REVIEW: Locke and Key Vols 1-4 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

The beautiful art of Gabriel Rodriguez

Volume Titles: Welcome to Lovecraft, Head Games, Crown of Shadows, and Keys to the Kingdom
 Original Publication Year: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Genre(s): Graphic Novel, Horror

Series: Locke and Key, Vols 1-4

Awards: None

Format: Hardcover

Narrated By: NA

I am relatively new to the world of comic books so keep my eye out for any strong recommendations that float by on the internet.  I’m nervous about jumping in blind.  I don’t remember where I saw the Locke and Key series mentioned but I think I ran across it multiple places under the heading of people’s current favorite series (along with Saga by Brian K. Vaughn).  I’m glad I listened and picked the series up as I am REALLY impressed by it so far. 

I’ve read the first four volumes and I feel already that a lot has happened.  The story centers on the Locke family, particularly the three children – teenagers Tyler and Kinsey and their younger brother Bode.  In volume one a terrible thing happens to the family forcing them to move to the “ancestral” home of their father –Keyhouse.  Keyhouse is a grand old mansion with LOTS of secrets in Lovecraft, Massachusetts.  One of those secrets are the keys they keep finding around the house which do fantastical, magical things like allowing their spirit to leave their body temporarily or the ability to open up one's head and remove particular thoughts or feelings.  The keys make the already beleaguered family a target for a being who has a mysterious but clearly nefarious intention.

 

While the story is often creepy and fantastical, much of what happens is the family trying to cope with their changed circumstances and figure out their place in the world.  This personal and often emotional (for me at least) component was a serious strength and goes a long way to giving the more fantastical elements extra weight and menace.  I couldn’t help rooting for the Locke’s while also being fascinated by all the creative keys and their functions.  Also, somehow the story manages to be dark AND fun at the same time.  Basically I LOVED the storytelling.  Volume 4 ends with the Locke children finding out who exactly, if not what exactly, their enemy is, only to be hoodwinked in the most awful way possible.

The only other thing to talk about is the art which I have no idea how to talk about.  It’s beautiful with a very detailed and sharp style.  The colors are atmospheric - Keyhouse is appropriately Gothic while still seeming inviting.  The illustration and design of the various keys is a highlight.  I would probably sit down just to read through an illustrated catalog of all the keys thought up as part of this series.  The art definitely enhances the storytelling.

Final Verdict:  It’s creepy and magical and beautiful and I’m totally hooked.

What currently in progress comics series would you recommend?  I'd love to get some more recommendations!

Saturdays in the Garden - I Heart Jerks and My Lemon is Dying

Saturdays in the Garden is something I'm trying out in pursuit of bringing a little more plan into the old blog.   Since the start of the blog, it's pretty much been a free-for-all over here in Dork valley.  It's really unlike me actually because I'm usually firmly in the anal-retentive planner camp (and what a fun camp it is).

So here's the plan I'm aspiring to.  I plan to post four days a week: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Sunday will be a post about TV or a book review, Tuesday will be the Top Ten Tuesday meme or some kind of list, Thursday will be a book review, and Saturday will be this kind of post which will wrap up the week on the blog and in general life including what's going on in the garden.  We'll see how it goes especially since in two weeks I will be headed into the wilds for 5 weeks for work and will likely only sporadically be near an internet connection, but plans are meant to be hijacked, right? 

OUTSIDE

 

My garden is a mess right now and I have been criminally hands off with it all summer.  Despite my negligence, some things are doing really well.  The chard is looking like a beautiful shiny forest and the Juliet variety tomatoes are producing like crazy as promised.  In fact, I'm being buried in tomatoes.  It's what I wanted so that  I could do some canning of my own produce (in the past I've bought in bulk from a local farmer), but canning takes some motivation.... I'm hoping tomorrow. 

My favorite thing to do with Chard and Kale is to cook it up in some combination with white beans and garlic.  My current favorite recipe is Braised White Beans and Chard which I'm liking because it is quick and easy and the inclusion of the chard stems really does add some satisfying crunch. 

