Title: Why We Broke Up
Author: Daniel Handler
Illustrator: Maira Kalman
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Published: December 2011
Where I got the book: Review Copy from Publisher

From the back cover:

This is the box, Ed.

Inside is everything.

Two bottle caps,
a movie ticket from Greta in the Wild,
a note from you,
a box of matches,
your protractor,
Joan’s book,
the stolen sugar,
a toy truck,
those ugly earrings,
a comb from the motel,
and the rest of it.

This is it, Ed.

The whole store of why we broke up.

Review:

Let’s see how long I can go without mistakenly referring to Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket. Oh damn, I just did it didn’t I? I might as well get this out of the way then. Yes, Handler and Snicket are the same person. However, in terms of writing style, they are vastly different. Why We Broke Up, Handler’s third book released under his real name, lacks the wit and sharpness found in the Series of Unfortunate Events series, yet We We Broke Up does have its own merit and is worth considering.

Why We Broke Up is a love story told in hindsight. Minerva, Min for short, and Ed had a relationship that ended (i’m not spoiling anything, just rephrasing the book’s title). This book is written as if it were a long letter from Min to Ed explaining the events of their relationship that caused Min to end it.

Min is a geeky film fanatic who falls in love with Ed, co-captain of the high school basketball team. When they first meet, it’s clear that these two characters are not meant for each other; they are complete opposites. For some reason, they hit it off and decide to give it shot. Ed and Min try to become more involved in the actives that interest the other, Min going to his games and Ed seeing weird, arty films. There were points where Ed drops his jock personality and appears to be actually interested in the things Min is into. In those moments I believed that there might be a future for their relationship.

Since Min is the narrator here, it’s impossible to tell if she is retelling the events as they actually happened, or if she’s putting her own personal, spiteful spin on them. For most of the book I didn’t think Ed was that bad of a guy. If anything, I thought Min’s stubbornness might be the real reason they broke up and not all the items she lists. Mayhaps she was adding spite to the letter just to hurt Ed’s feelings as he reads it.

By the end of the book, when the big reason why they broke up is revealed, it’s one of those moments that could only be described as ‘anti-climatic’. The final reason made perfect sense as to why they broke up, but it also makes all the other reasons that came before it less impactful. I mean, really, a toy truck is one of the reasons they broke up, oh, and that big thing too. I understand from a literary stand point that Handler had to work up to the climax of the book, but when it hits, it makes all the other reasons (and the 300+ pages spent explaining them) seem kind of moot.

We We Broke Up is a sad story about a couple that shouldn’t be together. The reader knows it, and they’re waiting for the moment for it to dawn on Min or Ed. This book does a really good job at being unique compared to all the other YA novels about two teenagers who fall in love and it worth checking out if the initial premises sounds like something you would like.

Closing Thoughts: I liked this book, but it was a bit of a downer. Also, are high school students really this annoying/stupid?

Question: Can we get some more Lemony Snicket books please? A Series of More Unfortunate Events?

Second Opinions: 
The Story Siren
Muggle-Born.net
Reading Vacation

Title: Making Money
Author: Terry Pratchett
Read By: Stephen Briggs
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: September 2007
Where I got the book: Audible

From the back cover:

Postmaster general Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectations in running the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. So it’s somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, “Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?”

Vetinari isn’t talking about wages. He’s referring to the Royal Mint of Ankh-Morpork that has run on the hereditary employment of the Men of the Sheds, who do make money in their spare time. Unfortunately, it costs more than a penny to make a penny, so the whole process seems somewhat counter-intuitive.

But before Moist has time to fully consider Vetinari’s question, fate answers it for him. Now he’s not only making money, but enemies, too; he’s got to spring a prisoner from jail, break into his own bank vault, stop the new manager from licking his face and, above all, find out where all the gold has gone—otherwise, his life in banking, while very exciting, is going to be really, really short . . .

Review:

I feel that i’ve dabbled enough in the Discworld series to safely state that Moist von Lipwig is my favorite central character. Death would come in a close second. The downside of Moist is that he’s only been featured in two books so far, Going Postal and Making Money. Both books focus on an industry that is just completely messed up and it’s up to Moist to turn them around and make them both functional and profitable.

