A Peculiar Post

Well, I meant to read 3/4 books a month to finish this challenge by the end of the year- Unless I read a book in a day (one of the goals) tomorrow, I've failed this month. I fully, unabashedly, blame this on February. I don't have any facts/statistics/ proof to back this up; but it's well known to me that this month makes people slower and lazier.  To my loyal readers, I'm sorry it has taken so long for a blog update...you can thank February for that. February is the worst.

Please enjoy this picture of my dog sleeping in the sun, to get over the tuttie* that is February.

 *Means poop in Punjabi

In more exciting news, because it is the end of the month...it's time for another round of Reader Appreciation Awards! Coincidentally falling on the same night as the Oscars! The only difference between them, is my awards aren't tangible, about films, or selected by old white men. So lets move on to the award!

This year's award goes to a group of lovely people: The Crooks and Nannies Crew! They are a wonderful writers group, that I have the honour of being a part of, filled with tons of talent and passion. Thanks for reading! This one's for you!

Now we get to the meat of the post--1)What category have I crossed off my list? 2)Which book have I read? and 3)What will I have for dinner?
In order my friends:
Book #6: A Book that's Becoming a Movie this Year

I read the particularly pleasant piece: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Lastly, I have no idea. Question number three is still currently a mystery.
Since I can't tell you what I'll have for dinner, let me tell you more about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (MPHFPC)  by Ransom Riggs. Whose name is kind of ridiculous, but explains his fondness of alliteration. I mean why would you name a child ransom? Did the doctor mistakenly see a kidnapping and assume it was a naming?

My theory on how Ransom Riggs got his name

Absent-minded Doctor enters room with official forms.
Scared mother looks relieved and ready to call for help, as a vaudevillian villain twirls his mustache while holding new baby Riggs.
Mother: Doctor thank goodness you're here...call the-
Doctor: Yes, sorry it took so long. Have you decided on a name for the new baby?
Mother: (Frantic) He's trying to hold him for ransom-quick the pol-
Doctor: Aww, holding Ransom you say? Odd name but I've signed off on worse! (Goodnatured, old man, chuckle)
Mother: What? No! Do you not see this comically out of place man? This is an emergency!
Villain cackles.
Doctor: Not at all, Ransom Riggs has a fine ring to it. I'm sure he'll only be bullied a little. Well that's that then, paperwork all done.
Doctor Leaves.
Both Mother and Villain too surprised to do anything and thus we are given Ransom Riggs.


I guess we'll never know how the author got his name, but I like to think I'm not far off the mark.
Luckily we know how his book, which went on to become a trilogy, came into being...and it's a pretty cool tale.

Ransom is a collector of old photographs and approached a publisher about using some for a children's photo book. The publisher thought he should go a step further and use the photographs to tell a narrative. I have to say, reading the story-he did a really great job of taking the photos (which are shown in the novel) and building a truly engrossing tale around them.

There's this interesting suspense he builds, and the photographs add a touch of reality and an almost supernatural feel. As if writing the subjects into new characters has reanimated them. There were moments that after reading about a character, and then seeing the old picture they were based off of, I got some rather unexpected butterflies. Admittedly, old Victorian stuff kind of freaks me out to begin with. Like those creepy ass death albums? Or dolls with children's hair? WT Serious F old-timey people? So I can't guarantee the photos will give you the same feeling, but regardless there is a visceral and intimate response; like you've been let in on a secret, you were never supposed to know but are now responsible for keeping it.

I don't want to give too much away about this book, because at its core it is a mystery/horror (I don't think it's a horror but it has the elements I suppose). I also can't wait to see how they make the film, as I will definitely be watching it.

This book, about a boy named Jacob Portman, who grew up on his grandfather's stories of strange children he lived with during WWII, had me hooked in a way the first Harry Potter book did. The action is immediate, and the character's internal life is so well defined. The writer has a real gift at creating mood and atmosphere. You feel Jacob's wonder at his grandfather Abe's (A Jewish man, who somehow escaped the Nazi's invasion as a child, and made it to a safe house in Wales) tales of a magical place, filled with children who could do fantastic things like: Create fire (Pyrokinetic), levitate, have super strength, etc. You understand the bond the two share instantly. Then you quickly feel Jacob's heartbreak of realizing the tales you believed when you were young, were nothing but fictions. It's such a beautifully sad truth of growing up, that it's hard not to feel it with our protagonist.  Jacob feels let down by his grandfather, but still wants to believe. Then tragedy strikes and Jacob is forced to believe.