Not everything is being so productive alas.  For many years I have dreamed of growing my own lemons as a gateway to other citrus.  In pursuit of this dream, I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree last year and have been nurturing it along in a pot.  A month ago it produced a profusion of sweet smelling blooms and then little baby lemons despite the foliage looking decidedly unhappy.  Pollinators were all over it.  A month on and the foliage looks worse, the fledgling lemons have not really gotten bigger and many have dropped off.  Looks like my dream of becoming a citrus grower needs a little work. I'm not entirely sure what's gone wrong because it could have been a number of things.  We got insane amounts of non stop rain last month and maybe I haven't been fertilizing the greedy tree as much as I probably should have.  Or I just suck at citrus.

I'm a Meyer Lemon Tree and I'm just sick and tired.

LIFE

 

On Monday I got to dig around through some rocks at a local quarry for work. It's state fair time here in Iowa and I was picking up some more rock to go around the water garden at our exhibit.  But the fair is not what I am excited about.  I'm excited about the rocks. I was in a hurry but could have spent a couple of hours just exploring this huge pile of 6-10" rocks.  Because I love them.  I know next to nothing about geology, and probably couldn't tell you one type of rock from another.  I just like them and pick up ones I think are cool.  I think I'm attracted to them for their long lives and connection to history.  And that they are awesome.  Here are some from my collection.

It has a fossil!

The perfectly round rock in the middle picture was from a small area in Southwest Missouri where, I was told, a meteor fell in the geologic past.  It's one of only 120 meteor craters in the world.  There's some interesting information on it here halfway down the page under Missouri Rock Balls.

In other news, yesterday was apparently World Cat Day and while I am much more a dog person I do have a little ginger cat named Rosie who had a rare affectionate moment with her housemate Rudy today.  Aw, sweet HUGE doggie friend. 

Other than that I've been binge watching episodes of House for the last few weeks. At this point I feel like I am qualified to diagnose any mysterious disease that might present itself.  Uh, oh  - the urine is brown?  Kidney must be failing.  Bleeding out of everywhere - liver is a goner.  The truly weird thing is that I now have a huge crush on Hugh Laurie.  I mean I  liked him before  - Sense and Sensibility (actually Mr. Palmer is pretty House-like), Jeeves and Wooster, Fry and Laurie - he's hilarious and awesome.  But now I think he's kind of hot. Because he's playing a selfish jerk. A very clever and witty selfish jerk, but still!  What the hell is wrong with me?? Maybe the whole nice guys aren't attractive myth isn't so mythological?  Or maybe it's just his blue eyes and stubble:0).  Whatever.  I need help.

I'm currently reading three books. On my e-reader, I'm reading The Blackhouse by Peter May.  This was an ARC from NetGalley that was supposed to be finished by August 5th.  Oops.  I'm liking it and it's moving quickly so hopefully I won't be too late in reviewing it. It's a murder mystery set on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland where it is very windy and bleak. Or so this book is leading me to believe.  In the car I've been listening to 11/22/63 by Stephen King for what feels like months already.  I'm digging it but it seriously feels, narratively as well as length wise, like I have already read three different novels (okay maybe novellas) and I'm not even halfway through.  On my iPod I'm listening to a young adult novel, Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas.  The beginning was a little rocky but it's growing on me now much to my relief.  There are some bloggers I follow and trust who ADORE this book and series hardcore who I suspect would never forgive me if I didn't like it.  

BLOG

After disappearing for many days last week (because I was running around the hills of western Iowa for work) I tried to do some catch up this week.

SUNDAY: I posted a long overdue review of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder on Sunday.  It was pretty excellent. 4 out of 5 stars.
TUESDAY: Participated in The Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday meme about books you'd use to introduce people to a particular genre, author etc...
THURSDAY:  I posted a review of the really excellent The Son by Phillip Meyer.  4.5 out of 5 stars.

