The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer #2), by Brent Weeks

You guys, I was so close to giving this one five stars. In fact, I'd say I'd still give it a solid four and a half if that were an option. The writing is tight and impressive without getting flowery. The Prism continues to be one of the most well-written hero-type fantasy protagonists I've ever read. I continue to adore his kick-ass love interest & her martial arts skills. His insecure-yet-earnest, almost-too-smart-for-his-own-good teenage bastard son is so believable it hurts. Bad guys do honorable things and have understandable motives. Good guys sometimes do crappy things. Ambivalent characters abound. Political machinations are brilliantly executed. And over the course of book two, it becomes clear that certain narrative arcs are coming home to roost, some of them so artfully crafted that they didn't even look like narrative arcs until now. What you thought was characterization was actually plot. What you thought was plot was characterization. He's a clever, calculating man, this Brent Weeks.

Even the things that for me keep it from being five stars really fall into the category of personal preference. For one, I hate battle scenes. (They are Just. So. BORING. If all books with multi-page/multi-chapter battle scenes could just replace them with a single page that reads "They fight," & then list any relevant plot points, that'd be super sweet.) And then there were a couple of rather mushy scenes that kind of made me go, "Ugh, this...", although I suppose they were inevitable in terms of the story and were admittedly skillfully written.

So yeah. My bar for fantasy is high. The Black Prism exceeded it, and The Blinding Knife was even better. I'm glad I didn't hear about these books until the last one in the trilogy (The Broken Eye) came out, because I can't wait to find out how it ends.

(Update: Eff. I just found out there's a fourth book that isn't out yet. *Shakes fist at sky* On the other hand, this does mean that I likely get another 600+ pages of awesome from Weeks, so on the balance I probably come out ahead in this one.)

Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins

I wasn't a huge fan of Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, but Jitterbug Perfume has become such an iconic book that I felt I had to give it a chance on the strength of the recommendations I've gotten from people who loved it, and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it.

In a lot of ways this is just the type of book I'm looking for when I've been reading a lot of intense, srsbzns stuff -- it's whimsical, irreverent, and overall on the light-hearted side, but still well-written and possessed of a unique, intriguing plot and interesting, well-rounded characters.

Which is not to say that the plot and characters aren't all patently absurd; they absolutely are. But what makes them (as well as Robbins' quirky, weirdly floral language) work is that it's all built on top of and in service to some very well-thought out and carefully crafted themes (immortality/the after life, the role of smell/scent in the human experience, juxtaposition of biology & spirituality, juxtaposition of old world & new world). Even reading some of the most ridiculous, slapstick scenes in the book, they still came across as clever & "worked" because I could see why they were there & how they fit into the overall structure & logic of the story. (This is the part I felt was missing in Fierce Invalids, so the absurd/slapstick/goofy parts just felt dumb.)

(Also, I really just adored the whole Alobar & Kudra thread. They were so sweet together!)

So yeah; definitely enjoyed JP enough that I'm willing to give Tom Robbins a third go. A quick, fun read if you're in the mood for something a little quirky & irreverent but still clever & well-written.

The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1), by Brent Weeks

I'm always a bit wary of starting a fantasy series/trilogy because there are just so many ways they can go horrifically bad. The Black Prism was a rare treat, though.

Sure, there are a few cliched elements (false/mistaken identity, long-lost progeny of ruler-person swept up into adventures, powerful beloved ruler-person weighed down by responsibilities/dark secrets/unrequited love), but I didn't mind them because they were executed in such unique and fresh ways, which kept things interesting and (mostly) unpredictable. The powerful, beloved ruler ("The Prism") has a sweet relationship with his mother. His long-lost-suddenly-resurfaced bastard (Kip) is a sassy, chubby, uncoordinated 15-year-old who is too smart for his own good but has a heart of gold. The ex-fiance the Prism carries a torch for is a hot shit, tough-as-nails soldier & one of his personal bodyguards.

Start to finish, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Sequel time!

The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie

I've put off reading this or any other book by Salman Rushdie for years because I was kind of afraid that my complete & utter lack of background knowledge about India or anything related to it might make them difficult to understand and/or enjoy, but finally decided I would never know if I didn't pick one and take the plunge. (And let's be real; if a book gets the author sentenced to death in absentia, it is automatically a must-read.)

As it turns out, I was mostly wrong, with a few caveats. If I had to summarize the feel of the whole thing, I would say that The Satanic Verses is Jitterbug Perfume all grown up--longer, more serious, a touch darker, a touch more "literary", but still dealing with themes of history, spirituality/religion, morality, life/death/rebirth, packed with quirky characters, and completely hilarious & irreverent. (There are many people this book is not for, & I suspect you know who you are.)

