the light through yonder window

New Moon  by Stephanie Meyer (563 pgs) 2006

It’s tricky to write a romance when half the couple is absent (unless you count auditory hallucinations) for nearly the entirety of the book.  Or I guess that leaves room for more angsty longing.  Meyer’s depiction of adolescent heartbreak is spot on and the story is entertaining despite the lack o’ loving.

When Edward and his vampire clan pull up stakes with the grandiose intent of making Bella’s life a safer, happier one- the plan of course backfires.  Bella is flattened, left drowning in despair for the better part of a year.  The only thing that returns her to some semblance of her former functioning self is her friendship with Jacob.  Only he’s not exactly a normal human himself.  Enter peril and near death experiences ultimately leading to the lovers’ reunion.  And leaving Bella stuck with a dilemma of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t proportions regarding her continued humanity.

family breeds contempt

Let Me Go  by Helga Schneider  (166 pgs) 2004

Helga was four and her brother eighteen months old when their mother abandoned them.  Bad enough on it’s own.  But she abandoned them to join the SS and become a guard in concentration camps.  Helga only saw her mother twice after that.  Once 30 years later, and once 27 years after that, shortly before her mother died.  This is the stream-of-consciousness flash-back interspersed chronicle of that last visit.  Her mother remained unrepentant and unapologetic, seeing nothing wrong with her decision to leave her children or her work in the concentration camps.  Interesting focus for a holocaust book- simultaneously an insight into a guard’s justification and a daughter’s appalled questioning.

i am woman

The Cleft  by Doris Lessing (260 pgs) 2007

A stunningly good book, but difficult to categorize.  It could be called a parable of the origins and evolution of gender identity.

In the beginning, there were women who spontaneously self-impregnated and only gave birth to women.  Their idyllic (in both senses of the word) existence consisted mostly of obtaining food and enjoying the sun and the waves.  Every day was like the next, and every woman as well.  Because nothing ever changed on the large scale there was no strife, no strong emotion.  Everything was the way it was, the way it had always been.

And then a male child was born. 

of wolves and men

Benighted  by Kit Whitfield (532 pgs) 2006

It’s an odd mix- somewhere between Paul Auster and To Kill a Mockingbird.  With werewolves.  And yet it works- suprisingly well. 

The world is much like ours except the majority of the population are lycanthropes and being human is a birth defect.  “Barebacks” as they’re called are a maginalized minority, on the recieving end of prejudice and discrimination. 

Most of the population willingly submits to curfews, locking themselves in on full moon nights to avoid causing harm.  But there are always a few who won’t follow the rules.  Because humans are few in number, all non-lycos are required to work for the government agency which captures and prosecutes those who break the Full Moon Laws.  Think of them as a blend of police, dogcatchers, and lawyers.  It’s neither prestigious nor terribly safe work.  But, as they say, someone’s got to do it.

Lola, the sole “bareback” in her family, is resigned to her lot in life.  It’s not quite a calling, and not quite a punishment.  It’s simply what she does.  And more- what she is, what all humans are.  Non-lycos are feared, resented, and isolated.  They’re nearly powerless in their jobs, fighting large predators with nothing more than dogcatcher poles, knock-out juice, and 2-shot silver bullet backups they’re rarely legally allowed to use.  The occasional power they get over their oppressors can be heady.   Lola discovers to her dismay just how far fear and retribution can take her. 

Not only an entertaining entry in the werewolf genre (a sort of hard-boiled social commentary take) Benighted  is also the most interesting reflection on prejudice and discrimination I’ve read in a long time.  It very effectively captures how mutual hatred degrades everyone involved and how fear leads people to do things they wouldn’t believe themselves capable of.

closing walls and ticking clocks

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (a novel in words and pictures)  by Brian Selznick (533 pgs, with illustrations) 2007

A surprisingly quick read for its hefty size, liberally lightened by the penciled illustrations.  The titular Hugo is an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station.  He maintains the clocks and is hard at work repairing a mysterious automaton salvaged from the fire that killed his father.

A fun adventure, sprinkled with tidbits from early cinema and centered around real life movie master Georges Melies.

a checkered past

The Harlequin  by Laurell K. Hamilton (422 pgs) 2007  (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #15)

Mmm, brain candy. 

This round, Anita and her merry men are under threat from the mysterious Harlequin- the vampire court’s boogeymen/policing entity.