The Book of Life

     The Book of Life, by Deborah Harkness, is the third, and final installment of the All souls trilogy. These books combine history, science, myth, and magic to create a story with many, MANY, layers. Unlike some books of this type, the author is able weave the story so that all of the pieces make sense even when you don't yet see the whole picture.
     While this series is science fiction/fantasy, it has elements of historical fiction as well. The use of modern and historical science and knowledge was excellent in my mind. The combination genetic research, and ancient alchemy is fascinating, and brings about the real life issues of racial purity and segregation.
      The importance of family lines, yet the acceptance of adoption into vampire families, even in ancient times, is key in this book. I quite enjoyed the fact that once a person was claimed as family, it was simply accepted in vampire families.
      It seems standard for me recently to read trilogies, and to rank the second as my least favourite, the third as the middle, and the first as my favourite. This series is no different, although I think that I simply don't like the fact that there are not any more coming out.

A Map of Time

A Map of time by Feliz J. Palma is one of the only books which I have read which was not originally written in English. It was interesting, well written, and well thought out. I'm not sure what category this book would fit into. Somewhere between historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy. The book had a few story lines which were connected in ways which I was not expecting.

For much of the book I was expecting the narrator to become a character, who later wrote the events down, sort of like Bilbo in The Hobbit. The book is narrated by an all knowing, omnipresent point of view. This is not a perspective that I am used to. I'm not going to say that I don't like this perspective, but I prefer books written by a character's point of view.

The book includes many actual historical people, and I'm not sure which, if any of the events actually happened. I don't have enough knowledge of Victorian history to pick out fact from fiction. I know a bit about Jack the Ripper, H.G. Wells (and his book The Time Machine), and Dracula (although not much about the author). This is probably what the author was counting on. Inserting enough fact that readers will recognize names to make the whole storyline more believable. 

Reading

 As a child I struggled with reading. I remember reading in partners in grade one. We each had to read a simple book to the other person. I picked the same book as my partner, and had them read first, so that I would know the story. In grade two I started to be home-schooled. I remember sitting down with my mom to read chapters of Little house in the big woods,and the other books in the series. I enjoyed the story, but I dreaded the reading. I did enjoy the Berenstain Bear books (the little ones with four words on each page), not so much for content, but because I could read them by myself.

I remember when I realized that there were books out there that I could really enjoy reading and become absorbed into. In the mid-late 90s my brother got Star Wars on VHS, and in 1999 Episode came out. I loved this particular fandom/genre. I decorated my room to look like space, the games that I played were based on Star Wars, and I coveted the great toy lightsaber. This same brother grew out of a series of books, and gave me the Jedi Apprentice series.

These books were easy to read. They were short-ish, had simple language,  lots of action, and they had characters who I already knew and loved. I've read them over and over. They are still sitting on my bookshelf, warn edges, stains, and tape along the spines. These were my steppingstones into the world of reading.

Around the year 2000 the big bookstore Chapters opened in my home town, and as far as I remember, it was on one of our first trips there that my other brother discovered the Harry Potter books. Neither one of us were big readers, but we powered through the (then two) books quickly, and the third when it was released. I was so interested that I didn't even think twice about tackling the around 700 pages of book four, and the final book took me less than two days to read.

In grade eight, my English teacher (a long term sub) gave us "free reading" time. I didn't have a new book at the time, so I picked up my oldest brother's copy of The Lord of the Rings. For the next couple of months, those books barely left my side. I found it easy to be transported into Middle Earth, and when I finished it I had a "what now" moment.

I went to Chapter in order to find another book for "free reading" time, and I found it. Right up front, on the new releases table, I saw it. Star Wars: Star by Star. A Star Wars book for grown-ups had been my dream. As I read it, it seemed a little out of context, but that didn't matter. It was Star Wars. After I finished, I wanted to know if there was more. I was shocked to see that there was a whole series. An entire bookcase in Chapters dedicated to Star Wars, and my book had been the latest release. My feelings of foolishness were overshadowed by the thought that I had YEARS of Star Wars books to read. It took me through high-school to read this series. I had a small group of equally geeky classmates who used my collection as a library. They are still adding onto the series, but my interests changed. University, and life got in the way, and I was spending less and less time reading. I read text books, and online, but not many tangible, solid, books.

This past summer I decided to get back to reading for enjoyment. I perused the book store, and have picked up a fair number of books. This blog is to reflect on what I am reading.