1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Things are not what they seem, Aomame repeated mentally. “What do you mean by that?” she asked with knitted brows. pg 28, ebook

Yes, what do you mean by that, I found myself asking over and over throughout 1Q84, my first foray into Haruki Murakami’s fictional works.

A few years ago, I read and enjoyed Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a non-fiction book about the author’s creative process and long distance running habit. The way his mind works is fascinating.

He talks about how writing a novel is like participating in a marathon. It takes effort and discipline to go from page one to the end. In addition, the break throughs that he makes in his writing he attributes, in part, to the flow state he experiences during his physical exertions.

This creates a detail-filled and highly introspective world in his novels that some readers can’t get enough of.

But that approach didn’t appeal to me in this book.

The story develops slowly, so so slowly. We are in the characters’ minds for nearly every thought. We learn their eating and drinking habits, sleeping problems, past history, sexual preferences ad infinitum.

The magical realism portions of the story, my favorite parts by the way, were fleeting and infuriatingly uninformative. This is another draw, or so I have gathered, for some readers who like having major unanswered plot points by the end of the story.

This could lead to some interesting book club meetings, but I’m not one of those readers. If you’re going to tell a story, for heaven’s sake, tell the story.

On one hand, the introspective nature of the storytelling gives deep insight into the characters. By the time you’re through, you feel like you could write what Tengo and Aomame are going to do next. It is introversion to the extreme. On the other hand, it crushed my interest in caring what was going to happen next.

Why? Personal preference, I suppose.

Legions of readers love this book. I’m curious as to why, but it might be as simple as how readers like to experience and absorb stories.

Final note: Trigger warnings for domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2) by Terry Pratchett

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat are not witches who meddle in the affairs of a kingdom- there’s rules against that, after all. But then one stormy night, when they’re having a simple coven meeting, a desperate and pursued royal courier hands Granny a baby.

Now, some of the rules might have to be broken.

“The child gurgled in its sleep. Granny Weatherwax didn’t hold with looking at the future, but now she could feel the future looking at her. She didn’t like its expression at all.” pg 13

I first read Wyrd Sisters in April 2014 as part of a general read-through of the Discworld series (which I didn’t finish, but that is neither here nor there.) Now, I’m going back and reading the Witches series on its own which sits comfortably within the larger collection.

They’re quite good, of course.

“As the cauldron bubbled an eldritch voice shrieked: “When shall we three meet again?” There was a pause. Finally another voice said, in far more ordinary tones: “Well, I can do next Tuesday.” pg 1

The three witches, as well as the ancillary cast of humorous and villainous characters, are a delight to read and really make the story. Terry Pratchett’s tone goes deftly from playful to quite serious and back again as Granny Weatherwax practices her ‘headology’ or Magrat, the youngest witch of the three, accidentally finds romance.

“Extremely worrying developments of magical tendency are even now afoot,” she said loudly. pg 62

Something that I didn’t mention in the last review, but struck me again on the re-read, was the excellent development of the mad Duke and his evil Queen. These are not simple, two-dimensional villains. These are complex characters with neuroses and nightmares and nefarious histories.

The reason why I was so surprised by the ending of the story on the first read-through was the fate of the villains. Which they entirely deserve, I think, but was creative enough that I didn’t see it coming.

Highly recommended for readers who love light-hearted fantasy and humor.

First review: April 2014
This was a fun read. Pratchett takes the witch stereotype and bends it. We are reintroduced to Granny Weatherwax, the wise witch from Equal Rites. I liked her in that tale and I enjoyed seeing her again. Her character had time to be fleshed out even more and it’s a delight.

The ending to this novel really managed to surprise me. I was expecting a completely different ending but I loved Pratchett’s invention even more.

My favorite part of this story was Granny’s introduction to theater performance. The whole scene is incredibly funny but also integral to the plot so it wasn’t just tacked on like an after thought.

Overall, it’s an excellent fantasy. No one can write quite like Terry Pratchett.

Thanks for reading!

Cutting Into the Southern Domain (I Shall Seal the Heavens, #2) by Er Gen

“In the Cultivation world, respect is delivered to the powerful.”

Meng Hao, the failed scholar turned spiritual cultivator, continues his quest to become the most powerful magical practitioner in the Southern Domain.

Shedding his old identity and values, Meng Hao is becoming someone even his old sect members do not recognize. By utilizing secret methods, he has created a source of power within himself that is an anathema to the will of the heavens.

But he no longer cares. Because even though these methods are forbidden, it has brought Meng Hao incredible power. And that, for now, is his ultimate goal.