This coming week:

SUNDAY: Review of Locke and Key, Volumes 1-4 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.  This is a graphic novel series with a horror persuasion.
TUESDAY:  Top Ten Tuesday with the topic of Books I'm not Sure I Want to Read
THURSDAY:  Review of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.  Jesuits in Space!  I will be coming out officially as a Mary Doria Russell Fangirl.
SATURDAY: Saturdays in the Garden post.  I should have some fodder as I'll be spending a good chunk of the week chasing butterflies in Western Iowa again this week.

So what's been going on in your lives, blogs and/or gardens lately?  Do you secretly find jerks hot?  Any inanimate objects you're inordinately fond of?  I'd love to hear about it!

REVIEW: The Son by Phillip Meyer

The Son by Philipp Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Original Publication Year: 2013

Genre(s): Fiction

Series: None

Awards: Nominee for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (2014) and Paris Review Best of the Best

Format: Audio

Narrated By: Will Patton, Scott Shepherd, Kate Mulgrew, Jr. Collins Clifton

I totally dig westerns. I like the history, the idea of the frontier and if I’m honest the gritty violence, tawdriness and struggle for survival. It usually makes for fantastic and often epic storytelling. The Son delivers on all counts and then some, because it spans 150 years of a crazy Texas family.

It’s a triple narrative focused on three generations of the McCullough family. Eli McCullough, is a young teenager on the Texas Frontier in the 1850s when he is kidnapped by a band of Comanche. Peter McCullough is his middle aged son with a big case of “I don’t feel like I fit in here” in the still pretending to be the wild west Texas of the 1910s. Jeannie McCullough is Peter’s granddaughter who grows up on the family ranch to become a rare oil baroness in the Texas of the 1970s and 1980s.

There is lots of interesting story here and it all feels completely raw and real. With Eli, there is the demise of the American Indian civilization and the rise of the Europeans. Peter struggles in a world where Mexicans are the enemy and his family and compatriots still want to pretend that the west has not yet been won. Jeannie fights her way through a Texas being dragged, not wholly successfully into a modern America. With three separate stories interspersed there is the risk of one story overshadowing, making the reader want to skim through less interesting chapters but this did not happen at all to me. All of the time periods were fully realized and engrossing and it never stuck with any one story too long.

As great as the story is I am always really looking for interesting characters and Meyer outdoes himself on that front. I found none of the three McCulloughs terribly likeable but it’s impossible to hate them. They’re people, facing extraordinary circumstances in a culture that is quite frankly completely foreign from my own even though it takes place in the country I live in. I felt like I knew each of the narrators intimately and through them it became easy to feel the experiences that they each go through while still being puzzled by many of their choices. In other words, they’re recognizably human and complex. They’re foreigners and also closest kin.

Underlying all are themes of family and heritage as well as conquest and death. It’s a pretty heady brew that exercised my thoughtful brain cells while thoroughly entertaining those brain cells that get easily bored. Really, Phillip Meyer rocked with the pacing and yarn spinning.

The audio for this book is also spectacular, one of the best I’ve listened to. All the readers had great distinctive voices and their reading of the characters was perfect. I was a big fan of Kate Mulgrew on Star Trek and I can’t imagine another actress more perfect for Jeannie McCullough.

Final Verdict: It’s clichéd but this book should be pictured next to the definition of rich narrative. It will suck you in, frequently horrify* you and you will never ever be bored.

*This book is not for the squeamish. Especially in Eli’s story, there is some seriously brutal violence as well as some culinary arts that will not appeal to many.

If you've read this one I'd love to hear what you think!  Did you find the different narratives/characters equally interesting or did you have one that was a favorite?

Top Ten Tuesday - Check this Book out!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish  for people who love books and lists of books.  This week's topic is a little complicated -  It's the top ten books I'd give readers who have never read X (example: a particular genre, author, books about a certain topic).  Rather than listing ten books related to a single X, my approach will be more scattershot, listing a book or two for a few different topics.

Science Fiction
I'm operating on the assumption that for most people who haven't yet read science fiction it's because they are not folks looking for super techie, hard sci fi.
1) The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold:  Starting with Shards of Honor.  Bujold is a fantastic writer and her books are all about the complex characters and their relationships. It's all wrapped up in fun space adventures!
2) Hyperion by Dan Simmons: This is flat out stupendous and sophisticated storytelling.  A Canterbury Talesque narrative set in space that I found hard to put down.