The story is an adventure tale that touches on growing up, social class division, depression and meds, and family relationships.

Jacob's father, married a very wealthy woman, and thus has an inferiority complex for relying on her. (Ugh!Get over it men! Women can also make money/be wealthy, without it affecting your fragile masculinity. I mean, she's already chosen you to marry-relax!) His defining feature is his desire to be a writer, but inability to actually finish a book. It's a sore spot for him, which has him convinced that his wife will leave him eventually.

Meanwhile, all we really learn of Jacob's mother, is that she enjoys renovating her big home and showing it off to others. There is a scene where Jacob overhears her telling a friend how happy she is that her son and husband are going away for a month, so she can get her life back for some time without worrying about two babies. I wasn't overly fond of this moment.

I won't get into Miss Peregrine or her peculiar children, because I don't want to ruin the reveal. However, if you really want to know-there's always google!

I do recommend reading this one, I can't wait to get started on the sequels. There are definitely some slow parts, and a few moments I cringed at, but all in all a pretty good read. The past, and present blend near seamlessly,  and the fantastical elements of the world have set rules that seem plausible for, you know, made-up stuff. You can tell research went into this book, beyond the photographs. So...go! Go read it! It's only eleven chapters and for children!

That's that then folks-See you in March!

A Western Odyssey

Welcome back to another riveting segment of "Jass Reads Books". She truly does, ladies and gentlemen, she truly does. Occasionally she even likes them! This was not that occasion.
Which is particularly sad, because this book has been on my list for a LONG time and has one of the most captivating covers ever. I would stare at the cover in bookstores, and convince myself not to get it because "don't judge a book by its cover!" Which is actually crap. The cover has the synopsis! How else am I supposed to judge the book, pre-reading? Wikipedia the thing and read all of the character info and plot, sometimes chapter by chapter? Who has time for that? I'll tell you who...me. I've totally done that.

Sometimes the cover doesn't tell enough. Then what am I supposed to do? Read it because I might like it? Hells no, I am incapable of not finishing a book once I start...I can count how many times I've just stopped reading before finishing in recent memory: Once, it was the second book in the divergent series, but I wanted to stop on the first. (I rolled my eyes so many times, I thought I'd given myself brain damage.) So if I get conned into reading a dull book ("dull" in my opinion-which is essentially the only one that matters to a) Me and b) This blog) I'm usually stuck with it. That's around 24-48 hours of my time used unwisely. If I really don't like the book, maybe longer, because I'll delay finishing it. I can't take that kind of risk-so wiki!

Another reason I wanted to read the book I've chosen was because after hemming and hawing over whether I should read it or not...It won a ridiculous amount of awards and attention. It was also from a Canadian author who was born on the island. So local Canadian. Although he actually (currently) lives in Portland (Of course he does), has for a while, and was definitely there when writing the book.

So without further ado...because I'm just stalling writing about this book...I give you-

BOOK #5: A Book from the Library

The book I chose to read, and gave such a favorable introduction to, is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. As mentioned this book has garnered a lot of praise and won the:

• 75th Governor General's Literary Award
• Roger's Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
• Stephen Leacock Medal
• Award for Best Fiction (Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards)
• 2012 Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction

And was shortlisted for a bunch of other prizes, including the prestigious Man Booker Prize. What have these awards told me? That the selections committee can't read. I mean "Canadian Booksellers"? That doesn't inspire literacy confidence...it inspires confidence in selling books. Am I right?

(Disclaimer: I am not right, and the author of this blog would like to apologize for stating those responsible for awarding various prizes cannot read. I'm sure they can. The truth is, I do not know their reading levels, and it is more likely that they just have bad taste)

There was a lot of hype about this book, and again the cover is so rad. Just look at it! 

The best part.