In Making Money, Moist “accepts” as position as head of the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and the Royal Mint. Naturally, things are a bit chaotic there. The biggest challenge he faces, aside from bank shareholder’s not trusting him, is the face that people’s believe in order for a bank to function, it must have gold. With his past success at the Royal Post Office (in Going Postal), Moist implements a few tricks he learned and introduces paper money to the citizens of Ankh-Morpork much to their confusion.

One of the things that I really liked about this book is how timely it is. It tackles modern day issues while still taking place in the fantasy setting of Discworld. It’s a delicate balance that Pratchett manages to pull off well in this book.

The audiobook version was ready rather well by Stephen Briggs who has narrated all the Discworld audiobooks that I’ve listened too. He does a fantastic job with all the characters and now can not imagine listening to one with somebody else reading it.

Closing Thoughts: Overall, I would have to say Making Money would be my favorite Discworld book so far. It’s funny, the characters are interesting and the overall story shared parallels with today’s society.

Question: Who is your favorite Discworld character(s)?

Title: Choke Hold
Author: Christa Faust
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Published: October 4th , 2011
Where I got the book: Murder by the Book

From the back cover:

INSIDE THE WORLD OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS – AND MURDER…

Angel Dare went into Witness Protection to escape her past — not as a porn star, but as a killer who took down the sex slavery ring that destroyed her life. But sometimes the past just won’t stay buried.

When a former co-star is gunned down, it’s up to Angel to get his son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, safely through the unforgiving Arizona desert, shady Mexican border towns, and the seductive neon mirage of Las Vegas…

Review:

I’m a little shocked that it’s taken me so long to post my review of this book. Before I get started, let’s take a moment and remember how much I loved Money Shot. I recall calling it “the perfect epitome of what modern pulp fiction can be.” Choke Hold is the much anticipated (at least by me) sequel to Money Shot. Angel Dare is back and she’s laying low after the events in the first book. But after running into a former flame, things turn south and she gets wrapped up in the world of illegal fights and drug smuggling.

In this book Angel has less control of the situation. While in Money Shot she was the one planning the course of action and executing it, Choke Hold takes her on a journey where she just happens to get wrapped up in it and goes with the flow. The result was a character that seemed less like a fierce independent woman, which is one of the things I loved about the first book, and more like someone who is a tad bit helpless. It kind of makes since Angel is a fish out of water in the world of MMA fighting while she knew the ins-and-outs of the adult film industry in Money Shot. Near the end of Choke Hold, Angel does take control but instead of fighting, she chooses to run away to safety. Choke Hold felt like a step down in terms of Angel’s character development.

However, those are just my personal issues with the book. If you can look past that (which I was able to), Choke Hold is the return of one of my favorite characters. This book is quickly paced and full of action. It never slows down or stays in one place for too long. What I’m trying to say is that it was a book that I found hard to put down once I picked it up.

Closing Thoughts: I could easily see this developing into a series of books that follow Angel Dare. This I would be okay with.

Question: What seedy underworld will Angel get mixed up with if there is a third book?

Special review from Terry Blas

Title: The Girl Who Owned a City
Author: T.O. Nelson, Dan Jolley
Artist: Joelle Jones
Pages: 128 pages
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Published: April 2012
Where I got the book: eARC

From the back cover:

A deadly virus killed every adult on Earth, leaving only us kids behind. My parents are gone, so I’m responsible for my little brother, Todd. I have to make sure we stay alive. Many kids are sick or starving, and fierce gangs are stealing and destroying everything they find. Lots of people have given up, but here on Grand Avenue, some of us are surviving. Because of me.

I figured out how to give the kids on Grand Avenue food, homes, and protection against the gangs. But Tom Logan and his army are determined to take away what we’ve built and rule the streets themselves. How long can we keep fighting them off? We need to find another place for us to live safely. A strong place. A secret place.

In a world like this, someone has to take charge. But do I have the strength to take charge of a whole city?

Review:

The Girl Who Owned a City was one of my favorite books as a child.

