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| Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger (2013) |
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger (2013):
Maybe it's the Harry Potter effect, but a good boarding school novel makes me want to stay up all night and keep reading. That was the case with Gail Carriger's new teen novel, Etiquette & Espionage, which features a secret finishing school for girl spies aboard a steam-powered dirigible that floats hidden on foggy moor.
I became a fan of Carriger's inventive paranormal steampunk world after reading her Parasol Protectorate series for adults, an alternate Victorian England where vampires, werewolves and mad scientists are woven into an already complex class system. Etiquette is set in the same world, and features cameo appearances by some of the adult novels' more colorful secondary characters (as their younger selves). The new characters are just as quirky and lovable, especially our mechanically minded heroine with a heart of gold, Sophronia. Both a skilled climber and a budding engineer, she has the smarts to get out of some very sticky situations.
This kind of novel is irresistible brain candy for me. Inventive worldbuilding, witty dialogue, a clever heroine, quirky secondary characters and a steadily paced mystery all kept me turning the pages.
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| A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (2013) |
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (2013):
I immediately gravitated toward this mystical, multi-layered, character-driven novel with its beautiful cover, detailed footnotes and East/West themes. Reading it blew my mind (in a good way!).
Ruth is a novelist living with her environmentalist husband on a remote Canadian island in the Pacific. As she is beach combing one morning, she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox inside some freezer bags that have washed up on the shore. Inside, she finds a diary, some letters and an old wind-up wristwatch that once belonged to a Kamikaze pilot.
The diary tells the story of Nao, a lonely and troubled 16 year old girl living in Tokyo. As the novel unfolds, we read Nao's story along with Ruth and become equally obsessed with finding out what happened to her. How did the lunchbox travel all the way across the Pacific? Is Nao still alive? Nao's narrative pulls the plot along gradually.
Ozeki's spare, beautiful writing pairs well with the complex topics she covers. By the time I'd finished the book, I found myself thinking about the nature of time, history, bullying, suicide, life, death, memory, Proust, Zen, quantum mechanics, war, peace and most especially the relationship between writer and reader.
I immediately gravitated toward this mystical, multi-layered, character-driven novel with its beautiful cover, detailed footnotes and East/West themes. Reading it blew my mind (in a good way!).
Ruth is a novelist living with her environmentalist husband on a remote Canadian island in the Pacific. As she is beach combing one morning, she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox inside some freezer bags that have washed up on the shore. Inside, she finds a diary, some letters and an old wind-up wristwatch that once belonged to a Kamikaze pilot.
The diary tells the story of Nao, a lonely and troubled 16 year old girl living in Tokyo. As the novel unfolds, we read Nao's story along with Ruth and become equally obsessed with finding out what happened to her. How did the lunchbox travel all the way across the Pacific? Is Nao still alive? Nao's narrative pulls the plot along gradually.
Ozeki's spare, beautiful writing pairs well with the complex topics she covers. By the time I'd finished the book, I found myself thinking about the nature of time, history, bullying, suicide, life, death, memory, Proust, Zen, quantum mechanics, war, peace and most especially the relationship between writer and reader.
2 comments:
Hi Anna,
To experience some of what you enjoyed about Etiquette & Espionage, you might try "Agatha H. and the Airship City" by Phil Foglio. Novelist staff compare recommend the titles together for “fans of steampunk novels with brash heroines, plenty of adventure, and witty repartee”.
Your annotation for A Tale for the Time Being is intriguing. Your description of how thought-provoking the book was made me think of "Life of Pi", by Yann Martel, which left me with a lot to ponder upon its conclusion. Definitely give that one a whirl if you haven’t, but since that one is on the very-well-known and kind-of-old side of the ledger, it looks like another interesting read might be "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson. It’s another new, literary fiction title that features an unconventional storyline. From reviews, it sounds as though it tackles some heady stuff, though the word “comic” comes up in reviews as well, which is promising. The blurb on Amazon reads, “What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?”, though I presume that there are no appearances by Bill Murray or Groundhogs.
Outside of "Pi" I haven’t read the titles I’m recommending, but the reviews are encouraging.
Cheers!
-Matt (ES)
Matt,
Great recommendations. I have Life After Life checked out right now, as a matter of fact. I also loved Life of Pi.
Will Try Agatha H. and the Airship City - sounds like a fun vacation read!
A
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