In My Mailbox (04)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren where bloggers showcase the books they received over the week.

My mailbox was quite lovely this week. I received an abundance of library books (of course), a couple of books from The Book Depository, and something that really surprised me.

Mail:

 From top to bottom:

- Geist by Philippa Ballantine; I love fantasy, and the cover is so amazing. It's done by the same guy who did the cover for the Theatre Illuminata series, Jason Chan

- The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey; I'd begun this book earlier in the year, but it was from the library, and I had to give it back half-read. But it was good enough for me to want to buy.

- Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington; This was a lovely gift from Hachette, as part of their reviewing program for Date a Book. I'd read and reviewed the first  book here on my blog, Embrace and have the second book waiting to have its review written up. Good series, and I'm so happy to have an early-release copy.

Library:

 From top to bottom:

- Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K. Hamilton; Man, I've really been digging this series. I'm in a sort of smutty paranormal romance mood, so this is right up my alley.

- All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin; I've been hearing interesting things about this book, and the premise is intriguing. Can't wait to check it out.

- Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen; I'd read the first book earlier this year as part of my ABC Challenge, and I'm really interested in historicals set in the 1920's.

- Act of Faith by Kelly Gardiner; I really really really love historicals. And the premise looks interesting.

-Possess by Gretchen McNeil; Man, I've been waiting impatiently for this book for ages. It looks so creepy and awesome. So can't wait to dig in to this.

- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh; This book has been on my radar for ages. I'm so ecstatic to finally be able to have it in my hands. So so so can't wait to read this one.

- Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume One by Laurell K. Hamilton &; Oooh, a graphic novel. I love graphic novels so much, and am ridiculously happy that popular urban fantasy series are getting turned into graphic novels.

- Fables: War and Pieces by Bill Willingham; This is the 11th volume of the Fables series, and man, I'm so excited to read this. The series has been a massive ride, and I totally recommend it to everyone.

So, that's it for my mailbox.
What did you get in you mailboxes this week? What do you think of the books I got? Feel free to leave your links in the comments.

Review: Lips Touch: Three Times

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo

Pages: 272, hardcover

ISBN: 9780545055857

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Date Released: October 1st, 2009

Genre: YA / fantasy / romance / anthology

Source: library

Premise:

A girl who’s always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging — literally belonging — to another world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to childbearing age.
From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch. 
(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it From: Book Depository / Amazon

It's really hard to properly say how I feel about this book without saying something like "OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER" or something along those lines. It would make for a very short, very awkward review.
I'd been hearing excellent things about this book and Laini Taylor's writing, so I had very high expectations. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Right off the bat, we are shown such beautiful images, which were done by Taylor's husband, Jim Di Bartolo. They don't really add anything to the story themselves, instead, they bring to life their own stories, like a prequel. As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.

The writing is beautiful. It's the kind of writing that made me sigh and reread the last several pages. Laini Taylor has a way with words. She is extremely talented. There's no way to accurately describe how wonderful her words are, but I'll try. It feels as if she'd spent hours picking at each sentence, making sure that it could make a person weep, making sure that it packed punch, making sure that it flowed with magic. Each sentence is a work of art, something to be savoured.

Now, onto the stories themselves. As the title suggests, these stories are about kisses. First kisses to be exact, though not all of them are romantic. Each was better than the one before it. It started off small, with the first story being a stretched retelling of The Goblin Market. It was not a romance story. In fact, it was the complete opposite. It showed the perils of the drug that is first love. But even when you read it, knowing that the main character--Kizzy-- is being stupid, the words used, the magical, lyrical feel of them, it still grabs at your chest, making you feel as breathless and as in love as Kizzy. It doesn't matter if something bad will happen, you think that it's worth it, all for that one kiss.

The second story is a frightfully exotic and delicious tale set in a sort of Hell and India. Usually, tales set in India--or any other foreign place, for that matter--the setting is something of a novelty. As if the author is proclaiming, "Hey! Look at me! I'm writing a story in a place that isn't America/England! I'm unique!" and most of the time, they seem to get details frightfully wrong. But that wasn't the case here. Here, I could feel the hot, humid air of India, smell the lush flowers that littered the gardens, and taste the sweet juice of exotic fruits, feeling the sticky liquid run down my chin. It was so detailed, I might as well have been there. The story itself was stellar, with numerous breathless moments, and a plot that is gripping and enchanting.

Finally, there's the third story, that is something out of this world. I don't know where Taylor got her ideas from, but whatever the secret is, I want it! The final story is based on Zoroastrian folklore, and just touches on so much. The shock factor is high, the twists are as bendy as the roads in Ice Road Truckers.

