An Evening With Maggie Stiefvater

Last Monday I had the opportunity to go to an author event for Maggie Stiefvater. This is the first in person event I’ve been to in over 2 years. Covid had stopped all that for a long time, but finally in person events are coming back and I couldn’t be happier.

Maggie was there to talk about her new book, Bravely. I have to admit, I hadn’t heard about this book, even though I have read a lot of her other ones. This one just slipped under the radar. So I was really interested to go and listen to her talk about it. The event was held at The King’s English, my favorite bookstore in the Salt Lake valley. It was held outside on their patio, and just being back listening to an author talk about their work with other people who are there for the same reason was the best.

Maggie has such a great personality. When she talks it’s always a good time as you’re never quite sure what is going to say. In this case, there were several stories that really had nothing to do with the book, but it didn’t matter because they were funny and enjoyable. She talked about Disney contacting her about writing the book, which was itself a hilarious tale, and then where her idea came from for the story and how it eventually came to be. This is the third time I have seen Maggie at an event, and I am hoping that she continues to come back for more. I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, as I have a pile of ARC’s and other stuff I want to read, but I am hoping to get to it soon.

After she was done talking, there was a period after for a quick meet and greet and to have books signed. I had her sign a copy of Bravely and of The Raven Boys, the last book in that series I needed signed by her. There wasn’t much chance for a conversation as there were other people waiting, but we did have a few quick words. For my first event in quite some time, it went well and was enjoyable, and I can’t wait to be able to go to another.

ARC Review | Life Lived Wild

5 stars

This was so good. I went into it expecting a book about climbing, but it was so much more than that. The descriptions of all the different adventures the author took made you feel as if you were really there. It made me want to go out and have another adventure of my own immediately. But besides all the great adventures, he talked about grief, about losing people close to him so unexpectedly, about how those people may be gone but they never really go away. He also talked a lot about the different conservation projects various members of the Do Boys were involved in, and I think that was my favorite part. I love the wild – seeing it and being part of it, and I hate when it gets destroyed, taken away for yet another meaningless building or road, or chopped up for more wood, or drilled for more oil. I would love to be able to do something to help save and conserve what we have, and this book really gave me the inspiration to try and do something. I may not be as rich or influential as the people in this book, but I think we can all do something to help.

ARC Review | The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit

The timing of this book is pretty good, seeing as how we are constantly barraged with bullshit. Whether it’s news articles, social media “influencers”, or people we know, there’s not a day that goes by where we don’t encounter bullshit. The information in here was pretty solid, though it did get rather repetitive. It does offer a good starting point for detecting bullshit, but ultimately it’s up to each individual to determine whether something is bullshit, and what to do about it, which is something I think we all need to work on.

ARC Review | Letters Across the Sea

5 stars

This was a beautiful and heartbreaking book. After I finished, I needed a bit before I wrote a review. That bit turned into a lot longer than I wanted, but oh well.

I had never heard of the Christie Pits Riot, and I didn’t realize how much people in Canada blamed the Jews for what was going on. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Canada’s role in the war and how people felt anyway, so this was all new to me. I like learning new things about the war, so I was glad that I was able to learn something here.

I also didn’t know about the Battle of Hong Kong. It was very hard to read about, but I’m glad the author didn’t shy away from the descriptions of what happened. There were many atrocities, including the killing of wounded soldiers in the hospital and the conditions in which the captured soldiers endured in the POW camp.

It was hard reading about the divide between Molly and Max’s families, especially after the riot. Blaming someone for something just because of who they are or what they believe in isn’t a new concept. and unfortunately it’s one that still endured today. It’s easier to blame someone else for what’s going on that really looking at the big picture, but people get irrational in trying times. I did see the ending coming, but I’m glad that it ended the way it did. I wouldn’t have been happy with any other ending.

Definitely recommended to anyone who enjoys reading about WWII and learning new parts of what happened during those times. Be prepared for a lot of emotions though.

ARC Review | Highest and Hardest

4.5

I have always loved the mountains. I’ve lived right along the Wasatch Mountain Range for almost my whole life, and enjoy spending a lot of time in them – hiking, camping, fishing. Even though I have enjoyed being in the mountains, I’ve never had the bug to do big climbs. I sure love reading about them though. It started with “Into Thin Air”, and after that I was hooked.

This book was a pretty quick read for me. I devoured it over the course of a few days. I loved reading all the descriptions of the climbs, and trying to imagine what it was like actually being up there. Chris Kopczynski is not a climber I had heard of before, but he accomplished an impressive list of feats. While I enjoyed reading about his different climbs, I also enjoyed when he asked himself what he was doing. He had a family and a job, but all he could think about was the next climb. It made me think about what drives some people to do the things they do, especially when it seems as if that drive to do one amazing thing is ruining another.

There were parts that seemed a little repetitive – he stated after almost every climb he wrote about that the climb after the summit is the most dangerous – some of the conversations seemed a little oddly written, and anyone who doesn’t have a basic understanding of climbing and the terms used may be confused as to what’s going on, but overall it was a fascinating book and a definite recommend for anyone who climbs or is interested in the subject.