I loved the idea that this was a world full of kids, all trying to survive after a virus wiped out everyone over the age of twelve. What was different about this book, and what set it apart from other stories like Lord of the Flies was that, as the title suggest, the main character is a girl.

O.T. Nelson spoke about how he wanted to write a book to show kids that they were more than what people had told them they were. He wanted to inspire them to use their brains, to think about how to do things, and not to rely so much on others. This is very apparent in the book as Lisa, struggles to help her little brother survive. She’s not struggling as much as the other kids though. She’s being smart about it, and using her head.

I won’t get too much into the plot of the book. If you want that, you can read the review I wrote here, but the purpose of this review is to talk a bit about the new graphic novel adaptation by Dan Jolley and Joelle Jones.

From what I remember, this adaptation follows the book extremely well. There’s one, maybe two things I can think of that might be different, and I say might because if they are, it didn’t take anything away from the story. Some things are inherently more novelistic and some things work better in a comic, and this is evident by certain things that were cut out, or shortened by the nature of a comic. The written adaptation is done extremely well.

The art is incredible. I’ve got every single one of Joelle Jones’s books and it’s my personal opinion that this is some of her best work. Every panel forces your attention and demands you be pulled into the story. I’d be hard pressed to find a single favorite page because the whole book is a masterpiece.

But it’s not just drawn well, the characters seem real, their acting and poses are natural and make you forget you’re reading anything at all. It’s definitely an experience and one you will be sorry you missed if you don’t check out the book.

I realize my opinion regarding the art may be biased, but it’s also right. The Girl Who Owned a City was one of my favorite books as a child and it’s one of my favorite graphic novels as a grown up.

Terry Blas is a Portland, Ore. based illustrator. His web comic, Briar Hollow, and artwork can be found at terryblas.com.

Title: Machine Man
Author: Max Barry
Publisher: Vintage
Published: August 9th, 2011
Where I got the book: Powell’s Bookstore

From the back cover:

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It’s not a tragedy. It’s an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.

Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon.

A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man’s quest for ultimate self-improvement.

Review:

Machine Man has the best opening in a book that I’ve ever read. Charles wakes up in his apartment and desperately searches for his cell phone. It’s funny and everybody can relate to his situation. Who hasn’t lost their cell phone at least once and gone through the process of retracing your steps. Eventually, Chales finds his cell phone. Unfortunately, he loose a leg in the process and starts his obsession with prosthetic limbs.

I’ve you’ve read any of Barry’s books before (and by all means you should), then you know what to expect. There’s a cast of flawed characters running around and a big corporation in the background looking out for its own interest regardless of the cost. Charles, being a totally reasonable engineer, is determined to make the best prosthetic leg imaginable. In Machine Man, Charles is employed by Better Future, a company devoted to making the future better. Once they realize that the prosthetics Charles is making could be very profitable, they take a keen interest in his research. Unfortunately, things quickly get out of control as more limbs are lost and replaced with better ones.

This book is fill with a bunch of very comedic scenes such as Charles being taken for a wild ride by his untested robotic legs. These bits are filled with Barry’s trademark humor.

My one complaint about the book is that the main character is not very likeable. He’s a self obsessed jerk who, for the most part, only cares about making himself better through the prosthetists he makes. When his lab assistants manage to improve eyes with Better Eyes, it’s a product he dislikes because he didn’t think of it. In contrast, Charles does fall in love with Lola and for a while she becomes his obsession. However, it’s not long lived because he is easily distracted with prosthetists. In the end, he’s not a character I could root for on a consistent basis which hindered my overall enjoyment of this book.

Closing Thoughts: While not his strongest work, Machine Man is still a very enjoyable, fun read for people looking for something not too serious.

Question: Has anybody played the video game Deux Ex: Human Revolution? I started played it after finishing this book and I am enjoying the parallels.

Title: Little Brother
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Listening Library
Published: May 11th, 2010
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

Review:

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. @fyrefly98 recommended it to me, and I generally trust her taste in books. Her blog, Fyrefly’s Book Blog, is one that I never “mark all as read” because I believe she and I have very similar tastes in books.