This book is magic. All I can say is go read it now. Your life depends on it.
By the way, this book earns a place on the favourites shelf, so you know it's a big deal.

Cover & Art: 5
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 4
Level of Interest: 5


Total Rating: 5/5 stars
 

Review: Lights Out in Wonderland

Lights Out In Wonderland by D.B.C. Pierre

Pages: 320, hardcover

ISBN: 9780571228904

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Release Date: September 2nd, 2010


Genre: literary / contemporary

Source: library


Premise:

Gabriel Brockwell, aesthete, poet, philosopher, disaffected twenty-something decadent, is thinking terminal. His philosophical enquiries, the abstractions he indulges, and how these relate to a life lived, all point in the same direction. His destination is Wonderland. The nature and style of the journey is all that's to be decided. Taking in London, Tokyo, Berlin and the Galapagos Islands, Lights Out In Wonderland documents Gabriel Brockwell's remarkable global odyssey. Committed to the pursuit of pleasure and in search of the Bacchanal to obliterate all previous parties, Gabriel's adventure takes in a spell in rehab, a near-death experience with fugu ovaries, a sexual encounter with an octopus, and finally an orgiastic feast in the bowels of Berlin's majestic Tempelhof Airport. Along the way we see a character disintegrate and re-shape before our eyes. Lights Out In Wonderland carries you through its many corridors of delight and horror on the back of Gabriel's voice, which is at once skeptical, idealistic, broken and optimistic. An allegorical banquet and a sly commentary on these End Times and the march towards insensate banality, DBC Pierre's third novel completes a loose trilogy of fictions, each of which stands alone as a joyful expression of the human spirit.
(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it From: Book Depository / Amazon

This book is a DNF for me. I dropped it about 65 pages in, but even when I was a dozen pages in, I had felt the incredible urge to just put it down and never look at it again. So this review is my thoughts on the first 65 pages.

The main character, Gabriel, is, in short, a twat. He was placed in rehab by his father, and comments constantly about capitalism. You know how Chuck Palahniuk can be so deep, dark, and witty about materialism, consumerism, individuality, whatever? Pierre seems to try to imitate that, and does it poorly. For the most part, it's an anti-communist whine-fest. Every page had non-stop bitching about politics. I just thought it was a bit over-the-top. We don't need it shoved in our faces that capitalism is bad, and that capitalism ruins society and such. Subtlety is the key.


The story is basically Gabriel's adventures before he kills himself. But I find his reasons for wanting to kill himself to be a tad bit offensive and absurd. He doesn't really explain any reasons as to why he wants to end his life, except for the fact that we live in a capitalist society. Yep, he wants to kill himself because of capitalism.

The writing was so fantastic, which is a shame. Most of the time, I was drooling at how well Pierre strung his words together. Sadly, the beautiful writing wasn't enough for me to keep on reading.

I do, however, feel that I perhaps wasn't in the right mindset or some such to read this book, and will be trying it again in the future. If my opinions change, then I'll post up a review. We'll see.

10 Second Review: Beautiful writing, only to be tarnished by an anti-capitalist whine-fest. Dropped after 65 pages. Enter at your own risk.

Cover Art: 4
Plot: 1
Characters: 0
Writing: 3 (loses 2 marks for the political rants)
Level of Interest: 1

Total Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Pages: 373, paperback

ISBN: 9780340733561

Publisher: Hodder

Date Released:July 19th, 2001

Genre: literary fiction / satire / mystery / sci-fi

Source:library

Available from The Book Depository

Premise:

There is another 1985, where London's criminal gangs have moved into the lucrative literary market, and Thursday Next is on the trail of the new crime wave's Mr Big.

Acheron Hades has been kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre is gone. Missing.

Thursday sets out to find a way into the book to repair the damage. But solving crimes against literature isn't easy when you also have to find time to halt the Crimean War, persuade the man you love to marry you, and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays.

Perhaps today just isn't going to be Thursday's day. Join her on a truly breathtaking adventure, and find out for yourself. Fiction will never be the same again... (Taken from Goodreads)

It took me a while to get into this book, and to understand what the hell was going on. What I found out was that unless you're either British, know about British history, or are a classical literary student, then you'll have a hard time understanding just how witty the author is being in making the Crimean war (go on, Google it. I did) last 130 years, and other obscure British history references.

It takes a while to understand that this is a sort of parallel universe, set in 1985, where technology is amazing (to the point where dodos have been genetically brought out of extinction) and time travel is possible. When you discover these abstract things, it really feels like being hit in the face. I found myself crying out "why? WHY?" often.

