Some More Best Books

Although the challenge is long over, I'm still working my way through the 2012 Best of the Best ALA lists. Whenever I finish I'll probably start the current years -- it looks like it won't be 2013, though.

Super Human, Michael Carroll.  This Best of the Best choice took me forever to get to, much to my son's chagrin, since he recommended it highly. In fact, we saw the next two sequels at the bookstore before I even finished this one. My favorite part was the world building, which was done with pleasing subtlety. The details of the super-hero rich world, with both smart inventors and heros with special powers, is revealed through the matter-of-fact actions of the main characters, both super and non. But the very end, where the basic foundations and morality of the society are questioned, throws everything into doubt in a very interesting way. I'm very glad I have the next book waiting for me. (I wrote this last December or so, and I have to admit I haven't yet started the next one, although I know where it is. I am looking forward to it, though.)

Curse of the Wendigo, Rick Yancey. Narrated by Steven Boyer. This horror story was far too grim for us, with the eleven year old dropping out early and even the fourteen year old saying I could listen ahead without him. The dead baby floating in a sea of excrement in the last disc was just the last and worst of a series of really gross scenes that kept throwing me out of the story. It got so that we just hung out waiting for the next icky thing. Nice vocabulary, though. Both boys think I'm insane for insisting on finishing it.

 

Scorpio Races (audio) Maggie Stiefvater.  Narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham. X and I have both read and enjoyed this novel before, and P had fun listening along, although he didn't blink when I listened ahead without him. The dual narration worked very well, which at first I worried about. I could hear where the narrators made some different choices than I had when I read it, but not in an annoying way. Both X and I noticed the love story much more in audio format, although I'm not sure whether that's a rereading thing or an listening thing. Also, I'm a sucker for British accents saying "Sawrn" or "Puck Connolly." This one is highly recommended as a written or audio book.

Immortal Beloved: Tuck Everlasting

Our latest car book was Tuck Everlasting, written by Natalie Babbitt and read by Melissa Hughes.  It took a while to find a pattern for listening; X is the main audio book enthusiast but actually spends very little time in the car.  Neither N nor A showed much interest, while P remembered his teacher reading this book to his class last year.  The final decision had me listening when alone or with just P, since he could dip in and out and use his memory to fill in the blanks.

As with most audio books I pick, I had read this before, but not for decades.  I liked Hughes's narration; she gave each character a distinctive voice without sounding fake or pretentious.  It was fun for me to see what was familiar and what had completely vanished from my memory.  The toad and Winnie's choice had stayed vividly in my mind, but I had forgotten her crush on Jesse.  I remembered there had a been a villain planning to commercialize the spring, but his actual plot and his death had fallen through the cracks, so the story had suspense for me this time around.  At three disks long, it's pretty much the perfect length for a week or so of trundling around schools, and Winnie's grasp of the issues and problems stayed both realistically young and respectfully profound.  I did quibble at some of the legal issues, but in general really enjoyed hearing this story again.

Listen While I Drive: Omnitopia Dawn

I brought the audio version of Diane Duane's Omnitopia Dawn: Omnitopia #1 along on my last driving trip (about 800 miles each way).  It was hard to get started on the story, and only my oldest child had any interest in it, so not much traction happened on the way out, but by the trip home I got interested. Then I had to scramble time together to finish it during errands after we arrived.

My main beef was that Duane didn't write the book I wanted -- the back copy promised me a computer intelligence growing from a giant online game, but that was only the small bit at the end; we spent a lot of time learning about the game system, sometimes through the eyes of a player starting up his own small custom-designed section.  This was fun, both in comparison to the games I play online (hint, not nearly as immersive -- for example, I don't associate myself at all with the avatars I play) and just watching the enthusiasm of Rik and his wife design their world.  Then there was the corporate worries of Dev, owner of the company, and all his friends and family.  That was mostly interesting, especially the descriptions of the graphic version of the code files, which appeared as forests and lava pools.  The virtual depictions of the hacker attacks and the stalwart defenses made for a great chapter even if I had to hold down my disbelief with both hands.

Finally there was the evil plans of the bad guys planning the takeover of the company.  Yawn.  I started using the skip button every time more details of their stock twisting and financial wheeler-dealering came up.  Even my son, normally a stickler for not skipping around, rarely complained.  When the computer intelligence finally appeared, I felt a sense of relief, although I suspect most of its development comes in the sequel, which does not appear to exist, despite Amazon's best hopes.

Giddy-up With a Splash: Whale Rider

I listened to The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera because of the 48 Hour Reading Challenge.  I had picked out a few audio books because I wanted to be able to keep reading even if I had to drive anywhere.  As it turned out, I basically stayed home for the weekend except for one quick pickup, so I only got about fifteen minutes in.  At first my kids were listening in, but I spend a lot more time in the car than they do, so they fell behind.  By the time I got to the whales dying on the beach scene, I was fairly glad they had.  I'm not sure I could handle watching them listen to the death of the whales.

Usually I only listen to books I've already read; I dislike the lack of control I get from an audio book; the narrator doesn't speed up or slow down at my mental commands, which I do a lot when reading a book.  But I enjoyed this one, maybe because I'm a sucker for non-American accents, and I found the description of Maori life in transition enough to grab my attention even in the staccato rhythm of listening to a story on my mainly short jaunts across town.  Strangely, my favorite sections were the ones in Australia and New Guinea, which I guess makes sense given my single complaint.

The appendix said that the author wrote this book for his daughters, but there is a real dearth of female agency in the book.  Kahu doesn't make many decisions, just quietly tries to please her grandfather and quietly accepts his contempt for her as just.  Even her final moments of mounting the whale seem passive, as if she is following a script destiny laid for her.  I much preferred hearing about the narrator growing up, learning more about his traditions, going abroad to work and then returning home, with his compassionate but nonjudgmental view of the grandfather's unfair treatment of Kahu.  I've never seen the movie, but I see it's streaming on netflix so I guess I'll give it a try.