Historical Romance
3) Georgette Heyer: She's the grand dame of regency era romance and almost all her books are a frothy, witty delight.  She has the perfect touch and they're romantic without even the hint of sexy times.  I'd recommend Devil's Cub or Frederica as good starting places.  I know a lot of folks really love The Grand Sophy as well.

Fantasy
4) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern:  I just recently read this book and was really charmed by it. The fantasy elements are really well blended into a historically atmospheric and mysterious romance.  So plenty of other stuff for folks not sure about fantasy.  My Review.
5) The Rook by Daniel O'Malley: Fun British spy thriller with super cool paranormal elements.  My more coherent review.

Young Adult
6) His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman:  This is an adventurous and epic story while also being thoughtful and smart.

Non-Fiction
7) Anything by Mary Roach:  She's insanely readable and gives you all sorts of information you didn't even know you were dying to know.  My favorite of her books is her first Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.  

Urban Fantasy 
8) Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews: I'm not the biggest fan of Urban Fantasy but this series won me over. 

Books that Take Place in Iowa
9) A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley:  This is a whopper of a family drama that takes place in the heart of Iowa and it's a brilliant book. 

I think that's it for my list.  Can't wait to see what's on everybody else's list!

REVIEW: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Original Publication Year: 2011

Genre(s): Fiction

Series: None

Awards: Shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Wellcome Book Prize

Format: Audio

Narrated By: Hope Davis

My impression from some dodgy perusals of the internet (i.e. my impression may be wildly inaccurate) is that Ann Patchett is a little bit of a divisive author – you either like her A LOT or you don’t. This is the second of her books I’ve read (Bel Canto was the other) and it has placed me solidly into the “love her” camp. Both of these books are ordinary human stories set in front of an extraordinary backdrop making them both epic and intimate. Bel Canto examined a group of people all trapped as hostages for days on end in an unnamed South American country. State of Wonder follows a pharmaceuticall researcher, Marina Singh, as she confronts her past and her charismatic former medical school mentor in the jungles of the Amazon.

Marina is sent to Brazil by her Minnesota based employer to find and get an update from Dr. Annick Swenson who is working on a lucrative fertility drug derived from a tropical plant in the Amazon rainforest. This mission is personal for Marina because she is following in the footsteps of her officemate and friend who has just died while trying to achieve this same goal. She needs to find out exactly what happened to her friend but is unprepared for what awaits her in the very different world of the Amazon rain forest.

This is a many-layered book and could be described as part mystery. It truly fits the description of peeling an onion, with each successive layer revealing something that is, at the least, unexpected. Marina faces personal demons from her past while trying to solve the enigma of Dr. Swenson and discover what her friend’s last days were like and why he died surrounded by doctors. There is also the mystery of the primitive tribe whose women are fertile into their seventies and eighties.

Almost universally, I find the characters Patchett creates very interesting to spend time with. Dr. Swensen starts off, as she is characterized using hearsay and initial interactions, an egotistical and selfish misanthropist; I imagined her the villain of the piece. As more time is spent with her, those same words can be used to describe her but her madness developed reason and she turned into one of my favorite characters. The ghost of Anders Eckman is also fleshed out as a fully realized character so that Marina’s grief and search for answers has weight. Patchett did a brilliant job of making me care deeply that he was dead even though the reader doesn’t meet him except in other character’s memories.

It was also very easy to imagine being in Marina’s shoes, having to travel from Minnesota to Brazil, ill-prepared and beset on all sides by insects and moisture and vegetation. Brazil is portrayed in a detail that made it as much a part of the story for me as any of the characters.

Finally I want to mention the subject matter which centers on the development of new drugs from plants in the rainforest. This is a very cool topic and the book tackles some of the moral issues surrounding it in an interesting and non-preachy way.

Final Verdict: A story with lots of twists and turns and complex, interesting characters. Beautifully written and engrossing.

So where do you stand on Ann Patchett?  The love camp or the meh camp?