading time: about a month

From GoodReads: In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo's rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: he asks to go outside. His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising. 

My review: Despite the intimidating page count and the insanely long amount of time I took to finish this book, Wool is a read I found highly worthwhile (otherwise, I wouldn't have stuck with it for a month). Aiding in this is that if you get stuck in the depths of the pages without enough time to read for a while, it's quite easy to pick up the storyline and characters right where you left them. The plot is complex enough to be interesting but not so convoluted as to inhibit a very leisurely read. (In my case, by leisurely I mean depressingly slow - my fault, not the book's.)

As to the actual content of the novel, it's pretty great. It's well-written, the pacing is consistent, and everything just melds together really well. I was hooked by the first section, though a bit befuddled by the changes in subsequent parts as to who seemed to be the main character, and enjoyed every bit of the 500 pages. The worldbuilding is awesome and could support another epic-length book or two, it's so well-done by always providing readers with just the right amount of information. The characters are equally well-written, with a good balance of psychological insight and actual actions. This definitely makes my list of sci-fi books to recommend to fans of the genre.

Blog Tour Review: Big Egos by S.G. Browne

Publisher: Gallery Books
Date: August 6, 2013
Format: paperback
Source: publisher
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 364
Reading time: two days

From GoodReads: Call him whatever. Call him whomever. He can be any legally authorized fictional character or dead celebrity he wants for six to eight hours, simply by injecting a DNA-laced cocktail into his brain stem. It’s called Big Egos and it’s the ultimate role-playing fantasy from Engineering Genetics Organization and Systems (aka EGOS.) And, as one of the quality controllers for EGOS, he’s the ultimate ego-tripper, taking on more artificial identities than advisable—and having a hell of a time doing it. Problem is, he’s starting to lose the ability to separate fact from fiction. His every fantasy is the new reality. And the more roles he plays, the less of him remains. Sure, it’s dangerous. Yes, he’s probably losing his mind. Okay, hundreds of others could be at risk. But sometimes who you are isn’t good enough. And the truth is, reality is so overrated. . . .

My review: I'm of mixed opinions on this one. On the one hand, it has a lot of stuff I should love - satire, speculative fiction, pop culture and literary references, humor. Even the cover looks fantastic, and it pretty perfectly fits what you would expect from the cover of a speculative fiction satire. And yes, the novel is funny in places, and yes, it is an effective satire of modern life and our struggles with identity, with finding out who the "real me" is. Much of the book is a fast read that is simultaneously entertaining and insightful. I think it would make a great movie, one of those psychological mind-blowing thriller-type films that have been popular recently.

But then, for some reason, I was kind of let down overall. I either didn't understand the pop culture references or else found them far too shallow to be truly amusing. I was a bit confused with where the story was going and what, exactly, was happening. The ending was disappointing - I was left wondering "WTF?," unsure as to what the author intended with the final couple of pages. I felt like there were a lot of loose ends left behind, mostly about the ultimate fates of the characters. The conclusion and a good deal of what led up to it just felt unsatisfactory compared to the early promise of the rest of the book.

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Publisher: Hogarth
Date: July 23, 2013 (US)
Format: hardback
Source: TLC Book Tours
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 282
Reading time: four days

From GoodReads: Anais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back of a police car. She is headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders. She can't remember what’s happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais’s school uniform is covered in blood. Raised in foster care from birth and moved through twenty-three placements before she even turned seven, Anais has been let down by just about every adult she has ever met. Now a counter-culture outlaw, she knows that she can only rely on herself. And yet despite the parade of horrors visited upon her early life, she greets the world with the witty, fierce insight of a survivor. Anais finds a sense of belonging among the residents of the Panopticon – they form intense bonds, and she soon becomes part of an ad hoc family. Together, they struggle against the adults that keep them confined. When she looks up at the watchtower that looms over the residents though, Anais knows her fate: she is an anonymous part of an experiment, and she always was. Now it seems that the experiment is closing in.

My review: To clarify the genre of this novel (the synopsis above makes it pretty clear, but I know there was some confusion when news of the book's upcoming release first appeared on the blogsphere), I saw it as realistic or contemporary fiction about the Scottish foster care system. There are some dystopian elements, especially towards the beginning of the novel, but Anais is an unreliable narrator, so the truth of these is unclear.

The dialect took a little bit of time to get used to (I actually thought it was a typo the first time, oops) but overall was not difficult to read. Because of her actions and self-destructive behavior, Anais is not the most likable character, but her resilience and mentality draw readers into her story. The situations in which she and the other teens at the Panopticon live are tough, gritty, depressing, but they are portrayed very matter-of-factly, without extra drama or sensationalism. It's heartbreaking seemingly without even trying to tug at your heartstrings. You want to feel optimistic and think that everything will work out perfectly for everyone in the end, but at the same time, it's clear that the characters cannot have truly healthy, happy lives while they remain within the system, and the situation is too complex for someone else to simply come in and "rescue" them. The novel is one of the most realistic and effective portrayals of social issues that I have read in a very long time, and I was a bit disappointed to see the story end where it did.

Maturity factor: language (to the extent of causing DNFs for several other reviewers), nongraphic sexual situations and rape, drugs

Giveaway: TLC Book Tours has graciously provided an extra copy of The Panopticon to give away. Open to US addresses only; ends September 10, 2013.

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Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough

Series: Dire Earth Cycle #1
Publisher: Del Rey
Date: July 30, 2013
Format: paperback
Source: TLC Book Tours
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 480
Reading time: three days

From GoodReads: In the mid-23rd century, Darwin, Australia, stands as the last human city on Earth. The world has succumbed to an alien plague, with most of the population transformed into mindless, savage creatures. The planet’s refugees flock to Darwin, where a space elevator—created by the architects of this apocalypse, the Builders—emits a plague-suppressing aura. Skyler Luiken has a rare immunity to the plague. Backed by an international crew of fellow “immunes,” he leads missions into the dangerous wasteland beyond the aura’s edge to find the resources Darwin needs to stave off collapse. But when the Elevator starts to malfunction, Skyler is tapped—along with the brilliant scientist, Dr. Tania Sharma—to solve the mystery of the failing alien technology and save the ragged remnants of humanity.

My review: I'm not a huge fan sci-fi involving aliens, but Hough pulls off a combination of post-apocalyptic scenario, alien influence, and a touch of dystopia and zombies quite well. There's lots of action to drive the plot along, plus an unfolding mystery (to be continued throughout the series) of who built the Elevator and what their ultimate intentions are. There was a bit too much political and military scheming for my taste, especially given that I did not always completely understand everything that was going on, but it added to the complexity of the setting. The characters were well-developed enough, given that this is primarily an action-y novel, though I did want their backgrounds to be explored a little bit more so I could get a better feel for where they were coming from. Overall, this proved to be a good, solid read, both exciting and interesting, that leaves the door wide open for the upcoming sequel.

Reminds me of: Icons by Margaret Stohl, but with less malevolent aliens (as far as we know right now).

Giveaway: Thanks to TLC Book Tours, I have one extra copy of The Darwin Elevator to give away! Open to US/Canada mailing addresses only; ends September 2, 2013.

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