But this isn’t a review of @fyrefly98, so let’s get down to business. Cory Doctorow is a writer I’ve heard many good things about but never got around to reading. That may have been a huge mistake on my part. Little Brother is a story set in the not too distant future where the department of homeland security starts spying on people, installing cameras, checking their e-mail and tracking their movements all in the name of freedom. Little Brother is the story of Marcus, a high school student well versed in technology, who gets caught up in the chaos after a terrorist attack on San Francisco. He and his three friends get taken in to custody and harshly questioned by the DHS. After a couple of days, Marcus and two of his friends get out, but the fourth member of their group is still missing and the DHS wont answer any questions. What’s more, the DHS tells his that if he ever tells anybody what happened to him while he was being detained, they will throw him back in a prison and throw away the key. As with most teenagers who get told what to do, Marcus gets angry, and he starts to rebel against the DHS. Using an online alias, Marcus plants the seeds of rebellion against the DHS, and they in turn try to track down the mysterious online persona who is freely using the internet as a way to circumvent the restrictions placed upon people by the DHS in the name of freedom.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the use of technology and youth culture. In the beginning of the book Marcus and his friends play an ARG (alternate reality game) which is something I don’t think many adults would be familiar with. Luckily, Doctorow does a fairly good job at explaining all the technical bits for the readers who may not be familiar with computers, programing, etc. However, these parts do slow down the progression of the story. Who wants to read a page of programing code (or listen to it being read as in the case for the audiobook)?

Speaking of the pacing, I found it hard to stop listening to this book. I normally reserve audiobooks for long drives, but I was caught up in what was happening that I needed to find out what happens next. I was listening to this during the short drive to the grocery store and wherever. I was just too eager to see what happens next. There was also a love story aspect that felt tacked on, and I generally didn’t care for. It slowed down the pacing half-way through the book. Thrilling things still happen, it’s just now Marcus has this girl who tags along and doesn’t add anything, I felt, to the overall plot.

At times this book does come off as preachy, warning about how easy it is for a government to take over and invade a person’s privacy and freedom. There were times were I was rolling my eyes at the ideas this book presented. However, it was never laid on thick enough to detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Closing Thoughts: Aside from the occasionally preachiness about freedoms being taken away by the government and the tacked on love story, Little Brother is a captivating story that left me eager to find out what happens next.

Question: You can download most (all?) of Cory Doctorow’s books for free from his website because most (all?) of them are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license which lets you share, remix and share you remix as long as you don’t sell your remix. This is an interesting idea to me. My question is, what if all books were released under this license? Obviously publishers are still OK to some extent with Doctorow giving his books away for free because there are still people paying for hardcopies.

Title: I Am the Messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Listening Library
Published: September 26th, 2006
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

I am the Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

Review:

I’ve had The Book Thief by Markus Zusak sitting on my bookshelf for a couple years now. Every now and again, while looking for my next book to read, I’ll pick it up and read the cover before putting it back on the shelf. I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Book Thief, but it just doesn’t sound appealing. When I asked for audio book recommendations, @booksandmovies told me to give I Am the Messenger a try. At this point I had not heard of the book but, after reading briefly about it, it sounded like something I would be interested in.

I Am the Messenger is the story about a slacker who gets a sudden wake-up call when playing cards start arriving in the mail and instruct him to do things. The tasks set forth involve helping random people in his city. How he helps them turns out to be a little more complicated and people end up getting hurt, both physically and emotionally.

I really liked the pacing of this book. It’s quick, one thing after another; the story is fast and made it hard for me to put down (or in my case hit pause). Since the premise of the book is Ed being forced to help people, it never feels like it spends too much time in one spot. It’s fun being the reader and trying to figure out along with Ed what is the problem that the card led him to and how is he going to fix it. At times, the solution will seem obvious while there are occasions where things aren’t as they seem. For me Another thing I really liked about the book was the people Ed helped in the past are not simply forgotten. Since he has helped them, they continue to be a part of his life.

