Book Challenge -- Day 7

7. Characters from series you'd want to meet

I would love to meet Vicky Austin and Adam Eddington from A Ring of Endless Light and Troubling a Star. They seem like down-to-Earth people that I could get along well with and might create strong friendships. I also think meeting the main characters from one of my favorite books could be a lot like stepping into the pages of those books.
     I'd love to meet Noah Calhoun from The Notebook. I realize there is a real person out there who is probably very much like Noah (the book is based on a true story) but Noah the character is probably a concentrated version of this person and his devotion and faith are inspiring. The book isn't one of my top picks, but is a good read. After fourteen years of not seeing Allie, he is willing to go through the heartbreak again for a chance at forever. While it's stereotypically romantic, it's also very brave; I don't think I could do it.
     The final character I would be fascinated to meet is Lucero-Elisa from Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns and its sequel The Crown of Embers. Elisa started out life as a princess whose only merit was her rank and her inquisitive mind--she believes the reason behind it is that she isn't slender and beautiful like her sister. I would love to meet a young woman who withstands as much as she does and still manages to rule a foreign country without spite for the women who belittled her upon her arrival.

Book Challenge -- Day 6

6. Favorite dystopian books

I didn't read a lot of dystopian fiction until recently. Most of it has a lot of zombies, and I really don't need to be imagining them more than I already am with shows like the Walking Dead around.
     I picked up The Hunger Games when the first movie came out and enjoyed the story of a girl who didn't want to become morally bankrupt so she broke the rules. For me, Katniss's rebellion was always about protecting her family from extinction and herself from becoming the killer the Capitol wanted her to be. The second book just showed how broken resistance made her, then the final story gave her a purpose to fight for again, and though Katniss didn't always do as she was told, I think I'd respect her as a person if I ever met her.
     Divergent, however, was completely my choice to pick up. At first the cover caught my eye (hey, everyone falls prey to a pretty cover now and then) and the story seemed a lot like Harry Potter meets Hunger Games. Tris chooses who she wants to align herself with then discovers one faction wants to take over the government sparking war. I liked that Tris wasn't completely sure of herself or completely paralyzed by her own insecurities as so many heroines are portrayed. She lives in this post-apocalypse and hasn't ever known a world outside it, but she's willing to fight for something she's never imagined. I liked that.
     The Challenge wants two more books, but I haven't read a lot of dystopian fiction--something like Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe might qualify. When I first read Robinson Crusoe I didn't understand why it was such a big deal that a man survived on a deserted island without civilization. Then I re-read it and realized most of the amazing-ness was that Crusoe survived twenty-eight years on an island, the first several by himself and the last few with only one man as companion. And he made it back to civilization able to be part of society. He retained his sanity in an environment man was not thought to survive mentally, by contemporary expectation he would have gone insane. I enjoyed reading the story and how Crusoe survived and even kept time.
     One that I would not consider Dystopian, but is classified as such is Cinder. Though there is an element of post-apocalypse the world is not collapsing (at least not in Cinder) only being disrupted by plague. I enjoyed the story and am looking forward to more of Marissa Meyer's books. Cinder is a cyborg and an important one that few people know of. In her first book she just wants to be normal and fit in, but it is impossible for a half-machine person to be a person. Cinder isn't just a Cinderella story and that's why I enjoyed it so much.

Book Challenge -- Day 5

5. Favorite fantasy books

I don't really have favorite fantasy books, I have favorite series. They are usually vivid stories with characters I can relate to or adventures I wouldn't mind being a part of. And there's usually some kind of magic.
     The Chronicles of Narnia are some of the most powerful stories from my childhood--talking animals, political intrigue and unrest, aboard-ship voyages, family relationships that aren't perfect "everyone-gets-along" or "we hate each other" relationships, friendships that are based on mutual respect, and magic. The biggest draw was probably the talking animals and the magic when I was younger, but as I re-read and think about them more I enjoy the politics and the language of the stories. And the fact that the characters grow older and move beyond Narnia.
     Kim Harrison's Hollows series is more adult, featuring a sassy witch who is just as unsure of herself as the rest of us, only better at hiding it from everyone else. Rachel is passionate and concerned about doing the best she can with the life she's been given, the only problem is that everything keeps going wrong. I can identify with Rachel's struggles (more in the empathizing sense) and I enjoy that she learns to depend on the people who love her. It does help that she's got some kick-ass magic and moral dilemmas to deal with.
     The single novel A Game of Thrones is fascinating--I've only read the first book, but the series is complicated and intricate, it takes me forever to get through a single story because I constantly want to skip over to a different character and finish their story before moving on to contemporaneous events. Though I know it wouldn't make sense to do so because of spoilers, I like hearing about one line before moving on to the next. So much happens in A Game of Thrones and the characters are so powerfully imagined that I just want to dive back into their world, as much as I don't really want to live there.
     The language of the Lord of the Rings drew me in immediately: it is fluid and graceful while still having peaks and valleys. Tolkien was a master linguist and it shows in his storytelling. He knows how to keep the audience invested in the tale without making it seem like it couldn't happen. While some stories rely on surprises to keep the reader going, you expect the plot and it makes the story just as thrilling because the author has built an expectation and delivered on his promise of a fantastic story.
     My attachment to Harry Potter is more nostalgic than any of these stories (probably excepting Narnia) because I was part of the Harry Potter Phenomenon. When the books came out I was the same age as most of the characters; I stood in line to check out the books; I waited with baited breath for the titles of the new book, and begged my parents to take me to the movies when they finally arrived. The Harry Potter series was a huge part of my childhood, as it was for many of my peers and every time I pick up the book I remember how I felt the first time I read them and I discover some new tidbit I didn't catch last time. Still, I am reminded how the stories of Harry, Ron, and Hermione gave my siblings and me a time to be together as a family imagining and talking about something with anticipation. I imagine my mom reading the books to us was like the great classics of the nineteenth century being released weekly in the newspaper. And it is a powerful tradition.