The book started off well, and I actually really enjoyed it. A western inspired novel that takes place in Oregon and California during 1851: It's centers around Eli Sisters, and his brother Charlie. They're guns for hire and have a bad reputation. Eli is tall and chubby, and gives himself a small eating disorder to impress a hotel owner. He gives this up when his brother tells him he was trying to impress a prostitute, not someone actually interested in him. You feel bad for Eli because you learn early on that he doesn't really enjoy his life. Instead he fantasizes about settling down and opening up a general store with a wife who can love him. The crash diet he puts himself on stuck in my mind because it's a reversal of the beauty standards we place on women. He is told by a woman she doesn't like fat men, and he responds by basically not eating, and hating his body. He does go right back to chowing down and pretty much forgetting the woman, but for a moment there was a halfway realized remark on social issues. 

Speaking of women: There is an interesting dynamic in this book's portrayal of female/male (heterosexual) relations. I'm not sure if it was trying to make a comment, or just didn't know how to end interactions, but Eli literally pays every woman he meets and spends any time with. It may be nothing, but I just found it super odd. He gives a big tip to the hotel owner so she can pay off her loans, he leaves $100 for an ill woman he meets and imagines a romance with, and I think there's another example but I refuse to re-read any section of the book. The last woman is his mother, who he wants to go visit by the end of the novel and his one thought is of where on his cheek, she will kiss him, and how nice it will all feel.

Eli admits he likes the idea of someone loving him (no reciprocation), over actually being in a loving relationship. So while the author goes through the trouble of pointing out how sympathetic Eli is and compassionate compared to his trigger happy, easily angered brother...he's pretty freaking selfish and egocentric. 


Also pretty much every woman in the story was a "whore" (literally) except for the old lady who was a witch (Assumed to be literally). What could this mean? You tell me! In all fairness, historically speaking it may make sense that they have the most interaction with a prostitute than someone else. 
But still!

Now lets talk about the episodic nature of this book, shall we? I've labelled this post the Western Odyssey because the plot is inspired by the west/goldrush and moves along in contained scenes, with random adventures thrown in. Some reviewers have said it feels more like movie frames than a book...I agree.
(I don't do summaries but you can find one here.)

Each chapter is its own event and once it concludes, that's kind of that. This was also the main reason I got so bored with this book. When I first started reading it, I kept going for awhile because the writing is actually VERY good. The pace is set nicely and you're getting into the world. However when I put it down, I had a hard time picking it back up. It took me much longer than it should have to finish this book, and it's because the momentum it builds-goes nowhere. Things just happen and then they're over. There's a whole chapter on Eli getting a tooth infection and having to see a dentist who Charlie then robs. That's it. The take away is that Eli learns to brush his teeth and really enjoys it, and they have a bottle of the freezing stuff dentists use (which to be fair does play a role in the novel later on but nothing meaningful).

There's also strange meetings with random folks (much like Homer's classic) that side track the main plot but don't really do much. For instance we get the scene with the "witch" who invited the brothers into her hut for the night, and is gone in the morning. She leaves behind some talisman or something on the door and the brothers are convinced they will be cursed if they touch it. So Charlie squeezes through a window (Eli doesn't fit) and goes to find something that will allow Eli to leave without touching the hex either. As it happens, Eli does end up touching the door to save his horse (named Tub and my favourite character) from a bear. (Exit pursued by bear). He then thinks about how his brother wouldn't touch the door to save him, but he was willing to do it for a horse. He also thinks about the jinx he must be under from time to time...but otherwise we are done with this moment. What effect did it have on the overall story? As far as I can tell...none. Maybe more enlightened readers can fill me in on what I'm missing.

The climax is also a let down and the ending is just there. Everything wraps up and the brothers move in with their mom. While the imagery and humor is strong...again it is well written, it just doesn't sustain itself in terms of objective and momentum. Eli's "change" is disconnected and kind of forced on the reader without the book really backing it up. Although the author does use the biggest movie trope to quickly show a "good person". Movie-making 101 if you have to show your protagonist is a caring, "good" person in minimal time? Give them an animal they treat well. Particularly if they are meant to be tough and a bad ass. It allows the audience to empathize with the character quickly, and get on their side. 

DeWitt does this through Eli's journey with Tub (the horse) and I think this is his way of showing Eli's big change of heart and growth...but it doesn't really.  Eli himself is narrating the story as a past tale, so his reliability is already questionable.

Final thoughts? Don't bother reading this tale. It's not as absurd as it promises, and not as quick as it says. Just wait for the movie if you're interested.