Monday Book Recs with Selznick, Card, Laini Taylor, and Wrapsody

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

I loved Hugo Cabret so much, so when I saw this out, I was excited and frankly, a little nervous. When you love a book and its author so much (I heard him speak at ALA after he won the Caldecott and I thought he was amazing!), your expectations can be incredibly high and I have to say, few authors live up to those expectations. I think that this book does live up. It surprised me, but it also satisfied the itch for the same kind of story as Hugo Cabret at the same time. It has the same incredibly textured pencil drawings and so many of them, telling an alternate story as the main word plot goes forward. You have to wait to figure out how they tie together. I also really liked how the silent/talking film story came to be a lot more, and how the Deaf culture was portrayed here. I know a lot of deaf and hearing impaired people and I was glad to see a book that didn't ignore them.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I loved Lips Touch by Laini Taylor last year, but I must admit, felt trepidation when I realized shortly into this book that it was about angels, vampires, and puppets along with being set in Prague. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Prague. It just felt like too much for any author to deal with well. But Laini does a great job making old things new, making the setting matter and feel real and distant at the same time, exotic and familiar. I liked the surprise ending (which I will try not to spoil). I liked the bit about gathering teeth. I liked the sense of being propelled forward to find out a secret about the main character that even she does not know about herself. I don't think I could pull off a book like this, but it left me wanting more.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

Yeah, I'm an Orson Scott Card fan, of him personally and of his books. This year, he's had two new series started and I don't know how he keeps coming up with new ideas. One of the things that he is a master of is making the reader feel like s/he is as smart as the main character. In The Lost Gate, Danny North makes connections between physics and folklore than are really mind blowing and made me feel smarter. I like a writer who does that. There are also fun moments along the way, some that made me cringe in a way the author intended. I like the warmth that Card writes with, inviting the reader inside, and treating all characters with an evenhandedness that villains are never really villains.

A Knitting Wrapsody by Kristin Omdahl

I saw this book while we were in Edinburgh looking for yarn to take home with us. We got some amazing yarn and I got a couple of books. I was expecting to buy books with traditional Aran patterns, which I love. Apparently, those sorts of books are passe now, so I was left with some more modern books. I wasn't sure about this one, but 15 insisted I "had" to have it, so I bought it. I am working through an amazing shawl with the angora/Shetland wool in red that I bought and while the pattern is complex and made me rework it several times, I think the instructions are clearly explained and there are probably seven shawls I will want to make before I am finished with this book. That is a rare thing. I will buy a book if there are two patterns or more I love, because it makes it worth it. I am excited because my guess is that these will be some of the favorite things I have ever made for my daughters, heirlooms every one. And if they don't take them with them to college, I will be glad to keep them.