17th Century Books Or Why I Hate My Baby Sis

Sooooo...I really really hate my baby sis right now...not really, she is still by book club buddy and my baby sis of awesomeness, but seriously hate her :-)  Why this intense loathing?  Well it's not so much hate as it is insane jealousy because she and her wonderful husband are on a tour around the world.

Monastery of San Francisco 

She gets to go see things like 17th Century choir books bound in wood and displayed in a library with a whole ton of other antique and amazing books in Lima, Peru.  The upside to all of this is that she is my sweet baby sis and we do share a love of a lot of the same things, especially books, so she is constantly taking pictures for me (even illegal ones like the one above).  So while I will continue to cry jealous tears at least she will keep me supplied in new and unique literary awesomeness.  I will also continue to post the cool stuff she finds here.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Booksitting

So my baby sis is all grown up and heading out on a world tour for a year.  To this end her and husband are packing up the house and finding homes for pretty much all of their possessions.  Some things they are selling, some things they are giving away, but some things are to important to get rid of an must be found good and loving homes until the intrepid explorer's return.  My Mamma and Daddy get the puppies and I get the books!   Yep until my baby sis returns all worldly wise, I get to keep (and read) her books safe and sound.  Now for some unknown reason she seems to thing the ones I like may find their way permanently onto my shelf (maybe that beautiful hardcover edition of Oliver Twist?) so she marked all her books with her own personal symbol...and then proceeded to mark all her husbands just for good measure.  I will admit it is a bit bitter sweet packing up and bringing home my baby sis's books.  In one way more books is awesome, and it will give us
something to talk about when she gets back.  It also means she is one step closer to this incredible journey she and her love get to have and remember together forever.  On the other hand, one of my favorite people in the entire world, who for the last couple of years has been with in driving distance is going away from me for at least a year.  It is the end of an era, which is always hard, but the beginning of a new chapter which is awesome!  I cannot wait to see and here what my fellow book club member gets to experience and whenever I miss her too much, I will pull out one of her favorite books and read it.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Nameless Ones

A hazard of starting a new series that you love is the nervous, excited, slightly apprehensive feeling you get about the next book.  Will it be as good?  Will the characters you love be there?  Will the world that was so beautifully written maintain it's cohesion?  Can the amazing writing stay up to par without becoming repetitive and trite?  Lucky for me in regards to the second book in the Earthsea series the answer is a resounding YES!!!!!!   The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin is a fantastic follow up to the first book in the series.  Before I start gushing, let me give you a quick run down of the book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

When we left Earthsea the wizard Ged Sparrowhawk had finally come into his power and we had started to explore the amazing world this story was set in.  The Tombs of Atuan is a completely different story in which Ged is actually a side character, but happily this just makes it a better book.  For this story we head to the Kargad Lands, a group of four islands in which the "barbarian" and fair Kargads live, ruled by their godking.  In this land is an island called Atuan on which a mystic area is filled with temples to the various gods that are worshipped in these islands.  One of these groups of gods are called the Nameless Ones, a force that lives in dark places and demands bloody sacrifices to appease it.  These Nameless Ones also happen to be the top gods in the pantheon of the Kargads.  To this purpose a single priestess attends to the rituals, this priestess is supposed to be endless and when the old priestess dies it is assumed she is reborn into the body of a girl born on the day she dies.  To this end we meet our heroine Tenar, a girl who is ripped from her family at a young age and given the identity of Ahra which means The Eaten One.  The girl who 

becomes the priestess is trained by older women who impart to her the ancient knowledge passed down by countless generations of Eaten Ones.  As Tenar explores her dark domain, she feels a proud and protective power.  She knows she is the top priestess and technically whatever she says is law.  She at one point orders the murder of prisoners sent to her by the godking to appease her dark gods, an act which haunts her.  The domain of the Nameless ones is largely in the unlit underground of an ancient and crumbling temple.  There is also a labyrinth which has is treasure room in the middle guarding perhaps the most valuable treasure of all, half of the ring of Erreth-Akbe, a powerful ring, with runes that could help heal the fragmented world of Earthsea.  Eventually Ged Sparrowhawk finds his way into the tombs and is trapped by Tenar.  Through many conversations, and an already shaky resolve, the pair decide to make a run for it.  Ged informs Tenar that her gods are actually malevolent beings who have been pushed back into tiny pockets such as the temple she is attached too.  The beings while powerful, are not omnipotent and need the dark to survive.  Tenar defies them and rescues Ged, culminating in the total destruction of the temple and it's underground labyrinths. Ged takes Tenar with him, promising her she did the right thing and vowing to help her find a home that suites her unique temperament.  