Despite the epic storytelling potential of I Shall Seal the Heavens, my complaints with the last book continued in this one- the repetition, predictability, and the slow slide of the hero into deeper darkness rather than enlightenment.

I keep wondering if that isn’t the point of these books, the idea that even the spiritually inclined among us can become corrupted in their search for power over themselves and others. If that is the case, Er Gen is taking readers there, but incredibly slowly.

The manner in which the author depicts women in this world is particularly troubling to this female reader. In addition to making the women all about their appearance, every one Meng Hao meets inevitably falls in love with him despite his egregious and sometimes abusive behavior. It definitively fails the Bechdel Test.

I think the most engaging characters in Cutting Into the Southern Domain aren’t human. Readers are introduced to a ferocious spirit creature as well as a chatty mystical shape changer. The lightness they bring to the table doesn’t offset the otherwise repetitive and depressing nature of the story, but they help.

I hope the next book moves out of the themes the author has fully explored in the first two book entries in the series. The world he has built is so fantastical and full of potential. It’s just a shame it isn’t a better story.

Only recommended for fans of the genre.

Thanks for reading!

Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans

In Die, six teens enter a fantasy role-playing game, disappearing from the mundane world for two years. When they reappear, they are missing one of their members and carrying scars, both physical and emotional, from their ordeal.

Fast forward twenty five years, and a blood stained die shows up on someone’s birthday, mirroring the date when they last entered the game. The group has to face the fantasy world that has given them nightmares for decades in order to put the past to rest. But some things are easier said than done.

Readers of this series seem heavily divided on its quality. I thought it was brilliant.

This isn’t because of the fantasy elements which, as many have noted, rely heavily on tropes and the established world building of touchstone series like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

What I loved was the character development and its relatability for aging gamers.

The author shares a series of essays in the back of the graphic novel about the development of the story and characters as well as their associations with classic rpgs. He nails the reasons why I loved the book so much:

“… the simple idea of six forty-something adults contrasting their teenage fantasies with the realities of where their lives ended up. It’s a pure midlife crisis scream of a book. And the bit that got me? The idea that maybe part of me did disappear into a fantasy world at the age of sixteen and never came out.”

In the hero’s journey, we venture forth into trials and return changed but bearing gifts from the experiences we went through. That format- there and back again- seems so clear cut and simple in many of the “through the looking glass” fantasy stories.

It is not so simple in this one.

In Fantasy Heartbreaker, the journey isn’t finished when the characters return to where they started and they aren’t bearing gifts, but a curse. It is only through the natural passage of time and the development of the adolescent into the adult, that the heroes in this story can finish their journey or, unbeknownst to them, begin an entirely new one.

This delayed emotional development speaks to any manner of gamers, both video or tabletop, who may find themselves, for a variety of reasons, gaming with a dysfunctional group of people over and over again each week. Perhaps this is because there are only a few people in their lives who love to game as much as they do.

For whatever reason, from the outside, such intense and conflict-prone relationships can seem confusing at best or borderline abusive at worst. But from inside the group itself, the bonds created through the traversing of realms of the imagination and overcoming obstacles as a team are real and important.

The members of the group form a family of sorts- one that they chose rather than one they were born with. It can be beautiful but bewildering. Something that one has to experience to truly understand.

Sort of like visiting a different world, and never really coming home again.

In addition to the peek into gamer culture, the artwork in Fantasy Heartbreaker is gorgeous, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in a comic.

Highly recommended for readers, and gamers, who like fantasy graphic novels.

Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1) by Terry Pratchett

In Discworld, there are unwritten rules that govern magic. One of these is- guys are wizards and girls are witches. Wizards have staffs. Witches have pointy hats and work with nature.

When the eighth son of an eighth son has a daughter who is mistaken for a boy at her birth, a wizard leaving his legacy to someone who is destined to be incredibly powerful becomes somewhat of a problem. Untrained wizards are dangerous. But who is going to take responsibility for Esk, a girl who wants to be a wizard?

“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.” pg 37, ebook

Granny Weatherwax, that’s who, the local witch and an all-around no-nonsense kind of person.

What follows is a rollicking adventure through Discworld but also an examination of assumptions from our ordinary world.

“Esk, of course, had not been trained, and it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.” pg 61, ebook.

It is also a delightful skewering of gender roles and what society expects from each.

“Granny had counted the temples with a thoughtful look in her eyes; gods were always demanding that their followers acted other than according to their true natures, and the human fallout this caused made plenty of work for witches.” pg 76, ebook

Highly recommended for fantasy readers who enjoy heaping helpings of humor with their stories.