The writing reads almost as if Douglas Adams were a pompous literature student sitting on his Macbook in Starbucks. When I read this, I couldn't help but compare the weirdness of this to that of Hitchhikers. But of course, this is much different, mainly because Hitchhikers was fun, and this is forced, and almost as if Fforde was so impressed by his knowledge of obscure literature, and wants his readers to be impressed too.

It's written in first person, but is badly done, as a lot of the time, things that Thursday Next, the main character, shouldn't know are narrated to us. For example:

"My room was exactly like all the other rooms in the hotel." -pg 119

Now, I have a few issues with that sentence. First off, how does she know what all the other rooms in the hotel look like, especially when this is her first time at this particular hotel? Secondly, how is it relevant? It isn't, and it just clutters the story with unnecessary details. Sadly, the novel is littered with things like this, and it gets fairly distracting after a while.
Also, pretty much all of chapter 11, and quite a few parts near the end of the novel are written in 3rd person. Now, this awkward, random jump from 1st to 3rd person pov is tacky and needs to be heavily edited. If you're going to have a book written in 1st person pov, the person telling it needs to actually be present during all of those scenes.

Also, I really wanted to know why this world is so immersed in literature. There's no reason, no explanation, no background. We're just led to believe that it's normal for people to be selling bootleg first editions of books on the black market, and it's totally normal for there to be vending machines that only exist to quote Shakespeare. While I have no issue with a world such as this, and I wish I lived in it, I still want to know WHY they love literature so much that there's a police force dedicated to it. It's such a big thing and surely needs explanation.

The villain wasn't much of a villain. His motives were all over the place, and he seems to only be evil for the sake of being evil. Plus, he's a bit of a Gary Stu with his invincibility and vast intelligence and whatnot.

And finally, the romance: I thought it was a bit shoddy. In the beginning, Thursday is pretty much obsessed with the man she dated 10 years ago, and when they end up going out again (y'know, 10 years later, and he's engaged to someone else. No biggie), it's fairly unimpressive. That Thursday Next steals someone else's man infuriates me, and does not at all seem endearing or strong. It makes her look desperate, and bitchy.

I had a lot of issues with this book, as you can see. I dunno, if you're into witty and satirical stories that try to be sarcastic and play with classical literature,, then you might like it.

Cover Art: 4
Plot: 2
Characters: 1
Writing: 2
Level of Interest: 2

Total Rating: 2/5 stars

Review: Invisible Monsters

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Pages: 304, paperback

ISBN: 9780099285441

Publisher: Vintage

Date Released: November 2nd, 2000 (originally published 1999)

Genre: adult / satire / literary / thriller / dark humor

Source: bought

Premise:

She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.
Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.
The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future. (Taken from blurb.)

Okay, let me start this off by saying that I am a massive fan of Chuck Palahniuk. I first started reading his stuff way back when I was 14 or 15. Clearly, most of the themes and situations went way over my head. But upon re-reading this book, I've ignited my love and understanding for the man.

The story is set out so that it jumps all over the place, jumping through time, breaking in the middle of tense scenarios, and filling the reader with bits of seemingly worthless information, that actually builds the story, the way a jigsaw piece may seem insignificant on its own. For some, the all-over-the-place structure may be annoying, and it does take some getting used to. But I quite enjoyed it.
Most of Palahniuk's books read this way, in a disjointed manner, so I suppose if one doesn't like any of his other stuff, then they most likely wouldn't like this.
The writing style is also something that not everyone will enjoy. He uses repetition, is sometimes over the top with his graphic descriptions, and often throws in a sentence or two that seem life changing and philosophical.
This book left me with a few quotes that I believe I must share, because they just make me say wow:

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known."

"The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person."

"All God does is watch us and kill us if we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."

What I love most about this book is Palahniuk's way of surprising the reader with these sudden twists that make you go "no way!", even though it seems completely obvious in hindsight. Even after reading this book twice already in the last few years, I found myself still being surprised and shocked.

I know that this isn't much of a review, but I can't really say much about this book that isn't completely biased and goes along the lines of "This book is fantastic, it'll change your life, it'll change the way you write, speak and see life. It's a literary masterpiece. I am completely in love with Chuck Palahniuk because of this book."

So, give this book a chance. I can't promise you'll love it, but it's worth a shot.

Cover: 4
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Level of Interest: 5 (so much, so, I literally couldn't put this book down, was annoyed when I actually had to due to going on a date. Even managed to finish it in approx 4 hours of on/off reading.)

Total: 5/5 stars.