ARC Review | Ms. Adventure

I picked this book up because volcanoes have fascinated me for years. I wanted to learn more about them, and while this book didn’t go into as much detail as I’d hoped, I still enjoyed it. I loved reading about the different trips the author took to volcanoes around the world, and all the scientific parts about it. There were a couple times I felt the author was bragging a bit, as in “look at me and how special I am”, but it wasn’t enough to sour the book. My only wish is that there had been more science and more information on volcanoes themselves. I know this was more a memoir of the author’s time working around volcanoes than an actual book on the science of them, but I would have loved to have more information. It’s a good read for anyone with a passing interest, but for anyone looking for science, they may find it a bit lacking.

ARC Review | Leonora in the Morning Light

While I was reading this book I found myself stopping a lot and looking up different things – artists, paintings, locations. I had never heard of Leonora before reading this, and found myself wanting to know more about her as I went on. There were other people in the book that I had also never heard of, some that I had but didn’t know a lot about, and some that I was quite familiar with. Even then, I didn’t always know about the paintings they mentioned, and stopped a lot to look up each one. Sometimes having to stop a lot in a book to look up things takes me out of the book, but in this case it helped keep me more involved. I wanted to know about these people, since they were real people in a real time, and I wanted to know what their paintings looked it, so it would help me visualize the story more. I have to admit, I’ve never been the biggest fan of surrealism; however, this did give me more of an appreciation for the art.

Leonora is almost exactly what I picture when I think of artists – young and carefree, not wanting to live by the rules society had put down for her. The author mentioned several books about her at the end, and I plan on reading them to learn more about her. I had heard of Max Ernst, but wasn’t too familiar with him. I hadn’t known all he went through during the war and after, and was only familiar with a few of his paintings. I’m looking forward to learning more about him as well. Others, such as Picasso and Kahlo, I am more familiar with. However, I hadn’t known how all their lives intersected and crossed, as I didn’t really know about the surrealists and the group they belonged to. I became emotionally invested in the story, especially with Leonora and Max. I found myself hoping things would turn out differently, even though I knew they wouldn’t. Love can be such a strange thing at times – wonderful at one moment, heartbreaking at the next.

While I started reading this book as a fan of WWII, it gave me a new appreciation for the people themselves. I hope this book gets picked up by those like me, who wanted more on the war but gain a lot more than that in the end; a new love for art, and the people who created it.

ARC Review | Lana’s War

3.5

This was yet another aspect of WWII that I didn’t know much about; the French resistance in the Riviera. I do always enjoy reading about different parts of the war that I don’t know much about, even if it is in fiction form. These stories help keep everything alive. Each time I read something new in a fiction novel about the war, I try and find out more about the actuals events, so I can try and learn and understand more about what happened.

After Lana loses her husband and unborn child, she gets an offer to join the resistance in the Riviera. She takes the offer and joins up with Guy, another resistance member. The story moves swiftly; almost too swiftly at times. The story starts right when Lana loses her husband, then moves right into her joining the resistance. There is plenty of down time where Lana attends parties and visits with her neighbor, Giselle, while trying to keep up the appearance of being Guy’s mistress. However, when it comes times for raids on Jewish homes and the resistance’s part in helping them escape, the details are very glossed over. Lana’s role is to find out when the raids will occur, instead of helping in the actual escapes. I wish a little more detail had been to the rest of the resistance members in helping them escape though. I just felt a little disconnected from the story when there was a buildup of planning the escapes and then they’re done with very little detail on them.

Lana was a good character for the most part. However, she could be quite naive at times, and the arguments she would have with Guy got to be a bit much. Guy is rather closed off, preferring to focus entirely on his work in the resistance, instead of trying to be too close to Lana. When the book veered into romance territory between the two, it seemed rather abrupt, like it just had to be thrown in there. The relationship moved quickly between the two, going from first kiss to marriage proposal in no time flat. I think their relationship could have worked better for me if it hadn’t been so quick, and if the characters themselves had acted more like it was something they wanted early on.

Overall I enjoyed the book. There’s just a few things that could have been changed to really make it stand out for me.

ARC Review | Each of Us a Desert

3.5

While the writing in this book is beautiful, I had such a hard time getting into it because I wasn’t sure what was going on for the longest time. And even after finishing it, there’s still things I don’t quite understand. Sometimes it works in books, and sometimes it doesn’t, and this is one instance where it didn’t really work for me. If it hadn’t been for the writing itself, I probably would have DNF’d it instead of pushing through. I think this book would work well for people who love good writing styles and don’t mind a little confusion in the story; otherwise I can see many people getting frustrated and not finishing it.

ARC Review | The End of Everything

This book was pretty fascinating, though not quite as accessible as other science books I’ve read. While the author does explain everything, sometimes the explanations are a little more than what the average reader will understand. This is understandable since the author is an astrophysicist and the target audience is either people in that field or interested in it, but unless you are in the field or have studied a lot about it, there’s a few things you may not get. I don’t think it detracts from the book much though, and can still be read by people with little understanding of the subject without too much difficulty.

The different scenarios for how the universe could end are all fascinating and scary. We won’t see any of them in our lifetimes, or in many millions of years, but I am interested to know which one of them ends up being the scenario that ends it all. It is a little sad to think that eventually nothing will be here, but I hope the theory that it ends and begins again comes true. There is still so much about the universe we don’t know and understand, so who knows; maybe it’ll be something else we haven’t even thought of that ends it. The fields of astronomy, astrophysics, etc. learn so much every year that our understanding and knowledge is constantly changing. I love reading about it all and can’t wait to see what the future brings on these subjects.