The Cossacks by B. Bartos-Hoppner

Mitya wants something more in his life than being trapped in the small Russian village he lives in. When Yermak, the great Cossack leader shows up in the village, he follows him for his chance to be something more than a poor trapper. What Mitya finds is that he is now a part of the first conquest of Siberia, a land cruel and wealthy. He finds a brotherhood in the crude band of Cossacks, but he never finds any joy in the killing and fighting that they do. As he begins to question the cycle of revenge and violence that take place between the Cossacks and the Tartars that they are fighting, Yermak's group is pushed to its limit in one of the most forbidding places on earth.

Genre: historical, throwback

Rating: 4/5

Throwback rating: 5/5

Notes: #7 of YA Historical Fiction Challenge

Again, historical fiction that is older doesn't have as much of a problem holding up under scrutiny most of the time. This book is the same. The most noticable thing might be the sort of stiff language the book uses, but there's also the fact that this book was originally written in German and translated, which may account for some of the stiffness. It also made it harder to connect to the characters because of the formality. Mitya is the only one you really feel any connection to, and he's sort of kept at arm's length because of the rigid writing. What makes the book worthwhile to me is the fact that it was written about an obscure historical subject. I've never seen anything fictional about the Cossacks, much less about the original invasion of Siberia. This is a very very strange subject for a YA novel to be written about, but I suddenly want an updated YA novel on the subject. For a history major, this was interesting and showed insight into a culture that most don't know much about. I honestly felt like someone could turn this into a great historical movie, as the novel was a fictionalized version of actual events. This was a strange topic, but so fascinating, I wish someone would expand on it.

In My Mailbox (13)

Again not much this week, but a couple to add to the Throwback category.

From school library:

I Marched With Hannibal- A brother and sister help an old man dig for treasure as he tells them about how he was an elephant boy for Hannibal's army when he was young.

Frozen Fire- Dusty gets a mysterious call from a boy who tells her he's dying. As she tries to find him and help him, she believes he may be connected to the disappearance of her brother.

Sons of the Steppe- Story of the youngest grandsons of Genghis Khan and how their paths diverged.

Follow Friday (October 7)

Q. If you could pick one character in a book, movie or television show to swap places with, who would it be?

Caroline from The Vampire Diaries. Not only is she pretty and has become fairly nice on the show, but now she's a rather powerful vampire who has a lovely, supportive werewolf boyfriend who has gone from being extremely hateful to very sweet with her. She's got daddy issues, but I find her father such a shifty judgmental douche that he's not an issue.

or

Chloe from The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Superpowers and two wonderful guys who would do anything for her. Also a great mother who supports her in just about everything.

American Gothic by Robert Bloch

Serial killer G. Gordon Gregg has set up shop in Chicago at the turn of the century World's Fair. He seems untouchable as he murders women for their money and kills anyone who could possibly reveal his secret. But then he crosses paths with a journalist who sees through his facade and won't let up. Crystal risks death in her quest to find out Gregg's murderous secrets and she may not be able to unravel them in time to save her life.

Genre: thriller, historical

Rating: 4/5

Throwback rating: 5/5

This is a fictional retelling of the H.H. Holmes murder castle cases, something that was handled so masterfully in Devil in the White City, anything else is going to pale in comparison. Throwback wise, the book doesn't have a problem because it was already set at the turn of the century. There's probably not going to be too much problem with throwback historical novels because of that unless old fashioned attitudes start showing up. This one doesn't suffer from that too much though. Crystal does have to be saved, but she's very proactive in bringing Gregg down and is quite liberated. And if she has to be saved, so does her boss.

The main problem is that the characters are very one dimensional and there seemed like a lot of build up for a climax that didn't cover very much. Part of Devil in the White City's appeal is the relentless grind that builds until both the fair and the serial killings reach their zenith. This book isn't long enough or detailed enough to do so. It's because it's a fiction of something that actually happened, and what actually happened was so much more horrific, the fiction can't compare.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

The town of Amity relies on the business of summer tourists coming to their public beaches. Without the rich tourists, the town dies. When a gigantic great white shark shows up on the coast and begins to pick off swimmers, the town is thrown into a moral dilemma of whether to close the beaches to protect the people or keep them open to have the town survive. Police chief Martin Brody finds himself at odds with the towns people and at odds with the hot shot oceanographer who has come to study the shark. The only answer seems to be to kill it, but how do you kill a creature that no one thought could grow so large and who might be an act of God?