Caveat #1 is that it does help to have Wikipedia or Cliff's Notes handy (though, apparently, some Rushdie purists would disagree). There are historical, cultural, literary, and pop references to India & topics related to India (particularly Buddhism & Hinduism), and while notes help, it is definitely not the case that you can't follow or understand what's going on otherwise. And actually, the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of historical/cultural/literary/pop references to America & England as well, and in fact, I feel like it's totally possible to be, for example, American and well-educated and well-read and STILL miss some of the American references. And it's okay. I think it still would have been a great book even if I'd missed a lot of that stuff, but having the notes handy helped take it from great to jaw-droppingly brilliant because it exposed so many deeper layers to the storytelling.

Caveat #2 is that you must, must, MUST pay attention. You can't skim, and if you get to the bottom of a page & realize you're hazy on what happened, you must re-read, because it is entirely possible that you could turn the page & be a thousand years and a thousand miles from the previous scene & all the characters still have the same names. Full attention is required at all times, but it's worth it.

Caveat #3 is that it really benefits from re-reading. The first time through it took me a while to get into it, and by the end I realized that there were things I couldn't specifically remember from the beginning & wanted to refresh in my mind in case it helped make sense of the ending. Which eventually led to just re-reading the whole thing. And wow; even paying close attention, even reading with the notes, there are so many subtle things I picked up on the second time through, just because I already knew what happened & where everything was going. So if you like big, smart, multi-layered, beautifully written, baddass books that pull no punches, this one may be for you.

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

1) Once again, timeless classics for the win. Can I give it 10 stars?

2) In my humble opinion, this is the bar to which YA fiction should aspire.

3) Atticus Finch is very probably the best (fictional) human being to ever walk the (fictional) earth.

4) I don't fully understand the magic with which Lee has woven this story, but somehow she managed to write a sober, poignant, heartbreaking tale addressing some pretty hardcore themes (race, class, gender, family, community, loyalty, justice, rape, murder, and on and on and on) without it being depressing as hell (though I'm sure having the story told from the point of view of a precocious 7-8 year old has something to do with). I've been avoiding it forever because it sounded so dark and depressing, and though it deals with some pretty serious stuff, it's all unquestionably underlined by the ideas of hope, optimism, compassion, and unwavering belief in the fundamental goodness of human beings.

5) How did no one assign me this book in school??? Required reading for all teenagers, I say, particularly in the South.

6) Actually, make that anyone who lives in this country. Just go read it.

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Um. So. I don't even really know where to start with this book. tl;dr - Should absolutely, positively be required reading for anyone who calls themselves an American. Don't be intimidated by it because it's old; it's easy to read and follow linguistically, and the story itself is riveting.

I think I first learned about this book in AP US History in 11th grade & the blurb in our textbook was basically like, "This woman wrote this book depicting the realities of slavery & it kind of went viral & started the Civil War," and then we got to read about a bunch of white people shooting at each other & getting their limbs sawed off for the next 5 chapters.

Honestly, I think would have been better off just reading this book.

The story begins with a certain Mr. Shelby reluctantly selling three of his most highly valued slaves (young beautiful "quadroon" Eliza, her charismatic six-year-old son Harry, & the eponymous Uncle Tom) & follows their stories as they attempt to escape to Canada (in the case of Eliza & Harry) or are sold into various situations with different masters of a variety of philosophies & temperaments. The story is built out of real life stories collected by the author either first- or second-hand, and they are woven together in such a way as to address a variety of the legal, political, ethical, and philosophical arguments of the day surrounding the issue of slavery and abolition and, like I said, is riveting in terms of keeping you interested and invested in what happens next and incredibly moving from the whole "What is freedom / personhood?" perspective.

It's one thing to read a novel about slavery written in the present day or recent past, but there is a whole other weight that comes with reading something that was written and published before the Civil War, while the practice was still legal and common place. If you can get through this book without becoming utterly enraged and heartbroken about the things that went on in this country, for hundreds of years, under the full protection of the law, to say nothing of what the fall out was (and continues to be), I kind of feel like you shouldn't get to call yourself an American.

I spent a good 18 years hating the school subject of history and completely unable to see the point of studying it; maybe if I'd been assigned fewer textbooks and more primary works like this one, I would have understood how critical it is to study and make sense of the past (particularly the parts that make us the most uncomfortable). Highly, highly recommend. (Preferably *before* the age of 33.)

The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith

So this book was based on actual events that happened to the author. In the spring of 2009, Smith received a call from his father saying that he needed to come to Sweden immediately because his mom had suffered a psychotic episode & was in an asylum. And almost immediately after, a call from his mother saying she'd just been released from the hospital, everything his father had told him was a lie, that his dad was involved in a criminal conspiracy, and she was flying to London to explain the truth.

You might think, well, obviously, this book has to go one of two ways. Nope. Smith keeps you guessing all the way to the end, with a couple of twists I'm happy to say I never saw coming. Ditto with the resolution. A smart mystery, tight writing, fantastic storytelling, and rich, believable characters? More of this, please.