As with all my attempts at summing up a book, I am woefully lacking in what makes this story great, so go read it for yourself.  As for why I liked this book...well...'cause I did.  Also because it was just as beautifully written as the first book.  The author knows how to create a world, even better she knows how to create individual places within a world.  The island of Atuan was rendered in such a way that I felt like I was there among the cold dessert dunes, and I also felt I knew its place in the overall world.  I enjoyed the fact that we got to see a completely different culture then the one we saw in the first book, the lands of Kargard, along with several other things were mentioned in the first book and the fact that they got fully fleshed out in this second book, just made the world seem even more real and more complete (she even told us how the brother and sister got stuck on the island from the last book).  This was definitely a book with some dark pieces in it, but I thought it was wonderfully balanced by hope and personality.  I liked Tenar and her various transformations in view point.  She started as a scared child, grew to a petulant girl, became a power-loving priestess and then ultimately (in this book at least) saw where her beliefs could be harmful.  All of the

transformations came about in a realistic, believable fashion, no instant revelation of goodness, or morality, just a girl who is trying to figure out life.  I also liked how even after she helped Ged escape, she continued to have doubts and fear about leaving the only life she had ever known.   Ged was once again a fantastic character.  He is never portrayed as all powerful or all knowing, just a guy with a talent and some very hard earned wisdom.  One of the many things I feel this author does well is portray cultures in a familiar yet not stereotypical way.  Many times authors will ascribe most of a certain culture to a certain race in their worlds, a way to make it  more relatable to the readers, or because that is just how we think, I'm not really sure, but Ms. LeGuin takes a bit of a different route.  While reading about the Kargards I got hints of Viking, Indian, Native American, and several African cultures, all while putting an original twist to the Kargard people.  I know that several people find this to be the best book in the series, and I totally understand why.  It is a fantastic addition to this amazing world, wrought by a fantastic author.  I however cannot make a fair comparison to the first book as they are different in many wonderful ways.  I am super excited to get and read the next book and hope that the journey to Earthsea continues to be as rewarding as the first two books.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 Runes of Power. Also the cover rocks...also the font used for the Earthsea title is AWESOME...also...nope, out of also's :-)

Which is your favorite book in this series?  Do you ever get nervous reading a second book in a series?  Does this post make any sense 'cause if not I blame the tequila :-) ? 

The Most Wonderful Places On Earth

I've been planning my next trip to the book store which takes almost as much care as some people spend on their vacations.  What books do I need, what books do I want, which books will have to wait until next time, what is my back up in case they don't have one on my list, how much time should be devoted to just wandering the stacks until  a book speaks to me?  All of this planning got me thinking about doing a world tour, so to help myself plan I have compiled a list of all the book stores I want to visit in the world, here is the start of that never ending list.

Livraria Lello Bookshop

This absolutely gorgeous bookstore is in Porto, Portugal and yes that is a double red carpet staircase.  This stunning shop also features a stain glass skylight.

El Ateneo

This Brazilian book store combines my two loves, books and theatre.  This shop is actually in a converted theatre, retaining it's dramatic charm while giving me BOOKS!

Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore

This Holland bookstore is inside of a converted 13th century Gothic church.  History, beauty and books all rolled into one.

The Bookworm

This English language book store in Beijing, China has Whiskey Wednesday's.  That and it's fabulous name make it totally worth the trek.

El Pendulo

This book store in Mexico feature live greenery and trees, not to mention a cafe to load up on caffeine.  The perfect spot to enjoy the outdoor reading experience without all those pesky bugs.

What is the coolest bookstore you have ever been to?  How sad is it that so many of these great places are closing, especially here in the USA?  How many books do you think I have to buy to keep them all in business?

Around The World In A Zillion Variations

One of my favorite things about fairy tales, mythical creatures, and fireside stories is the prevalence of them around the world.  I love to see the differences and the similarities between these old familiar tales and characters told in different places and through out time.  Some characters, creatures and stories are specific to a place or time, but most have a similar counterpart in most places.  To further my research on my favorite at the moment I acquired a book by Heidi Anne Heiner who also runs the SurLaLune site.  This book in particular is about the mermaid tales from around the world.

Mermaid

This is a nifty not so little book that is an incredible resource for people who want to delve into the stories of these fabled creatures.  This book contains observations, history, analysis and most importantly stories from around the world and through out time.  

Sleeping Beauty

There are several of these books, each focusing on a different story, it's origins and variations.  These are not sit down and read like a regular book type of books (does that make sense?).  They are more of a pick it up and find out interesting tidbits here and there. They also make for great resources if you are trying to write a new story, or just want to find out more about the originals (there is always more than one).

Cinderella

Unfortunately the hard copy editions of these books are pretty pricey which sucks 'cause I would like to see all of them lined up on my book shelf looking all pretty. However here is where e-readers are awesome because I can get all of these (there are like 15 of them so far) for closer to 10 bucks a pop instead of the 30-40 bucks the hard copies were costing (and that was for paperbacks!).  Like I said before, these are long, non linear, research type of books.  The content is wonderful and the illustrations awesome!  So anybody who wants to know more about there favorite fairy tale would enjoy the thoroughness of these books.  Anybody want to loan me a couple hundred bucks to buy the set?