Monday, October 20, 2008

Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (2008)

I have always like Erdrich's tales, often about Ojibwe people. This was a complex tale, narrated by various voices (literally in the audio version), but interwoven into an intriguing story of North Dakota. I will need to get my hands on a physical version of the book to be able to follow all those story threads. The story starts out in Evalina's voice, who retells her grandfather Mooshum's tales, the most critical being the unjust hanging of a group of Indians for the murder of a family. The lives of all those involved and their descendants are deeply intertwined. There was a wonderful story about a violin, and I liked Publisher's Weekly phrase about it: "its backstory is another beautiful piece of the mosaic." Most of the story takes place in an Indian reservation and in Pluto, ND, a fictional place as far as I can tell, but with a funny passage on how it got its name and its fate at the end of the book. Though it tells of the intermingling of Indian and white lives, it touches a lot of themes in all of our lives. I think I liked this enough to pass it on to friends.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (2006)

I don't know how she does it, but again I feel like Stephanie Meyer has woven a unique tale. I know she has been compared to J.K. Rowling, but she hasn't quite created such an elaborate alternate world, as her world is still grounded in today's reality and everyone is trying hard to keep the magical and mystical aspects away from the regular humans. Bella again is thei very believable teenager, who is not only involved with vampires, but their archenemies the warewolves. This time the tale takes us to Italy, where we meet an old vampire family. All very fascinating.