I feel the ending is a subject people will either love or hate. You see, Ed wants to know who is the one sending him the cards in the mail. When the time comes for all to be explained, there are going to be readers who do not like the explanation. I, however, enjoyed the ending. It was nothing like I expected and now that I’ve had time to think back upon it, any other ending would had cheapened the book.

Closing Thoughts: I really liked this book. It was a fast read because the story and mystery were constantly progressing. It never feels repetitive or dull.

Question: If you’ve read this book, I would be interested to hear your take on the ending…

Title: Ivan and Misha: Stories
Author: Michael Alenyikov
Publisher: Triquarterly / Northwestern University Press
Published: October 2010
Where I got the book: Electronic Review Copy, part of TLC Book Tour

Synopsis:

In Ivan and Misha, Michael Alenyikov portrays the complexities of love, sexuality, and the bonds of family with boldness and lyric sensitivity. As the Soviet Union collapses, two young brothers are whisked away from Kiev by their father to start life anew in America. The intricately linked stories in this powerful debut, set in New York City at the turn of the millennium, swirl about the uneasy bond between fraternal twins, Ivan and Misha, devoted brothers who could not be more different: bipolar Ivan, like their father, is a natural seducer, a gambler who always has a scheme afoot between fares in his cab and stints in Bellevue. Misha struggles to create a sense of family with his quixotic boyfriend, Smith, his wildly unpredictable brother, and their father, Lyov (“Call  me Louie!”), marooned in Brighton Beach yet ever the ladies’ man. Father and sons are each haunted by the death of Sonya, a wife to Lyov, a mother to his sons. An evocative and frank exploration of identity, loss, dislocation, and desire, Ivan and Misha marks the arrival of a uniquely gifted voice in American fiction.

Review:

I am breaking some rules by reviewing this book. First, I accepted a digital copy of the book to read. I do not have a Kindle or iPad so my time spent reading this book has been in my uncomfortable desk chair. Second, I agreed to have the review up by a certain date (today). I don’t like feeling like i’m a slave to the blog. I like posting when I get around to it.

I know I’ve started out on a negative note, but stay with me. The reason I agreed to accept an digital review copy and the reason I agreed to post my review today was because the book sounded really appealing to me. If you’re a fellow book blogger then you know what it’s like to get review requests for books that sound like something you would never in a million years be interested in read. With Ivan and Misha, however, it sounded exactly like something I would like to read.

There have books i’ve read in the past (Blue Boy, Quarantine) that have explored what it’s like to be different (in a queer sense) and to come from a country with different traditions. Both of those books I greatly enjoyed, so I was looking forward to reading Ivan and Misha.

Now, full disclaimer. I haven’t finished the book. I have about twenty pages left to go, but I need to get this review up. Maybe once I finish the book I will update this review. I make no promises (other than to post this review on time). Ivan and Misha is made up of about five sections that follow different characters. The stories are connected to each other and offer a different perspective on the other characters or events that had transpired in past sections. These stories are not presented in a chronological fashion. It was weird at first to have a character die in one section then to have the next section start from his point-of-view. Since I already knew what was going to happen to that character, I lost a little interest thinking the events of that section were going to lead up to his death again. They didn’t. Instead it offered a different perspective of that character. He turned out to be completely different from how he was made out to be in the previous section. I know I’m being vague; it’s a delicate balance trying to encourage you to read this book and, at the same time, trying not to spoil it for you.

Now the title characters of this book, Ivan and Misha, are twins but complete opposites. They were brought to America at a young age by their father, Louie, who believed America to be a better place than Kiev. Misha’s boyfriend, Robbie, has complicated feelings about his family and is constantly changing his name in attempts to re-invent himself.

This book explores some depressing themes such as being accepted by family members, AIDS, loneliness and love. I’ve really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend that you check it out.

I agreed to review this book as part of a blog book tour put together by TLC Book Tours. While I haven’t read every other blog’s review, I did notice that a couple blogs that I follow featured reviews of their books. I highly recommend that you check out Regular Rumination and Stuff as Dreams are Made On because I like their blogs and you should too.

Closing Thoughts: I should really buy a Kindle or a more comfortable desk chair.

Question: Is it okay for a book blogger to review a book when he still has twenty pages to read?