Genre: thriller, throw-back

Rating: 4/5

Holds up to time: 3/5

I've started a new category of book reading I'm going to call "throw-backs", or books that are pretty old, but still available at my school library. I'm not doing this to bash on my library, but see how well certain books hold up to time to a modern reader. Some of these books are so old I'm having trouble finding cover art.

The book itself is considered of interest mainly because of the classic movie. There are a number of differences. First off, the book makes the shark the most interesting character. Brody and the other humans running around are fairly cardboard cut out, but the shark is something else entirely. I wouldn't say you root for him, but you're fascinated by him. He's a mindless eating machine who seems to not want to play be the rules. And there really does seem to be some sense of divine retribution to him. The towns people have made their living off of the "summer people" who come to their town and are more than a little willing to bend the truth, shade the details, and inevitably sacrifice some of them up in the interest of keeping the rest of them coming back. Maybe it's fitting that the shark appears to ruin the town in the end. The more Hooper or Quint try to understand "the fish", the less he seems to follow the mold and they both ultimately die for their arrogance.

So often I think the shark is called "Jaws", but the only thing he's ever really referred to is "the fish". Even his death is one of something that isn't really defeated, but is just at the end up his mission. He dies when everyone who didn't respect the rules of survival are dead. The book does hold up in the department of the shark working. He's still terrifying. Him ripping boats to pieces is still disturbing. The bloody deaths still have impact mainly because the shark isn't shown as evil, just doing what he does. The book doesn't hold up in the fact that there are drug references and plenty of 70s ambiance. There's also some casual racism that I don't think was part of the story. So this is a patchy throwback read that still has some interest.

Why Do Men Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg

A plethora of strange medical questions that you've always wanted to ask your doctor, but never had the nerve to. Like why do you get an ice cream headache? Or what are goosebumps? Or can you get high licking a toad?

Genre: nonfiction

Rating: 3/5

While this book answers some interesting questions, it was the format of it that got it knocked down so far. The "conversations" between the authors between entries was impossible for me to understand since it seemed like rambling and the intros to the chapters really weren't funny. The medical explanations were nice though and generally answered questions that we've all wondered about. It just seems like the book could have been set up in either a more interesting manner, or in a funnier one. As it stands, it seems like they were going for humor and couldn't really figure out how to do it, which just made things rather confusing and took away from some of the interest of the book. Especially when some of the entries were quite clinical and a bit dry.

In My Mailbox (12)

The school librarian and I were talking about how it's a shame that we can't make current cover jackets for old library books. There's nothing wrong with the plot of the book, but a student will never pick it up based on its horrible, or in the case of some of the old industrial backed school print books, non existant cover art. The last four books on my list I hardly even picked up because they have no cover art and no blurbs on them anywhere to tell you the plot. I know for older school libraries or ones that don't have as much money, it seems like it would be beneficial to have a way to make old, but still readable books, more appealing looking.

From the school library:

The Pact of the Wolves: Bianca tries to unravel the mystery of her boarding school after she hears rumors of witchcraft and a mysterious society follows her.

Forgotten Fire: Vahan lives his life as a wealthy Armenian in Turkey at the beginning of WWI until some of his family starts disappearing and the horror of the Armenian genocide that was perpetuated moves into full swing.

Pretty Dead: Charlotte is a vampire who suddenly starts to feel human emotions against the back drop of Los Angeles wildfires.

American Gothic: A fictionalized account of H.H. Holmes, a female reporter is drawn to the serial killing physician she has begun to investigate.

Jaws: A shark is stalking the beach town of Amity and the police chief takes it upon himself to help kill the destructive creature.

The Cossacks: Fourteen-year-old Mitya leaves his home to join the Cossack chieftain and adventurer Yermak in his campaign across the Urals to take Siberia from the Tartars.

Frankenstein Unbound: Joe Bodenland finds himself sucked through a timeslip that throws him into a world inhabited by Frankenstein's monster; a world that may not be real as he's also able to interact with Mary Shelley.