This was my second read-through for Equal Rites. I first enjoyed this book several years ago. And here is my review from the first go-round:
I was afraid that I wouldn’t like this, the third book in the Discworld series, as much as the previous books since it wasn’t starring Rincewind and Twoflower, but I shouldn’t have worried. Granny Weatherwax and Esk were excellent heroines and just as fun to read about as the boys.

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Pratchett’s Discworld is such a fantastic and surprising place, so different from structured reality, that it was really interesting to explore native prejudices and expectations among the inhabitants. Girls are witches and boys are wizards until Esk is born and turns those expectations on their head. Her struggles to find her place in the magical world and Granny’s attempts to teach her are slightly reminiscent of The Once and Future King, but with a feminine twist.

This is a fun read that fans of fantasy will certainly enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16) by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden’s life has become infinitely more complicated since the beginning of The Dresden Files. He constantly struggles to balance his responsibilities as a member of the Winter Court, the White Council, and familial concerns.

Not to mention his role as a warden of an island that protects the world from dangerous magical creatures.

“I slung the weighted vest over my shoulder and started trudging back to the car. I had that sinking feeling that things were about to get hectic again.” pg 8

He’s developed a little bit emotionally since his carefree days of “wizard for hire,” but, in other ways, his personality has remained exactly the same.

“…you can’t ignore things that are real just because they’re uncomfortable.” pg 4

The Dresden Files is a fun escape into a fantasy world of magic (one could call it ‘book candy’) but part of the problem with the series is that it has built to a major crescendo. What can one person really do against powers of the universe that are so strong that they can be described as “gods”?

“I think someone you don’t expect is going to stab you in the back, Hoss.” pg 30

Another issue is how often the “winter mantle” takes over Harry’s mind so that he’s constantly thinking about strutting his stuff in front of the opposite sex. I get that it’s a reoccurring problem for him, but it gets repetitive after the first half dozen incidents.

It doesn’t help that he hangs out with a literal queen of the succubus, but I digress. 🙂

Some of my Goodreads friends pointed out that the start of this book is somewhat ridiculous- hanging on the idea that the fairies always repay their debts though readers aren’t given the reason why a debt was needing to be repaid. I agree the setup could have been more carefully constructed.

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That being said, I read the entire book in two days. (Book candy strikes again!) So there’s something very enjoyable about the whole thing even with the balance of power problems, repetitive sexual fantasies, and suspension of belief required to get in to it.

Highly recommended for readers who have enjoyed the previous books in the series or folks who like urban fantasy reads without too much complexity.

Thanks for reading!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller brings her incomparable talent for rewriting ancient myths for the modern audience to the tale of the Greek hero, Achilles, and his lover, Patroclus.

“For many years now, Achilles, I have urged companions on you and you have turned them away. Why this boy?” … “He is surprising.” pg 26, ebook

Readers don’t have to be familiar with the mythology behind the story to enjoy it. In addition, Miller includes a helpful guide of figures from classical myth at the back of the book in case you are in need of a refresher course.

Here’s a brief summary: Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, is kidnapped (or leaves of her own accord, it’s unclear) and taken to Troy. Warriors around the globe gather to fight on one side or another because of this inciting incident, and the gods do as well.

As told in The Illiad, it is a struggle between mortals, immortals, and those who stand inbetween those two- the demi-gods, children of both worlds.

Among this special group, there is the son of Thetis, a sea nymph, and Peleus, the king of a small Grecian country. His name is Achilles. There is a prophecy, a couple in fact, about Achilles and that plays a large part in the story that follows.

The part of the story that has not been told before, and that Miller illustrates with such brilliance, is the life of Patroclus, the man whose death is so central in the myth but who is rather ancillary to the other heroes in the original telling.

“This was more of the gods than I had ever seen in my life. He made it look beautiful, this sweating, hacking art of ours.” pg 32, ebook

Miller also brings attention to the shadowy figure of Thetis, Achilles’ mother. Her role in the story was marginalized as well, but in The Song of Achilles she comes to the forefront.

Like parents throughout history, she wants her son to succeed to the best of his ability. In this particular case, she thinks he should shed his mortality take his place among the gods.

To do so, he has to achieve godlike status on earth. Falling in love with a mortal does not fit into Thetis’ plan for Achilles’ future.

“There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. pg 55

I read Miller’s Circe prior to this story and so wasn’t surprised that I enjoyed this tale as much as I did. As I mentioned before, she excels at taking old themes and making them feel new again.

This cultural development is important for humanity, as I recently read in Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. There is power in the stories we tell and the manner in which we tell them. It helps to shape the future.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy mythology or a simply well-told tale.

Thanks for reading!

Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3) by Tana French

Faithful Place is a mystery and the backstory of Frank Mackey, the undercover agent readers first met in The Likeness.

Honestly, I didn’t like him, as a character, very much in the last book. This installment gave me understanding about why he’s so gruff and generally unkind. A difficult and abusive childhood has taken its toll on him.

There’s also the small matter of a broken heart over his teenage sweetheart, who never showed up the night they were going to run away together.

“The night faded to a thin sad gray and round the corner a milk cart clattered over cobblestones towards the dairy, and I was still waiting for Rosie Daly at the top of Faithful Place.” pg 13, ebook

But it turns out, Frank’s past isn’t as straight forward as all that. And that’s what he discovers in this book.

“No matter how good you are, this world is always going to be better at this game. It’s more cunning than you are, it’s faster and it’s a whole lot more ruthless. All you can do is try to keep up, know your weak spots and never stop expecting the sucker punch.” pg 14, ebook

The Dublin Murder Squad series continues to surprise me with how much I enjoy it. Tana French is a master at building suspense throughout the stories. Her world doesn’t get stale because you (at least so far) follow a different character in each tale, learning a bit more about them, and then moving on to the next character.

“I was right to enjoy the normal world while I had it. Deep down, even while I was shaking my fist at the sky and vowing never to darken the cobbles of that hellhole again, I must have known the Place was going to take that as a challenge.” pg 141, ebook

French manages to convey visceral and surprising emotions in her stories, which I love. It makes the hair raise on my arms and gives me goosebumps. I find myself thinking about key plot points when I wake up in the middle of the night, wondering what’s going to happen next. Not many books have that effect on me.

Her characters are complex. They’re not angels, but they’re not demons. They’re something in between, very human, and they feel completely real.

“If you don’t know this by now, mate, you’d better write it down and learn it by heart: the right thing is not always the same as what’s in your pretty little rule book.” pg 158, ebook

And there’s always a moment in her novels, or sometimes two moments, that flips the story on its head. In this one, when that moment came, I had to read the passage twice and I even said aloud, “You’re kidding, right?”

Now, you don’t know this about me, but I am a completely silent reader. I never talk to the books. French has made me into one of “those” readers — a talking reader. That’s a pretty big deal.

Recommended for readers who like their mysteries to be thrilling and books that draw you in so much that you forget the real world for a time.

Thanks for reading!

The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice by Georg Feuerstein

The Yoga Tradition is a reference book for the history and practical methods of yoga in its myriad forms throughout time and different religious traditions.

“In its oldest known form, Yoga appears to have been the practice of disciplined introspection, or meditative focusing, in conjunction with sacrificial rituals.” pg 27

From these ancient beginnings, author Georg Feuerstein takes readers on a fantastical and spiritual journey through the various branches of yoga including Raja, Hatha, Bhakti, Jnana and more. He’s printed original texts, along with analysis of them, throughout the book to provide context and origin materials for each tradition.

What emerges in The Yoga Tradition is stunning in its complexity as well as sheer variety of methods, beliefs and practices.

“Long before the word yoga acquired its customary meaning of ‘spirituality’ or ‘spiritual discipline,’ the sages of India had developed a body of knowledge and techniques that aimed at the transformation and transcendence of ordinary consciousness. This stock of ideas and practices formed the matrix out of which grew the complex historical phenomenon that later came to be called Yoga.” pg 65

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Beyond sharing the history, philosophy, and practice of yoga, Feuerstein encourages modern scientists to look closely at the traditions in these pages to see what benefits could be gained from the ancient knowledge.

“Gradually, modern medicine and psychology, aided by advanced scientific concepts, methods, and instrumentation, are rediscovering some of the amazing facts that yogins have talked about and demonstrated for centuries.” pg 400

In my mind, that is one of the most exciting aspects of this book- what humanity could possibly learn about the enduring mystery of consciousness itself through the application of modern methods of study to ancient techniques.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in yoga and looking for a scholar’s thorough dissection of its history and forms. Your search can begin and end with this title.

Thanks for reading!

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Tag: book reviews

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2) by Terry Pratchett

Cutting Into the Southern Domain (I Shall Seal the Heavens, #2) by Er Gen

Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans

Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1) by Terry Pratchett

Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16) by Jim Butcher

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3) by Tana French

The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice by Georg Feuerstein

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